Interview with Darren Joy, author of the epic, dark fantasy book A Viral Imperium

Best fantasy fiction I have read since Steven Erikson’s The Malazan Book of the Fallen series and Glen Cook’s The Black Company series!

Interview with Darren Joy, author of the epic, dark fantasy book A Viral Imperium:  The Plagueborn Series: Book One

by Dan Watt

As I read through Darren Joy’s, A Viral Imperium: The Plagueborn Series: Book One, I was immediately caught up in the imagery and banter.  Joy has written a book that pulls you into a world where magic and undead make sense.  There is also an introduction to Viralic and Spectralic magic, and the combination of the two.  The characters are not always who, or what they seem to be, nor is it always clear if they are good, bad, or complicated.  As the story progresses, you’ll find yourself reading long past your bedtime. 

It’s been awhile since I’ve read a story that caught my attention and held it to the very end.  How long have you worked on A Viral Imperium?

I began this book way back in 2014. I had written three unpublished novels before it, so technically this was my fourth book. It should have been completed much sooner, but due to illness, I had to shelve it for a time in 2016. I managed to finish it last year. Overall, it’s taken almost three years.

Your description of characters, creatures, buildings, and sceneries is both vivid and engrossing.  How do you go about writing those scenes?

A lot of rewriting, lots and lots of rewriting. No kidding. That’s how. What’s in my head never translates to the screen as I write it, or at least, I’m never happy. So going back and reworking those descriptions, and the novel as a whole is essential, and that’s what I put it down to. That, and I read a lot, so descriptions in other books do grab me. I try not to write paragraphs of description too often, but blend it in with the ongoing story wherever possible.

Within the main plot there are many subplots.  The webs and layers of George R.R. Martin’s: A Song of Ice and Fire (Game of Thrones TV series); Ken Follett’s:  Pillars of the Earth, and Edward Rutherford’s: Sarum come to mind when I consider the plots within A Viral Imperium.  Did you sketch these out beforehand or did you find them writing themselves?

 Well, put simply, ’I’m a pantser. I write from the hip, not having much of a clue where it’s going to go. Well, maybe a little clue, but I certainly don’t have it all planned out. This means I have to do heavy rewrites. Ideal? Probably not, but I tried planning novels in the early days, and I never finished those. I tend to plan as I go, adding in notes to the first draft, and rewrite drafts, which I then read as I go through the book the next time, also making more notes. It’s my process, and I don’t know if other writers work that way. It works for me though. I also write each main character’s storyline as a separate manuscript before combining them later, so as to make sure the structure for each story is as I want it.

If I was a publisher I would be contacting you and Amazon books to work out a deal.  How do readers and publishers contact you and where is A Viral Imperium available?

For the moment, it is only available on Amazon, but I am strongly considering having it available on other platforms soon. I don’t know if any publishers will contact me, but anyone including readers can get me through the contact page on my website at: www.darrenjoy.com

I also understand you have the second book in the series coming out.  Could you tell us when and if there’s a pre order?

Yep, anyone can pre order it now on Amazon. It’s called A Malignant Fetch and it is on sale for 99cents from the 8th of November this year, so not long to go. I’m getting nervous all over again. Easiest way to pre order it is to just pop over to my website, www.darrenjoy.com, and there is a link from there.

Thank you for taking the time to do this interview.  I’m very much looking forward to reading A Malignant Fetch!  

Swords with Souls (fantasy fiction) B36

Two Days Late So Far…

(Swords with Souls)

Fantasy Fiction

By Dan Watt

(Author of BARD: Bearer of the Gemstone)

Cover by Darren Joy

(Author of the Plagueborn series)

– Adult content –

He knocks on the fourth-floor door.

‘Come in boy,’ Lord Ysbail commands him. The lord was dressed in an embroidered satin robe with the belt loose. It was obvious to him the lord wore nothing underneath.

‘I know you are very close to my brother,’ the lord says, while staring out an arched window beside his ornate bed. ‘But you need to do what is right.’

‘What is that?’ he asked nervously.

‘Did my brother, Lord Ibris, kill Dodder?’

The lord’s question confuses him. ‘He fell out of your tower, lord.’

‘Everyone in the tower adored Dodder.’ The lord opens the stained window, and cool air gushes in blowing his robe open.

‘This gardenery will be shut down soon. The flow of the river is being diverted to the king’s new palace. There will be a new gardener there. Thus, it would be beneficial for you to tell me what I want to know.’

There was a bronze letter opener on a desk along with numerous papers. He moved silently towards it.

