Heavy (Author Interview)

  


www.jjthornbooks.com

Heavy looks like an exciting litRPG fantasy story.  Can you tell us a little about Terrence?

Terrence is the main character throughout the series. He is inexperienced, but open to learning new things and training to reach his goals. He has always wanted to be a Dungeoneer, but his family has sheltered him his whole life so he isn’t 100% sure what that really means until he leaves his small town and starts his adventure.

 

The Weight of It All series has three complete books.  Any plans for more?     

I’ve just finished the fourth book in the series, which is currently with a new editor and should be releasing October 8th if all goes well! The fourth is what I believe to be the best book in the series and really showcases a lot of what I’ve been setting up for since Book 1. Book 4 ends what I would call the first ‘arc’ in the series. The next arc is just as important, but I plan to finish it within 2 books. As such, the series should end with book 6!

 

How long did it take you to write Heavy and complete the series?

Heavy was the first story I’d ever written and it came to me rather quickly once I’d started writing. For a long time I’d been thinking about how I might write a story: the theme, the plot, the characters, etc. When I finally came up with something I felt would work, writing itself went rather smoothly. From start to finish, the first book was completed within 6 weeks.

Since I wrote it so quickly, I then made several mistakes in putting it out. I was so excited to have written something (finally!) that I didn’t spend any money to edit it properly or have people provide feedback. I was so anxious to have people read the series, and so worried that I wouldn’t make any money on it, that I didn’t pay an editor for book 1 until I’d finished book 2… Book 1 also ends without any major conflict, so many people felt it ended rather abruptly. Book 2 corrected several of my mistakes, and Book 3 is the best received in the series so far, but it’s been a process.

Despite my own mistakes, I’m still very proud of the series as a whole and people have been enjoying the books.

 

That’s an amazing cover.  Can you tell us a little about it?

The series follows two main characters: Terrence, the young boy trying to become a Dungeoneer and Tom, the more experienced Dungeoneer who is on a trip to a Dungeon in the north with his team. Tom is Terrence’s Uncle.

Each cover shows either Tom or Terrence in a scene from the book. Book 1’s cover depicts Tom in his fight with one of the recurring monsters in his storyline, an Alpha Talon.

The covers have been and will all be done by Piere d’Arterie on 99designs.com. He has been amazing at translating my ideas into art, so I’m forever grateful to him. He is currently working on the covers for Book 5 and 6, which I am just as excited about.

 

What inspired you when writing Heavy?   

Heavy was inspired by my love of the LitRPG/GameLit and Progression fantasy stories. I’d been reading a lot of books/stories, and I really wanted to try doing one of my own. The original idea came from this royalroad story I was reading about a man who gets a shovel during an RPG apocalypse. I started thinking: what would happen if someone had a weighted vest instead? What powers might they get that are related to ‘weight’ because of this weighted vest? That story manifested differently, and is now ‘Heavy (the Weight Of It All)’.

A secondary inspiration was the pandemic. I was bored. I was reading a lot more stories, but I felt like each day was incredibly repetitive. I finally followed through on my dream of writing my story as a way to break up the monotony and try to challenge myself. I’m just grateful people have liked it so much and I’m encouraged to finish my series 😊.

 

Did anything stick out as particularly challenging when writing Heavy?

At first it was balance. I said above that I was bored at home doing a lot of the same daily, but I also had a girlfriend (now fiancée) and my day job to keep focusing on. As a result I would work my 8 hours, then hunker down and start writing. I needed to learn early on that I couldn’t neglect my girlfriend altogether as she was also stuck at home and needed me to be present in the relationship haha (not just working or writing whenever I was awake).

After the first book, it was the comments. Book 1 is the slowest in the series and the comments make sure to tell me this OFTEN. I read all comments, and the negativity was a bit disheartening, but thankfully my love of the series and the positivity I received was enough to outweigh that negativity. Thank you, truly, to anyone who went out of their way to say something nice about the series. It really means a lot!

More recently: writing the fourth book was the most challenging of the series. As the series moved into its climax, I had a lot I wanted to say and showcase. Getting those emotions out, and writing in a way that will draw people in and make them continue to love the series has been TOUGH! I think I did it in book 4, but I’ve put a lot of pressure on myself for Book 5 and 6.

And then lastly, MARKETING. I want people to read the books, but getting the story out there as a new author can be challenging. It comes with the territory, but getting people to be interested in reading the story has been a tough ask.

 

What do you like to do when not writing?

When I’m not spending time with my fiancée, family or friends, I enjoy cooking, playing a game called ‘Heroes of Newerth’ that I’ve been playing since beta (~10 years ago), and playing basketball with friends. My most recent addiction is also chess.

 

Where can readers find out more about your work?

I have a page on facebook that I’m trying to get more people to join: https://www.facebook.com/HeavyTheWeightOfItAll.

I also have a website that I created, where I post blogs infrequently and have high quality images for each of the covers – these aren’t available anywhere else:

www.jjthornbooks.com

 

 

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