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Overview
Edward lives in Canada, though he did grow up in Texas. Not only does he write, but he is the editor for a sci-fi series, which we discuss on today’s show.
Edward has been writing full time for almost 30 years and has won several awards and has his own publishing company. His stories range from sci-fi to fantasy and non-fiction.
Edward also runs a podcast and has gotten to talk with many well known authors. Many of these authors have had stories in the sci-fi anthologies that Edwards edits.
His Book
Shaper of WorldsWebsite
Favorites
Six of CrowsYouTube
Sponsored by:
I use Dreamhost for the website: https://www.dreamhost.com/r.cgi?2152744
I use Draft2Digital for most of my publishing https://www.draft2digital.com/r/Re1DJR
Transcript
[00:00:46] Stephen: Hello, welcome to episode 1 0 3 today. Have a special treat for you. Instead of an author that has just gotten started. We have an author that has been doing this for almost 30 years. Edward Willett. He writes Saifai, but he [00:01:00] also compiles and edits compendiums of scifi with some of the best Saifai authors out there.
And we talk about the latest book that’s coming out. Uh, he also does a podcast where he interviews. Authors. And that’s what part B is for talking to authors about podcasting and interviewing guests that are, um, bigger names, guests that, uh, everybody’s heard of. We talked about how that might be different.
We had to talk about what it’s like to compile and edit short stories for other authors. So it’s. Interview a great conversation. We did this, uh, in the snowy Christmas time, which I find interesting because here it is mid April for me and I’m looking outside and it is still snowing. So, uh, it was kind of a bookend here for that episode.
Also, a lot of people have said they love the podcast and I think that’s great. I try and get them. Interesting authors and talk to them with interesting topics and good books. And one of the things that would be great is [00:02:00] if people left reviews, left some stars, some thumbs up, uh, to help out the podcast, the more people that listen the better it is for everybody, me as the podcast, uh, creator and the authors who are writing these great books.
But also if you would really like to help, uh, My time, I spend money for the hosting. I spend money for the publishing of the podcasts. There’s various fees and costs to do this. Uh, what would be great is I’m including some sponsor links in the show notes and on the website. So if you’re going to use one of these services, That I use like blueberry or using WordPress or hosting with DreamHost.
If you’re going to use one of these, go click on that link and then sign up for it because it doesn’t cost you anything more. And it would give me a little bit that could help defer the costs for all the episodes. So you’ve probably heard that spiel before, uh, it’s uh, rings true everywhere. So check out my sponsored links.
Give me a [00:03:00] shout out. It would help a lot. So here’s. Edward. I want to officially welcome you to a discovered wordsmith podcast. How are you doing this morning? Thanks for having me on. Yeah, it’s great. We got the connect kind of last minute. So it fills into time. That’s perfect. So before we had started talking about your book, why don’t you tell us a little bit about yourself and what you like to do, where you live that.
[00:03:22] David: I live in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada, but I’ve not from here originally. I was born in silver city, New Mexico, where Billy, the kid shot his first sheriff at Baron. Like, uh, and then we lived in Texas and I moved up here from Texas as a kid. I’ve lived here ever since, started my career as a newspaper reporter photographer for a weekly newspaper.
And then at the ripe old age of 24, I was the editor, the news editor of that newspaper. And I did that for a few. And then I was communications officer for the Saskatchewan science center here in Regina and then 20, what is this? This is so 29 years ago, I quit my job and became a full-time freelance writer.[00:04:00]
So I always knew I wanted to be a writer. So going into journalism was actually just my way of admitting that you couldn’t make a living as a writer right away. And as a reporter, I thought at least. And also make a living and that’s pretty much the way it worked out. So now, currently I know you often talk to aspiring authors.
I’m actually quite well-established I guess at this point, um, I have more than 60 books of non-fiction science fiction and fantasy for readers of all ages won a few awards, have my own publishing company now run my own podcast. So yeah, I’m way down that road of trying to do what you want. The one goal I would still like to reach is making lots and lots of money.
That’s the one I haven’t quite gotten to yet
[00:04:45] Stephen: after people are on this podcast, that’s when they hit the bestseller times list and they go onto the best thing. So you’re on your way now. So you’ve done a lot of journalism. How do you think that’s helped you with your writing? [00:05:00]
[00:05:00] David: I think one of the great things about, especially at a weekly newspaper.
