Disclaimer: By posting this interview I am in no way endorsing any of the authors work but rather simply giving a forum so that we as readers can get to know them and the authors can promote their stories.
DLC: I want to thank you Ren for stopping by and doing this interview with me. Before we get into your cool looking series please share a little bit about yourself.
Ren: My name is Ren Cummins, up here in the delightfully and mostly cloudy greenery of the Pacific Northwest. A stone's throw (okay, a very hefty throw, like, with the wind at your back or something) from Seattle; I live up here with my wife and daughter, a pair of cerebrally-interchanged dogs and a cat who is very in touch with his Egyptian mythology. I gave up the rock-and-roll ambitions I'd carried over from my youth once my daughter was born, and fell back in love with telling stories as she started to be interested in hearing them. Been writing professionally now for several years, and am using all the wonders of this interweb contraption (I kid. I'm a kidder) to get my books out on the market.
DLC: I think just about every author is still trying to figure out this interweb thingy. =) So, speaking of books, tell us about your series.
Ren: The series I'm working on right now is a Young Adult Steampunk Fantasy series called the Chronicles of Aesirium. It revolves around a "sort-of-Earth" planet called Aerthos where technology has evolved from a focus on steam-engine-driven tech, but this has been made feasible by the addition of magical skills called simply "Art." By using Science and Art, the civilization - in spite of a few growing pain setbacks - has made great advances, but, as so many societies do, fell into a civil unrest dwelling on the differences between those who prefer science and those who prefer magic. This civil war left them irrevocably divided, with the artists losing and being exiled beyond an enormous wall originally built for the defense of the city. The story begins about 200 years after this exile, with the citizens of the city, Aesirium, becoming more like mythological figures to the people of Oldtown-Against-the-Wall, the descendants of their exiled forefathers.
If generations of exile weren't bad enough, there are monsters in the wild lands to the west; great, corrupted and undead beasts that find their way into the nighttime streets of Oldtown. And this, on top of the bedtime stories of the Reapers, powerful and mysterious beings believed to cart off the rebellious souls of the unsuspecting.
The story itself focuses on a trio of children growing up in this challenging but still fantastical environment, each with a specific role to play in the history and future of Oldtown and Aesirium - a future which will change the greatest city on the face of Aerthos.
Okay, that probably sounds a lot more epic than I intended. But you'll have to read for yourself and see if I'm lying.
DLC: Epic is exactly what I'd call it. Which character would you most identify with?
Ren: Oooh, that's a tough one. There's something of myself in all the characters, of course, but the one I just get the most is Ian, an old wizard with an odd sense of humor and an even more odd sense of fashion. His role isn't large in terms of the story's entire narrative, but he does give the children a sense of direction and focus that they need at crucial times. I most enjoyed writing his odd sense of comic timing, how he'd dance between sober wisdom and quirky silliness.
DLC: Sounds like a great character. When did you know you wanted to be a writer?
Ren: I know it a little more each day, to be honest. For me, the key was telling stories - like the whole bardic tradition, that sort of thing? Used to be, we were such an oral-tradition kind of culture, with people talking and telling one another the legends and myths that gave us our sense of aspiration and purpose. Now, it's all internet and video games, and while I'm sure the MasterChief from HALO or Link from Zelda are brave and epic characters, it's still a bit distant from the sort of thing I miss. I knew I wanted to write stories way back when I was a young pup, reading comic books like the Uncanny Xmen and Spiderman - I really wanted to be Spiderman when I grew up, originally. Part of me still does.
I tried to focus my storytelling on music for a while - did a CD, the whole thing (plug alert: the CD is called Obsidian Bridges), but even though I'm happy with the work I did, it was never fully immersed in the storytelling elements I looked for. But several years ago, I remembered some very wise words from one of my college professors, and it all just clicked into place.
DLC: What was that advice?
Ren: He asked me what I wanted to do with my english education - this was back when I was in my very early 20s - and I said I wanted to be a writer. He laughed and asked "so you don't want to be a teacher?"
I told him, "no offense, but no."
He laughed again. "Then you're probably in the wrong place."
He told me he'd read my writings and knew I could write - I could make a proper sentence, convey a thought, and express it in a way that made it enjoyable to be read - but those are the only things that school was fit to teach a writer. School was mostly about the tools and the tech of writing, but those things avail you naught (I love that line. I need more opportunities to write that.) without something substantive and intentional behind it. He told me "if you want to write something, what you really need is to get out into the world and live. Take those experiences and get your stories from there."
Now, I probably wouldn't give that same advice to everyone, but for me, it was what I needed to hear - - not just in regards to writing as much as urging me to focus, figure out what I truly wanted to do, and so forth. It's essential, if a person wants to do anything - writing, whatever - that they come to the table realistic about their expectations. Do you want to write stories? Do you want to be an author? Do you want to make money? Figure that out, and figure it out as quickly as you can. At the end of the day, knowing your own real motivations can make the difference between getting into a career and wasting years of your life in a frivolous pursuit.
DLC: Very true. For me I want to write stories as an author while making lots of money, but that's just me maybe. hehehe What source or sources do you draw from when creating a new story?
Ren: I get my ideas from everywhere, really. My wife tends to have really strange dreams, and as she tells me about them, I'm constantly looking for elements I can use elsewhere in a story or whatnot. Or they'll come from another book or a movie or a song lyric or a misread license plate (seriously!) where I'll think, "what if...." and let that continue on until I've come up with something that works well as a story. I keep a pad of paper by my bed, and use my smartphone for notes or short bits that cross my mind; you just never know when some weird and freakish idea is going to hit you, so you just have to be prepared. I lost a lot of songs back in the day because I didn't have the means to jot it down when it came to me. I've tried to learn from those mistakes.
