MAJOR COOL IRVING WISHBUTTON INTERVIEW
Posted on April 8, 2018
No joke. I'm seriously very good at this writer thing and the Irving Wishbutton series proves it. With the third book's publication this summer and print versions of all three books in the works, now is the best time ever to push a little red button and make a wish. Please enjoy this blatant interview of self-promotion and share with others. I think Irving is a series that deserves to sit alongside the greats. If you don't believe me, check out the many reviews on amazon and goodreads that compare it favorably to the Harry Potter series.
Help me make Irving Wishbutton a household name by word of mouth. Buy the book for yourself. Send it as a gift to a friend or relative who really enjoys characters with heart. Read it, review it, and share the love.
Irving Interview Part 1
Forging a Meta-Fiction, Coming-of-Age Story with Loads of Quirky Characters
– With the release of the third book in the Irving Wishbutton saga, could you tell us what brought you back to that series after being away from it for a few years?
My intention with writing has always been to put out as many quality concepts as I could and build an audience with the property that breaks through and builds my readership. My thinking was to have a large catalog of titles to choose from in the hopes that the sheer number and breadth of my creativity would yield me readers. When a concept got hot, I'd work on it more. Irving got the most readers requesting me to come back to it. A close second is my Turncoats series, which I will be getting to very soon as well.
– But that wasn't your only reason for putting Irving on the backburner, right?
Correct. I think, of all my projects, it's the most complex and perhaps the closest to me because of the author passages being an exploration and chronicle of my own writing experiences. I was a little intimidated to return to it.
– So what changed?
Well, after writing over 1.5 million words in the last seven years, my level of craft and self-awareness of my strengths and weaknesses as an author has really grown exponentially. I reread the first book last November and made a lot of corrections, so it felt like the perfect time to have the book not only as an e-book, but also jump in with print versions.
– So you fixed errors that your younger writing self missed?
Well, there were a couple typos, but a large number of changes were simply because my ability to write a straightforward sentence is so much better now. The first book was also read aloud to my classes this year from January to April. Seeing the students' reactions and engagement helped me realize what a joyously creative property Irving is.
– Did that read through cause you to revise anything?
I'm a big fan of words and often use challenging vocabulary in my stories. Irving, since it was so early on in my evolution as a writer, featured a lot of ambitious words, perhaps more than was necessary. Some the kids gravitated to and others fell flat. I think that's a common misstep when you first start writing. You want to throw out big words to impress when they should be there to serve the story. I tweaked about two dozen words, opting for clarity over showcasing fancy vocabulary.
– As a teacher, how does Irving stack up to the books being used in the classroom?
The big focus now is text complexity and preparing students for the rigor of reading challenging text. The text complexity movement emphasizes using complex text as read alouds so teachers can help students experience how to navigate through more challenging stories. Irving is one that challenges and rewards readers. The format of the author's story unfolding at the same time as Irving's story happening to him at the academy elevates the messages and symbolism, but it's definitely text that is geared for a higher level reader. Many of my fans are students who are reading at seventh and eighth grade levels even though they're still in fifth grade.
– So for folks new to the Irving Wishbutton series, what is the unique conceit of the project?
Irving is a character who goes to a school to learn how to be a cast member in a questing novel. Students who attend the questing academy are all being worked on by their authors. They appear at the school at the exact moment of their creation and learn about themselves as they detect what their writer is doing to them in their actual story. They're also developing through their interactions and adventures at the school.
– How is that depicted in the novel?
In the first book, each chapter starts with about a page of details describing the author working on the story, whether it be brainstorming ideas or writing actual chapters. The readers get to see how a book is shaped, the wrong turns a writer takes, and the methods a writer uses to get their narrative back on the right path. All the while, you're seeing how the author's life influences and inspires what trials and tribulations he puts Irving through. The rest of the chapter relates Irving's exploits at the Questing Academy. In book two, the author's scenes only appear in every other chapter. In the third book, the author section only shows up every third chapter. I plan on having the author sections show up every fourth chapter in the fourth and final volume.
