Focus on Fantasy February - Wayne Wise

Today I continue my Focus on Fantasy in February with local author Wayne Wise. If you’ve ever stepped foot in Oakland’s classic Phantom of the Attic comic store, chances are you’ve already met Wayne. If not, today you will.

Wayne, we’ve known each other for a minute or two, but for the uninitiated, let’s start with simply when did you first know you wanted to be a writer?

I think I’ve always known, in some way or another. I learned to read pretty early, and books and comics have always been my best friends. I’ve always devoured written material and from a very young age knew that I wanted to tell stories as well. I drew comic strips and created my own characters when I was really little. I had notebooks full of drawings, along with notes about who all of the characters were. I read the Howard Pyle version of Robin Hood in third grade and for some reason believed I could write it as a play that all of my friends could perform. That never happened, of course, but I did play Will Scarlet in a sixth grade musical production.

By high school I was reading scifi and fantasy and westerns and a lot of adventure books along the lines of Mack Bolan’s Executioner series. When I was fifteen or sixteen I wrote a 90-page (typed, single spaced), novel about my original characters Todd Knight and John Armour, a couple of ex-mobsters who were fighting against their former employers. It was full of lots of sex and violence, neither of which I had experienced at the time, and it shows. It’s probably pretty terrible, but I finished it, so that says something. No, you can’t read it. :-)

You’ve got four novels under your belt. Do you feel the process has gotten easier with each one? How long does it take you to write a book on average?

The first draft of my first novel, King of Summer, took about seven months from start to finish. There was of course editing and rewriting time after that. The others were all completed in less than a year each, in terms of first draft at least. In some ways it has gotten easier, though it still varies. King of Summer just sort of came to me. It felt kind of magical while I was doing it. Scratch started out as a Marvel Superhero Roleplaying fanfic, but I realized I could remove all of the superhero stuff and still have a story. This Creature Fair was more of a challenge and I honestly didn’t know how it was going to end until I was actually writing the last chapter. Bedivere took far more time for research. I’ve been attempting to write a sequel to it for quite some time now and I’m just stuck. It’s a much bigger and complex project than any I’ve attempted before, so it hasn’t been easier at all.

Your book, Bedivere: The King’s Right Hand, is a retelling of the Arthurian legend from the King’s best friend’s POV. And King of Summer is also brimming with Arthurian influence. What is it about fantasy that appeals to you as a writer?

I like the freedom that fantasy gives you. Sometimes the best way to approach truths is to go at them obliquely through metaphor and symbolism. I have to admit I don’t read a whole lot of overt fantasy these days. Like a lot of people I started with Lord of the Rings in high school and then read way, way too many fantasy novels. Lots of really good ones, but I kind of burned out. In recent years the only classic fantasy I’ve read have been the Game of Thrones series and the Kingkiller Chronicles (and it’s been years since there has been anything new in either of those). In general the genre just doesn’t appeal to me in the same way it used, mainly because I simply read so much of it.

Not that I’ve abandoned fantasy entirely. About twenty years ago a friend turned me on to an author named Charles DeLint and the idea of Urban Fantasy. That’s a broad genre but in general it is the idea of the classical tropes of fantasy appearing in a contemporary, real world setting. This has certainly directly influenced my novels. All except Bedivere fall into this category, though they can also be marketed as Horror novels. I find there’s a lot of overlap between the two ideas. It’s just a matter of focus. Ideas of mythology and folk tales permeate a lot of what I read and enjoy, so they make their way into most everything I write

What kind of research do you do, and how long do you spend researching before beginning a book?

It depends on the book. I have done a lot more for Bedivere. I’m a fan of Arthurian literature, so I’ve read a ton of books on the subject; I’ve read the a lot of the classics, a ton of contemporary novels, and a bunch of historical non-fiction accounts of the era in which it’s set. Somewhere along the line that went from pleasure reading to research as I tried to find my own take on a topic that has been done a million times. My version is not really a fantasy retelling. There are no dragons and the reader will never see Merlin actively casting spells, but it’s world where the characters believe in magic and interpret events through those beliefs. It’s not a specifically historical novel either, since there is no actual historical evidence for Arthur (other than stories), but I wanted it grounded in a real world setting. So I’ve read a lot about fifth century Britain and horses and battles, just to try to get details right.

The others didn’t really need much in the way of research. They are contemporary, so I know the world they live in. A lot of scenes in This Creature Fair take place in the Pittsburgh local music scene, so I guess all those shows I’ve gone to in my life count as research. For Scratch I had to figure out how a back woods alcohol still works.

