Larry Kollar is an indie author of self described "strange fiction." He's published five books so far with his newest Pickups and Pestilence released just last month. Let's learn more about Larry and his writing...
Q: How long have you been writing and when did you decide to
indie publish? What was the biggest hurdle in going it alone?
A: I first attempted writing a story at age 12, a
"Hardy Boys" knockoff. It didn't get beyond the third chapter, but I
did learn how to type. I wrote short stories from there, and completed a novel
in college (not worth sharing, but it has been good for background info for
Accidental Sorcerers and other stories in this world).
It was around three years ago that I started leaning toward indie, while
finishing White Pickups. One of the best bits of advice out there
now is from Kristen Kathryn Rusch, "treat your writing like a
business." I made the final decision based on time to market: the
traditional route *couldn't* be faster than indie, and it was better to have a
book out and earning a few bucks than to chase an advance that might never
come. The biggest hurdle was finding an editor I could afford, but then I found
a retired editor sitting next to me in the choir loft, and she wanted something
to do. (Score!)
The thing is, there is no "go it alone" if you want to do it right.
I'm currently in a publishing co-op called Green Envy Press, and it's a great
way for writers to pool their skills without a lot of up-front costs.
Q: You published Accidental Sorcerers in
January. Can you explain the idea behind the book? Where did the inspiration
come from?
A: The idea is maybe best expressed by Mik at the end of the
first chapter: "there *are* other kinds of magic." Even in our own
mundane world, there's magic: love, beauty, kindness, and so much else.
The inspiration was a photo that my friend Andi Ferguson
posted on her blog - does it not look
like a dragon skeleton in ice? The blog comment "I'm thinking it's waiting
for an ice spider to give it a skin" crystallized into a story. It became
a flash, then a short story, then a novella.
Q: You plan more books in the series. Can you give us an
idea where the story is headed with these sequels? Also, when do you hope to
release them?
A: Working backwards: the second story, Water and Chaos, is
planned for late May or early June. I'll nail down a release date shortly. The
overarching story is going to follow Mik and Sura as they mature and grow into
full-fledged sorcerers. A minor element in one story may become a larger plot
device in the next, or perhaps the one after. What Mik learns during a mission
in Water and Chaos, leads to the next story, The Sorcerer's Daughter. I can
say, as they grow stronger, so will the challenges!
Q: Last year, you published White Pickups. Can you tell us about the book? When
is its sequel, Pickups and Pestilence, due for release?
A: I hesitate to call White Pickups a paranormal romance,
because the romance elements aren't central to the story. Two love triangles
are only subplots, and the centerpiece of the story is post-apocalyptic. But it
*is* paranormal, and the weirdest apocalypse ever: a small group of people cope
after nearly everyone else disappears into white pickup trucks that take over
the roads. Pickups and Pestilence is slated for an April 25th release, and it
will conclude the story.
Q: What drew you to fantasy as a genre? Do you plan to branch out to other
genres as your career progresses?
A: I was introduced to fantasy in high school, especially
Lord of the Rings, and loved the rich world that Tolkien created. I got the
D&D bug in college, and exposure to lots of other fantasy stories. But it's
the world-building that keeps me interested after all these years. Come up with
the name of a nation, then figure out why it has that name, which leads to
making up a history, implications upon implications. World-building, for me, is
a way to escape this one for a while.
Q: How do you come up with the names for your characters?
A: Good question! Usually they just come to me. In Accidental Sorcerers, I
tried to get a little more procedural about it—male names generally end with
some consonant, and female names with some vowel. But that's not a hard-fast
rule; "Torba" is a common man's name in the North, for example, and
Mik's father's name is Mikhile. Once again, world-building implications can
come into play.
Sometimes, the character demands a name that fits. For
example, I just finished serializing a story about a man named Joab Dower on my
blog. He's as dour as they come, all right.
Q: Chicken or the egg question. Do you create a character and build around
him/her? Or do you imagine a concept and create characters which fit the idea?
A: The two often develop in parallel, but if I had to pick,
I'd say the concept comes first more often. The characters do at times come
first, because they're often the ones telling me the story, but they usually
tell me about the situation before they tell me about themselves.
Q: How do you avoid writing a Mary Sue or Marty Stu when most writers can’t
help falling desperately in love with their creations?
A: Last time I fell in love with a character, she got gutshot
off a guardhouse and bled to death. I knew the relationship she was in wouldn't
last, but had no idea how it would break off. When I finally accepted what had
to happen, I had one of my most productive (and tearful) writing days ever. I
finally compromised, and kept her around as a ghost.
One way to avoid the Mary Sue/Marty Stu character is to have
them seeking adventure or trouble (which are often the same thing). They go
marching into the muddle, and have to figure out how to get across. If it gets
too easy, introduce a wrinkle that they haven't anticipated.
Q: Do you use anything to inspire you while you’re writing? Music, visual aids,
etc? Also have you found ideas come to you more freely in particular places or
at certain times of the day?