– Why have the frequency of the author sections decrease with each volume?
Originally, feedback was mixed on the author entries. About half the reviews said they loved it and really liked getting inside the author's head and seeing what making a book involved. The other half felt Irving's main story was more engaging to them and wanted more of that. When I thought about it, it made perfect sense to decrease the author entries so as to show how Irving's story at the academy was gaining more importance and also to demonstrate how an author's characters can grow so strong as to take over the direction of the story. And that's become a critical theme as the series unfolds. I don't want to give too much away, but the author sections stop at a certain point altogether in the fourth book because something mind-blowing happens to the writer. Of course, that event is Irving's fault.
– So Irving can influence his author?
In the first book Irving is really at the whim of what his writer plots for him. If he decides to have Irving's sister injured, he can't do anything to stop it. If the writer wants to saddle him with clown pants, then Irving has to walk around the school in ridiculous trousers. Just FYI, only one of those examples is from the book. Anyway, in the second and third books, Irving begins to exert some control over his author.
– Would you say Irving's development as a character to the point where he is so fully realized that he changes his writer's mind or thoughts is a bit of commentary on a young person forging an identity and becoming an individual?
Absolutely. One of the core themes of this series is how a person comes of age, how we start to forge our identities and independence in our teen years.
– Many of your books tackle this theme.
Yes. I think I gravitate to telling stories about the challenges of being young and finding yourself because I struggled with that so much in my teens and twenties. I think I forged my confidence and self-identity much later in life. I really felt tossed around a bit by the bumps and bruises of being a teen. Exploring how we grow and develop independence and inner strength are always going to be tenets I explore in my books.
– It's there in Irving Wishbutton very much so. What other books do you feel deliver on this theme?
Well the Graham the Gargoyle series definitely does. You meet Graham when his world is small and narrow and by the third book, his world view has expanded beyond his village and simply trying to evade a bully. The Turncoats series is a coming-of-age tale that uses a zombie apocalypse as its backdrop. We Kill Humans explores the changes that happened to you as a teen when your body is transformed by an alien mist and you have to struggle to maintain your sense of self and not lose your humanity and become a killing machine. The Powers That Flee and Ghost Coast are heavily influenced by my childhood angst and take place in a decade I know well, the eighties. Here is Where I . . . Wield a Really Big Sword is a great exploration of high school and of a character that is thrust into a heroic role they feel completely ill-equipped to handle.
– Tell us about the memorable characters in the series. I mean, Irving's a fascinating character, but his supporting cast is so wild and eclectic.
Thank you. I really strived to be as out there as possible with his cast because the narrative allowed me to. I mean, it's a school where heroes, villains, supporting characters, and window dressing cast members attend class alongside each other. And his classmates come from stories written by other authors, so everything under the sun was fair game. The only qualifier was that their stories feature a quest. Also, with as outlandish as they are, each has a human aspect, even if they don't appear remotely human on the outside. I guess what I'm really saying is I made sure every one of them was relatable, even down to the talking lamppost.
– You will believe a lamppost can shed light and help you find your path.
Very much so. The lamppost is a very important character.
– And you really succeeded in building a strong cast. There are plenty of folks to cheer on, and they all have their own stories /subplots to deal with. My favorite interaction is Irving's back and forth with Roon and Sarya.
Roon is great because she has such baggage. Irving meets her early on when he barely understands what she is because she's deliberately cryptic. As he gains awareness of what is really going on at the school, he starts to grasp what Roon is. Of course, her author changes her drastically right when he was starting to figure her out and this causes her to retreat a little from Irving. Irving doesn't let her and steps up and offers to help her find something she lost. The second book is very much about their relationship and whether they'll make her whole again.
– And is it safe to say there are feelings between the two of them?
Well, that's complicated. It's clear they like each other and go through stages where one likes the other more, but to say it's moving toward a romance is something I'm not sure is safe to say.
