An interview with Steve Holak author of a new fantasy trilogy - The Winds of Heaven and Earth

Steve Holak's The Winds of Heaven and Earth launches a new fantasy trilogy, blending epic and contemporary genres, and WWBB wants to get down and personal.

Hi Steve, let's start easy. How many unpublished books/stories do you have lurking under your bed?

I have a “trunk book” that will see the light of day after I finish the Keystone, Lodestone, Clarion series (I say series instead of trilogy because I have this horrible feeling that, as I write book two, ideas are emerging and the third book story is mutating and I’ll have to commit a Robert Jordan and expand the scope. We’ll see.)

How long has it been lurking?

It’s been banging around under there for 15 years.  It needs a complete re-write. The core story idea’s good, but I was too immature as a writer to pull it off: it suffers from the lack of a direct and strong antagonist, and the protagonist doesn’t have the “transformative journey arc” through the tale, things like that. That’s the book I want to be my Magnum Opus; I’m a stronger writer now, and understand the plumbing of fiction much better—and I’ll be even better by the time I’m ready to write it.  Probably 2015.

Anything else?

I have an outline for a space opera, and I’m researching the Roswell saucer-crash myth on the side: I want to give that a kick-ass literary treatment and bring all the Roswell mythology together the way Justine Cronin did for vampires in The Passage. I have enough to keep me busy for the next half-dozen years, at least.

You sound really busy. How do your juggle a writing schedule?

Like a chainsaw juggler. I have a (bill-paying) job that requires 24/7 availability. I’m away from home 13 hours each day—I leave at 5:30 am to drive to the train station, and get home at 6:30 pm. Fortunately, I get about 90 minutes of train time every day, and that’s where I do a good chunk of my work. We have an arrangement at home: I get Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday evenings to write after dinner—so I usually manage an hour or two before I get tired--and a half-day on the weekends. During the summer, I teach scuba a few times a month, which eats up most of that weekend. Let me get up on a soapbox for a minute: Despite my schedule, I still manage 500 to 2,000 words a day, so I have no sympathy for aspiring writers who say they don’t have the time—make the time if writing’s important to you.

Well said! So, what's the best and worst part of being a writer?

It’s the coolest experience watching characters take over the keyboard from you and type their own behaviour and dialog. I spend time detailing and developing my characters on the side so that they each have a unique and recognizable voice. (I think that shows very clearly in WHE.) A side effect of this is that they’re on automatic when I start writing and it’s fun to watch. The worst part? Do I even have to say it? The marketing. The continual, shameless marketing. I’d love to just write and have a machine do that work for me. (Yeah, you know who you are.)

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Do you start your projects writing with paper and pen or is it all on the computer?

I’m a digital guy. I do a “Snowflake“ process—write down the one-sentence blurb, expand that to three sentences describing the three-act structure with gating scenes, expand those to paragraphs, write a detailed outline of each, then break down to scene level in Scrivener. Describe each scene: POV, goal, conflict, purpose, outcome. Then write scene by scene. Once that draft is done I shuffle the scenes to their final order then finish up the final drafts in Word.

Do you set yourself goals when you sit down to write such as word count?

Absolutely. Usually 1000-2000 words a day, and about 10,000 words per week. I don’t always hit it, but the important thing is to set the bar and keep reaching for it until the story’s finished.