The Magic Book Corner warmly welcomes James T. Callum, author of the spellbinding Brookmoors Magi Series! He was kind enough to take some time from his busy schedule and grant us an interview. 

Thank you James! And welcome to The Magic Book Corner! It's great to have you here! 

1. To begin, could you please tell our readers here a little bit about yourself?

I’m an incredibly avid reader, and read almost anything and everything I can get my hands on. I’ve been writing stories since I was a little kid. My life has been a testament to the amount of bad luck, wrong turns, and general misfortune that a person can endure and still keep going. 

Currently, I work as an EMT and split the rest of my time between working towards a career as a Software Engineer and writing. The days are long, and the amount of things I’ve seen that I’d rather unsee are enough to fill a book on their own, but in the end I enjoy that I get to help people. 

Of all the things I do, it’s writing that I love most. It’s my sincerest wish that one day I’ll be able to wake up and write, not pull a 12hr EMS shift and without having to study algorithms, syntax, and the nightmare that is finding a bug in my code that worked perfectly yesterday. 

2. You have just recently published the second installment in your Brookmoors Magi Series and I have to admit that after reading it, I'm itching to get my hands on the sequel. Are you working on it already? Is there any release date expected?

I am! I’ve got a lot of irons in the fire, but I’m steadily working on the 3rd Brookmoors Magi book. The only thing that’s holding me back at the moment is a cover artist. I had hoped to continue working with the creator of the 2nd book’s cover, but they recently left the creative space and I’m looking for another! However, none of that has (or will) stop me from finishing the third book and continuing on the fourth. 

As for a release date, well the writing will be done by October 2019 this year. The actual release will depend on acquiring a cover artist and the like. As a result it’s quite likely that Books 3 and 4 will have a close release and both should be released this year. 

3. Have you already planned out the entire series and if yes, how many books do you have in mind? 

I totally have, I’ve laid the groundwork up to about 5 books so far with more if the story demands it. I’m definitely more of an organic storyteller where the characters and story come first, not my desires on where they should go or what they should do. So, if after 5 books the story hasn’t finished, or there’s something Sylvie feels she needs to do then there’ll be another book. 

If the story is finished and all wrapped up, that’ll end the Brookmoors Magi series. Depending on its popularity and general reception I might do more work in the Brookmoors universe as it were if there’s something to explore. I love Brookmoors myself, and there’s a lot to explore that has only been hinted at in a single sentence and then never mentioned again. So I don’t think I’ll want for material to write about! 

4. What readership in particular is the Brookmoors Magi series meant for? 

Anybody who has felt downtrodden, forgotten, mislabeled, or just generally understands that (often) life isn’t fair. Of course, those who love deep magic that isn’t all hand-waves and made-up jargon will also find a lot more than they might expect. 

In a more clinical statement: most people who love Urban Fantasy / Fantasy have told me how much they’ve loved the books. Particularly those who feel UF has become filled with thinly veiled romances that ignore good story. Readers of Urban Fantasy, Fantasy (particularly Dark Fantasy), Thrillers, Suspense, YA and anybody who loves a good ol’ Lovecraftian Horror will find something to enjoy in the Brookmoors Magi. 

5. What should a reader expect when picking up your books? 

A story about how even when things seem at their worst there’s always a way to turn it around. The journey may be dark and terrifying, but ultimately there’s hope for even the most misbegotten souls. The darkness is there to give purpose to the light, pain is part of life after all. 

Readers will find a misfit looking for a place to belong and her journey to better herself and overcome her own demons so that she can fight for those that can yet be saved. There are elements of romance as well, and if you’re as clueless as Sylvie it’ll hit you over the head with a mallet once or twice before fluttering on its merry way. 

But just as pain is part and parcel of life, so is love. While I am not intending to make this a full-blown romance, I’m not going to pull punches here either. Finding love, and the acceptance that real love provides is something we all seek and Sylvie is no exception. Even if she doesn’t realize she wants it yet. 

I’m sure there are metaphors and sprinkled opinions on society as a whole, but the story is about Sylvie and her life and what she wants to make of it first and foremost. My comments on our current social climate are an entirely different beast altogether. 

Readers interested in a story focused on a damaged character looking for redemption and to heal her own wounds will find a lot to love in the Brookmoors Magi series.  

6. You have taken the well known "cursed orphan child gets a magic letter/invitation to a magic school" troupe and created something absolutely new and original. What is the inspiration behind it? 

That not everything is as it seems, and to be perfectly frank Harry would’ve been really messed up being abused from a young age like that. Now that I’ve said what so many of us who suffered through abuse had been thinking: My inspiration mostly came in the guise of wanting to show some reality with magic. All too often we get magic that “just works” there’s no explanation and it often doesn’t make much logical sense. 

