Hello all! The end of the second official month of SPFBO9 is coming up! And this time, we have W.D. Kilpack III, who’s had an amazing number of publications to precede this one, and the first book of his new series …

Crown Prince

The future of Mankind relies on the Guardian of Maarihk. Will his Sight be true? Or will his impure Firstblood prove the ruin of us all?

Natharr is Guardian of Maarihk, one of a long line of protectors dating back to the Firstborn Age, before the Aa Conquest. Natharr’s is an ancient role, rooted in his Firstblood, giving him Sight to see what is yet to be. He adheres to his sacred duties even in the centuries since the Firstborn were forced to the brink of extinction by the Aa.

Natharr still stands guard over all men, Aa or Firstborn, Seeing what will come to pass, deciding what is unavoidable and what is not. He spends decades planning how to save the life of the newborn Crown Prince Vikari so he may one day reclaim the throne of the land where Mankind was created, back in the time when the Olde Gods still walked.

Sounds rich with mythic vibes! Cool!

Onto the Questions!

As a Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off (SPFBO) Entrant, you’re not just independently published, but self-published. Can you start by explaining a bit about why you chose that route and how it’s been for you?

I had been going the traditional/freelance writer route since I was 15 and was successful, particularly in news. (When I reached 200 publication credits, I stopped counting them.) Then I got married and, pretty soon, had five kids to raise (and two stepkids) and needed a more stable income. So my writing goals were put on the back burner so I could focus on family and, as it turns out, coaching wrestling, because all of my kids wrestled (including my girls). That was important, because it was something that I could do to directly contribute and take an active part in my kids’ lives. Now my youngest is grown and there has been this amazing revolution in self-publishing! It has democratized the publishing industry in such amazing ways! When I was getting my masters degree, I managed a bookstore in one of the national chains, so I had a decent understanding of that end of things. I have a strong background in marketing, having worked at all levels for companies ranging from mom-and-pop to Inc. 500. So I was seriously considering going that route, because I had 30 sci-fi and fantasy novels sitting and waiting for me to do something with them, but I was sitting on the fence. I knew I would have to devote a lot of time to it to do it right. Then Covid hit. I couldn’t, in good conscience, continue coaching wrestling during the pandemic, because it was impossible to control the spread of Covid in a sport with as much physical contact as wrestling. (We couldn’t control the spread of ringworm, how could we control something like Covid?) So I decided that I was retired (20-plus years of coaching was a good run). I published my first novel, Crown Prince. I now have five out and the reception from professional critics has been amazing! All of their book awards are just humbling. I don’t regret my decision for a minute.

Sounds like it’s been quite a journey so far, and still going strong!

On a related note, why did you enter the SPFBO contest? How do you expect to find it? Refreshing your blog’s page every five minutes, or sit back and chill?

Rune Nielsen had interviewed me (unrelated to SPFBO) and we had remained in contact. As it turns out, we have a lot in common. He recommended SPFBO to me, then I read more about it on the EPIC site and Facebook page, where people kept going on and on about the SPFBO community, how supportive it is, etc. That is very appealing, because it’s not the case in a lot of other organizations where I have participated. As it turns out, I was working very late the night before, so I thought I’d pull an all-nighter. When it hit 3 a.m. (entry open was a 6 a.m. my time), I realized that I wasn’t going to make it, so I set an alarm for 6 a.m., and got all my entry information ready, and went to bed at about 3:30 a.m. Alarm went off, I entered my information by about 6:08 a.m., it seemed to gone through, so I left it at that. I didn’t check back for a few hours, then was shocked when I saw a post that it had filled in 41 minutes!

It did fill up a bit faster than I think anyone expected!

Book titles. Why did you choose the title you did for Crown Prince?

I don’t know if I would say that I have a process for choosing titles for my books. I like short titles, although I’m not afraid to use subtitles. I choose book titles like I choose the names of chapters: what is the central element in the chapter and name the chapter for it. I sometimes do the same with book titles. I try to nail down the core of the story for the particular volume and name the book for it. So book one, Crown Prince, certainly revolves around Vikari, who is the newborn crown prince. Order of Light revolves around the Knights of Ril (called the Order of Light, because the Knights of Ril were declared illegal). It’s the same process that I use when naming chapters. I try to keep the names of my books short. Order of Light is three words, the longest of the eight books. The name of the book typically comes to me and there’s not a lot of revising, unless I end up adding more books to the series.

