Pump Up Chats with Christopher Hoare

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Christopher Hoare lives with his wife of 40 years, Shirley, and two shelter dogs, Coco and Emmie, in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains where he writes and watches the world turn. His fantasy “Rast” was released by MuseItUp Publishing in March 2011.

You can download a free copy of the Iskander series promo “Gisel Matah and the Slave Ship” from his website at http://christopherhoare.ca.

The Iskander series novels are available from Double Dragon —
http://www.double-dragon-ebooks.com/eAuthor.php?Name=Christopher%20Hoare

You can also find Chris online at:

Iskander Blog http://thewildcatsvictory.wordpress.com
Rast blog http://trailowner.blogspot.com/

Thank you for this interview, Christopher. Do you remember writing stories as a child or did the writing bug come later? Do you remember your first published piece?

I have a recollection of writing a story at the age of nine or ten. I don’t remember it, but I do know that the headmistress of our village school carried it about to show off for some years afterwards. My first published piece was almost twenty years later when I sold three articles about working in the desert to the owner of an English language newspaper in Tripoli, Libya.

What do you consider as the most frustrating side of becoming a published author and what has been the most rewarding?

The catch 22, definitely. Readers do not buy my books because they don’t recognize my name; they don’t recognize my name because they don’t buy my books.

The most rewarding are having comments about my writing that suggest readers are enjoying it and feeling involved with the characters. I wish it happened more often.

Are you married or single and how do you combine the writing life with home life? Do you have support?

My wife and I have been married for forty years; she accepted all the times when I stayed home to write instead of heading out to drum up a contract; she appreciates our being seniors now, where a pension cheque arrives monthly whether I spend my time writing or not.

Can you tell us about your latest book and why you wrote it?

As I pointed out elsewhere, Rast is both my earliest novel and my latest. I started it years ago only to have it land in publishing limbo: finally seeing its publication in March of this year. I wrote it after seeing my wife devour the gothic opus of the Gormanghast stories and having no positive reaction to them myself. A chapter or two was as far as I could get … so self importantly trivial, I thought. I decided to write a novel about a prince and a family who really had some desperate situation to fear.

Can you share an excerpt?

From Chapter One —

As soon as the flooding light broke upon his sleep, Prince Egon lurched upright; danger a sour taste in his mouth. His eyes adjusted to the morning brilliance and he made out the figure thrusting the heavy drapes aside.

“What is wrong? Jady is in peril––?”

Jady’s grandfather shook his head. “Not, Jady. My news is of the Drogar.”

The words struck into Egon’s heart. “The magic assails him? We must take him to the quarantine at once!”

Grandfather Soule turned his back to the window, his face etched with sombre shadows. The bright blue sky framing him mocked the dreadful news. “I have already taken him. At least the Palace is safe from the magic fury.”

Egon stopped, one foot already on the floor. “Source be praised. Rast commends you for your brave service.”

Grandfather Soule inclined his head in gratitude as he took up the cloak of a Drogar from the bronze-bound chest. “The rebellion struck him suddenly; he could barely summon my aid. He was fighting strongly for control as we walked. He may yet fight for many days.”

The fear that Egon felt was selfishness, his conscience told him, but terrible nevertheless. His father had been Drogar for almost thirty years, and inevitably the magic power proved too great a strain. It was now his turn to bare himself to the duty––Rast commanded him. The lessons, for which there was no school, must be challenged alone. If a Drogar could not teach this, who could? Without another word, he rose from the bed to stride out on his balcony, ignoring the elderly courtier and the cloak he held out.

Far below the balustrade, the Palace of Rast stretched across many rocky hillsides beneath the snow shrouded brows of the Foghead Mountains––each wing and aspect built in turn by a reigning Drogar. Each exceeded its predecessor in the grandeur of its halls and reception rooms, its ballrooms and banquet chambers. Each proclaimed the growing strength of Rast, the sword-wielders, the warriors terrifying in war––wolven and ravens of the Drogar’s magic powers. Each addition of carved mountain-stone was cemented in place by the only mortar that could stand un-weathered through the boundless years––the mortar ground from the bones of those who fell in battle. He shuddered. Time for him to seek out the architects and masons. Time to send the quarrymen up the trembling brinks of mountain paths. Time to grind the mortar.

Where’s your favorite place to write at home?

I don’t have one. I started writing many years ago when I worked on shift in an oil refinery. During the quiet times on evening and night shifts I started to write the novel that was in my head then — one eye on the instrumentation readouts and ear tuned to an alarm bell. At that time I decided I could put a chair in the median of a busy freeway and write a novel. Even today I mostly regard interruptions as opportunities to reconsider what I was about to write.

What is one thing about your book that makes it different from other books on the market?

I know of no other fantasy story in which magic is almost a character in the plot — sometimes antagonist, sometimes a friend to the protagonists. I felt it time to present a work where wielding magic required some sacrifice, some payment, instead of merely being a handy parlour trick.

Tables are turned…what is one thing you’d like to say to your audience who might buy your book one day?

At $5.99 for a download, e-Books are as inexpensive as the two and sixpenny pocket books I bought as a teenager — so why do you avoid the thousands of new voices published by the hundreds of small independent publishers today by sticking with the same old, same old, from the same old authors you always buy?

Thank you for this interview, Christopher. Good luck on your virtual book tour!

Thank you for asking for this interview. I hope I’ve opened a few more eyes in the wider public who are missing 95% of the original material published today.

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Question of the Day

How do you make sales happen for you?

A lot of hard work! I sponsor a lot of on line parties, festivals and contests. Book sales don’t magically happen, believe me. An author has to work hard to earn her readers. And then she has to work hard to keep them by giving them something they’ll enjoy reading. I try hard to make my books worth a reader’s time.

-- Sheila Roberts, Author of Winter at the Beach