Today, we welcome Lucas Aubrey Paynter to the blog! Lucas is the author of the Outcasts of the World cosmic fantasy series.
FD: Where are you from, Lucas?
LAP: I’m native to Los Angeles’ San Fernando Valley area, and I’ve lived here for nearly all my life. I currently live in Burbank, where the weather is … *checks outside* … sunny.
Note: the weather may have changed at time of publication.
FD: Do you recall how your interest in writing originated?
LAP: Specifically? No. It was kinda organic, as I don’t recall a time in my life where I wasn’t creating characters or situations. Though as a little kid, the plagiarism was pretty bad. Mostly superhero-type stuff, but I shifted away from that when I concluded the kind of works I wanted to create were more “grand narrative” than “monster of the week.”
FD: What inspired you to write your first book?
LAP: It’s probably going to hurt what little clout I have, but I wasn’t looking to do books at one point in time. I wanted to do video games, but aside from my own lack of programming skills, it’s hard to enter in as a writer from the ground up, and what other projects I got involved with never managed to take off.
Outcasts of the Worlds was something I was always working on in some form, and I’d promised myself I’d write it as a book if I hit a point in my life and my best (okay, not best) laid plans didn’t work out.
It was different than what I thought it’d be like, but also freeing.
FD: Who designed the cover?
LAP: During one of those past projects I mentioned, I chanced to meet and work with a fellow named Travis Wright, who did some fantastic environments. He was a pleasure to work with, and with the attention I was attempting to put into the varying worlds that Flynn and his group travel to, I wanted something that would be eye-catching.
The title and layout was done by a graphic designer named Dean Brown, whom I’d also worked with before. It was actually quite a trial for us to settle on a font design for Book I, since the tone can shift around quite a bit depending on the setting. Book II saw a little experimenting, but mainly, we just tried to tighten up and improve on the work done in the first one.
FD: What genres do you enjoy reading and what are you reading now?
LAP: I don’t really have a fixed genre I enjoy reading, just (usually) non-fiction. The real world doesn’t generally have much interest to me. So my main requirement is that something seems interesting. :-p
At the moment, I’m reading the No Game, No Life light novels, by Yuu Kamiya. I’d watched the anime by the same name fairly recently, and picked up the first few books, found myself promptly burning through the first one (figuratively, not with actual fire) and got everything else that’s available.
FD: Lucas, how do you relax and have fun?
LAP: Television, both live action and animated, as long it’s something I’ll enjoy. Otherwise, I’m playing video games. So many video games. I tend to prefer stuff with strong stories and exploration, especially if they can get strong emotional themes.
FD: What’s one thing from your bucket list you’d like to experience or accomplish?
LAP: I’d like to spend some time in Japan. I actually got to spend a few days there several days ago and had a great time, but it was still just a small trip and my grasp of the language is mostly non-existent. So I’d prefer to go there with a basic understanding, but it’s a very different language from English, and takes some getting used to.
FD: What are your current projects?
LAP: I’m currently working on the book following Killers, Traitors, & Runaways, titled Into Darker Hearts.
FD: Can you share a little of your current work with us?
LAP: I mean, I could say ‘no,’ but then I’d just feel like a jerk. :-p
Anywho, the following is a snippet from KT&R’s second chapter, Cogs in the Machine.
***
Were Annora like any other city Chariska Jerhas had known, she’d be making at least the most casual strides down the walkway. Here, the avenues carried the traveler, with each individual moving at their own preferred pace. To even dream such a conveyance eclipsed anything the theocracy she hailed from could muster, but now she only found it a curious inclusion for a people whose mechanical legs ensured they should never tire.
While those around her hurried to and fro, Chari was content to let the world drift steadily by. Mack slid close, looking antsy. Unlike her, he was in a hurry to get home.
Home.
Her real home was a place she no longer sought to return to; indeed, she dreaded it. There was nothing Chari missed of the world of TseTsu—save that there, she was literate. It was the sole downside of attending the poorly named Education Center 2/5, which had been an otherwise refreshing experience. Her role as priestess had restricted her studies on her home world, but now Chari’s own inadequacies were her only limits, and the pleasure of this caused her to smile.
***
FD: Lucas, where can your readers find you online?
LAP: My author site, lucaspaynter.com, is probably the best fixed space at the moment. I don’t do social media all that much (or that well), but the persistent links are there, if someone wants to look me up.
***
Many thanks to Lucas Aubrey Paynter for spending a few minutes with us today on Nesie’s Place.
Outcasts of the World, Books 1 and 2 are available through Amazon and are part of the Kindle Unlimited Program. There’s also still time to order print copies as gifts for the sci-fi/cosmic fantasy lover on your Christmas list!
Title: Killers, Traitors & Runaways (Outcasts of the World II)
Author: Lucas Aubrey Paynter
Genre: Cosmic Fantasy
As reality nears its final days, worlds fall to ruin. A benevolent god is shackled, and when freed, will create a new one … allowing only the pure of heart. A company of seven have united on a bloody quest to stop him, but have little hope of emerging victorious.
The outcasts are adrift—they have a mission but no means to fulfill it. Airia Rousow, the fallen goddess who set them on their path, is gone. Guardian Poe, her intended successor, believes deification will absolve him of his sins and his remorse alike. And Zella Renivar, daughter of the Living God, is still hunted by her father’s agents, drawing danger on them all.
Trapped in this storm, Flynn is able to find and open the ways between worlds, but cannot discern which path is the right one. Since losing the trust of his closest friend, the temptation to fall back on his former, deceitful ways grows with every crisis he faces.
These are heroes not of virtue, but of circumstance—and it will fall on Flynn to keep them all together.
~ Author Bio ~
Lucas Aubrey Paynter hails from the mythical land of Burbank, California, where there are most likely no other writers at all.
Back in 2014, he published Outcasts of the Worlds, and he’s now releasing its follow-up, Killers, Traitors, & Runaways.
A fan of gray-area storytelling and often a devil’s advocate, Lucas enjoys consuming stories from a variety of mediums, believing there’s no limit to what form a good narrative can take.
~ Links ~
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