Friday 21 June 2013

Guest Author Interview - Landon Porter

I have the day off to get some blood tests done, so I get the chance to catch up with some writing - which is always a pleasant way to spend the day :-) We end the week with an interview with Landon Porter.

    

Please introduce yourself, who are you and what do you do?
I'm Landon Porter and I'm a freelance computer use tutor and repairman. I'm also an indie Spec-Fic author.

What first inspired you to start writing?
My mother told me stories when I was young and made them interactive, inviting me to add my own spin on things. Eventually, she let me just tell the stories because I had so much fun doing it. I probably told my first full story when I was six and never stopped.

And what was your first story?
My first written story was something I did in eighth grade called The Angel Awakens about a kid who accidentally gives a cursed amulet containing a possessing spirit to his crush.

If you could work with any author, who would it be?
Jim Butcher. I feel that he and I have, not so much a similar style as a similar approach to stories. We both tend to sprinkle in lightness into even heavy stories, for example.

What is your favourite song lyric?
Great question. And a hard one because I adore good song lyrics. I actually hide song lyrics in narrative as an in-joke. I'll just go with my current favorite here, one from of Drive by Incubus:

So if I decide to waiver my chance to be one of the hive/Will I choose water over wine and hold my own and drive

I feel it fits my MO pretty well. I actually like being the weird guy who has conversations with his friends about the vast cat conspiracy or a wedding where the theme is the groom's side being supervillains
and the bride's superheroes. Life is more enjoyable that way.

Are you a planner? Or do you prefer to dive straight into writing?
I've tried planning. God how I've tried planning. I just... it never feels right because I think it comes out better when I follow whatever comes into a character's headspace at a given time. The closest I've gotten is having a begging and an end in mind before I put fingers to keyboard.

I envy people who can sit down and outline though. It probably makes things much, much faster.

If you could make a film from any book, which would it be?
Scott Lynch's Lies of Locke Lamorra. There aren't enough con artist films OR fantasy films, so let's rock both at once.

What are you working on at the moment?
Everything. I'm not being cute, I just keep a lot of balls in the air.

I write a webserial, descendantsserial.com and that means I have to have a weekly entry in the mainseries, plus four monthly series. I'm also working on finishing my Nanowrimo story, So I Married a Supervillain and another called Cowboy King.

So yeah, full plate.

Tell us about your latest work and how we can find out more.
I currently have two series that I'm pushing all this year.

First if The Descendants, an edited collection of my webserial. It is the story of a group of superhumans in the 2070's trying to hide from the organization that was meant to train them, but was actually experimenting on them.

The unique part of the series is that is literally is a comic book without the art. The stories are presented in issues and they're supplemented by special and annual issues, and on the site, you can find satellite series set in the same universe. The whole thing can be found on my site, desscendantsserial.com.

My second series is Rune Breaker, which is in a fantasy sub-genre called Dungeon Punk, where you get a lot of magic treated as technology and industrial revolution tropes.

The story follows an ex-slave named Taylin who is an outcast of a race called hailene. She kills her masters and stumbles across an ancient, evil wizard who is cursed to be the servant of whoever finds him. So you have an ex-slave dealing with having a slave against her will while at the same time, this honestly good person with her mind thumb-tacked to one of history's greatest monsters.

The third book should be available by the time this interview is out.

Both series can be found on Amazon.com via searching for me as an author.

      

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