Hello and welcome to the first Forsaken Press writers interview in our On Writing series. This series focuses on our authors and their work in general and serves to operate as a sort of “get to know me” from a professional viewpoint. This interview with Forsaken Press founder, President and Editor in Chief Cameron Walker was conducted by our Social Media Manager Jenna.

What got you started with writing?

I’ve always had a vivid imagination, ever since I was little. I remember when I was in the first grade I used to make up stories to tell my mum when she walked me to school. I’ve always loved reading and stories. I believe it comes from being read bedtime stories by my parents and uncle as a kid and so the imagination combined with a love of reading just naturally colluded and it was something I fell into. My dad reading Treasure Island to me was the catalyst, I think. I was only 4 at the time but I vividly remember him reading it to me and being enthralled by the tales of pirates and adventure and really getting into it with my own imagination. You can really see where the influence for my first novel Devil’s Eye, about pirates, came from there, ha ha.

Who are your greatest influences?

In order of discovery: Robert Louis Stevenson, George Lucas, R.L Stine, Joss Whedon, J.R.R. Tolkien and H.P. Lovecraft.

What do you hope to accomplish with your writing?

Build a good sized fan base and provide them with a lot of good quality reading material. Ultimately that’s what it all comes down to. But to elaborate a bit I thrive on always challenging myself and striving to try something new or risky. Be it a different narrative style, genre, plot, characters, setting etc, you name it. I’m always looking to push the envelope and accomplish something new.

What has been the highlight of your writing career so far?

Finishing and finally publishing my first novel Devil’s Eye has been the most significant moment for sure. I don’t do anything by halves or half arse it when it comes to my writing. A lot of writers, their first novel will be 50-80 thousand words long, something on the shorter side. Devil’s Eye is 135,000 words and I get a lot of satisfaction by knowing that my first is an epic, that I went all out and gave it my all to produce this monster as my first released novel. I bit off more than I could chew and it took a long time as a result, along with a couple of other factors, but in the end it makes the achievement all the greater.

What is the most challenging aspect of writing for you?

Actually doing it. Coming up with an idea and turning that vague idea into a fully developed plot with characters, themes, a direction and overall message is easy for me. The hard part is actually writing it all down and getting it right, a lot tends to get lost in that “brain to paper” transition. Developing the skills and ability to get it down the way you want it has been the biggest challenge for me, but one I’ve done well at overcoming, thus far at least. It takes a lot of time, patience and energy to write, hence I find I struggle to do more than a thousand words a day before I start to feel burnt out. So I’m certainly a slow writer in that regard, which is a challenge in itself.

What impact has writing had on your life?

It’s something that I’m passionate about and that I love doing. It’s a creative outlet and that combined with a vivid imagination certainly makes life more interesting and fun. I derive a sense of meaning and purpose from it, but at the same time it’s isolating. If you want to be a good writer and achieve any measure of success you’ve got to be prepared to spend a lot of time alone. It doesn’t bother me, because I love my alone time, but’s not an interest for extroverts. You also have to accept that most people won’t be remotely interested in your work. Musician, artist or actor? Sure, it’s fairly easy to get people interested in that, but writing’s something that takes time and effort to appreciate, which most people don’t have the patience for. And if you’re an indy or unpublished writer, most people are going to automatically assume you’re shit at it. What it comes down to is, writing doesn’t build egos, it destroys them. That’s the cold, hard truth of it.

What is the first book that made you cry?

None thus far. I don’t think I’ve ever read a sad book. I’ve seen plenty of sad movies and cried during lots for various reasons, but I can’t say a book has ever drawn that sort of emotional reaction from me.

If you could tell your younger self anything about writing, what would it be?

Focus less on fan-fict and more on your own material. Don’t waste your time trying to get Devil’s Eye perfect, it will never be. By the time you’ve finished editing it once more you’ll have improved as a writer and hence will find more to take issue with. This process will continue ad infinitum if you let it. (Part of the reason it took so long to release).

What’s your favourite under-rated novel?

Probably Dean Koontz’s One Door Away From Heaven. I’ve read about 8 of his novels and most of them are among his best and most highly rated. This one really struck a cord with me, yet I have never seen it be rated that highly anywhere. I loved the plot, narrative style, blending of fantasy, sci-fi, horror and thriller, the characters, atmosphere and focus on imagery and environment that’s missing from a lot of his other works.

Have you ever read anything that changed what you thought fiction could be?

I already knew that fiction is often philosophical via the themes and messages within a story whether it be via film or literature, but Sartre’s Nausea opened my eyes to just how deeply philosophical fiction could be. How actual philosophy in itself could literally drive a narrative and shape a plot around it.

Do you believe in writer’s block?

As in do I think other people get it? Yeah, I know its quite a common thing for a lot of writers to get. George R.R. Martin had it for years while trying to get The Winds of Winter done.
I’ve never really had it myself because of the way I write. I know what I’m going to write before I write it. If I ever find myself getting stuck for whatever reason then I get up, walk away and return at a later date and continue. I’ve never really had much of an issue with it except for the odd day where I wanted to write, but it just wasn’t happening.

You’ve recently released your own full-length novel, Devil’s Eye.  What kind of research went into writing it?

Despite the fact it’s a historical novel set in the late 1600’s not as much as you would think. I’ve always been an avid reader and have loved history since the 4^th grade. I’ve loved pirates specifically since I was four years old, so I’d already read quite a lot about them and the era. At least enough to write the story convincingly. The only real research I did was learning about different names for parts of the ship, different types of ships there were, what sets them apart and making sure I had them all right.

What was the hardest scene to write?

It really depends, different things can be tricky for various reasons. For example battles and combat scenes were tricky in the sense that a lot of the same sort of stuff happens over and over again, but you’ve got to try to find different ways to express it so it doesn’t grow stale and get boring. How do you describe ships firing their cannons at each other six times without it getting dull?
But the part I really struggled with was some of the dialogue scenes between Christine, a young aristocratic French woman and the pirates. It was difficult to try to have them interact with meaningful discourse that was believable. I wanted to get a social criticism going of different sides of the social scale and their perspectives on the world, which was very difficult. Reading it back you can tell I struggled with it as it didn’t really come off as intended, but it is what it is.

What did you edit out?
To be honest I can’t really remember much of what I cut out, but there was a decent amount of it. The final version before I began editing it ended up being 150,000 words long and I ended up cutting about 15,000 from it. A lot of it came from just deleting unnecessary words, tightening up sentences and rewrites here and there. I trimmed a few scenes, but I don’t recall anything specific. It’s stuff I chose to delete because it was inferior, and I tend to not focus on the crap.

How can your fans best support you? 

This may sound cliché, but its true, buy my work, read it. The best way to support someone is to take an interest in their work by investing your time, money and energy into it. You never know you might just surprise yourself and end up really enjoying it.

If you’re interested in a good adventure story you can check out Devil’s Eye here at Smashwords (Also available on Amazon and Kobo): https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/986119