Thank you Marshall for agreeing to do the interview with me. I enjoyed reading Son of a Sailor.

Interview

What was your inspiration for Son of a Sailor?

Son of a Sailor is probably the most autobiographical novel I’ll ever write. Like our protagonist Quint, I grew up on a tiny tropical island with a close-knit community, and like Quint, I lost my beloved father unexpectedly. This book is a tribute to all of those: to good fathers, to loss, and to the communities that help us through our grief.

Did your process change writing a novel compared to short stories?

The fun challenge to a short story is cramming as much narrative as you can into as few words as possible. Novels give you a bit more room to breathe, which allows for greater exploration of character or world building. In either case, I try and keep to a plot outline so that I don’t get too off track.

How did you choose which character to focus the story? 

Given both the title and real-world inspiration behind the story, Quint Thatch, our everyman protagonist, was the natural choice for a pirate struggling to hide his identity from his hometown friends and family. 

What is your approach to world and character building?

For world building, the basic premise is a “what-if?” question, which prompts further questions as you examine the impact of that central question. For my first trilogy of books, The Rites of Resurrection, it’s “what if a city relies upon necromancy for its manual labor?” which leads to things like “what kind of society permits this?”

For character building, it’s best to start with the character’s central driving need. For Quint in Son of a Sailor, that core want is his need to keep his families (both biological and pirate) safe. Once you know what that central motivation is, the rest of the character follows.

What do you love about writing short stories and cosy fantasy?

For short stories, I love the challenge of writing to a specific theme while keeping within a maximum word count. Creativity thrives under constraint, and short stories are an ideal exercise to keep my writing skills sharp. 

I love cozy fantasy for its inherent comfort; for knowing that both narrative and characters will treat each other kindly, as we should do more often in our own lives. 

How would you describe Son of a Sailor in five words?

Hiding Piracy From Your Mom

OR

Healing From Loss Requires Community

Did you have a favourite moment to write?

Without spoilers, there’s a “There Was Only One Bed” scene that was a delight to write.

What was your favourite book growing up?

My Big Three as a kid were the Chronicles of Narnia, the Animorphs series, and the Calvin & Hobbes comic strip collections. 

Do you have a favourite genre to read?

I’m a fantasy geek, obviously, though I branch out pretty frequently into horror and sci-fi.

You can find Son of a Sailor and the Rites of Resurrection on Amazon. They are currently on Kindle Unlimited.