{"id":4638,"date":"2023-02-12T15:49:21","date_gmt":"2023-02-12T21:49:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lfs.org\/blog\/?p=4638"},"modified":"2023-02-17T15:53:44","modified_gmt":"2023-02-17T21:53:44","slug":"the-gallager-interview-part-two-on-pleasures-of-writing-challenges-of-series-and-whats-next-in-his-fall-of-the-censor-series","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/the-gallager-interview-part-two-on-pleasures-of-writing-challenges-of-series-and-whats-next-in-his-fall-of-the-censor-series\/","title":{"rendered":"The Karl Gallagher interview, part two: On the pleasures of writing, challenges of series, and what\u2019s next in his Fall of the Censor series"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here is the second part of the Prometheus-blog interview with sf writer Karl K. Gallagher.<\/p>\n

A 2022 Best Novel finalist for his Fall of the Censor novels Between Home and Ruin\u00a0<\/em>and Seize What\u2019s Held Dear, <\/em>Gallagher is in the midst of completing his projected nine-volume Censor series.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>His fourth novel in the series, Captain Trader Helmsman Spy,<\/em> was \u00a0published in May.<\/p>\n


\nQ: Your trilogy of Torchship, Torchship Pilot\u00a0<\/em>and Torchship Captain,\u00a0<\/em>published in 2017, were together combined into one nomination by LFS judges and ended up ranked as a Prometheus Best Novel finalist in 2018. \u00a0What were the main pleasures and challenges of writing your Torchship trilogy?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>A: One of the surprising joys of novel writing is thinking of a funny line and being able to slip in the perfect set-up for it.<\/p>\n

On a larger\u00a0scale, it gave me a chance to exercise some of the ideas I hadn\u2019t been\u00a0able to turn into serious essays, such as AI disaster through failure\u00a0of the software and social stresses from people trying to escape being\u00a0at the bottom of the social pecking order.<\/p>\n

The biggest challenge was having the discipline to keep my butt in the chair and keep writing. I also found that finding typos, grammar errors, and continuity errors can be harder than the original writing. Fortunately, my wife is a talented editor and has improved my work considerably.<\/p>\n

Q: Was it daunting to launch your Fall of the Censor series, even
\nafter having written your earlier Torchship\u00a0<\/em>trilogy?<\/p>\n

A: Some. The \u2018nine\u2019 books in the series is an estimate<\/em>. If the story goes in another direction, the series may be a book or two longer or shorter. That\u2019s committing most of a decade of writing to one project. I am determined to\u00a0complete it. Too many readers have been left hanging by unfinished\u00a0series. I don\u2019t want to disappoint mine.<\/p>\n

Q: What lessons did you learn from writing your first trilogy that are
\nhelping you to plan and write your Fall of the Censor series?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Author Karl K. Gallagher (Creative Commons license)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A: The biggest lesson is to not be afraid of recycling.\u00a0Torchship\u2019s\u00a0<\/i>plot was\u00a0built from RPG adventures that I used for pick up games at SF cons.
\nFall of the Censor drew from RPG material I\u2019d written (but not
\npublished) and other ideas I\u2019d been kicking around for a while.<\/p>\n

Second lesson is to start writing even if I don\u2019t have a complete
\noutline yet. I need at least a partial outline to get started, but I
\ncan work with an outline for half the book and write tens of thousands
\nof words in confidence that I\u2019ll figure out the rest of the story
\nlater. This approach probably horrifies other authors who believe in
\ncompletely plotting out their novels or series, but it works for me.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Q: So far, the Prometheus Awards have recognized each of the first three novels published in your ambitious Fall of the Censor series, starting with Storm Between the Stars<\/em>, a 2021 Best Novel finalist, and the two 2021 sequels, both of which became 2022 Best Novel finalists: Between Home and Ruin\u00a0<\/em>and Seize What\u2019s Held Dear.<\/em><\/p>\n

Can you give us an interim progress report, including how many more years you expect to take to complete the series?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>A: Captain Trader Helmsman Spy\u00a0<\/em>(the fourth novel in the series) was published in May and I have a complete outline for its sequel Swim Among the People <\/em>and have thousands of words written so far.<\/p>\n

Book six, as yet untitled, has a rough outline. I\u2019m hoping to have books 5 and 6 out in 2023. If all goes well, the series will be finished in 2025.<\/p>\n

Q: What else can you share, at this point, about your plans for the
\nFall of the Censor series, without giving anything major away?<\/p>\n

A: As you can guess from the title of the series, the good guys will win and the Censor will be toppled. It won\u2019t be cheap, or easy, and the galaxy will be left in a bit of a mess. Which will create opportunities for more\u00a0stories. I expect I\u2019ll write some different ones and give these
\ncharacters a rest before returning to the Censorverse.<\/p>\n

Q: Do you see pros and cons in writing series?<\/p>\n

A: The simplest pro is that when you start the next book in the series,
\nyou already have most of the characters and settings you need for the
\nnew story. That saves a bunch of skull sweat up front. If you have a
\ncomplex enough situation the next book\u2019s plot flows automatically from
\nthe end of the previous one. You also gather more readers as they
\nbecome invested in the story. Long and successful series can spawn fan
\nclubs and cosplayers.<\/p>\n

