Welcome to the Coffee Chat!
If you’re in the US, you’re probably busy with setting up fireworks or party planning for the 4th of July—but wherever you are, take a break and meet fantasy author Vince Veselosky. His urban fantasy/paranormal detective story, Cursing Fate, might be the perfect “next read.”
Good morning, Vince. How do you take your coffee?
VV: Cream, no sugar, please.
Ally: A quick and easy request. Just enough time to introduce yourself to readers while I’m filling our coffee mugs.
If you’re in the US, you’re probably busy with setting up fireworks or party planning for the 4th of July—but wherever you are, take a break and meet fantasy author Vince Veselosky. His urban fantasy/paranormal detective story, Cursing Fate, might be the perfect “next read.”
Good morning, Vince. How do you take your coffee?
VV: Cream, no sugar, please.
Ally: A quick and easy request. Just enough time to introduce yourself to readers while I’m filling our coffee mugs.
About the Author:
Vince Veselosky writes fantasy fiction with a hard edge and a wry sense of humor. He has reinvented himself throughout his career, having been at some stage a telemarketer, technical support representative, warehouse clerk, software developer, computer systems architect, US Marine, and novelist (not necessarily in that order, and none of which he necessarily recommends as a good career move for others). Vince lives in the Internet, but his avatar in the physical world can often be found haunting coffee shops in the Atlanta area.
Something unusual that isn’t in your regular bio: “A couple of years ago I undertook a project to do a complete DIY remodel of my house. It’s still in progress. (The next time I get a bright idea like that, someone convince me to write another book instead, please!)”
Contacts:
Web: https://vince.veselosky.me
Twitter: @veselosky
Other services: If you can spell my last name, you will find me!
Vince Veselosky writes fantasy fiction with a hard edge and a wry sense of humor. He has reinvented himself throughout his career, having been at some stage a telemarketer, technical support representative, warehouse clerk, software developer, computer systems architect, US Marine, and novelist (not necessarily in that order, and none of which he necessarily recommends as a good career move for others). Vince lives in the Internet, but his avatar in the physical world can often be found haunting coffee shops in the Atlanta area.
Something unusual that isn’t in your regular bio: “A couple of years ago I undertook a project to do a complete DIY remodel of my house. It’s still in progress. (The next time I get a bright idea like that, someone convince me to write another book instead, please!)”
Contacts:
Web: https://vince.veselosky.me
Twitter: @veselosky
Other services: If you can spell my last name, you will find me!
INTERVIEW:
Ally: Do your characters come to you fully formed with names and backgrounds?
VV: I wish! Characterization is one of the most difficult tasks for me as an author. I have to do a lot of work to define who each character is, their backgrounds, their attitudes. Are they careless or meticulous? Serious or fun? Academic or practical? What is their political and religious background? How do they behave when they get angry, or drunk, or offended? Not all of that makes it onto the page, but without that work, I just can’t find the character’s voice. Nobody wants to read a book where every character sounds like a clone of me! (Ally note: If you're interested in his creative process, he has an interesting blog article here.)
Ally: Talk about your main characters. Are they likable? Do they have off-putting flaws or beliefs? Are they “good” people? Is it important for them to be real or relatable?
VV: The logline for Cursing Fate described the characters like this: “A grouchy, alcoholic sorcerer who just wants to be left alone gets pulled into mortal danger by a sexy private eye with a hidden agenda.”
Mack is a guy who has been beaten down by the world and is ready to give up. He has convinced himself that he doesn’t care about anything anymore. He’s irritable, sarcastic, and yes, off-putting, but that’s the mask he wears. When it comes to the important stuff, he’s going to do the right thing. That’s a lesson he needs to learn about himself.
Recca, on the other hand, wears an air of mystery. She’s private, secretive, and untrusting, but everything she does, she does well.
Is it important for them to be real? Absolutely! I like to say “plot” is what happens, but story is how characters deal with what happens. Cardboard characters make for a weak story. But I don’t believe characters have to be likable in order to be interesting. In fact, the most interesting characters are probably not the kind of people you want to have over to family dinner!
Ally: Do the people in your real life show up in your writing?
VV: Yes and no. I don’t ever try to put an individual directly on the page. I’m not in other people’s heads, and that could get offensive! But I watch the people in my real life for those distinctive characteristics that make them stand out, and I lend those characteristics to my characters to give them verisimilitude. Lilly’s craving for novelty, Miss Wanda’s contagious energy, Recca’s meticulous use of language to ensure that she never lies but still keeps her secrets. These things are hard to just make up. They come from real people with real personalities. And they are the aspects of my characters that readers tend to remember.
Ally: Do you enjoy research? Does your genre require it?
VV: I enjoy research to the point of distraction! Before Cursing Fate, I was working on a medieval fantasy project, but I had to put that one on the shelf because I spent all my time researching and not enough time writing!
You wouldn’t expect urban fantasy to be a genre that requires a lot of research, right? After all, magic can be whatever you make it, and “urban” is pretty much everyday life, which we all know already. But during the writing of this series, I researched everything from the history of the Stanley Cup to why you find little chicken bones in random parking lots around Atlanta. I’ll start out with a simple question like “what’s the shortest route from Atlanta to New York?” and an hour later I realize I’m reading a Wikipedia page about yak shaving! All in the name of “research”.
Okay, maybe I have a problem….
Ally: What is your next writing project? Anticipated release date?
