Dear Friends,
Thanks for all your engagement on this first AMA. Here it is in its entirety.
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How do you compare your writing to high-profile authors like Tolkien, Martin, etc.?
I admire the greats, of course, but I didn’t pattern my writing or story after them. A lot of epic fantasy—Tolkien, Martin, Abercrombie—centers the world as the main character. A Game of Thrones has nine POV characters. The first five books of A Song of Ice and Fire have thirty-one. Even The First Law, probably the closest match to my tone and style, has six. It’s big, sweeping, sprawling. Characters evolve, sure—but slowly, across the arc of a series. Often the first book is just “getting the band together” for a grand quest.
I didn’t want that.
Son of the Borderlands is relentlessly character-driven. There are two point-of-view characters—Agni Kazirian and Sara Ristana—with Agni getting three-quarters of word count. Their arcs shift dramatically over the course of a single book. I spend a lot of time in their heads—more Tom Wolfe than Tolkien, in that sense.
Book Two in the Rise of the Dragonlands series will expand to four main POVs (and a fifth with two chapters). Book Three will unlock more characters and more of the world, But the focus always stays rooted in character.
Which authors do you admire most, and why?
Just like I didn’t pattern myself after one, I try to take different things from different authors.
Tolkien, for his deep humanity and timeless wisdom. It has the moral depth that only someone who saw the worst of humanity can convey.
George R. R. Martin for his intricate political dynamics.
Danielle Jensen for her treatment of power and cost, and the tensions between love, culture, and duty.
Joe Abercrombie for some combination of all of the above. He makes a grim but not voyeuristic world.
Outside of fantasy?
Bernard Knight for his gritty depth of the world of Medieval England.
Lee Child for his pacing and action.
Tom Wolfe for his ability to get deep into a character’s mind.
What is the best (and worst) piece of advice you have received on this project?
The best?
1. Take your main character(s) and put them through Hell. If you never doubt that the main character will prevail, there is no suspense.
Agni Kazirian suffers. Sara Ristana suffers.
2. Every scene must have a point, both internally (character) and externally (plot). Thanks to my coach, Jen Braaksma (jenbraaksma.com) for this one. In the planning stages, I had too many scenes that only conveyed “Agni Kazirian is a combat god.” They break flow and immersion, and this is unacceptable.
The worst?
Anything that tries to fit a story into a strict template. The most common “template” is The Hero’s Journey, where every character needs to fulfill an archetype, and the hero follows a strict progression of character. It’s always internet marketing hacks who say things like this. Writing is not a paint-by-numbers activity.
How do you overcome writer’s block?
Ah, the bane of every author’s existence! “Writer’s block” is a catch-all for a dozen different beats: frustration, doubt, burnout, fear, life imbalance. Here’s how I slay them.
1. Move your body. If I stare too long at the screen, the words blends together and doomscrolling beckons. It can be as quick as a set of pushups or bodyweight squats, or as involved as a long ruck, a weight session, or Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. High intensity burns out the bad energy. Low intensity resets the rhythm.
2. Send it to someone I trust. A trusted friend or coach–anyone who can provide honest feedback–gets me out of my head. Sometimes it’s better than I thought. Sometimes I see a way to improve that I hadn’t thought of.
3. Give yourself permission to fail. Early on, I rewrote the same chapters over and over. I didn’t give myself permission to move on until it was perfect. The breakthrough came when I gave myself permission to write a rough draft rather than a finished copy. Ironically, writing ahead improved my storytelling more than yet another revision.
4. Write something else entirely. When I’m flat, I ask myself what I’m trying to rediscover or process. I wrote mini-chapters for a dark memoir about the lowest point of my life–of the despair, of what I did to numb the pain, of what nearly broke me. Draining but cathartic, it got the bad out.
Or, like I say in the foreword to Son of the Borderlands, I’ve invented many fantasy worlds in my brain. I used to play Vampire: The Masquerade, so I invented “Vamp Joe,” my blood-guzzling alter ego who became a mysterious titan of business. It started as a joke, but became a novel-length sandbox that reminded me how fun writing could be.
5. Switch brains. By day, I work in life sciences as an analyst, consultant, and adviser. After a day of programming Excel and diving into the New England Journal of Medicine, writing becomes the reward. Conversely, when I hit a wall in fantasy, science and figures clear my head.
Describe your writing process.
I’m a planner, not a pantser—in this as in most everything else in my life—but even then, the story takes on a life of its own. Whole scenes and even chapters got cut from Son of the Borderlands. Sara wasn’t even meant to be a POV character, but she turned out to be the perfect foil to Agni.
And a major twist—the twist that sets up Book Two—wasn’t in the original outline. It just…revealed itself. And it should chill you to the bone marrow.
Which character do you most resonate with—and why?
Agni Kazirian is Joe Sterk, at least in how he solves problems. People call me “unconventional”; they call him mad. But to him, it all makes perfect sense. He walks his own path—and, sometimes, Anton’s too.
He also grew “unevenly.” Like Agni trained for war, I trained for academic glory, which made grand social settings…awkward. (You’ll see what I mean in the prequel.) I only wish I had his stamina and iron will.
Others reflect different parts of me:
- Anton Kazirian is the primal rage I buried for years. A will to power, the thoughts we suppress. A shadow that lingers long after the fire’s gone out. Beta readers loved the way I wrote him, but he was by far the hardest to write—antediluvian, with no morals left; only the empire.
- Sara embodies the weight of expectations. She wants the dream she was raised for—but on her own terms. That’s the voice in me that said, “Write this damn book.”
- Kali is the ideal: passionate, strong, fiercely feminine, and above all, unbroken. I fell for her while writing. And that’s a good sign—if I don’t fall for my characters, no one else will.
How does it feel to finally accomplish this? What was the biggest challenge?
In Fight Club, there’s a moment where Brad Pitt drives into oncoming traffic and asks his passengers what they’ll regret not doing. One says “build a house,” another, “paint a self-portrait.” My answer? “Write this book.” This world lived in my head for 25 years. Now it’s real. Now, I’m immortal.
But for most of those years, I didn’t feel worthy. I hadn’t earned the story yet. It felt shallow, like I couldn’t illustrate “things truer than true.” I needed life experience—specifically, some very dark years—to open that door.
My biggest hurdle? Perfectionism. This book was so personal, any rejection felt like a rejection of me. I revised chapters five, six times before letting them go. Progress was molasses. Once I gave myself permission to be mediocre—and to finish—the words flowed. And then I could revise with purpose.
It took me four years. The next one will be faster. I’ve learned the terrain.
What’s one book you can lose yourself in, again and again?
The Crowner John Mysteries by Bernard Knight. He brings Richard the Lionheart’s England to life with grit, nuance, and speed. No sugarcoating, no fantasy—just sharp characters, driving plots, and a world that breathes through every page. While not a fantasy, his realism inspired much of the tone of Son of the Borderlands—dark, unvarnished, and human.
That’s all for this edition.
I’ll see you all again soon.
For the Borderlands,
Joe