Fantasy Book Critic: SPFBO Champions' League Interview: Michael McClung, the Author of The Thief Who Pulled on Trouble's Braids

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Michael McClung was born in San Antonio, Texas, but now lives in Europe. He has had the requisite number of odd jobs expected of a speculative fiction author, including soldier, book store manager, and bowling alley pin boy. His first book, the Sword & Sorcery novel "Thagoth," won the Del Rey Digital first novel competition in 2002 and was published by Random House in 2003.

First of all - congratulations! You already conquered SPFBO once, which means you’ve been scientifically certified as Awesome. But now… it’s time for the Champions' League. One winner to rule them all. Ten champions enter, one leaves with eternal bragging rights (and maybe a trophy if Mark can source one).

Before the games begin, we’d love to hit you with 10 questions:

Looking back to when you entered SPFBO, did you ever imagine your book would take the top spot? What made you take the plunge and submit?

SPFBO has become an institution over the last decade, but that first year, to me at least, it was simply “Hey, Mark Lawrence is doing a cool thing. Might as well throw my hat in the ring.” I hoped Trouble’s Braids would do well, of course, but there wasn’t the same kind of… weight, I guess, to entering that fist year.

How has life changed since winning SPFBO? More book sales? Wild parties? Paparazzi at your grocery store?

Without a doubt, the SPFBO my book(s) in front of thousands of readers who likely would not have read them otherwise. No paparazzi yet, and the wild parties have been, uh, unrelated to literature.

Many champions talk about the pressure of following up a winning book. Did you feel that? How did it shape your next projects (if at all)?

I feel pressure every time I sit down to write, but it doesn’t have much to do with the SPFBO win. At this point the Amra Thetys series has five books (six if you count The Last God), and I’ve been struggling to finish the latest one for far, far too long. Life sometimes throws things at you, and you can only have faith that the words will flow once more when you come to the place in life where they are meant to.

There are nearly 3,000 SPFBO entries out there. What, in your opinion, helped your book climb to the top?

Readers really enjoyed spending time with Amra. The intimacy that a first person narrative provides, when the character has things to say and says them in an interesting way, is something I’ve always loved about hardboiled detective fiction. Few Sword and Sorcery stories, barring the Vlad Taltos series, were written in first person at the time I was writing Trouble’s Braids (and by the way, Amra existed before Locke Lamora, thank-you-very-much), and it just seemed right to tell the story from inside her head. It would have been a different, less interesting story in third person.

Imagine your main character finds out they’re competing in the Champions' League. Are they thrilled? Terrified? Confused? Demanding a rewrite?

Amra’s response would be something on the order of “Kerf’s wrinkled ball sack, this nonsense again?”

Every author has that “this is never going to work” moment. Did you? How did you push through and keep writing?

Last week I deleted everything I’d written on the latest Amra book, The Thief who Wanted More. I’ve been working on and off on it for years. I’ve started again from scratch, and that’s okay. The thing that has allowed me to write the books that I have is the belief that you don’t fail until you quit.

Apart from your own novel, is there a past SPFBO book (any year, any entry – doesn’t have to be a winner or a finalist) you’d hype up to readers - maybe one you loved or thought deserved more of the spotlight?

Oh, there are too many excellent books to count. If I got started I would be here all day, and would still end up forgetting someone worthy and feel bad about it. I’ve gotten huge amounts of reading enjoyment out of books that have come to my attention via the SPFBO.

What’s the project currently on your desk - and is it behaving, or making you question all your life choices?

None of my WIPs are behaving. Thanks for reminding me.

What’s one piece of writing advice you completely ignore - and one you swear by?

I ignore the idea of not editing as you go. Especially at the beginning of a project, it allows me to slow down and feel my way into the story. As for one I agree with, it is to read widely, and not only in the genre you want to write in.

Win or lose, your book’s in the top 10 of nearly 3,000. But personally, what would be your proudest writing achievement - published or still locked away on your hard drive?

There’s s short story I wrote that I am very proud of, though nobody else seems to have been especially impressed with it—“All the World a Grave.” I’m proud of it not because it is the best short story ever, but because it is the closest I’ve ever come to putting on paper exactly what was in my head, if that make sense.

Thanks so much for the opportunity to blather on about writing!