Ian Robert Ross interview

AUTHOR INTERVIEW

A little introduction:

My name is Ian Robert Ross and I am the author of ‘Crown of Caphedra’. I live in Ottawa, Canada, but grew up in the Maritimes. Before becoming an author, I spent about twenty years working in the newspaper and magazine industries and migrated to fiction writing a few years ago. Right now, my focus is on the continuation of my epic fantasy series, but I also dabble in some short fiction and am slowly building up a couple of anthologies for future release.

When did your love of books begin?

I would say that the first book I ever fell in love with was Helen Creighton’s “Bluenose Ghosts”, a folkloric study of the supernatural in Nova Scotia, where I spent a good part of my childhood. I read it cover-to-cover when I was in second grade and it forever stoked my love of the paranormal. I consider it a pretty formative stepping stone in my reading history. A few years later I discovered role-playing games which first drew me to reading works of fantasy, like Steve Jackson’s Fighting Fantasy series, the Dragonlance Chronicles by Weis and Hickman, and Tolkien’s ‘The Hobbit’. History and folklore always remained great interests of mine. By high school, I was often deep in war history novels, no doubt a result of growing up in a military household. In university, I studied literary fiction and poetry as part of my English degree, but made room on my shelf for lots of science fiction, too. That’s when I discovered William Gibson, Spider Robinson, and some of my other favourites.

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

I can’t honestly say that the idea of being an author occurred to me when I was a kid. I grew up in the countryside where people would make fun of you for reading books, much less wanting to write them. Now to be fair, my hometown has produced a bunch of world-class authors, possibly out of a human tendency to rebel against such conditioning, but it was when I moved away to attend university in Halifax that my surroundings became saturated with really creative folk. It was as if everyone in that city was consumed with producing some kind of art, and I was not immune. When it came to writing fiction I admit that I had a lot of false starts, but I developed great consistency in writing poetry and attending weekly poetry nights at the local coffee house that we all frequented. It was in those days that I met the first of those whom I could count as among my life-long writer’s circle.

How have you found the process for becoming an author?

I wrote a lot for my career, mostly features and other articles for community and trade publications. It took a long time for me to become an author of fiction, however. Over the years, I generated a heap of first paragraphs and story fragments but always seems to abandon them at the starting block. I’d lose interest in good ideas and move on to others before ever producing any completed pieces. I procrastinated and put my day job ahead of my writing passion so that it all remained a dream until I moved to Ottawa. I had relocated for work a few months before the rest of my family was due to arrive and this left me with a bit of spare time on my hands. So I used that time to take a more methodical approach to my writing, structure my plots and character arcs more precisely, and focus on short fiction pieces to keep my aims more manageable. I honestly surprised myself when I arrived at the closing paragraph of a short story about a reluctant Martian colonist and marked the work complete. I wrote a few more short works after that, then something inspired me to dust off a fantasy story opening I had written about an old veteran keeping watch over a swamp in the last days of his soldiering career. I hand drew a map and spent two months sandboxing imagined battles on a spreadsheet, coming up with a background and a pantheon of characters to populate the world. When I returned to the unfinished page to finally resume writing the tale, a flood of ideas suddenly poured out. The investment in worldbuilding paid off and with every chapter I wrote, I found myself more and more obsessed with growing this story.  A year later, I had my first draft written. A year after that, I had opted to go bigger, and I almost doubled the word count of my manuscript by the second draft. Then came yet another year of editing, proofreading, and beta reading, then it was done. I finally published ‘Crown of Caphedra’ just before Christmas of last year.

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

Aspiring authors should know that there’s never been a better time to get your works out there to the public. There are so many avenues available to those considering self-publishing, allowing you to set your timetables, take control over your product and accumulate your own library of intellectual property. The Internet has made interacting with readers and peers so much easier, too. You’ll find a lot of friendly folks travelling the same path.

Tell us about your book/books:

‘Crown of Caphedra’ is my first full-length novel. It is an epic fantasy which is set shortly after the death of a king leads to a contested succession. The land is in disarray as different echelons of society each stake their claims. The Faith of the Four Pillars is the dominant religion and seeks to elevate the king’s eldest daughter to the throne. They are challenged by the late king’s Lord Marshal who commands the remnants of the army, a growing mob of military loyalists who support the prince. And yet somewhere there is a third child spirited away by a cabal of merchants and nobles, though it is said she is tormented by a mysterious affliction and unfit to rule. Each faction has spent years shaping and grooming their chosen contenders, so this is more of a clash of societal forces than a competition between heirs. While there is a Council that could resolve the matter, its members drag their feet in deliberation, all too happy to exploit the void of leadership to line their own pockets and shepherd their private schemes.

 

Drawn into this tinderbox of conspiracies are three friends: Olen, a veteran soldier staring down inevitable retirement; Denn, a well-bred but untested young cavalryman; and Livet, a sly young girl, who can draw on mysterious talents when trouble arises. Despite their aversions, duty, as well as unpaid debts and old promises, compels them to journey to Caphedra and be tossed into the turmoil that threatens to destroy the crumbling capital and ignite a war.

What do you love about the writing/reading community?

I have deeply welcomed the comradery found with other writers online. I am an independent author and publisher, so my work is inherently done in solitude. Add two years of pandemic-related isolation, the ability to continue sharing online with other writers and build an audience has been crucial. It is a boon that this era of accessibility in publishing has led to so many writers stepping out of the shadows and the lion’s share of them are eager to interact and share their experiences with like-minded souls.

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

I would just like to say how happy I am whenever a new reader picks up my book and explores the world that I created. The years I spent writing it were filled with such anticipation that it’s a huge joy to be able to finally share my work and nothing encourages me more than when a reader takes time to discuss the finest minutiae or plot details with me. No doubt, I am not the only author who loves talking about his book. I am so pleased with the feedback I’ve received so far.

Where can people connect with you?

Lots of places! I have an author blog set up at www.ianrobertross.com, where you’ll also find my email address. You can track me down on social media; I am most active on Twitter (@IanRRoss) and Facebook (www.facebook.com/IanRobertRoss) and I also have an author page on Goodreads (https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/22017553.Ian_Robert_Ross). Come find me. I am always very happy to engage.