VV: After completing The Piero Codex trilogy I needed a breather, but now the writing itch is becoming irresistible! My next project will be a medieval, secondary world fantasy series set against a truly epic historical backdrop. Think Game of Thrones meets Mists of Avalon! The world is tentatively called The Age of Queens, and the first installment in the series will be available in 2020.
Ally: Let’s see how you handle The Speed Round: 5 Short Answer Questions
VV:
Ally: Do your characters come to you fully formed with names and backgrounds?
VV: I wish! Characterization is one of the most difficult tasks for me as an author. I have to do a lot of work to define who each character is, their backgrounds, their attitudes. Are they careless or meticulous? Serious or fun? Academic or practical? What is their political and religious background? How do they behave when they get angry, or drunk, or offended? Not all of that makes it onto the page, but without that work, I just can’t find the character’s voice. Nobody wants to read a book where every character sounds like a clone of me! (Ally note: If you're interested in his creative process, he has an interesting blog article here.)
Ally: Talk about your main characters. Are they likable? Do they have off-putting flaws or beliefs? Are they “good” people? Is it important for them to be real or relatable?
VV: The logline for Cursing Fate described the characters like this: “A grouchy, alcoholic sorcerer who just wants to be left alone gets pulled into mortal danger by a sexy private eye with a hidden agenda.”
Mack is a guy who has been beaten down by the world and is ready to give up. He has convinced himself that he doesn’t care about anything anymore. He’s irritable, sarcastic, and yes, off-putting, but that’s the mask he wears. When it comes to the important stuff, he’s going to do the right thing. That’s a lesson he needs to learn about himself.
Recca, on the other hand, wears an air of mystery. She’s private, secretive, and untrusting, but everything she does, she does well.
Is it important for them to be real? Absolutely! I like to say “plot” is what happens, but story is how characters deal with what happens. Cardboard characters make for a weak story. But I don’t believe characters have to be likable in order to be interesting. In fact, the most interesting characters are probably not the kind of people you want to have over to family dinner!
Ally: Do the people in your real life show up in your writing?
VV: Yes and no. I don’t ever try to put an individual directly on the page. I’m not in other people’s heads, and that could get offensive! But I watch the people in my real life for those distinctive characteristics that make them stand out, and I lend those characteristics to my characters to give them verisimilitude. Lilly’s craving for novelty, Miss Wanda’s contagious energy, Recca’s meticulous use of language to ensure that she never lies but still keeps her secrets. These things are hard to just make up. They come from real people with real personalities. And they are the aspects of my characters that readers tend to remember.
Ally: Do you enjoy research? Does your genre require it?
VV: I enjoy research to the point of distraction! Before Cursing Fate, I was working on a medieval fantasy project, but I had to put that one on the shelf because I spent all my time researching and not enough time writing!
You wouldn’t expect urban fantasy to be a genre that requires a lot of research, right? After all, magic can be whatever you make it, and “urban” is pretty much everyday life, which we all know already. But during the writing of this series, I researched everything from the history of the Stanley Cup to why you find little chicken bones in random parking lots around Atlanta. I’ll start out with a simple question like “what’s the shortest route from Atlanta to New York?” and an hour later I realize I’m reading a Wikipedia page about yak shaving! All in the name of “research”.
Okay, maybe I have a problem….
Ally: What is your next writing project? Anticipated release date?
VV: After completing The Piero Codex trilogy I needed a breather, but now the writing itch is becoming irresistible! My next project will be a medieval, secondary world fantasy series set against a truly epic historical backdrop. Think Game of Thrones meets Mists of Avalon! The world is tentatively called The Age of Queens, and the first installment in the series will be available in 2020.
Ally: Let’s see how you handle The Speed Round: 5 Short Answer Questions
VV:
- Book you’re currently reading: The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell
- An author (living or dead) you’d love to take to lunch: Anne Rice. The Vampire Lestat is still one of my favorite vampire novels!
- An item on your bucket list: To visit the fjords of Norway to see where and how the Vikings lived.
- Hiking or sunbathing? Hiking! Though I haven’t been in a while. I need to get out more!
- Do you believe in love at first sight? Sure! It happens to me almost every day. Never seems to last long, though.
Cursing Fate: The Piero Codex (trilogy) Book One
Genre: Urban Fantasy/paranormal detective story
Rating: PG-13 (R - language caution)
Just because you can see the future coming, doesn't mean it won't run you over.
Mack is a sorcerer, a Fate-bender, who has spent his entire adult life dodging the Seers Guild authorities. Keeping tabs on their Fates helps him choose the best places to hide. Lately, he's been hiding at the bottom of a bottle of bourbon. He's content to stay there. Then one day another mysterious sorcerer casts a big, noisy, illegal curse into Mack's neighborhood. Suddenly the Seers Guild has thrown a dragnet over the city to nab the rogue sorcerer, and Mack is about to get caught in it.
Enter Recca Mann, a sexy private eye with razor-sharp eyes and a hidden agenda. She wants to enlist a freelance Fate-bender to help her catch the rogue first, and Mack fits the bill. Mack would rather hide in his bottle than risk his skin for a stranger's profit, but the Tapestry of Destiny says his best chance of a Fate outside a Guild dungeon is to take the job. The trick is, doing it without Recca finding out that Mack is on the Guild's most-wanted list.
With Guild tracers closing in fast, can Mack find the rogue before the Guild finds him? And if he does, can he trust Recca not to sell him out to the Guild for an extra buck?
Read it today!
https://books2read.com/vv-cursing-fate
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