AMA: Hi, I’m RJ BARKER, the author of THE BONE SHIPS, THE WOUNDED KINGDOM trilogy and the Lord of Antlers.

The pictures are awesome - if only there was some way of letting the artist know...

my username is a coincidence.

Hiya Gregg. :)

Your two main characters couldn't be more different in how they handle their emotions. How much of a jump was it from writing Girton — with his emotions spilling out of his ears — to writing Joron, who is much more guarded?

I'm not really a very conscious writer. People tend to be in my head, and I've talked before about 'method writing' in that when I'm writing it's more like those people inhabit my mind, and I'm just writing it down. I did find the jump from first to third person hard though. On my first edit I could see where I'd been writing tired as it would slip into first person. But sulky Joron is pretty easy to do, I reckon I'm just channeling a version of teenage me.

How have you fared thus far against autocorrects attempts to change "Joron" to "moron"?

We had a very serious conversation about this on the day I started THE BONE SHIPS and autocorrect has behaved ever since. Although it refuses to pick up when I've typed 'form' instead of 'from.' LAZY.

When writing the songs in the book, do you have a tune in your head, or are you just writing down the words?

Just the words. I like poetry, and all writing to me is about rhythm and feel of the words, so it's an easy thing to slip into. I read quite a few sea shanties to get the shape of them in my mind though and some of them are so ingrained you end up humming them for days. AND DAYS. OMG, LEAVE ME ALONE DRUNKEN SAILOR.

Well, it depends what it's for. I mean, if it's for murder then you want something that doesn't link back to you in any way and maybe you should spend some time creating a paper trail for that person to make you harder to find.

If it's a professional one (mine isn't, BTW, it is what people really call me) then I'd stick with something you like, and probably something near to your name cos there's the chance you'll have to be known by that name so you want to be able to react to it normally. So pick something familiar and easy to remember, I would think that would be the easy way to go. Maybe look back in your family for some interesting names. Alternatively, here is a quick list of names you could choose.

Chip Chipson

Henston Balderdash

Lavinia J Opossum

Prentice Tollbooth.

Heavyside Badgertumble

Derrick Oyls

Truditious Jumble.

Hi Regine, More than happy to give my stuff and/or time to the Pixels Project. :)

Many Grimdark novels do not pass the Bechdel test because they are intensely focused on male-led storylines. Why do you think many SFF authors still have trouble writing stories that pass the Bechdel test despite the fact that there are many more things that women talk about other than men… and what can you suggest for writers who want to write female conversations and relationships realistically?

I can't speak specifically about 'grimdark' as it's not a genre I'm massively familiar with, though what I do kind of hovers around that 'gritty realism' thing. I can only ever really speak for me when it comes to what I do but I think the rule is pretty simple: women are not a separate species. If you're worried at all about getting it wrong then write women as people rather than as "women" and you're probably half way there.

And the other thing is, writing in the fantastic, a whole part of the joy in that, for me, is taking bits of our society and twisting it to make people look at it. In many of our societies the ability to give birth makes women precious and then they must be protected, And because men can't know if that child is theirs then women get sequestered to protect genetic lines, because power in our societies often follows male lines. But in the Bone Ships I took that power on in a different way, the male genetic line isn't as important as healthy children, and the women who provide these healthy children achieve power through doing that, and that's seen as strength and that affects the entire way women and men are seen in this society. Right down to little things, like there's more men in charge of the Black (punishment) ships that the story is set amongst because men are more likely to be punished, because they don't have power. It's not said but it's there. I'm stopping myself here because I love history and I will go off on one about how we perceive female power in history on a superficial viewing and how it was often wielded cos that stuff is FASCINATING.

I think I've gone off piste a bit there. But you get the gist.

Star Trek or Star Wars?

Probably would have been Star Wars, until Star Trek:Disco which did some really interesting things and won me over.

Cheese or ice cream?

Ice cream, probably. I'm not big on dairy, could probably give both up quite easily but take the cream from my coffee over my dead body.

What do you read in your spare which might surprise the lot of us?

I don't think any readers would be surprised because I read anything, and I think that curiosity is a huge part of being a reader. But I'm a real sucker for factual books about sea creatures, I have an excellent book about lobsters (omg, lobsters are awful creatures).

Hello Tasha!

I tend to always go back to my favourite books for things like this so when a heroic crew of rabbits set their boneship toward the horizon you can be sure their lack of opposable thumbs means that this will end badly for them all.

