Today I’m delighted to have RJ Barker here on the blog. RJ is a popular fantasy author with his Tide Child Trilogy set on the high seas. He’s also written The Wounded Kingdom series and has released book 1 out of his Forsaken series, ‘Gods of the Wyrdwood’
Hi RJ and welcome to Spells and Spaceships Blog! It’s great to have you here!
Glad to be here. 🙂
When I relayed to the discord group I frequent that you’d agreed to do an interview and whether anyone had any questions, the first reply was, “I have no questions just a massive amount of love.” The reply received a lot of affirmation from everyone else.
It seems to be a common theme! What is it about your writing do you think, that elicits such a strong sense of positive feeling and lasting appreciation from readers?
Oh gosh. I don’t really know. I think often the worst person to ask about the reaction their work gets is the author themselves. I hope it‘s because I have a real affection for people, and for letting people who they need to be to find, whatever it is they need to find and that comes through in what i do. But I don’t actually know that. If I end up reading my own work back all I can usually think about is how much better I could have/should have made it.
Before we talk about anything nautical, I have to ask about your taxidermy interest. I love that stylish, unique and modern gothic vibe in the pics you’ve shared of your home and those taxidermy pieces obviously play a big role in that aesthetic. What started off your collection, how many pieces do you have in total and which is your favourite?
I think we have fourteen, well, fifteen but one of them was infested with moths and had to go live in the shed. It started off because when I first met my Wife we used to visit her family in devon and we would pass this antique shop that had the oddest looking fox head and it made me laugh. I used it as an icon for ages and when we got married it was her wedding present to me (and I got her an otter head she had been similarly amused by.) From there friends started to point us at particularly odd bits of taxidermy. We don’t have anything new though, it’s all antique. We’re kind of a home for things museums don’t want any more.
I love them all for various reasons but I suppose the fox will always be my favourite.
Your nautical fantasy, The Tide Child Trilogy has received widespread acclaim. What can uninitiated readers expect from the books?
Ships, and massive dragons the size of Islands and a matriarchal society that is quite dark and cruel. One thing people tend to talk about is how it doesn’t feel like much else, it is it’s own thing so if you are looking for different maybe this is it?
What inspired the idea for Tide Child? Have you always had an appreciation for the sea and seafaring?
I love the sea and have always loved the sea in all its moods. It is at the same time, fascinating, calming and terrifying. As well as the sea I also love Patrick O’Brian’s books and The Bone Ships is my love letter to both of them.
Your work brings some very novel ideas to the nautical fantasy sub-genre and I’ve heard your new book Gods of the Wyrdwood is brilliantly unique; do you consciously sit down and think about how you can bring something new when you write, or do you think this just comes organically from your imagination?
I do very little consciously and it is all how it just comes from my head. My original plan for Wyrdwood was to write something a bit less high-concepty and more of a straight adventure but it didn’t quite work out like that. It never really does. I start a thing and my imagination runs away with me.
Do you have a favourite pirate or mythical sea creature?
Well, not a pirate or a creature, no. But I do have a favourite Naval Figure which is Sir Thomas Cochrane, the 10th Earl of Dundonald. A lot of the Exploits of Hornblower and Jack Aubrey are based on this man and he is a man very much of his time but his life was incredible. There’s a thing they do with a light in the Bone Ship’s books that is right out of his playbook. He is well worth reading about.
How do you think you would have fared as a pirate?
Oh, terrible. I’d be dead in a couple of hours.
What was the last book you read that really stuck with you and you’d like to recommend to readers?
Well I’ve just finished A Drink Before the War by Dennis Lehane which was brilliant, his writing is amazing.
Finally, as we look through the spyglass, what’s next on the horizon for you as an author?
Well, I’m just finishing off the last Wyrdwood book at the moment. And I have a sort of fantasy Murder Mystery with my agent that is maybe in some ways easier to approach than my other stuff. Though I say that about everything I write so I wouldn’t pay too much attention to me. Then I‘ve written a few chapters of my next sort of big fantasy thing which will come after Wyrdwood and it’s probably the prettiest thing I’ve written. It’s sort of all woozy and heart filled.
So there’s that. 🙂
UK readers can win a US copy of Gods of the Wyrdwood! Simply reply to my twitter post with your favourite thing about the sea! I’ll draw a winner at the end of the week.
Spells and Spaceships 
The bone ships, love love love these books, please don’t stop writing, can’t wait to read your other books.
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