Our interview today is with Ethan Coffee the author of Fables of the Flag (rated 4.7 stars on 13 reviews). Before we get to the interview here is a brief description: Jack Preston, an ordinary kid on his 8th grade trip to Washington DC, finds himself mysteriously transported back in time to 1720 Massachusetts. Finding a world without cars, phones and other conveniences of modern life takes some getting used to, but he’s even more surprised to meet a young Founding Father, Ben Franklin.
Being a righteous fellow, Ben befriends the confused and tattered Jack and offers him a place to stay. When Jack overhears a seedy plan that will most certainly ruin Ben’s brother’s printing business, Jack vows to help find the culprit before it’s too late. From the streets of Colonial Boston, to the cargo hold of a huge galleon, Jack realizes he’s on the most bizarre, but important, adventure of his life. As Jack is thrown into a whirlwind of conspiracy, he realizes that much more than a printing company is at stake. An adventure is one thing, but being stuck hundreds of years in the past is quite another.
Interview with Ethan Coffee
1. What specific themes did you want to emphasize throughout Fables of the Flag?
The most important idea I wanted to convey with the Fables series is that even the biggest heroes of the past, the Founding Fathers of the United States, were once young adults too. They weren’t born knowing their destiny or place in history. It took a lifetime of work and dedication for these figures to achieve the things that have truly shaped the world around us today.
2. What was the basis for your story?
I’ve loved the idea of time travel since seeing Back to the Future as a kid. There are just so many facets of the experience; meeting famous people, meeting ancestors, differences in technology and worldview, and of course, trying not to disrupt the time-space continuum.
I really wanted to work with American history, so I developed the concept of a time traveler meeting many of our most famous figures, but before they had made their names, and then working with them to solve mysteries. From there, the characters took over and it’s been an amazing ride!
3. What kinds of research did you need to perform to make things historically accurate?
I thought I knew a lot about American history going into the start of Fables, but the amount of research I’ve done since is incredible. We are all familiar with the overarching story of the colonization of America and the Revolution, but as with all stories, the details are key. What did people eat? Wear? All those details took a lot of research to uncover.
4. What is your method for writing a book? Are you character/story builder or an outliner?
I keep to a schedule of just about 2,000 words a day. I’m halfway between a seat-of-the-pantser and an outliner. I like to have an idea of where the story is going, so I’ll plot out some obstacles a few chapters in advance, but then it’s up to the characters to show me how the story develops. Jack, in particular, likes to address problems in very different ways than I ever would, so it’s always exciting to see how he gets out of the various predicaments he finds himself in.
5. How do you get past writers block or distractions like the internet?
For writers block, I’ll work on another story or project for a few days to clean my palette a bit and work with some different characters and locations. The less similar, the better. After the first Fables, for example, I wrote a Lovecraft-style eldritch horror story (which has yet to see the light of day).When I come back to Fables, it feels fresh again and my brain has had some time to work through whatever it is that had been holding me up before.
As far as distractions, I try to limit my Facebook use when I’m writing, but an update or two never hurt anyone.
6. What’s your favorite book from childhood?
I read Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton in second grade and loved it. Not exactly a chapter book, but it hooked me and I went on to read everything else he wrote.
Visit the website: http://www.fablesoftheflag.com/
Follow on Twitter: @EthanCoffee
Find it on Amazon: Fables of the Flag
No comments:
Post a Comment