As my regular readers will know, I’m a huge fan of comics and superheroes. I find the concept of super-powered heroes and villains to be intriguing, particularly with regard to the struggles of morality that such beings would inevitably encounter. I also tend to prefer seriously flawed characters. It’s probably why I consider the X-Men to be my favorite team (seriously, if you look at their personalities, they’re all messed up in the head!).

So, knowing my predilection for loving heroes, combined with the distinctly super-heroic undertone of my own Sekhmet’s Light series, I joined the Superhero Hype forum and found several other writers there!

And so, it was my very great pleasure to sit down with one of my new friends from SHH, Kevin Rau!

H – Hi, Kevin. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?

K – By day I’m a giant squid under a small corporation’s ship. E.g. The InformSation Technology manager, who does everything from software programming, to web development, to server administration, network administration, and database programming. I’ve been in the computer industry my entire career, only branching out into writing in the last few years.

    My history as to more interesting things lies more with comic books, role-playing games, MMORPGs and reading a great quantity of science fiction and fantasy novels. I’ve been into (non-computer) tabletop gaming and reading for over 30 years. Comics and computer games were a little later. I collected comics very heavily for about 15 years.

    I’m overweight, but weight lift/workout 5-7 days a week. (Love the oh-so-tasty, but unhealthy food.)

    I like cats, but primarily because they are a tiny bit like the large predator cats, such as tigers. I’m very independent and driven - this is part of what drives me to do my own cover art.

H – Well, I know I’ll never be able to deal with an IT department without having that image in my head! *chuckles* What inspired you to write your first book?

K – I completely quit online gaming for a while, and read about 30 books in December 2008. I remember getting irate about so many stories ending. I wanted to know what the characters would get into next. I wanted MORE. I realized the only way that would occur is if I wrote my own series, and in January 2009 I began writing H.E.R.O. - Metamorphosis.

H – I’m sure you’re far from the only writer who’s ever felt that way. How did you come up with the title?

K – I knew I wanted to call the primary organization in my series “H.E.R.O.” and had to come up with an acronym that would work for it. (Thus was born the Homeland Extraordinary Response Organization.) I like being able to tell in an instant that numerous books are part of a series, and thus chose to use that at the beginning of every novel’s title. The second part has to do with the story in that one novel - for that first book, Metamorphosis has to do with the three main characters changing into supers and dealing with those changes.

H – What prompted you to write about superheroes?

K – My history with comic books. I also love superhero movies. I’m not restricting myself to this genre long-term, however. At some point, I’ll start a fantasy series, and will likely go back and forth creating a novel for each. I’m not sure how many H.E.R.O. novels I’ll get out before I hit that point - probably 7-10.

H – That’s a pretty ambitious long-term plan. Do you work with an outline, or just write?

K – Both. I come up with a batch of core plot points that will interweave through the story, as well as a “to-do” list of things that need to come about in various characters’ lives. Then I’ll write out from one sentence to a paragraph for the first 10-15 chapters of a novel. Often, strange things will occur while writing, and the plot takes a wild turn on me, changing everything. I generally work out a rough idea of the forthcoming chapters to work on and use that as a guide after that point.

H – What motivates you to write?

K – As I mentioned above, I want to see what else happens to my characters. A character’s story doesn’t just *end* (unless they die - and even then, things can occur….). I’m interested in finding out what happens as much as everyone else might be.

H – Where do you get your ideas?

K – Wild binges at the local tavern? Just kidding! Some have come about because of a single keyword/phrase (H.E.R.O. - Dark Research was an example, as was H.E.R.O. - Horde). Others I’ll look around and pick out words and phrases off random things as I drive around (the slave market idea in H.E.R.O. - New Markets happened this way). A few others I knew I wanted to do something to a character, picked one, and forced them through it (such as what happens with Chrome in H.E.R.O. - Rise and Fall).

    Smaller ideas, such as a few random events that occur in Metrocity I’ve used some software I created quite a while back for use in a superhero gaming campaign to do the very same thing. I’ll randomly generate a bunch and pick out an idea that ought to be interesting to work with in the story.

