I was lucky to get an interview with Kevin Wright, the author of The Definition of Vengeance, and one of this year’s #SPFBO8 semifinalists.

Please, tell us a bit about yourself…
A bit about me, huh…?

Man, I’m not particularly interesting. I’m just a boring middle-aged guy with a wife, two kids, and a dog, and a bearded dragon.

Hmm… I work full time as a firefighter and EMT. That’s pretty interesting, I guess. Currently, I switch between working on the fire department’s ladder and an engine. It keeps things fresh, changing up pieces and responsibilities.

And firefighting’s a great job. It can be tough, and it has its ups and downs, like everything else, but you get to work with a bunch of insane people who’d run through a brick wall for you, and you get to help people, too, which is pretty fulfilling.

What was the first thought that popped into your mind when you found out you had made it to the semifinals?
Allow me to bore you with a little story…

In my first SPFBO, back in 2018, I made the semifinals with Lords of Asylum, Book 1. of The Serpent Knight Saga. That year, Lords of Asylum was well received by its initial group’s judges. It scored pretty high, like an 8.25 or something.

So, I had that initial wait for the first review and then, BAM, I was tops in my group with a great score. But there were a few more books to be reviewed, so I sat and waited and watched and waited and fretted over it.

December came around and none of the other books beat Lords of Asylum. January was the cutoff to announce the finalists, so I was almost there. Just a few more days, and I was in…

And then came The Gods of Men by Barbara Kloss, scoring a 9 point something, knocking me off my high horse.

Which was tough, but hey, there are people with actual problems in life, right?

Anyway, after that crushing blow, the judges told me about the Senlin Net, which is a way for a decent book to get picked up by another group if they don’t have one they deem good enough. So, hope sprang semi-eternal again as I waited again to see if Lords of Asylum would get picked up.

It wasn’t. Which was disappointing, but not really unexpected.

I got a bit obsessive over it all, riding the highs and lows.

Long story long, the first thing that popped into my head when I’d heard I made the semifinals was: I’m not going to go crazy this time. I’m going to just enjoy the ride, however long it may be.

Why did you decide to take part in the SPFBO?
I entered because there’s no reason any self-published fantasy author shouldn’t enter.

It’s a great contest that does exactly what it’s supposed to do: shine a little light — or a lot, if you’re lucky — on any number of indie authors struggling to get noticed.

If you’re lucky, you’ll get a few decent reviews out of it, too. If you’re very lucky, maybe you’ll pull some new fans out of the woodwork. And if you’re really, really lucky (see how good a writer I am?) you’ll make the semifinals and have a shot at the rarified air.

It’s a great community, too, a place to meet other authors doing exactly what you’re doing, authors who are further along the road than you, authors willing to share their own wisdom versus the trial and tribulations of this crazy business.

Why should we buy your SPFBO8 book?
Buy it because you like a mix of medieval fantasy and detective. Buy it because you love murder and swords and gallows humor. Buy it because knights and monsters and magic are awesome. Buy it because you’ll be horrified one moment then laugh your ass off the next.

And if you don’t like those things, feel free to not buy it, because it’s not for everyone.

What got you into writing? And how long have you been doing it?
So, I’ve always loved reading, and fantasy has always been my drug of choice. But what broke the ice to get me from reader to writer was, like many of you out there, Dungeons and Dragons.

On a cold Christmas Eve way back in the mid 80’s, when I was 8 or 9, my big brother Greg and I each got a Dungeons and Dragons boxed set. He got the basic set, and I got the expert.

I didn’t even know what they were. I didn’t know how to play. But they had dragons on their covers and I fell in love.

I devoured the books, bought more, and learned how to be a dungeon master, creating worlds and heroes and stories all with the express purpose of murdering my friends.

The rest is history.

Why did you choose to write fantasy? And why pick this particular fantasy subgenre?
After fantasy, my second favorite genre is detective. I love straight up detective stories by Robert B. Parker, Dashiell Hammett, and mashups like The Watchmen.

I love the wise-cracking, been-there-done-that humor of noir toughs, antiheroes getting beat to a pulp only to come back and save the day, and I love a dark ending that knocks you breathless (See Chinatown).

