What drives your art? What forces you, rides you, hustles you, controls you until its latest needs have been met? What really drives you to create speculative fiction art, be it words or images?

Telling a tale of awe and adventure that can take author and reader alike beyond today’s dark headlines and gray clouds is desirable and admirable. Taking us beyond yesterday’s and tomorrow’s headlines and shadows leads to euphoria. I believe I have many such tales within me, tales that should be shared, for to hide them away and to keep them buried is shameful and unworthy. Yet my skills and capabilities do not match my wishes and hopes at this time. So I do something equally noble, equally important. I act midwife to those who can utter, act confidante to those who can dream, act intercessor to those who can write. I will do all in my meager power to deliver to readers the tales of imagination – the poetry of speculation if you will – that births and breathes within each storyteller of the fantastic.

What really drives me to create speculative fiction?

Sharing hope and joy and opportunity. Relieving tedious ennui, bringing triumphant smiles, giving life to dreams and dreams to life.

Albert Einstein called imagination “[t]he gift of fantasy” and he claimed it meant more to him than his ability to learn. He said that, “Imagination is more important than knowledge…. Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.” A gift is given, folks. I want to be a gifter of fantasy. I want to take people everywhere.

My answer to this question is actually much longer – if you’re interested, you can read my entire reply at von Darkmoor’s thoughts.

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

As long as it wasn’t permanent, meaning I could come back whether at will or via meeting set requirements, certainly. I am in no way expounding upon a means or way of avoiding my current life, nor running out on my lovely family. Leaving my job and this world’s endless insanity behind? Sure. Yet I’m sure I would find myself equally unable to handle the strife and craziness of wherever I lodged next. No, what I mean by this answer is that I would most assuredly jump at the chance to taste lives of the fantastic. To be Max Brand’s Dan Barry . . . wow. Despite the untimely and ill-fated end to his tale, I would love to ride Satan – just once! – and stand with my fingers curled in Black Bart’s fur for a moment, an afternoon. Childish names, I smile at their simplicity now – but they evoke such strong wonder and emotion within me . . . to be Whistling Dan for one day would be a thrill. There are others, but I’ve revealed too much of myself as it is, so that’s all you’ll get today.

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?

As one other person answering this question pointed out, this is a poorly worded question, as an e-reader of any stripe can carry in excess of 100s of books. So, quite honestly I would carry my entire personal library, plus all the books by all of the authors represented in it. To answer the intent of this question, though, I would take Steven Erikson’s “The Malazan Books of the Fallen” and all his novelettes/novellas, for he best writes what I hold as my creed in life: The world is a comedy to those that think, a tragedy to those who feel (Horace Walpole).

Why introduce each story in RotS? Why pen a forward exploring heroism and seek answers to unasked questions in every story? What initiated and made me pursue each particular tale?

Good questions. I knew what I wanted. I knew what I wanted the words “Return of the Sword” to mean, what knowledge and experiences and images I wanted to imprint on the minds of readers. What attitudes and ideas and individual fortitude I wanted to build within their hearts. I knew what I wanted in my stories and scenes – and I knew where the stories that could deliver all that were. I went after them. I hunted them down, ferreted them out or wheedled similar ones from their authors. I was so excited: working on my first book, working with some terrific stories and with – for – some awesome authors, working with such a stunning artist. Things could not have been cooler for me while I was reading and editing and dreaming. My exuberance is obvious now; when I reread that forward and those introductions I am sometimes chagrined at its presence, but hey! I still recall the thrill of putting all that together and I wouldn’t give that up for anything. Speaking entirely with the knowledge that I am discussing my own publication, I truly believe that RotS assembles not only some of the finest short form genre authors I’ve had the pleasure to read, it also includes some (I’ll admit, not all) of the best genre serial characters out there and 20 of the best stories in the heroic adventure genre. I am very confidant that any reader of heroic fantasy fiction could never be disappointed in RotS. I am proud my name is among those associated with it.

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?

Yes, I do. Actually, that’s why I included this question on the list – I wanted to see how out of the ordinary I was I act out physical contortions, be they fisticuffs, flips, knife maneuvers, whatever, if I feel the need to either make sure they work (possible) or determine just exactly where I would be or what position I would be in if I were to actually complete that action. I do know how to use some of the weapons I write about, either through personal use or study, but I’m not by any means an expert at bladed or pre-modern guns weaponry. Of course I never wear the clothes of my characters! How weird would that be? Talk like them? I have on occasion, but more to see if I have the rhythm or dialect or accent written correctly. Bizarre question. Interesting, but bizarre.

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

Printing Methods: Offset or Print-on-Demand?

POD is the future, and the sooner the big publishers realize that, the lower prices will drop, the more savings there will be for the customers, the more revenue there will be for the authors.

Reading Formats: Electronic or Print?

I hope print lasts forever. I think its use is deteriorating rapidly but that it will reach a point beyond which shrinkage will be resisted. I cannot see humanity as ever becoming paperless, but I see paper becoming an affectation of the intellectual and wealthier classes, but also a holdover or only-means of the poorer.

Book Tours: Physical or Virtual?

Physical will never go away and should never go away. There are good reasons for and advantages to virtual tours and they will be the cost-effective wave of the future though. Both should be pursued if the opportunities arise.

Reading Habits: Dead, Dying, Alive, Growing?