For the last few years I’ve been involved with a project in conjunction with the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh. I’m the lead writer on a series of comics telling the stories of Holocaust survivors called Chutz-POW!. While it is comics, which I’ve written before, this is a very different discipline for me. These are real life, historical stories, so I engage in a tremendous amount of research while writing. I read books and online articles. The Center has many first person accounts archived. We go through a thorough fact-checking process, not only for the details of the stories, but for details of the setting. Some of that is more on the artist than on me, at least in terms of accurate clothing, architecture, and other era specific details like that. Since I’m scripting for other people to draw it’s also a lot more structured than if I were writing something I planned on drawing myself. You can find out more about this project at https://hcofpgh.org/chutzpow/.

This leads me to talk a little about my usual writing style, if that doesn’t make this go too long. I’m what you call a ‟discovery writer.” What I mean by that is that I don’t usually start with an outline or a specific long term plot. I discover the story as I write. It’s a little like working without a net, I suppose. I have characters, and themes, and a general notion of what the book is about, but as I write I count on characters taking on a life of their own and saying and doing things I would never have thought of in the preplanning stage. If I have something outlined to the degree that I already know everything that happens then I feel no motivation to write it. I already know how everything ends. I need some uncertainty on the horizon, a need to explore my characters and world through the process rather than knowing everything going into it. I know this doesn’t work for everybody but I can’t imagine doing it any other way.

These are some of the reasons I’ve been stuck on the sequel to Bedivere, by the way. I feel constrained by the parts of the Arthurian story that have to take place.

Do you hide any secrets in your books that only a few people will find?

King of Summer never references the King Arthur mythology directly, but if you’re familiar with the legends there’s a ton of stuff in there. The fictional town of Appleton, which appears in a couple of my books, is based overtly on my home town, so anybody familiar with it will recognize a lot of landmarks, even if the names have been changed. Some of the music references I make are real, scattered in among the fictional ones.

You have hands in a few cookie jars - not just books but journalism, comics - what all do you do when you're not writing?

Let’s see... My full time job is at Phantom of the Attic Comics in Oakland (where you and I met). I’ve been a comics retailer for 22 years now, and I still pretty much love my job. Last fall I got the chance to teach an Introduction to the Graphic Novel class at the University of Pittsburgh. In the past I’ve taught a comics history course at Chatham University here in Pittsburgh (I hope to do a lot more teaching). I do occasional presentations on a variety of comics related topics. I’m no longer on the board of the Pittsburgh ToonSeum, though I am still acting in advisory capacity while they undergo a reorganization. I had a paper proposal accepted for the Pop Culture Association conference in April (which I still need to write). I cohost a podcast available at voxpopcast.com where we do semi-academic pop culture criticism in, hopefully, a fun and accessible way. I try to have something resembling a social life.

Do you hear from your readers much? What kinds of things do they say?

Not as much as I would like. :-) My reviews have mostly been positive. It’s been awhile since there has been a new review on Amazon, mainly because the books aren’t that new and I’m not doing as much to actively promote them as I should. I still get new sales. At least a couple of times a month I’ll see a few bucks in my account from Amazon or Smash Words. Somebody out there is buying my stuff, they’re just not saying very much about it.

What is your writing Kryptonite?

Time. I get distracted by other projects (those other cookie jars you mentioned), and my writing has to take a back seat. After I’m away from it for awhile it can be really difficult for me to get back into the habit.

If you could tell your younger writing self anything, what would it be?

It’s cliché, but it’s true... just write. Show up for the work. A lot of it is going to be crap and you’ll hate it, but without doing it you’ll never get better. There are a multitude of paths for writers now that didn’t exist back then. It seems more difficult to find paying markets, but there are far more opportunities to find an audience than ever. Learn to let go of things that aren’t working (a lesson I still need occasionally).

Wayne, thanks for your time today. Anything you want to promote?

My blog is at www.wayne-wise.com. You can find links to my books there, or you can just search for me on Amazon if you’re not interested in reading my more random ramblings. I have a second blog at https://masksblog.wordpress.com/ where you can find some of my more esoteric writing about comics and pop culture. I’ve already mentioned the podcast. That’s it for right now.

Wayne, Always a treat.

Thanks, Mark. I always enjoy talking with you.

About today’s author:

Wayne Wise is a writer, artist, seeker, shaman and magician, or at least claims to be in casual conversation. He has a BA in History and an MA in Clinical Psychology and in his life has worked as a counselor, an administrative assistant for a state legislator, an inter-office mail courier, a freelance comic book inker, and a department store Santa. He wrote music and comics-based articles for several local news mags and a couple of national magazines. In 1993 he and his business partner/collaborator Fred Wheaton self-published the comic book "Grey Legacy". In 2010 he wrote and drew a follow-up called "Grey Legacy Tales". Raised in rural southwestern Pennsylvania he is currently employed by the Eisner Award-nominated comic book store Phantom of the Attic in Pittsburgh and recently taught a course in Comics and Pop Culture as a guest lecturer at Chatham University.

You can find Wayne’s books on Amazon today:

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