Hello Lovely Readers,
Today, we’re joined by the fantastic Paul Tallman! He’s here to celebrate the release of his new novel, Ley-Lines and Rabbit-Holes, which came out yesterday. It’s the second in his Rogue Destiny series. And, as it happens, the first book is actually only 99 cents through 8/21! But that’s enough of that, let’s get to getting to know Paul Tallman!
Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and what got you into writing?
I’ve loved imaginative stories since I was very young. From the moment I could hold a pencil, I wrote stories and drew comics, creating my own characters and worlds to play in. In grade school, I was always in trouble for doodling in the margins of my books instead of paying attention in class.
As the years rolled by, life and adult responsibilities got in the way of my creativeness. But the desire never left me. I dabbled in writing and drawing in my spare time, creating new characters and more fantastical worlds. Eventually, I joined a writing group to learn how to tell a story better. From that, my first book, Rogue Destiny, emerged.
Are there any books that have really influenced you as a writer?
My influences range far and wide. Two of the biggest have to be the Lord of the Rings and the original Star Wars movies. These mythologies are very different, but they showed me what makes a great story. How the human condition can be revealed, even with the fantastical elements of fantasy. I knew I wanted to write stories like that.
The trick to telling any good story is to sell the characters and their world to the reader. To make them believe a hobbit can have a conversation with an intelligent dragon.
My other greatest influence has to be the old pulp fiction paperbacks of yesteryear. As a teenager, I haunted used bookstores, hunting for the works of Robert E Howard, Fritz Lieber, and Edgar Rice Burroughs. These larger-than-life characters, like Conan, Elric, Solomon Kane, John Carter of Mars and Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, filled my imagination like nothing else and sparked my desire to write my own stories. Their tales were simple. They were heroes who survived against impossible odds with only their cunning and a sharp blade.
But what infected my brain the most was the descriptive words used in these stories. It wasn’t just a campfire. It was ‘tendrils of dark smoke rose from the flames into the cool night air’. That type of description pulled me into the story in ways nothing else could. You could feel the night chill and smell the burning wood.
What do you enjoy most about Fantasy?
The sheer escapism. The ability to lose yourself completely in a great story. Fantasy has no boundaries to what the stories can be about. They can involve dragons, magical swords, mystical realms or, in my case, portals to a thousand other worlds. As long as the worldbuilding stays grounded and the reader can follow the action, the only limits are the writer’s imagination.
What inspired this series in particular?
The first spark of an idea that would become Rogue Destiny came to me after I watched an old Chuck Jones cartoon where storybook characters escape from their books to sing and dance with a little cartoon mouse who came into the bookstore to escape the weather. The music wakes up Frankenstein’s Monster, and he crashes their party. I found the interaction between characters from different genres intriguing.
The beginnings of a story formed in my head. What if there was a mystical universe where every fable, myth, story and fairy tale existed as its own world? What if the denizens of these myths could travel to other worlds via rabbit-holes, like the one in Alice in Wonderland?
At the center of this Mythic Cosmos, there would be a city called Rogue Destiny. A Never-Never Land where those escaping their worlds could find refuge and where a heroic band of adventurers, known as the Raconteurs, protected the city from the dark forces that often threatened her.
What is your favorite part about Rogue Destiny and the universe the series takes place in?
I’ve always loved the idea of one genre bleeding into another, blending familiar tropes to create something completely new. Star Wars is just Flash Gordon with samurai space wizards. I wanted to create a standalone mythos where all these contrasting elements crash into each other.
Since I have the attention span of a two-year-old, the stories needed to be compelling, and full of fast-paced action. If I’m bored with the story, then the reader will be too.
My favorite bit of writing advice is from Brandon Sanderson. He said to “Err on the side of awesome.” So I always try to find the awesome in the story. That’s the mantra I try to write by.
What is your favorite aspect of Ren B’gatti as a character?
Ren is a great character to play around with. He’s a shape-shifting trickster with a dubious allegiance to anyone or anything. Because of that, his moral compass tends to point in different directions at times. He wants to be the hero and even considers himself a hero, but his proclivities for mischief seem to always get the better of him. And being a shape-shifter only makes it easier for him to get into trouble. His fellow Raconteurs are constantly trying to keep him on the straight and narrow, to varying degrees of success. I try to keep the reader guessing at what he’ll do next.
What can readers expect next in this series and the mythos of the Rogue Destiny?
Rogue Destiny is written as an ongoing series. The first four books create a foundational arc that establishes who the Raconteurs are and what Rogue Destiny is all about. After that, I plan to tell standalone stories that focus on the origins of Ren and the other main characters. The plan is for the series to continue as long as the ideas keep flowing, and since I have every trope and genre available to me to play with, the possibilities for more stories are endless.
What are some books you are enjoying reading right now?
I have this tendency to read several books at the same time. Right now, I’m in the middle of Sabriel by Garth Nix, a biography on Roald Dahl and The Secrets of Story by Matt Bird.
Do you have any book recommendations?
The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher. Never a dull moment in this urban fantasy series.
Mistborn Trilogy by Brandon Sanderson. Early trilogy from a fantasy mega-star.
Throne of the Crescent Moon by Saladin Ahmed. Amazing, immersive story set in an Arabian Nights world.
And, of course, The Lord of the Rings. My baptism into epic fantasy. I read it in middle school and have never again experienced such the sheer joy of reading something for the first time. I hope to one day write a book that is half as awesome.
Paul Tallman is the author of the pulp fantasy series, Rogue Destiny, City of a Thousand Moons.
A geek by birthright, he has spent his life in the social awkwardness of his calling. He has had a fascination with all things fantasy and sci-fi ever since reading Lord of the Rings in middle school.
After having worked for too many years in the insurance industry, he finally broke away from the security of a steady paycheck to pursue writing. On a typical day, Paul can be found hiding away from society, working on his next book.
He stills mourns the cancellation of the TV show Firefly.
Paul lives in the wet and wonderful Pacific Northwest with his long suffering wife, Tina.
You can find him on his website, as well as Instagram, Facebook, and BookBub.
