I was lucky to get an interview with Alexander Wyatt, the author of The Fires of Time, and a semifinalist in this year’s #SPFBO9.

Please, tell us a bit about yourself…
I am from the midlands in England. I was originally a microbiologist, then a sociologist, and now I work in finance. When it comes to novels, I mostly read Fantasy and Scifi. But for comic books/movies/ anything else I have favorites in every genre. My hobbies are strategy and roleplay video games, and long walks through whatever terrain happens to be nearby.

Why should I buy your SPFBO9 entry?
The Fires of Time is set in a world where a three thousand year old Empire just lost a war to a being called the Wooden King, who is now reshaping the land in his own image. One of the refugees from that war has a desperate scheme to kill the King, which involves raising a young girl he brought home from the war specifically for that purpose.

The girl, whose name is Kya, however does not want to be sent on an impossible mission to save a land she’s never seen, and besides her magics are much better suited for running away than assassination. So she plans to escape to the only place her mentor will not want to follow her: The Wooden Empire itself. She and her deceased best friend flee to find the empire ruled by strange mages and inhabited by disturbing creatures made of wood and memory.

If you like character focused story that take place in a world with a deep history then this is for you.

What got you into writing? And how long have you been doing it?
I’ve been telling myself stories to help get to sleep for as long as I remember. Eventually, I had so many in my head I needed to start writing them down. I wrote my first novel when I was twenty, which was a fun exercise but will likely never see the light of day.

Have you participated in the SPFBO before and where did you hear about the competition?
First time first book. But a friend of mine was in SPFBO last year. I think I heard about this year’s competition from them on Twitter, and it was happening at the perfect time for me, just after I’d published.

Why did you choose to write fantasy?
Fantasy is by far my favorite genre of fiction both to read and to write in. I like to put it down to the fact that making up my own worlds means I don’t have to worry about fact checking too many real-world things. Worrying that I’d got all those details right would drive me batty.

That said, I was drawn to epic Fantasy because I like grand sweeping stories, which can lead to so many moving pieces it can be daunting to keep track of. It’s always a challenge not to bog the reader down in too many details whilst still giving them a taste of the universe you have created. Hopefully, I succeeded at that.

Which other author has had the biggest influence on your writing?
There are two that I read obsessively in my formative years. Terry Pratchett, from whom I’d like to think I got a lot of my worldview and some of my approach to writing magic. The other is Dan Abnett, his Gaunt’s Ghosts series especially, for giving me a good head for action and a certain type of horror. Those two authors are pretty different but my work lies somewhere between the two.

If you were to win the SPFBO, what impact do you think this would have on your writing career?
The contest has already got more eyeballs on my work than I ever thought possible, which is a real gift. Just knowing there are people out there I’ve never met who are liking what I’m putting out is really inspiring me to write.

What challenges did you face during the writing or publishing process, and how did you overcome them?
I’d been trying for a while to find an agent and do the Trad-Pub route before deciding to self-publish. The Fires of Time is my debut novel so I had to learn everything about the publishing process from scratch. I made a fair amount of mistakes as I went, but it was a good learning experience and I now have a lot more of an idea of what goes into making a book. In the end, it was all about patience and commitment. You need to hold onto the knowledge that you have something worth sharing with the world, even if it takes a while to get it out there.

Do you have any tips or an author app, tool, or resource that you can really recommend we try?
Never throw anything away. If you have a good line, scene, world building point, or a piece of lore that doesn’t fit into the chapter you’re writing, file it away somewhere. Even if you never use it, it will add to the richness of your world as it exists inside your head and it will show through in your writing. (Sites like World Anvil are good for this)

My other best writing tip is to come up with a clear vision for your characters when you create them and then use your control over the world to convince them to do what you need them to do for the plot. Never just have them do something that is convenient for you. This will not only keep your characters’ behavior consistent but will make you come up with more interesting scenarios to get them to do what you need them to, which will in turn feel natural to the reader.

And now it's time to yank out your Palantir! Let’s talk about the future. What new projects are you working on?
The sequel of course! Wooden Empire Book 2 is coming along nicely, and a lot quicker now I know what I’m doing. Also, I am a fair way through writing a completely separate stand-alone work. That happened because I needed somewhere to put all the ideas I’ve had that didn’t fit into WE because of tone or setting. And from that primordial goo of ideas, a story somehow emerged.

Apps that are based on artificial intelligence (AI), such as ChatGTP and Midjourney, along with apps aimed specifically at authors, have caused quite a stir. Do you expect these new technologies will make your life as a self-published author easier or harder, and do you expect that they’ll mean you’ll earn more or less?
Everything I know about such programs tells me they are nowhere near there yet. They can process and rearrange data but there are technical barriers to creating original works of fiction that I’m not convinced are anywhere near being overcome. Plus I don’t think the industry’s problem was that there weren’t enough completed novels out there.

But let’s say that someone cracks it and robots start cranking out high-quality fantasy novels by the hundreds. They might make it harder for authors in the short term, but eventually, readers will get tired of the same old styles and formulas. At that point, they will start looking around for works AI can’t make. They will need human authors to provide those works. So, my advice is to keep writing, especially if that idea inside your head is really weird.

Do you have any dreams you’d like to share?
It's early days right now and all the possibilities ahead of me are quite thrilling. An agent/publishing deal/ anything that would give me more time/excuses to write would be wonderful. But for now, my dream is that Wooden Empire gets better with every book and I can bring you the story I want to tell. I’m really looking forward to finding out what happens.

Anything else you would like to say before we close?
I just want to give a big thanks to everyone involved in running the SPFBO9. It’s really something special. Good luck out there everyone. And thanks for reading.

I wish you the very best in the SPFBO. I hope a lot of readers discover your writing.
Thanks for doing the interview.