Fantasy Book Critic: October 2024

Like many, I came to writing by way of TTRPGs. I was always the GM (control freak much?) and loved creating my own worlds and stories. It’s kinda funny. We never played pre-made campaigns/adventures because I didn’t have the attention span to read them through and hated the limitations, but I was entirely happy to spend weeks building worlds. This eventually led me to trying my hand at writing short stories back in the 90s. I never did anything with them, never tried to submit them to magazines. Writing seemed like an impossible dream, not to be taken seriously.

Something broke in me somewhere around 2007 and I decided I was going to write a novel. I’d tried before and found it too much work but this time I was going to damned well finish it. Oh, stubbornness might be my superpower. That novel was published in 2013 by a Canadian micropress called Five Rivers and was later self-published as Ghosts of Tomorrow. I took everything I learned during the writing and editing of that novel and threw it into my second book, Beyond Redemption, which was published by Harper Voyager in 2015.

Since then, I’ve published 14 novels, been an SPFBO finalist twice, and won an r/Fantasy STABBY award for best self-published novel. The STABBY dagger is crazy cool and lives on my desk alongside my toy cars, obsidian knife, and assorted guitar picks. Don’t ask.

These days I spend most of my time at the dining room table hunched over a shitty little laptop banging out my weird little stories.

Who are your favorite current writers and who are your greatest influencers?

I don’t read much these days. Every time I pick up a book that little demon on my left shoulder whispers, “You should be writing, you lazy fuck.” And then I go back to working on my next book.

Here are the last books which really blew me away: Children of Time (Adrian Tchaikovsky), Legacy of the Brightwash (Krystle Matar), Master Assassins (Robert V.S. Redick), Miss Percy's Pocket Guide to the Care and Feeding of British Dragons (Quenby Olson).

My single biggest influence would be Michael Moorcock. I read the Stormbringer books when I was thirteen and they stuck in my brain. Anti-heroes were immediately so much more interesting than heroes. Even when I try and write heroic fantasy, my characters turn out deeply flawed. It’s not something I think about or pan, I just can’t help it!

Can you lead us through your creative process? What works and doesn’t work for you? How long do you need to finish a book?

First, I have far more book ideas than I will ever have time to write. What a lot of people don’t get is that the ideas are the easy part. The number of messages I get from folks offering me their ideas (as long as I split the profits 50/50 with them after I’ve written the book) is hilarious. I always tell them, “No, I don’t want to hear the idea. Write the book yourself.” Oddly, they never do.

I have a couple of basic rules when it comes to creativity. First, I never write my ideas down. I’m not one of those people with a notepad beside the bed. If I can’t remember an idea the next day, it wasn’t that good. In fact, that’s how I choose which idea to pursue. If a story is still bugging me months later, that’s the one that gets my attention. Is this a great and profitable way to decide what to write? Nope! But it keeps me happy and sane, and those things are nice, even if you can’t trade them for groceries.

The other basic rule is “always throw out your first idea.” The first idea is the easy one, the lazy one. The easy and lazy ideas have been done to death.

When it comes to the actual writing process, I’m a plantser. There’s probably a better word. I’m somewhere between a pantser (no planning, writes ‘by-the-seat-of-their-pants), and a planner (works out every detail, beat, plot point in advance). I typically have an idea how the book will end but am not wedded to it. If the ending changes, that’s fine. I like to plot three chapters and then write them. I read them over, see where the story wants to go next, and plot the next three chapters. Rinse and repeat until everyone is dead or the world has been destroyed. Oh, shit! I am a grimdark writer!

I can finish a garbagey first draft of 100,000 words in about three months. It takes another three months to polish, edit and rewrite stuff to the point where I think it might not be utter dreck. Eight editing passes later I send it to my test-readers and tell them it’s the first draft.

How would you describe the plot of The Storm Beneath the World if you had to do so in just one or two sentences?

Children of Time meets Blood Song.

What subgenres does it fit?

I have no idea! I don’t think about genre when writing, I’m simply trying to tell a story to the best of my ability. To me, it feels too small to be epic fantasy. While dark in places, the characters are doing their best to save their home; so, it’s not grimdark. The characters also lack the confidence of purpose so common in heroic fantasy (and, for the most part, they’re not terribly heroic anyway). Is there a fantasy genre that mostly takes place in magic schools? I’d prolly call it that.

