I was lucky to get an interview with Christopher Clargo, the author of The Stones of Valtara, one of this year’s #SPFBO8 entries.

Please, tell us a bit about yourself…
I’m a primary school teacher and I live in South Wales, UK, with my wife and two children. When I’m not teaching or writing, I play bass guitar in a cover band. We play music from bands like The Killers, Thin Lizzy, R.E.M and The Stereophonics. My favourite authors are Joe Abercrombie, Bernard Cornwell and, of course, Mark Lawrence. All three write uncompromising, gritty stories that include a cast of characters with incredible depth and realism—qualities that I also look for in TV, films and games.

Favourite TV Programmes: Battlestar Galactica (reboot), The Expanse, Game of Thrones (Up until season 6), Vikings, The Last Kingdom, Star Trek TNG + DS9

Favourite Film: The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Aliens, Gladiator

Favourite computer games: The Last of Us, Mass Effect 2, Horizon-Zero Dawn, Fallout 3, The Witcher 3, Dragon Age 2

Why did you decide to take part in the SPFBO?
I first heard about SPFBO on the fabulous podcast, Wizards, Warriors & Words. The authors spoke positively about their experiences in the competition, and of course, had nothing but praise for Mark Lawrence. It impressed me that such a high-profile author like Mark would be so supportive of self-published fantasy authors. Then, after my debut novel launched in September 2021, a friend and fellow SPFBO member encouraged me to enter it into this year’s competition.

Why should we buy your SPFBO8 book?
In this sweeping epic with its ensemble of diverse characters, The Stones of Valtara tells the story of a kingdom’s fight for survival against a vengeful god and his legions of fanatical warriors.
The Stones of Valtara will immerse you in a Celtic-themed world of political intrigue, jaw-dropping twists and visceral battles.

What got you into writing? And how long have you been doing it?
As a child, I loved creating stories in my head, but unfortunately, I wasn’t very good at writing them down. I struggled in school because of my inability to concentrate on my work during lessons. However, by the time I reached my teens, I managed to develop strategies to stay focused. Yet, I never really found any enjoyment in writing—not until I became a teacher. I started writing my own stories for my pupils to use as modelled texts. Realising that the children enjoyed reading them spurred me on to write more stories. And then in 2017, I decided to embark on writing my first novel.

Why did you choose to write fantasy? And why pick this particular fantasy subgenre?
From the legend of King Arthur to the druidic centre of Ynys Mon, Wales is a land full of myth and legend. And with ancient stones, sacred groves, hillforts, and a Roman fortress right on my doorstep, it was inevitable that my ideas around mythology and fantasy would be influenced by my Welsh heritage.

It was also during my planning stage that I got into Grimdark authors like Mark Lawrence and Joe Abercrombie, as well as reading Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy, and Bernard Cornwell’s Warlord Chronicles. So, fresh from reading about Logen Ninefingers, Jorg Ancrath, Arthur and the Magisterium, I started to develop my story.

What’s the best thing about being a writer?
It’s the opportunity writing gives me to create a new world and fill it with diverse and interesting characters that the reader actually cares about. That’s an amazing feeling.

What’s the hardest thing about being a writer?
Keeping to a writing routine when life is complicated.

Do you have a tip, app, tool, or resource you recommend to authors?
Make friends with people in the writing community. There’s always someone out there who can help you. You’ve just got to ask.

It’s good to learn from others about writing craft, but it can sometimes be confusing if there’s a lot of differences of opinion on certain topics. E.g. the use of exclamation marks or adverbs. It’s probably better to concentrate on getting your draft into good shape, then employ an editor to sort out anything that needs to be fixed.

Make sure you get your author platform created well before your book is released. Definitely build a website, as it’s yours and protected from enforced changes made by social media companies. Saying that, it’s still important to develop a presence on social media—in my case, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.

Here’s a list of the software/websites I use:

Story Plotting – Plottr

Writing – Scrivener

AI Editing – ProWritingAid

Publishing – Vellum

Video Creation – Final Cut Pro, Motion

Image Editing – Gimp, Pixlr

Map Making - Inkarnate

Audio Editing – Garageband, Audacity

Web Site Hosting - SiteGround

Web Site Design – WordPress (With the Elementor Plugin)

Email Marketing – MailerLite

Giveaways - AppSumo

What new projects are you working on?
As well as writing the sequel to The Stones of Valtara, I’m working on a sci-fi story that’s aimed at a teen audience. The story follows a girl called Lowri, and her adventures on-board a sleeper colony ship journeying to Alpha Centauri. A lot of the setting takes place in deep dive virtual reality, when the colonists are in cryogenic sleep.

Anything else you would like to say before we close?
If you’d like to find out more about me or The Stones of Valtara, visit www.christopherclargo.com.

Finally, I’d like to wish all the other authors the best of luck in the competition.

Interesting answers! Best of luck within the competition, Christopher, and with sales.
Thanks for doing the interview.