I caught up with author Timothy C. Ward and got to chat with him about his new apocalyptic novel (Godsknife, which you can pre-order at Amazon), as well what’s up next for him. Check it out, below:
INTERVIEW WITH TIMOTHY C. WARD
Apocalyptic stories (in my opinion) can either be very powerful or fall flat. What do you think readers will find in Godsknife that they won’t find anywhere else? What do you think will draw us in?
TIM: That is so true. I read a lot of apocalyptic stories, but so many have failed to take off the ground.
First of all, you need to start with characters in emotional turmoil. If you start with a soldier who has an impressive list of weapons and deftly uses them to slaughter packs of zombies, I’m bored. If I wanted to watch action, I’d watch action, not read a book. The characters have to produce an emotional connection by seeing where they love, what they want, and how they might be hurt if all does not go well.
So, have I done that with Godsknife? We start the story with one of our heroes, Anthon, witnessing a somewhat hard to watch initiation ceremony where one of his recruits must cite a series of numbers while an “orden worm” travels out of his mouth and into his navel. If he doesn’t pass, it will eat him alive, but if he passes, he becomes an Order mage and is bonded into their circle. This recruit’s girlfriend finds Anthon afterwards and is not happy. She’s so belligerent, Anthon has to get her out of their base before she gets in trouble–a kind of trouble where people don’t come back, and in this we see that Anthon believes in his cause, but maybe not as much his leader.
In the next chapter we switch to our female lead, Caroline, who was visiting Iowa State and their nursing program coordinator. As she’s walking out of her interview, she catches Anthon arranging furniture in the waiting room. She can’t help but tease this strange interior decorator, and he ends up winning her company for smoothies across the street. Their conversation introduces us to what an Order mage would do while undercover in the public and introduces us to what has driven Caroline to finally break away from the farm she inherited from her parents.
Before the apocalypse breaks loose, we see two young twenty somethings on the brink of a new life and all the fear that comes with that first step off the ledge. The reader will hopefully want to see whether these two stick together in that next step knowing from my foreshadowing that to do so will put them in great danger only Anthon really has an idea about–and his idea is no where close to how bad it will really get.
Caroline appears to be the heroine of the tale–what went into creating her as a character, and how easy (or difficult) is it to write a female main character?
TIM: I have been lost and lonely many times in my life, and Caroline’s story hits on a few of those. First, she’s a little bitter about losing her parents, first with her mom dying while she was in high school and then her father a few years after graduation. I thankfully still have my parents, but their divorce when I was twelve left me mired in questions of why when would my pain end. Caroline is that plus she’s felt trapped with taking care of her family farm when she really wants to get an education and move into city life. Her issues with her parents and their faith will come to the forefront as she discovers that the mythical powers of Order, Maker and Chaos are far more than fable.
I don’t know, how hard is it to create any character? It’s certainly not easy to make any character seem real. I hope that by wanting to know her history and how she’d react to her present is enough to make the reader interested in the same. The way I view people is that everyone is deserving of great love, so if the person I’m molding is male or female, I hope that my concern for them will be empathized by the reader.
If you could pick three people (dead or alive) from history to join your team in surviving the apocalypse, who would they be, and why?
TIM: It’s all about family. My wife and two children will have to be it.
What would you say to potential readers who are exhausted from post-apocalyptic stories? What are the differences between apocalyptic or post-apocalyptic, if any?
I get exhausted with stories all the time. If I’ve learned anything in my years of reading, it’s that story and character is key, not just the genre. Genre’s the interchangeable outfit that characters you care about put on. I like the dressing up of the outfit, but what I love is the people you’ll meet.
Personally, I love post-apocalyptic/apocalyptic (no difference) because there’s an infectious energy about the kind of power that would throw our world upside down. Anyone who survives has somehow conquered that power, or at least risen up to see it eye to eye. I love seeing characters who didn’t realize they were strong enough for this kind of challenge find out that they too can stand.
What’s next for you? And how can readers find out more about your books?
TIM: I am torn between the Hebrew burial ground apocalyptic story also set in Iowa and writing the sequel to Godsknife now that I have a completely edited ending. The ending, as you’ll hopefully see, is something I needed confirmation of before I could move on. My publisher had no problems, so I’m free to continue. I’d love if they followed me on Amazon by visiting my author page there, or you can see my website at www.timothycward.com.
Thanks, Tim! We’re looking forward to Godsknife’s release (8/22)
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