Welcome to A Month of Rain and Reads, a celebration of self-published and indie SFF throughout the entire month of November. To find out how you can take part and view the whole list of content, visit our introduction post.
Today, we have an interview with superhero fiction author TienSwitch, who talks about, among other things, how superhero fiction is the American literary mythology.
Our theme for November is A Month of Rain & Reads. Do you subscribe to the idea of curling up with a good book while the rain pours down outside? What book would you read? Would you bring tea and a blanket? What would make the moment perfect?
Wow, you pretty much described my perfect reading session, except there’s a good chance I’d be reading the book on my phone. I’m more locked in that way.
As for what book I’d be reading, probably a superhero book. I love me some’a those. I review them for my website. Or I might go for a fantasy novel. I was in the middle of Sarah Maas’ Throne of Glass series when I decided to pivot to doing what I do. But yes, that’s about right. Me, blanket, anti-stress tea that I bought when I was in Egypt, and the sound of rain bouncing off my AC.
Boy, I hope work gets cancelled tomorrow due to rain.
What else do you want our readers to know about you?
That every time someone who hears about me decides not to buy my books or check out my website, I appear in their mirror and pull their soul into my dark realm.
Why did you decide to self-publish, and what has been your biggest success so far?
As cool as being published by Tor or Simon & Schuster would be, what’s the point? Wait one to five years for an agent to represent me, then wait one to five years for a publisher to agree to sell my books, only for me to give up all creative control and make 10% royalties? It would maybe be worth it if they did the marketing for you, but as I understand, publishers don’t even do that anymore.
With self-publishing, I’m not waiting to hear back from an agent. I have published two books this year! I have complete control over my work. My only deadlines are the ones I set. And I get to actually see most of the money from each sale.
As for my biggest success so far? Honestly, just publishing at this point. Just being able to say that I’m an “author”. Not a “writer” or a “blogger” or that “I posted a story on this free writing website you never heard of” or whatever. I am an author, and whether my books are bought and read by everyone, anyone, or no one, that fact will always be true. And it’s something I’ve wanted for decades.
What is your favourite thing about being an indie author?
Being able to write what I want at the speed I want (that speed being “slow”). It’s deciding that I’m going to create a shared universe and write books of all different genres in it, from YA coming of age books to grisly horror. I like that I’m beholden to absolutely no one but myself.
You write superhero books. Superheroes is something I associate mainly with comics and movies. In what way are books about superheroes different from comics and movies? How does the change in medium affect the story?
Superheroes in novels are usually original characters, versus the known commodities of the Big Two. The superheroes of DC and Marvel have been around since 1938 the earliest, and have been rebooted and restarted more times than a dying computer. Their stories will never end. But authors are out there creating original fiction with original characters that has a distinct story arc and definitive beginning, middle, and end. Rather than a revolving door of writers and editors, you get the creative vision of just one person brought to life.
There’s also room for risks. Superhero comics are a billion dollar enterprise. Superhero films are worth even more. The production costs are huge, and companies are understandably not willing to take risks. So they get the same recycled stories over and over again that appeal to general audiences. But writing a novel doesn’t require a half a million dollar production budget and a complicated series of copyright agreements between Sony and Disney. We own our own characters and we can write whatever we want. We can write comedies about superhero bar owners, or have crossovers between different characters of our own creations, or have a celebrity superhero fight invaders from a dark world (specifically shouting out Bar Top Heroes by W. S. Dawkings, the works of Lucas Flint, and The Viral Superhero series by Bryan Cohen and Casey Lane). For my own work down the line, I can write a grisly horror and an alternate reality apocalypse miniseries and a murder mystery novella and have my main cast go on a space road trip.
But there are limitations. People want to read about Spider-Man, not Switch. The genre’s biggest draws are colorful characters performing fantastic feats, and the page of a novel is less ideal to showcase that than the page of a comic. But all is not lost. We adapt our writing to fit the page just like a writer of fantasy or science fiction does. It’s no different.
How is superhero, as a genre, different to urban/contemporary fantasy?
Oh, by being much cooler. No sparkly vampires or horny werewolves here.