All the above. I think it depends upon readers’ age, income, habits, and market segment. JK Rowling et al demonstrated that reading can be introduced to young and old, can become addictive, can become fascinating, can become lucrative. Graphic novel sales are growing in leaps and bounds. Romance always sells. Tie-ins seem to do well. DIY and self-help books always sell. Nonfic has its pockets of success and its pockets of non-interest – and as a whole outsells fiction every year. But that’s the key. Interests will always wan and rise, ebb and flow, each time losing more in one direction and less in the other. A decade ago Harry Potter was unheard of. Will he have the staying power of Frodo and Conan; Narnia and Amber? We don’t know. What we do know is that there will be another name at some point in the future that will unite segments of the until-then-unreading public and start anew this eternal debate.

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

Flash doesn’t really do it for me. It had its moment (pun somewhat intended), but that moment’s slipped by. I will always love the gigantic tomes. At least those of my favorite authors. When I read their books, I never want them to end. I’m not one of those wackos who reads slower or sets the book aside so as to avoid finishing it. Nope, I consume a book as fast as I can enjoy it, dreading reaching the conclusion of those books I love, all the while understanding that such will occur. My motivation? I rarely read books I don’t already want to read and like. As for the novellas and less than 100k books? I call them “popcorn reads” or “weekend reads” and there is always an excuse for them, always a reason to distract oneself with them. I guess, if it comes right down to it and I was forced to pick between a 300 page paperback or a 900 page hardcover, the hardcover would win.

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?

Well, I’d be tickled pink to be listed among those names. What do I have in common with those names? Their words: they write ‘em and I read ‘em. Many of those names grace my book shelves. I guess I can claim that now. My name is on a spine there, too. Seriously, right now at this point in my writing career, I don’t feel I have much in common with any of them. But I’m not answering this interview because of my writing – I simply assembled and edited RotS – so I say this question doesn’t apply.

As for spec fic being my genre? It certainly is my preferred reading. It definitely predominates my own writing. I both read and write heroic fantasy, but to date have no claim to any genre being ‘mine’ at all. I’ve discovered that, though I wish to be published as a fantasy author and spend the vast majority of my writings in that pursuit, I seem to get the most enjoyment out of and the best response from readers of my Fedora Fiction. So maybe my destiny is to be a crime thriller author. Since I don’t see RBE publishing that, perhaps such is for the best.

Thanks for your overly long-winded answers, Jason.

Any time! I’m Jason M. Waltz, and I edited Return of the Sword. It’s my first anthology, the first book with my name on it, and it’s just been re-released as the first book produced by my new publishing house, Rogue Blades Entertainment. If you write or read heroic fantasy adventure, visit the rest of the RBE site for more information, and join the RBE networking groups on Facebook and Twitter and our forum on SFReader.com. If you’d like to read more of my words, they can be found at von Darkmoor’s thoughts, home of my observations, opinions, and even a book review or two.

Review Praise for Return of the Sword

“…The Return Of The Sword is a wonderful collection of sword and sorcery short fiction. Editor Jason M. Waltz has gathered together some of the finest examples of the genre that I’ve read in a long time. Sword and sorcery has come a long way since the days of the “noble savage” wrecking havoc, but that hasn’t stopped it from being a lot of fun and overflowing with action. If you’re looking for a wonderful break from your daily grind, I can think of nothing better than this collection of mayhem to take your mind off things..” ~ Richard Marcus, BlogCritics

“If you have a craving for sword-and-sorcery, straight-up no chaser, then you’ll find it in Return of the Sword… Editor Jason M. Waltz has gathered together nineteen short stories, seventeen making their first appearance, of heroic fantasy. The key word here is “heroic”; with a few interesting exceptions, the offerings on display make no delay hurling their courageous warriors onto the front lines to let them carry out their bloody business to our old-fashioned delight. There are fiends to slay, damsels to rescues, and titanic battles to win, and even if the stories aren’t all equals, none of them wastes the readers’ time getting to the juicy red meat.” ~ Ryan Harvey, Black Gate

“…Mr. Waltz deserves accolades for selecting such a large number of quality stories for a single publication. This rivals (and even surpasses) some entries in Andrew Offutt’s Swords Against Darkness series, of which I’m also fond…” ~ Wesley Lambert, The Star Road

“…If you like sword and sorcery fantasy, you will like this anthology. If Conan style stories bore you or seem too simplistic, there are no stories here for you…Overall, I enjoyed the anthology and read through it quite quickly, proving to me that I was having fun. And that is what this first offering from [Rogue Blades Entertainment] is meant to do.” ~ John Ottinger, Grasping for the Wind

“The editor says there may be ‘…no finer compilation of heroic tales of action and adventure…’ and, at least in recent memory, he may be right. [Rogue Blades Entertainment] has been trying to present and create a place for Sword and Sorcery. They have met that goal and gone beyond it as these stories are indeed fine heroic tales and are of a quality that extends beyond a genre offering. The book has language to thrill, a wonderful cover painting by Johnney Perkins, thoughtful introductions by the editor, Jason M. Waltz, an article on writing fantasy by E.E. Knight and too few interior illustrations…All around great reading wonderfully written in bold and strong voices.” ~ Dan Nelson, Amazon.com

“Jason M. Waltz did a great job of picking out the stories to use for Return of the Sword. Except for only one or two stories (even the ones that weren’t particularly something to my personal taste) I found these to be very well and interestingly written…I highly recommend Return of the Sword to anyone who appreciates a straight-forward adventurous tale, and I applaud the effort to present some quality sword & sorcery tales in a market where the sub-genre seems all but forgotten.” ~ Greg Hersom, Fantasy Literature.net

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