I've now got hundreds of ideas all banked for future reference, just waiting for the right vehicle to carry them along. I'm totally an idea hoarder, but with a pretty good search engine.
DLC: As long as your wife gets royalties from her dreams I guess it's OK. =) If I asked you to pick one of your characters as your favorite who would it be and why?
Ren: Hmmm. Well, I don't want to give away any spoilers, but I'd go with a gentleman by the name of Favo Carr. Okay, technically, he starts out as the bad guy. My editor doesn't like him - correction, she likes him but really wishes I'd just kill him off, because he's so naughty - but I think he's great. He has the kind of elegance and confidence that makes a true scoundrel such a delightful chap. I wouldn't trust him with the keys to my car or anything, but he's just a lot of fun to be around. Man's got luck in spades, that's for sure.
DLC: What was your greatest challenge personally when writing your current story?
Ren: The biggest challenge in the current story is finding the time. I still work a day job, which lately has been trying to absorb my life in a very Borg-like manner. Additionally, I've been working on a variety of stories for inclusion in other books, work on developing out my marketing campaigns, and also sketch out the next series of books that will occupy my time after the Aesirium books have wrapped.
Also, though, this is the last of a series of 6 books, and the weight of that is heavy upon me. There are a lot of storylines to resolve, and it really is a Very Big Finish, so I'm taking it seriously. The fifth book, "Into the Blink" was exceptionally dark, and it also took me a while to stop feeling so guilty about putting my characters through such dark struggles. But the resolution is a powerful one, so it's one of those trials that really does end up being worth the path.
DLC: Conflict is what drives the story. Without it you've written all for naught. (Had to use that word!) What factors do you use that tell you the manuscript is done?
Ren: I work with a couple of editors, who review the manuscript at various stages - both during the development process as well as with draft reviews, but also it's a matter of just feeling it's done. I like cooking, too, and it's like that with food - - after you've been cooking for a while, you start to get a sense of when it's ready to move past the stage you're in and move into the next phase.
DLC: I can't express how important it is to have people that you can entrust with your manuscript to help in the editing process. That's great that you have that support. Why did you choose Steampunk as a genre?
Ren: I hear this answer a lot, but it's true - I didn't really choose Steampunk so much as it chose me. I was writing the background tech and history of the world, and I needed to pursue an alternative technology to the gas-powered engine. Steam-power came up, and I latched onto it like it was a liferaft. It was just the perfect concept. At about the midpoint of my first draft, a friend of mine read it and said it reminded her of Steampunk. I was familiar with cyberpunk - which I also love - and once I did some studying into Steampunk, that was it. I was hooked.
When people ask me what Steampunk is, I offer the short answer and the long one. The long one, by the way, can take up a whole conversation all by itself, but I can give you some great links if you're curious. The short answer: it's an expression of "neo-victorianism" with a focus on the elegant play of culture and manners in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, pretending that the steam-driven engine was the primary motivator of technology and science. It favors industry and romanticizes a more grounded and functional process of invention and development. Oh, and there are often airships and goggles, too. Which are very cool.
DLC: I like goggles. lol Do you have any favorite authors?
Ren: Neil Gaiman and Warren Ellis are two of my all-time favorites. But I also enjoy Rick Riordan and Eoin Colfer, as well as Cherie Priest, Brian Michael Bendis and Geoff Johns.
DLC: Now that's quite a list, cool. Are you working on a book now and if so tell us a little bit about it?
Ren: I'm in the middle of the first half of book 6 of the Chronicles of Aesirium, which sounds like a lot, but I've a long road to go, yet. There are some tremendous and epic battles, heart-breaking revelations and some heaping handfuls of drama. And alliteration, too. You can't go wrong with a bit of alliteration from time to time.
The next series of books, however, are going to be set in the present day, and will be darker and older books. Demons, sorcery, and cross-cultural mythology. Good times.
DLC: The series sounds seriously sensational. =) If you were stranded on a deserted island and could pick only 2 books to have with you, what would they be and why?
Ren: I'd have to go with The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, and "The Prophet" by Kahlil Gibran.
The first would be so I could act out all the plays with coconuts and palm trees - and nothing says "I've lost my mind on a deserted island" like speaking randomly in iambic pentameter. The second would be because that one book has had a more profound effect on my sense of spirituality and balance than any one other book I've ever read. And every time I read it, I find some new truth in it; and if I'm stuck on an island, I could really use some of that.
DLC: Nice. Where can people go to get more information about you and your book?
Ren: My amazon author site: http://www.amazon.com/Ren-Cummins/e/B0030M9QXC/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1?qid=1311113075&sr=8-1
My blog: http://anachronology.blogspot.com/
Twitter Feed: http://twitter.com/#!/rencummins
oh, and for those reading along, my old music album can be found here:
DLC: Thank you again for coming and doing this interview with me today. I may have to become a Steampunk fan! For those interested here's a list of all Ren's books.
The Chronicles of Aesirium
Reaper's Return (book 1)
Morrow Stone (book 2)
City of the Dead (book 3)
Reaper's Flight (book 4)
Into the Blink (book 5)
Non-fiction:
The Middle Age (A geek's journey from boy to man and back again)
Blessings,
Daniel L Carter
Author of The G-6 Chronicles
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