But seriously, I think something that makes the superhero genre different is the inherent Americana of it. Superheroes are the American literary mythology, what the stories of Hercules and Odyssius were to the Ancient Greeks. No urban or contemporary fantasy character–not Frodo Baggins or Jon Snow or any others who come about–will be as popular or culturally relevant as Superman. Every superhero story told is a continuation of one of America’s greatest cultural and literary innovations.
Also, I feel that there is a much greater emphasis on heroism in the superhero genre. Not that other fantasy works don’t have heroes. That would be stupid to say. But heroism is the centerpoint of the superhero genre in a way that it isn’t for any other work of fantasy or science fiction. Besides the whole thing with the word “hero” being in the name, “superhero” is ultimately a profession. It’s what a character does. They save lives. They protect people from harm. They stand up to those who seek to hurt us.
A knight or witch or vampire hunter can do heroism through their actions. But a superhero decided to be a superhero from the get-go.
What themes are important to you, and how are they reflected in your writing?
Lately (especially since seeing James Gunn’s Superman), I’ve wanted to make heroism cool again. I want to write stories of heroes who want to be heroes, not brooding loners forced to refrain from Randian levels of selfishness.
Our beliefs (especially political) are also important to us. We forget that “politics” to one person may be the physical or financial well-being of others, and that’s why we have such strong opinions on things. We have core fundamental beliefs that lead us to be liberal or conservative or this, that, or the other, and I wanted to write characters for whom those ideologies are more than who they might vote for or what they might yell at each other on a Reddit thread. Differences in core ideologies and views of the world can alienate us from one another or from society, and I like exploring how those things might affect a superhero in their capacity as a superhero.
And then there’s family, conflict, and connections. Adolescence is a difficult time for almost everyone, and the slow shift to independence at such a vulnerable point in life is something that interests me from a literary perspective. There are people whose trust we value and whose approval we crave, and as someone who feels closer to my friends than my family, I like to explore that dynamic with my main character, Switch, in both this prequel novel and in my coming main series, SWITCH and the Challengers Bravo.
What are you working on next? Can you tease us?
I think I just did. SWITCH and the Challengers Bravo is my main series that I’m working on, and is the conceptual foundation for my shared universe. It is a seven book epic series featuring Switch, the protagonist of my most recent book, SWITCH and Blue Eagle, as he becomes the leader of his own team of teen heroes. He will have to train them and lead them against all sorts of threats, from street level thugs to alien warlords, and their battles will range from gritty abandoned warehouses to planets in far off galaxies.
And a few quick questions. What’s your favourite…
…book, in recent times?
I’m obligated right now to say The Telepath by Bryan Cohen and Casey Lane, only because I’m reading it right now and have had at least four “Holy s—” moments in the last two days. I generally don’t have a favorite book, though.
…game, in recent times?
Though the last Halo game in the series I beat was Halo 4, I’ll have to
say Halo as a franchise. It’s my favorite science fiction universe, with Star Trek not far behind.
…advice for someone who wants to publish their own book?
As cliche as it sounds, just do it. So many people give themselves a thousand reasons they can’t, and thus they never do. I’ve published two books. Not particularly successful yet, sure, but they’re out there. I give some writing advice over on my blog (particularly to start with your villain and work backwards), and there’s far better advice out there, but the biggest thing you have to do is stop wishing you can write a book and just write a book. It’s not easy, but it’s far from undoable and it does not take a decade to do.
…way to clear your mind when everything gets a bit much?
Walk away from the computer. Take a nap. Touch grass. Eat something. It’s fine. It’s not a homework assignment. You can write something tomorrow.
Do you have any last words? Any shoutouts to authors who have supported you or whose books have inspired you?
I shouted out some other authors above. I guess I’ll give a further shoutout to everyone on the Superhero-Fanatics Discord. Let’s revitalize the superhero genre in prose fiction, guys!
Other than that, I want you–Yes, YOU reading this–to buy 10 copies of my book. And tell all your friends and family to do the same. Don’t ask why. Just do it.
TienSwitch
I was born, raised, and lives in Brooklyn, NY. A lifelong superhero fan since buying Spider-Man comics during lunch in the 1st grade and aspiring to be a writer since high school, I finally decided to combine the two. When not working on superhero fiction, I’m catching criminals in my full time job as an Anti-Money Laundering analyst, boxing (for fitness), gaming, or reading.
And the rumors are true! “TienSwitch” is not my real name.