We did everything. So in a week I would ride all kinds of news stories, but I also would interview people and write features. I was writing three feature stories a week, maybe interviewing different people, talk and whatever, everybody from televangelists to Everest, mountain climbers to politicians. And so I, and I think the other great thing about that.
You just had to write, right. The newspaper came out on Wednesday and you had to have your stories done on Tuesday or Monday or whenever. And you did, you couldn’t just say, I don’t feel like writing. You had to write. And the one thing I have, and I think it’s partly from that is I sit down at a keyboard, but yeah, I procrastinate because everybody does.
That’s not writer’s block. I can always write if I just start my fingers moving, I can write. And I think that was partly that discipline from, that came out of there. And the other great thing about journalism is that you talk to so many, as I said, you talk to so many different people, you learn so many [00:06:00] different things.
A good journalist knows that he doesn’t know a lot about anything and ask the questions to try to learn so that he can. Convey that information to readers who also don’t know anything about the topic. So it’s a great self-education program, assuming that you’re doing it to find out what people really know and not trying to impose your own ideas, which unfortunately, I think happens a lot in journalism these days, but my.
My journalism professor was with the old Chicago newspaper in the forties. He was working in newspapers in Chicago. So he came from a different era, for sure. Yeah,
[00:06:37] Stephen: definitely. But I liked that too, because you, I do a lot with computers and sometimes it’s good learning programming to go back to a generation or two and get where that’s coming from the basics, because some of the stuff now it’s so easy, you get bad habits or you learned.
Incorrectly and it actually makes it take longer. I can imagine [00:07:00] journalism can be the same way when all you have is a notepad and a typewriter it’s different than the internet and a word processor, different habits, different skills. I think that could be beneficial.
[00:07:12] David: You had to ask questions that’s for sure.
[00:07:16] Stephen: Well, I’ll Google that later and then trust it’s the right information.
[00:07:20] David: Yeah. It’s been a long time since I did journalism. So I don’t even know what it’s like to do it now. That was when I was doing it.
[00:07:28] Stephen: You lived basically in the desert in Texas and then moved to Canada. So I
[00:07:32] David: imagine that it wasn’t the desert.
It was the panhandle. So it’s like cotton country landscape. Doesn’t change between here and there. It’s all flat.
[00:07:43] Stephen: It’s definitely different weather as how do you like that? Cause right now I live in Northeast Ohio and it’s snowing really hard right now and I love it. I love the snow.
[00:07:54] David: I was a bit disappointed.
We moved up in August. And of course, when you’re a kid, what do you know? It was 1967. The first thing [00:08:00] I hoped when we moved to Canada was that I get to go to Montreal expo 67. And my parents gently explained to me that we were as far away from Montreal here in Regina, as we were, when we were in Texas, it’s pretty much the same distance, 3000 miles or something.
No, we would not be going to expo 67. And my other disappointment as an eight year old was I had this image that when we hit the border, there’d be this wall of snow. Once you got to Canada, it was snow all the time. And no, it was course summer. And we have the record temperature here in Saskatchewan for the summers, 114 degrees or something.
So there was no snow, but there was come winter and. The thing that people kept telling us, oh, if you think this is cold, just wait when it got to 40 below. And they were still saying, we realized they were pulling our leg a little bit, but you get used to it. And now I, I do like snow find, okay, here it snowed the first time in very early November.
And we’ve had it ever since on the ground. And we had a really cold snap over Christmas, but I went out and walked around the lake. There’s a lake [00:09:00] downtown here is about five kilometers. I went out and walked around the lake at a minus 34 Celsius, which is like minus 20 minus 30 Fahrenheit with the wind windshield was like minus 47 Celsius, which is 50 something.
And I went and walked around the lake. So you get used to it.
[00:09:17] Stephen: See, I would love that because honestly, I lived in San Diego for a while, which is really boring, whether it’s the same all the time. Yeah. So when we don’t have snow, especially in December it’s, c’mon it’s Christmas. So I think I’d enjoy that at least some of
[00:09:35] David: the time it’s the length of it.
So it comes in November and it could be, it’ll be sometime in April before it’s all gone and you can still get a light snow storm up. Victoria Day weekend, which is the third weekend in may. I can remember here having a big wet snow falls that late. So it does, especially if you have a house and you have to shovel and we have a shoveling bylaw now, so you have to have your shovels out there and get it done within 48 hours, or you could get ticketed.
