You all thought we forgot about part 2 of Kelly’s interview, didn’t you? The truth is… well… you see, during the transcription of the interview we found some incredibly funny screengrabs and it took this long for us to stop laughing about them.
Now that we’ve caught our breath, let’s get back to chatting with Kelly:
- I know you’re working on your novellas atm. Is it in the same setting with the same characters? What can you tell us about it? (If anything)
Yeah, so for the novellas, in my mind I have nine or ten that I want to write to bridge the gap between the start of this post-apocalyptic world to the novels, which I’ve already written. It’s really the genesis story of him [Silent] and other characters and the establishment of the world and setting—in this post-apocalyptic world I call Roadkill.
It’s about his early days in the wastelands. He’s an up-and-coming courier, working with a really powerful gang-lord and the inciting incident occurs and the shit hits the fan. He’s gotta make things right, or else he’s basically a dead man. That might be something you’ve seen in other genres, but the spin should be a little different because it’s going to lay down his establishment as a main character in this future mythology and blow up expectations—I’m hoping to do that with the particular series of novellas.
- What’s something that’s missing from wastelands fiction? Or something that’s fallen into obscurity and needs to be brought back?
The fantastical or the speculative sci-fi vibe that, you know, you used to see in certain post-apocalyptic… maybe not fiction [writing] but cinema. The boy and his dog. Telepathy between a man and his dog. The cool fantastical. You know shit is really real right now…
They focus on survival in zombie movies or whatnot. It’s in the real world and people are just trying to survive. It’s the world that we know and recognize, right. Even in that post-apocalyptic setting.
Stephen King, with his Dark Tower series, brings in a lot of that fantastical angle, which I find really appealing. So I’m bringing some more out-of-the-box type of cross-genre/genre-bending influence to it. To me, it would make [wastelands fiction] more original. Maybe that’s not the right word, but it’d freshen it up a little.
I’ve seen a lot of… and read some really good post-apocalyptic fiction, like Kristyn Merbeth. I don’t know if you’ve read her, but it’s really good… really gritty. It’s in the world we know and it’s all gone to hell. People go savage. The story I submitted [to Arkhelian] was violent but it wasn’t too, too gory. It’s a gritty world, right? I think that’s one thing cinema has prepared people for—things are a lot more violent now. People are a little more desensitized to it. You can really open that can up and go for it.
- Do you think you’d write in the direction of grimdark? Would you get that violent?
I just discovered Joe Abercrombie. I think he’s firmly in that grimdark fantasy. I loved his writing. I think his writing’s awesome. I took a lot from him, from reading his stuff, and have been thinking a lot about it. But yeah, I definitely see [my writing direction] becoming grimdark.
- How sharp does a sword need to be to slice through a cyborg arm? (Read Kelly’s short story on Arkhelian to get the most out of this question.)
It’s funny, because in future stories you’ll understand. Read the first short story and then go through the series, then you’ll get to the part where does have a really sharp sword… you’ll go back to where it harkens back to the end of that first short story.
It has to be pretty damn sharp! Cyborgs, you know are humans augmented by technology, but they can also have thick skin.
(spoiler! >>>>) There’s mention of a character, the Uncle, in that short story. He’s the main antagonist in the novels, so there’ll be more about him and his whole kind of mixed up… for lack of a better term, incestuous family tree that is the root of the future mythology of the entire universe that I’m trying to build. And he’s a mad genius, so he’s doing all kinds of horrible bad shit to people for his own ends and those characters, in that short story, are just on the wrong end of history. They got wrapped up with the wrong guy.
- Do cyborgs get tans in the wastelands, or do they just dehydrate into crispy raisins?
Oh man, they’re just super, super pasty white guys with mutant radiation-absorbing skin that never turns any other color than pasty white. Whenever I picture these guys in my mind, they’re like the Borgs in Star Trek, except not quite that augmented. They’re early iterations of the Mad Max experiments: robotics and cyborg technology.
- What advice would you give to a new writer?
Other than just write, write, write… tryin’ not to get in your own head. I’ve definitely struggled with that. The infamous imposter syndrome and lacking confidence. Finding people to help you. I got involved and am still involved in a writers group. So having people around you that you can bounce ideas off of, likeminded people that will give you good advice and not blow smoke up your ass… at least put you in the right direction. ‘Cause, what I found with writing, there’s always something to learn. Someone always has a good take on something. Just like in that design world, sometimes the more minds the better to spark some creativity.
But it really comes down to believing in yourself, to the point you just write for yourself. And you don’t worry about what other people are going to think. Until you need too [hahaha].
That’s it for the second part of the interview. Kelly has his first novella coming out very soon! RoadKill: Blood Feud should be up for ARC reader (preview) sign-up any day now. The book is finished and will release soon after that. Make sure to follow him on Threads! He’s active there.
