Today I’m hosting author JP Allen.
JP is one of several talented authors
participating in the Weird Western bundle on
StoryBundle.com.
The bundle is currently available for the next
10 days. Get it while you can!
JP's Weird Western is Dead West: West of Pale.
Here's the synopsis:
Six-guns, blazing hooves, and the horrors that stalk
the night.
Everyone brought something from the old country.
Grandfather's watch, and grandmother's china; great-grandfather's folklore, and great-great-grandmother's fairy tales. What is never discussed, however, are the undying characters of the folklore: nix and fairy, goblin and vampire, dragon and eldritch things who all came to America's shores in time with the rhyme of their tales.
After Charlie's father is murdered by something impossible, he discovers a letter that leads him across the wild west. The man who wrote the letter promised to help, if things went wrong.
And things could not go more wrong. His father's murderer is on his trail, materializing from lakes, rivers, and stray pools of water. He will not rest until Charlie has joined his father...
JP is one of several talented authors
participating in the Weird Western bundle on
StoryBundle.com.
The bundle is currently available for the next
10 days. Get it while you can!
JP's Weird Western is Dead West: West of Pale.
Here's the synopsis:
Six-guns, blazing hooves, and the horrors that stalk
the night.
Everyone brought something from the old country.
Grandfather's watch, and grandmother's china; great-grandfather's folklore, and great-great-grandmother's fairy tales. What is never discussed, however, are the undying characters of the folklore: nix and fairy, goblin and vampire, dragon and eldritch things who all came to America's shores in time with the rhyme of their tales.
After Charlie's father is murdered by something impossible, he discovers a letter that leads him across the wild west. The man who wrote the letter promised to help, if things went wrong.
And things could not go more wrong. His father's murderer is on his trail, materializing from lakes, rivers, and stray pools of water. He will not rest until Charlie has joined his father...
Let's hear what JP has to say about writing, his work, and Weird Westerns in general!
Tell us a little about yourself...why do you write?
My name is JP, and I'm an author, podcaster, and games reviewer from Missouri. Like most writers, I think, I got into writing because I couldn't stop telling myself stories. I was the kid on the playground that got to make up the scenarios for make-believe, and I was the kid drawing comic books. As a teenager I was deep into internet role-playing and fan-fiction, and as a college student I found my outlet as a game-master for several table-top roleplaying groups. Still, despite the constant need to find an outlet for story ideas, there were some that just never worked in any format but fiction. Eventually I found that I had no choice but to write.
What was your inspiration for Dead West: West of Pale?
I come from a family of Colorado natives. I grew up with the west's dramatic and colorful landscape as the backdrop to my play. Everywhere you walk out West is caked in the history of the American frontier--It's inescapable! At the same time, I gravitated toward works of fantasy as a child. It started with video games like Shining Force 2, but my love of fantasy novels really took root when I was given a copy of Christopher Rowley's Bazil Broketail. I devoured that series, and others like the Redwall Books and Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time.
What draws you to the genre?
An old fantasy trope is the world that has remained solidly Medieval Europe for thousands of years, but that isn't true of the West. The Western genre depicts a world still hatching, a world trying to figure out what it's going to grow into. Like a baby rattler, sometimes the West was deadlier than it intended. It was a time of great progress and tragic oppression. I think the decades of the American expansion Westward represents one of the greatest human dramas.
What are your plans for your next book? Will it be a sequel to Dead West or something else entirely?
Dead West 2 was just returned to me for edits a week ago. We're working on an October release date for the next entry in the series, and meanwhile I'm writing Dead West 3 as we speak. That said, I have other projects. Over on my website (link, www.jpatrickallen.com) I release weekly scenes from a rough-draft Cyperunk thriller called Birthing Pangs. It's an opportunity to flex my imagination in a different direction and give readers a glimpse at what a book looks like before all the layers of polish. Once the book has been finished on the website, I'll be taking it down to revise it and publish it as a novella in its own right.
Thanks for taking the time to visit and answer my questions, JP!
Best of luck with your series!
Head over to StoryBundle.com to check out Dead West: West of Pale and other exciting independent Weird Western authors!
Tell us a little about yourself...why do you write?
My name is JP, and I'm an author, podcaster, and games reviewer from Missouri. Like most writers, I think, I got into writing because I couldn't stop telling myself stories. I was the kid on the playground that got to make up the scenarios for make-believe, and I was the kid drawing comic books. As a teenager I was deep into internet role-playing and fan-fiction, and as a college student I found my outlet as a game-master for several table-top roleplaying groups. Still, despite the constant need to find an outlet for story ideas, there were some that just never worked in any format but fiction. Eventually I found that I had no choice but to write.
What was your inspiration for Dead West: West of Pale?
I come from a family of Colorado natives. I grew up with the west's dramatic and colorful landscape as the backdrop to my play. Everywhere you walk out West is caked in the history of the American frontier--It's inescapable! At the same time, I gravitated toward works of fantasy as a child. It started with video games like Shining Force 2, but my love of fantasy novels really took root when I was given a copy of Christopher Rowley's Bazil Broketail. I devoured that series, and others like the Redwall Books and Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time.
What draws you to the genre?
An old fantasy trope is the world that has remained solidly Medieval Europe for thousands of years, but that isn't true of the West. The Western genre depicts a world still hatching, a world trying to figure out what it's going to grow into. Like a baby rattler, sometimes the West was deadlier than it intended. It was a time of great progress and tragic oppression. I think the decades of the American expansion Westward represents one of the greatest human dramas.
What are your plans for your next book? Will it be a sequel to Dead West or something else entirely?
Dead West 2 was just returned to me for edits a week ago. We're working on an October release date for the next entry in the series, and meanwhile I'm writing Dead West 3 as we speak. That said, I have other projects. Over on my website (link, www.jpatrickallen.com) I release weekly scenes from a rough-draft Cyperunk thriller called Birthing Pangs. It's an opportunity to flex my imagination in a different direction and give readers a glimpse at what a book looks like before all the layers of polish. Once the book has been finished on the website, I'll be taking it down to revise it and publish it as a novella in its own right.
Thanks for taking the time to visit and answer my questions, JP!
Best of luck with your series!
Head over to StoryBundle.com to check out Dead West: West of Pale and other exciting independent Weird Western authors!
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