I wanted Sylvie’s story to be different. Magic doesn’t fix her. Only she has the power to do that. None of us will fix ourselves by getting that new car, that high-paying job, or finding that special someone. Those things help - except the car that’s just a bad idea all around - but ultimately it’s on us to improve ourselves. I wanted to find something that Sylvie could learn to feel at home with and grow from there. 

From the very beginning she was always magical, but fate and circumstance prevented it from entering her life until much later. I wanted to explore what her life would be like if she was cut out of the magical world so to speak. There’s a great deal of similarity between Sylvie and Shannon, but their lives were radically different due to circumstances out of either of their control. 

7. You used Sylvie's curse to touch on very sensitive themes: depression, anxiety and mental illness. What prompted you to do so? 

From the beginning Sylvie’s story was a sad one, unfortunately. Life had been unkind to her, and it shaped who she became. At the risk of spoilers, I’d like to make something crystal clear to any readers: Sylvie is depressed and has anxiety. The curse amplifies these negative thoughts and feelings in much the same way as the actual mental illness of the self-same issues do. Of course it does a hell of a lot more, but you know. Spoilers. 

As to why? Aside from that’s how Sylvie’s life had been, I wanted to explore topics that a lot of us go through. I’ve never seen anxiety or depression - true depression - handled in a book that didn’t glorify it, or treat it as something you can just “get over.” 

Mental illness doesn’t work like that. And to suggest it can be fixed with a wave of a wand, or that it was all in somebody’s head is disingenuous and downright insulting to all the people who fight every day just to get out of bed. 

I wanted a story for the people that don’t even know they’re strong for getting out of bed today. For the people who are fighting their demons every single day, go to bed tired and drained and full of intrusive dark thoughts, then get up the next day and do it all over again. They deserve to be represented, to have a character who understands them and has gone through similar things with no punches pulled.  

8. There are quite a few very entertaining references to the Harry Potter series in your books. Is there any particular reason for making them? 

Honestly, I am a huge Harry Potter fan. I love the series and a little good-natured ribbing is my way of honoring the work J.K. Rowling did. There’s a whole lot of silly things that go on, and quite a few things that when looked at as an adult are a bit of a head-scratcher. So my little pokes and prods (particularly the Dean’s rant) is the logical argument against arming children - who are notoriously bad at making good, thoughtful decisions - with explosives. 

9. Your series centers around misfits. Not only Sylvie, but also her friends; they are all underdogs that fate, luck or perhaps magic manages to bring together. Why write about underdogs? 

Heroes are boring. I’m sure like most people we all love a good hero story, but let’s face it they’re dull. They always do the right thing, sure they might gripe and groan about having to save the world but they’ll do it in the end. 

Misfits are different, they don’t want to be relied on, hell they’re not used to it. Putting people like that into the spot light has an interesting effect. And it’s rarely the same twice. What pushes Sylvie doesn’t push Pyx, and so on. 

Plus, magic has a tendency in my universe to attract those who don’t fit into society anywhere else. Magic has a way of requiring its practitioners to be of high moral flexibility, the people who see in shades of gray rather than black and white. 

In counterbalance to that, Amala is pretty much what I imagine Sylvie would have been had her life turned out differently. She’s well-off, comes from a good family and knew she was going to Brookmoors from a young age. 

10. The intraplanar travel through margins is one of the most ingenious means of travel. How did the idea take root? 

I’m a huge fan of different dimensions and realms. Right from the outset I knew there were multiple realms where different magical creatures call home. I mean, really you can’t have some of the cosmic horror elements of Horrors (capitalized version here) without extra dimensions after all. 

Diving - the means by which accomplished Magi are capable of traversing the Margins and therein travel between dimensions - will feature more in the books as the series goes on, so I can’t say too much about it. But I have always been fascinated by it and thought that just appearing in another place was too simple. Of course there are spells that do that, but wouldn’t it be so much more interesting if you could see what was “between the walls” so to speak? 

Diving evolved from that and it can be truly terrifying.  

11. And how about the magic? Cinder and so many different ways of using it - unique and downright amazing! What is the inspiration behind it? 

Cinder is a labor of love, as is all the magic in the Brookmoors Magi (of which I’ve shown probably around 10% so far as of the 2nd book). The inspiration is really me just being a big nerd when it comes to magic. There are so many different ways to express magical forces that no two systems will ever be the same and I love it. 

I enjoy having a logical system that has rules that need to be followed. I grew up on big magic systems in books and I always craved something a little more understandable. And Cinder came from that. It’s a bit different than the typical magic, but it’s bound just as tightly to the rules and laws that govern it. 

