An idea squeezed into my head in 2023, after seeing so many of the book community gathering at conventions across the US and UK. And once my FOMO subsided, I got to thinking about who might be gathered together if we had similar conventions closer to home. Pending the master planning required to arrange a massive convention, I thought the next best thing might be to run an Australian & New Zealand author showcase. So, I sent out the call, with the only prerequisite for participating being the author had to have been born in either country or currently live there.
As we romp through 2024, the Aussie / New Zealand Author Showcase will carry on as I have had a few more authors contact me to say they are keen to take part. At this rate its threatening to become a year long event! So I will continue to post their individual showcases at regular intervals and hopefully you will enjoy these interactions with some very talented people. Please be sure to check out their work, sign up to their newsletters and follow them on their social media of choice. I make no apologies for any damage inflicted to your TBR’s!
Showcase No 26 finds me chatting to Aussie science fiction and fantasy author and part of the all conquering #TheBreakins, Jonathan Weiss. Jonathan has just published the second book of The Flux Catastrophe series – Blazing Flux.
- Do you feel that being an Aussie / Kiwi (or residing there) influences your writing?
It’s frankly undeniable that it does. The slang and language and styles of speech common to Australians leak through in the dialogue, attitudes and even the way my characters move. At times I did worry that this may chaff with some readers, but I haven’t had a problem with it yet.
Even the media surrounded me has made the plots I write vastly different than if I was somewhere else. One of the seminal pieces of media from Australia is the Mad Max franchise, and there’s no prizes for guessing that it’s one of the sources of inspiration for the apocalyptic hellscape my stories are set in.
Even the atmosphere and the landscape are unique. The first major idea in the zeitgeist that I remember was the period of devastating drought that the country was going through when I was seven or eight. Those images of dry, cracked land must’ve imprinted on me from then on, but it wouldn’t be until I was in my twenties that I came back around to them.
- What are some of the challenges being located so far away from the rest of the world, do have any tips for overcoming these?
I think the biggest thing was to simply stop thinking “local” as far as who I was selling my books to. The power of self-publishing is that you instantly have access to EVERY market. While I do retain a sense of loyalty to my Australian readers, their numbers are dwarfed by the potential that can be found in the US and the UK. A great deal of activity is concentrated there, and with the majority of Australian Traditional publishing preferring historical fiction or crime thrillers, I sometimes felt I was wasting time when I did look into publishing houses here.
That’s not to say there isn’t a hungry audience here, however!
I think the only other thing is time zones. I’ve only just recently adjusted my social media posts from going live at around 5pm my time when Australians are usually active, to early in the morning for me, which is the more active time for Americans and UK residents, who now make up a good chunk of my followers.
- How do you go about establishing connections in the book community? (any tips / suggestions)
It actually took me a while to come out of my “writing” shell and start making connections. Partly because I was very focused on upholding a rapid release schedule of 3 books a year, and partly because my initial efforts to reach out seemed to be landing in all the wrong places.
Social media algorithms seemed to mistake my searches for fantasy authors as a longing for romantasy, which is an entirely different genre from what I write. It lead to a period where I gave up on social media altogether, but as I came back to release more books, I started to find my people properly.
The hot tip here is to look at the people reviewing up and coming indie books, especially the up and coming reviewers and content creators. They are some of the kindest and most engaged people you’ll ever see, and you’ll quickly form a network by reaching out to them.
I experienced this myself when I saw a few of Rob Leigh’s posts about #thebreakins, and asked if I could be a part of it, as I was looking to network a bit more myself. I was lucky enough to be member number 13 or a total of 16 before we decided to close our doors to new members to stop ourselves from becoming too unwieldy a group.
But this plays into the next top tip. Forming a tight-knit group of likeminded and similar authors that are keen to lift each other up and support each other can help carve a niche in the indie social fabric just by the matter of your association. I wouldn’t be surprised if #thebreakins was used as a blueprint for groups of rising indie authors in future.
