World of Writing - Author Interview
Today we are having a discussion with Dean (H. Dean) Fisher, author of several books including the pre-teen novel The Redemption of Bes, numerous fiction novels, as well as the Tales of Zhava series.
We met Dean in a writer's group on Alignable recently and are pleased to feature this interview today.
Dean invites you to drop by his Website (www.hdeanfisher.com) or visit his Amazon Author Page (https://www.amazon.
Q: Since we met just recently I'd like to start by having you share a little about your background.
It was that relative isolation in North Dakota and my experiences traveling so extensively that really pushed me as a writer.
I recall being a bored kid (5, or maybe 6?) in the middle of winter, and my mother showed me how to fold, cut, and staple sheets of paper to create little comic books. That was the beginning of my storytelling adventures!
Unfortunately, I’m not a great artist (I can’t even make stick figures look good!), and so my career as a comic book artist never went far. However, all of those comic books really helped me learn to craft stories. My mother was a good critic, and she would tell me when the stories made no sense.
I don’t recall a time in my life when I wasn’t crafting stories. We would listen to radio dramas (War of the Worlds with Orson Welles!) on long car trips, and then I would use a microphone and SFX on our home stereo to create my own radio dramas, often with my Star Wars or Star Trek action figures standing in for the actors.
Q: I absolutely love radio dramas! YouTube has many of the old ones available and those are great for relaxing the mind before sleep. I've been researching POV (Point Of View... a.k.a. Voice), because readers prefer a particular Voice in one genre, but not in another. I'm curious about your thoughts on this. Do you use more than one voice in your writing?
A: All of my novels are written in close third person POV, which basically means that if the character doesn’t know something then I can’t write about it. It forces me to more deftly plot my stories. It’s also the exact opposite of James Michener, who will give you the interior thoughts of every main and secondary (and tertiary!) character within 20 pages, interspersed with the ancient history of the land on which those characters are standing.
However, when I hear someone talk about “voice,” I immediately think of the characters’ voices, and that changes based on the character telling the story. For example, in my Medusa books I have four characters who tell the stories, two protagonists and a couple secondary characters who get a couple chapters at most.
I dive into the minds of those characters when I write them, and I tend to write all of their chapters at once. So, for the ancient Medusa chapters, the reader is hearing Medusa’s voice. I know what Medusa sounds like, her rhythms of speech, her word choices, etc., and I write all of her chapters straight through for the entire book. Then I go back and write all of Chloe’s chapters. She lives in our modern NYC, and her rhythms of speech and word choices are different from Medusa’s. Finally, I go back and write any final chapters that require Kadee’s voice or (ugh!) the voice of Samuel, the fundamentalist asshole who believes he’s doing his Christian God’s work.
Each character also has their own soundtrack, and that really helps me get into the flow of their voice. For example, when I’m writing Medusa I tend to listen to darker music that emphasizes some of the shittier aspects of life, such as Billie Eilish or Lana Del Rey's Hope is a Dangerous Thing for a Girl Like Me To Have – But I Have It is pretty much Medusa’s mantra. When I’m writing Chloe, though, I listen to more pop and rock music that emphasizes her take-no-sh*t, freedom-loving attitude, such as Melissa Etheridge (Fearless Love), Dua Lipa (Love Again), or ZZ Ward (Forget About Us).
Q: You know, that is very interesting. I'm curious if other writers use music in this way? For myself, I like to have calm music with no lyrics so that I can concentrate on the writing or project at hand... but this idea has me feeling curious and now I want to explore it!
Would you mind if we take a glance into your profession and educational background?
A: Unfortunately, I can’t do writing full time. I wish I could, but I don’t yet have a Stephen King-level fanbase. I’m an Associate Professor of Mass Communication, and I teach audio and video production, public speaking, journalism, PR, media analysis, and statistical research. I worked about 15 years in radio, and now my favorite classes are radio production and radio drama. Teaching is a lot of fun, and I love my students.
Q: Well that kind of background will certainly play a role in a successful writing career going forward! I've noticed a growing trend in the world of writing, where authors are looking to challenge the current status quo and ask their readers to contemplate new ideas and become more proactive. Tell us a little about your passions in this regard...
A: I want to leave the world a better place because of the stories I tell. As I said in my email to you, I’m a feminist. I believe in equality for all.
My novels deal with weighty topics like misogyny, the abuse of institutional power (often by men), and the use of religious power to suppress and oppress. Sometimes I hit those topics head-on, like in the Medusa novels, and other times I deal with those topics on the periphery, such as my Tales of Zhava novels (The Initiate and The Novice).
