Please welcome Trent Jamieson to The Qwillery. Trent is the author of the fabulous Death Works series featuring the unforgettable Steven de Selby. The Memory of Death, a Death Works eNovella, was published yesterday.
TQ: Welcome back to The Qwillery. Since your first visit you have had 3 additional novels published as well as the eNovella, The Memory of Death (Death Works 4), which was published yesterday. How has becoming an author changed your life? Is there any advice that you'd give debut authors?
Trent: Thank you! I don't know if it's changed my life, other than the pleasure of achieving some very important goals.
The level of discipline you need to produce work before you are published continues once you are. So the biggest changes, I guess, are a little more confidence, perhaps a desire to leap at challenges a little more. I still work two other jobs, and money is always a little tight, but I love this work, I love writing, and writing to an audience. It's always a buzz.
As for debut authors: probably these two things.
No author's debut experience is the same as any others. Go into this new stage of writing prepared for, and open to, anything. And try and enjoy it! You're only a debut author once!
TQ: How has your writing process changed (or not) since the publication of your first novel, Death Most Definite (Death Works 1)?
Trent: Writing to deadlines teaches you how to write to deadlines, but my process is still a lot of throwing words at the page and seeing how they work. I do plot things out a bit more, but still only loosely, and I rarely draft in any linear way - that only comes into play in the editing process.
I think I have more faith that I know how to finish a story now when I start it, though every story has its unexpected challenges.
TQ: Your most recently published work is The Memory of Death. Tell us something about The Memory of Death that is not in the book description.
Trent: It's a direct follow on from the last book, but there are multiple point of view characters in this story. You finally get to see things from Lissa's perspective too, I'm hoping to bring more of that into play in the following stories.
TQ: Why did you return to the Death Works series after a brief hiatus?
Trent: I adore this world, and I needed a break from the novel I was working on. And I always knew I wanted to see what happened after, in fact I had the first chapter written a long time ago. It sat there, looking at me, making me feel guilty that I wasn't telling the rest of the story.
TQ: Why do you think the Grim Reaper makes such a compelling character?
Trent: Death is at once a dark, and tender character.
Once you remove the idea of Death doing the actual killing, what you have left is someone that helps, that guides, hopefully with compassion, souls to the Underworld. Death as a character is the ending of one story, and the beginning of another.
And the job, itself, the practicalities of it; thinking about that has always entertained me. Yes, I admit, I'm a little bit maudlin.
TQ: Which character in the Death Works series has surprised you the most? Why?
Trent: Steven de Selby has. He is endlessly unpredictable, I never quite know what he is going to do, and quite often it is the wrong thing, but he does it thinking it's right. I've seen him grow up in these stories, but there's still a long way to go for him. Do we ever really stop growing?
TQ: What's next?
Trent: I have a new book coming out next year called (at this stage at least) Day Boy. It's a departure for me. A coming of age story set in a small country town run by vampires (ok, so maybe not that much of a departure), and told from the perspective of one of the boys that works for them. They're called Day Boys, because their job is to keep the household running in the day. It's a dark and tender story, set in a very dark sort of world. I think it's the best thing I've ever written. I'm currently redrafting it for my publisher, hopefully, when people get a chance to read it, they'll like it as much as I do.
Trent: Thank you! I don't know if it's changed my life, other than the pleasure of achieving some very important goals.
The level of discipline you need to produce work before you are published continues once you are. So the biggest changes, I guess, are a little more confidence, perhaps a desire to leap at challenges a little more. I still work two other jobs, and money is always a little tight, but I love this work, I love writing, and writing to an audience. It's always a buzz.
As for debut authors: probably these two things.
No author's debut experience is the same as any others. Go into this new stage of writing prepared for, and open to, anything. And try and enjoy it! You're only a debut author once!
TQ: How has your writing process changed (or not) since the publication of your first novel, Death Most Definite (Death Works 1)?
Trent: Writing to deadlines teaches you how to write to deadlines, but my process is still a lot of throwing words at the page and seeing how they work. I do plot things out a bit more, but still only loosely, and I rarely draft in any linear way - that only comes into play in the editing process.
I think I have more faith that I know how to finish a story now when I start it, though every story has its unexpected challenges.
TQ: Your most recently published work is The Memory of Death. Tell us something about The Memory of Death that is not in the book description.
Trent: It's a direct follow on from the last book, but there are multiple point of view characters in this story. You finally get to see things from Lissa's perspective too, I'm hoping to bring more of that into play in the following stories.
TQ: Why did you return to the Death Works series after a brief hiatus?
Trent: I adore this world, and I needed a break from the novel I was working on. And I always knew I wanted to see what happened after, in fact I had the first chapter written a long time ago. It sat there, looking at me, making me feel guilty that I wasn't telling the rest of the story.
TQ: Why do you think the Grim Reaper makes such a compelling character?
Trent: Death is at once a dark, and tender character.