- Do you have a favourite character to write? And conversely are there any of your characters that are the more of a struggle?
That’s a tough one! Right now, I have two series on the run, but thankfully each one is (mostly) sticking to singular points of view.
Spiric of The First Hytharo series was the very first character I created in The Droughtlands, the rather self-descriptive world in which my books take place. He has been through multiple machinations through the years as I tried to make him stick to the story, but he’s always remained true to who he was when he was created.
He’s curious to the point of naivety. Intelligent, introspective and, very occasionally, irreverent. I really enjoy writing him because his path is often an unpredictable one. Starting out with his memories stolen, he was always meant to be the vessel through which I explore The Droughtlands, and its through his eyes that I often discover new aspects and creations about this world.
The trouble comes with the plot that I’ve conjured around him, and I sometimes struggle to keep his story moving forward in the face of a tangled web of plot threads.
Ryza of The Flux Catastrophe, on the other hand, is a far more impulsive character. His story came about when I created the walking fortress of Revance as an effort of procrastination when I was struggling with Spiric’s story. He was destined to face the various battles, mechanical beast and arcane magics that I could not find a home for in Spiric’s story.
On his exterior, he’s a fierce fighter, however this hides a deeply held anxiety as he flees the traumatic and violent past that was his upbringing under his profiteering father. I share his thrills in the midst of visceral battles and his fears as he confronts his past, yet I find writing his books takes me to a fairly negative mindset that flows on into my own life. With a desperately low sense of self worth that he still struggles with, he has to lean on the support of others who inevitably betray him because the plot demands it.
The non-POV character I’ve so far enjoyed writing the most is most likely Grethard. In The Hytharo Redux, he takes on the trope of the old master of magic to Spiric’s role as impromptu apprentice. He is witty enough to run rings around Spiric’s naivety to comic effect, however this hides a sober understanding of the wrongs of his own past and the importance of Spiric discovering his.
- So aliens finally reveal themselves to us and your work is presented to them as example of what humanity has to offer, what do you hope they will take away from this intergalactic exchange?
A very interesting question! I would like to think that they’d find the force that humanity is on this world to be a resilient and perpetual one. That even after the last of our civilisations have fallen, having long forgotten the lessons of the first, that the monuments to what we were shall remain. Whether this is due to hubris or actual achievement, I can’t be sure, but a lot of this is inspired by the poem Ozymandias, by Percy Bysshe Shelley.
I think specifically of this due to the proportionally short span of time that the humanity we know has “civilised” the earth, and the fact that if aliens were to come to this planet, it would be highly likely in the grand scheme of things that it would be long after we’re gone. They man struggle to interpret what we’ve left behind, but I hope that the mystery of it is enough to make them persist with the effort.
- Tell us something about yourself that not many people know?
There’s actually a great deal more of myself in these books than I had ever intended. While I am very open about the fact that I’m diagnosed with ADHD and manage it using medication, one of the things I don’t often talk about is how it plays into the themes of my stories. (Mainly because I want people to find that for themselves!)
In short, Ryza’s battles through The Flux Catastrophes represent myself in an unmedicated state as I struggle to retain my own autonomy against the rushing flow of thoughts and impulses. His constant self-doubt that’s portrayed through his internal monologues and even the workings of his people’s machine-controlling magic represent a common struggle for people with ADHD; control.
Spiric, on the other hand, is closer to who I am while I have medication in my system. I can be introspective and stick to a thought longer, and have a clearer head to consider who I really was in the past. The overarching theme is that of memory, and the way it can be interpreted to change who we are today. I won’t say more on this particular subject, as it’ll spoil part of the story.
The next two series I intend to write will focus on two other aspects of ADHD that I struggle with. The first is instinctual impulses, and the way that they guide me through life, and the second is foresight, and how bloody hard it is to plan ahead when you’ve got “time-blindness.”
- What would you say is the best thing about being an author and the worst?