Since most of the books so far are through Sylvie’s eyes, she’s had a very different view of magic than most. I wanted her to see the beauty in magic, for magic’s sake. At a point in her life where everything was bleak, she needed to see that there was still beauty to be found. 

12. Did you face any obstacles or disappointments in your writing career? And if yes, how did you deal with them? 

More than I care to admit (or count). I could write a book about all the pitfalls, false leads, empty promises and the general state of publishing. Particularly the self-publishing struggle. Most of them are ongoing struggles that either never truly go away, or evolve over time. 

The biggest issue for me, however, continues to be visibility. It means so much as an indie author to see people reading my book, and those that do always have such nice things to say that it makes the whole ordeal worthwhile. That being said, the way self-publishing works and how Amazon has catered these things is that you effectively need to “pay to play.” Without a lot of money, time, and effort far beyond what most aspiring authors who don’t already have wildly successful careers elsewhere have access to, you’re effectively hidden from readers who want to read your work. 

It’s a bit ironic, really. Readers naturally want to read new books, but Amazon is hiding anything that isn’t shelling out hundreds of dollars a day in ads. So what you’re likely seeing up top is the result of books with large marketing budgets being pushed into people’s faces. It’s why the same books by the same people are topping the charts. 

Of course this is largely indie, traditionally published books are another beast and also (generally) have a large marketing budget that helps them. The problem is this has already invaded the indie market and is leading to a greater homogenization of work rather than the new and inventive/creative works that could be made. 

My attempts at overcoming it are just to be constantly working on my book. There’s an adage in the world of writing that essentially says, “the best advertisement for your work is your next book” and I must say that seems true. 

The other solution largely lies with readers, not that they are at fault. We’re all busy and just want a good book to read, but if you have the time (especially if you have KU) skip twenty or thirty or even a hundred pages down on your favorite genre on Amazon and read a book there. I’m sure the author who wrote it will be over the moon. Better yet, leave a review. Good or bad, it not only helps indie authors (which is why we harp about it so much) but it helps fellow readers and leaving a star rating takes under a minute. 

13. And now to our last question. Do you have any advice for other aspiring or upcoming writers? 

Write. Read. Write some more, then read some more. You can’t be a good writer without writing but reading is equally important. I think of it like breathing. Reading is taking a breath, you get fresh ideas and even inspiration. You learn from others even if you aren’t picking apart each sentence for style. 

Writing is an exhalation. Eventually you’re so bursting with ideas and concepts that you just have to get them out. The thing is, too many (myself included) get stuck in one or the other and it begins to feel deeply uncomfortable. You might not notice it at the time, you might be stuck in a rut or feel like nothing sounds right when you type it. That’s okay. Just remember to breathe every now and then. 

You’ll likely look back and realize you just needed to read something to get that spark you were looking for or to see that, yes you can use multiple dialogue attributions and the police aren’t going to break down your door for doing so. 

And probably the greatest piece of advice: Everybody’s writing sucks. 

First drafts are meant to be trash and your new mantra needs to be “I’ll fix it in editing.” Too many writers (myself included) spend too long re-editing the same thing. Resist that urge and you’re already far ahead of everybody else rewriting their opening prologue for the umpteenth time.  

About the author: James T. Callum

was born in: The United States

website: https://www.callumbooks.com

writes: Contemporary, Fantasy, Paranormal 

influences: J.K. Rowling, Stephen King, R.A. Salvatore, Brandon Sanderson, Neil Gaiman, Terry Pratchett, Garth Nix 

For as long as I can remember I've loved reading (well over thirty years by now!) Stories are what make us human, they help us grapple with difficult emotions and themes that we would struggle to identify otherwise. They provide a stage for us to fight our demons and to dream of a better future. 

And I believe it's time that I give something back. 

In the same way reading a good story during a storm, bundled up in bed used to make me feel, writing now gives me that same pleasure. That catharsis. I want to share the characters and worlds that nobody is telling you about. I want to write you a story. 

So, let me take you on a journey. Whether it's just for a night, on your lunch break before another stressful day of work, or on the bus, the train, plane, or subway. Maybe you'll be like me, and have an all-day bender of binge-reading because you just can't get enough of the world and the characters that you've grown so attached to, so invested in. 

Maybe you'll love them like I do. For however long you choose to spend in my worlds, I welcome you, and hope you enjoy your stay with every fiber of my being. 

Interested in a free sample of the Brookmoors series? Sign up to my newsletter and you'll get a short story featuring Pyx from Sylvie Asleton and the Shrike's Curse in a never-seen-before newsletter exclusive. 

I'm always available to talk, connect with readers, authors, and fellow book nerds:

Twitter: @JamesTCallum 

Tumblr: jamescallumwrites.tumblr.com/ 

Instagram: instagram.com/james.t.callum/ 

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