A: I often have background music going when I write, usually
electronic instrumental stuff (progressive trance or ambient, for example). The
tempo isn't important, except that it suits my mood. Once I really get into the
story, I'm not paying attention to the music anyway.
Sometimes, sitting outside (when it's warm enough) is
inspirational. A particular pizza joint near my office is a wonderful place,
for some reason—part of it, certainly, is that they know what I like to eat and
drink and make sure I don't run dry. For a while, last month, I was waking up
early in the morning and had the opportunity to write. I usually had at least
one quiet hour before someone else got up. Times and places tend to change, the
trick is to realize it and adjust.
Q: When an idea hits you, do you start writing immediately or plot it out
first?
A: If I'm not working on something else, I'll start writing.
Otherwise, I'll plot out as much as I can, so I can come back to it later.
Q: When you read less than fawning reviews, how do you know when to use the
critique to improve your future writing and when do you chalk up the criticism
as different strokes for different folks?
A: Learning to cope with review in general got much easier after I got a 5* review
and a 3* review by people who both focused on the pacing. One reviewer loved
that I didn't include the boring in-between parts, that I just moved on to the
next adventure; the other thought it read like the highlights in a TV show.
But to actually answering the question. :-) Looking for trends in negative reviews
is helpful. If two or more people are saying the same thing, it's probably
something to look into. I get the feeling that some readers might not have been
paying attention to what they were reading—but then why write a review?
Something has to be there, if you're hearing the same thing from multiple
sources.
Q: I’ve read criticism from particular bloggers (Fangs for the Fantasy being
one) about the lack of people of color and different sexual orientations in
fantasy. Do you take this lack of diversity into consideration when creating
plots and characters?
A: I'm trying, I really am! Or I'm very trying. :-) In
Accidental Sorcerers, the main characters, Westerners, are more red than white.
(The pale blonde guys, Northerners, have been largely assimilated into the
Western culture, but they do have their quirks.)
But right now, I'm more focused on gender roles. Mik, Sura, and Bailar live in
a nation called the Stolevan Matriarchy, and I spent a couple happy
world-building weeks working out the implications of that (see #5). I'm working
on a couple essays about gender roles and cultures in Termag (the world).
As our heroes continue to travel the world, they'll meet people from other
cultures, with other ideas about how things are supposed to be done. Multi-cultural
settings in fantasy, in general, tend to be pretty thin, and I'm trying to
address that. I might tackle different sexual orientations down the line.
Bailar has never married, and I'm still unsure of his preferences. But I'm
always a little nervous when I write about things I have little or no exposure
to… I'm a middle-aged whitebread dude, what will I be able to say that can
resonate with people with different experiences? Is it going to flop, in a
"nice try but you're clueless" kind of way? I suspect that's what
holds back a lot of writers. On the other hand, everything I've tried that I
wasn't sure about has turned out fine so far. So I'm plunging forward and
hoping for the best.
Q: Do word counts mean anything to you? Do you find your books top out at
around the same lengths?
A: Word counts can be useful targets, but I don't try to
force a story into a specific word count. The story is as long as it needs to
be to tell it. Originally, I thought White Pickups was going to be a 30,000
word novella. It and the sequel currently weigh in around 180,000 words. I'm
shooting for 30K-35K for each of the Accidental Sorcerers stories, but if they
run a little long or a little short? Not a problem.
Q: How big a deal is writer’s block for you and what do you do to shake it off?
A: I've learned a few things about shaking off writer's
block in the last few years. If I'm blocked, it usually means I'm trying to
force the story down the wrong path. Sometimes, interviewing the characters
tells me the way forward. And sometimes, it's just time for a brain-break.
Worst case, I wait it out. The words always come back.
Q: What books did you enjoy most in 2012?
A: The first one I read in 2012, "Bachiyr: 33
A.D." was a tough act to follow. Adding vampires to the Easter story, and
making it work within the Biblical framework? And pulling it off? Awesome.
Others I enjoyed were Helen Howell's "Jumping at Shadows," an MG
fantasy, "Ghost Betweens" by Eric Krause (urban fantasy), Angela
Kulig's "Skeleton Lake" (which I also helped edit), and "Zoolin
Vale and the Chalice of Ringtar" by Craig Smith.
Q: What trends do you hope die in 2013? Are there any you hope take off?
A: If reality TV died in 2013, I wouldn't shed a single
tear. I'm hoping that the novella has a renaissance for more than eBooks. Right
now, they're too long for magazines and too short for book publishers. But
they're just right for someone reading on a portable device!
Q: What are you plans for 2013 as an indie writer?
A: The first half of the year is mostly about production—getting
all the things I wrote last year prepared and published. I released Accidental Sorcerers and The Crossover (a fantasy novella) in January, and Oddities: An Anthology at the end of March. Pickups and Pestilence is slated for release
this month, and Water and Chaos (the second Accidental Sorcerers story) in May
or June.
Then, it's back to writing. There's a YA trilogy that I've wanted to start
writing, more Accidental Sorcerers stories (one more, maybe two, to release
this year) and writing or finishing some quirky stuff like a pre-zombie
apocalypse story.
