From Shared Fantasy to Personal Revolution | Author Interview | Episode 130

Richie Billing, welcome back to the Bookaholic Podcast. Yeah, nice to see you again, Deidre. How are you doing? I'm doing great and I hope you are. Yeah, I'm very well, not too bad at all. All the way from where some of the Beatles were born, Liverpool, or headquartered, right? Exactly, yeah, yeah. It's quite a musical city. Yeah, okay. Okay, I didn't know that. I visited London a few times, but never have been able to get into the outskirts, if you will, because I'm so busy being in fabulous London. I know, it's a big pull for a lot of people, but there's a lot to offer up north. You've got, obviously, the harsher accents to contend with. Yes, yes, yes. And you definitely have an accent, my dear. Yeah. Well, you joined the Bookaholic Podcast, I think now, it was a few years ago you came on, and we'll dive back into that and maybe slip a little bit of information into the video while showing you from that period of time. But now, you have something new for us. So, first of all, I do want to go back. I do want to go back to your first book. So, explain to us, I think it was your debut, was it not? It was, yeah. Okay, so tell the audience a little bit about that debut book and give us the insight of why you wanted to be a writer as well. I'll start with the last part because that makes a bit more sense. So, I actually never wanted to be a writer. It never really occurred to me that it was something that you could do. But I found this real passion for writing things when I was in college. And when I left, I was kind of missing if it was a bit of a void. So, I started writing a sitcom with my friends and we did that just more for fun. It didn't really go anywhere. But we stopped doing that. And again, I got really sad because I didn't have any sort of creative output. And in the end, I was reading a lot of fantasy books and I loved the books I was reading so much. And they sort of enchanted me so much that I was like, oh, I wish I could do this and help other people and find this amazing enjoyment in a story or help them in some way. I find answers to questions that they might have or something like that. So, I just started writing and I just completely fell in love. And that was about 10 years ago now. And then about halfway through that period, I was working with a guy called J.M. Malzach. He was a very good short story writer. And he was also working with a publisher that was developing a shared universe, like a shared fantasy universe. So, they'd set the rules and they invited or opened for submissions, essentially like pitches for novels and stuff like that. So, that would fit in with their sort of tapestry of the world. And me and J.M., we both got involved with that. And then that was where Pariah's Lament came into things. So, I really enjoyed that story because it was a proper underdog fantasy story. It's about two characters who are sort of, they're quite different, but they're both in a similar situation in that they don't have much belief in themselves. And they're thrust into a situation where they have to sort of overcome the obstacles that they've got. And in that way, end up saving the day. So, it was okay, but it wasn't like, like say, working in a shared universe. It's not yours. Right. So, that's why I'm more excited to move on to the next project, which I'll tell you a little bit about later. Yes. Yes. Yes. Now. So, let's go a bit more into the shared universe. Tell me, let's dive deeper into that and how that works. Yeah. So, in this case, what has happened is the publisher had created like the scaffolding of the world. So, they've set the rules, a bit of the law, and then they want to develop different time periods or different points in the history of the world. So, you create like prompts for people to work from and then ask people to like pitch ideas. And basically, you get commissions to write a novel, which is pretty, it's unusual in publishing. I mean, I have heard of it. I was speaking to an author called Kel Cade and she was commissioned by Tor and she was a self-published author. So, I thought that was pretty amazing to write a really successful self-published series and then to be commissioned by one of the biggest publishers. So, it's a different option for writers out there because, to be honest, writing a novel when there's no guarantee of it getting out there, it's a big ask because sometimes it takes years. Yeah. I mean, so, first of all, I would like to say, even though a lot of people really want to create their own worlds, that's a tremendous opportunity from my point of view, especially if you're just starting out and you get offered to be in that shared world. I mean, at least it's a start. It's a start. It's a practice. It's a whole thing. And so, at least it's an intro because a lot of times people in the past never got an intro. They would write a novel, send it to a publisher only for it to be rejected a month later. So, at least this is an intro. Now, then too, as you know, I've talked to hundreds of authors and yes, some of you have taken years to write your books. Some people not. Some people, one woman that I'm going to talk to in the future has already written six books, the prequels, the whole shebang. She's already written all of them. I was like, wow. And you could take five years to write a novel and send it out or self-publish it and it goes nowhere. So, at least this was an intro. But now that you've got your boots on the ground, so to speak, you've created your own world. So, tell us about your process in creating your own world for your new book. Yeah. So, I actually started creating this. But the first thing I did when I started writing was I want to create a world and I'm going to explore this world and the people who live in it and the history and stuff by writing short stories. And I've also written novels. I've written a couple of novels that are set in this world. But I do like the short stories. I like zooming in on little moments in people's lives that also build the picture up of the wider world and show you different parts of the world. And I think it's quite an interesting way to explore a fantasy world. So, I've been doing that for a long time. I've had quite a few short stories published that are about that world and I've put together a collection of short stories that are all, some of them are related