Recently I had the chance to talk with Joseph Lallo, author of The Book of Deacon, and here is what he had to say.

 

What made you want to be a writer?

It is funny, being a writer was never really a dream of mine. Don’t get me wrong, I loved telling stories, and from a young age I’d made plans to write a book, but for me writing was mostly just something to keep me busy when there was nothing else to do. Or at least nothing I wanted to do. It wasn’t until I had written literally hundreds of pages of the same meandering story that I allowed my friends to convince me first to attempt to publish, then finally to self-publish what I’d written.

 

What is the hardest part about writing a book for you?

I suppose the biggest difficulty for me is editing. I’ve got the almost supernatural ability to read what I thought I wrote rather than what is actually on the page. I can read the same paragraph a dozen times and not see that there is a missing word in the first sentence. And don’t get me started on homophones… That said, editing is mostly done when the actual writing is over. If I were to pinpoint the hardest part of the storytelling process, it would have to be linking together two “good” scenes. Sometimes I’ll get through writing a scene that I really enjoyed writing, and I’ll have another in mind that I’m genuinely looking forward to, but to get from one to the other I’ll need a fairly standard nuts-and-bolts bit of transition. For some reason knowing that the next fun scene is tantalizingly within reach makes me downright resentful of the fact that I have to write the setup for it before I can get started. Then I get worried that if I don’t enjoy writing it then people won’t enjoy reading it, then I start to fixate. Ugh. It is a mess.

 

Can you tell us about your writing process?

I’ve gone about writing in a few different ways, but most of them share a handful common techniques. I’ll usually start with a very general idea of where I want the story to begin and where I want it to end. From there I’ll do a basic bit of character planning to cast the role of the protagonist (or protagonists). After that, if there are some big scenes I’d like to make sure happen, I’ll lay them out in an outline. Then I just start writing. I try to let the characters and the story develop at the same time. “Okay, what would he do in this situation?” or “What would she say to him if that happened?” On occasion the plot will change as I realize that the character I’ve created really wouldn’t go here or do that. Sometimes a minor, highly utilitarian role that I stuck in to guide the story in the right direction will suddenly become a stand-out favorite. In my sci-fi series, a character that began as essentially a high-tech doorbell evolved to the point that she was a main character in a subsequent book.

 

Where do you find inspiration for story ideas?

I’ve been inspired by everything from reading the works of other authors to staring out the train window during my commute, but it might be fair to say that most of my inspirations come from conversations with friends and music. My friends and I can sit down to have the most innocuous conversation, then inevitably one of us will utter the line “You know what would be cool?” and I end up taking notes. This past November an entire novel was written based on an idiotic game we’d play in which we’d try to think of the most useless superpowers. As for music, I’ve had characters, scenes, and whole books result from the images that form in my mind as I listen to certain songs. The prophet from The Book of Deacon is a result of listening to the bands Clutch and Queen. The climax of the series comes from a System of a Down song.

 

What advise would you give new writers?

Just keep writing. It seems simple, but the biggest hurdle that I’ve had to leap and the one that I continually see my friends and family tripping over when they try to write a story is simply finishing what you start. There will be times when you think you’ve written the worst piece of trash in history. It doesn’t matter, get the words out. I don’t care if no one ever sees it, every word you write makes you a better writer. Make mistakes, write cliches, botch dialog. Do whatever you need to do to get the words out. Later you can read, revise, and repeat, but only if you finish telling your story. I’ve seen people I consider to be head and shoulders above me in writing skill run out of momentum after a few thousand words. These are people who I go to for advice when I can’t untie a certain literary knot, and yet my silly little story ends up in the hands of readers and their masterpiece sits unfinished on a hard drive.

 

Oh, and once you’ve got your story told, find someone you trust to read it over for errors and for opinions. A second set of eyes is absolutely indispensable in terms of ironing out wrinkles in the plot and grammar. As a matter of fact, a third, fourth, and fifth set of eyes wouldn’t hurt either.

 

Do you listen to music when you write? If so what do you like to listen to?

