I was lucky to get an interview with C.M. Caplan, the author of The Fall Is All There Is, and a finalist in this year’s #SPFBO9.
Please, tell us a bit about yourself…
My name is Connor. I’m 27. I’m a quadruplet, I’ve got basically every alphabet disorder in whatever version of the DSM we’re currently on, and when I am not making absolutely buck-wild connections between completely disparate events/conversations/topics, I really like learning about swords and history and yelling on Bluesky about how we should really be thinking more about the Roman Republic and not the Roman Empire because dammit where is my historical fantasy about the Gracchi Brothers?!
“...can you find another novel that has cyborg horses that explode, security pugs with one camera-lens eye, castles built from skeletal lizards and mastodons, a curtain wall made of turtle shell, and ghosts that you can breathe in and are contagious?”
Why should I buy your SPFBO9 entry?
I mean can you find another novel that has cyborg horses that explode, security pugs with one camera-lens eye, castles built from skeletal lizards and mastodons, a curtain wall made of turtle shell, and ghosts that you can breathe in and are contagious? Does it marry character-focused prose with potboiler pacing? And is that book also about quadruplet royals navigating ties in division between family and intrigue?
No, seriously—can you find another? Because I’ll buy it. That sounds phenomenal. I’d love to read more absolutely bonkers stuff like that. Especially if it means I don’t have to write it first.
Subgenre: Science Fantasy
Pages: 420
Self-published: 2022
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What got you into writing? And how long have you been doing it?
Spite got me into it at first. I was an avid comic reader as a kid as at one point when I was…I think fifteen? I read to an ending a comic that gave me Event Fatigue™ so bad that I told myself I could do better than that and promptly went to write a better ending that, in retrospect, was not better than that at all even a little bit. BUT it did get me going. I wrote what could generously be called fanfiction but in reality was more comic book characters having fight scenes for like a year or so before someone told me if I wanted to write comics I should figure out how to actually write first, so I promptly wrote as much as possible and sought out as many people who knew more than me along the way. I even got into college by emailing the creative writing department before applying so they’d knew who I was and why I wanted to go there by the time I showed up and by the time I graduated, it was basically the only thing I was good at, and I wanted to challenge myself to bring something to the table people haven’t seen before. And so now I’ve stuck with it for about…I think eleven years now? I don’t know the exact date.
Have you participated in the SPFBO before and where did you hear about the competition?
I can’t remember if I learned about it first with SPFBO 4 or 5, I know I read Prince of Thorns in 2017 and found out about the contest vaguely at some point then, but I only started paying close attention towards the tail end of SPFBO5. I joined for the first time in SPFBO7 and made semifinals with my debut The Sword in the Street so really I figured with my luck this one would conk out without even making it that far. I’m still kind of in shock that this has happened.
“The cyborg horses are just the onboarding mechanism.”
Why did you choose to write fantasy?
I remember hearing someone say once that the one of the greatest toolsets fiction gives us is the ability to sort of practice for intense emotions in a very controlled environment. It’s the reason Contagion was the most watched thing on Netflix in the early weeks of the pandemic—sometimes you really need to feel a sense of catharsis, but various complications stand in the way of getting it in the real world, but fiction gives you a sort of space to practice at it and play around with how various concepts, ideas, and beliefs can make you feel without fully incorporating them into your life and worldview. I think fantasy and science fiction is one of the most perfectly poised genres to do stuff like that. It’s really good at luring you in with the cool stuff, like what I did when I pitched my book, the very conceit of the genre has a phenomenal onboarding mechanism to get butts in seats, and when they’re there you get to go “AHA! YOU FOOL! THIS IS ACTUALLY A FAMILY DRAMA ABOUT HOW FUCKED UP IT IS FOR VERY FEW PEOPLE TO HOLD INSANE AMOUNTS OF POWER AND THE WAYS THE PSYCHOLOGICAL HORROR OF HAVING THAT MUCH PRIVILEGE CAN BLEED OUT INTO YOUR FAMILY AND RELATIONSHIPS AND THE WAYS THAT PETTY GRUDGES CAN CHANGE NATIONS.”
The cyborg horses are just the onboarding mechanism.
Which other author has had the biggest influence on your writing?