Once you remove the idea of Death doing the actual killing, what you have left is someone that helps, that guides, hopefully with compassion, souls to the Underworld. Death as a character is the ending of one story, and the beginning of another.
And the job, itself, the practicalities of it; thinking about that has always entertained me. Yes, I admit, I'm a little bit maudlin.
TQ: Which character in the Death Works series has surprised you the most? Why?
Trent: Steven de Selby has. He is endlessly unpredictable, I never quite know what he is going to do, and quite often it is the wrong thing, but he does it thinking it's right. I've seen him grow up in these stories, but there's still a long way to go for him. Do we ever really stop growing?
TQ: What's next?
Trent: I have a new book coming out next year called (at this stage at least) Day Boy. It's a departure for me. A coming of age story set in a small country town run by vampires (ok, so maybe not that much of a departure), and told from the perspective of one of the boys that works for them. They're called Day Boys, because their job is to keep the household running in the day. It's a dark and tender story, set in a very dark sort of world. I think it's the best thing I've ever written. I'm currently redrafting it for my publisher, hopefully, when people get a chance to read it, they'll like it as much as I do.
The Memory of Death
The Memory of Death
Death Works 4
Momentum, February 11, 2014
eNovella, 97 pages
The Memory of Death
Death Works 4
Momentum, February 11, 2014
eNovella, 97 pages
He thought he’d return from Hell a hero. But things are never easy when your business is Death.
Steven de Selby gave up his love, his life, and his lucrative position as Head of Mortmax, the corporation in charge of Death. Then he found himself banished to the briny depths of hell. But hell has never held him before …
Now Steven’s back from hell, after escaping from the cruel Death of the Water, but he’s not sure how or why, or even if. No one at Mortmax trusts him, and he’s running out of time to prove he is who he says he is.
Steven is about to discover that hell really is other people, and the worst of them may well be himself.
Previously in Death Works
Death Most Definite
Death Works 1
Orbit, August 1, 2010
Mass Market Paperback and eBook, 352 pages
Managing Death
Death Works 2
Orbit, January 1, 2011
Mass Market Paperback and eBook, 352 pages
The Business of Death
Death Works 1, 2 and 3
Orbit, September 19, 2011
Trade Paperback and eBook, 864 pages
Death Most Definite
Death Works 1
Orbit, August 1, 2010
Mass Market Paperback and eBook, 352 pages
Steven de Selby has a hangover. Bright lights, loud noise, and lots of exercise are the last thing he wants. But that's exactly what he gets when someone starts shooting at him.
Steven is no stranger to death-Mr. D's his boss after all-but when a dead girl saves him from sharing her fate, he finds himself on the wrong end of the barrel. His job is to guide the restless dead to the underworld but now his clients are his own colleagues, friends, and family.
Mr. D's gone missing and with no one in charge, the dead start to rise, the living are hunted, and the whole city teeters on the brink of a regional apocalypse-unless Steven can shake his hangover, not fall for the dead girl, and find out what happened to his boss- that is, Death himself.
Managing Death
Death Works 2
Orbit, January 1, 2011
Mass Market Paperback and eBook, 352 pages
It's not easy being Death. For starters, people keep dying. And then, they keep getting up again.
Steven de Selby got promoted. This makes the increasing number of stirrers (and the disturbing rumors of a zombie god rising sometime soon) his problem. That time management seminar he keeps meaning to take would also remind him that he's got a Death Moot to plan, a Christmas party to organize, and an end-of-the-world thing to avert.
Steven must start managing Death, before Death starts managing him, or this time the Apocalypse will be more than Regional.
The Business of Death
Death Works 1, 2 and 3
Orbit, September 19, 2011
Trade Paperback and eBook, 864 pages
Steven de Selby has a hangover. Bright lights, loud noise, and lots of exercise are the last thing he wants. But that's exactly what he gets when someone starts shooting at him.
Steven is no stranger to death - Mr. D's his boss after all - but when a dead girl saves him from sharing her fate, he finds himself on the wrong end of the barrel. His job is to guide the restless dead to the underworld but now his clients are his own colleagues, friends, and family.
Mr. D's gone missing and with no one in charge, the dead start to rise, the living are hunted, and the whole city teeters on the brink of a regional apocalypse - unless Steven can shake his hangover, not fall for the dead girl, and find out what happened to his boss - that is, Death himself.
THE BUSINESS OF DEATH includes the first two volumes of the Death Works trilogy, Death Most Definite and Managing Death, as well as the third volume.
About Trent
Trent Jamieson is a multiple Aurealis Award winner for short fiction, he has taught short story writing at the QUT, and Clarion South. His Death Works Trilogy of novels is available from Orbit books. Roil, and Night's Engines the two books of the Nightbound Land Duology, are available from Angry Robot. And he's just sold a novel called Day Boy to Text due out in 2015.
His webpage is at www.trentjamieson.com
Twitter @trentonomicon
His webpage is at www.trentjamieson.com
Twitter @trentonomicon
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