INTRODUCING
MIKE J. WYANT JR
Hey Mike!
I'm hopefully early.
Indeed you are :)
But I'm free now, if you are.
OK, if you have a sec I'd love to ask you a few things.
I'm ready when you are.
Cool, first of all how does it feel to be Guinea pig numero uno?
Always excited to be in the test subject chair.
So I spent some time creeping on your Twitter.
*shock*
*gasp*
You know, research
Anyway,
I read that you do a lot of beta/first reading
I do.
You mentioned that you come across very few bad pieces.
Comparatively, yeah.
Does this give you a feeling that what you're doing in your
own work is probably just as well done? Like, "hey this
stuff is pretty okay! Maybe mine's, good, too"?
I'd say maybe 2-4% of the stuff I read is something
I'd classify as garbage. Just something someone tossed
into a word doc while (probably) drunk and/or high
and decided to ship without editing.
Ha! I totally get that!
So... D&D
I find that a lot of writers are DM's
Do you ever do a campaign and then
realize it's a good idea for a story?
And have you ever used one for that purpose?
My current WIP is based off a 15 year campaign, actually!
No way!
Maeveese was created as a campaign world back in 1992
because I didn't like how shallow the D&D campaign
settings seemed at the time
I wanted something with real motives
with greed and love; compassion and anger
So I drew a map, wrote out a bunch of geopolitical
summaries, and started DMing.
Thank you so much for taking the time to do this!
No problem at all. Seemed interesting.
Great! Thank you, Mike! Have a great night!
You too!
TWEEP TATTLER STANDARD INTERVIEW
1) Where do you live?
Upstate New York
2) What is the first thing you remember writing?
A scene where a square-jawed hero with a sword fights enemies as he climbs stairs.
3) Why do you write?
I write because I have these stories simmering in my head and if I don’t get them out, if I don’t make them into representative works, tales with power and substance, then I’ll eventually go mad. Again.
4) Have you published any of your work?
I have a short story that’s been published formally. Everything else was self-published for a couple years, though I’ve recently removed them from sale in favor of pursuing a traditional publishing career.
5) What are you currently writing?
My main work-in-progress is a second-world fantasy set in Maeveese, a world I started building twenty-five years ago. I’m co-writing with a friend, Mike Costello. He’s in charge of large scale world-building and I’m in control of the story. It’s kind of like “City Stained Red” in that the heroes break everything they touch, but can’t stop themselves from trying to fix it anyway.
I also have another untitled book in progress. It’s set in my “Soundless” universe, a far future dystopia where most people can communicate telepathically and technology as well as society has rearranged around that ability. Think “Stranger Things” in the future.
6) Are you currently querying?
I am, though I’ve taken a short hiatus to rewrite the opening scene, query letter, and synopsis. I’m pitching “Fallen Gods”, a modern-day sci-fi about a group of immortals who live amongst us and the people who become them.
7) Finish this sentence (three lines or less):
IT WAS A DARK AND STORMY NIGHT… the sort you picture when you hear a clip of Boris Karlov narrating the opening scenes of a movie, all thunder and rain. You’d half expect a mummy to come stumbling down the hall, but you’d be wrong because it’s not a mummy. It’s me.
8) Which activities do you like to participate in, in the Twitter writing community (VSS365, etc.)? Mostly, I like to provide moral support and pop into larger writing conversations about style, plot, and characterization.
9) Do you have any formal training/education for writing?
Technically, yes. I have a BA in History and English, but I didn’t learn much about writing in college. The best course I ever took was David Farland’s Writing Mastery I class.
10) Do the people in your life know that you write?
They do, yes.
11) Tell me about the people in your life. Family? Pets?
I’ve been married to my wife, Amy, for 15 years. We have two cats--Asa and Einstein--and one chihuahua, Copernicus (Kip). Einstein is the cat in my avatar picture. She’s a massive pain in the ass.
12) Where do you wish your writing to take you? I’d love to make enough money writing that I don’t have to think about where the next paycheck will come from. Mostly, though, I want people to read my work and, hopefully, see themselves in the page. I want to instill that heroic spirit in people. If I get to go to some awards ceremonies, that’d be awesome, too.
13) What did you expect when you joined the Twitter writing community? Did it turn out as expected?
Honestly? I expected to get bombarded with people tweeting their book links. I expected it’d be filled with vapid posts about where to put commas. I was blissfully wrong. The Writing Community on Twitter is full of people in the same boat as I am. It’s brimming with experienced authors and people with passion. It’s a great place.
14) Where do you write?
I have a desk setup in the middle of my house, next to a sliding glass door that allows me to overlook the forest behind our home.
15) How much time do you dedicate to writing, weekly?
It’s my full-time job. I write at least 35 hours a week and force myself to stop when my wife gets home and on the weekends.
16)Do you have other talents?
I was a SysAdmin for seventeen years, can play the drums middlingly well, am double-jointed in both shoulders, brew my own beer, and am a Moira main on Overwatch.
17) CHOOSE ONE:
- I do not mind when other writers ask for advice. <==
- I’d rather keep to myself!
Mike Wyant, Jr. is an ex-IT guy-turned-full-time-writer with a soft spot for the cute and furry. When not being crawled over by his Writing Cat, Einie, he writes fantasy and sci-fi with a focus on exploring mental illness and its repercussions through his stories. A serial “Honorable Mention” participant in Writers of the Future, Mike recently had some publication success this year with his first published story in Aphotic Realms. In the non-fiction realm, Mike’s articles on living with Mental Illness have also appeared in The Good Men Project.
You can find Mike on Twitter @mikewyantjr.
Mike has a piece out in Aphotic Realm's "Dystopia" issue here:
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