Ask the Author: Sam Bowring
Answered Questions (4)
Sam Bowring
Hi Rachel, thanks very much and I'm glad you've enjoyed Scharlette! Yes, there is a book 3 currently in the works, and I hope to have it out by the end of the year. Currently it is titled 'Scharlette Tries To Not Become President' but we'll see if that sticks. If you want to be updated the moment I publish it, you could join my mailing list:
All the best, and thanks again!
All the best, and thanks again!
Sam Bowring
Ho boy, lots of fun. They mostly started life as random characters born of single imagined moments, unattached to any story, and came together to chat once they realised they all had pretty weird powers. They got acquainted and bickered quite a bit before the pen relieved the pressure.
Salarkis’s first moment was standing by the road pretending to be various statues, freaking out the people walking by. Despirrow’s was in the town when he � well, you know, with the leaves. I shouldn’t write spoilers on my own goodreads page, I guess!
Forger was the most fun. So awfully happy while he goes about committing his heinous acts.
Mergan wasn’t much fun at the beginning. Trying to get into his head at the point where we find him made me feel a bit mentally disturbed. But then later on, with the jam and such, much more fun. See, how vague am I being now? But you know what I mean :)
Thanks for you question Leigh,
Sam
Salarkis’s first moment was standing by the road pretending to be various statues, freaking out the people walking by. Despirrow’s was in the town when he � well, you know, with the leaves. I shouldn’t write spoilers on my own goodreads page, I guess!
Forger was the most fun. So awfully happy while he goes about committing his heinous acts.
Mergan wasn’t much fun at the beginning. Trying to get into his head at the point where we find him made me feel a bit mentally disturbed. But then later on, with the jam and such, much more fun. See, how vague am I being now? But you know what I mean :)
Thanks for you question Leigh,
Sam
Sam Bowring
Hi Kristy
Thanks very much, I’m glad you enjoyed them. I’ve been working for a while on the first book in new series, a sci fi comedy adventure called (tentatively) ‘Scharlotte Doesn’t Matter and Goes Time Travelling�. I like the title but maybe it’s too long, what do you think? It’s been a long writing process because I have the stated (mainly to myself) aim to make it a time travel story without any plot holes. Argh. Even with certain made-up rules and tech to get around common paradoxical questions (‘What happens if you go back in time and shoot your father before he meets your mother?�) this has proven a challenge, and resulted in many hours lying on a couch staring at the ceiling with my brain melting out my ears like vanilla custard. However, I’m glad to tell you that the first draft is now complete and I’m in editing mode, so it shouldn’t be too much longer. It’s probably going to be an indie release, which is something I’ve dabbled in previously with shorter and sillier works, but this will be the first time I’ve attempted it with a full length novel (and series). If you want to be notified the very moment it’s available, please feel free to join the tens of people on my mailing list:
Otherwise stay tuned, I’m sure I’ll bang on about it across every available platform once it is finally out there :)
Thanks again,
Sam
Thanks very much, I’m glad you enjoyed them. I’ve been working for a while on the first book in new series, a sci fi comedy adventure called (tentatively) ‘Scharlotte Doesn’t Matter and Goes Time Travelling�. I like the title but maybe it’s too long, what do you think? It’s been a long writing process because I have the stated (mainly to myself) aim to make it a time travel story without any plot holes. Argh. Even with certain made-up rules and tech to get around common paradoxical questions (‘What happens if you go back in time and shoot your father before he meets your mother?�) this has proven a challenge, and resulted in many hours lying on a couch staring at the ceiling with my brain melting out my ears like vanilla custard. However, I’m glad to tell you that the first draft is now complete and I’m in editing mode, so it shouldn’t be too much longer. It’s probably going to be an indie release, which is something I’ve dabbled in previously with shorter and sillier works, but this will be the first time I’ve attempted it with a full length novel (and series). If you want to be notified the very moment it’s available, please feel free to join the tens of people on my mailing list:
Otherwise stay tuned, I’m sure I’ll bang on about it across every available platform once it is finally out there :)
Thanks again,
Sam
Sam Bowring
Hi Dawn, thanks for the question. You are correct, in Butler to the Dark Lord you have to play a man. I did think about making it possible to be a man or woman, but eventually decided not to for various reasons. Some of them are boring and technical, and basically involve struggling with an overly and increasingly fractal-like myriad of choice variations (originally the ebook file was blowing up to untenable sizes due to a creation process that would take a couple pages to explain, and which I eventually abandoned anyway for a simpler method, long after the book was actually written). However, first and foremost, the decision was creative. The aim with Butler has always been to reward the reader with the story itself, and make it more involved than usual in this genre. I did not want basic descriptions (‘You see a tree�) and arbitrary choices (‘Do you go left or right?�) such as you sometimes find in gamebooks. I really wanted the reader to inhabit the story and get into the role. As you know, what sex one happens to be fundamentally changes a lot of things in life! � and in this case it would have changed the story in ways far beyond the superficial. Mr Artanon is not a blank slate for the reader to superimpose their own impressions onto, but rather a character in his own right. Thus giving the reader the ability to play a man or woman would have been a really big thing to implement, in order to make it a truly meaningful choice, and the book would probably have wound up twice as long.
To answer the next bit of your question, I would love to do more gamebooks, and actually have a plan in the works for the next one, in which I want the reader to be able to make the choice about being male or female. I have learned quite a lot from doing this first one, and it makes it easier to plan, going forward.
Good luck with the Butler, I hope you don’t get fireballed to death :)
To answer the next bit of your question, I would love to do more gamebooks, and actually have a plan in the works for the next one, in which I want the reader to be able to make the choice about being male or female. I have learned quite a lot from doing this first one, and it makes it easier to plan, going forward.
Good luck with the Butler, I hope you don’t get fireballed to death :)
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