Meet the Author Monday: JP Corwyn

It’s Meet the Author Monday! Each week we meet a new author and get to know a little about them, their writing process, publishing experience, and tips for other writers. Today we’re talking to JP Corwyn, author of The Dawn of Unions.

About JP Corwyn:

What do you see when you close your eyes? Does your mind conjure more than just images? For JP Corwyn, that sense of the click-click-clicking of the world goes far beyond just the visual. Legally blind from birth; Corwyn has made a career out of connecting the words and worlds in his head with the hearts and minds of those around him.

A born performer, he sang before he spoke, and declared his intention to pursue music at the ripe old age of five. He began writing stories and songs in high school. By the time he’d graduated, he was ready to hit the studio, and started touring. JP Corwyn has graced stages from Florida to New York, west to Mississippi, and abroad, overseas. 

But Corwyn’s harbored a dark, secret obsession throughout his musical career. He’s spent years building fantasy worlds – entire universes for later use in his other driving force – writing fiction.

“For me it’s more like archeology than creation,” Corwyn says. After spending 20+ years unearthing the cultures, languages, histories – all the things that bring a world and its people to life – it was time to embark on his epic fantasy series The Cycle of Bones. Corwyn’s released the first book in the series – a novella entitled The Dawn of Unions. The second book – a novel entitled The Drums of Unrest, and a series soundtrack are slated for release in 2020.

When he’s not writing prose, you can usually find Corwyn on stage, or in the studio. He’s always working on something new, but you might catch him at a coffee shop, a game store, or even a medieval fair.

---

About The Dawn of Unions:

Every avalanche begins with a single small stone.

At sunset on their first day in Westsong; the local Forester witnesses a crow fall. It drops like a stone, and for no apparent reason. He and his boy move to investigate. They are the first to go missing.

Before long, both highborn and lowly begin to meet the same fate.

Nerves begin to fray. Courage and faith begin to unravel, and the truth starts to unfold. An ancient horror moves to isolate Westsong and raze it to the ground.

Against all advice, stand or fall; the Countess decides that she, her personal armsmen, and the remaining fighting men of her escort will stay to help defend the little lives of the ordinary folk that call Westsong home.

Then again; there are no such things as little lives, are there? Nobody is ever really as simple as they seem. Nobody is just “the farmer,” or “the forester,” are they?

Smiths, Grooms, Soldiers and Squires must survive desertion, despair, and death if they are to save themselves, let alone anyone else.

In Thorion County, there’s only ever really one constant.

“When the Falx finally comes for you; no one can help you. The best you can hope for is to make your life, make your death mean something.”

---

Author Interview with JP Corwyn:

This post contains affiliate links which means, at no cost to you,
I’ll receive a small commission if you purchase using those links.

1. What are common traps for aspiring writers?

The worst is “getting in your own way.” Usually that’s down to overthinking an aspect of the process, or not being honest with yourself. Paralysis by analysis is deadly, though there’s a fine line between that, and trying to wrap your head around a particular bump in the road.

2. Beyond those things, there’s a cardinal truth.

We’re nothing without someone to tell our stories too. I’ve met plenty of authors and aspiring authors who forget or mislay that truth. Neglecting our audience – our ideal readers – when we sit down to actually write… Focussing solely on how something captures our imagination means we fail. We fail our readers, we fail our characters, and we fail ourselves.

3. Does a big ego help or hurt writers?

Again, both. It helps overcome the fear and impostor syndrome rearing its ugly head, but it can easily prove you arrogant. That can put readers and influencers off and sink you before you even set foo on the proverbial boat.

4. Do you think someone could be a writer if they don’t feel emotions strongly?

Of non-fiction, yes. Absolutely. If the work is analytical in nature, strong emotion can get in the way of the work. To be a fiction writer? Absolutely not. One must experience strong emotions in order to tease them out of an audience.

But there’s an enormous difference between feeling or experiencing strong emotions and displaying strong emotions. You don’t need to be a hugger, or cry at sad movies to feel affection or sadness, after all.

5. What was the best money you ever spent as a writer?

The man I refer to as my brush stroke bad ass, of course! That would be Jeff Brown for my book covers. Hands down the best money I’ve spent to date, and gladly continue to spend with each new book.

6. How many unpublished and half-finished books do you have?

Four. One from later in The Cycle of Bones (my current series,) and three from the next series, The Army of Minds. This latter series follows those who survive CoB on their next adventure.

7. What kind of research do you do, and how long do you spend researching before beginning a book?

An unfair question! I’m always researching. I’ve been building some worlds for well over a decade. Others are only a few months old. The key is whether I’m actively writing something, or am in recovery/down/dabbling time. If the former, I research only what’s relevant to the current work – the current scene/chapter, or one that’s up next. If the latter (which means I’ve released a book in the past two or three months,) I dive down any rabbit hole that takes my fancy. Swaths of real-world history, what caused technological booms, how regions and their peoples built and designed their homes, handled their crops, tackled social issues, told stories, made music and visual arts… I once spent several days researching soil erosion in marshlands. The important part is remembering that nobody cares about the research. They do care when its obvious you haven’t done the research. It exists to breathe truth and life into your work, not to turn it into a research paper for peer review. It’s as I said earlier. Focussing solely on how something captures our imagination means we fail.

8. Do you read your book reviews? How do you deal with bad or good ones?

Every one of them. I do my best to learn from them. Good ones tell me what I might be doing right. Bad or negative ones tell me what I might be doing wrong. Just because only one person hated X and thought it was badly executed doesn’t mean they were wrong. It also doesn’t mean they were right. Taking the criticism on board and double-checking its validity can only help make you better, after all.

9. What was your hardest scene to write?

There would be spoilers if I told you that.bBest non-spoilery answer I can give is this. I spend time inside my characters when I write. That means I’m not just watching a scene play out. I’m there, in the moment with the characters when I’m writing. It means I all but smell the blood, sweat, flora, and fauna. It means I hear the pleas and the screams, feel the sicknesses. Being in the head of a monster – especially a human one – is a very visceral experience for me. There are a few scenes I’ve had to take a day off after writing, and more than a few I’ve needed a shower after penning.

10. How do you handle writer’s block?

For me, writer’s block isn’t “what happens next?” It’s more like “At what point in this characcter’s day/life am I turning on the reality show cameras?” I know the story, know the world, and know the characters well. But watching them brush their teeth or tie their boot laces isn’t, as a rule, tremendously interesting …Right up until it is. My “block” is knowing at what exact point in a character’s day we need to cut in and start observing. It doesn’t happen often, but when it does it can sometimes take me as long as a fortnight to figure out the right answer to that particular question.

To learn more about JP Corwyn, here’s where you can find him:

Website: www.jpcorwyn.net
Facebook: www.facebook.com/jpcorwynofficial
Twitter: www.twitter.com/jpcorwyn
Instagram: www.instagram.com/jpcorwyn
YouTube: www.youtube.com/jpcorwyn
Patreon: www.patreon.com/jpcorwyn

---

Want to be featured on Meet the Author Monday?