Crimson Cloak Publishing Authors – Jess and Keith Flaherty
In this interview we meet authors Jess and Keith Flaherty.
1) Do you write books as a career, or are you currently still juggling your author time with a full or part time job?
Jess & Keith: We are certainly hoping to write as a career one day soon, but for now we both work at other things as well.
Keith: I’m a general manager and chef for a little country store in southern Vermont. As to the second part of that question … Yes and no. There are aspects of the job that I like a lot, and I really like who I work for, but my ultimate goal is to be able to work with Jess and write full time.
Jess: Outside of writing and editing, I’m a special education teacher. On the one hand, that’s great because it’s important work and I’m good at it. I also get to do a lot of project based learning and since I am a passionate science nerd that means fun stuff like dropping things off the roof and making enormous messes, which is always fun, classroom or not. But, on the other hand, my real passion is writing. It has been for most of my life. I look forward to a time when writing and working with Keith is my day job.
2) Have you always wanted to be an author, or did some time or event in your life set you on the path?
Keith: I’ve only been writing seriously for about two and a half or three years.
Jess: I’ve been writing since I was a kid. I wrote pretty seriously in college for a while, then I got out of the habit, sort of lost the spark. When Keith and I started writing together a couple of years ago, I found that passion for words again. I’ve always said, “I’m a writer,” but it feels a lot more real when I can hand people a copy of our book!
Keith: I love the telling of the story. I played a lot of Dungeons and Dragons when I was younger, and I think that’s where it started. Whether I was the DM and leading other people through a story or playing a character myself, I loved the creation of it, the details, watching in unfold.
Jess: I like meeting the characters, figuring out who they are and how they’ll react to events, seeing them grow. I like to joke when I go to my desk that I’m going to go hang out with my imaginary friends, but in a way it’s not a joke at all. Our characters are, after a fashion, some of the best friends I have ever had or will ever have.
3) Do you always write in the same genre, or do you sometimes like a change of theme? If you haven’t already, is there another genre you would like to write?
Jess & Keith: We really enjoy writing fantasy and are pretty caught up in the paranormal fantasy universe we’ve created for our series The Arbitratus that just launched with our book Always Darkest.
Keith: Fantasy in some way, shape, or form has always been my favorite thing to read, regardless of the subgenre involved. It’s an escape, to a degree, a place where you can leave the world you know behind for a while. I’ve always wanted to be a part of that.
Jess: I’ve also been a fantasy fan my whole life. The first book I remember reading on my own was The Hobbit and no matter what else I’m doing, what phases I’m going through, I always come back to fantasy. I’m particularly excited about dark and urban fantasy because it takes the mundane things of the world we live in and makes them something new.
Keith and Jess: We also really enjoy the research involved in good paranormal fantasy. It’s tremendously important. We can get a little obsessive. There’s no name, no symbol, no mythology in our books and stories that doesn’t have some grounding in real history, mythology, or art. We take creative license with all of those things certainly, but for us that grounding in the real world is so important because our story is contemporary, and features mythological and historical characters, so it has to ring true, to feel familiar.
4) As a writer, what is the best thing that has happened to you, and what is that most exciting thing that could happen to you?
Keith & Jess: Best thing? When Always Darkest came out, definitely!
Keith: Not much is up there with your wedding day or holding your firstborn in your arms for the first time, but publishing a book makes the top five, for sure.
Jess: Definitely publishing the book was the greatest thing so far! There was a lot of singing and dancing around the house on my end. That can randomly happen anyway, but this was a particularly joyous bout of it. And I don’t think that will diminish over the course of my career. We’ve had a few short stories come out since and it’s the same feeling of elation.
Keith and Jess: In terms of what we’d like to see happen, we’d love to see the series come out on film. So many books that appeal to young people have done it and been done well, gotten people excited about reading. It would be great to see our characters, our story play a part in that. It would be wonderful to be part of a faithful adaptation that brings fans even further into our world in the wonderful and surprising ways that only film can.
One of the most interesting questions we’ve been asked around that is whether we had actors in mind when we were writing it.
Keith: The one character we talked about an actor in conjunction with as we developed him was our character Cain. He’s ancient and full of secret knowledge and magic, and we just liked the idea of him not coming across that way. We wanted sort of an affable cowboy who’s a lot smarter than he lets on. Woody Harrelson kept coming up as we wrote Cain.
Jess: I had a moment where an actor sort of leapt off the screen at me as one of our characters, after we had finished the first draft. We were taking a night off from revising and just watching a movie. We’re both X-men fans, and First Class was available On-Demand so we rented it. Neither of us were overly familiar with the cast. The minute the audience is introduced to Alex Summers – Havok, my jaw absolutely dropped. Other than his eye color, Lucas Till, who I had never heard of before seeing him in First Class, looked so much like I pictured our character Ben it was almost scary. I’ve become a bit of a fan as the result of that.
5) How do you view the promotion, book signings etc. Is it something you enjoy, or do you prefer the writing stage?
Keith and Jess: We absolutely love meeting and talking to our readers in person.
As much as possible, we try to reply to our fans individually and personally, just as quickly as we can. That’s one of the wonderful things about social media. A reader doesn’t have to travel or stand in line or find an event we’re doing to talk to us about our stories. A tweet, Facebook message or post, an email, and we can have a conversation.
6) Could you tell us something about your published books, and let us know what they are about and where they are available?
Our first novel Always Darkest, which is the first in The Arbitratus Trilogy, came out on June 21, 2017. More than anything else, Always Darkest is the story of a regular guy … well he used to be a regular guy, but sometimes life just takes a sharp turn somewhere along the line. Most good guys set out to become heroes. Ben is just looking to survive the afterlife. Sure, he’s in Hell, but that beats oblivion. Unfortunately, no matter what he does, he always seems to be on the higher-ups’ radar. Vacationing on Earth, he befriends Chris, a scholar cursed with immortality. They discover a prophecy and it’s subject, Mal; a young woman with a remarkable family tree. Mal is drawn into this dangerous conflict against her will, but isn’t interested in going quietly. Ben finds himself with a woman he never should have fallen for, looking for redemption in the middle of an otherworldly war that could tear apart the fabric of the universe. Slippery ancient gods, as well as angels and their fallen siblings try to force Mal to their side. With a small band of allies, Mal tries to shake free of the prophecy and end Hell’s hold on Ben. They just want a future and for someone to help them find it. Good or evil? Her choice could change the world. If that sounds like your kind of story you can find it in paperback or ebook on Amazon.com or direct from Crimson Cloak Publishing.
Many thanks for such thorough replies to my questions Jess and Keith. I wish you every success with your fascinating series!
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