An Interview with Fred Warren
T.W. Ambrose

The following

is a new feature with Digital Dragon Magazine. We hope to not only feature writers and editors who do what we do, but to also pick their brains a little bit about writing family friendly fiction and what’s happening in the market today.

Today we’ve interviewed Fred Warren, author of the Muse. Before writing for Digital Dragon Magazine this month, Fred published his first book “The Muse”. I first had the opportunity to meet Fred well reviewing his book, and he is a wonderful individual with a great story.

Digital Dragon Magazine: When and how did you decide to become a writer?

Fred Warren: It was a gradual thing. I can’t really point to a specific point in time when I declared, “Today, I am a writer.” I think it was in 7th grade when I became aware that I enjoyed writing and that people seemed to enjoy what I wrote. For many years, it was a sort of therapy for me—I wrote a lot of poetry and essays in college, and I kept a journal. The idea of someday writing something that I might publish, for other people to actually read, was always in the back of my head, but there wasn’t any force behind it. It was like saying I wanted to see the Pyramids, or start a rock band, but never having any plan to make it a reality. A few years ago, I decided that if I was ever going to write seriously, I needed to get a move on, because I wasn’t getting any younger. So, I started writing on a regular schedule, I linked up with some writing forums to network with other writers and get some serious critiques of my work, and I also began to submit stories to online and print magazines for publication. Once a few of my stories sold, there was no turning back.

DDM: What authors have been influences on you?

FW: Mark Twain has been one of my favorites since grade school, and he masterfully combines a keen sense of humor with a profound understanding of the human condition. Ray Bradbury is probably my favorite science fiction writer, because he brought a sense of beauty and poetry to the genre. C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien gave me a love for epic fantasy and the happy revelation that Christian fiction could be both exciting and intelligent. Finally, since I’m a big fan of short-short or “flash” fiction, Fredric Brown and William Tenn are two masters of that form who deliver a ton of wit and emotional impact in a small package.

DDM: Tell us a little about your publication history?

FW: Other than The Muse, it’s all been short stories, a mix of science fiction and fantasy. My first sale was to a print journal called Sand, a story called “Intervention,” about an orphaned alien imprisoned in a traveling medicine show. After that, I sold about one story a month or so to various print and online magazines. There were a lot more rejections than acceptances, but every bit of feedback helped me improve my writing and understand how to find publications that were a good fit for the story I was offering. My experience writing short fiction helped immensely when I was ready to tackle a novel-sized project like The Muse.

DDM: What’s your favorite short story you’ve written, and can we read it anywhere?

FW: I think my favorite is a story that came out this year in Mindflights, called “One Smile at a Time.” It’s about a little girl with an unusual talent and a teacher who tries to help her figure out how best to use it. I started writing the story a few weeks after I decided to begin writing more seriously, but it took me several years to finish it. We were living in Alabama when I started, and the story draws on many memories and experiences from that time. You can find it on the Mindflights website, www.mindflights.com, in Issue 22.

DDM: What was your muse for The Muse?

FW: That’s a great question, because a lot of writing The Muse was me wrestling with the idea of inspiration, how it works, and where it comes from. Lots of people, places, and situations inspired me as I wrote. I think the real emotional driving force for the book, though, was the love story at its heart, and the feelings I have for my own wife and family that helped me understand what the characters were experiencing. It would be presumptuous for me to claim any direct divine inspiration for the story, but I try to seek God’s guidance in everything I do. If it comes out well, if it has a positive impact on people, I’m sure He’s had a hand in it.

DDM: Between the three main characters in the book, which one are you most like?

FW: Being a writer and a family man, I most identify with Stan, but he’s a lot more outgoing than I am. In that respect, I’m more like his writing buddy, Davos, who’d probably rather face a firing squad than a room full of people.

DDM: What was your experience like with Splashdown Books?

FW: Very positive, and nothing like I expected. I was circulating my manuscript among some other writers for critique and feedback, not expecting to submit it for publication any time soon. Grace Bridges got hold of the story and liked it so much she asked if I’d be willing to let her publish it as one of the first products of her new publishing company, Splashdown Books. After I recovered from the shock, I did a little research, asked some questions, and determined that she was on the level and was doing the right sorts of things to establish a legitimate small, independent press. She brought a lot of skills to the table with regard to editing and graphic design, and our working relationship has been very productive and cordial. I think the book is a lot stronger for her involvement, and she took the proper steps to get it listed with major wholesalers, Amazon.com, and Barnes & Noble. The downside of working with a small independent is that there’s a lot more burden on me for marketing and publicity, especially as Splashdown is based in New Zealand. Of course, there’s another positive aspect there in that Splashdown can offer the book to a national market I wouldn’t likely be able to reach with a U.S.-based publisher.

DDM: Tell us about your process in writing Angel Wings?

FW: Angel Wings emerged from one of my online writing forums, Liberty Hall (http://www.libertyhallwriters.org). Every week, Liberty Hall runs a “flash challenge,” in which writers have an hour-and-a-half to write a short story based on a “trigger,” a word, phrase, picture, poem, etc, selected by the previous week’s winner. The stories are posted anonymously on the forum, everybody critiques them, then they vote for an overall best story, as well as winners in specific categories such as characterization, dialogue, setting development, and so on. That particular week, the trigger was a picture of a bizarre creature with lots of parts from other creatures. That started me thinking about genetic engineering and body modification, and it all flowed from there. I don’t remember whether or not I won anything in the competition. The original draft was much shorter than the final product. I used the critiques to fix some problems and develop the story a bit more, then I sent it out to a couple of magazines. It was rejected initially, but in the process, I figured out what the story was lacking, worked on it some more, and was getting ready to submit it again when Digital Dragon asked for a story for their December issue. Considering the time of year, and after reading some other stories DD had published over the last several months, I thought Angel Wings would be a good fit.

DDM: What’s next on the horizon for Fred Warren?

FW: I have two novel projects in the works. There’s a sequel to The Muse, and a science fiction adventure about a runaway heiress who stumbles onto an interplanetary conspiracy. The short story writing continues—“The Silver Tree,” a science fiction story about a technologically-repressed colony, will appear in the next issue of the print journal Kaleidotrope, and “The Chamber of Doors,” a fantasy story about magical justice, will be online in the April 2010 edition of Bards and Sages Quarterly. I also have previously-published stories appearing in the 2009 Best of Every Day Fiction anthology and in the upcoming Residential Aliens print anthology.

DDM: Tell us how we can follow you and your future works?

FW: My writing blog, http://frederation.wordpress.com, has a Publications page that lists all my stories currently online and in print, with links where available. I post a variety of book reviews and other writing-related items on my blog, along with announcements about upcoming stories. You can also find me on Facebook, Twitter, LiveJournal, and ShoutLife.

Thanks again to Fred Warren for taking a few minutes out of his busy schedule to share with us. And I hope you the readers will take a moment to check out Fred’s website and social networks, and be sure to let him know you heard about his work right here at Digital Dragon Magazine.

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