The Soul of Chaos received a 4+ star review, making it an IndieReader Approved title.
Following find an interview with author Gregory Wunderlin.
What is the name of the book and when was it published?
The Soul of Chaos, published on 10/26/2023!
What’s the book’s first line?
“Rurik cursed as the head of his sledge split down the middle.” Not an auspicious opener, but I love starting in the middle of things, and this sets you up to start right into the story. Action over exposition, right? Or, at least, that’s my methodology. Opening lines should show you what kind of story you’re in for. Ever read Fear and Loathing? You know instantly it’s going to be a wild, drug-fueled haze. With SoC, you’re not bogged down by anything to distract from the action of plot and movement.
What’s the book about? Give us the “pitch”.
What are all fantasy books about? Massive, sweeping themes, outrageous stakes, and a lot of fun. SoC tries to do all this, but also focuses on much more human experiences: addiction, mental health, fear, depression, hope, and what it means to struggle against the insurmountable. Take all that, and shove it into a backdrop of fantastic, alien entities, explosive magic, and a world ravaged by swords and gunpowder, and you’ve got The Soul of Chaos.
What inspired you to write the book? A particular person? An event?
Oh, I am so bad at this kind of question. There’s no single unifying inspiration for any of my writing; it all comes from pitching ideas to myself and writing them out until they resemble something akin to a story. Most of the time, I’ll draw up a series of concepts or worlds and go from there. In short, I love storytelling, and plot out ideas and characters and events in my free time—bit of a weird hobby, but it coalesces into projects like The Soul of Chaos (and a whole heap of others). It might not be as exciting or cinematic as that singular moment of powerful imagery, but I’ve got dozens of ideas and dozens of worlds to manifest them within.
What’s the main reason someone should really read this book?
For a slice of nerdery that’s different enough to give you something new. There’s not a whole lot of sci-fantasy IPs, and most of the time you’re regulated to Star Wars if that’s your goal (or Krull or Dune to a lesser extent), so SoC is that genre-bashing middleground. Like swords? Like science fiction? It’s all there. I strive to write outside the general methodology of my genre: no lore-drops, not explicit exposition; take all that handholding and trade it for cinematic writing and trusts the reader to figure it out.
What’s the most distinctive thing about the main character? Who-real or fictional-would you say the character reminds you of?
We’ve got two main characters here, so I’ll start with my favorite one: Arkalis. Arkalis is based partially off my wife, so she’s got a sort of “I don’t care what you think I should be, get over it” chip on her shoulder, one that lets her rebuff a lot of female-centric fantasy tropes. Mainly, she isn’t beholden to any traditional views of female characters in settings like this, and that lets her act like a unique entity, rather than a summation of gender-imposed traits. Rurik, on the other hand, is very much designed to act like a traditional male lead—he’s commanding, gruff, and tortured, but the real secret here is his vulnerability. There are multiple moments that let the human element sink in where you get a real sense that this guy has no idea what he’s doing, and is trying everything in his power to keep it together. So, in short? Arkalis reminds me of my amazing, stand-out partner, and Rurik is all of us trying to seem cool.
Is this the first book you’ve written?
It is! I’ve been writing for decades, but it’s all been either short stories, serial formats, or other incomplete projects. The Soul of Chaos is the first novel I’ve completed. And, I know, the general consensus is I should’ve written three more before publishing, but I love the story, and hey, someone decided to publish it, so win-win. Good news, I learned an immense amount from this novel, and the two I’ve written since. The sequel is going to be far superior.
What do you do for work when you’re not writing?
I write! For real, I do games writing for table top games (TTRPGs). Mostly 3rd party mechanics design for Dungeons and Dragons and as an adventure writer for the same game. So, really, I’m always writing, and while adventure writing is vastly different from novels, it still follows the same beats as far as narrative is concerned. Did I say before that I really like storytelling? I really like telling stories.
How much time do you generally spend on your writing?
As far as novel writing goes, I’m fairly obsessive about it and tend to burn out. I’ll write nonstop for about a month, cram in 100,000 or so words, then not look at it for another three months. Rinse, repeat, and eventually the manuscript comes out of those mad-sciency writing fever-dreams. Don’t even ask me about editing, that’s where the process gets rough.
What’s the best and the hardest part of being an indie?
The best? Freedom, for sure. No one is suggesting cuts or massive story changes. I get to try what I want to try and don’t have someone fighting me the whole way. For instance, in SoC instead of trying to make up my own fantasy languages—I’m hardly a lingust—I employed real world languages to represent in-world cultures. The reception for this has been split, but I love it, and it’s not something you see in traditional settings. I feel like being in that indie scene will let me experiment and mess up in the most glorious ways possible.
The hardest, though? Marketing. Getting eyes-on projects is significantly easier when a company casually tosses thousands of dollars into a marketing scheme, good or bad. In the indie world, though, you can write a stellar novel and all of thirty people will see it, especially if you happen to be a keyboard goblin and social recluse (like me!). Marketing, social media, and press is a full-time job, so it can cut into that creative part that writers live for. Not to mention it can drain the life out of your soul on any given Monday.
Would you go traditional if a publisher came calling? If so, why?
Absolutely. Mostly for what I said about marketing. I am so, so bad at it, and it’ll truly take a wonderful stroke of luck for me to get my work into a larger consciousness. Sure, traditional publishers wrest a great deal of control, but that comes with experts, teams of people to help, and money. To me, this question comes down to this: would you trade full creative freedom for reach and money? And yes, I’d sell out immediately so I could pay my rent writing about swords.
Is there something in particular that motivates you (fame? fortune?)
Something incredibly particular, yes: I’d love to spend my working hours in a hot-tub writing stories. That’s my vision for the future, and I think as far as ambitions go it’s pretty manageable.
Which writer, living or dead, do you most admire?
This may seem a bit odd coming from a SFF writer, but Chuck Palahniuk. He’s made a literary career of some of the strangest, darkest, most wonderfully twisted stories folks can imagine, and I’m here for every second of it. That, and he manages to get away with short novels that some people don’t even consider to be “novel length” word counts. I’d love to capture some of that inanity for myself.