Q] Welcome Fantasy Book Critic Bryce, Thank you for your time. Can you tell us how the inception of this SPFBO Champion themed special editions came to be?

Bryce: Well I was told I’m being paid one BILLION dollars to be here, so I decided it was worth the hour. NOW SUFFER MY PRESENCE, MWAHAHAHAHA.

Ahem… Anyway.

So these themed special editions for the SPFBO Champions was something conceived in partnership with ML Wang and several members of the Wraithmarked team while on a retreat in November of last year. I’d been wanting to do some very colorful, art-oriented projects, and while the these editions aren’t exactly a true manifestation of that idea, they were definitely spawned from it. The diorama idea spun quickly off of that, and then it was just a matter of getting Rob’s permission, then Mark’s blessing, which took about 15min and 24hrs respectively, so a BIG ‘Thank you!’ to both of them!

From there, nailing the artist down happened quickly. I had Tom Jilesen in mind even as the idea of coming to fruition, and we have been VERY lucky to have him on board the whole way through!

Finally, of course, is the campaign itself, which is largely handled by Eira and Heather and the rest of my awesome team.

Q] Was the choice of going with Sword Of Kaigen & Where Loyalties Lie as the first two books a choice or coincidence with regards to the chronological nature of the wins?

Bryce: It was a choice born from coincidence, believe it or not! I’m lucky enough to count both ML and Rob as friends in real life, so not only were they the people I had the easiest access to (especially with ML sitting next to me at the time of conception) but both of their books were and continue to be very popular in their own right.

So in short, I thought they were the most likely to be able to con into—I mean convince to be a part of the project, and I thought their books were very likely to help us come out of the gate SWINGING.

Oh and also… I mean… pirate vs. samurai? Who ISN’T gonna jump at a chance to work on a project like that!

Q] The covers are absolutely gorgeous, did you have any input or did you let your designing team take the lead?

Bryce: We’re incredibly lucky on so many levels with these covers. Shawn T. King’s amazing design work is such a consistently heavy-hitting element of the Wraithmarked brand for one thing, but for another the art for these projects lined up so well. Not only was Tom Jilesen(‘Yil-sehn’, by the way, not ‘Jile-son’, like I thought for a year) immediately down to do the project, but he’s an incredible art direct in his own right who reads every book thoroughly before doing any work on an edition. 

Add that to the fact that both ML and Rob are ALSO skilled at guiding art in the right direction, and you end up with the Avengers of art and art direction. This was actually the first project Wraithmarked did that I really had almost no input on the covers at all, and holy SH*T could I not be more okay with that!

Q] What can you tell us about 2025 Kickstarter now that the 250K barrier has been breached. Which two titles might we be seeing? Any clues?

Bryce: Ahahaha! Unfortunately at this time I can only repeat that we have two titles lined up for 2025, which we’ll get working on as SOON as contracts are finalized for both of them.

If everything goes to plan, though… some readers are gonna be less inclined to eat ham during the holiday season 😁

Q] Thank you Bryce for your insight. Before we let you go, what are you currently reading?

Bryce: I’m Rereading BOBIVERSE! If you haven’t checked it out before, DO IT! It’s so much fun, it’s so smart, and it’s SO funny! It’s my third time rereading it, and I always find more to live about it!