Sci-fi author Bennett R. Coles is in the hotseat today. We’re chatting about his new novel, Light in the Abyss.
Bio:
Bennett R. Coles has served as an officer in the Royal Canadian Navy and Canadian Army for more than twenty years and he’s had many adventures, as well as many boring times to think about writing. During his interim career in international business development he continued to explore all corners of the Earth, but now had thirteen-hour flights across the Pacific where he could churn out chapter after chapter of military space adventures. He is a recipient of the Cygnus Award for military science fiction and the Cygnus Grand Prize for science fiction. He attends SF cons across North America whenever he can, but is far more likely to be spotted at cons closer to his home in Victoria, Canada. He’s happily married and is kept busy with two growing boys and two scheming cats.
Welcome, Bennett. Please tell us about your current release.
Light in the Abyss is the third book in the swashbuckling space pirates series “Blackwood & Virtue”. It follows the continuing adventures of our heroes, Liam Blackwood and Amelia Virtue, as they once again set out into the galactic wilderness in service to His Imperial Majesty aboard the star sailing ship HMSS Daring. This time, they have to hunt down a notorious thief who has stolen a thousand-year-old artifact from a noble house.
The tone of the story is space fantasy, not hard sci-fi, so look forward more to exciting battles and sincere character interactions, rather than detailed scientific explanations or physics-based problems. This tale is designed to entertain, so curl up, relax and enjoy the fun.
Although this is the third book in the series, I wanted to make Light in the Abyss accessible to new readers. You don’t have to have read the previous two books to jump in and enjoy this one on its own.
What inspired you to write this book?
I’ve always been a fan of the classic Age of Sail stories, with wooden sailing ships and rows of cannons blasting away. But to me, everything is cooler if it’s in space, so when I learned about the real scientific theory of solar sails as a way to propel spaceships, I started to think about how I could mix the two genres.
In real life, solar sailing would be rather limited by the fact that the solar wind only goes in one direction – outward from the sun – so I thought, “what if my story was in a dense star cluster, where all the stars push out solar wind that mixes, interacts, and creates currents and storms? Now I had a setting where ships could sail the solar winds and I ran with it.
What exciting project are you working on next?
Well, “Blackwood & Virtue” Book IV is already in the works, but I’m also involved in a couple of other projects. The first is a contemporary romance series I’m co-writing with another author, and the second is an epic fantasy novel I’m ghostwriting for a very talented creator.
When did you first consider yourself a writer?
I wrote my first short story when I was 12 years old, and I never really looked back. Writing was a compulsion and I’m never happier than when the creativity is flowing. I finished my first novel by the end of high school and kept writing whenever I could find the time during university and as my working life took off. I wrote for more than 20 years before my first book was published, but I see all that time as valuable experience that honed my craft.
Do you write full-time? If so, what’s your workday like? If not, what do you do other than write and how do you find time to write?
Good question. There have been times in the past 15 years when I’ve been a full-time writer, but there have also been times when I juggle it with a day job.
When I’m a full-time writer, I always write in the morning. I’ll have breakfast and get coffee, see the family out the door, then close up at my computer and tackle the next part of the book. I’ll usually write until about noon. This regular schedule has really trained me how to write consistently, whether the muse shows up or not that day, and I can be very productive.
When I have to juggle writing with a day job, the routine can easily get disrupted and I have to work really hard to make (not find) the time to write. It usually winds up being the evening, after everything else is done, which can be tough because I’m tired. But I tell myself to just get 1000 words downrange each day. This isn’t a lot, and while some days I barely make it, on other days the muse shows up and I wind up with a very productive session.
What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?
I type with one hand. This is because, when I first sat down at my dad’s electric typewriter at age 12, my typing technique was the one-finger hunt-and-peck. This eventually became two-finger hunt-and-peck, and finally all five fingers of my right hand. By the time I was able to get any formal training in typing, I was already so fast with one hand that there didn’t seem to be any point.
So yes, everything I’ve ever written was typed with one hand.
As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
A dinosaur. Then, when I eventually accepted that was never going to happen, I lowered my expectations to astronaut or professional baseball player. Good thing I discovered writing along the way…
Anything additional you want to share with the readers?
In my humble opinion, “Rogue One” is the best Star Wars movie ever made. Discuss.
Thanks for being here today!