Author Interview: Arthur Daigle

Today the BGP blog sits down with author Arthur Daigle and learns more about his books and his drawing.

BGP: Thank you so much for sitting down with me today. Please take a minute and introduce yourself to the readers.

AD:   My name is Arthur Daigle, author of the novel, William Bradshaw, King of the Goblins.  My novel is a blend of fantasy and comedy suitable for young adult and older readers.  My education is actually in biology, which seemed like a good career choice at the time but in hindsight wasn’t the best move.  This is my first novel with a second on the way and ideally more after that.

BGP: Biology takes a different type of writing, more of a technical kind. Do you find that it helps or hinders you in anyway while writing your novels?

AD: Hmm, I've never thought of it that way.  The kind of biology books I read are very detail oriented rather than technical.  I think that's because I read books more intended for the general public than ones written for degreed professionals. I think that detail intense kind of writing does come up in my book.  I want the reader to be able to picture what's going on in the story as if they were there.

            BGP: What first inspired you to become a writer?

            AD: I’ve always enjoyed reading, no doubt because my father filled the house with books and read to me.  But as the years went by it got harder and harder to find books I liked.  There were some fantasy authors I’d followed for year, only to see them either stop writing or the quality of their work decline until it was unreadable.  I wrote my book to be the kind of book I’d like to read.

            BGP:  What do you do to prepare for a story?

            AD: I take walks.  Weird, I know, but I find my best ideas come to be during walks.  I go alone, no music, no phone, no company, and spend an hour a day walking the neighborhood picking up recyclables.  During these walks I come up with my story.  Once I have a basic story I come up with scenes for the book.  It’s like watching clips from a movie in my mind.  I keep doing this for weeks or even months until I have enough material for the book.  Then I sit down and write, stitching the scenes together.

            BGP:   Who is/was your biggest support for your writing career?

            A.D: I’ve had plenty of people support my writing, including a writers’ group I belonged to for years before it folded from lack of membership.  My main support, though, came from my family.  They encouraged me at every step of the way, beta read my work and help promote my work once it was published.

BGP: What is the best advice you were given?

A.D: The best advice I received was when people told me how hard publishing is.  I'd heard from multiple sources just how difficult it is to find a publisher and get an audience for my book, and that's certainly been the case.  There are so many forms of entertainment available, TV, movies, music, internet, video games, comic books and so on that readers, and thus buyers, have so many choices that any one thing gets lost in the noise.  Standing out enough that first a publisher and then readers will notice you is hard work.  I compare it to gardening in that you can't just do it once and expect results, but instead it requires constant attention.

              BGP:  What genre do you write and what lead you there?

           AD: I write a blend of fantasy and comedy that also qualifies as clean (no sex, no swearing, no gore).  Partly this is due to my personal inclination.  I grew up reading science fiction and fantasy books that were family friendly and I liked them.  When I decided to start writing I followed those trends.  I chose to write clean because I think it sells better in the long run.  There are plenty of racy books available, but I feel the best sellers are the books the whole family can enjoy.

              BGP:  Tell us about your book.

            A.D: Desperate for work, William Bradshaw makes the mistake of accepting a manager position offered by the law firm of Hickam, Wender and Downe.  Too late he realizes that his job is to “manage” the goblins on the world of Other Place as their king.  Will’s goblin followers are short, stupid and mildly crazy, and they follow Will’s orders when they feel like it.  Setting traps is the national pastime, so the kingdom is laced with pie throwers, covered pit traps and the like.  The goblins are considered vermin by the other races on Other Place, and their kingdom is a former strip mine no one wants.  Will can go home if he can find a loophole in his king contract like the forty-seven previous Kings of the Goblins.  In theory that shouldn’t be too hard, but each time a king escaped that loophole was closed, making each successive contract harder to escape.

            Getting home soon becomes the least of Will’s problems when he accidentally starts a war with a neighboring human kingdom and their fashion obsessed monarch, Kervol Ket.  Will is going to have to win the war if he’s going to live long enough to get home, and that’s a tall order.  The average human is equal to ten goblins, and soldiers can fight off twenty.  Kervol soon marshals an army in the thousands, with knights, archers and foot soldiers.  Even worse, the goblins haven’t won a war in recorded history, and they have no interest in winning this one either.

            But this time things are going to be different, because Will isn’t going down without a fight.  He’s got teeming hordes of goblins, two troll bodyguards with anger management issues, a foul tempered magic mirror and an overachieving fire scepter.  It’s going to take stealth, subterfuge and a seemingly endless supply of exploding outhouses, but Will is determined to win.

BGP: How long did it take you to write your first book?

A.D: Writing it took about four months.  Editing took another three as every chapter got multiple rounds of edits.  After that I passed it on to three beta readers, each of who found mistakes I’d missed.  Total time from start to ready to publish was just shy of a year.