So [00:10:00] they’re not actually enforcing it. I don’t think quite. It’s more of an informational year, but the Bible actually says,
[00:10:08] Stephen: yeah, if nothing else, if there’s lots of snow on the ground and it’s bitter cold, lots of good time for writing. So there’s another thing to help force you into the writing. Yeah,
[00:10:19] David: that is there’s one argument.
Why there are so many writers from Saskatchewan because population is about a million. We’ve got one of the most active, this Suskatchen writers Guild was one of the most active writer organizations in camp. And the argument is that there has been nothing else to do here in the wintertime, which isn’t true, but that is the cliche.
Right?
[00:10:35] Stephen: I love that. And you always think differently of other countries because you only see it through a small lens in movies or news or whatever. So it’s interesting to go to another place and actually experience it. So it’s good to hear that. It’s not snow. When you hit the border, you should know.
[00:10:54] David: Um, there was one year when we were in a course tour from my high school and it was literally like [00:11:00] that it was spring and we crossed the border and it was literally, there was snow on one side of the border there wasn’t on the other.
But that’s the only time I’ve seen that. Yeah. I’ve
[00:11:06] Stephen: seen that a couple of times with our freeway right here near, near us. There’s rain on one side and not on the other. It’s like the weather hits the freeway and changes or something.
[00:11:16] David: That’s funny. There are places like that all over.
[00:11:19] Stephen: When you originally began writing what spurred you to want to start?
Why did you want to write? And you’ve been writing your whole
[00:11:26] David: life. I wanted to write because I was a reader. I was a huge reader. I learned to read in kindergarten. Actually my team, our teacher taught us with the sounds of associated with the letters phonics, and I taught myself to read from that. So by the time I got to grade one, I could write.
They actually skipped me. You’re straight into grade two, which also contributed to my being a reader because I was always like a year and a half younger than everybody else in my class. And the sports was never a thing for me. I think it may have been partly because I was in a year and a half younger than all the other guys who were running over me on the football field and things like that.
Oh, I did play football cause I did get size [00:12:00] later. So it was reading and my two older brothers and they read science fiction. So there was science fiction around the house. So that’s what I gravitate to very early on. And I wrote my first short story when I was 11 years old, it was just something to do on a rainy day.
And it was called Castro glass, hyper ship test pilot, which pretty much shows you where my brain was at age 11, heavily influenced by Heinlein and Andre Norton and Arthur C. Clarke, Isaac Asimov, the big writers of the day. And I enjoyed writing that story and I had. Junior high teacher, I guess it was, I was 11, which would have put me in grade eight as again, having skipped a year.
And, um, he took my short story and he did a proper critique of it. He said, I don’t understand why your characters did this. And this didn’t make sense to me. And I’ve credited him ever since with giving me that little spur to keep going into. And in fact, I dedicated to the city born a novel that came out two years ago to him.
Tony Tunbridge was his name. And so I kept riding all through high [00:13:00] school. I wrote longer and longer stuff. I wrote three novels in high school. So I decided pretty early on that writing was what I really wanted to do. And it was basically because I wanted to tell stories that readers would appreciate and enjoy as much as the stories that I had read and enjoyed as a reader.
[00:13:18] Stephen: Three in high school. I know I talked to one girl who’s 10 and wrote a picture book. So I like hearing when kids are young.
[00:13:27] David: I actually have them right here. Let’s see this, the first one, that one doesn’t have a cover anymore, but here’s an example. They all look like this. I learned to type, I was my fastest typer and they’re all in red binders.
Like this little portable typewriter. Yeah. I keep, I started scanning it on the thought that I would put out a, uh, just an ebook of slavers of FOC, which was my Magnum Opus in high school. Um, but I’m afraid if I do, it’ll sell better than my grownup stuff that would be, [00:14:00]
[00:14:00] Stephen: and then you’ll be in trouble. You have to go back time, travel back to high school.
Tell us about, tell us about your current book, but also mention your other books in series. Tell us about what you have written. Give us the name and what is.
[00:14:14] David: I can’t post everything I’ve written, but my main publisher has dog books in New York. One of the major science fiction, fantasy publishers, and my most recent thing for them was a three book series talked.
