Author W. James Chan from Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, describes himself as retired from “delightfully banal office work that afforded plenty of writing time on the sly.” He has been writing for almost as long as he has been reading. His first book, Blackcloak: A Man of his Sword, was published in 2015. He has received some nice reviews from sites like San Francisco Book Reviews, IndieReader, Kirkus, and the Self-Publishing Review. W. James Chan doesn’t belong to any specific author group/association but joins an online gathering here and there. When W. James Chan isn’t writing, he enjoys what he calls a mish-mash of Xennial nerd stuff: video games, RPGs, and boardgames, anime, prestige TV shows, heavy metal concerts … and, of course, reading.
Which genres do you cover?
W. James Chan: My work stalks the intersection of Dark Fantasy and literary fiction, peppered in psychological and theological queries.
Which is the latest book you had published, and what is about?
W. James Chan: Gildenhammer: The Beating of her Heart, and it’s the follow-on to my first book. Where Blackcloak was very Lynchian in structure and scope, Gildenhammer is a lot more straightforward and expands on the world greatly.
At which book events can readers find you?
W. James Chan: I keep a very low profile there, for now. Happy to use the internet to hand-fish for potential readers.
Which book event connecting you with readers is your favorite and why?
W. James Chan: See above. I’ve met quite a few famous authors at various events, and not too many of them seemed entirely happy to be there. I get it; we put so much energy into our writing, sometimes there’s just not much left for anything else.
Do(es) your book(s) have any specific messages to your readers and, if so, which are they?
W. James Chan: We aren’t always who we think we are, but also we are often nothing more or less than who we think we are. Oh, and love is a b*tch.
Which writer(s) keep(s) inspiring you and why?
W. James Chan: Alrighty. Nikos Kazantzakis, who wrote The Last Temptation of Christ, for his intimate messianic fiction and very, very powerful dream sequences. Frank Herbert of Dune for marrying high concept sci-fi/fantasy with messianic fiction. Umberto Eco for his playful engagement with semiotics and the haunting nature of core childhood memories. Salman Rushdie for his defiance and willingness to engage thoughtfully with contentious matter. Kikuchi Hideyuki, whose pulpy writing isn’t to my taste, but he did give us Vampire Hunter D. And lastly, not a writer but a film-maker: the late animation master Satoshi Kon, who decoded the madness of dreams fragments and stitched them into a beautiful, unhinged wholeness.
Do you have any specific writing habits?
W. James Chan: I binge. Some weeks I won’t write much more than ideas, dialogue snippets. Some days I can put out upwards of 10,000 words. If I am writing for real, the door is closed. If not, it’s open to anything.
What are you currently working on?
W. James Chan: Book 3 of my series (it’s an embedded prequel full of necessary blank-filling) and book 12 (it serves as a sort of cheat sheet/spoiler guide to everything else I plan to write). But I do keep the Word docs for all the books open in case something finds a home there.
Which book are you currently reading simply for entertainment?
W. James Chan: Just one? That’s not fair. I am collecting indie and small-time publications from online fora. Treasure hunting is awesome; I know how much reviews matter to less-known authors; and maybe I’m hoping for a little karma. Those I read on my phone when I am not doing anything else. Physically, I just finished Knife by Salman Rushdie and plan to hit Circe by Madeline Miller next.
What advice would you give any aspiring author?
W. James Chan: I know it’s no fun, but we have to get good at self-promotion. At elevator-pitching the works we spent so long writing out. At balancing humility and pride. Connect with peers. Learn how to talk your work up without either exaggerating or denigration. I know it goes against our grain – we wouldn’t be writers if talking came naturally to us – but this is the game we all have to play now.
You can find W. James Chan’s books “tucked away around the world in obscure indie bookshops”, at https://mybook.to/KaefreSeries, and on Amazon.