H – That software sounds like it might be a pretty handy thing to try to market as a sideline! What are your current projects?

K – I’m going through my edit phase of H.E.R.O. - Paragon (Book 6). Once I complete my own edits, I’ll hand that off to my editors and begin the 3D work on a few new characters that came up in H.E.R.O. - Paragon. Then I’ll create the cover for it. After that will be the initial idea phase of Book 7 until my editors come back to me with their revisions and suggestions.

H – Writing is rarely easy. With that in mind, what was the hardest part of writing your books?

K – Choosing to write in third or first person. (I prefer first person to give the reader the opportunity to experience things along with the heroes.) Getting past the occasional mental block can be rough. Not that the ideas don’t come to me, rather I’ll come to a crossroads where a decision can make significant changes to both the story and the characters, and having to select one can be a challenge.

H – Which of your characters is your favorite?

K – Oh, wow, that’s a tough one. Diva’s got to be one of my top choices. She’s dumb, but has common sense. (The boneheadedness can be fun to write.) She wants to be liked so much, yet believes she’s never good enough. She’s quick to react and to help people - a hallmark of a good hero. Oh, and she’s flirty.

H – Which of your characters would you most/least to invite to dinner, and why?

K – I’d love to meet and chat with many of my heroes. It’d be a fun party, barring the potential broken furniture from the bricks. Rayna might be one of the neatest, assuming one could get her to make some lifeforms to give away.

    Least … hmm. If you include villains, then I’d not want to invite any of them. Either they are jerks, greedy, wouldn’t mind killing you or making you a mind slave, etc. Of the heroes, probably Watermane - she’s way too serious. She hasn’t had a lot of time in the novels, so that might not have come out yet. Of the heroes who’ve had a little face time, I’d say Psycom. He’s stuck up, and only does things when they benefit him. (He’s good at what he does, and he knows it.) Of the heroes who’ve had a lot of face time, I’d go with Black Tiger. I like the character, but I’m not sure I’d enjoy sitting around talking with him.

H – Sounds like it really would be a heck of a party! Do you ever experience writer’s block?

K – Yes. Normally, only in terms of choosing one of several paths to take with the storyline. There have been a few times where I’ll argue for days or up to a week with myself over the ramifications.

H – I once had a character who refused to work with me to the point I had to stop trying to tell her story entirely, so I can definitely sympathize. Who is your favorite author and what is it that really strikes you about their work?

K – Laurel K. Hamilton is probably my favorite. The thing that probably sticks out to me is the ongoing storyline of her Anita Blake and Merry Gentry series.

H – Do you read reviews of your books? If so, do you pay any attention to them, or let them influence your writing?

K – I haven’t had a great number to compare against, but I do read them. At times I’ll try to pick out issues people are bringing up to work on. Some people become fixated on the way they believe a story ought to occur, and hold it against you if it doesn’t. So these need to be read while expecting a skewed viewpoint.

H – How do you market your work? What avenues have you found to work best for your genre?

K – My website (http://www.kevinrau.com) is one way. The Facebook page I created for my characters is another (http://www.facebook.com/pages/HERO-Superhero-Novels/312142538816826?sk=app_4949752878). Otherwise I put notices of each new book on a few forums. I’m certainly no marketing expert - quite the opposite, I’m fairly bad at that side of writing. I’ve tried advertising via Google and Facebook - both were horrible, expensive failures. I’ve given out promotional copies of my novels, although that has had minimal (if any) success as well.

H – So, before I send you back to tormenting your heroes, do you have any advice for other writers?

K – Find something you enjoy writing about, because for most writers the success is minimal. Study grammar. Get multiple editors to review your work. Use a thesaurus.

    And there you have it! Kevin’s books are available for Kindle via Amazon.com and in paperback both through most major online retailers.

H.E.R.O. – Metamorphosis

H.E.R.O. – New Markets

H.E.R.O. – Rise and Fall

H.E.R.O. – Dark Research

H.E.R.O. – Horde

    I, myself, just picked up Metamorphosis, and am looking forward to delving into the world of H.E.R.O.!