So I decided to write a medieval fantasy/detective mashup series that would work like Robert B. Parker’s Spenser series. You can read them in order or out of order and it doesn’t make a big difference. Each book would be part of a whole, but also a standalone in its own right.

Which other author has had the biggest influence on your writing?
This is a tough one, so I’ll give you my go-to answer: Joe Abercrombie.

I don’t know how much he’s influenced me story-wise, but he sets a benchmark in excellence with his writing. I think he’s the best writer out there right now, in any genre, bar none.

I’ve read all his novels and loved most of them, (and at least liked the rest) but what inspires me most is how cleanly he writes. There are no extra words, no clunky info dumps, no crappy adverbs like cleanly, and no wasted effort. Reading him is like watching Muhammad Ali box (in his younger years).

When I grow up, I want to write as well as Joe Abercrombie.

What’s the best thing about being a writer?
“To crush your enemies. See them driven before you. And to hear the lamentations of their women.” (Conan the Barbarian 1982)

What’s the hardest thing about being a writer?
Another boring answer: marketing. Actually, marketing effectively is the correct answer. Marketing ineffectively, of which I am a grandmaster, is extremely easy. Anyone can do it.

I actually teach a course on ineffective marketing principles along with my companion novel entitled, So You Want to Shovel Money into an Open Furnace?

But seriously, I’ve read books, taken courses, watched webinars, for years, and I’ve only had a handful of months where I’ve turned a profit.

I am extremely stupid, though.

How do I get into the semifinals? Do you perhaps have a tip, scrap of wisdom, or perhaps an author app, tool, or resource that you recommend we try?
The price of admission into the semifinals is having a solid book with solid writing and solid editing. That’s just the bare minimum for entry, though.

And it doesn’t guarantee getting into the semis, of course. There’s a huge luck factor involved, mainly that judging a book is subjective. Hopefully, you get a panel of judges that dig your particular genre as well as everything else.

But you don’t have any hope of making it in if your book is a series of info dumps, run-on sentences, and typos.

My best piece of advice for fellow authors to get into the semis is, again, boring: learn the basics of grammar and edit the hell out of your amazing story.

And don’t only make peace with the editing process, force yourself to love it, because that’s where the magic happens.

Now you may ask: how can I make myself love copy editing? Let me share another crappy story. I’ll try to keep it short.

I knew a guy who worked out, and I told him I hated doing leg workouts. So he told me I hated doing leg workouts because my legs were weak. He was right. We hate doing what we’re bad at. Force yourself to get good at something and you won’t hate it. You might even enjoy it.

Now I love going combing through my manuscript, finding just the right word, cleaning up a clunky sentence, correcting that typo I know I’ve read over ten times but has somehow eluded me.

And if you say to yourself, well, I’ll just pay someone to copy edit my book, that’s fine, but if you give them a giant mess of typos and grammatically insane sentences, you can expect them to miss some errors.

My advice: write an awesome first draft and then edit the hell out of it, multiple times, before you send it off to anyone for copy editing. You want grammatical errors that your eyes can’t see to POP out in front of your copyeditor’s fresh eyes.

Thanks’ that was some really specific and great advice (in my humble opinion.)
Kevin, what new projects are you working on?
Right now, I’m doing a structural edit on Book 4. of The Serpent Knight Saga.

It’s entitled Terminus Rex.

It follows the further mysteries/misadventures/trainwreck life-decisions of Sir Luther Slythe Krait and his bloodthirsty partner, Karl Skull-Splitter.

Anything else you would like to say before we close?
Sure, I’d just like to say thank you for doing these interviews, for taking the time and putting in the effort to help other writers.

And I’d also like to suck up — I mean, say Thank You to all the judges, as well as Mark Lawrence, who’ve all gone out of their way to help out indie authors by donating their time, effort (and sanity I’d imagine), on behalf of indie authors everywhere.

So thank you all.

Never a dull moment when you’re around, Kevin. Great non-boring answers!
I wish you the best of luck with marketing (which I don’t get like at all either,) and of course in the competition (crossing my fingers,) and with sales!
Thanks for doing the interview and taking the time to make this fun :-)