Rise and Fall of the 80s Toon Empire received a 4+ star review, making it an IndieReader Approved title.
Following find an interview with author Jason Waguespack.
What is the name of the book and when was it published?
The full title of my book is Rise and Fall of the 80s Toon Empire: A Behind the Scenes Look at When He-Man, G.I. Joe and Transformers Ruled The Airwaves.
What’s the book’s first line?
“The weekday cartoon boom in the 1980s was truly a unique period in the history of television, animation, and kids’ entertainment.”
What’s the book about? Give us the “pitch”.
Rise and Fall of the 80s Toon Empire is a bird’s eye view of a time in cartoon television history. You get to learn the story behind the arrival of many cartoons that changed pop culture, like He-Man, Transformers, ThunderCats, Care Bears, My Little Pony and many more. But as fortunes rose, they fell as well. By the late 1980s, the television cartoon boom crashed hard, as many of the toy companies and animation studios that helped bring these shows to the screen suddenly discovered that the good times weren’t rolling any longer.
What inspired you to write the book? A particular person? An event?
I was a kid in the 80s and early 90s. A few years ago, I was thinking about how every weekday afternoon when I was a kid, I could turn on the television and watch an animated show, but today, the only place you can find cartoons is on cable, digital television channels, or streaming. It seemed like a whole form of entertainment had gone extinct, and I wanted to explore how that had happened.
Initially, I thought I would only write an article about the ‘80s cartoon boom, but after I did some research, I saw there was enough material to write a whole book on the subject. In fact, I found so much information that I had to leave some material out to be put in a future book. It took about three years of work, but the end result was well worth it.
What’s the main reason someone should really read this book?
If you were a child of the 80s, you get to dive into a deep well of childhood nostalgia. I cover many animated shows, from the biggies like He-Man and Transformers, to the lesser known cartoons like M.A.S.K., Silverhawks, Beverly Hills Teens and Dinosaucers. If you’re someone who’s just curious about animation history, you’ll learn a lot about how the TV animation industry worked in the 1980s. Finally, a lot of readers who grew up in the 90s or the 2000s have been exposed to 80s franchises like Transformers and G.I. Joe, and can learn a lot about where these franchises first came from.
When did you first decide to become an author?
I’d say my ambition to become an author first truly ignited when I was about 14 years old. I was a fan of science fiction and fantasy since I could remember, and it was about that time that I wanted to write my own genre stories. 22 years later, I haven’t stopped. I’ve probably written well over a million words!
Is this the first book you’ve written?
This is the first non-fiction book I have written. A few years ago, I wrote and published a middle school fantasy novel called The World of Rigel Chase: Rise of the Shaper. It’s about a creative boy who likes to draw animal and human warriors. One day he finds a portal to an alternate dimension where his creations live and breathe, and he gets involved in their adventures. You might call the book “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” meets “The Neverending Story.”
How much time do you generally spend on your writing?
When I’m working on a book, I’d say three to four hours a day on average. I tend to pay more attention to my word count per day than my time. Recently, I’ve been able to bump my maximum word count up to around 7,300 words in a day, which was really exciting.
What’s the best and the hardest part of being an indie?
Being the captain of your own ship. That literally is the best and hardest part. You don’t have to answer to anybody and there’s nobody to tell you no or reject your manuscript, but on the other hand you have to take on the responsibilities of finding someone to offer feedback on your book, having your book edited, of finding an artist to compose your book cover, and to promote your book. Still, I think the good news is that you can also experiment with all of these things and learn from them. It sharpens your creative instincts.
What’s a great piece of advice that you can share with fellow indie authors?
Find somebody to edit your work. It is absolutely 100 percent not optional! I say so because when you are writing your own book, fiction or non-fiction, you live inside that world for so long that you will miss its own flaws, whether it’s a plot point that doesn’t make sense or just the fact that you misspelled a word. An editor will bring a sharp mind that’s going to find those flaws and bring them to your attention.
Would you go traditional if a publisher came calling? If so, why?
Sure. I have nothing against traditional publishing at all and would love to experience it, if only to see what it’s like going non-indie.
Which writer, living or dead, do you most admire?
It’s hard to say who I “most” admire, but I could definitely discuss writers that have had a great impact on me. Most of them are in the fantasy genre. I’d list C.S. Lewis, Madeleine L’Engle, Lloyd Alexander, Michael Ende, and Eoin Colfer. All of them have inspired me in different ways, especially with showing how young protagonists act in fantastical settings and situations. I also like how they build their fantastical worlds, particularly L’Engle, Lewis and Ende. And personally, I find Colfer’s Artemis Fowl to be a hoot. It’s the kind of sci-fi/fantasy adventure stuff I would have eaten up as a kid.