Q&A With Edward Willett

Edward Willett is an award-winning author and the host of The Worldshapers podcast. Edward is the author of many scifi and fantasy series! Mickey Mikkelson was so kind to connect me with Edward! 

Q: Welcome to Book Notions Edward!  Would you give a brief description of each of your series and tell us what drew you to writing fantasy and sci-fi?

A: I often write stand-alone novels, so not everything falls into a series. But on the series side:

The Shards of Excalibur is a five-book modern-day young adult fantasy adventure series that begins when a teenage girl in Regina, Saskatchewan, discovers she is heir to the power of the Lady of the Lake from the Arthurian legends, and the Lady tasks here and a slightly younger boy with finding the scattered shards of King Arthur’s legendary sword from wherever they are scattered around the world, before the evil Merlin (in his modern-day guise as computer magnate Rex Major) can do so. The five books are Song of the Sword, Twist of the Blade, Lake in the Clouds, Cave Beneath the Sea, and Door into Faerie.

Peregrine Rising is a two-book science fiction series, Right to Know and Falcon’s Egg. In Right to Know, a sub-light-speed generation starship arrives at its destination only to discover that it was leapfrogged over by the faster-than-light ships that came along later, and humans have been inhabiting the world the starship crew intended to colonize for several hundred years—long enough that the colony has been cut off from the larger galaxy. The ship’s arrival triggers a civil war that almost destroys everyone. In the second book, the galaxy makes contact again—and war once more threatens.

The Masks of Aygrima is a trilogy, functionally young adult although published in the adult market, set in a land where the tyrant king maintains control by requiring everyone over the age of fifteen to be masked at all times in public, the magical masks revealing to the tyrant’s security forces anyone who poses a potential threat. The main character, Mara Holdfast, is the daughter of the master mask-maker, and someone with an unusual magical talent—but when she is given her mask, it shatters, and she is thrown into exile, falling int with rebels who, with her help, attempt to overthrow the tyrant once and for all.

Worldshapers, which consists of three books so far, Worldshaper, Master of the World, and The Moonlit World, is set in a universe in which entire worlds have been created and shaped by individuals who then live in that world. Every world is different. The shaper of the almost-but-not-quite-our-world world featured in the first book doesn’t even know she shaped it, but she soon finds out, and then it is up to her to travel from world to world to try to save them from the pursuing Adversary, who for his own reasons wants to see all of the shaped worlds destroyed. Book 2 takes place in a world inspired by Jules Verne and Book 3 in a world of vampire and werewolves.

Finally, The Helix War, Marseguro, Terra Insegura, and the upcoming third book, which has the working title Vingança (Vengeance), takes place in a future where Earth was almost destroyed by a planet-killer asteroid, which miraculously was deflected at the last possible moment by another asteroid that spared the planet (though Earth suffered terribly meteor strikes). A religious cult seized on that as proof of its beliefs, and was able to take control of the planet. Among their beliefs is a complete prohibition on genetically modified humans. Seeing which way the wind was blowing, a ship that contained both ordinary humans and water-breathing mutants called Selkies fled Earth and managed to hide away on a water world, Marseguro. Many years later, there is a thriving society there—but there are still those who harbor resentment against the Selkies, and in Marseguro, one of them gets out a message that brings Earth forces to attack, launching the action of the series. The first two books were published by DAW and will be republished this year or early next by Tuscany Bay Books, which will also bring out the third book shortly thereafter.

Q: How long does it take you to write a novel? What is your advice for anyone wanting to write sci-fi and fantasy?

A: The fastest I’ve written a novel was two weeks for the final book of the Shards of Excalibur series (which, to be fair, was only 60,000 words). If I’m working constantly, though, I can write a first draft of a 100,000 word novel in a month.

I can seldom work on it quite that religiously, though, and there are some projects that have taken me years because I approach them in fits and starts. So, I guess the answer is the unfortunately wishy-washy “it depends.”

The best advice I can give anyone who wants to write science fiction and/or fantasy is to read science fiction and fantasy. Read, read, read, then write, write, write. There are no shortcuts.

Q: What do you hope readers learn once they finish reading your books?

A: I’m not trying to teach anybody anything. I just hope they enjoy the adventure, enjoy meeting the characters I’ve created, and maybe encounter a few ideas that make them think about things they’ve never thought about before, or think about things they have thought about before in new ways.

Q: Can you reveal what you are currently working on now?

A: I’m looking forward to working on the third book in the Helix War trilogy I mentioned above, but at the moment, my focus is a young-adult modern-day horror/fantasy novel called Changers. It’s kind of my take on werewolves. The Changers aren’t werewolves, but there are definitely similarities. It’s about a teen girl who discovers she may actually be a monster, and her best friend, a boy who discovers he may be the last of  long line of monster-hunters—and neither of them knows the truth about the other.

Q: Would you talk about your podcast The Worldshapers & please provide a link? Many of my readers love podcasts! 

A: The Worldshapers began with a focus on the creative process of science fiction and fantasy authors. In the last couple of years, the focus has shifted more to publicizing new releases, and includes writers of many genres other than science fiction and fantasy (though the majority are probably writers in those genres). It’s also added a video component, so it’s now both audio and video. 

I also used the podcast to springboard the Kickstarting of five original science fiction and fantasy anthologies featuring authors I interviewed. The fifth and final of those anthologies, Shapers of Worlds Volume V, came out last spring.

You can find the podcast on its own website, https://www.theworldshapers.com, or on my YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/edwardwillett.  (The more complicated URL for The Worldshapers playlist specifically is https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLseCx9-RbQj5GlRLN9WvJaZVbKh2RBzrj).