It would be longer, but it’s three books called world shapers. And I may continue to write it from publishing itself, which was a lot of fun. It was a complicated to explain, but look up roll shape or master of the world and the moonlit world. And it’s basically an, a labyrinth of shaped worlds where people from our world have made.
As they would like them to be like writers, living inside their own worlds. And my main character is traveling from world to world and has to find the shaper of each world and gather the knowledge of the making of that world and carry it all to a central mysterious figure at the center of this labyrinth to try to save it all from destruction.
There’s [00:15:00] an adversary who’s coming through and messing everything up and wants to hunt down the, this person at the center. It’s a lot of fun to write because every book is different. The first one was set in a version of our world, but it wasn’t quite. Lacrosse was the big professional sport and, you know, And then instead of the white house, the president does in the Emerald palace.
And then in the second book, the master of the world was based on Jules Verne. So it’s all steam, punk and weird submarines and flying machines and things like that. And then the moon that world was a. Version of it is where rolls and peasants and vampires OMI, because that’s, what’s, it’s a Gothic kind of an adventure.
And the next one, which is planned, but I haven’t written yet will be set in a kind of a film noir world with gangsters and I’m pretty bold guard type stuff. So the set up was that I could write any story in any world I wanted using this framework. Unfortunately, I think to a large extent, probably because of COVID hitting was [00:16:00] this was going on.
The Daws decided not to carry on with that series a, but I will probably carry it on with my own publishing company. My most recent, that’s not the one we’re going to talk about, which is an anthology, but my most recent novel is a young adult novel called a star song, which actually goes way back. It was the first novel I ever wrote.
And over the years it’s come close to being published a few times. In fact, it was almost. 1994 or something like that. The editor said I was ready to make an offer on it, but the publisher died. His son took over. And the sense of we’re not publishing that creepy science fiction stuff anymore. And that was it.
And I never found a home for it. And now it’s come out and the new edition, I don’t have a copy of it handy at the moment. And then the next thing coming out from Davo for my main publisher will be a humorous space opera called the tangled stars. The main, one of the main characters is a genetically uplifted talking cap.
So that gives you some idea of what kind of story it is. He becomes captain of the star ship at one point. So that’ll be out this fall. I [00:17:00] believe.
[00:17:00] Stephen: I like how, because the series you were talking about with jumping around in the world, I love that. Because it not only is Saifai, but it’s has almost different genres for each book.
So it gives you that ability and I’ve always pushed back against the, oh, you have to publish the same genre or people aren’t going to read any of your stuff. So
[00:17:23] David: the idea being the egotistical writer type that I am, and I can write anything and this framework would, let me write anything. Yeah. It’s still within.
Framework, but it would be an example of also I’ve had my vampire story now and steam punk story. And the first one was basically urban fantasy because it was set in a world very much like ours. And although it does have a science fiction backstory it’s about aliens and super technical. The field of this story is like a portal fantasy.
Cause you’re going through these magic portals from world to world. So again, I was mixing up the genres a bit there too. And the other [00:18:00] inspiration of course, was Dr. Who, which is the greatest storytelling framework ever conceived because you can literally tell any kind of stories that anywhere at any time.
Within that framework and you don’t even have to be consistent because the timelines change and things that you think happened that actually didn’t happen now.
[00:18:17] Stephen: Yeah. It drives me crazy with people that are arguing about doctor who cannon and I’m like, seriously, it’s 50 some years now or something, and who’s really going to catch all of that.
[00:18:30] David: That’s slightly insane to try to make it.
[00:18:33] Stephen: And so the series. Uh, that dog was publishing a I’m sure has bands and readers, but they don’t want publish anymore. And you’re able to do it on your own. That’s the great benefit of the world we live in now is you can continue that for the readers that want that instead of it just disappearing from the world.
I love that.
[00:18:54] David: Yeah. And I started the publishing company it’s called shadow pop press. It’s named after our cat, who oddly [00:19:00] enough is also the model for the four mentioned cat, the upcoming. And I started it with two projects in mind. One was a collection of my short fiction called pass the stars, which was the first book I published.
And then the second one wasn’t me at all. It’s the first world war memoirs of my wife’s grandfather. He wrote them late in life and I brought them out in a little book called the one lucky devil, and I could never have done that a few years ago. And this new publishing landscape enabled me to find a way to bring books out.