The best is that I love writing. It’s an exercise in puzzle solving and a fixed & familiar process that doesn’t require a specific outcome. The idea that my daydreams can be turned into a day job are almost as fantastical as the works I write, but I decided to become a writer full-time a bit over a year ago in order to make it a reality.
I think the worst is the loneliness. Not in the sense that you haven’t got anyone to talk to, I feel like I’m always making great author friends, but that the opportunities to show your work to the world are few and far between. It takes a great deal of time to write a book, and just as long to edit it and ready it for publishing. During this, there’s very little of it you can actually share, and even after release you can only tease at the overall effort that went into it.
My wife is an artist, working in a medium of pencils to draw amazing portraits of Australian wildlife, and I sometimes find myself envious of the fact they can video the entire process of each artwork’s creation and show every step, and that their customers can take in the full depth of the work before purchasing it. A book is often sold by its cover or by its reviews, two things that, as I writer, I do not create.
On this note, I think the hardest book to write is the second one. It’s often said you’ve got an entire lifetime to create your first masterpiece, but only a fraction of that to follow it up. Even when it is released, it does not come with the curiosity that’s followed the lead up to the first. People know what you’re “about” by this point, and for some reason you don’t carry as much novelty to them.
- Any other Aussie / Kiwi creatives you’d like to give a shout out for? (let’s spread the love)
Of course my wife, which you can find at kaylareay.com.au or on Instagram as kayla.reay
Also to my fellow Australian members of #thebreakins, Joshua Walker (https://joshuawalkerauthor.com/), Louise Holland (https://linktr.ee/louisehollandauthor)and Calum Lott (https://valsollas.com/).
- What’s your favourite quote or passage from one of your books?
That’s the toughest one of all! I think I have to go with the very first paragraph of The Hytharo Redux, as it’s a re-interpreted version of the very first words I wrote for The Droughtlands nearly ten years ago.
The old man drifted through the desert ruins. These days his boots were more hole than leather, but that didn’t matter, for his feet never dipped less than ten feet from the ground below. Around him, massive pillars of glass and iron stretched higher than anything another living soul had ever seen, but he knew that they ran so much deeper.
- What can you say about your current project or what you are planning next?
I can definitely say it’s melting my damn brain! I’m currently working on the second book in The First Hytharo series, and It’s got me plotting out multiple stories over multiple periods of time, over multiple incarnations of this world. This isn’t an unfamiliar problem for me, as my alternating release schedule between the Hytharo book and the Flux books means I’m teasing things between the series, but this current book now is forcing me to plan out the events that are 8 books in my future!
Bonus Question: Lastly Vegemite* yes or no?
You bet! Love the stuff on toast but for all that’s holy, be gentle with it and use butter!
* An iconic dark salty spread that (most) Australians slap on toast for breakfast (NB explanation for the rest of the world)
Author Bio:
Jonathan Weiss is an Australian Fantasy & Science Fiction author of The Flux Catastrophe and The First Hytharo series. Ever since being a small boy he hunted for the best way to tell stories, dabbling in stop motion before eventually finding a passion for writing as a teenager. More than a decade later he’d gathered a bachelor’s degree of Journalism and a career in commercial cloud sales, yet they were never as satisfying as writing.
With the support of his artist wife and a trio of pet budgies, he’s now dedicated himself to a full-time career as an author. When not writing, Jonathan can be found reading, working through the never-ending queue of un-painted Warhammer 40,000 models and attempting to fit far too much food on his tiny barbeque.
Social Media & Book Links:
https://jonathanweiss.com.au/series-guide-and-roadmap
https://jonathanweiss.com.au/rising-flux
https://mybook.to/TheHytharoRedux
https://mybook.to/MoltenFluxhttps://mybook.to/BlazingFlux
Social Media Links:
Website: https://jonathanweiss.com.au/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jonathanw_author/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100089150075250
Mailing List: https://jonathanweiss.com.au/contact
Amazon Author Profile: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Jonathan-Weiss/author/B0BTK6NZJP?ref=ap_rdr&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true
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