Interview With A.J. Hartley

As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, my good friend A.J. Hartley has a new paperback out from Tor Books. The book is called Act of Will, and it is A.J.’s first foray into writing fantasy, after a highly successful run as a bestselling writer of thrillers. A.J. is one of the writers at Magical Words, our group blog on the craft and business of writing. He is also a theater professor at UNC-Charlotte and one of the nicest people you could ever hope to meet.

Here is a quick interview with A.J. in which we touch on his approach to writing, elements of the new series, and what he’s working on now. I hope you enjoy it.

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Q. Will is an unconventional fantasy hero. Can you tell us why you wrote him the way you did, and talk to us a bit about what you think defines a literary hero?

A. I think that we sometimes apply different standards of characterization to fantasy than we do to other genres, embracing a brand of heroism that doesn’t bear that much resemblance to the world most of us live in. I realize that that ‘larger then life’ quality is exactly what some readers want from a fantasy hero, but I’ve always gravitated to stories where the characters feel real and familiar even in worlds involving magic and large scale conflict. Will is less a hero than he is a protagonist, the guy at the heart of the story, but not the great fighter, not the mystical talent destined for greatness. He’s ordinary, he’s realistic to the point of self-interested and he’s not about to put his life on the line without a really good reason. I like that. I like to follow a character who feels like me, who is trying to make sense out of strange and dangerous situations in much the way I might. He’s not a coward. He’s a pragmatist, and one I suspect most of us would connect to. I’m not sure I can expand this to include what all literary heroes are, but I do think that most of the best kind (or at least the ones I like) have something of this ordinaryness which is stretched by extraordinary circumstances. It might not amount to greatness, but it shows growth and development in response to challenge. That said, sometimes a literary hero is just the person we experience the story through, who’s personality and thoughts are as much the point of the narrative as are the events. In Act of Will, the first person perspective helps me to keep character and story intertwined.

Q. With all the success you’ve enjoyed as an author of thrillers (THE MASK OF ATREUS, ON THE FIFTH DAY, WHAT TIME DEVOURS) why make the switch to fantasy?

A. Oddly enough, the first version of this book predated my thrillers. I started writing the first draft of this in a computer lab at Yale where my wife was in med school. I revised and retooled over the years, learning as I went, and I think the current version did benefit from my experience writing thrillers. All told, we’re talking a gestation period of about 20 years. I was lucky enough to have an agent who liked the book enough to consider redirecting my career towards fantasy even as my other publisher was asking for more thrillers. I love the freedom to write whatever I feel like, and am glad not to be constrained to a single genre.

Q. What did you read growing up?  Is most of your reading now in genre or do you read more widely?

A. Like a lot of nerdy kids, I read voraciously, and other than what I encountered at school, I got particularly excited by both fantasy and mysteries, the latter of the kind we now call ‘cozy’ at least until I discovered Conan Doyle. After Tolkien and C.S. Lewis I read a lot of fairly derivative fantasy and formula mystery, both of which fed my conviction (unfounded at the time!) that I could do as well or better. By the time I was an undergraduate I was reading more widely, fuelled in part by my literature studies, and plunged into the masters and the modernists (and postmodernists) alike. I got excited by really layered and self-consciously clever writing, like Iris Murdoch, Joyce, Golding and others, but retained a soft spot for more sensational forms and stories from Dickens on. I never lost my British adolescent sense of humor and really connected with Douglas Adams and, laterly, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. Now, I read all kinds of stuff: almost everything except perhaps romance which doesn’t really appeal to me. If it’s good according to its own rules–particularly if there’s something working at the sentence level–I’ll read it.

Q. You have a background in theater and have an endowed chair in Shakespeare studies in the theater department at UNC-Charlotte.  In what ways does your theatrical background influence your writing?

A. I think my theatre experience gives me both a visual sensibility–a sense of the pictorial and dramatic–and a focus on character, particularly manifested in dialogue. I love the way character emerges from speech and I suppose that also fuels my fascination with first person narrative. In theatre you can’t hear thought except by indirect means, and that forces an audience to watch and listen carefully to figure out what they think is motivating the action. I like to approach fiction with that same sense of attentiveness in the reader, the idea that the speaker can’t always be trusted to reveal everything, and the special dynamic you get when everything in the book is–in a sense–dialogue. From Shakespeare, of course, I get the notion that even the sensational or preposterous can be great if it’s well executed.