The lord looked even farther out the window. With a sigh the lord continued, “Lord Ibris is not what you think he is. He is conniving and a manipulator. He has tainted your thoughts. Perhaps you need to know what its like to have a real man inside you.’

‘Sorry, my lord?’ he asks as he clenches onto the paper opener.

‘You’re his boy, his play thing. I guess he goes both ways, considering he sleeps with that whore. They call it sodomy but really, it’s dominance.’

He steps closer to the lord. ‘If you look far enough down, My Lord, you’ll see the garden, along the edge of the wall, planted for Dodder.’

‘I didn’t know that,’ the lord says with unhidden emotion. He leans farther over.

It was then that he knew his death was a possibility.  But he was no one’s boy. Never had been, never would be, and would never have a boy. He thrust the paper opener on an angle into the lord’s lower back, right beside the vertebrae. The lord howled in pain and arched his back.

Two Days Late So Far…B35

Two Days Late So Far…

(Swords with Souls)

Fantasy Fiction

By Dan Watt

(Author of BARD: Bearer of the Gemstone)

Cover by Darren Joy

(Author of the Plagueborn series)

– Adult content –

The next day, while Lord Ysbail was away visiting the king, Dodder was found splayed on the ground below the fourth story window of the tower. His body twisted and broken and his too close together eyes staring lifelessly.

Lord Ibris stepped up beside him, to stare at the mangled remains of his nephew. ‘I’m sorry I never got a weapon maker here, but I know of one, take this with you to him. He’s in the village Quacken.’ Lord Ibris then slipped him a note. ‘Three days from now, when Lord Ysbail returns from meeting the king, gather all the girls and the boys too young to join the army. When you see a fire engulfing the tower take them north. I have found a place amongst the faie of the Blackforest for them to go. I cannot go with you. There is trouble in the north with one of the chiefdoms that refuses to give fealty to the king. The king wants me to help lead an attack. Now listen closely, when you head out on your own you must dye your hair, and change your name.’

Three days later, during supper a boy hands him a note from Lord Ysbail. As he walks towards the tower, he sees Asghari and some of the older women pouring water on the flower beds and hedges that surround the tower. He walks up stone steps to the double oak doors and uses the non-descript knocker. The right door opens and tall, burly guard looks down at his note. ‘No weapons beyond this point,’ the guard says. He pulls his belt with his knife and sword off. ‘Up the stairs to the fourth floor.’

The place smells of incense from numerous strategically placed candles. He starts to climb the curving staircase. At each floor there is a slit window with no pane, allowing a cold draft in. Whatever the Lord wants, it will be bad.

The first book of the BARD series

BARD: Bearer of the Gemstone

Wearing the gemstone necklace given to him by a mysterious girl he saved, Bran embarks on a journey to the Bard campus his father once went to. However, he’s never traveled beyond his home.  All he knows about the outside world is from sketches in school books. And what he has learned from the mutilated Residences, who escaped from the Emperor’s land across the sea.
If he survives the journey to the Bard campus, he’ll learn why his father was so adamant that he become a Bard. And as a Bard, he can search for her, the Owner of the Gemstone.

Songs and Speech P2

Song and Speech

Language

(Part 2 of 3)

D.W. B.A. Anthropology, History

(author of BARD: Bearer of the Gemstone)

(NWHealth.Fitness)

If you observe professional athletes, you’ll notice they do thorough warm-ups before practice or competing. This warms the joints up and allows greater movement while decreasing the chance of injury.

In her, The Great Courses course, How to Sing, Professor Dawn Pierce demonstrates numerous mouth exercises, such as vibrating the tongue and humming through scales. This both warms up the mouth and allows for greater range. In his book, Life, Keith Richards said he always wondered why Mick Jagger warmed up his voice so long before a concert. When Richards started lead singing for his band, he quickly grasped why Jagger spent so much time. I use to try to hold back yawns but now I understand why they’re more important than just getting more oxygen.

In the Korean language there is a consonant “ㄹ” that can sound like an L to an R sound, LR. This can cause difficulty when pronouncing words with the English L sound: World may sound more like Word and Love like Lrove. This is can be corrected by teaching the mouth to make the L sound alone. When teaching a language, it’s important that the teacher or tutor’s mouth is visible so students can see how different letters are formed. If you say the entire alphabet of any language, your mouth will get a multi-directional warm-up.

Is ㄹ Pronounced as L? R? D?? | Korean Pronunciation Explained

Scottish use rrr or whistle sounds when speaking.  My Scottish aunts would often make a whistling sound when they spoke (listen to Gopher from Winnie the Pooh). The !Kung people of Kalahari Dessert have clicking sounds in their language. Singing exercises should help make it easier to speak in different accents and dialects.