and I think I try and link things in as much as possible. So, for example, I've written a short story which I'm editing at the moment and I've also done an experimental short story which involves a to-do list style structure. So, it's the to-do list of a goblin who features in the first short story and you just get little strands of different plots and then it's a crossover then because the two characters in the short story come into this to-do list and get referenced and then you see what happens afterwards after that first short story. So, there's a bit of continuation. So, I love linking things together in all different ways and I find it quite satisfying to have the freedom to do whatever you want and short stories I'm leaning more towards because you can write them faster, you can deliver them in different ways. Now, I've used a short story as a reader magna, for example, and I use Story Origin. I don't know if you've ever heard of that, some listeners may have, but I use that to pitch, like to get people to sign up to my newsletter and that's one short story, got like 500 subscribers. So, you can use short stories in lots of different ways and the novella which I've just done, I didn't want to do a novel again because, like I say, I've spent like five, six years writing novels. Yeah, yeah. You kind of, you don't get any feedback and you kind of, I got, I did honestly get to the stage where I didn't feel like a writer anymore, like I didn't, I lost confidence because there was no sort of validation from the outside world. You're just literally writing and writing and writing and editing and editing and hoping and praying that it's, it makes sense. Exactly, exactly. Well now, a couple of questions. Give to me in the audience, what is the difference between a novella and a short story? It's just all down to length. So, I think a novella is capped at 45 or 40,000 words, between 40 and 45,000 words. Okay. And I think it has to be a minimum of about 15 or 20,000 words. Okay, okay, okay. And a short story is literally, I don't know, 10 pages possibly. Yeah, so it's usually anything over 1,500 words, so between 1,500 and 15,000 maybe. Okay. And then you've got below 1,500 is all like flash fiction. Oh. Which is fun to write as well, I do like writing flash fiction. Oh, I think that's the first time I've ever heard that term, flash fiction. Yeah. Tell me a little bit more about that. So, it's like a very zoomed in short story. You've got to try and capture all the emotions, the character and what's going on essentially in a very short number of words. But then you've got even short, you've got micro fiction after that, which is like 150 words. Oh my goodness. I've done stories before, which are two sentences. Oh my gosh. That was called nano fiction, I think it's called. Oh my goodness. Well, we might have to do, I might have to do a podcast on those. Yeah. Because that's fascinating, that's quite fascinating. So, now that we've done these shorter stories, tell us a little bit about the story. So, the overall point of writing all of these little short stories is generally like an exploration of good and evil. I mean, that's why I love fantasy. It's the main sort of trope or theme. And what I set out to do is, all right, I want to try and understand the nature of good and evil. What the hell is it? And through this sort of fantasy world, I try and piece it together and show the struggle. And I think that's the main thing is showing the struggle. Like, do people do the right thing? Do they do the wrong thing? What makes them do that right thing? And exploring the different, the sort of area in between. I think it's a gritty reality. For many of us, I try and get as much of that into fantasy as possible. I'm not really about dragons and magic and stuff. I do have some magic in my stories, but they're very much human stories that involve problems from our real world, just put in a different setting. Right. Like a step removed. Yes, yes, yes, yes. Yeah. Because a lot of the things that I like to talk about, like injustices, inequalities, things like that. I mean, the whole novella is about a people's revolution against a corrupt government. We've got fricking governments running around the earth. So you've got lots of things to study. I know. Well, this is the product of my frustration with the world and seeing what's going on, seeing the corruption and seeing the impact it has on people. I'm from a working class area. I've seen people homeless on the streets, begging for food. People who work in two jobs, sometimes three jobs and still don't have enough money. And then you see all these people in fricking mansions, sorry to swear, and just millions and millions of pounds, more money than it's possible to even spend. Elon Musk, just like siccing an amount of wealth, going around, staring off far right agendas everywhere. Honestly, the world is going in such a terrible direction. I feel really helpless about it all. And this is the way that I can feel a little bit of control or a little bit of an escape. So hopefully other people, my hope anyway, is that other people feeling like this as well will find a little bit of solace in this story, an enjoyable escape where the people rise up and they take back the future from corruption and greed. Yes. Well said. Well, well said. So let me just let you know, you're not the only one feeling that way. Various people of all types of ages and backgrounds and from different countries, I'm going to say particularly the United States where I reside, there's tons of people that feel that way. In the States, one group that I belong to is called the FAFO team. I'll tell you what that means later on. But if you put your thinking cap on, you can kind of figure out what those letters stand for. But anyhow, yeah, so it is. I really feel like the world is going in a very devastating way. And so if your books, if your, excuse me, if your novellas and your short stories can help some of us out, then I'm all for it. And that's why I'm glad we recorded this podcast. So Richie Billing, we will have links to your creativity in the podcast show notes and in the description box below. Richie, thank you so much for joining me for the second time. And I hope that you'll have a reason to visit me for a third. I'd love to come back and thank you again for having me. Anytime, Richie, anytime. Thanks for joining me. Bye-bye everyone.