– Because he has Sarya for that. The fairy is one of my favorites. She's so pure and trusting. She sort of slides into the role of Irving's girlfriend in the third book.
Sarya started out so I could have a counterpoint to the negative and brash Roon. I wanted someone bright and airy.
– And you settled on a fairy?
Yes, but while she is a source of positivity for Irving at points where he needs it most, her character is pretty deep. In the third book, readers will understand why she projects such a goody-goody persona. Her story is not so rosy. Irving initially treats her as a temporary player, someone he can be with to figure out what it means to fall in love . It sounds a little selfish of him to do this, but as he understands the jeopardy Sarya is in, his feelings deepen and become real. It's then that he sees Sarya for what she is to him and to others.
– Sounds like you're heading for a tragic ending with their subplot?
Maybe. The third book puts a big question mark on Sarya's fate. Book four will really deliver as to what will happen with her. She is a character being groomed for sacrifice. The question is, will Irving let her pay the ultimate price?
– What about some other characters?
Sir Gared, the Golden Knight, is a great one. He starts out as a villain and through the series his author evolves him into a hero. In the first book, Gared's just fiendishly cruel to Irving. By the third book, Gared is the opposite and extremely so. He's a hero that is almost too good and noble. And he doesn't let Irving forget it. I found writing him as a hero even more fun than when he was cast as the villain. At least that's how he looks in the second and third books. Something could change in the fourth and Gared could be once again using his silver tongue to order monsters galore to attack Irving.
– I gravitated to dastardly Lord Raggleswamp. He stays a villain through all three books, right?
He does for the most part. Dastardly is the perfect word to describe him. At first, he's a pesky blowhard. As the series progresses, he steps up to fill the bully role that Gared abandoned and is out to get Irving in trouble with the dean at every turn. Of course, Raggleswamp is conflicted as he also recognizes that the dean is up to no good. As a conceited villain, he is threatened when someone else comes along and steals his spotlight, so Raggleswamp might be working against Irving, but he might switch his allegiance if he sees Dean Harmstrike getting too big for his evil britches.
– You certainly have a lot of villains in the story. Lord Salreedus is another on top of Raggleswamp and Dean Harmstrike. And you made some of the professors villains, too.
Yes, Doctor Ringle is a mad scientist who teaches Villainy 101. Professor Snitpick runs Narrative Sciences and is a creepy dramatic bat creature. Lord Salreedus is a character I wrote for one scene in the first book and had no intention of using again. He's very over-the-top and evil minded, but at the same time poorly constructed. My students loved hearing every one of his out-there death threats and rumblings. Because he was so popular, he plays a small role again in The Tomb of Tomes and likely the fourth one.
– And there's Tiberius Booster, the astronaut dog who arrives at the school on the same day as Irving. He's a very noble canine.
He's a fun one to write as he really sticks out. He's a science hero on a quest when most of the rest are very fantasy based.
– And Tomb of Tomes introduces several new characters?
Yes, you meet Irving's final two instructors, Professor Sam Infinite (Heroic Deeds and Misdeeds) and Coach Malcontent (Tournament Basics). But my favorite new character in that book has to be Cocoon Boy. He's a nervous wreck that, when faced with stress, pops into a cocoon and emerges a few minutes later as a completely different character. Readers get to see him encounter a lot of stressful situations because he winds up on Irving's Dungeon Run team. Needless to say, running a dungeon brings out a lot of transformations for Cocoon Boy.
– Why should readers jump in and get in on the ground floor of Irving or any of your other properties?
I'm in this for the long haul. I've produced 24 books in seven years and show no sign of slowing down. With Irving, I'm so keyed up for the publication of his third book, that I'm writing his fourth and final book right after, so readers can read the completed series very soon. My writing is ready for Prime Time, and I really hope readers will delve deep into my library of almost 25 novels. They won't be disappointed.
– Well, thank you for taking the time to ask and answer your own questions. It's been an honor to pretend to be another person interviewing you when I'm really just you pretending.
You're welcome, I think.