Ryan Troske
Ryan Troske a biologist who spends time out on the
Bering Sea working with all sorts of fascinating creatures. Seriously.
He collects, maintains, and distributes data for scientific, management,
and regulation compliance purposes in the Gulf of Alaska and the Eastern Bering
Sea/Aleutian Islands. When he’s not
tangling with squid and wrestling with sharks, he enjoys watching and playing
sports of all kinds, playing guitar, and of course, writing, which he hopes to
make more than a hobby instead of "that thing he tried one time."
Ryan Troske just published his first novel in a new modern fantasy series, Supernaturals: The Rising. Here he talks about going behind the scenes of his new book as well as his what's coming in the future.
You
already have an exciting career in marine biology. How do you balance that
with your writing career?
My position with Saltwater Inc. is actually a contract
position. When I do a contract is essentially up to me. My boss is pretty awesome like that. That being said, I typically have lots of
time off between contracts. Especially
since my wife wants me to find a new job, you know, one that doesn’t involve me
traveling to the Bering Sea for months at a time. Plus there’s the whole danger aspect of it as
well. Needless to say, balancing work
with writing isn’t too difficult. It’s
the balancing the rest of life when I’m back home with writing that isn’t
always so easy. It isn’t very difficult
for me to distract myself, unfortunately.
In fact, some of my most productive writing has come when I’m actually
out on a contract. I’m on a boat, away
from the typical hustle and bustle of daily life, with minimal contact to the
rest of the world, and really there isn’t a whole lot to do when living out on
the Bering Sea. Who knew, right? On one of my contracts, which was only about
a month long, I was able to get well over a hundred pages written and finish up
the first draft of The Rising. Plus the
loads of biology stuff. Pretty
productive I’d say. Hmmm, maybe I should
go back to Alaska again after all.
Did
you always want to be a writer? When did you finally decided, "okay, I'm
going to sit down and write a book?"
Actually, no. I
know a lot of authors say they knew they wanted to be a writer since they were
five years old or something. Me? Not even close. Up until a few years ago I hadn’t even entertained
the thought. I’ve always been the
creative type, whether that be through drawing or music, but writing typically
wasn’t a part of that. At least not a part
I actively sought out. I did well in
school when it came to writing papers, research projects, other assignments,
and even the occasional creative writing piece sporadically spaced throughout
my academic years, but again, I never flirted with the idea of pursuing writing
in any form or fashion. Over the years
I’ve had a few different blogs recounting my life in some manner, or like my
last one which was basically a work blog to keep people updated on my
adventures in Alaska. With the latter, I
wrote about all sorts of different things: work, all the fascinating creatures
I was encountering, dangerous situations I found myself in, reflections on
daily life, my walk with God and learnings from quiet times, and other random
things. It was through this blog that I
would constantly hear “you’re such a great writer,” or “you have such a way
with words,” and other similar praises.
One such comment suggested I should write a book about all of my crazy Alaskan
and Bering Sea adventures. At first I
kind of laughed it off. I mean, write a
book? Me? Crazy talk. Especially a non-fiction book. But it did make me think. Fast forward a bit—the thought of giving
writing a shot in some fashion circulating my brain every now and again—I was
reading through a series and kept thinking to myself how simple the author made
it look. That’s not to say the writing
wasn’t good or anything, but it was done in such a way that made me feel like
maybe I could do it. Let me explain it another way. If you don’t know who Bob Ross was, he was an
incredible painter known for his show The Joy of Painting. I’ve spent a lot of time watching reruns with
my dad over the years, and it’s just incredible to see the paintings Bob
creates in only half an hour. He makes
it look so incredibly easy. It’s not. I bought one of his painting sets and tried
myself. Turned out okay, but nothing like
Bob’s. That’s how I felt when reading
through this book series, that maybe I could do this. I flirted with the idea for a couple of days
and then decided to give it a shot. I’m
glad I went for it. It’s been an
incredible experience.
Was
it difficult to come up with so many characters, each with a unique ability?
I wouldn’t say it was difficult per se. The idea of super powers has always been
something that has interested me, whether that be through literature, TV, or
movies, so once I came up with the basic plotline for my book, I already had an
idea of what kind of powers I wanted to incorporate. Most are nothing you’ve never seen before
(almost everything imaginable has already been done it seems), but I tried to
show them in a new light, or put my own twist on things, presenting them in
ways I hadn’t necessarily seen before, giving them their own identity so to
speak. My goal was to bring these
characters and powers to life in new ways, ones I would have loved to see on
the big screen somewhere, even if their specific abilities were nothing
new. If that all makes sense. One of the more difficult parts, I believe,
was coming up names for all of the characters.
It wasn’t as simple as picking out something that sounded good. I wanted there to be meaning behind them. Quite a bit of research went into naming all
of the different Supernatural characters.
Basically, their name has something to do with their powers. For instance, Kenny, whose name means “born
of fire,” has the ability of pyrokinesis, a.k.a. fire creation and
manipulation; and Murphy, whose name means “sea warrior,” possesses powers of
liquification along with water generation and manipulation. As for the main character Ethan, whose name
means strong and optimistic, solid and enduring, his name more so describes his
character and the power of his abilities rather than the abilities themselves,
which are telepathy and telekinesis. So
if you’re introduced to a new character and have yet to learn of their powers,
look to their name. If it doesn’t relate
to an ability directly, it’ll at least give you a character trait they possess.