Sometimes I take those topics to their worst extremes to condemn the abuses, especially in Medusa: Rise of a Goddess, but other times I flip the narrative and seek to inspire readers by showing the good that comes from working together, which I did in my children’s novel, The Redemption of Bes.
Whether I’m pointing out the ills of this world or inspiring people to be their best selves, my goal is to leave the world a better place from readers’ interactions with my stories and characters.
"Book titles are both fun and terrifying."Q: I love that - thank you for sharing. Now let's delve into the task of choosing a book title. How do you go about this difficult task?
A: I wish I could say I have a system for them, but they more just come to me as I’m brainstorming, outlining, or writing the book itself. The title must convey at least some aspect of the story, genre, and/or theme to attract a reader’s attention. You get about 2 seconds to do that if your book is front-facing on a shelf, but likely only a split-second if it’s spine-out.
I think I did a good job of that with the Medusa books, The Jungle God, and The Redemption of Bes; I wish I had spent more time on my Zhava titles. The Initiate is not a very inspiring title, nor does it convey anything about the book’s genre, which is YA fantasy, nor about its theme, which is about overcoming religiously-driven fears and prejudices.
Q: On a personal level - What is your idea of happiness?
A: Happiness is a state of being, and I try to find the good no matter what circumstances are happening around me.
I’ve been condemned for my religious beliefs (atheist/humanist), had my home and car vandalized for my political beliefs (liberal Democrat), and been criticized for my stance on equality (that women and LGBTQ+ deserve all the freedoms cis men currently enjoy).
However, I have the love of my family, the support of my friends, a good job at a university, excellent students, my health, and the opportunity to do this incredible work telling stories that comfort and inspire. I’m happy.
Q: I can appreciate what you are saying, that one could focus on all the negative experiences or one can celebrate all the joys and wonderful experiences. Happiness, then, is a matter of perspective... and perspective can be a choice. Artists, writers included, often struggle with their inner sabateur voice that tells them they aren't good enough, reminds them of their weakness, tells them they are small. It is so important to step back, refresh and evaluate. Sometimes we have to grow, learn, do the research, sometimes we just have to step into the fear and do it anyway.
In your career as a writer - what do you consider to be your greatest strengths and weaknesses?
A: I like to think my characters are my greatest strengths. My characters live with me, and I send them on adventures (from which they don’t always return). When I wake in the middle of the night or when I’m in that early morning twilight time before I have to get up, I’ll often chat with my characters, discussing with them their passions and desires, their ideas for handling the circumstances of the novels.
To me - they’re alive. If you’ve ever seen the wonderful film The Man Who Invented Christmas, that is very much how my characters interact with me.
Unfortunately, I have a couple weaknesses that are really annoying, and I have to work hard at them. The first is that I’m a slow typist, and my brain frequently runs ahead of my typing speed. That has resulted in missed words and sentences, illogical jumps from one paragraph to the next, and the occasional plot hole that must be filled. I rigorously edit my novels to weed out those mistakes.
I once wrote a novel with a speech recognition app, and though it resulted in a delightfully unique protagonist voice (again, that question you asked about Voice), it also required extensive editing that I found more annoying than helpful.
The best way I’ve found for dealing with this is to write thorough outlines and then try to adhere to them as much as possible. My final outline for the first Medusa book took over a year to draft, but it was worth it for how the story remained on track no matter how slowly I typed.
The second weakness is that I’m easily distracted. For example, when I’m writing my novels, I’ll think of something I need to do for a class and go do that; or right now as I’m typing these responses to you, I’m fighting the urgent need to return to my Baldur’s Gate 3 game in which my characters just levelled up; or when I’m grading papers during the school year, I would much rather be writing my novels (more fun!) and so I’ll set aside those papers for the exciting novel; and through it all, I would like to join my wife for kayaking on the lake, go see a movie with my teen, or schedule a vendor event in some town I’ve never visited simply because that sounds like fun.
The world is filled with all these wonderful things to see and do, all these great people to meet and chat with, and no matter how much I love my characters and my novels, those temptations are very real.
Q: Writers are also readers... what books or authors have influenced your career as a writer?
A: I love studying religions from all over the world (I do a Mythology Minute series on social media, and my newsletters contain a Myth of the Month). Three authors heavily influenced me as a writer: Frank Herbert for his Dune series; Orson Scott Card; and CJ Cherryh.