The Minnie Adventures of Winnie the Pooh: Pooh and Gopher

Khoisan click language

Song and Speech (part one)

Song and Speech

(Part 1 of 3)

D.W.

(author of BARD: Bearer of the Gemstone)

(NWHealth.Fitness)

Years ago, my friend Dave Flitton (now retired music teacher, composer, producer) and I were sitting at a church. Maybe it was for a friend’s wedding, I can’t remember, but we were singing along with everyone else. When the song ended, he turned to me and said (paraphrasing) “You sound like a foghorn, like Lurch out of the Addams family.”

Not so long ago, while fighting exhaustion from work and as the major caregiver to our elderly mother, I got an inner ear infection exasperated by an ongoing sinus infection. I went to my doctor at the time, Dr. Leung, who had helped me get through pneumonia and other maladies. I figured he would give me antibiotics and I would be cured in a couple of weeks. It wasn’t until two-and-a-half years later, including an unsuccessful nose job, that I finally started feeling normal. However, during the worst of it, my youngest niece told me I sounded like Snape from Harry Potter (and maybe an Ent from LOR).

During Covid I made some exercise videos. The information was sound and I knew I needed to work on the video quality but it was my voice that was all wrong. Slow, hesitant and unmotivating. I have personal trained individuals with concussions and brain damage. My way of speaking was similar to theirs. Clear one moment and not so much the next.

Once the worst of the ear and sinus infection were over, I realized I needed to work on my breathing and speech.

I have bought courses from The Great Courses for years, and when I saw they were offering one on singing, I decided I would get it. The goal was to use the exercises, not just to improve breathing and the speed of my speech but to also increase my octave range by reawakening the muscles of the jaws that I hadn’t been using.

There’s always setbacks and obstacles in the way, so I will be going back over the lectures in Professor’s Pierce’s course again and again.

The Great Courses: How to Sing by Professor Dawn Pierce, AD

* This course is thorough. Professor Pierce improves each student’s singing with gradual cues and exercises. She does so by motivating and encouraging her students. She also explains anatomy and proper posture for singing.

Swords with Souls: Two Days Late So Far… B34

Two Days Late So Far…

(Swords with Souls)

Fantasy Fiction

By Dan Watt

(Author of BARD: Bearer of the Gemstone)

Cover by Darren Joy

(Author of the Plagueborn series)

– Adult content –

The boy Dodder quickly moved up to teacher assistant, though his written and counting skills were marginal. He had a habit of ridiculing the female students, and patting the head or arms of the male students. Dodder once praised him while trying to massage his shoulders. In a very quiet tone, he told the teacher assistant to never touch him again. The next year, Dodder was accused of sodomy and rape. Both a male and female pre-teen went to Lord Ysbail first. Lord Ysbail called them liars and threatened to expel them before they had been adopted or were old enough to go into the world on their own. If they mentioned it again, to anyone, he would publicly condemn them as liars and no one would hire or trust them. The male told his schoolmates about it and that he was contemplating suicide.

Wanting to save the boy’s life, he went to Lord Idris. The next day, during training, Lord Idris called for everyone’s attention. ‘There’s a boy here, surely related to me. If he ever tries to touch you, you have my permission to kick him in his balls so hard that he never brings his like into this world.’

Two days later an assembly was called. Lord Ysbail stood before everyone with Dodder at his side. Dodder’s head was lowered in shame. ‘We have all done wrong,’ Lord Ysbail began. ‘And we must all learn to forgive.’ Lord Ysbail turned to Dodder and said, ‘What caused you to commit these atrocities.’

Dodder pointed at the girl he had raped. ‘She bewitched me, My Lord.’

For a moment there was silence. Then simultaneously he and Lord Idris stepped forward. ‘This is nonsense!’ the Lord shouted, so angry that spittle flew out of his mouth. He, on the other hand simply drew his sword half out. It would be a good cause to die for.

Fear crept across Lord Ysbail’s face. ‘We will decide on the punishment for this witch in the morning,” he said hurriedly as he grabbed Dodder’s arm and briskly walked towards his tower.

He turned to Lord Idris for instruction. And saw a dark and murderous look cross the Lord’s face.