Well, it's never said outright but part of building a boneship involves a substance called boneglue and I'm going to say right here and now, that from the start the cartilage was one of the ingredients I imagined was boiled down to create a version of this glue. And that is definitely not something I have just come up with on the fly.

*Innocent whistle*

They are just BRILLIANT.

Bertie, bless him, is asleep and making the chair wet as he has been out getting wet. But yes! Antlers do count as bone as unlike horns they are true bone and not covered in a layer of keratin around a bone core. Obviously, this makes antlers more metal than horns.

OH MY GOD YES. Get some bread (white is best) put some cheese on it, then put it under the grill until the cheese is properly toasted. While it toasts cut up some boiled eggs, add these to the cheese and place another slice of bread on top.

What?

I leave (so far, touch wood) remarkably little on the cutting room floor and what you read, both for THE BONE SHIPS and THE WOUNDED KINGDOM, tends to be reasonably close to my first draft. But there is an evolution of ideas as you work into something so there are things that I started with the intention of using but didn't (in this version). I'm not talking about them though as they might be spoilery for later. The only thing I wanted but didn't get in the end as Orbit weren't keen was cannon. But I think it was a really good call on the part of my editor (The brilliant Jenni Hill) as it brought it too close to the great ships of our time and that wasn't what we were aiming at.
There is a scene where they work the gallowbows that Jenni wasn't keen on, but I stood my ground, cos you can't have a book about ships without an overly complicated scene where people work the weaponry. It's just the rules. I don't make them.

-How did it feel finishing off your first trilogy and and then moving on to something new? Did you already have the shiny new idea you wanted to write next, or did you have that all too common noment of panic where you think it was a total fluke you got published first time around?

Well, I was in a really good position in many ways as THE BONE SHIPS had been sold to Orbit before BLOOD OF ASSASSINS was published, though it was all very hush hush as they didn't want people distracted form the WOUNDED KINGDOM books. So I didn't have that, 'oh my god will they go for it'. I just trundled straight on to the next thing. However, releasing something absolutely new is utterly terrifying - 'Oh yeah, people might hate it and I'll never write again.'

-What have you been reading lately? Anything good? Or anything you are looking forward to reading and hope the publisher sends you a shiny ARC to read?

I don;t actually read a lot of fantasy as I struggle to turn off the bit of my head going 'what would I do?' so I can never relax into it. In many ways writing fantasy has stolen fantasy from me. At the moment I'm reading The Last Good Kiss by James Crumley which is an ultra hard, American noir crime book. I have got The Last SMile in Sunder City by Luke Arnold (who played Long John Silver in Black Sails) and that's written in a very crimey voice and you kind of want to go, 'pshaw, actors! Coming in and doing book? How dare they.' But it's very good indeed and I've told Luke this is unfair. I intend to make a complaint to whoever is in charge of these things.

-What do you find easiest and hardest about writing a book?

Easy, hard, such difficult things quantify. I love doing it. It's what I enjoy and the whole publishing and getting paid is an (admittedly wonderful) side effect but not why I'm doing it. I mean the technically hardest bit for me is the copy edit, as I write in a 'non traditional' manner and copy editors don't like that, so I have to read very closely. But day to day, the hardest bit is always starting, then once I'm off I generally enjoy it. I'm ill too, so some days I am just too tired to write. But that's life, have a day off, carry on the next day.

There are DEFINITELY antlers in the Bone Ships but I've been more subtle about it this time. I kind of wanted to drop them in so that when people who knew me were reading they would go, OH, There they are! But if you didn't know they might just pass you by.

The Subtle Antler is my new dark folk band

Not really, not personally in a massive way that's different to anyone else. We all fuck up, we all do stupid things we regret and (hopefully) we learn from them. But you have to let people learn.* I always try, in life, to approach everyone fresh because nine out of ten times if you give people the opportunity to do the right thing, or you believe in them they will take it. Not everyone will, but I don't want my openness to new people to be ruined just cos a few people may not be great at being humans.

*At the same time, I think you have to be ready step away from people who don't learn.

As a master of all things nautical, could you explain to me the correct procedure for splicing the mainbrace?

Well, yes. It's quite simple really. You get your main braces (not any of your secondary braces). And then you get your splice-o-tron. And you splice your mainbraces. I believe it was a process invented by dentists.

Also, who's idea was it to do your awesome videos? Is this something you put forward, or your publisher suggested? (I highly recommend people watch the videos, especially anything of RJ reading his work, as it's revelatory...)