I couldn’t find get out any other way, but I still think they were worth putting out in that first book. My collection of short stories. It’s very hard to find a publisher for short story collections, especially if you’re not well known as a short story writer. And I had enough to make a book, but it was going all the way back to when I was 20 years old in order to find enough published stories.
Cause I just don’t write that many of them. And it was nominated for two, a book awards here in [00:20:00] Saskatchewan. It wasn’t that I was putting out something that didn’t, it didn’t deserve to be published. I felt, and I’ve continued to do that. And I was sat up. I press a lot of, it has been books that have been orphaned by other publishers.
I have a five book, young adult series, the publisher went bankrupt. So those all came back to me and put them out charge of Excalibur series and other publishers that went bankrupt or closed down. And I got the rights back. I put those out, but then I have the new stuff, like star song that I mentioned in the book.
That just came out, which is this anthology that comes out of my podcast, which is called, this is shapers of world’s volume two. There was a volume one, and it’s all short fiction by author authors, science fiction, fantasy authors who were guests on my podcast, which is called the world shapers. And so shadow Paul press is, and it’s expanding.
I’m actually publishing books by two other authors. I’ve contracted to do that this year and see if I can expand into being more of a traditional publisher where publish other authors work. We’ll see how that goes.
[00:20:58] Stephen: Let’s talk about the [00:21:00] books for a second. The new ones, the anthology, the paper of world’s collection.
That’s the newest one, correct? I have one right here. Imagine
[00:21:07] David: that’s great. It’s the shapers of rose volume to 546 pages of fiction. And I’ll have to put my reading glasses on to see who’s in it. So there’s new fiction. You’ll recognize some of these names by Kelly Armstrong. Marie Brendan, Helen Dale, Candice Jane Dorsey.
Lisa foils, Susan. James Allen Gardner Matthew Hughes, heli Kennedy, Lisa Kessler, Adrian lay craft. I rename it. Garth nix, Tim Pratt, Edward Savio, Brian Thomas Schmidt, Jeremy Shaw, and some guy named Edward Willett. And then there’s reprints from Jeffrey Carver, Barbara Hambly Nancy, Chris David D. Levine, SM Sterling and Carrie Vaughn.
Wow. So that’s that one. And the first one has, which is over here. Actually it was a world volume one had my first year, some of my first year again. It had a little less original fiction, but it had new stories from Sean McGuire, Tonya Huff, David Weber, Ellie Modisett Jr. DJ bell or Christopher Rockiyo John [00:22:00] C.
Wright, cellie, Edina, and me and stories from John Scalzi. David bran, Joe Haldeman. A few had told me as a teenager, I’d be publishing Joe Haldeman, a Jewish Grenada fondly, Dr. Charles again, and Gareth bell pal, Derek coonskin, Anthea dire. So I’ve had 40 some authors.
Nice.
[00:22:18] Stephen: And we’re going to talk podcast coming up for the author segment of the show. So you said you don’t write a lot of short stories. What gave you the idea to. Take all these authors that you talked to and get stories from them to compile into one, one of
[00:22:35] David: the things from founding shadow pop press was as a publisher.
Now I was able to join Sask books, which is the professional association of publishers in Saskatchewan. In fact, I’m currently their vice president. I’m on the board now and at our annual meeting in 2018, this woman came in from a small press and Winnipeg, but calm. She had comic book connection and she had very successfully done.
Kick-started anthology, she’d raised a hundred thousand dollars for this anthology [00:23:00] and published, and I’d never heard of these authors. And I know, I know some authors, I should see if I can do a Kickstarter. That was a bit of a scary process. Not having done it before, but the first one worked, I raised $16,000.
Basically didn’t raise a hundred thousand. I think it was the comics connection. Cause comics, people are really big on Kickstarters. And I think that may be why. Such an oversubscription to her anthology and I scraped by, but at least, and so the first one came out and I thought that was cool. I guess I could do it again.
And so I did it again and it worked. And so I’m currently assembling the Kickstarter for shapers of world’s volume three, which will launch in March and has another great collection of authors. I’m getting reprints from people like Cari, Cory Doctorow and F Paul Wilson. Kat Rambo’s in there and James Morrow.