Books To Read! Authors to Follow

Swords with Souls: Two Days Late So Far… B33

Two Days Late So Far…

(Swords with Souls)

Fantasy Fiction

By Dan Watt

(Author of BARD: Bearer of the Gemstone)

Cover by Darren Joy

(Author of the Plagueborn series)

– Adult content –

The gardenery was always under construction. A main tower, five stories high, was nearly complete. This is where Lord Ysbail would live with his academics. Lord Idris’s indoor training grounds had been finished the year before. A great division was occurring between the two brothers. As the orphan girls became teenagers and some young women, they gave shy stares mostly in Lord Idris’s direction. It was obvious by the strain on his face he was forcing himself to be cold towards them. But one of the older girls was persistent. They could never be married, so everyone said she was his consort. Her name was Asghari. He remembers her thick brunette hair and light blue eyes. She had freckles around her nose and a small bosom but wide hips. Her laugh was joyous but her determination unwavering. And she was absolutely devoted to Lord Idris as he was to her. With time she became lead gardener. For a number of years after the first plague the gardens were bountiful. And although most of the local population were doing well, there were some still struggling. These families were given some of the extra crop. That did not fit into Lord Ysbail’s plans for the gardenery. He ordered the construction of a stone and clay wall to be built around the perimeter of the gardenery.

Every year there were games held for the orphans who were now children. Boys and girls competed against each other because at that age there was little difference in size and strength. A new boy, named Dodder, was allowed to compete. Everyone knew he was the bastard son of Lord Ysbail. There was something off about him and not just the peculiar ways his eyes seemed too close to his aquiline nose making his head seem too big. He was taller than everyone else and physically thicker than the other children, suggesting he was in his early teens. It was expected he would win the strength and running events.

One race consisted of running the perimeter of the gardenery. With a smirk on his face the boy seemed so confident that he boasted he wouldn’t even have to try. When GO was shouted out to start the race, he started off with more of a jog. But one of the girls burst past everyone else. The bastard started pumping his arms and legs to catch up to the girl but she was too fast. When the race was finished a wreath of holly was placed over her head. As the girl beamed and almost everyone applauded her, Lord Ysbail stood with his hands clenched and a face full of rage. The next day a missive was sent out that it was inappropriate for girls to practice or compete in sports, because it may cause harm to their fragile physiques.

After reading the missive, he heard Lord Idris say, under his breath, ‘But it’s okay for them to wash our clothes, sweep the floors, bake the food, and do most of the gardening.’ More missives would appear, each claiming females shouldn’t teach math or writing beyond young children because it was too stressful for their smaller minds. Females couldn’t possibly be as smart as men. Therefore, girls that showed a greater aptitude towards academics must be witches. Boys and girls must tell their male teachers if any girl demonstrated this trait.

Site to check out on Ancient Chinese methods of gardening

Rabias World

Two Days Late So Far… B32

Two Days Late So Far…

(Swords with Souls)

Fantasy Fiction

By Dan Watt

(Author of BARD: Bearer of the Gemstone)

Cover by Darren Joy

(Author of the Plagueborn series)

– Adult content –

As he got older and was able to handle a sword, he started to remember some of the lessons his father taught him about heat and different metals. The bronze swords they were given were heavy on the wrist and all exactly the same dimensions. So, he used two rocks, one as a chisel, and the other as a hammer to create a fuller in the blade. He also wrapped the grip with vine to make it a bit thicker and used sap to keep it from unraveling. The older orphan teaching him how to wield a sword, was furious and showed Lord Idris. What Lord Idris did in reply was the reason so many students adored him. ‘Why did you do this Egbert?’ he asked while inspecting the fuller of the sword.

‘It was too heavy, Lord,’ he replied, tensing his muscles to take the cuff or whatever punishment would be meted out.

‘And the grip?’

‘Too loose,’ he replied.

 ‘Let’s see you wield it.’

Egbert, as he was known then, did excellent thrusts, slashes, and parlays, just as he had been taught.

‘Let me have your sword. Now do the same with someone else’s.’ Lord Idris pointed to a student to give Egbert his sword.

Egbert hated the feel of the other sword but did his best but the movements were choppy.

‘I will see if I can get one of the armies weapon makers to come here for a time, and teach you how to make different sized swords.” Lord Idris said then handed him back his sword.

That was the day he became Lord Idris’s boy, as the others called him. But there snickering was misguided. They should have called him Lord Idris’s apprentice. He was no one’s boy and Lord Idris never tried to treat him as so.

Recommended listening

caedar-writing-artwork.com

BARD: A multi-decade journey

I’ve always been a poet. So it made sense when I decided to write a book, originally based on Dungeons and Dragons and nature, as suggested to to me by one of my brothers, that it be about a young man becoming a BARD.

When I asked if I could use D&D characters, I was told no. Undeterred, I reworked the story and removed anything that might be originally D&D. However, the main theme has always remained the same. A boy saves a girl who gives him a necklace with a gemstone that will lead him on a journey to find her when they are older. There’s much more to the story but that’s what the book is for.

