Wick Welker interview

AUTHOR INTERVIEW

A little introduction:

Wick always wanted to be a writer since he was a kid and finally took a stab at his first novel during medical school. It was a check-your-brain at the door zombie thriller that a small press picked up. After publishing the sequel, he moved onto his passion: science fiction. He loves playing with time, astrophysics and relativity while mixing in interesting characters. Wick's latest release, Dark Theory, finally brings together everything he ever loved about fantasy and science fiction into a traveling adventure in a post-future medieval realm with self aware robots and issues with planets falling out of orbits. He has a wife and adorable baby girl and practices critical care medicine while writing and publishing on the side. 

When did your love of books begin?

Early. As the youngest of five, everyone in my household was reading books so I read books, too. My earliest love affair was Michael Crichton and John Grisham, quickly followed by Ray Bradbury, Isaac Asimov and Stephen King. I went through long phases of British classics, American classics and the obligatory Vonnegut phase. Now I voraciously read science fiction and fantasy and lots of nonfiction about geopolitics, economics, race, sex and history. 

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

Again, early. When I was ten my dad was a lawyer so I started writing a story about a lawyer. It was one page long and went nowhere but I still remember the thrill of putting words on a page. I toyed with short stories, poetry and novellas through high school and college but didn't actually finish a novel until medical school. 

How have you found the process for becoming an author?

In a word: thrilling. There is nothing more exciting to me than creating words and characters and cobbling together pieces of plot that come at random intervals while I'm in the shower or jogging. Becoming an author is a long, and often lonely, road. It's mostly a solitary effort, particularly in the beginning and it can be quite isolating. After publishing my fifth novel, I only now feel like I'm getting started and only halfway know what I'm doing. Aside from raising an adorable little girl, writing is one of the most exciting endeavors of my life. 

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

Anyone can become an author. Like any art, it takes time, patience and consistency. As you start, your drafts might look like the rough sketch of an artist. And just like an artist, you refine your technique and gain more experience and suddenly you stand back and you realize you actually might be creating something that others will also enjoy. Don't expect writing to be your career because it very likely won't be your sole source of income. Keep those expectations super low and maybe you'll be pleasantly surprised later. Write because you can't imagine not writing. A little time multiplied by consistency will result in a finished novel. Once you finish your first novel, the cork is out and you realize that, yeah, you can write books and perhaps you can even write many books. 

Tell us about your book/books:

My first novel, Medora, is not very good. It's a zombie thriller with some terrible writing but I think the story telling is fun. My publisher at the time encouraged me to write a sequel which I did called The Medora Wars. It was a way better book that no one seemed to care about which was fine because I was sick of writing about zombies. I quickly wrote a medical thriller, Needle Work, about an anesthesiologist in Seattle who breaks bad. This rolled out of my brain easily because I could just borrow from my real life. When I finally got to my hard sci-fi debut, Refraction, I felt like I finally put something out that represented my strengths as a writer: weaving real science with science fiction and making characters matter. My most recent novel, Dark Theory, is an 800 page ambitious foray into science fantasy about a robot with no memory who wakes up in a junkyard. Dark Theory is the first of a trilogy in the Dark Law series. I have 3-4 other works in progress that I'm very excited about. 

What do you love about the writing/reading community?

It's an overwhelmingly positive group of people. The epidemic of social media trolling is such a soul killer and it's so nice engaging with cool, non-troll people who just want to talk about the writing process and their passion for books. I write my books with my social media community on Twitter, TikTok and Goodreads in mind. 

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

I am not my characters. Also, sorry for crappy proofreading in my earlier books. More importantly, thank you for taking a chance to sacrifice your time, energy and money to read my books. There are a bazillion books out there to read. It's mind blowing that even a single person has picked up one of my books and read to completion. 

Where can people connect with you?

I engage daily on Twitter (@wickwelker) and Goodreads. You can also meet me on Tiktok where I have +200K followers under the handle @icudoctor. I talk mostly about medical stuff on Tiktok but I do book reviews there, too. If you want you can also just email me wickwelker@gmail.com