All this month, you can get 25 short stories and novellas from Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off (SPFBO) authors absolutely free through the SPFBO Shorts promotion.
As part of the promo, I virtually sat down with a host of the participating authors.
Today’s author interview is with SPFBO 4 Finalist Patrick LeClerc.
Tell us a little about your SPFBO Short.
The protagonist is immortal, and has the ability to heal others. His memory goes back centuries, but not all the way. He doesn’t know where he came from, who his family was or why he can do what he can do. He does know that the last guy who went around healing people wound up nailed to a cross, and he’s seen the Inquisition and the witch trials, so he is trying to lie low and remain inconspicuous. He’s spent a lot of time as a solider, since armies move often and men muster out so his lack of aging won’t be so noticeable, and people hurt in combat are happy to be healed and willing to believe the wound wasn’t all that bad, so he can get away with healing without arousing suspicion. When the story opens, he’s living on the New England frontier in the 1750s, trying to avoid drawing attention.
But someone needs his help, even though helping might expose him. And sometimes, doing the right thing is more important than doing the safe thing.
I first used this character in my modern paramedic themed urban fantasy “Out of Nowhere” which made it into the finals last year. And then I thought about the fact that, with an immortal main character, I could easily write his earlier adventures in pretty much any time period, which let me play with my love for history. This is one of a handful of historical fiction shorts I’ve done with the same character.
The annoying thing is that branding is harder for a series like this. Since he’s lived through a lot of history in a lot of places, I can’t really call them something like “The Harry Dresden Mysteries” because his name changes with his new identities throughout his long life. Names come in and out of fashion, and if your hard boiled detective had served in Caesar’s legions, well, “Maximum Flavius: Private Eye” is probably gonna have issues blending in.
What has been your favorite part of SPFBO?
Meeting a lot of people I wouldn’t have otherwise. The promotion has been nice, I sold a bunch of books through group promos, but the biggest takeaway is making connections with a lot of writers and bloggers.
What are you currently working on?
Besides three fingers of Balvenie?
I’m writing a steampunk novel with airship pirates and eldritch horrors. It ties in to exactly nothing else I’ve done but it wants to be written.
Because why do things the easy way?
Author bio
PATRICK LECLERC MAKES GOOD USE of his history degree by working as a paramedic for an ever- changing parade of ambulance companies in the Northern suburbs of Boston. When not writing, he enjoys cooking, fencing and making witty, insightful remarks with career-limiting candor.
In the lulls between runs on the ambulance –and sometimes the lulls between employment at various ambulance companies– he writes fiction.
You can find more of it at http://inkandbourbon.com/
You can pick up Patrick’s story Give and Take and more at the SPFBO Shorts promo on Bookfunnel all month long.
And if you want more SPFBO awesomeness, check out the all-new SPFBO Sampler, featuring previews from over 70 past and present SPFBO titles.