And so again, a really fantastic collection of authors that maybe a little thinner than this one. It may only be about 400 pages instead of 540. [00:24:00]
[00:24:00] Stephen: I love you just mentioned F Paul Wilson. Cause I do a geek podcast with a friend of mine and he was just talking about a repairman Jack from F Paul Wilson. And that was on there.
So yeah, he
[00:24:11] David: was a guest again, this would have been in my third year. I’m well into my fourth year of guests. And I’m already thinking next year, there’ll be hopefully a volume four. Um, and yeah, he was a great guy to talk to too.
[00:24:23] Stephen: And they’re all Saifai ish stories.
[00:24:27] David: My focus is entirely on talking to science fiction and fantasy authors or authors in the fantastical realm.
Yeah. On my podcast. And so that’s what the anthologies are there. They don’t have a theme, like a lot of anthologies do where it’s all about. I heard when the second world war, that kind of theme, it’s more of a, I call it an author, showcase our cabinet of curiosities. It’s whatever the authors want to provide, that they feel will showcase them or a story that they would really like to write and get out there.
I’ve only [00:25:00] rejected. One story. And that was because it was would’ve pushed me way past the kind of PG 13. I was looking for this one would have put me into the X somewhere. I think. So I said, could you send me something, not quite so much like that. And she did, and it was fine.
[00:25:15] Stephen: I agree. I like that. G scifi, some of the newer stuff.
Tries to get a little grittier or whatever, isn’t it. But then again, like you said, a doctor who’s star Trek I’m from that same era, watching those shows in the sixties, seventies. So that’s probably influences my thinking a lot.
[00:25:33] David: And I also want my, I also want the anthologies to be gateway drugs if you’d like for younger readers as an as anthology.
Certainly where for me, I devoured all kinds of short story collections, then apologies. When I was getting into reading science. I have a couple of them back there on my shelf, really old ones from the fifties, a two volume set called ventures in space and time I think, or something like that. And it was some really great old stories in it.
And [00:26:00] I would, and while I realized that teenagers are perfectly capable of reading X and R rated stuff, and haven’t been known to do, I would still prefer. But you get a different level of comfort. And I would like this to be accessible to younger readers, school libraries, that kind of thing.
[00:26:16] Stephen: And I love with Saifai that you can talk religion and politics and make statements without really getting too offensive or without people.
Coming down and because it’s a different world, it’s a different people. It just so happens that the politics and religion represent what we see in today’s world. That type thing, the star Trek, the bright one from star Trek was the two guys. One was white and black and white making the statement back in the sixties, but they got away with it with the sensors because it was aliens and they looked weird.
So I love that about Saifai you normally write novels? How does it [00:27:00] for you? How is it to go and write a short story? Is it difficult? Do you enjoy it?
[00:27:06] David: I enjoy it. I just don’t tend to think in short story terms. When I get ideas, they tend to quickly blossom into something that would make a novel. And my short story in shapers of world’s volume two is actually a prequel to my new novel, the tangled stars.
So it introduces the characters and it’s actually a lot of it is verbatim from Watson and the. When I got to that point in the novel and I was providing backstory. And then when I was coming time to write a short story, I thought, first of all, it’d be nice to promote the novel and the anthology. But second of all, that’s actually a short story on its own.
How these characters met and met and rescued this cat from the terrorist are planning to use them as a walking ball. And that’s the premise of short story on Luna. And so I just took chunk that I had from the novel and I was able to. And carry on with it and make it into a short story. Sometimes I’ll get a shorter idea that just doesn’t happen very often.
And I just don’t think in terms of short [00:28:00] stories, I think that’s true of a lot of authors. There are some authors who think who pretty much only write short stories and some authors who only write novels since some who cross over. But I think most of us have a link we tend toward, and for me, a short story just quickly.
Expands out in any time I write a short story, I can think there’s actually a novel hiding in there.
[00:28:23] Stephen: And I liked that you use the short story format for the prequel to introduce and possibly lead people that read the anthology into your series. I know, I like to read things like that. Oh, that was great.
I’m going to go check out this author’s other stuff.
[00:28:40] David: And of course I was the editor of the anthology show. I could do whatever I want it. Oh, for sure. That’s a nice, uh, I have the power,
[00:28:49] Stephen: but the feedback from readers has been of the stories.
[00:28:53] David: Oh, really good. As, as far as you can tell from reviews and so forth, they run in that sort of [00:29:00] four-star range.
