SPFBO Author Interview: Austin Windsor
What inspired you to write your SPFBO entry? Is there a particular story, personal experience, or idea that sparked this book?
When I started to write my book, A Twist of Fate, I hadn’t heard of SPFBO or any other fantasy writing competition. I didn’t know much about writing at all, in fact. It was May 2020 and I had spent two months enjoying my extra school holiday with a lot of time on my hands. This time was mostly occupied by multiple playthroughs of the Witcher 3, my obsession at the time, and it was on one of these days, roaming around the digital reconstruction of Andrzej Sapkowski’s fantasy world, that I decided to pursue my childhood dream of becoming an author and create a fantasy world of my own.
How would you describe your writing process? How did it evolve during the creation of this book?
My writing process is… not very structured. When I started to write my book, I wrote little descriptions of each of the main characters, detailing their physical appearances, attitudes, behaviours, views, goals, relationships, etc. I did likewise for each of the three continents comprising the world in which the story takes place. After that, I just put pen to paper and let my mind run free. I didn’t know where the story was going to go, I didn’t even know where it started. These details arose naturally over time. As the book went on I attempted to plan it in parts but I always found myself deviating from my plan after having a spark of inspiration for a better idea. It came to the point where I knew vaguely how I wanted the story to end, but how it came to that ending was a mystery to be invented along the way.
What challenges did you face during the writing or publishing process, and how did you overcome them?
Of challenges, there were many. I had never written a book and my highest English qualification was a Grade 8 at GCSE; I was sixteen years old with little in the way of life experience to reflect through the characters; I had no idea how long each chapter should have been; I had no idea how to format the manuscript; I had no idea how to source a cover. And so on, and so on. In short, I had no idea what I was doing. But I didn’t let any of this stop me, and in the end, it really wasn’t so difficult to overcome. I may not have written any books, but I’ve certainly read them and could learn a writing style from my favourite books – my main inspiration was Sapkowski after reading through the Witcher series. And as for all the technical knowledge that I didn’t yet have, Google was my friend. It wasn’t hard to search ‘how long should a chapter be’ and ‘book cover art designer’, and, in time, I was able to teach myself the skills and find myself the resources I needed to publish the book in a state of which I could be proud.
Who are your biggest literary influences and how have they impacted your writing style?
As mentioned previously, my main influence was Sapkowski because at the time I was wholly obsessed with everything the Witcher (except the Netflix show – but I could rant about that for days). It was his taste for lengthy description and flowery language that I felt I emulated in my novel. Looking back, there’s a lot I could have done better – some of my descriptions were really quite expositional, with too much tell and not enough show. That’s something I learned when writing the second book, where I ensured that I still described in avid detail the elements defining a scene whilst minimising monotony.
How do you approach world-building in your fantasy novel? What elements do you think are essential for a compelling fantasy setting?
Diversity and variety are paramount. What excites me about writing is having so many different areas and people and ideologies to explore – my three main characters come from a snowy tundra, a summery plain, and a bone-dry desert respectively. But they also explore the world, encountering rocky mountains, rainy pine forests, coastal metropolises, jungle islands, vast oceans, and more. In each of these locations there are different people and creatures with different languages and characteristics which can in turn present the characters with challenge. So I think you can write as much history as you want for a place, but if there’s no diversity, it won’t be as compelling as it could be – it will be one place that never changes, and where’s the excitement in that?
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?
I have three main characters, and I would give all of them the same piece of advice, and that would be to be more thoughtful of the real intentions of others.
As a self-published author, how do you navigate marketing and promoting your work?
Oh, boy. This has been by far the most difficult aspect of the whole thing, and one that has very much been on the backburner since beginning to write my second book. I’ve done several things as far as marketing and promotion goes – I have social media accounts where I’ve attempted to reach possible readers with teasers, short-form videos, writing snippets, etc. I’ve run book promotions both for free and discounted to $0.99/£0.99, and twice I’ve paid for promotional slots on Freebooksy/Bargain Booksy. I posted to Reddit and Facebook when these promotions were running to generate even more traction, but on no occasion have I ever recuperated the funds I spent on the promotion. That’s when I decided to fall back to a plan touted by many as the bedrock of marketing – write the next book. An author like me with one book doesn’t look particularly reputable, especially as that book is the first in a series that doesn’t yet entirely exist. If I had written the entire planned trilogy, though? Now that looks like something more trustworthy. I’m going to keep writing, and hope that the theory of ‘cross-pollination’ rings true in the future.
What made you decide to participate in the SPFBO competition? How do you think this experience will benefit you as an author?
I chose SPFBO because it’s the most prestigious competition for self-published fantasy writers there is, and I wanted to have my shot at it! The competition is steep and I don’t go into this with the expectation of winning, but what I will get is access to a community of other self-published fantasy writers from whom I can learn a whole lot as I progress with my writing endeavours. And even if I don’t win or even make it to the final, my book is out there on several pages talking about the competition, and extra eyes are always a good thing!
If you were to win SPFBO, what impact do you think this would have on your writing career?
I don’t know if it would have that much of an impact. As it stands, writing is a side project that I do outside of my day job as a degree apprentice. Winning SPFBO would, I’m sure, launch me into success in terms of people learning who I am and wanting to read my books. That would certainly provide encouragement to write more and more, but it’s not as if that encouragement doesn’t exist already – I haven’t stopped writing since that day back in 2020 and I don’t plan to stop any time soon. It’s one of the most fulfilling things I do and to be validated by a victory in the competition would only fuel me further to continue in what I do.
What's next for you after SPFBO? Are there any upcoming projects you can share with us?
As I’ve said, I’m going to keep writing. I’ve touched on it briefly in previous answers, but I’ve actually already written the second book in my debut series, and that’s in the process of being beta read. I plan to release it later this year. As well as that, I started to write a completely new as-yet-unnamed series this year, a leap into something totally different to my SPFBO entry. It’s a dystopian noir following a hitman by the name of Vince Foster, set on Earth in the year 2063 where a nuclear war between India and Pakistan saw rapid societal restructuring, technological progression, and political upheaval. It’s full of deception, exploration, and discovery, in much the same way as A Twist of Fate is, and I’m absolutely loving writing it. I’m hoping that any prospective readers will, in the future, love reading it.
