Q. Welcome Ted, and thanks for taking the time to interview, I know
you have a busy schedule. By way of introduction, can you tell me a
little about yourself and your background?
A. I really appreciate
you having me here, Sam. As you can see from the picture with my two
sons, I grew up in Arizona. I split time living in Tucson and Phoenix. I
always had a love for history, which gave me the travel bug since I
wanted to experience some of the places I read about in history books,
so that led to me joining the Foreign Service and spending most of the
past 22 years overseas. I miss America, but I'm glad to get to see so
much of the world. So far I've lived in Russia, Croatia, China, Iceland,
Hungary, and Azerbaijan, and I would like to add a few more to that
list before I retire.
In Russia I met my wife,
and we've been married for twenty years now. Our two sons are teens, so
we're in that stage of worrying about them heading off to college. The
younger one shares my enjoyment of writing, while both of them are
talented musically, which is something I only found out about myself
quite late. Besides writing and music, I'm really into playing chess, so
I have always chosen to be stationed in countries with strong chess
traditions.
Q. So how did you get involved with writing? Were
you one of those who had a story nagging in the back of your mind for
years on end, or are you a prolific daydreamer with several ideas on
hand at any given moment?
A. Both! I never thought I would
actually write novels, even though I liked the thought of doing it. It
seemed so hard! And it is. But the stories just wouldn't go away. Like
you said, they kept nagging at my mind and the details kept expanding,
until it reached a point where I felt I had no choice and I started
typing one out. At first it was just the one story (which became The
Shard, my second release), but now the ideas just keep coming, and I
struggle to figure out which one to write next simply because there are
so many exciting ideas I want to work on.
Q. Tell me about your
books. Last year you released The Immortality Game, a sci-fi thriller
that has received some great reviews. How did you decide to set the
story in 22nd century Moscow?
A. Since living for four years in
Moscow in the 1990's, I had really wanted to write a mafia thriller set
there, because the Russian mafia was an everyday part of life at that
time. But an actual story never quite came together for me. Later when I
had some intriguing sci-fi ideas, I realized I could write my mafia
story if I moved it into the future. The technology level of my sci-fi
ideas was relatively near future, but I wanted to show a societal
collapse that took decades to overcome, so I chose 2138 as a date that
gave me enough time for society to be piecing itself back together again
after the collapse.
Q. Your newest release, The Shard, is high
fantasy through and through. If I am not mistaken, you refer to it as
kind of a throwback to D&D, but with a grittier feel. What does this
novel bring to the table for fantasy readers?
A. I think
superficially many readers will think it doesn't offer anything new, as
they will see the obvious features of elves, dwarves, wizards and
dragons and roll their eyes and say it's just another Tolkien clone. And
if that's their take, then so be it, the book isn't really meant for
them. To me there really is a new element to my story. I grew up during
the huge Dungeons & Dragons craze of the 1980's (at least that was
when it hit hard in Tucson). I loved the setting and wanted to explore
it in every detail. However, the reading side of D&D never satisfied
me. I know a lot of readers love the official D&D books, but for me
they were sort of superficial, treating D&D like a game and giving
us protagonists who were more like superheroes than actual people. What I
wanted was to read D&D books that treated the subject seriously, as
if someone like George RR Martin were writing them. But no one ever
did.
Now writing a first novel is always a
learning experience, as I'm sure you know, so I'll never claim that my
first novel The Shard is an important work within the genre. It's a
first novel and I learned a lot from writing it. I still enjoy the story
after all these years (I finished writing it in 2009), and my younger
son has read it four times, so it accomplished what I set out to do,
which was to finally see at least one story written in a D&D-type
setting that treats it like real life.
Q. Since we mentioned the subject of D&D. Would you be willing to name your all-time favorite race or class to play as?
A. I
always preferred to play humans. And I think that speaks to novels in
general, where we can write about other races like elves and dwarves,
but generally you will still see the protagonists be human (whith
notable exceptions like Drizzt). It's because readers need to identify
with the protagonists, and it's much easier for them to do so when they
can closely relate to them.
Q. Let's discuss your future
projects. Are you planning to write sequels to The Shard? Do you have
more fantasy novels in the works? Do you envision yourself sticking with
fantasy and sci-fi, or will you ever step away from those genres?
A. As
I said earlier, I'm torn between a number of book ideas. Right now I
have two fully fleshed outlines, one for a far-future sci-fi that I feel
has the potential to be a real hit, and another that is a prequel to
The Shard. I also have several sketchier outlines for sequels to The
Shard. I never wanted to write a traditional series. I always wanted to
write stand alone novels, but also have them be within the same universe
so there could be some continuity. In the end I imagine I'll have two
to three more books set in the Known Lands of The Shard, and at least a
couple more sci-fi novels. Given how each novel I've written has bred
more ideas, I'm sure that I'll never lack for inspiration.
I
doubt I'll write outside of science fiction and fantasy. I do have a
great idea for a historical fiction novel, but in today's world I think
it would be dangerous to write a story that plays with religious themes
in a controversial way, so I don't think I'll ever actually write that
one.
Q. Thanks again for sharing some of your time. I know I
already have a copy of The Shard, and I encourage others to go out and
grab it as well. For those who would like to know more about you and
your books, where can they go?