Concept art for the original cover

We even tried to make a movie of the original version in the 80’s using a friend of the family, Dave Smith’s camcorder. Originally, George Lamprecht was to play the main character, we also had I believe, Graham Schneider, my grandfather, our neighbor then, Sam, and others play parts while my brother Andrew did the filming and directing. Unfortunately, we had a party and someone stole the large sheet of paper with everyone’s contact information. By the end of the summer, I realized, I had no idea how to make a movie. So at the beginning of the new school year I apologized to our very efficient and professional makeup artist, Rhonda Edgar.

As the years went by I kept expanding the story. Using my constantly upgraded knowledge to make a fantasy world seem more real.

The blacksmithing is as close as I can get it to being realistically medieval. And I have tried to stay true to the BARDs of yesterday and today. However, it is still a fiction book, and like historical fiction, liberties have been taken to keep the story flowing.

BARD started in high school, and I wanted to keep the main character’s perspective and attitude the same as one of that age. Bran is naive, hardworking, and observant. This is a coming of age story, a love story, a social commentary story, and a story about possible war.

The closest I’ve come to seeing someone who could pull off playing Bran is Brendan Fraser in School Ties.

Other characters were taken from real individuals as I wrote BARD. Master Kadar is based off of Mr. Brown (Gary) my high school gym teacher and junior football coach. I still haven’t figured out why he asked me to play considering he nicknamed me stone hands. R.I.P. Two people came to mind when I was writing Master Renell. The first was Robin Williams (see Dead Poets Society) R.I.P. or Bono of U2. When I saw the Australian cosplayer Nic the Pixie on FB, I immediately thought, that’s the Owner of the Gemstone. Without much hope, I contacted her. She agreed, and after a two year journey in which much of Australia burned, she got injured, and faced other obstacles, she sent wonderful pictures.

Original cover of BARD: Owner of the Gemstone portrayed by Nic the Pixie, background by Alex Watt, fonts and border by Ian Greener

Lyrics repeat and don’t always make sense until you hear them sung. I did my best to write lyrical poetry to represents songs. Poets will see them, others might skim over them.

As the book expanded it became impossible to write a realistic synopsis. Rowena Samuel, a friend, who read through the original said it needed to be split into two books. I followed her advice.

The first book is BARD: Bearer of the Gemstone. Fantasy_art_z.com, an artist I have been following for some time, created two covers. She is quite a remarkable talent, so with some alterations I may use the other cover for a different project. However, this is the cover have I decided to go with.

BARD: Bearer of the Gemstone is available on Amazon

Swords without Souls: Two Days Late So Far… B31

Two Days Late So Far…

(Swords with Souls)

Fantasy Fiction

By Dan Watt

Author of BARD: Bearer of the Gemstone

Cover by Darren Joy

(Adult content)

Naked, he enters his stone and mortar house with its sod roof and pulls a pewter mug off a bronze hook he made himself and a pinch of dried mint from a clay pot. The mint and other dried herbs he traded for with a farmer who wanted a small bronze shovel. He grabs a wool blanket and throws it around his shoulders before walking to the river and carefully filling up the cup in the tributary. He places the filled cup near the fire before sitting nearby, huddling inside the blanket.

He was orphaned as a young child when his father, a metallurgist, and mother, a weaver, died of the first plague. So many children were taken to the Buttigieg Gardenery that there was hardly food or space enough for all the newcomers. That’s when he came into contact with Lord Idris. Average height, with a stalky build, and sharp grey eyes, partially covered with a thick bang of dirty blond hair, Lord Idris looked like something chiseled out of granite. And his voice, soft and silky as a trader’s when he spoke alone, and as loud and powerful as the roar of a waterfall in spring when he commanded. No one but his brother and some of the other nobles disliked Lord Idris.

Back then he was called Egbert of Buttigieg Gardenery. The surname was given to all the orphans. His days started with a breakfast of oats and goat’s milk before dawn. He stretched and did warm-ups followed by wrestling and knife practice in a group until the sun was at its highest. Next, he learned letters and numbers until supper. Then he helped clean dishes, wash sheets, followed by a bitterly cold sponge bath in the river Massika. After that he slept in a cot with two other orphan children. At eleven he was given his own cot. Under the guidance of Lord Idris, older orphans taught the wrestling and fighting. And under the guidance of Lord Ysbail, older female orphans taught numbers and letters. He enjoyed and excelled at both.

Someone to follow: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nht6LjdUnLk&list=RDnht6LjdUnLk&index=1

Caedar-writing-artwork.com