And I thought those are always interesting and reviews because people will say I didn’t like all the stories and yeah, of course there’s a huge variety and they go from why a fantasy? Cyber punk too hard SF it’s everything’s in there. So of course you’re not going to like all the stories. And I think when reviewers will sometimes then they mark the book down because while there were some stories, they didn’t like, you’re never going to get an anthology where you like every single story, but it seems to, people seem to like it and the backers seem to be pleased with what they’ve backed and helped make a happen.
And I think a lot of them came back for the second anthology and I hope a lot of them come back for the third Kickstarter. I’ll be starting up here.
[00:29:42] Stephen: And like you said, a lot of people have different opinions and feelings. It’s funny because you’ll read one review. It says, oh right. Or acts that story sucked.
I never want to read anything. There is a very next review, man. Writer X was the best. I bought all their stuff and read it in a weekend. You get the sort of different, the
[00:29:58] David: reviews are [00:30:00] you go on there and you’ll see how many one started you. Shakespeare gets can’t please. Everybody.
[00:30:06] Stephen: So you’ve got multiple books and series out, and I know the symbology is lots of different others, but some of your stuff, the latest ones would you rather have, if you had a choice, would you rather turn your books into movies or TV shows?
Oh,
[00:30:21] David: a TV show offers you the space in which to do a more thorough adaptation of the book. So if what I really wanted to see was the book on screen. Especially the world shapers. And there was some effort. I had somebody out there who was convinced she was going to be able to get a Netflix deal or something with the world.
Shapers hasn’t happened as it usually doesn’t when you get that kind of excitement over something. But that one, I certainly think could have made an episodic television series because of the moving world think quantum leap or which they’re remaking apparently. But on the other hand, the. [00:31:00] Has that sort of grand or feel to it?
Uh, we’ve been, I’ve been watching, I never read foundation oddly enough for my era, but I very much enjoyed the teeth. I know it must be wildly different than the books, but I very much enjoyed the TV series. Uh, and I think the new dude movies seems to done a really good job on capturing. I know it’s a two-parter though, because again, they couldn’t actually cram it into one book.
So I think overall, I would probably say TV series because. It gives you a chance to really identify with the characters and grow with the characters. The movie is a bit more hit or miss either it lands or it’s a complete bomb. If it bombs, you may never want another one of your books. So I think TV series is the way I would go.
I think on how much money they offered, then that’s how I’d actually made the decision.
[00:31:47] Stephen: And I think the thought on that is changing over time because it’s only been in recent years with streaming services and COVID especially kick-started, it is. They’re really putting money and [00:32:00] time into the shows.
When we were kids, the shows, star Trek and stuff, low budgets, they didn’t give as much love from the companies and movies. Books in the movies have always been, the book was popular, so we’re going to make money on it. Let’s not spend too much in case we lose money, but I think that thinking is changing and they’re realizing, oh, we can really put money into TV shows and people.
Paying to get them. And movies are big if we are more true to the source, because a lot of times they didn’t used to be well.
[00:32:34] David: And the other thing of course, is that you can put anything on screen now, things that were impossible. I remember reading, sitting on the edge of forever and star Trek and Harlan Ellison famously of course wrote the script, which was unusable for them in a weekly TV series.
But his original idea called for this. Valley with, I dunno, giant statues and lightening and stuff going on. And they said, no, what we got is a [00:33:00] papier-mache circle with some newsreel footage in the middle, but now you could do that. And it’s however, grand your vision. It all just comes down to some guys sitting in front of computers look real.
And that’s one reason. I think we had a golden age of science fiction fantasy. The other series I always go to is the expanse, which. We’re binging or right now, because I’ve watched most of my wife hadn’t and now we’re watching it together from the beginning. And just you think about what we would have thought of that as kids, if something like that, that appeared on the screen with that level of the original star wars.
That’s one reason it was, it blew us away because we’d never seen anything like that with on screen with that, at that level. And now anybody can.
[00:33:46] Stephen: Yep. Absolutely. I, in fact, I made that comment when I saw Lord of the rings and all the goblins were crawling down the columns and swarming and I’m like, now they can do anything on screen.
And one quick comment on quantum leap [00:34:00] personally,
[00:34:01] David: I’m spilling coffee.
