Today it gives the Speculative Fiction Showcase great pleasure to interview Mark Engels,
author of Werecats Convergent (Forest Exiles Saga, Book 2)
We’re here to talk about your Forest
Exiles Saga and the books released so far, Werecats Emergent and Werecats
Convergent. Who or what are the werecats of the title?
My main characters are a young woman named Pawly and her twin
brother Tommy, both of whom as teenagers come to learn they are werecats. Their
mother and uncle are too, as were their ancestors going back generations.
Your website features some striking fanart inspired by the books.
What can you tell us about it?
Some of the pieces there are fanart, but most of them are
commissioned pieces. Being a longtime anime and manga fan, I had first
envisioned telling my stories as webcomics or even a series of graphic novels.
I had commissioned several pieces as an aid to share my vision with other
artists, which I would need for such an undertaking. But I quickly learned
artists I could afford were wholly consumed with their own original work. So I
set about the business of writing and selling novels, grateful I had these
works to use as promotional materials. From the responses you've shared with
me, seems they indeed enkindle interest in my books--just what I want from
them.
You started out as an electrical engineer designing signalling and
communications systems for the railroads in the US. What inspired you to write
and how did you begin?
I still do that work which I'm glad to do, having been a train
buff and an electronics geek since boyhood. Through it I afford me and my
family a decent living. Having lived out of a suitcase for months on end
multiple times over the course of my career, writing and all the activity
associated with it allowed me to channel my restless energies into exploits far
less likely to leave me broke or passed out or in jail (unlike some of my
coworkers, but those are stories for another time.)
The protagonist of Werecats
Emergent and Werecats Convergent
is Pawly, a teenaged girl who discovers her heritage after she transforms at
Halloween. How does she deal with the shock of discovering who she is?
Her transformation comes as a shock to the rest of her family too,
for reasons explained in the books. Fortunately, she has her mother and the
rest of their blended human-werecat family to help her and her twin brother
understand and come to grips with who--and what--they
are. Which, as they both discover, has its upsides as well...
The family knows it needs money, a cover, and an outlet for the
twins' feral bloodlust. The Noh family is eager to provide all three, just as
it did for the twins' mother and uncle a generation before. Until, that is, the
twins' grandfather, a renowned scientist and respected university professor,
drew the cartel's ire by refusing to help them commercialize their drug
production operations. An all-too-convenient leak to the press detailing the
grandfather's clandestine research to benefit the twins' mother and uncle
resulted in his deportation.
What is Pawly’s family background and how important is her Polish
heritage to the story?
One of Pawly's grandfathers, the renowned scientist hailing from
Poland, was a key member of a Cold War-era Soviet "super soldier"
development program. Her other grandfather was the CIA operative sent to
infiltrate the Soviets' organization and smuggle him back to the States.
Pawly's ancestral werecat clan was caught in the crossfire as the two humans
made their escape, leaving her mother and her uncle as its only surviving
members. The four of them, together with the scientist's young wife, fled to
the CIA agent's native Chicago. There, in an ethnic Polish neighborhood, they
all began to rebuild their lives. Before long the scientist and his wife
adopted Pawly's mother and uncle. In the years following, her mother came to
fall in love and be married--to the CIA agent's son. To whom she bore twins:
Pawly and Tommy. At the time of the story Pawly's grandfather has been deported
back to Poland, accompanied by her uncle who himself grew up to be a scientist.
There they resume the grandfather's research, desperate to find a way the twins
might sate their kinds' lethal bloodlust lest they go feral.
When her uncle Ritzi seeks an alternative solution to the twins’
situation, where does it lead, and what is the result?
He journeys to Poland to help the twins' grandfather resume his
"super soldier" development work. But while there Ritzi inadvertently
draws notice from an elder werecat representing a rogue state, desiring to
exploit the twins' deadly talents for his employer's own ends.
How do Pawly and her brother end up preparing to enlist in the
military of a rogue state, and how does their father react?
When a Noh cartel enforcer is found savagely mauled following the
twins' first job, Ritzi insists Pawly and her brother enlist in the rogue
state's service to ensure their safety. Because he knows firsthand that the Noh
family cartel is bad news. The twins'
father on the other hand, having just been grievously wounded in a covert
operation against said rogue state, knows that it is bad news as well. Each
one-upping the other throughout the last half of the first book seeking to
resolve their impasse results in...well, let's just say there's a lot of collateral damage.
