The latest author up for interview is James Swallow whose work, perhaps more than any other author interviewed so far, spans a wide field of SF favourites: Star Trek, Doctor Who, Stargate and Blake’s 7.
James has written four Warhammer 40,000 books, Blood Angels : Deus Sanguinius. Blood Angels: Deus Encarmine, the Sisters of Battle novel Faith and Fire, and the fourth part of the Horus Heresy seires, The Flight of the Eisenstein.
This interview barely does more than give an overview of all James’ work. If you want to know more, he has his own website, a blog and a moblog.
Flight of the Eisenstein. How did you go about researching and devise the storyline?
Well, the broad strokes of the storyline were already there, all the core elements of the plot were part of the original Horus Heresy mythology – Garro refuses to turn, steals the ship, gets lost in the warp, rescued by Dorn, goes to Terra – and when the chance to write for the HH series came up, it was the story I wanted to write because it has a ready-made structure and it goes off on its own among all the massive events of the conflict.
What I liked about the Eisenstein plot is that it’s essentially a very “small” story (certainly in comparison to the events of the first three books), really it’s just about one guy – Nathaniel Garro – and how he is changed by the events of the Heresy. This small story reflects the big one of Horus’s betrayal of the Emperor, because it’s Garro being betrayed by his Legion and his primarch. I liked the idea of this one man facing up to the most shattering experience of his life and finding a way though it, while still remaining true to his honour.
I went back through all the old rulebooks and fiction gathering as much as I could find about the Death Guard, Garro, the Heresy, and so on, and picked out all the elements that I could use – part of the problem was that all the different versions of those events disagreed with each other! In the end, I mixed what is “known” about Garro and the Eisenstein with new story elements I created, so readers who think they know the story will see some things they expect and some things they don’t.
Did you enjoy working within the limits set by previous writers?
It’s always a challenge to work “inside the box” and still create a good story, but that’s part and parcel of working in a universe you haven’t invented yourself. I was helped by the fact the Dan, Graham and Ben did a good job setting things up in the opening trilogy.
How different was it to write 30K compared to 40K? Are there lots of nuances that you try to work in?
The tone of the Heresy era was something we discussed in great detail at the initial meeting about the books, and we’ve gone on to strengthen it in the months that followed. In a lot of ways, it’s more hopeful than the 40K era (at least at first!) and there’s a sense of grandeur in the 30K era that’s much grimmer and darker 10,000 years later.
How did you become a professional writer and how much of a struggle was it to become one?
I started writing stuff in my teens and got the idea that I might be able to do it for a living after I wrote articles for fanzines and the like. Eventually, I made the jump to getting paid for writing articles, and in turn that led me to writing fiction and scripts. It was a struggle, because writing is one of those things you have to do for a while before you can be sure if you’re actually any good at it, and in the early days when I had a normal job I’d be up all night writing my stuff and then falling asleep at work during the day! It’s not an easy road to travel, but it has been a rewarding one. I wouldn’t give it up for anything. Come April, I’ll have been working as a writer full-time for nearly ten years. I’ve been writing professionally (as in earning money from it) since 1989.
You started writing for fanzines, what were they?
Nothing that remarkable, really! A few Star Trek fan publications and early anime and manga zines like Anime UK and Cajun Sushi.
It sounds like you are a life-long SF fan. What hidden classics would you recommend we watch or read?
I don’t know about “hidden” classics, but there’s certainly a lot of great stuff out there. Some of my favourite books are; Stand on Zanzibar (John Brunner), Neuromancer (William Gibson), The Forever War (Joe Haldeman), Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card), The Diamond Age (Neal Stephenson), The Player of Games (Iain M. Banks), The Man in the High Castle (Phillip K. Dick).
What did you do before you became a writer?
I worked in an industrial laboratory. Not the cool cloning-dinosaurs, making-bioweapons or building-cyclotrons type, sadly.
Describe your working day: how many words do you write, do you set yourself targets, do you work on more than one book at a time?
I do a nine-to-six day with an hour for lunch, typically six days a week. Depending on the project, I set a daily work target that I have to hit based on deadlines and so on. I tend to concentrate on one project at a time, although sometimes I’ll do some small pieces (short stories, articles, that kind of thing) to break up a larger work, like a novel or script.
What do you find the hardest and what the easiest part of the craft?
Hardest – maintaining the right level of self-discipline and not getting bore-sighted on the work. Easiest – being my own boss.
Who are or were the biggest influences on your writing?
The list is long; off the top of my head I’d say Philip K. Dick, William Gibson, Robert Heinlein, Arthur C. Clarke, Joe Haldeman, Iain M. Banks, Masamune Shirow, Alan Moore, Larry Niven, John Brunner, Alfred Bester… And those are just the prose writers.
Could you give us a couple of examples of how the ideas for books came about? For example, do you pitch ideas to BL, do they approach you with a brief? Do ideas spring fully formed into your mind, or do they build over time?
My first BL books were the Blood Angels duology and I wanted to write them because I was fascinated by their dual natures – noble heroes with this terrible dark side to them - and also because they were the only First Founding chapter that hadn’t appeared in novels. I pitched two ideas at first; one was a regular sort of “marines on a planet fight chaos” story and the other was this big widescreen epic about the second coming of Sanguinius and a civil war in the chapter. My editor Lindsey Priestly immediately went for the big story, but with one change. “It’s too big for one book,” she said, “Can you make it two?”
The inspiration for the Deus novels came from reading the old Angels of Death codex and the artwork of Sanguinius. I started thinking; “What if he came back from the dead?” and the story evolved from there.