[00:34:02] Stephen: That’s fine personally. I love quantum leap and I really don’t want to see a show unless they get Nathan Fillion and Alan tunic. That’s the only two people I can imagine in those parts, but that’s me.
[00:34:18] David: He’s not dead. He’s not,
[00:34:20] Stephen: but I don’t know if he’d work as well as Al.
All right. So your books, I assume we can get them on Amazon and everywhere else. Do you have websites and places? People can go find more.
[00:34:35] David: Uh, my main website is Edward willett.com two T’s on Willis, w I L L D T T. I’m on Twitter at I’m on Instagram at Edward Willett author. And I have a YouTube channel, Edward Willett, where I do almost daily walks actually live stream walks.
It’s actually what I put a lot of on there. So it’s like a blog. I talked about my writing, but I’m also walking around vagina. When I walked around the lake and it was 35 below, [00:35:00] I was a stream guar. So that’s the main for me. Then the publishing company has shadowed pop, press.com and you can download eBooks directly from it or.
Print books. And it’s also on Twitter at Shadowpox Kratos. It’s on Instagram at Shanafelt press. That one has the same URL for everything, the same name, but somehow my own, I got Edward will that he will at Edward Walden author. I don’t know those are the main ones. And then of course the podcast is the world shapers and the rope shapers.com is its website.
And then again, just the world shapers.
[00:35:34] Stephen: So when you’re walking around and it’s negative 39, that cold, that you don’t have to like, take your words and thaw them out before we can hear them.
[00:35:44] David: It can’t, I’m wearing a scarf and I’ve got the Tuk down to here and then I’ve got a hood up. So there’s only this much exposed skin basically.
And so I might sound a little muffled, but the words themselves are kept warm behind my scarf. Okay.
[00:35:58] Stephen: Well, we’ve already talked about some of your [00:36:00] favorite books and authors. Do you have any others to mention that you haven’t already.
[00:36:04] David: I come from the era when it was the ones that I’ve already mentioned, basically the most.
And of course, Shulkin and CSO is the obvious ones. And these days I don’t read as much as I did as a kid. I read just as much, but I’m spending way too much time reading stuff on the internet, which really annoys me. I’m currently reading six of crows because my daughter’s a big reader and she, we watched shadow and bone and both of us were way more interested in.
The gangster characters that we were in, the main story, which I thought was, uh, so I’m reading six of crows, which is the sort of the gang from that. I don’t know if you saw the series or not. And so I sometimes read stories that she recommends to me now, which is interesting. Nice.
[00:36:44] Stephen: Yeah. All right. So before we move on to some other stuff, Edward, tell everybody one last time why they should go out and buy this.
[00:36:54] David: Scientology contained stories by not only some of the best known [00:37:00] internationally best-selling bestselling authors out there like Garth nix, but also by newer authors that you may not know, but who are going to be the HIG or at least to deserve the attention, whether they ever make it to that level or not.
So it’s a mixture of newer authors. Some are out of left field by Kelly. Kennedy is a story in here, writes orphan black novel. Novelizations that’s where she come on. These are foils, who has a story in here as best known as an actress, who is on the Nickelodeon shows, which I can’t remember the name of it off the top of my head.
So it’s a mixture of people. You’ve got big names you’ve got, so it’s an opportunity to really encounter a lot of writers. Some of which you’ll know some of what you, won’t, all of which you are presenting you with a story that they really think showcases their storytelling and let the. Nice.
[00:37:49] Stephen: Great. It sounds a lot like what was, that was Orson Scott card had the series writers of the future.
Who was that? Right? L Ron Hubbard. [00:38:00] Yeah, but there’s 50, 60, whatever anthologies each year came out with something. So
[00:38:07] David: the difference here of course, is that all of these were guests on my podcast. So the other nice thing about this is if you read a short story in there that you really. You can go over to the podcast and listen to an hour long interview without author talking about their creative process and how they got into writing and all of that kind of stuff.
So it’s a really nice cross fertilization going on
[00:38:24] Stephen: there. I love that different media easily finding out about the other authors. That’s great, Edward, thanks for sharing all the books. I appreciate that definitely fits right up my realm because I don’t have 500 books already. So I’ve
[00:38:41] David: only got about 20 novels.
It’ll just be a little blip on top
[00:38:43] Stephen: of all of that. And the snow keeps up. I might not have much else to do.