On the con side, you\u2019re restricting your creativity by all the\u00a0decisions made in the earlier books. If you\u2019ve resolved all the major\u00a0conflicts it can be hard to keep it going without bringing in new \u00a0antagonists not set up earlier, which may weaken the story and\u00a0disappoint readers.<\/p>\n

The Amazon algorithm rewards writers for having a new book out every\u00a0month or two. Some writers work themselves to death trying to hit that\u00a0goal. Others team up.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Pestilence (The Four Horsemen series)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The \u201cFour Horsemen\u201d military SF series has\u00a0released 74 books in less than six years. It\u2019s a joint project with\u00a0about a dozen writers producing novels and another 20+ adding short\u00a0stories.<\/p>\n

I admire them, but it\u2019s a lot of work coordinating the effort\u00a0and maintaining continuity.<\/p>\n

Q: What else do you hope to write over the next few years?<\/p>\n

A: I\u2019ll write a few short stories every year, either because an\u00a0inspiration hit me or I was invited to an anthology.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>One was just\u00a0published in April in the Mammon: Collateral<\/em> anthology, a companion to\u00a0the Mammon: Titan <\/em>novel, which was a 2022 Prometheus Best Novel nominee. My Amazon profile lists more anthologies I\u2019ve contributed to than novels.<\/p>\n

There are a couple of novels that I\u2019ve written a few thousands words of
\nwhile blocked on another project. I may go back and finish them (one
\nis a romance, the other a techno-thriller).<\/p>\n

My ideas file accumulates\u00a0random thoughts and scenes which I can draw on when I need\u00a0inspiration. For now, I\u2019ll be focusing on the Fall of the Censor\u00a0stories.<\/p>\n

Coming up soon:<\/strong> Part 3 of the Gallagher interview, with a focus on his favorite sf authors and novels and what he thinks of awards.<\/p>\n

Here is a link<\/strong><\/a> to the first part of the Gallagher interview, published in early February 2023.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

* Prometheus winners:\u00a0<\/strong>For a full list of winners, finalists and nominees \u2013 for the annual Best Novel and Best Classic Fiction (Hall of Fame) categories and occasional Special Awards \u2013 visit the enhanced\u00a0Prometheus Awards page\u00a0<\/strong><\/a>on the LFS website, which now includes convenient links to the full set of published appreciation-reviews of past winners.<\/p>\n

* Watch the videos<\/strong>\u00a0of past Prometheus Awards ceremonies, Libertarian Futurist Society panel discussions with noted sf authors and leading libertarian writers, and other LFS programs on the Prometheus Blog\u2019s Video page.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

* Read\u00a0\u201cThe Libertarian History of Science Fiction,\u201d<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0an essay in the international magazine\u00a0Quillette<\/em>\u00a0that favorably highlights the Prometheus Awards, the Libertarian Futurist Society and the significant element of libertarian sf\/fantasy in the evolution of the modern genre.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

*\u00a0Join us<\/strong>! To help sustain the Prometheus Awards,\u00a0join\u00a0<\/strong><\/a>the Libertarian Futurist Society (LFS), a non-profit all-volunteer association of freedom-loving sf\/fantasy fans.<\/p>\n

Libertarian futurists believe that culture matters! We understand that the arts and literature can be vital, and in some ways even more powerful than politics in the long run, by sparking innovation, better ideas, positive social change, and mutual respect for each other\u2019s rights and differences.<\/p>\n

Through recognizing the literature of liberty and the many different but complementary visions of a free future via the Prometheus Awards, the LFS hopes to help spread better visions of the future that help humanity overcome tyranny, slavery and war and achieve universal liberty and human rights and a better world (perhaps eventually, worlds) for all.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here is the second part of the Prometheus-blog interview with sf writer Karl K. Gallagher. A 2022 Best Novel finalist for his Fall of the Censor novels Between Home and Ruin\u00a0and Seize What\u2019s Held Dear, Gallagher is in the midst of completing his projected nine-volume Censor series. His fourth novel in the series, Captain Trader … Continue reading The Karl Gallagher interview, part two: On the pleasures of writing, challenges of series, and what\u2019s next in his Fall of the Censor series<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[32,36],"tags":[1802,1494,1524,1521,1603,1504,1604,1605,1803,1495,1525,1534,1602,1535,1522],"class_list":["post-4638","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-author-updates","category-interviews","tag-ai","tag-between-home-and-ruin","tag-captain-trader-helmsman-spy","tag-fall-of-the-censor-series","tag-four-horsemen","tag-karl-h-gallagher","tag-mammon-collateral","tag-mammon-titan","tag-rpg-adventures","tag-seize-whats-held-dear","tag-swim-among-the-people","tag-torchship","tag-torchship-captain","tag-torchship-pilot","tag-torchship-trilogy"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pe8nGl-1cO","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4638","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4638"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4638\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5437,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4638\/revisions\/5437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}