Oh hey speaking of how fucked up it is for a lot of fantasy royalty having the power that they do, Kay Villoso’s Wolf Queen series is some of the best character-focused SFF in the history of publishing. There’s a ton more, from Robin Hobb to NK Jemisin to the criminally under-read Ann Petry, but I think Kay’s trilogy codified a lot of themes and ideas I had already been thinking about for a few years around that point.
If you were to win the SPFBO, what impact do you think this would have on your writing career?
I really want to have some kind of profound answer to this but I genuinely don’t know. I’m just grateful to have made it this far, and I really am just grateful to be on the finalist board. There have been people who have scored all over that board who have had fantastic careers so at the risk of sounding corny I feel like just getting this far is the real prize.
“TALK TO PEOPLE WHO KNOW MORE THAN YOU!!”
What challenges did you face during the writing or publishing process, and how did you overcome them?
The original version of this book was a romantasy novel, and after one of the most brutal beta reads of my life I figured out I needed to take out the love interest and focus more on the sibling dynamics. I walked into that beta read with 208K words and when I was done I had about 40K? Maybe 60K? And I had to rewrite it entirely. That was hard and I had to make a lot of tough calls and examine what I wanted out of the story and the kind of person and storyteller I wanted to be.
Do you have any tips or an author app, tool, or resource that you can really recommend we try?
TALK TO PEOPLE WHO KNOW MORE THAN YOU!! The one thing that has consistently paid off for me, more than anything else I’ve ever done, is to find people I admire, who’ve written the kinds of books or are living the kind of career that I wish I had, and reaching out to ask them questions and befriend them. Because their story, how they got to where they are—that’s a learning opportunity, and asking them questions and picking their brains can often help you fine-tune your own process. Don’t ever talk yourself out of reaching out to people you admire! There’s a slim minority who won’t get back to you, but most people who are open to DMs are overwhelmingly enthusiastic and lovely and willing to answer any questions you have or help however they can. Especially in indie publishing! And especially if you gush at them about their books, first.
It helps connect you in the industry, it helps you learn how things work professionally, it helps you write better books, it helps you make friends. It genuinely is one of the most helpful things you could do for yourself in terms of growing personally, professionally, and artistically. I cannot recommend it enough!
And now it's time to yank out your Palantir! Let’s talk about the future. What new projects are you working on?
I’m working on book two that comes after The Fall Is All There Is. Working title right now is The Diplomacy of the Knife. But that’s subject to change if I think of a better title. I’m hoping to have it out some time in 2024, and I’m hoping to keep the bit with a smuggling ship that has an engine that’s made of a massive human heart in need of cryoablation surgery, if things go well. It’s going to be so weird and I am so excited.
I’m also (at some point!) going to co-write something with Quenby Olson! Which I’m still floored by because this feels like Michelangelo telling you, “sure we can paint a ceiling together.”
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?
At the risk of potentially being made to eat my words, I don’t think I specifically am in a lot of trouble, in that I don’t think AI can ape my style or worldbuilding very effectively, at least right now, but if I recall correctly we’re already seeing an influx of AI novels adding to blackhat techniques people use to try and make money on KU. That said, there’s been some advances after the strike that might curtail some of these difficulties, like the fact that studios can’t option any works based off of AI, so they become less attractive to publishers since they can’t be optioned. But I imagine it will at the very least pose a headache for authors for a while before or until it’s fully and properly legislated. Again, I might end up eating these words but I do think a lot of this will end up going the way of NFTs.
Do you have any dreams you’d like to share?
I had a dream once where I was a superhero who crashed on some kind of afterlife island called Evil Island where the worst of humanity was and for some reason Miranda Cosgrove was there and she smiled and told me she was there for masterminding Pearl Harbor.
No but actually I really want to be able to either get an agent at some equivalent point in my career as an indie. I don’t wanna be a household name, that level of ambition and fame sounds both moronic and terrifying and I’d never seek it out intentionally, but I could tolerate making a few “best of” lists, if that distinction makes sense.
I’d also love to write some kind of crazy book series involving a multiverse one day.
Anything else you would like to say before we close?
I just appreciate anyone who’s read my rambling this far to be honest.
Tons of people, I’m sure :-)
I wish you the very best in the SPFBO. I hope a lot of readers discover your writing.
Thanks for doing the interview!