On the other hand, I have named books for less-analytical reasons. For example, one book I wrote (not yet published) is named for something that the main character says several times throughout the book. He doesn’t like his actual name, so he instructs people to call him by a nickname. That became the title of the book.

I like your naming process! And it is so fun when a name just comes and sticks!

I won’t ask for your favourite scene since I know some people don’t have those (like me; I never have favourites), but can you share a (non-spoiler) scene you really like and you just can’t believe how awesome it is every time you go back to re-read it? Also, feel free to share something about a character you love!

I have a lot of favorite scenes from Crown Prince. However, I have to pick just one, and I can’t, so I asked my wife for her favorite. She had trouble, too, because she said it’s all just so different and stands out in so many ways (her words, not mine, I’m not making this up), but she just loved meeting Ulla for the first time. She said, “Ulla is just adorable.” Ulla is an Atomie, a fairy-like Great Beast of the Wood. Here is how they meet (after Darshelle decided that Ulla was not a snake or a rat), excerpted from Chapter Seven: Settling:

Darshelle’s eyes widened in wonder. Whatever stood on the baby’s shoulder was not an animal at all. It was a woman as tall as her face from chin to brow. The tiny woman waved tentatively with the extended hand, while stroking Vikari’s cheek with the other. “Hello,” the little chit said. Her voice was barely more than a sigh, extremely high pitched. “Pretty baby,” she said, stroking Vikari’s cheek in broader strokes. “But big. Big, big, big.”

“I’m still asleep,” Darshelle scarcely whispered, eyes widening even more. “Dreaming.”

“No.” The tiny redhead gazed at Darshelle with interest. “You fainted. Now you’re awake.” Her nose wrinkled and she sniffed the air. “But you smell of Hamadryads. When were you playing with Hamadryads?”

Darshelle’s brows knotted at that and she shook her head. “I … I don’t know. What does a Hamadryad smell like?” She could hardly believe that she was asking such a question. Then again, she could hardly fathom speaking to a woman less than a foot tall.

“Hamadryads smell wonderful,” the tiny woman answered, an almost giddy expression on her face. “But that’s not it,” she said, expression turning to a perplexed frown in an instant. “You smell like sweat and dust and baby pee.”

What is something I really like about Natharr? He knows exactly who he is. He doesn’t talk too much, he doesn’t overshare. No one could ever claim “thou dost protest too much” about Natharr. He is likely one of the greatest warriors to ever live, but he is still a thinker, very analytical, and will take his time to puzzle through a scenario before voicing his thoughts. Part of his self-assurance is reinforced by his Sight, being able to See things that have not yet happened, but he is also a very good judge of character all on his own. That is what made him an advisor to kings, just as much as being the Guardian of Maarihk, just as much as having Sight. That knowledge of himself leads to his ability to make the hard decisions, that others would be unable to, on account of self-doubt. Of course, when he is wrong, there is no one who could be harder on him than himself. He makes no excuses, and takes full responsibility for his actions, right or wrong. I admire that very much.

Fascinating scene (and character)! And I know what your wife means 😀 Who doesn’t feel that way about any book they love?!

What are some elements or themes, or combinations thereof, that really make your book stand out to you?

In Crown Prince, and the rest of the New Blood Saga, I do some things that I think set it apart from a lot of epic fantasy. For example, there is magic, but not once is the word “magic” used in any of the books. Another is that, although there is good vs. evil, there is no black-and-white anywhere in the series, there are only shades of gray. I think that makes the characters more relatable, more realistic, and more complex. For example, Natharr is a very complex character. He is extremely noble but, if there is something needing done in the moment to ensure the right future, he does it, even if he doesn’t want to. No character is perfect and no character is always right.

Sounds like there’s a lot of interesting things to explore in Natharr and who he is!

What else would you like to share about your journey with writing or the New Blood Saga?

People often ask me to tell them the story of writing the New Blood Saga. So let it be written, so let it be done.

When I decided to start writing what would later become the New Blood Saga, it was because I was having a recurring dream that would have me in tears when I woke. It persisted for months, and I finally realized that I needed to write it. The problem was that the dream didn’t tell me enough about characters. I was in the dream, taking direct part in it, so one character was me — literally — which was not helpful. So, I had to go elsewhere to flesh out the characters.