I certainly listen to music before I write, for the aforementioned inspiration. When it comes to the actual writing, I go through phases. Often I don’t listen to music at all. When I do, it has to fulfill a few criteria. First, no English lyrics. If there are words in the background that I can understand, I find myself paying attention to them instead of writing. Worse, sometimes I’ll transcribe a few, which could be embarrassing considering the sort of taste I have in music. The other requirement is that the music fit the tone of what I’m writing. It is very difficult to write a heart-wrenching moment of sorrow when I’m listening to something jaunty and upbeat. As a result, I frequently find myself listening to classical music an film scores when I’m writing. Some unique instrumental bands like Rodrigo y Gabriella and the first few Apocalyptica albums are common as well. Otherwise, I write in silence.

 

Can you tell us where you came up with the idea for the The Book of Deacon?

The Book of Deacon was inspired, in a roundabout way, by old video games. When I was younger I had an NES, and one of my favorite games was Dragon Warrior. A friend and I would spend our spare moments in the schoolyard acting out little scenes based on the characters. That was back in first and second grade, roughly. We eventually grew out of the improvised fan fiction, but the story continued to gestate in my brain. Eventually it evolved into an unrecognizable mess of swapped out characters and altered plots. I started to jot down the ideas for a phenomenally cliched tale about the descendants of ancient warriors, but I quickly realized I ought to decide who exactly these ancient warriors were. Notebooks began to fill with descriptions and back stories and before long I decided that the descendants weren’t nearly as interesting as the ancestors, so I decided to write about them instead. That became The Book of Deacon.

 

What was your experience writing the The Book of Deacon?

My entire adolescence was my experience writing The Book of Deacon, really. The seeds of the story were planted in Grammar School. Any moment of boredom during high school was spent scribbling down ideas and scenes. I was literally the fat kid sitting in the bleachers during gym class writing in a notebook rather than playing basketball. That continued into college, where eventually the plot reached its end and I decided it was probably a good idea to type it up for the sake of legibility. (I actually learned to touch type at the prodding of a friend of mine just so the transcription of the book would go faster.) Once it was done, my friends started to get on my case about doing something with it, and so we entered the wonderful world of rejection letters from literary agencies, and finally the self-publishing process.

 

Who is your favorite character from the book and why?

That’s a tough one. The first thought that comes to mind is Myn, the baby dragon. She’s another one of those characters who developed to fill a need, in this case “our main character needs someone to keep her company and help her hunt.” By the end of a few pages the little beast had more personality than the rest of the supporting cast combined, and all without having a single line of dialog. She’s marvelously fun to write, a creature motivated entirely by the desire to protect her friend and earn praise… and potatoes. A close second when it comes to favorite characters is Wolloff. He’s a crotchety old wizard who, again, was extremely fun to write, just because of how abrasive he had to be.

 

Is there anything you would do different if you had to do it all over again?

I would absolutely give my book a few more revisions before releasing it to the public. There were some downright embarrassing errors. Let’s see. I misused literally every instance of prophecy/prophesy. Likewise every instance of reign/rein. I assigned dialog to the wrong characters, had contradictory statements, got my compass directions backward a few times… It was rough. The other thing I’d probably do differently is actually use chapters. The Book of Deacon has only scene breaks, no chapter breaks, and it has been exceedingly problematic for some of my readers. My more recent books finally feature chapters.

 

Are there any sequel books to The Book of Deacon?

Yes indeed. The Book of Deacon is the first book in a trilogy. There is also a novella that takes place after the trilogy, and a prequel is nearing completion.

 

Is there anything you’d like to say to your readers? 

Only the same thing I say at every opportunity. Thank you. Thank you for giving my  books a shot, thank you for sharing your opinions (good and bad), and thank you for motivating me to continue writing. I would have stopped long ago if it wasn’t for you.

 

To find out more about Joseph and his books please visit his website www.bookofdeacon.com

Joseph has been so kind as to offer his entire trilogy for a giveaway on the site, so if you would like a chance to win an e copy of these books, please see my giveaway section.

The Book of DeaconMyranda is a young woman more interested in staying alive than being a hero. Orphaned by a continent-spanning war that has gone on for decades too long and shunned for failing to support it, she has been on the move since she was only a child. One can hardly blame her when she thinks that the chance discovery of a fallen soldier’s priceless cargo is the moment that will change her life. No one could predict just how great that change would be. It will lead her through an adventure of rebels and generals, of wizards and warriors, and of beasts both noble and monstrous. Each step of the way will take her closer to the truth of her potential, of the war, and of the fate of her world.

You can get your copy today at…

Amazon | Banes & Nobel | Kobo

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