Welcome to Stop #6 on the 32 Author Hunt! Hopefully you have the first five by now, but if not head on over here to help get your bearings, then read on to find your clue!
Donita K. Paul: Welcome to Dragon Bloggin’, L.B.. This scavenger hunt has me excited and confused. Before we begin, I’d like to thank you for nudging me in the right direction when I floundered in the details. That’s the kind of friend to have.
Should we
mention how we met in 2005 and how it went, or should we just leave that part
out J ?
L.B. Graham: Thanks for
having me, Donita, and while I’m proud of having been a Christy finalist in ’05
for Beyond the Summerland, as I’m
sure you are for having been a finalist for DragonSpell,
maybe we shouldn’t talk too much about how we didn’t exactly make a good
impression on each other at first. Perhaps it would be better just to say that
a week together on the Fantasy Fiction Tour in ’08 helped us overcome all that.
J
DKP: I agree. On
my part, I was so nervous I was having difficulty breathing, let alone shaking
hands and chatting with complete strangers. I’m glad we’re not strangers any
more.
So, let’s get to
it.
It has been said
about fantasy that: “Fantasy allows you to shine a different kind of light on
human beings. I believe the only valid use of fantasy is to illustrate
important human themes.” What themes do you illustrate in your books?
LBG: It’s a good
question. My first series, The Binding of
the Blade, revolved around the theme of ‘longing for restoration.’ It
imagines a world where the making of weapons represents ‘the Fall’ and where
the ‘unmaking’ of weapons is a prelude to Restoration. As such, it wrestles a
good bit with what it means to navigate a broken world while yearning for a
perfect one.
My current
fantasy series, The Wandering, (which
began with The Darker Road, this past
summer) revolves around a very different theme than my first. Namely, that a
world that rejects its maker and puts its trust and hope in lesser things might
find that for this rebellion, a price might have to be paid. So, it is kind of
a judgment theme and pretty different then the restoration theme of BOTB.
My Indie book, The Raft, The River, and The Robot,
which is a slightly dystopic, futuristic novel inspired in large part by The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,
wrestles with identity – much like the book that inspired it. How do we find
and define ourselves, and to what extent do parents and social context shape
us, both in that we are molded by them and in that we push away at times from
them?
And, having said
all this, I hasten to add that the books are more interesting than this might
make them sound. J The
theme is often under and behind the story, not up front in preachy ways (at
least I hope not…)
DKP: By the way, The Raft, the River, and the Robot is a
book I’ll read again, and I have recommended it often. I lost sleep on that one
in the “I’ll just read one more chapter” mode.
When and why did
you start writing fiction?
LBG: While I had
tackled a few stories before this, my first real story was “Killer Kudzu,” a
choose-your-own-adventure story written in about 1982, I think. I wrote it on
index cards as part of a project for school.
I continued to dabble in fiction in High School and College, and
occasionally thereafter.
In seminary I
did an independent study on “the Problem of Pain” and part of my arrangement
with my supervising professor was that I could report on my work with a story,
rather than a traditional paper, and I wrote a 60 page story for that.
I didn’t start
working on a novel for publication until 1998/1999, when I began in earnest to
turn that story into a novel, and even though I didn’t finish it, it got my
wheels turning and led pretty soon to my decision to go back to the fantasy
idea I’d had years before when I was a college student, and that eventually
became The Binding of the Blade.
DKP: Describe your
writing space.
LBG: This may be
less than inspirational, but these days it is usually a booth at McDonalds. The
coffee/soda is cheap and the internet is free, and I hunker down for a while
and get to work.
I wrote my first
series, alternating between home (on some weekday nights) and my classroom (on
Saturday afternoons), but as my kids have grown and I live farther from the
school where I teach, I’ve adapted. All I really need is my computer and some
headphones to drown out the world, and I’m ready to go…
DKP: Your Binding of the Blade series was
published by P&R Publishing, then you published two books independently,
and your current series is with AMG/Living Ink. Which has been the best
publishing experience? Why?
LBG: I’m going to
do something unusual for me and take the tactful approach here and say ‘they
aren’t better or worse, they’re different.’
Actually, I
don’t have much of a choice, because while I worked with P&R pretty
constantly between 2002 and 2008, and have since had a few years to reflect on
that experience, I don’t have nearly the perspective on my Indie experience or
AMG.
Having said
that, they really are different. After working with a traditional publisher, I
really enjoyed the creative control of Indie publishing. I made final decisions
on covers, and on titles, etc, and that was great. Consequently, I have a
finished product that really does fit my vision for each of those stories.
At the same
time, I spent my money to get those books to that level of professional
quality, I have to try to market them myself, and so on. Both the financial
risk and potential reward grow exponentially with Indie publishing, so for me
at least, the jury is still out on the wisdom of going that way.
As for AMG, the
decision to go with them had a lot to do with the fact that they’ve consciously
worked to create a fantasy presence in the Christian market, where many
Christian publishers are hesitant to commit to fantasy as a genre. I applaud
and appreciate that commitment.
DKP: Can you tell
us about your latest release, The Darker
Road?
LBG: The Darker Road is the story of the
dramatic collapse of an empire. I don’t want to give too much away, but the
King of this empire has stolen a powerful talisman of sorts, and he is using it
to strengthen his already considerable military might. And even as he is
preparing to use that might to further subdue the empire he governs, the
rightful keepers of the talisman coming looking for it. That’s how it all
starts, anyway, and the conflict that ensues is only the beginning.
There is a
pretty cool ‘alternative technology’ system in the series, which makes for some
fun devices and weapons and so forth. This also creates a pretty unique feel
for the stories, as they don’t quite fit into the traditional,
medieval/semi-medieval feel of many fantasy worlds. At the same time, I
definitely think the series fits the ‘fantasy’ mold, even if it stretches some
of the conventions.
For example, I
think one of the fascinating things about fantasy is this contrast in fantasy
stories between a way of life that is somewhat archaic, or behind us, and magic
and magical abilities which give the characters abilities that are beyond us.
In The Darker Road, I think the
reader will get a similar experience, where sometimes the world feels dated,
and in other ways, very advanced.
DKP: Any advice
for aspiring writers?
LBG: Lots, but
I’ll stay basic: read & write. The absolute, non-negotiable foundation for
becoming a good writer is to read & write.
You need to read, read, read, so you can learn the craft of writing from
those who have gone before, and you need to write, write, write, since no one
(or almost no one, anyway) ever becomes good at anything without lots and lots
of practice.
DKP: What do you
want people to know aside from your writing?
LBG: This is a
very open-ended question, so I’ll take full advantage. What I want people to
know is that Christianity is about grace, not moralism, and I think when
Christians set out to be story tellers, they need to keep this in mind. A book
isn’t Christian because the people in it behave morally, even as a person isn’t
a Christian because he or she tries to behave morally. We need a better, more
faithful, deeper standard of evaluation than that.
DKP: Any final
thoughts or comments?
LBG: Only my
gratitude to you Donita – both for years of friendship & for giving me
space on your blog to introduce myself.
And, of course, there’s that scavenger hunt clue that people may be here
looking for, and that is “the greatest.”
[To learn more about L.B. and his books (and to keep hunting!), visit his website: www.lbgraham.com.]
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