How did you come up with the title and how does it tie in with the plot of the book?

Like your typical fantasy novel, the book takes place in the upper atmosphere of a mega gas giant world. The characters live on the backs of colossal floating creatures that follow the air currents. When they look over the side of the island, they see the hellish depths of the lower atmosphere. It is literally a storm beneath their world.

In this case however there’s a bit of a double meaning. The things the characters learn at their magic schools forever change their understanding of both their civilization and the greater world around them. A storm of change, building from the lowest ranks of society, is going to sweep away the old world.

What inspired you to write this story? Was there one “lightbulb moment” when the concept for this book popped into your head or did it develop over time?

Like I mentioned earlier, this is the idea that stuck with me. It first popped into my head back in 2017. I was in the middle of writing some other book (I think it was Ash and Bones) and didn’t have time to pursue it. At some point in 2019 I started making world-building notes and fleshing out the magic system. I didn’t start writing until 2021 after Clayton and I finished Norylska Groans. I finished it in 2022 and then my agent spent a year and a half shopping it to publishers. Despite a lot of lovely feedback, they all passed. A common response was something along the lines of ‘we don’t know how to sell this.’ Writing a book that didn’t fit into a nice genre slot was a brilliant idea. Way to go Mike!

When it became obvious the book wasn’t going to land a publishing deal, I self-published it in 2024 to fairly astounding reviews.

If you had to describe the story in 3 adjectives, which would you choose?

Damaged. Lost. Striving.

Would you say that The Storm Beneath the World follows tropes or kicks them?

Damn. I dunno. I never think about tropes.

I can say that I don’t attempt to write to tropes, but that doesn’t mean people won’t find them. I can also say I wasn’t putting effort into busting tropes (though I did poke fun at a couple).

Who are the key players in this story? Could you introduce us to The Storm Beneath the World protagonists/antagonists?

I’d rather the readers discover them without foreknowledge. That’s the best way to go into any book. Frankly, I’ve already spilled too much.

Have you written The Storm Beneath the World with a particular audience in mind?

I tend to write for adults, for people who can handle and understand mature themes. That said, with this one, I think I wrote something that the YA market could appreciate. It wasn’t quite intentional.

Alright, we need the details on the cover. Who's the artist/designer, and can you give us a little insight into the process for coming up with it?

What a clusterfuck this cover was. The first artist turned in AI generated images and then disappeared. I tossed those and hired Andrew Maleski, who also did the cover for A War to End All (Manifest Delusions #3). He turned in an incredible piece, exactly what I asked for and I love it. Six months later, however, I was getting a lot of feedback that folks were turned off by the cover. It was too strange. I’ve now slug together a more “typical” cover for the ebook though Andrew’s artwork remains on the paperback and hardcover.

My process is always the same. I send the artist a brief description of a scene from the book and then shut things like, “Make it gratuitously cool!” After that, I try and stay out of their way.

What was your proofreading/editing process?

I tend to leave myself a lot of notes/comments while I’m writing. It’ll be stuff like ‘make sure this jives with the previous chapter’ or ‘what colour is this guy’s hair?’ My first editing pass is going through the document and addressing all those comments. I also build a LIST OF CHANGES as I write so as to avoid killing my momentum. These range from major plot points to character backgrounds and world-building details. My second edit pass is addressing those and writing the needed changes. This involves a lot of chapter hopping because any change will have an impact on the rest of the story. After that, I’ll do several read-throughs fixing shitty sentences and looking for egregious errors. My final edit pass is having Word read the novel aloud to me as I read along. This is a great trick for catching those little typos that sneak past.

What are you most excited for readers to discover in this book?

I want the reader to be amazed when they discover they’re relating to these characters, and I hope they find something in each character they can relate to. Much as I love the world and the addiction-based magic system, the story is all about the characters.

When can we expect to read the second book of the duology?

I dunno! Right now, I’m writing a real-world horror novel (with madman Clayton Snyder) and a murder/mystery that takes place in the Obsidian Path world. I’m also finally ready to write the final Obsidian Path novel, completing Khraen’s journey.

Can you, please, offer us a taste of your book, via one completely out-of-context sentence?

“You need to question everything.”