I think about that famous advice to writers: “Kill your darlings.” The point being that the ideas you’re most precious about are the ones least likely to fit into your story and most likely to derail it. But I thought: “What if your story is ALL darlings? And what if, instead of killing them, you put all your darlings in a blender and turn them into a delicious darling-smoothy.” Okay, technically, probably, this would also kill your darlings. But, hey! Smoothy!

Drew Melbourne – 14 August 2019

The Back Flap

The year is 20018. The famed magician Illuminari is dead, and his greatest illusion has died with him. Dark forces now seek the Engine of Armageddon, the ancient, sentient doomsday weapon that Illuminari hid amongst the stars.

Enter Percival Gynt, accountant and part-time hero, whose quest to find the Engine before it falls into the wrong hands may be our universe’s last best hope for survival. It is a quest that will take him from the highest reaches of power to the lowest pits of despair and through every manner of horror and absurdity between.

But beware. This accountant has a secret. A secret that may damn us all.

About the book

What is the book about?

Percival Gynt and the Conspiracy of Days is a sci-fi/fantasy adventure novel full of swashbuckling, math, dark secrets, space-faeries, obtrusive product placement, Nazis, beating up those Nazis, unlimited baked beans, zombie cyborg assassins, fate with a capital “F,” love, betrayal, wizards, jokes, paradoxes, a sentient doomsday weapon, eleven-dimensional space, clones, monsters, space-nuns, and at least one rat-chef.

(Only one rat-chef.)

It’s the story of one man’s quest to save the universe and what happens when he fails.

When did you start writing the book?

Waaay back in 2007! I’d originally thought that I might do Conspiracy as a comic book series. (I’d done a graphic novel called ArchEnemies with Dark Horse Comics the year before.) But I very quickly realized the shape and scope of this new project really demanded that it be a full-on prose novel.

How long did it take you to write it?

Ten years, give or take. Some of those years were certainly more productive than others! At one point, I managed to get a hundred pages written in three months. If only I’d been able to maintain that pace, I’d still be in my thirties!

(Sorry! Just checked with my doctor, and she explained that time doesn’t work like that.)

Where did you get the idea from?

I think about that famous advice to writers: “Kill your darlings.” The point being that the ideas you’re most precious about are the ones least likely to fit into your story and most likely to derail it. But I thought: “What if your story is ALL darlings? And what if, instead of killing them, you put all your darlings in a blender and turn them into a delicious darling-smoothy.” Okay, technically, probably, this would also kill your darlings. But, hey! Smoothy!

I started out with the setting, with starships and sorcery and cosmic horrors and existential absurdities, and then I piled on different characters or moments or random genre bits until I had a story. It was an alternately fun and horrifying process that I imagine might be a little how the writers of Lost felt, except that I could look at the whole thing when finished and rewrite the early chapters to edit out the polar bear.

Were there any parts of the book where you struggled?

Absolutely. Ten years is a long time to write and reread and rethink all the elements of the story you’re putting together. For instance, Nazis. There are villains in Conspiracy who are essentially Nazis. In some drafts, they were literally Nazis. In others, the word Nazi didn’t even appear. When Charlottesville happened, the anger I felt at what was happening, it really crystallized my thoughts on the subject and my ultimate approach, which is basically: “You may not call yourselves Nazis, but WE know who you are.”

What came easily?

One advantage of taking ten years to write a book is that you get a lot of eureka moments. Say you write a joke, and it’s just OK. But then BANG! EIGHT YEARS LATER: BETTER JOKE! And I’m obviously being glib here, but it’s absolutely true, and it’s not just about the jokes. It applies to dialogue and character descriptions, to motivations and story beats. I don’t want to imply that it all came to me while I was sitting on the toilet. I had a huge, double-sided white board at one point that looked like the conspiracy board from Homeland started doing shrooms. But there is nothing quite like walking to the store and randomly solving a problem that you had three years ago.

Are your characters entirely fictitious or have you borrowed from real world people you know?

I think this is where I’m supposed to nod and say, “Oh yes! The surly three-armed alien police officer is totally based on my Uncle John.” But no. This is not one of those novels.

We all know how important it is for writers to read. Are there any particular authors that have influenced how you write and, if so, how have they influenced you?

Douglas Adams, of course, and that sense that any place as vast and varied as THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE must have its share of whimsy and absurdity. In Hitchhiker’s, I think it’s up for debate how seriously you’re meant to take everything, but when I first read those books as a boy, I remember thinking that they were absolutely ridiculous AND absolutely deadly serious, and whether that was Adams’ intent or not, that’s a sensibility that I’ve carried with me ever since. That something can be silly and terrifying and heartbreaking and wondrous all at the same time.

And Neil Gaiman was a big influence on Conspiracy too. The darker moments, the ones verging almost into horror. The more mythic moments. And his storyteller’s voice. One of my favorite things about reading Gaiman’s books, and again it might just be my individual perception of them, is that they always feel as if Neil is right there beside me, telling me the story himself. It’s not an invisible, impartial narrator. It’s Neil, with all his wit and his charm and his kindness. And I don’t know if that’s intentional on his part, but in writing Conspiracy I made a concerted effort to replicate that feeling. That you are being told a story by a really engaging storyteller.

(Lest people think I’m calling myself “a really engaging storyteller,” I should clarify that in Conspiracy, I consider the narrator a character outside the narrative, but within the universe of the book. It is not, mostly for legal reasons, Neil Gaiman’s head in a Futurama-style jar.)

