Author Interview: John Lawson, author of Witch Ember and The Raven

John Lawson is the author of Witch Ember and The Raven, two remarkable fantasy novels that I reviewed earlier this year and can't stop raving about. Mr. Lawson was kind enough to answer a few questions for me.

Thank you so much for taking the time to indulge readers a little more.

Have you always wanted to be a writer?

Gosh, I think so. I’ve always dabbled with writing and other creative outlets, but it took me a really long time to ever get around to actually trying my hand at doing anything as ambitious as a full novel. I took a Creative Writing class back in college, but the experience was so damaging, it took me nearly 10 years to want to take up fiction writing again (the professor was seriously out of control). It didn’t keep me from writing creatively however, and I created quite a bit of material for a role-playing game I was interested in at the time (none of it was published tho).

I remember back in Junior High, we had an assignment to create a book of our own. We were even supposed to figure out how to bind them. (My mother found a little photocopy place that could do it. Not small feat considering this was in the early 80s, before Kinko’s and PCs.) I spent days meticulously typing out my pages without typos, drawing my illustrations. I even created a fake copyright page. I didn’t get a very good grade though, because the teacher believed that my parents helped me write the story. My parents became really offended and complained… I don’t remember if that changed the grade or not…

I was actually somewhat flattered that the teacher thought the writing was so good, I must have had help writing it.


What do you enjoy about writing?

I try not to over-think my writing. I create the setting and the mood, drop the characters in, and then see what happens. I really dig it when they end up doing something I didn’t expect.


What makes it most rewarding?

There is almost nothing better than being on a true creative binge, where the words are just pouring out of you. And at the end of it, you have a tight, exciting scene where interesting people do interesting things.


What prompted you to write fantasy?

It’s funny, because I’m not a big fan of the genre in general. I have no patience for derivatives of the Tolkien stereotypes. But at the same time, I love the setting and the themes. So in a sense, everything I do is an attempt to break out of the established norms while staying in the genre.

I actually consider myself a science-fiction author—rather than fantasy—primarily because sci-fi holds itself to a certain degree of plausibility. Stuff has to be based on science (or pseudo science) and has to have a certain degree of realism. You can have alien races in sci-fi, just so long as they're not so outlandish that you can't imagine them evolving on a distant planet.


How long did it take to complete each book, from inception to publishing?

It took about a year to write each book.


Do you have any other projects or ideas you would like to pursue?

I have a prequel to Witch Ember finished and am currently looking for representation for it. I also have a fourth book finished that takes place in the same fantasy world but follows a different set of characters.

The world in which I write is an evolving one. Unlike Middle Earth, where 3000 years can pass and people are still using swords and bows, my world will see changes as time goes on. When I’m finished writing what I call the “Witch Ember Cycle,” I’m thinking of jumping ahead a few hundred years to see what things will look like there.


Did you have any particular inspiration for the characters?

Oh, there are many, I’m sure, but only a few of them were intentional.
Myrdd from Witch Ember was definitely based on Merlin. Myrdd’s name is even a variation of his.

The character of Esmeree was partly inspired from Neal Stephenson’s Nell from Diamond Age and David Brin’s Maia from Glory Season.
I patterned Verole from Witch Ember after what I could remember of Tim Roth’s bitter illegitimate courtier, Archibald Cunningham, from “Rob Roy.” But it’s been such a long time since I’ve seen the movie, I’m not sure if the comparison is deserved.


Many of your characters are moral deviants and many of your creatures are relatively grotesque. Were you concerned how readers would accept this?

No.

As far as moral deviations are concerned, the people in my world are not idealized. They are as real as I could make them, adjusted to be contemporary with the time period. My world is not a medieval world populated by 21st century people with 21st century values. It’s a primitive world, with primitive people, doing primitive things.

I suppose a certain sense of macabre could be generated by creating a race of cute gnomes that look just like Mogwais but are really vicious man-eaters, but done badly, it could almost come across as comical.

I don’t consider my creatures grotesque. I do consider them alien, in the sense of being different physiologically and behaviorally. They are NOT humans with rubber prostheses glued to their foreheads.


Some aspects of the novels are similar to reality: for example, the Medianist religion is very like Christianity. Did you intentionally draw parallels between fiction and reality and do you have a specific message you wish to impart upon readers?

When I was conceiving the Church of the Holy Median, I wanted it to be a huge, monolithic entity with a rich back history and an intricate bureaucracy. Call it laziness, but it was fairly organic to draw upon Catholicism as a source (when it comes to centralized, organized religions, there aren’t many others to choose from).

Not being raised Catholic, most of my exposure to it has been through the ceremonies held since I met my wife. Marriage, baptism, etc. I love the trappings and ritual.

A reviewer once remarked that Medianism was a “thinly disguised form of Christianity”. Sure, they share some of the same concepts and terms (“priest,” “church,” “saint,” etc), but beyond their structures, I endeavored to diverge from the source.

Medianist doctrine is not the same a Christian. Medianism has four messiahs. In a sense, it’s four faiths vying for power and influence under one umbrella organization.


Why did you decide to switch protagonists when you wrote The Raven?

I remember seeing “Star Wars” in the theater as a kid, and at the time, I obsessed over what was Darth Vader thinking as he flew away from the remains of his Death Star?

After the climactic final battle, with the good guys victorious and the villains in ignominious retreat, I always wondered how the main bad guy reacted to such a crushing defeat. So I decided to write the book and find out.

(Also, I believe Esmeree’s continuing story will be fairly complicated, so I wanted some more time to evolve some ideas.)


Both Witch Ember and The Raven are lengthy by today’s standards. Did you intend to make them so substantial when you began? Do you feel the length may be daunting to some readers?

I love long books. I love books that require an investment to read. I don’t like books you can finish in an afternoon. So, yes, I intentionally set out to write long books.

I actually blogged about this very subject here.

I kept my fourth manuscript short just to address this issue.


Finally, will you share some favorite titles from your personal bookshelf with readers?

Catch 22
Diskworld series
Dracula
Focault's Pendulum
Footfall
House of Leaves
The Monk
Myth Adventures series
Mythago Wood
Sharpe’s Rifles series
A Tale of Two Cities
Uncle Silas
The Uplift War series
Waiting for Godot

*Interviewed for Front Street Reviews.

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