When I was an undergrad studying philosophy, I was fascinated by Socrates. One of the things that really got me was when he would go into a trancelike state, then emerge with new answers to questions, something profound. He called it being seized by the Daemon of Philosophy. I decided then that I would one day have a character in a book that somehow embodied some facet of Socrates, if not many facets. That character became Natharr. He has something similar in his makeup, when he is seized by the Daemon of Sight, coming out of his trancelike states with visions of the future. Also like Socrates, he is a soldier of great renown, and has some other very Socratic qualities.

So that gave me another aspect of a starting point: a character and an event for the story to head toward. It needed a setting. Again, the dream did not tell me enough. The dream was all about the emotions involved, the relationships involved, the tangled skeins of fate. As it turns out, about that time, I had been experimenting with drawing maps on my computer, rather than by hand (I love maps, I collect them and I’ve drawn hundreds of them), and I have one that I felt good about. So that became the third piece to the puzzle, and it was enough for me to start writing, because there was enough history in creating the map for me to start.

So I did! I would write the novel that would encapsulate the dream that had been tormenting me for months.

Pretty quickly, I realized that I wouldn’t be able to achieve the same level of emotional impact, the relationships, the tangled skeins of fate, in just one book, so I thought I would write a trilogy. That gave me more freedom and I got writing, reading to my wife every night (she called them her bedtime stories), leaving her mad at me every night when I had to say, “And that’s where I’m at,” or “And that’s all I’ve got.” And that’s also when she started telling me that I rushed things in certain situations (she has a degree in psychology), or that she didn’t think that a particular character would react the way I wrote it (particularly if it was a woman), and I would make revisions until she thought it was more realistic. Through that process, and just writing and making use of my supplemental research to create a rich world full of history and mythology and pantheons of Gods and mysteries, I realized that even three books would not be enough to do all that and build to the point in the dream where the same gravitas would be present enough to have the same punch … and I do mean punch.

So I gave myself permission to make it six books, but no more!

The writing continued, the research, the bedtime stories, then I was in book six, and my wife asked me, “Why does it feel like you’re rushing?”

I answered, “Because this is book six.”

She said, “So?”

I said, “It has to end in book six.”

She asked, “Why?”

I answered, “Because I only gave myself permission for this to be six books.”

She asked, “What if I gave you permission for it to be longer than six books?”

“You can do that?”

“Can’t I?”

So I decided it could be longer than six books. Since the event in my dream that started it all took place in book four, I decided it would be eight books. And thus it remained … except that the books each get longer …. Rilari: Book Four of New Blood was so long that I moved four chapters to Vengeance Borne: Book Five of New Blood (forthcoming) … and I’m starting to wonder if maybe I have to pull a Tad Williams. (Remember? His Memory, Sorrow and Thorn trilogy? Then book three, To Green Angel Tower became two volumes, part 1 and part 2?)

But I digress. That may not be necessary. The story of the story is not yet complete. There’s a whole lot of love to go into the New Blood Saga between now and then, and a whole lot of readers out there who can still jump onboard. Like my wife, they can just hear the name of certain characters (one in particular) and get angry, or smile or sigh.

That sounds like such a fun process! And I do soo love maps! I think this is such a neat ‘story of a story’, lol 😀

Thank you for sharing that with us!

W.D. Kilpack III, MPC, PSMC, is an award-winning and critically acclaimed internationally published writer, with works appearing in print, online, radio and television, starting with his first publication credit at 9 years old. His first three novels, Crown Prince, Order of Light, and Demon Seed each received the International Firebird Book Award, while Crown Prince and Order of Light received The BookFest Award. Demon Seed was a BooksShelf Editor’s Choice and Order of Light was a Top Pick. He also received special recognition from L. Ron Hubbard’s Writers of the Future Contest for his novella, Pale Face. His books have received 17 awards. He has been editor of 19 news and literary publications, with circulations as high as 770,000. He is a partner in Safe Harbor Films, LLC, where he does their screenwriting and oversees marketing.

He received both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Westminster College of Salt Lake City. As an undergrad, he double-majored in communication and philosophy, while completing the Honors Program. He earned a master of professional communication with a writing emphasis. He was also a high-performing athlete, qualifying for international competition in Greco-Roman wrestling.

He is a communication professor and a nationally recognized wrestling coach. He is an accomplished cook and has cooked nearly everything on a grill. He is happily married to his high-school sweetheart and is father to five children, as well as helping raise five step-children. He was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, where he continues to live, coach and teach.

You can find W.D. Kilpack III on his Website, Amazon, BookBub, and Goodreads. He can also be found on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, and Reddit.