Q. You have a second book in this series [WILL POWER] coming out in September.  Can you tell us a bit about that volume and also about projects you have in the works beyond that one?

A. Will Power is a second installment in Will’s adventures, though it is–like Act of Will–a completely self contained story. In each of these I try to tell a fantasy story while pushing a bit at the limits of the genre. I’m also working on a middle grades/YA fantasy series, the first of which ‘Darwen Arkwright and the Peregrine Pact,’ will be out in Fall 2011.

A Very Cool Magical Words Post From A.J. Hartley

Today is release day for my good friend and fellow Magical Words writer, A.J. Hartley.  A.J. is the bestselling author of such thrillers as The Mask of Atreus and The Fifth Day.  A.J. now writes fantasy for Tor Books, and his first fantasy novel, Act of Will, which was previously out in hardcover, is being re-released today as a mass market paperback.  To mark the occasion, A.J. has written today’s Magical Words post in the voice of his lead character, Will Hawthorne.  It’s a terrific post that gives you the flavor of a terrific book.  Check it out.

A Post About Character Portraits

Today’s post can be found at http://magicalwords.net, the group blog on the business and craft of writing fantasy that I maintain with fellow authors Faith Hunter, Misty Massey, A.J. Hartley, and Stuart Jaffe, among others. The post is called “The Character Portrait vs. the Character Sketch” and it’s about using extended descriptions to introduce certain characters. I hope you enjoy it.

A Post About . . . Well, Read It . . .

Today’s post can be found at http://www.sfnovelists.com, the group blog on speculative fiction that I maintain along with a group of over one hundred published authors of fantasy and science fiction.  The post is called “The Inspiration I Draw From I. M. Notariter.”  I hope you enjoy it.

A Post About Your Draft Read-Through

Today’s post can be found at http://magicalwords.net, the group blog on the business and craft of writing fantasy that I maintain with fellow authors Faith Hunter, Misty Massey, A.J. Hartley, and Stuart Jaffe, among others. The post is called “Writing Your Book, part X: The Read-Through” and it’s about the final revisions I make to a newly finished manuscript before sending it off to my editor or other readers. I hope you enjoy it.

Seeing Robin Hood, After Writing Robin Hood

Last night marked the final chapter of my Robin Hood novelization experience:  Nancy and I finally saw the movie.  My reactions:

First, I liked it.  So did Nancy.  I honestly believe that many of the poor reviews were written by people who went to the theater expecting to see the conventional Robin Hood story.  This movie never claimed to be that.  It is a prequel of sorts to the legend, and is innovative and different — good things both.  It is a darker story than one expects from a Robin Hood movie, but that too worked for me.

I love Cate Blanchett,and I think she did a fine job; her acting was excellent, as always.  Still, I’m just not certain that she was ideal for this role.  On the other hand, I was surprised by how much I enjoyed Russell Crowe’s performance.  Again, I always expect excellent acting from him, and I wasn’t disappointed this time.  I just hadn’t been sure that I would like him as Robin.  I did.

A lot of what I saw matched up well with what I envisioned as I wrote the book from the movie script.  Still, there were scenes that I saw differently — the opening siege sequences, for instance.  There were a few scenes and lines that must have been cut from the movie at the last minute, because they’re in the book, but not in the film.  And there were a few scenes and lines that we were asked to cut, but that then found their way back into the movie (and I have to tell you THAT was a little annoying….).

Movies and books are utterly different media, and hard to compare.  I know that some of what I wrote in the book can’t possibly have as much impact as the visuals one gets on the screen.  I also know, though, that there are elements of what I wrote in the book, especially some of the point of view work, that added to the narrative.  Eleanor of Aquitaine doesn’t get enough screen time in the movie to be a fully developed character; being able to write scenes from her POV allowed me to bring her out a bit more in the book.  Same with Richard the Lionheart.

Robin Hood was a unique writing experience; I’ve said as much before.  Turns out, seeing the movie was a unique experience as well.  I felt like I was seeing a movie I’d watched many times before, and yet every visual offered some small surprise.  As Nancy said, it will probably be even stranger to see a movie that is based on one of my own books.  I hope to find out some day.