(There's a clip of me reading from THE BONE SHIPS at Swansea Waterstones HERE)
Ah, the videos. Well. There's a thing. Orbit like their authors to do videos, and they'll come up with an idea, like 'tell us about ships'. Then I will ruin it. But people seem to quite like watching me ruin their 'serious' videos. I'm just not a very serious person and it's not in my nature to sit in front of a camera (which I'm not particularly comfortable with) and act seriously. So it feels more comfortable to play it for laughs. Also, no one can call me out on my history if I am clearly talking nonsense.

You're one of the few authors where I've read every book you've had published, and I can't wait for the next one!

Thanks, James. Being an author is quite precarious and most of the (reading) action for an author you never see, so it means a lot when people tell you they like your stuff. Especially with something like THE BONE SHIPS, which is, in many way, radically different to The Wounded Kingdom stuff.

I think we need quote marks around rock star. "rock star". I played bass guitar but I was terrible. I had a very good time in lots of really small bands that never did anything. Mostly they were kind of grungy sounding, loud, noisy, that type of thing. I'm not sure I ever played any good gigs cos I was always aware that I wasn't as good as I wanted to be so I never relaxed. I still had a lot of fun though, cos I like being on stage, and being in a band is quite fun, your own little gang. But I don't play any more as eventually it stopped being fun, and I only do things I enjoy (where possible).

Oh wow, this is cool. I don't know how to add to it but I listened to quite a lot of Myrkur (particularly the album Ulvinde) when I was writing The Bone Ships. It seemed to fit the mood and made me think of sirens.

Lots of nautical adventures in The Patient Wild's back-catalogue, although I have not yet caught up on the bone ships because this year is packed with incredible books so I can't recommend definite matches: Ships, Gifts of the Sea, Old Worlds, maybe Coast and Cove or The Captain's Regret depending on how things go for the characters...

Thank you! I hope you enjoy it. It has a (deliberate) slow burn to start off but I think it more than rewards it. Though, obviously, I have a little bit of bias there...

Oh Cool, glad you popped by. :)

Hope you are enjoying it. I really love that scene, quite a lot going on below the surface.

-How do you picture Meas looking like—like if you had to cast an actor for a movie I suppose?

I don't tend to have really clear images of the people I write about. I like to use a few broad strokes and then leave the reader to fill things in from their imagination and make their own decisions about looks. So I couldn't tell you what actress I would choose to play her and, if I'm honest, and I did have an idea I probably wouldn't say, cos then it cements it in, not only the reader's mind, but in mine and it might start to drip into what I write. So as much as possible I keep them as their own person in my head. I can't tell you what she looks like past what's in the book. But I would definitely know her if I met her. He said, Unhelpfully.

-Does all the Fleet only consist of condemned crew?

The Black Ships are all condemned women and men. The boneships are not. Tide Child is a punishment ship really, where you go if you've been bad and that's why he's in such poor condition when we meet him, and Joron.

And, what books have you found yourself recommending to others the most?

The book I've recommended most recently is probably the Slough house books by Mick Herron. They're spy thrillers but they're so cleverly written and he has such a great eye for people and how they work that they amaze me every time I read one.

I won't lie, it's a lot of responsibility. I have to deal directly with the Stag Council but it's mostly red tape: complaints about velvet left on trees and when it gets to shedding season it's a nightmare cos they just leave them lying everywhere and the health and safety people are really not happy about that. But on the other hand I do get a nice robe, so that's cool.

Hi RJ, bizarre, ground up worldbuilding is my kryptonite, and ships made of sea dragon bones is up there in terms of oddity and badassness. Would you perhaps care to share the original seed/core idea of this book and the world in general? And perhaps your general approach or process in crafting this world?

I think the thing in the back of my head that set it was wondering how a civilisation would build big warships without wood. There are civilisations that have used reeds and things like that but I wanted BIG age-of-sail typeships. And the idea of bone tools and scrimshaw led to bones as a material, but they had to be BIG bones so, dragons. Though to be fair, I am stretching what we calla dragon, probably closer to Kaiju.

If you are to summarise The Bone Ships in three keywords, what would they be?

Hornblower Vs Godzilla.

Also what is your secret talent?

Oh, I am famously terrible at keeping secrets. It usually surprises people when they found I've held down really serious jobs with responsibility and stuff as I am such a slacker. But there is generally a lackadaisical way of doing EVERYTHING, I find. Probably a good job I never became a surgeon.

