Pat Jenkinson interview

AUTHOR INTERVIEW

A little introduction:

Hi I'm Pat, a metal musician and short story writer from Connecticut who's recently made the jump to full length novels.

When did your love of books begin?

Well my parents were both really big believers in early reading education, so I quite literally cannot remember a time in my life when books were not a major part of world.

When did you start to have the wish to become an author?

I'd love to drop some cool anecdote here about how I knew I had to be an author at some ridiculously young age, but the truth is that I was always one of those kids who said he wanted to run a dinosaur farm or become a transformer every time someone asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up. I guess, in a certain way, you could say that my desire to write grew out of the realization that most modern space programs aren't particularly keen on spending their entire budget to send some random twelve year old to "go fight aliens in a super sweet laser ship".  My dream of becoming a session  musician for the Mos Eisley cantina may have been a wash, but at least if I'm writing about it then  someone else can enjoy it.

How have you found the process for becoming an author?

Well the process of writing is as fantastic as it's ever been. The process of putting myself out there to the world is always a little bit rougher, but I'm getting better and better at it with each passing day.

What would you say to those wanting to become an author?

It's cliche, but it's cliche for a reason: keep putting in the effort day after day.

Tell us about your book/books:

The "Under the Burning Tower" series is a literary universe made up of novels, short stories, and a vast web of lore. The first volume, which I am in the process of querying, tells the story of an unlikely collection of rulers, soldiers, mages, and slaves from across the free kingdoms of Aios as they struggle against an invasion force from the Khavasak empire, led by a terrifying being who calls himself the Dark God. There are princesses forced to take up arms against the invading army and slaves who must  decide what's truly worth fighting for on their arduous journey to freedom. There are fearsome mountain nomads whose screams carry the power of the forest and ancient scholar-mages whose quest to peer into the substrate of the universe has given them unparalleled command of their surroundings. This strange collection of characters must answer the call of fate before they find themselves trapped in the jaws of the Dark God's growing empire. 

"Sarkiades: The Echoes of Resolution" takes some of the events from early on in the first volume and tells them from the perspective of a Sarkiades, a soldier turned diplomat who plays a small but important role in the events of the main book. I've worked very hard to ensure that Sarkiades' story compliments rather than spoils the events of the main book while also introducing readers to the sprawling world of Aios.

It is available for free on my web site.

Beyond just the stories themselves, my website also has detailed guides to the languages, maps, magic systems, and history of Aios, and I'm slowly publishing the contents of my large encyclopedia there and on my twitter page. In the coming months, you can also expect another as-yet-unnamed short story about Rizawa, a former assassin turned military investigator for the Nezhuan empire who discovers a web of intrigue and treachery around the Dark God's incursions into the Pan Rin Rainforest.

What do you love about the writing/reading community?

It's a beautiful experience when you're reading something that you really enjoy, maybe an older fantasy book without any visual material or a sci-fi book with some weird aliens whose physiology is too bizarre to paint a clear picture in your head, and then you go google it and discover that a fellow fan has taken the time to create a detailed map or a beautiful drawing that really takes your appreciation to the next level.

If you could say anything to your readers what would it be?

Well I'm still new to all this, so to be honest I'm not even totally sure what I should say. Every time someone compliments my writing or I get a new reader, I sorta feel like I did the first time I talked a girl into going on a date with me: baffled as to how I ended up in this position and desperate not to say or do anything that might screw it up.

Where can people connect with you?

The best way to see what I'm working on is through my website: patjenkinson.com . It has all of my free stories, a huge library of lore for my fantasy universe, and links to all of my other social media accounts.

Thanks again to @feed_my_reads for giving me this wonderful opportunity.