With Faith & Fire, my Sisters of Battle novel, the inspiration came from a throwaway line in another codex. My original story idea for that book was eventually superseded by a different one, and in the case of F&F I was asked specifically to pit the Sisters against an evil psyker, although BL gave me complete freedom to build the story around that villain any way I wanted to.
I find that the original “lightning bolt” idea acts as the core of a story, and as you work on it, it acts like a magnet, drawing in plot elements until you have a complete arc from beginning to end.
What are your emotional high and low points in novel writing cycle?
I’ve found there’s always a lull at the 25% and 75% marks when you get a bit tired, but then there’s the half-way rush when you think “Wow! I’m half done!” and then the euphoria of the final straight when everything starts coming together.
How would you describe yourself as an author? I guess here I’m trying to find out if you work (or would like to work) across different forms: like comics, game, plays, screenplays or anything else?
I write books (mostly fiction at the moment) and scripts (TV, audio and videogames), with a little bit of journalism thrown in. I’d love to have a go at writing for theatre or for comics, or maybe try writing a novel in a different genre (an espionage thriller, maybe…)
Tell us more. Which TV and audio shows and what games?
I wrote two stories for Star Trek Voyagerand because of that I remain the only British writer to have worked on a Star Trek TV show. I’ve written audio dramas for Doctor Who, Judge Dredd, Space 1889 and Blake’s 7. In games I’ve worked on Star Trek Invasion, Battlestar Galactica, Killzone II, Maelstrom and a couple of others I can’t talk about yet for contractual reasons.
That begs other questions. How does it feel, as a scriptwriter, to hand over your cherished words to someone else to play with/mess up? Is it hard to take after the control you exert on novels?
There is a bit of a wrench when you give your work to other folks and then have to sit back and watch them take over. It can be a daunting experience for a writer, because you live and breathe your scripts while you’re writing them, and then you hand them over to someone else who may have a very different take on things; but I’ve learned to embrace it and trust the other guys to do what they do best. An actor comes in and puts their energy on a character, and suddenly it’s something bigger than just words on a page – then a director adds their skill to it, and so on.
Are you writing any other books for different publishers or genres? Is there a hidden masterpiece you have been working on for years?
I recently wrote a Stargate Atlantis novel called Halcyon and I have a Stargate SG-1 novel called Relativity due out at the end of the year. I’ve also been doing some Doctor Who short fiction for the Short Trips series in Dalek Empire and the forthcoming Destination Prague (edited by my fellow BL writer Steve Saville) and Snapshots anthologies. I also have a story appearing in the Star Trek: The Next Generation collection The Sky’s The Limit and next year I’m doing a Deep Space Nine novel.
Now the McCarthyite question. 40K and Warhammer WFB. Were or are you a fan or player?
Never played WFB, but I did dabble in the early Rogue Trader days of 40K. I had an army of the original plastic Space Marines and some Eldar. These days, sadly I don’t have enough free time to field an army…
40K. Of all the different warrior races which do you find the hardest to establish as characters and which are the easiest? Did you have to adjust your writing style to make it work for BL?
I’ve only written humans in 40K, although the characters of the Blood Angels, Death Guard and Doom Eagles all differ, as do the Adepta Sororitas. Each of them have their own challenges, but no one is easier or harder to write.
My writing style tends to be action-led, so I like to think it’s a good fit with the grim glamour of 40K’s war-torn future.
Would you ever be tempted to write WFB fiction?
I’ve never been that enticed by fantasy, but I wouldn’t rule out the possibility. If a great idea struck me for a WFB novel, I’d do it.
What other work do you have underway?
Outside of books, I’ve written some of the new Blake’s 7 audio series and I have a couple of other projects in the works, but they’re under contract at the moment and I can’t talk about them.
Books. Who is your favourite writer, which one has influenced your writing the most and who are you reading at the moment?
Favourite writers I pretty much covered in one of my earlier answers. Right this moment I’ve got a bunch of stuff on the go, book-wise. I’ve got a handful of tie-in novels from other universes, some scripts and a couple of non-fiction books. I’m just about to start Old Man’s War by John Scalzi, which I’ve heard a lot of good things about.
What do you think is the most common misconception of a writer’s life?
It’s a tie between “Your job is so easy” and “You must earn loads of money”. Neither one is true, and anyone who wants to become a writer because they think they are is in for a real shock!
Do you have an agent? If so, how does that work and how important is it to you?
I don’t have an agent, never have done. I know writers who do and writers who don’t, some who have done well from agents and some who have been badly burned by them. I don’t think you need an agent to have a career – I’m living proof of that – but a good one certainly can help.
Any practical advice for aspiring BL writers?
Number one: Write every day, even if it’s just a little bit, even if you look at it the next day and hate it. Writing is like a muscle - the more you use it, the stronger it gets.
Number two: Finish what you start. I can’t stress this one enough. If you can’t finish a story, you are wasting everybody’s time. No one wants you to write half a story, just like no one wants a chef to half-cook their dinner. Finish it. Then go write something else.
Number three (and this is the BL-specific one): Don’t bury yourself in the universe. Remember you are writing a story, not a rulebook. Tell a tale with drama and action, not a battle report or something that’s built around some obscure point of background.
When you become Evil Overlord for the day, what rule would you impose on the genre (apart from giving yourself a lifetime’s worth of novels to write)?
I’d make literary snobbery punishable by execution. I’d ban anyone from using the internet who can’t pass an IQ test and show a degree of demonstrable social skills.
- James Swallow was interviewed by Martin Belderson