Another Tea Party Crazy

Another day, another example of right wing craziness, this one out of North Carolina:

Bill Randall is a Tea Party candidate seeking the GOP nomination for the 13th district Congressional seat currently held by Democrat Brad Miller.  The other day Randall offered a new theory for the cause of the Gulf oil spill:  The Obama Administration and BP conspired to make it happen.  Here are his remarks:

Now, I’m not necessarily a conspiracy person, but I don’t think enough investigation has been done on this.  Someone needs to be digging into that situation. Personally, and this is purely speculative on my part and not based on any fact, but personally I feel there is a possibility that there was some sort of collusion. I don’t know how or why, but in that situation, if you have someone from a company violating a safety process and the government signing off on it, excuse me, maybe they wanted it to leak.

But then it got beyond what was anticipated, and we had an explosion and loss of life. And, oh man, then we have panic. Is there a cover up going on? I’m not saying there necessarily is. But I think there’s enough facts on the table for people that (they) really need to do some investigative research and find out what went on with that and get a subpoena of records and everything else.

You’ve got to love the way he admits that he has no proof or evidence of any sort, but then just keeps on going.  Where does the GOP find these guys??!!

A Thank You Note to Joe Barton

Thank God for Joe Barton (R-Texas).  Tuesday night, Barack Obama gave a speech on the BP-Gulf of Mexico oil spill disaster that I would generously call uninspiring.  Yes, he spoke of the need for new alternative energy sources that could, at long last, wean America from its dangerous and environmentally catastrophic dependence on fossil fuels.  But he didn’t do much else, and he certainly didn’t lay out a strong, definite plan for achieving his goals.  Everyone from Jon Stewart to Fox News gave the speech bad reviews, and for a day or two that’s what people were talking about.  The only thing the President did manage to do was convince British Petroleum to set up a $20 billion escrow account to help people in the Gulf region recover from the economic effects of the spill.  By Wednesday morning, that seemed like a small accomplishment.

But then Congressman Barton, in his opening remarks at a Congressional hearing on the Gulf spill, actually apologized to BP for what the White House had done.  Here are his remarks:

I’m ashamed of what happened in the White House yesterday.  I think it is a tragedy of the first proportion that a private corporation can be subjected to what I would characterize as a shakedown. In this case, a $20-billion shakedown with the attorney general of the United States, who is legitimately conducting a criminal investigation and has every right to do so to protect the interests of the American people, participating in what amounts to a $20-billion slush fund. It is unprecedented in our nation’s history.

Never mind that BP has destroyed the Gulf economy for years to come.  Never mind that the company’s spokesmen have at least paid lip service to doing exactly what this fund is intended to facilitate, i.e. compensating people for their losses.  Never mind that BP is now more hated than any governmental institution or corporate entity.  Joe is ready to defend them, and to accuse the White House of “shaking them down.”  Talk about a political tin ear.  But wait, it gets better.  What makes this statement even more outrageous is that Texas Joe has received more campaign money from big oil since 1989 — some $1.4 million and counting — than any other member of Congress.  Who says money can’t buy you love…?

With one opening statement, Barton made the White House look strong in its treatment of BP, sympathetic to the people of the Gulf region, and sensitive to the public’s outrage at BP.  And he reminded everyone, as had Rand Paul and Sarah Palin before him, that Republicans will come to the defense of the world’s largest oil corportations no matter what they do and whose lives they destroy.

So on behalf of the President and Democrats everywhere, I just want to say, “Thank, Joe.”

A Post About What to do After You Finish Your Book

Today’s post can be found at http://magicalwords.net, the group blog on the business and craft of writing fantasy that I maintain with fellow authors Faith Hunter, Misty Massey, A.J. Hartley, and Stuart Jaffe, among others. The post is called “Writing Your Book, part IX: You’re Finished! Now Get to Work!” and it’s about the things you ought to do once you’ve completed your novel. I hope you enjoy it.

This Signing was a First

I’ve been meaning to post more this week, but with all the stuff going on at Magical Words, I haven’t had time.

I did want to relate this little tidbit though.  This past weekend, at ConCarolinas, I signed my first eReader.  Really.  It was a Kindle, and the owner was a fan of my books, and she had me sign the back of the reader with a sharpie.  Very cool.  I wonder if this will become a trend.