    So, I think it’s safe to say that if you ask most people to describe me, vain is not going to be the first word that comes up. I tend to live in sweats and t-shirts as much as possible, go barefoot whenever possible, and wear steel-toe workboots instead of stilettos. 

    However, most women have at least one thing that they take particular pride in and that they are at least a bit ‘vain’ about. For me, it’s my hair. I really do love my hair. It’s very long, super-thick, and when I pull it back, it more resembles a lush fox’s brush than a ponytail. 

    I’ve also had grey hair for the last ten years or so and dye my hair auburn to conceal it. The thing is, I wouldn’t even mind the grey (as my husband pointed out yesterday, it’s more silver than true grey), except for one thing: It’s all in, more or less, one spot at the front of my head. Seriously… I have a real life Rogue streak in my hair! 

   For those who aren’t comically inclined and don’t get the reference, here’s what I mean:

    Not exactly a look that works, in my opinion, in the real world, however cool it can be in comics. And, of course, it’s right on the natural part in my hair so unless I force it to part somewhere else, it’s right there, front and center!

    My husband, God love him, is very tolerant of my one vanity. Since I lost my day job in February, I’ve neglected coloring my hair because with the sheer volume of hair that I have, I have to use two packages of color for each time I color… bearing in mind that each package can run between 7-9 dollars each, it can be costly. Mind you, not as costly as going to a salon, but when you’ve lost a decent chunk of income, it’s substantial.

    So yesterday when we went to the store, my husband, bless him, looked at me and suggested we pick up some color for me because, he knows that although I haven’t complained about it, he knows I’m not happy with the amount of grey I’m sporting. Now, a lot of guys would probably find themselves in the proverbial dog house for daring suggest such a thing, but he wouldn’t bring it up if he didn’t know it did bother me so I certainly can’t be upset with him. 

    I’m very lucky to have such a fantastic husband and I’m really looking forward to throwing the dye in my hair tomorrow. Maybe I’ll even post a before and after pic!

Avengers ASSEMBLE!

I’m just blown away by the trailer for this movie. I absolutely cannot WAIT to see it opening night!

So, according to one of my facebook event reminders, today is ‘Celebrate Your Geekness Day’. A while back there was a thread started on a forum that I frequent asking who got us into scifi… which got me thinking about the origins of my interest in it.

The truth is, I can’t really pin it down to one person or event or movie that triggered my love of scifi and fantasy. Looking back, I’ve always had a love of the fantastic. I was the kid who stayed up late and read books about unicorns and dragons under the blankets by flashlight. Later (between 7 and 12ish), I would sneak out of bed and watch movies like The Terminator and RoboCop with the volume turned down so I wouldn’t wake my parents.

When I hit college, I started getting seriously into comics and found myself becoming more of a Marvel girl than DC. My love was speficially the X-Men. I’ve always loved the idea that there was a group of people who were outsiders, feared and reviled by the rest of the world, yet they chose to use their abilities to help people rather than hurt them.

To me, that was an incredibly potent brew and it reacted a bit like nitroglycerin with my imagination. You see, that’s the point when I started creating stories and writing them down, mostly revolving around these powerful and misunderstood heroes. My mother read one of my stories and that prompted her to suggest that I take a creative writing course… and the rest is history.

This is an incredible time to be a geek. We’ve seen an Oscar go to a film adaptation of a seminal work of fantasy literature (yes, I know they cheesed it by calling Return of the King as historic fiction, but it still won), we’ve seen fantastic adaptations of some of our favorite comics (Iron Man, Batman, the X-men, Spider-Man), and scifi and fantasy are more accessible than ever before.

I’m hopeful that we can keep this ball rolling with upcoming adaptations of Captain America, the Avengers, a new Superman to look forward to, and others. There are some who bemoan the loss of this ‘exclusive’ little club that used to be geekdom, but I’m not one of them. Gaining a wider audience for our favorite things just means more willingness in the entertainment industry to accept more great stories.

Viva la geek!