If you had told 18 year old me I would like country music I would have laughed in your face. But nothing is all bad and there's a set of that came out of Denver that are influenced by UK goth bands like the Sisters of Mercy and old punk bands and they consistently deliver some of the most unsettling and dark music I have ever heard. Youtube any of these - Cinder Alley - 16 Horsepower. Cheyanne - Slim Cessna's Auto Club. Crooked Man - Those Poor Bastards. My Second Salvation Army Choir - Jay Munly and the Lee Lewis Harlots. If none of that can even slightly make you rethink I'll send you a free book.

Well, I was raised as a slave in the sourlands and bought by....

Oh my, no never. I would do EVERYTHING I could to stay right here in the 21st century with warm rooms and running water and people very definitely not shooting at me with giant crossbows and absolutely NO massive dragons that could eat me and my ship in one bite. It's the same as if I REALLY MUST be transferred into a computer game then I'm going NPC shopkeeper please, something where I won't die horribly. Life on a Bone Ship has FAR TOO MUCH dying horribly for me. If you fall in the sea it gets even worse.

Given that choice almost definitely cowboy boots, I do like a pointy boot.

I have played that as I'm a huge fan of anything navel and the classic age of sail (that Black Flag is set in) is a rough analogue for the world of the boneships, but with bits of other seafaring cultures thrown in. The boneships themselves are similar to big sailing ships of the line but made form the bones of massive extinct dragons. They have three masts (or spines) and big sails (or wings) and rather than cannon are armed with massive crossbows.

Hiya, Paige! Really glad you're liking it. You now have permission to stay off work to finish the book, just tell them I said it was okay. :)

Can you ask the lovely MrsRJ what I need to do to have her create something like Ambrose the Antler Baby for me?

Sadly, MrsRJ didn't create him, he was bought from an artist called Fairground Fables. I wish I knew how to put a picture on Reddit so I could show people how beautiful he is because they would gasp with awe.

What is your number one favorite candy in the world?

Oh, this is really hard. I would have said Malaco Foam Mushrooms but then I bought a whole box and ate them all and made myself feel very ill. So I might go back to the classic fizzy cola bottle. But I did eat all the salty monkeys you brought me from Sweden.

Any tips or tricks you use if you get stuck when writing? (Story-wise, not the actual writing itself)

If I slow down but know there's a place I want to get to then I sometimes skip ahead to write a bit I know will be fun, that often gives me ideas for where I should be. The truth is that, so far, I don't get stuck much because I let myself just write rubbish and I don't hold myself to any standard for early versions, making it good/right later is always easier than writing something perfect straight off. Everything can be changed.

Ulvinde by Myrkur. It's kind of sea-ish, in a sort of spooky black metal way. And you will get a raise the minute you finish your PI training in 2028. Don't you worry about it.

The one I come back to the most is C.J. Cherryh and a set of books called The Chronicles of Morgaine. They were just so utterly different from any fantasy I had read at the time. Amazing worlds, made you work for the story to some degree and the relationship between Vanye and Morgaine had such an effect on me that I find myself constantly playing with the m/f mechanic decades later.

I AM,

(Actually I am the worlds least scary person, I have to say this cos someone else will if I don't. It's more just to make the title jump out at you and subtly brainTHEBONESHIPSwash you into buying it.)

I think it's harder to think of an animal that couldn't be improved with antlers, if I'm honest.

(The one two twist punch, give the audience the one you've telegraphed, then hit 'em with the one you've been hiding... Really glad you liked TWK books, I loved writing them.)

What do you find is the most fun part of your writing process?

I think the first run at it, when you're discovering the story is the best bit for me. I don't really plan much so the story unravels in front of me and I really enjoy seeing where my mind leads me and then the first run through where I'm taking what's there and making it knit together is all fun. It's like having a massive puzzle sat in front of me and I get to piece it all together.

Do you have a Favorite and least favorite word? If so what are they and why?

Yeah, there's a Yorkshire word 'butty' which is just a word for sandwich, but I HATE IT. Not sure why. It's just ugly. But I really like the word campervan, it has a lovely rythmn to it.

What’s the best way to make you laugh?

Oh, I laugh all the time. At the moment it's the 'I am a horrible goose,' poem that's based on the 'Untitled Goose game' for nintendo. It's just this beautiful mad bit of writing and it kills me every time I listen. I have made my whole family listen to it multiple times.

I'm sorry! I'd quite like one day to go back one day and write a story about Merela when she's on her kill spree, but it really all depends on how many books sell and if my publisher thinks it's worth going back (basically the same as for any author, the more you talk about a book, the more people get interested, the more likely it is to happen). Really hope you enjoy The Bone Ships. It's different but still me. :)