Have
you ever written about people that have influenced your life?
Not in a book format.
Going back to my blogs, I have written some posts about individuals who
have greatly affected my life, and traits of those I know or have known have no
doubt found their way into characters in my novels, and there are definitely
pieces of scenes taken from life experiences of mine and my friends, but no one
character has been specifically modeled after someone from my life. Not yet anyway.
How
long did it take you to write the first Supernaturals book?
From deciding to write a book, to coming up with a
storyline and the completion of the first draft, was about a year. It took around another two years before it
was published, as I was doing lots of edits and rewrites, contacting agents,
trying to figure out how the whole publishing process worked, as well as
continuing to work on other books in the making. When it comes to anything I make or create,
whether that’s a book, a drawing, or some other arts and crafts kind of
project, I’m very much a perfectionist, and have a difficult time being
completely satisfied with how something turns out. Having to continually go
back and “fix” areas I’m not entirely happy about, even if there was nothing
really wrong with them in the first place.
I’m extremely hard on myself that way.
Probably way too hard. Which is
why it took several years to get from conception to published on The
Rising. A long process which I hope to
considerably cut down on from this point out now that I’m familiar with how
things work.
In the ever changing publishing industry, how did you decide to take the route
of self-publishing?
It boiled down to the ease of the process. Sure, it would have been nice to publish
traditionally, but I just wasn’t having any luck landing an agent. I’d never written a book before, so query
letters were a completely new and strange thing to me. I believe what I eventually came up with was
okay, but by no means perfect. I had no
past credentials or education to prove I could be, or was, a writer. All I had to rely on was my manuscript, and
to try and sum up a 130,000 word novel into a few paragraphs while enticing a
complete stranger into not only wanting to read it, but represent it in trying
to get it out into the world, was extremely difficult and nerve-wracking. I probably contacted around fifty different
agents. Only one of which requested to
see my full manuscript. Getting rejected
that many times is enough to make anyone second guess their writing
abilities. But I’d done enough research
to know that rejections are going to happen.
A lot. Especially if you’re a
brand new author. Even J. K. Rowling was
rejected a number of times before landing a representative for Harry Potter. Agents are flooded with so many submissions these
days I don’t believe they give each the time they deserve. Not because they are callous or anything, but
simply because they do not have that kind of time. You could wait six months or more before even
hearing anything in regards to a submission. Or longer. Even then, sometimes it’s a completely
generic response. That’s a lot of time
to sit their wondering. Self-publishing
allows you to bypass all the waiting and get your book out there in a matter of
days once you’re ready. I realize the
quality of some self-published books sometimes leaves much to be desired, but
there have been countless gems as well, that without self-publishing, their
books may never have seen the light of day and been introduced to the
world. Ultimately, I think most authors
would like to land a traditional publisher.
Cuts out a lot of work marketing and advertising, and you’ll easily
reach more people. But it’s not always
feasible. Especially for new, unknown
authors. I haven’t yet decided which
avenue I will seek when I’m ready to publish my next book. It will depend on how things go with my first
book out on the market and how I feel about book two. We’ll see what happens I guess.
Who
is your all-time favorite super hero?
Oh goodness.
Tough question. I know a lot of
people would go with Superman. Not
me. I’ve never been much of a fan. To me, he’s too good. He’s basically
unstoppable, unless you happen to find some kryptonite lying around. Which comes from another world, mind
you. No, Superman isn’t for me. I’m much more a fan of Batman. For one, he doesn’t really have any
powers. I guess that makes him more of a
hero rather an actual super hero, but his story is way more entertaining to
me. I think he is much more relatable
than most superheroes. I absolutely
loved the latest Batman trilogy—Christian Bale’s obnoxious grunt-speak aside. I’m also a big fan of X-men—movies, comics,
the old cartoon when I was growing up—if you couldn’t already tell that by my
book, but I don’t know if they really qualify as super heroes. I guess they are. I just don’t recall really ever hearing them
labeled that way. I have no idea who my
favorite would be, though. I always kind
of lump them together. In regards to the
movies, I’d probably have to go with Wolverine.
Such a fun and interesting character, and Hugh Jackman does such a great
job bringing him to life.
Do
you have any advice for aspiring new authors?
Read, read, read. Write,
write, write. The old idiom rings true:
practice makes perfect. When it comes to
publishing, if you go the traditional route, prepare to receive
rejections. I don’t care how amazing
your book is, it’s going to happen.
Everyone has their own tastes and what they’re looking for, including
agents and publishers. Don’t get
discouraged. Keep at it. Do your research. Know who to contact. If you still can’t get your foot in the door,
self-publishing is always there. It may
be just what you need to make a name for yourself. Then later on, who knows, you could land a
publisher for your next book, or one could even pick up your original at some
point. The main thing is, don’t give up
and don’t lose hope. Keep on keeping on.
What
can we look forward to from you in the future?
I am currently working to finish up The Recruit
(Supernaturals Book 2), as well as the first books in a couple other series I
hope to complete: The Outbreak (Survival Book 1), a dystopian/post-apocalyptic
journey/thriller; and The Lost Book of Behlkrumór (The Telkuhryn Chronicles
book 1), an epic fantasy adventure that will appeal to lovers of The Lord of
the Rings, The Chronicles of Narnia, and other similar works.
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