Also—and I apologize because I know my answer is already too long and too boring at this point—I have to credit one of my favorite comic book writers, Keith Giffen, whose work on Legion of Super-Heroes and Justice League in the late 80s had an indelible impact on me.

Do you have a target reader?

This is a book for smart teen and adult sci-fi fans who don’t mind mixing some sorcery with their startships or some comedy with their high adventure. If you’re a fan of Doctor Whootchhiker’s Guidians of the Galactic Readyshirts Player Omens Saga: The Pragnarok Bride, you should enjoy Conspiracy of Days.

About Writing

Do you have a writing process? If so can you please describe it?

I’ve never been a “sit down and write for four hours every day” guy. That would have been easier! I write in fits and starts. I’ll have massively productive days and then days or weeks where I’m stuck on a scene or a sentence or a choice of word.

Why this works is that I carry my stories around with me. If I’m on a bus or standing in line at the bank or trying to get to sleep at night, I’m working on the story.

For a long time, I felt self-conscious about that. Like I was a lazy writer with a lazy process. But then I read a copy of Russell T Davies’ A Writer’s Tale, where he lays out his own writing process in almost the exact same terms.

It made me feel better, for sure, but it also underscored for me that everybody has their own process and there’s no one right way to write a book.

Do you outline? If so, do you do so extensively or just chapter headings and a couple of sentences?

It’s a combination. My original notes for Conspiracy laid out the broad strokes of who the main players were, where the story was going, and even some of the specific moments or dialogue exchanges that I wanted to hit along the way. But there was definitely a process of discovery in the writing. Those were some of my favorite moments! Starting a new chapter knowing where I was going to end up, but not being sure how I was going to get there.

Do you edit as you go or wait until you’ve finished?

Yes.

Did you hire a professional editor?

I’m blessed to have a talented editor in the family.

Do you listen to music while you write? If yes, what gets the fingers tapping?

Nothing with lyrics, for sure. That’s way too distracting. Sometimes I’ll play orchestral soundtracks, but that’s more if I need to tune out background noise than for inspiration. I have a curated mix of music that I use for that purpose that pulls from Lord of the Rings, John Williams’ Harry Potter, Star Trek (2009), Coraline, and Murray Gold’s Doctor Who.

About Publishing

Did you submit your work to Agents?

I did. I was pretty sure I wanted to self-publish, but there were a few agents that I reached out to who I would have been happy to work with if they were interested/available.

What made you decide to go Indie, whether self-publishing or with an indie publisher? Was it a particular event or a gradual process?

Well, I come from comics, which has a long and proud tradition of self-publishing. When I did my graphic novel, ArchEnemies, I worked with a great editor at Dark Horse named Philip Simon, but a lot of that project was already in place when I brought it to Philip. I’d already assembled the team, set the direction of the artwork, the lettering and the logo, etc. I built out a website, established a social media presence, created a lot of crazy content that appeared in the back of the comics and online. I felt empowered to tell the story I wanted to tell without compromise. And that’s the feeling I get when I self-publish.

Did you get your book cover professionally done or did you do it yourself?

I did it myself. As I eluded to above, one of the wonderful perks of self-publishing over traditional publishing is that you actually have control over what appears on your book’s cover! I had a vision for what I wanted and thankfully some background in graphic design to make it happen.

Do you have a marketing plan for the book or are you just winging it?

I had a plan, but like a lot of first-time self-publishers, there was a lot I still didn’t know and honestly am still figuring out. I learn new things every day! I think the correct lesson is advanced research and planning is great, but you also need to be able to improvise and course correct as you go.

Any advice that you would like to give to other newbies considering becoming Indie authors?

Don’t rush to publish. Build your brand on social media. Build up excitement for your book. Look for opportunities to promote your release across traditional media. And, of course, make sure your book is ready. A great cover matters. A great editor matters. Line up reviews. Do interviews. And when you’ve finally got all your ducks in a row, then pull the trigger.

And then don’t beat your self up because there are a thousand things you forgot to do or didn’t get to. Keep going. Keep working it. It’s a marathon, not a print.

About You

Where did you grow up?

Upper Darby, PA. Just outside Philadelphia.

Where do you live now?

After a long stint in New York City, I’m back in the Philadelphia suburbs, in the town of Springfield, Pennsylvania, with my wife, our son Sam, and our two cats Leia and Ninja.

What would you like readers to know about you?

First and foremost, I am a geek. I love Doctor Who and Miyazaki movies and comic books and Dungeons & Dragons and Douglas Adams and Neil Gaiman and The Princess Bride. (The movie AND the book!) I met my wife at bar screening Star Trek episodes.

What are you working on now?

A couple of things:

I’ve been writing a series of short stories under the banner “The Other Stories of Percival Gynt” hosted at drewmelbourne.com/otherstories. These stories are set in the years before Conspiracy and can be enjoyed either before or after reading the novel. There are several stories up now, including “Percival Gynt and the Lack of Clocks,” with new stories added every eight weeks or so.

I’ve also been working on my next novel, the first in a YA series that delves into a particular corner of mythology that has yet to see the YA treatment. Given my track record, look for it sometime late summer of 2029.

End of Interview:

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Get your copy of Percival Gynt and the Conspiracy of Days from Amazon US or Amazon UK.