You mention your “long-time membership in anime, manga and
anthropomorphic fandoms”. What influence did this have on your choice of theme
and on the aesthetic of the series and fanart?
These books are my way of giving back to the anime, manga, and
anthropomorphic fandoms which I have given me such joy through the years,
fandoms which enabled me to meet kindred spirits including several of my
closest friends. Pawly and her antagonist Hana are each an amalgamation of
several of my favorite anime and manga heroines. My books include an ensemble
cast and a numerous flashbacks in part because so many of my favorite anime and
manga creators employed such devices to tell their stories. Since I first had a
webcomic or a graphic novel series in mind when I first sat down to write my
stories, I think the narrative would still well suit one of those formats. Any
artists who believe they would want to work with me to make that happen, please
look me up!
Avoiding spoilers, where is Pawly at the start of book two?
Smack dab in the middle of a firefight along with the rest of her
Navy unit, pierside near the Gulf of Oman. Fighting tooth and claw against an
enemy werecat--Hana, in fact.
You mention that you are a member of the Allied Authors of
Wisconsin, one of the state's oldest writing collectives, and the Furry
Writer’s Guild. What can you tell us about these writers’ groups?
Allied Authors traces its roots back nearly a hundred years to the
Milwaukee Fictioneers. Among the groups more recent members was a fellow named
Gene DeWeese. His works included an 80s era young adult novel called The
Adventures of a Two-Minute Werewolf; I read my Weekly Reader Book Club
hardcover edition over and over again until the spine finally split. (If the
premise sounds familiar, it might be because the book was made into an ABC Weekend Special miniseries--not all
that long before the original Teen Wolf movie
came out.) To say DeWeese's book left an impression on me is an understatement.
I write what I write now because I read what he wrote then. Sadly, Mr. DeWeese
passed away a couple of years before I joined.
The Furry Writers’ Guild is a group of writers whose works,
running the gamut of formats, all feature anthropomorphic animals. A writer's
characters, however, need not be furry all
the time for a writer to qualify for membership. For that I'm grateful, as
several of the friends I've made there number among my werecat books'
staunchest supporters (and my trusted confidants.)
I puzzled over this question for some while, yet have little to
show for it by way of explanation. How does a squirrel know how to climb a
tree? He doesn't, you know, he just
goes and does it. So blending real-life themes together with urban fantasy
wasn't really a conscious choice near as I can recall. What was, however, was the realization that
these were the books I had in my heart to write, the books I wanted to read and
couldn't find. I am over the moon
that other people enjoy my books' genre fusion aesthetic, too.
How important is the landscape and nature of Wisconsin and the
Great Lakes to your writing and imagination?
I write both out of the abundance of my heart and out of the deep,
aching longings within it. Parts of my books are inspired by the life I've
lived, others by the life I wish I
had. And many of both types were themselves inspired by numerous locales around
the Great Lakes region, especially Wisconsin where my family and I now live.
Readers can take heart that whatever mental picture they formulate of one
setting or another, I've likely beheld that very same scene with my own two
eyes.
Book 3 of the Saga, Werecats
Resurgent, is due out in December. When that is published, what are your
plans?
I've made no commitments beyond marketing the complete series.
Need a writer panelist or a writer guest-of-honor for an upcoming con? Have
books, will travel. My muse hasn't told me yet just whether there are more
stories to tell, though rest assured she will make it abundantly clear if there
are. She has claws and fangs and knows how to use them! Readers can join my
mailing list via the "Subscribe" link on my web site to stay abreast
of my writerly goings-on. (And they'll receive excerpts from my first two books
to read and enjoy.)
What has your experience been as an Indie writer negotiating the
landscape of Amazon and marketing?
There is a ridicustupid amount of information out there
about writing and publishing and marketing. Something I learned the hard way is
that what might have worked for them/there/then may or may not work for
me/here/now, though it might be worth considering. I recommend one read a lot
and listen to a lot then chart their own course, being prepared to re-chart
their course as needed in light of new information and insights. The
Kindlepreneur site has become a trusted and valued resource to help me do just
that, one I can heartily recommend to any and all fellow writers regardless of
genre or target audience or the manner in which they seek to publish.
Amazon
About Mark Engels:
What a great interview. I enjoyed it.
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