Frank Herbert did a phenomenal job painting the darker side of messianic figures and their religions – a portrayal playing itself out on the US political stage even as we speak. When I was a teenager and saw the original Dune movie in the theater and first read the Dune series in high school, I was an Evangelical Christian and found myself adrift in those deeply prophetic novels. The warnings about religion made no sense because – duh! – Jesus was the perfect messiah – God Himself! – and the church was “the greatest force for good in all of history.”
Now that I’ve left Evangelical Christianity, it’s much more obvious how Herbert’s prescient warnings about religious zealots should be broadcast from every rooftop because those people are dangerous. I was especially pleased with Denis Villeneuve’s unflinching embrace of those darker elements in his recent Dune films.
As a storyteller, Herbert inspired me to craft my most heartfelt messages on a grand canvas. Unfortunately, Herbert’s treatment of women characters is grounded in mid-20th century stereotypes of either manipulative sex kittens (every Bene Gesserit in any Dune book) or piously demure waifs (the God Emperor’s “perfect” Hwi Noree), and those portrayals undermine his important messages. Sadly, we’re all products of our times.
I read my first Orson Scott Card novel in college, and I was blown away by his masterful characterizations. If you’ve ever read one of his books, you might have noticed that he never (as far as I recall) describes characters’ physical features. Instead, he allows characters’ actions to speak for themselves. As such, your Ender (from the Ender’s Game series) would likely look vastly different from my Ender – but that’s okay. In fact, it was the power of the portrayal of his characters’ actions that significantly altered my approach to characterization. Instead of setting my characters before a mirror to admire (or denigrate) their looks, which is always a clunky way to convey description, my characters just live their lives, and we’re allowed to imagine them however we like.
I recall a good friend who read an early draft of my Jungle God novel, and she told me she loved the character Rhaina with her wavy red hair. That was nowhere near how I envisioned Rhaina. However, because I never told the reader what her hair looked like, my friend filled in those blanks based on her perceptions of the character’s actions. The only times I delve into character descriptions are when those physical features are important to the narrative. For example, it’s important to know how many vipers Medusa has on her head, what her snakeskin looks like – and especially what it feels like beneath Chloe’s tender touch – or how Medusa dresses differently based on which disguise she chooses in public. It’s incredibly important for the readers to know that Chloe has a phoenix tattoo on her neck that so offends her religiously conservative husband, and also that her favorite outfit is loose jeans and a big, fuzzy sweater because that speaks to her character as a woman who prefers comfort over glamor – which simply reflects her preference for truth over image.
Unfortunately, as much as I’ve learned from Card about characterization, I no longer read his novels. He espouses right-wing political and religious perspectives I can no longer support, and his political thriller Empire was a heavy-handed castigation of liberal ideals, which also included a portrayal of a power-hungry, politically active woman (a thinly veiled stand-in for Hillary Clinton) who was a greater danger to the United States than any sci-fi threat.
Finally, my all-time favorite author is CJ Cherryh. She is a phenomenal storyteller and a master at crafting cross-cultural conflicts and unique characterizations. Though she’s most known for her Foreigner series, which I think is up to book 25 or something, the one that most impressed me was The Faded Sun Trilogy, for which she was nominated for both the Hugo and Nebula awards. The three novels tell the story of a human who is taken to an alien planet, learns their ways, and helps the aliens return from the brink of extinction. Because of Cherryh, I aspire to show unique individuals who live and breathe within their own fully realized worlds. She is a treasure in this world!
Q: In looking back at your life, would you choose to do something differently that you feel would have benefited your writing career today?
A: Yes, I wish I was better at taking constructive criticism.
I’ve always had a superiority complex about anything I do (if it means anything, my superiority complex is better than pretty much anyone else’s superiority complex, so…), and that’s resulted in me being extremely reluctant to take advice. We can all improve, but we must be willing to have our faults examined, and then we must be willing to do the work of self-improvement.
Because I thought my writing at 15 was better than anyone else’s writing, I refused to do the work that would have made it great. Same thing in college writing classes and when I was in my 20s and 30s. It didn’t help that some aspects of my writing really are good, and my high school and college professors would point out those good areas to encourage me. Instead, that left me blind to my shortcomings until agents and editors took the time to point them out to me.
I wish I could go back to those earlier years and knock some sense into myself, tell younger-me to shut up and listen instead of thinking I know everything.
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Such a fun interview with you, Dean - thanks again for sharing your World of Writing thoughts & experiences.
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