Heather’s Bookshelf: Author Interview with Joel Newlon
Book Title: The Craftsman and the Wizard
Released: 12/04/20
Genre: High Fantasy
Interview by Heather L. Barksdale
What inspired you to write “The Craftsman and the Wizard”?
Newlon: The inspiration to write "The Craftsman and the Wizard" came from a propensity I have to become fascinated by side characters. I was reading the Norse legends when I discovered references to the Sons of Ivaldi, the family of dwarfs who forged the weapons of the gods. The novel is sprinkled throughout with the characters of Norse mythology who never got their own stories.
How did you come up with the names of your main characters?
Newlon: The names of characters that weren’t taken from mythology were mostly all taken from old Scandinavian names. I was careful to not favor just one of the old tongues, but to create a fictionalized amalgamation of all of the places and languages that would have existed in the Viking world.
Is there anything that you want readers to know about you, your writing process or your book?
Newlon: I would want the readers to know that my goal in writing “The Craftsman and the Wizard” was to create an escape from the world around them. This could be said of all fantasy literature, of course, but with this book, it was more important than it had ever been before. I wrote this book in 2020 when the world was in the worst state it had ever been in my nearly fifty years on it. At its very core, this book is a classic fairy tale of good triumphing in the face of hatred and evil.
If "The Craftsman and the Wizard” were adapted into a movie, who would you like to see cast to play your lead characters?
Newlon: If a movie were to be made from this book, I would wish most fervently that celebrity would not be a factor, and instead the best actors would be cast in the roles. I know that this is not the reality of modern cinema, however, so I would like Brad Pitt to play every role with the use of prosthetics and CGI. Oh, I’m already feeling an Oscar buzz.
When you encounter writer’s block, what do you do to break yourself out of it?
Newlon: When it comes to writer’s block, I don’t know what to do. I write purely in an organic style. Sometimes I don’t feel like writing, and so I don’t. Fortunately, I feel the urge to write most of the time, and it is very common when I am writing to work for ten hours straight. I’m afraid this is no help for someone who has to write around a work or family schedule. I suppose to them I would say… just start writing. It doesn’t all have to be published, but get going whether you know what you want to be saying or not, and trust that you will find your way.
Are there any tips that you would like to share with other aspiring authors?
Newlon: To aspiring authors, I would say that there has never been a better time to become a writer—or any type of artist, for that matter. It is easier now for a creative to cut out the suits and interface with the only thing that ever counted: the audience. Write a book and go into independent publishing. You will fail or succeed based on merit, and that is how it should be. You can even be terrible and still succeed if you serve some audience that likes your brand of stink. That is still worthy. People are being entertained, and you are being rewarded for it. But divest yourself now of any thoughts that the old publishing houses and literary agents are the arbiters of good literature. They aren’t and they never were. They are businesses. They make money, not art. They care more about how many Twitter followers you have than how powerful your writing is. If you just wrote the best novel the world had ever seen, but the dad from Duck Dynasty just wrote another hate manifesto, they will publish his garbage and ignore your masterpiece. Look at how many times Dune was turned down (twenty, if you were wondering). Ask yourself what books like that were lost to the world because the starving author had to stop trying. By the way, when you do get published by a big house, they give you a fourteen percent royalty and still leave it up to you to do most of the promoting. Even famous authors make most of their money on appearances and workshops. So my advice boils down to this: write your book and go into independent publishing. Let the readers decide. If I even encouraged one person with this, then I will be happy.
What are you working on next?
Newlon: Next up is the follow-up to “The Craftsman and the Wizard,” entitled “The Wizard and the Warrior King.” Since “The Craftsman and the Wizard” debuted at the end of last year, I’ve had readers asking for another book in that world, but I had written it as a stand-alone novel. I went on to publish the entire “Immortal” trilogy since its release. Then the muse led me back to the Viking shores, and I penned the follow-up that readers were asking for. It will be available this month, November 2021. It may even be available by the time this review is up.
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