Originally, it was the drive to create, to be creative, something that comes as natural to me as breathing. It is my existence. As I’ve said elsewhere before, I can’t understand anyone who doesn’t have the same drive, though I can understand if their drive is in another area than writing. Going to work, coming home, and doing that day after day for years with no other goals … to me, that’s not living. That’s dying, slowly. Writing is living to me. More recently, though I still have that drive to create, there is also the drive to become a better writer, to better my art form.

If there was the possibility of becoming any speculative fiction character ever created (except your own), would you? Who? Why?

Um, probably not. Though being Superman would be tempting just for the sheer power. But that’s being greedy. It might be fun to play Andrew J. Offutt’s Hanse Shadowspawn for awhile, but those aren’t shoes I’d wanted to fill permanently.

If you could only take one author’s works compressed on an e-book reader on a “one-bag-only” one-way trip to another galaxy, whose works would it be and why?

Well, it’ll sound easy and cliched, but I’d probably pick Stephen King. The reasons for this are multiple: 1.) King has a lot of works to pick from, including novels, series and short stories and screenplays. 2.) His writing tends to be like pizza and sex, even when it’s not very good, it’s still pretty good. … and 3.) Though known for horror, he’s written enough to cover all the speculative genres at one time or another. Variety is the key here.

Why Belgad the Liar? What initiated his story and made you complete this particular tale?

Belgad is a villain in a trilogy of fantasy novels I’ve written and am shopping around. Though a bad guy, he’s not the worst of bad guys. Basically, he comes from a barbarian background and as he grew older found himself as sort of an underworld mob boss in a city. In his youth he had not planned for things to work out that way, but they did. “Deep in the Land of the Ice and Snow” shows Belgad about 30 years younger than he is in my trilogy, and I am interested in exploring his past, to delve into what made him what he eventually becomes. I’ve even got an idea worked out for a prequel trilogy, the tale of Belgad’s life up to my current trilogy.

In the privacy of your favorite writing nook, do you act out your protagonist’s actions? Do you know how to use his weapons? Do you wear his clothes? Do you talk like him?

I do not act out my protagonist’s actions. I do, however, sometimes talk out conversations between characters. Please don’t laugh, but yes, I do have some of the clothes and weapons. It comes from my years of attending the Ohio Renaissance Festival. No, I don’t talk like Belgad, though I do feel most of my characters probably have some of my mannerisms.

Quick: List your first thought as your answers to these questions about the future of genre fiction:

Printing Methods: Offset or Print-on-Demand?

I think they’ll both be around for a long time. Offset for more expensive, quality books. Print-on-demand for the majority of your paperbacks, etc. But who knows? Another decade or two and we might have some other, totally new way of printing.

Reading Formats: Electronic or Print?

Again, both. I think they’re both here now and will both be around for a long time. Book readers tend to love their books, to collect them, feel them, stack them on their shelves. I don’t see that trend ending anytime soon.

Book Tours: Physical or Virtual?

My answers are starting to sound the same here, but … both. I think physical book tours will always be around in some form or other, because your die-hard fans like to meet their favorite writers. Even if live book tours should dwindle at book stores in the future, there will always be the cons. Virtual book tours are going to be around for a long time, too, though the Web sites and technology seems to keep changing every few months.

Reading Habits: Dead, Dying, Alive, Growing?

I know many people who don’t agree with me on this one, but I believe reading is growing. I believe more people are reading now than at any other time in history. Yes, maybe they’re reading online, but they’re still reading. And if you pay attention, you’ll notice plenty of people still carrying around paperbacks in their backpack or purse or back pocket or whatever.

Length: Flash, Short, Novella, 1970’s novel (60k), 1980’s novel (80k), 1990’s novel (120k), 2000’s novel (150k)

Well, my personal favorites are the shorter novels of the 1950s to the early 1980s. But it seems readers today want longer and longer works. I don’t think those thousand-page fantasy novels are going anywhere anytime soon, but you never know with the current state of the world economy. It would be kind of nice if some publisher would bring back short, pulp-like novels that only cost a few bucks.

Robert E. Howard, Jack London, Ernest Hemingway, Edgar Allan Poe, Fritz Leiber, Karl Edward Wagner, Louis L’Amour, Frederick Faust, Ian Fleming, Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Rafael Sabatini . . . the list could go on. Some lived long lives, some flared and burned out young. All lived life hard. All wrote pulse-pounding action-adventure, often dipping into the many different genres they share, yet each eventually establishing their name within a specific one. What do you believe you have in common with these authors, and what makes you so sure speculative fiction – heroic fantasy fiction to be precise – is your genre? Or is it?

I tend to think of myself as more of a horror or dark fantasy writer. I feel more comfortable writing in those genres or sub-genres, and I tend to think my best works are in those fields. That being said, I like to mix it all up a bit. I enjoy tweaking the tropes of heroic fantasy to throw in horrific elements, or bringing a Sword and Sorcery character into an epic fantasy universe. I also very much enjoy working in hard-boiled fiction, though I’ll admit I’m lazy and don’t do enough of my homework concerning police procedures and the like.

Thanks for your time and answers, Ty!

Ty Johnston has been writing fiction for twenty years, though has only become serious about it in the last few years while working on a fantasy trilogy; when not reading or writing or working as a newspaper editor, he enjoys spending time with his wife, their beagle and three house rabbits. Find out more at Ty’s website.

Review Praise for “Deep in the Land of the Ice and Snow”

“…further barbarian adventure . . . [with] an irreligious attitude that perfectly captures the popular sword-and-sorcery concept of the hero who won’t let anything, not even the gods, restrain him.” ~ Ryan Harvey

An excerpt

The wolves were too many. Belgad knew that as soon as he spotted the beasts. There were nearly a score of them, and the crea-tures were huge, nearly the size of a riding pony. What was worse, the wolves were quiet and had managed to surround him without his spying them sooner.

This was no ordinary pack. They had appeared from nowhere, and they had no qualms about scaling the side of a mountain for their human prey.

Belgad forced himself to climb higher, the bitter cold winds whipping at his long yellow hair. His fingers, the tips protruding from rags he had used to swaddle them, gripped the edge of anoth-er boulder and lifted him with the help of solid placement from his fur-lined boots.

On top of the rock, Belgad found a flat spot and sat, letting the cold air fill his tired lungs. His body needed rest after days of hik-ing dense forests and climbing steep hills, but he would not close his eyes; the wolves were drawing nearer, below and above. It would only be a matter of time before they would attack…

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