BGP: How many books do you plan to be in this sequel?

A.D: I had a lot of trouble finding a publisher after I’d written book one, and rather than sit on my hands I kept writing.  By the time book one went into print there were three sequels ready to go, and another book set on the same world but with different main characters.  I hope to have seven Will Bradshaw stories and at least two for the other group of characters.  I have ideas for four more books dealing with yet more main characters, again on the same world.

BGP: Tell us about the drawings you do and how you came up with the characters.

A.D: My drawings are heavily influenced by my education in biology.  I’ve always been fascinated by insects and dinosaurs, no different than any other boy, I suppose.  I also used to watch a lot of Japanese animation with giant robots and monsters, although not so much in recent years as the stories and animation quality has fallen.  There’s also an influence by fantasy role playing games like Dungeons and Dragons.

            When I draw a monster, I sometimes blend two animals together that have few similarities, like a cobra and a tortoise.  Other times I take an existing animal and exaggerate its features, like adding spikes, armor plates, extra limbs and the like.  With goblins I begin by drawing a sheet with nothing but heads, about thirty to a page.  Then I decide what the goblin is supposed to do (dig, build, fight) or what features set him apart from other goblins (an extra arm, stunted wings, striped skin).  From there I draw thumbnail sketches, and if they look good I do full scale drawings in color.

            When I’m developing characters I try to take a different spin on what you usually find in fantasy.  It doesn’t need to be a big change, just something new.  For example, my trolls are strong and aggressive, typical of trolls anywhere, but they also play poker compulsively.  They need the practice, because troll leadership positions are determined by massive poker tournaments.  Trolls hate being in charge of anything, so whoever loses every hand at the tournament gets stuck being king.

            I also explore why a person would feel the way they do.  One of my goblins, Domo, is perhaps the smartest and most sane of his people.  He’s also a jerk and spends a fair part of the book making trouble for Will.  But his harsh personality is understandable when you realize that he’s the smartest person in a nation of idiots, and his fellow goblins never listen to him.  Things are bad and nothing he did made them better, so after a while he stopped trying.

BGP: What do you do when you get writer’s block?

A.D:            There are a few solutions.  The first is to stop writing for a while.  I set the work aside until I have a better idea what’s going to happen next.  I also take more walks to develop the next scene in the book.  I also read other author’s books and watch movies for inspiration.  Odd as this must sound, I find some very bad books and movies can have a nugget of a good idea buried deep inside.  I also start another project, both writing and drawing.  If I can’t come up with a good monster or the next chapter, I work on another story or do a bit of abstract art.  Lastly, I write short stories and articles that I post on GoodReads, Facebook and Booksie.com.  These take just a few hours to write, but they’re fun and help get the creativity flowing again when I have a dry spell.

BGP: What advice could you give other writers?

A.D:            #1 You are in a marathon, not a sprint.  There is no easy way to make it big, and it’s not going to happen fast.  Don’t get discouraged when the money and accolades don’t pour in.

            #2 You need help.  Talk with other writers, share your work and get feedback on it.  Find groups on Facebook that cater to authors in your genre and ask for suggestions.  If people offer to do author interviews or need short stories for anthologies, take them up on it to get the name recognition for bigger opportunities later on.  Beta readers are a must, and take their advice seriously.  It’s been my experience that 90% of the suggestions I get from them are justified.

            #3 Marketing sucks and will take more time than writing your book did.  This holds true even if you have a traditional publisher, as they have cut costs so much that the author is expected to do the lion’s share of the work promoting books.  Look for cheap ways to get the word out about what you’ve created.  These include blogging on free sites like GoodReads, author interviews, local book sales, being interviewed by small newspapers and the like.  Get friends and family to review your book and then look for more reviewers online.  Be careful when people want money to promote your book, as there are frauds out there and places that won’t give you good value for your money.  Be willing to donate your work and your time for worthy causes, both to help others and to let people know what you can do.

BGP: What's next for you?

A.D: I have more books on the way, including a sequel that's waiting for a cover artist.  You wouldn't think that would be a stumbling block, but people do judge books by their covers so you can't cheap out.  That novel is titled William Bradshaw and a Faint Hope, and God willing it will be in print by spring.  I have more sequels already written that are currently in the hands of my beta readers.  It is my hope to publish a book each year for the foreseeable future.

BGP: How can people reach you or get your book?

A.D: My book is available on Amazon.comat http://www.amazon.com/William-Bradshaw-Goblins-Arthur-Edward/dp/0986644358/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1421853905&sr=8-1&keywords=william+bradshaw%2C+king+of+the+goblins

If anyone is interested, I also blog on GoodReads at https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6523979.Arthur_Daigle/blog