Taken by - nerd_positive

Author - RowanCarver

Achievement - 1st place in General Fiction

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Nerdy: Hello!

I am one of the interviewers of Kuru family who organized the Morpankh awards. Are you free for the interview?

Rowan: Oh sure!

Nerdy: Great then!

RowanCarver... a unique name please tell us the reason behind this name... any history?

Rowan: Haha no it's just my name. Most people think I'm a guy.

Nerdy: Oh... must be either amusing or irritating XDXD

Next I would like you to give a brief introduction about yourself.

Rowan: Yeah! I'm from North Carolina and I've been writing for ten years. I minored in literature and majored in music, right now I'm pursuing a masters in creative writing. I'm a heavy equipment operator at the moment and I play gigs and write in my free time, but aspire to be a copywriter so I can support myself as a pianist and a fiction writer a little easier down the line. I live with my girlfriend and my cat.

Nerdy: Oh great!! Seems like you have planned things out. :)

I went through your books the first few chapters and I found something intriguing... A note to judge. How did you get an idea to write one?

Rowan: Mostly because my work is based on some pretty obscure content, comic books and retro anime that most judges aren't familiar with. Combined with the violence it's written for a very specific audience. In order to place, I needed to write an explanation to accommodate a wider range of readers. If judges are too young, the story won't make sense, the prose is quite dense and complex. I also got tired of having points taken off because judges couldn't figure out King Eden is a woman.

Nerdy: A great solution :)

As a writer have you ever faced trouble in writing certain scenes or perhaps getting frustrated at them not coming out in a way as you want to.

Yeah the current chapter I'm writing I've been working on for three days because it's challenging, but I've never been stuck per say. Sometimes it takes some research to pull off certain scenes. I struggle with anything emotional or romantic because I don't read emotional or romantic books. And fight scenes are hard to write without it sounding like an eight year old describing the end of the Broly movie ("yeah and then that guy hit that guy and punched him into a mountain and then he blew him up with a blast but then *gasp* he came back") play by play can kill a fight scene, but finding the proper balance between describing action while providing exposition on how the mechanics of your magic system works as well as your character's strengths, abilities, and emotional response without using too much play by play is...really, really hard. It's doable and I try my best, but those are the scenes that take me the longest to write, because they can become lists of movements way too easily, thus losing the story. The fight scene I'm working on now, I've worked in it for at least four to five hours a day the past three days.

I've never really been frustrated or faced trouble though, but this stuff does require lots of patience and time.

Nerdy: Agreed writing a book requires patience and this brings about my next question. How did this whole idea of writing a magical system book come up in your mind?

Rowan: A magical system book? I mean, most books in sci fi/fantasy have magic systems. I'm studying soft world building here and soft 'magic' systems, by that I mean none of it is based on scientific fact. The scope of the story is so absurd, I didn't think a hard magic system would suit it very well, and I didn't want to have to dive into JSTOR articles just to make some scientifically accurate anime monsters. Pretty sure Katsuhiro Otomo didn't have to do that to make Tetsuo's mutation work, so hopefully I can get away with my Night Wanderers and Ink Creepers. Some people get onto me for it, but whatever, soft world building and system building isn't for everyone.

Mostly because it's weird and requires reading with an open mind

Nerdy :Hmmm... Have you faced troubles with readers who were not able to understand your book and interpreted things wrongly? If yes then how do you deal with them?

Rowan: Yeah I usually ask them to pinpoint what confused them and I mark those areas down for editing.

Sometimes there are readers though who just, the book is not for them. And that's okay. Usually younger readers have a hard time understanding it, which is fine it's written for an adult audience anyway

Also it's pretty hard core sci fi so people who don't typically read sci-fi have a harder time connecting with it. But I've had people who don't read sci fi say they like it so...hopefully I'm doing something right, I don't know. Maybe they were just being nice haha

Nerdy: This reader friendly approach must be appreciated by your readers on your profile, I noticed something really interesting, a review shop! As a reviewer what things do you seek a book should have?

Rowan: When reviewing books I just try to help with line edits and mechanics.

I don't want to offend people with my reviews so I stay very much on the technical side of things, looking for basic prose errors and providing discussion on crafting characters and worlds and concepts and such. Usually whatever I provide in a review goes in line with what I'm studying. I've been studying symbolism lately so that's what I've been focusing on in reviews

Nerdy: Indeed an open minded author is hard to find who doesn't get offended on critical reviews so sticking to the technical side is a smart move. :)

With a minor in literature you must have read several books. Which book did you like the most amongst them?

Rowan: I'm a really big fan of Steinbeck and Bradbury, I've read almost all of their works over the past few years.

Nerdy: Ohh nice choices.

Coming back to your book now that you have received so many awards are you planning to participate in watty?

Rowan: Oh no, I don't really have any goals or aspirations for the project other than to write it the best I can and to finish it, and I don't think it'd be competitive enough to enter. But we'll see maybe I'll change my mind once I finish it in like, five years

Nerdy: A long project... I see. Now these are some quick questions I would list a few things you would have to choose one amongst them

Introvert or Extrovert?

Rowan: Introvert

Nerdy: Reading or writing?

Rowan: Oh! I don't know...reading I suppose haha, less work involved

Nerdy: Literature or music?

Rowan: Music! It's my true passion. I'm a drummer and a pianist.

Nerdy: Drum or Piano

Rowan: Probably piano, I've been studying it the longest. But for a time I lived exclusively as a drummer, playing shows and going on tour

Nerdy: Summer or winters?

Rowan: Summer! I hate the cold.

Nerdy: Sweet or spicy?

Rowan: Spicy.

Nerdy: Thank you for your responses:) is there any message would you like to send anything to our readers?

Rowan: Wow thanks so much for your time and the interview! And to my reader, thanks so much for reading my work even though it's a WIP.

Nerdy: All the best for your book and life ahead Rowan.
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I hope you all had enjoyed this interview....
Thank you nerd_positive for taking this interview on behalf of us ❤