An Interview with Ethan Bard Adams

Welcome to another interview! Today we have an upcoming author, Ethan Bard Adams! How are you, Ethan?

I’m doing good.

So you are working on a book, it is called “Vile”, what can you tell us about it?

Vile is a portal fantasy book; four teens find a portal to a fantasy world where they discover a war between a race of dwarf-like people and a race of humanoid wolves. The dwarves have magical technology and the wolves have raw primal strength and shamanism. It's a battle of law vs chaos with four gun-toting teens caught in the middle.

Sounds exciting! “Portal Fantasy”, What made you want to write with that sub-genre?

I’ve always written as a form of escapism and having my characters literally escape their problems on Earth to go to a fantasy world seemed fitting.

Does your fantasy world have a name?

I haven't quite named it yet, but there is a mystery surrounding the planet that the characters in this first book haven't quite gotten into concerning the true nature of the world and it’s “magic”. 

How much time do you typically spend on world building and the magic system? 

I might be an uncommon fantasy writer in that my plans have a smaller scope. I have focused on my development of this first book in one region. It took me a couple days to jot down necessary information, plan out the culture, invent a religion, and design a feudal system that works for the dwarves. Outside this one region, I haven't done much developing on the nations or peoples. 

I’ve recently spoken to several other indie fantasy authors, and they more or less had the same “pantsing” philosophy for world building.

So tell me about the characters, the four main ones, that is.

I’ll leave world building to the greats. I believe my story is more of a character study. Adam Dover is their leader, a tragic narcissist, who often does wrong things with good intentions. Aaron Mitchel is the heart, a compassionate person figuring out what it means to be his own man, but he has a lot of questions for himself he needs to answer. Jared Shriver is the brains, he follows logic and facts in the face of fantastical elements, and he believes his good deeds will be rewarded. Jeremiah Kilgore is the faith, he unquestioningly trusts those close to him, but this world challenges everything he’s been taught his whole life. I designed them to have different traits, cultures, religions, political beliefs, and each of them has flaws. 

Very interesting. Strength, Heart, Intelligence, and Soul. Where did you find the inspiration behind these diverse characters?

From the bottom; Jeremiah is a combination of the deeply religious roots in my town, my best friend Jacob from middle school, and a few traits and the name of one of my good friends, Kilgore, from highschool. Shriver has a few of the nihilist and secular beliefs of one of my good friends from highschool and the deep questioning personality and jewish background of my friend Olivier. Aaron Mitchel is a combination of all the traits of the three groomsmen of my wedding. They have read my first and second draft and have argued what traits of the character belong to which ones of them. I think the characters being compilations of people make them complex, deeply flawed, while incredibly human. They all feel familiar to me as I read or write for them. It’s nostalgic. Then there is Adam Dover, or just Dove, he is sadly a self-insert. I say that with regret because of the toxicity of the character. He is 100% me before I got real medical help for my mental shortcomings.

Any chance we can get a small excerpt from your book? 

"Good shot," I say to Shriver before rushing forward to help Werydd. She staggers, holding the deep bite mark on her arm, but before I reach her someone else lunges out at her. With his head down, lunging towards her midsection, another humanoid tackles her to the ground. 

He sits up on top of her, his skin covered in black fur, his head resembles a wolf with no lips with rows of jagged teeth sticking out every which way, with bony protrusions along his neck and along the inside of his arms. Between the patches of fur the creature has blue skin covering bulging muscles.

How exciting! Do you have any books or movies where you found your influence for this story?

My original inspiration was the book “Guardians of the Flame'' which in itself is a book heavily inspired by tabletop rpg’s like Dungeons and Dragons. However, I think it’s developed beyond that though into some eldritch combination of the shows “Game of Thrones” and “Riverdale”. 

I can see the Riverdale influence. Teenagers and Dark fantasy. What about yourself? Any other authors or books help you develop your style of writing?

I can say my father started me on a wonderful path of reading lots of fantasy books, so I have a wide reach of inspiration and obscurity. However my writing is heavily influenced by the coming of age stories of Stephen King in books like “The Body” and “IT”. 

They made for good movies too (Stand by Me) and (It). What would you say were your favorite fantasy books that you read?

As a young lad I would have backed the Redwall series 100%, I cannot recommend those stories enough to younger readers. As I grew my interests did change, so series like The Stones of Power: Jon Shannow Trilogy Series by David Gemmell and Shannara by Terry Brooks held my attention.

“Mossflower”, “the Long Patrol”, and “Taggerung” were my favorite Redwall books! 

I absolutely agree on “Taggerung”. 

Do you plan on publishing through Amazon?

I do. I’ve looked into the options, and it’s the most straightforward process. 

There are a lot of advantages to publishing on your own, although there are a few drawbacks as well. With you looking into the publishing options, does this mean Vile is close to a release?

I am aiming for an early December release. I have gone through drafts, I have an outline for the next draft, and I am excited to show the finished product to the world. 

There is no feeling quite like finishing and holding a print copy of your book in your hands!

Is Vile going to be a series?

Yes! Project V is outlined to an extent, but I have lots of room for discovery, writing, and improvements. I am aiming for a trilogy with a few side projects. Vigilant and Valiant are the working titles for the next two books. Vile was the evil, Vigilant is the neutral, and Valiant will be for the good of the realm. I have several spin off stories outlined, but which ones I will actually pursue are yet to be determined. 

A proper amount of potential for a fandom, I see. With all the effort that goes into a book, not to mention a series of books, do you have any pearls of wisdom for the author that is just starting out?

Write, write everyday if you can, and never be afraid to get those words down even if they are complete garbage. Without getting the words out you will have nothing to improve upon, nothing to rewrite, and nothing to edit. 

Solid advice we can all live by!

Well thank you for joining us today, Ethan!

Glad to have been invited.