SPFBO 9 Author Interview- Michael Rousseau
What inspired you to write your SPFBO entry? Is there a particular story, personal experience, or idea that sparked this book?
I watched a lot of Power Rangers in my teens. I always liked giant robots and transforming superheroes, so it was a perfect blend of interests. My problem with Power Rangers is that since it’s aimed at a younger audience, it’s fairly clean. When the Megazord gets deployed, nobody gets stepped on. Property damage is minimal or non-existent. Very few Rangers ever die or get injured in the line of duty. I’ve always been fascinated by what a more adult take on the formula would look like, and when I couldn’t readily find one, I wrote Scarlet and Sunder to fill that gap.
I also had the notion of writing a mecha story that wasn’t military sci-fi, which is where you most often see giant robot stories heading these days.
How would you describe your writing process? How did it evolve during the creation of this book?
I’m a big outliner. I plan every story beat in my prewriting stage, and from there, the words flow. If I get a better idea or the story starts to drift from the outline, I adjust course and change the plan if I think the new direction is better, so I do allow myself some flexibility. I would say I’m 90% plotter, 10% pantser.
The one thing that changed during the creation of this book was becoming more aware of my percolation time and recognizing it as a part of my process. Any time I’m in a liminal space, like the shower, or on a train, or anywhere else where I’m not fully engaged, my mind drifts to the work. I end up subconsciously solving plot problems by allowing my mind to go wherever it wants to. The tricky part is making sure that those great solutions don’t break continuity, as I have a pretty complex world with lots of rules and history to take into account. Regarding percolation as necessary work has helped lessen the guilt I feel on days where I can’t commit the usual 4-6 hours of nightly drafting and revisions.
What challenges did you face during the writing or publishing process, and how did you overcome them?
Self-pub is as easy or as hard as you want it to be, but you get what you put in. For me, the challenge in publishing was doing it at the level I wanted to do it at. I had friends telling me I should just upload my manuscript to a free site for exposure, and maybe, just maybe, a publisher will see it and pay me for it. Others said I should just slap on a pre-generated cover and release fast, because I could always go back and change the cover and contents of the book later. I’ve never been that person, though. I don’t believe in perfection, but I wanted this book to reflect who I am, so I put in the work. I hired Charlie Knight as my editor. I did eleven full revisions of this novel. I contracted Félix Ortiz and Shawn T. King to create a killer cover. I agonized over trim size and paper choices. There was so much I had to learn and a thousand differing opinions on how best to do it, so the real challenge was trusting my gut and sticking to my own standards when making decisions about the project so that, no matter what, I would be proud of what came out of the process.
Who are your biggest literary influences and how have they impacted your writing style?
R.A. Salvatore and his Legend of Drizzt books had a huge impact on my style. I learned a lot about writing combat from him. There’s real-world martial experience in his fight scenes, where he’s painting a picture and leaving the finer brush strokes up to your imagination without being vague to the point where you have to do all the mental work yourself. Reading his action sequences feels like a partnership between the author and the reader, and it’s something I’ve strived to bring to my own work.
How do you approach world-building in your fantasy novel? What elements do you think are essential for a compelling fantasy setting?
I started with the question of what it would look like if the Power Rangers existed today, in our world, as originally this was going to be a modern fantasy. The Rangers would be heavily regulated by the government. Any nation that didn’t have one would be scrambling for an answer to the threat they pose. Folks would probably view the Rangers as celebrities. I can’t think of a scenario where they would be able to keep their identities a secret in a world of smartphones and TikTok. That led to what kinds of characters would make the most sense for a story like this. Maia and Ren basically wrote themselves, at that point.
With that question answered, I had a premise, but it felt like it would be more of a parody or reimagining than an original work. Ultimately, I thought switching to epic fantasy would provide an interesting juxtaposition by allowing readers to focus on the plot and characters without constantly drawing comparisons to my many inspirations. My world is complex, but fairly representative of what you see in most basic fantasy settings. We have dwarves, elves, magic, an evil empire looking to conquer the surrounding nations, and monsters roaming the land. In that setting, a giant walking magical construct and a transforming, armored pilot stand out even more, as they’re the only non-standard components of this world.
From there, I thought about what kind of story I wanted to tell in that space. How would our broken pilot find redemption? What’s the threat to the world and what keeps our hero from finding peace? How would the typical inhabitants of an epic fantasy respond to the one person who could control a magical mecha?
Answering those questions led to more questions, and when I was finished, I had an outline.
In terms of what makes a compelling fantasy setting, for me, I’m not big on genre conventions and rules. If you’ve created a world that facilitates a specific story that would be difficult or impossible to tell in a modern, real-life setting, that’s a great fantasy setting, to me.
If you could give a piece of advice to the main character in your book at the start of their journey, what would it be?
For Maia: Please, ask for help. It doesn’t make you weak, and you can’t do this alone. You deserve to be supported, and there are people around you who are waiting for you to reach out.
For Ren: The situation you’ve been put in is unfair. It’s too much to ask of anyone. Try to enjoy being a teen, if you can, just for a little while. Life is going to come at you fast.
As a self-published author, how do you navigate marketing and promoting your work?
The short answer is that I don’t! I’m terrible at promoting and marketing myself and my work. I post on social media and I have a newsletter and a website, but I don’t actively go out and push my product. I’ve always felt weird about it. It’s something I’m hoping to get better at in the future, as it’s an important part of a self-published author’s skillset, and one I struggle with.
What made you decide to participate in the SPFBO competition? How do you think this experience will benefit you as an author?
I learned about the competition after reading Sword of Kaigen and realizing it was a previous winner. It seemed like a simple, fun, no-stress way to meet more authors and get some eyes on my work, but after seeing the competition I’m up against, the no-stress part has left the building.
I think, at the very least, I’m going to get to add some thickness to my skin. My goal is to reach one new reader, and for that reader to get inspired to go write that thing they’ve been thinking about writing. I’ve been thrilled by the support for Scarlet and Sunder since it launched this past February, and I want to pass that feeling on to the next person who doesn’t think their weird, niche idea will be accepted.
If you were to win SPFBO, what impact do you think this would have on your writing career?
I haven’t really thought that far ahead. I think it would mostly be a motivator to keep going, knowing that there are people waiting for the next book.
What's next for you after SPFBO? Are there any upcoming projects you can share with us?
I’m currently taking a break from drafting the follow-up to Scarlet and Sunder. Hopefully I can get back to it soon. My day job as a video game designer and the aftermath of struggling through the final steps of publishing my debut novel have both taken a lot out of me. I have a full outline for this next book, and I’m excited to come back to this world and stoke the fires I started in Scarlet and Sunder. One of the big themes of Scarlet and Sunder is that every step is a choice, and every choice comes with consequences. We’re going to see a lot of those consequences come back to bite our heroes in the wake of how the first book ended.
