Check out this author spotlight for William R. Humble!
You can find all his links furthest down the page, and don’t forget to check out his books!
1. Hi! Welcome to my humble blog of all things bookish! I would like for us to start by getting to know you. Give us a short bio, please!
I’m a native Texan who’s been writing for longer than I feel comfortable admitting. Though I’ve dabbled in other literary areas, my love of speculative fiction keeps drawing me back.
Wanting to help others achieve their literary dreams, I joined the board of directors for W.O.R.D.—Writers Organizations ‘Round Dallas. There, with the help of other like-minded folks, I work to help other writers find their teams, and to make the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex a nationally and internationally renowned center for the writing arts.
For more information, please visit:
www.wordwriters.org
I’m also one of the three founders of Writers in the Field. Bringing in experts from all over the country to share their expertise, our unique annual event features as many ‘hands-on’ experiences as possible.
For more information, please visit:
www.writersinthefield.com
2. To get to know you just a little bit better, I’d like to ask you some this or that questions. Answer 5 (or more!) of these and explain why you chose this or that, or maybe an entirely different alternative!
Tea or coffee? Definitely tea. In years past, brewing coffee smelled like brewing nasty, sweaty gym socks. My tastes have changed (warped?), but I’ve never forgotten that smell. Hard pass on coffee.
Mountains or beaches? Interestingly enough, my characters raise this very question in The Barrington Job. In my case, I’ve gotta go with beaches. Both are lovely, but I love the water. Walking in the surf is awesome. Also, seafood. Ah seafood…. What were we talking about? 😛
Plotter or pantser? I tend to lean pretty heavily towards pantsing. While I usually have an idea of where I’d like the story to go and how I’d like it to get there, I love giving myself room to go in an entirely different direction when it seems appropriate to the characters. Every time I write something new, I’m going on an adventure.
Book or ebook? Book. Definitely book. I love the weight and feel of a book. The smell. Picking up a book is akin to stepping up to the brink of a portal to somewhere else. I love the anticipation—the call of the unknown. While I appreciate ebooks, especially for those with space limitations, I will forever prefer actual bookly books.
Hero or anti-hero? Ooh, this one’s tough! On the one hand, heroes inspire us to be greater than we are. To step up and be our own agents of change. Anti-heroes are great ways to highlight flaws in the system. To show where justice has taken a backseat to injustice. Anti-heroes arise when people lose faith in the societal systems while heroes tell you to never lose faith and to keep up the good fight. In the end, I think I prefer heroes, but it’s super close.
3. When you look for books to read, what trope or type of story will always catch your attention?
I’m a sucker for a good adventure. If a character speaks to me, that’ll also get my attention in a hurry. Mix these up with a cool sci-fi or fantasy setting, and you’ll get me almost every time!
4. What do you write? Tell us about your current projects and the latest happenings!
My first three published books are all sci-fi adventure/thrillers. I tend to mix in humor with them and loads of pulse-pounding excitement, usually with a dab or romance.
For my upcoming book, Rose Smyth—Vampire Sorceress, I’m changing things up a little. This one’s gonna be a sci-fantasy set in a future in which the seals between Earth and the other realms have been broken. After magic pours back into our world, many people are transformed. Ancient people’s from society’s shadows have stepped out into the light. Worlds undreamt of are within reach. Now, the dead walk. Vampires, were-creatures, spell-tossers, and transforms go to school with normal humans.
Here is a world in which anything can happen. But, when the worlds were opened to humanity, so humanity is now open to the worlds. And there are threats out there beyond imagination.
This book covers Rose and her friends as she begins growing into her inherent powers. But in a world where anything can happen, growing pains can be deadly.
After Rose, my next two books will be fantasies. The Lost Chronicles of the Vanir will cover the children of the goddess Gullveig as they flee their world.  I’m crazy excited about these!
5. What is your most recent release? Give us a short presentation, cover, and a link for where to buy it!
My most recent release is the sci-fi adventure Human. This one’s YA, but I think adults will love it.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B093K6XW66
Surrounded by lies, Ethan Shaw, high school senior, doesn’t fit in. Not in school. Not in his hometown. And don’t even mention his non-existent love life. The last girl he asked out barfed on his shoes, checked out of school, and moved to coastal Mongolia.
But things aren’t all bad. Though he hides it, he’s super strong and has amazing hearing. Better still, he’s got a few friends and family who are fantastic.
As the lies that form the basic framework of Ethan’s world unravel, he’ll need all the friends he can get. Because, there’s a reason Ethan’s never quite fit in. He’s unique.
So unique most of the galaxy wants him dead.
6. What real-life inspiration do you draw from, and what are your primary fictional sources of inspiration (books, authors, films, music, etc.)? Name a few!
Ooh, this is a good one! I love to draw from real life, then follow the myriad what-if rabbit trails until they lead somewhere I simply can’t wait to show everyone. Since my imagination knows now bounds, no matter what other genres I play around in, I’m always drawn back to speculative fiction.
Some of my go-to authors are C.J. Cherryh, Nathan Lowell, Kim Harrison, and Jim Butcher.
When I’m writing, I love to listen to movie scores. Back before my cats chewed through my speaker cables and shorted one of my USB buses, I’d listen all the time. The Inception and Twilight scores are exceptional, and I can’t recommend them highly enough.
When I feel my own inspiration running low, I’ll often go back and watch Lord of the Rings, Aliens, Riddick, Thor: Ragnarok, the Mummy (Brandon Frasier version), and similar movies that inspired a sense of wonder in me.
7. What is your writing routine? If you have one, give us the run-down!
I try to write or edit almost every day. That said, I’m not a huge stickler about it. If I’m feeling a burned out, I’ll happily take a day or two to recharge.
Right now, I’ve got three books that are in various stages of editing, and probably a dozen more in which the first draft is finished, but major revisions are needed. Beyond that, I’ve started sequels to my first three published books, and many more are in the works. So, when I sit down to write, if there’s nothing with a deadline attached, I decide on what the flavor of the day is and dive into that story.
I’ve got an office in which no cats are allowed (yes, because of the speaker cable incident). Here, I’m surrounded by books, and my desk is piled high with notes. I’ve got a laptop in which I do some of my editing, but my writing computer is a desktop that’s not attached to the internet or used for anything but writing. It’s not at all unusual for me to start writing and the next thing I know, hours have passed.
8. If you could go back and give yourself one piece of advice as you started out on the path to becoming an author, what would it be?
I’d tell myself to go to writing conventions that are heavily tilted towards learning about the craft of writing. I’d written close to a million words before I ever went to a single convention, and I was just blown away by all the stuff I knew in the back of my mind, but wasn’t doing. Ideas such as showing versus telling, finding fresh ways bringing my characters to life, making sure my transitions are clean so the reader doesn’t have to struggle to keep up, and such really opened my eyes to how much I didn’t know about writing.
Hot on the heels of that, I’d recommend that I find myself a critique group. While you’ll often get bad advice, you’ll also get light shined on potential weak points and problems – some of which you probably never new existed. There’s good reasons I have so many books needing serious re-writes—and that’s thanks to my critiquers and beta-readers. Without them, I might have published some of those works before they were ready. And that would have been an embarrassment to me and a disservice to my readers.
9. Last but not least: where can we find you? Drop those links!
https://www.facebook.com/WilliamRHumble
https://www.amazon.com/William-R-Humble/e/B08R434893?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1&qid=1622169062&sr=1-1
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/20552165.William_R_Humble
