Metl: The Angel Weapon by Scott Wilson Blog Tour!
Metl: The Angel Weapon by Scott
Wilson
Publication Date: March 5, 2019
Publisher: Month9Books
Thirteen-year-old Caden Aire spends his
days working in the fields and his nights sleeping in a horse stable,
all under the watch of Metl—Earth's mysterious and artificial
second moon, a looming relic of humanity's lost era.
But Caden's simple life changes when
one night, a fiery red X suddenly appears on Metl's surface, and the
same red Xs start glowing on his palms.
Now Caden must find the only person who
knows what's happening to him, but he doesn't have much time. Metl
has started on an impact course with Earth, and to stop it, Caden
will have to face both the unsettling truth about his world … and
about himself.
Link
to Goodreads:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/42390112-metl
Purchase
Links:
ABOUT THE
AUTHOR
Scott
Wilson works as a translator and editor for the Japanese
news-entertainment website SoraNews24. He runs ScottWritesStuff, a
creative writing livestream on Twitch, and in his free time can be
found playing video games and Magic: The Gathering with friends.
Metl: The ANGEL Weapon is his first novel. He lives in the Japanese
countryside with his wife.
Website
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AUTHOR INTERVIEW
One (1) winner will receive a Starbucks Gift Card
AUTHOR INTERVIEW
What
inspired you to write your first book?
I
was doing an internship in Tokyo during one summer, coming home from
a long day of making cold calls to Japanese businesses asking if they
wanted to purchase my company's fringe benefits package, so their
employees could, among other things, save 10 yen on cans of squid
paste. I was crossing the street to my kitchen-table-sized apartment,
exhausted and bored out of my mind, when suddenly I got a random idea
for a book. It was all I could think about for the rest of the day,
and the rest of the internship, and the next four years as I wrote
it. Of course, being my first book, it was a hot garbage fire of a
mess, but hey, I learned a lot and it started me on my journey.
Do you have a specific writing style?
I
definitely do, but I'm not quite sure what it is. I do a creative
writing livestream three times a week where myself and viewers write
short stories together, so they've really gotten to know my writing
style. During one of them, I shared the beginning of a Harry Potter
fanfic I wrote when I was in middle school, and my viewers all said
the same thing: "If I close my eyes and ignore the terrible
parts, it definitely sounds like your writing." Not sure if I
should be proud or ashamed of that.
How
did you come up with the title?
Originally
I was just going to call the book "Metl," after the name of
Earth's artificial second moon in the story, but that felt a little
too cryptic by itself. So my publisher and I decided to change it to
"Metl: The ANGEL Weapon" instead. Not sure if it's a whole
lot less cryptic, but it's definitely cooler!
Is
there a message in your novel that you want readers to grasp?
I'd
love it if readers came away from Metl with a healthy sense of
skepticism toward authority. We live in a world
connected by technology, with the sum of human knowledge available at
anyone's fingertips. And yet despite that, we're seeing more and more
fear of progress/science every day, with the rise of everything from
Flat Earthers to Anti-Vaxxers to climate change denial. I want my
readers to critically analyze these groups, and others, and think
about who really benefits from their way of thinking.
How
much of the book is realistic?
Well,
there's a part where a woman destroys an entire town with a
water-weapon installed in her palms, there's a robotic spider with
seven legs that can talk, and there's a giant metallic second moon in
the sky with a glowing red X on it headed toward impact with Earth,
so not super realistic? Also the main character's favorite food is
bread dumpling soup, and for a thirteen-year-old boy that's pretty
unrealistic.
Are
experiences based on someone you know, or events in your own life?
Well,
there was that one time I accidentally destroyed an entire town with
my own water-weapon palms, so there's that!
What
books have most influenced your life most?
The
Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster, Harry Potter by JK Rowling, and
the manga One Piece by Eiichiro Oda. The Phantom Tollbooth was the
first novel I remember reading, and I've read it every year since
then, always finding something new in it. The Harry Potter series was
essentially all I read in middle school and high school, just
rotating through the books over and over again, so the style really
baked itself into me. And One Piece is, simply put, the greatest
story I've ever read. It may look like a silly pirate adventure aimed
at young boys, but it's anything but. The incredible world building,
conflict, stakes, and my personal favorite, the soul-crushing
character backstories, have made One Piece the story that I admire
the most.
If
you had to choose, which writer would you consider a mentor?
Eiichiro
Oda, the author/artist of One Piece. Ever since I first read it, I
wanted to write my own version of One Piece one day, with characters
going on an adventure in a crazy world. And that's exactly what I did
with Metl: The ANGEL Weapon.
What
book are you reading now?
I'm
reading two books: Pachinko by Min Jin Lee and An Absolutely
Remarkable Thing by Hank Green. Pachinko follows the generational
story of a family in early 1900s Japan-occupied Korea, and it is
simultaneously heartbreaking and hopeful in ways I never knew
possible. An Absolutely Remarkable Thing is about a young woman who
discovers a samurai statue in the middle of New York, makes a video
on it, and goes viral. It has one of the most engrossing first
chapters I've read in a long time. April May's voice is so strong and
unique that you can't help but get sucked in and go along for the
ride with her.
What
are your current projects?
I
just turned in the manuscript to Metl's sequel to my publisher, and
I'm currently working on the third book in the series. Fingers
crossed that I get to keep writing them!
Name
one entity that you feel supported you outside of family members.
That
would have to be my writing coach Charlene Smith. I learned more
about writing during a two-hour session with her than I had in my
eight years of writing leading up to that point. She was one of the
first to see Metl's opening chapter, and one of the first to tell me
how bad it was. It was thanks to her feedback, suggestions, and
support that the story exists in its current form today.
Do
you see writing as a career?
I've
visited at least three shines here in Japan and donated 10 yen at
each, so we'll see. It's out of my hands now!
If
you had to do it all over again, would you change anything in your
latest book?
As
of right now, no. But I'm sure that when I take a look at the
physical book in my hands and read through it, I'll see at least
fifteen things that I'm horrified made it to print.
Do
you recall how your interest in writing originated?
Back in the year 2000, 13-year-old
Scott had a big problem: the fifth Harry Potter book was taking too
long to come out. So I was inspired to write my own fanfiction
version of the Order of the Phoenix… and a fanfiction sixth book
too… and half of a seventh, because when you don't have friends in
middle school you have a lot of free time.
Can you share a little of your current
work with us?
Sure!
Here's the opening spread to Metl: The ANGEL Weapon, complete with
the gorgeous illustration by Monika
Viktoria:
Who
designed the covers?
The
cover was originally drawn by Monika
Viktoria and then touched up digitally by
Danielle Doolittle. I think both of them did an incredible job!
Is
there anything you find particularly challenging in your writing?
I
get caught up in the big-picture stuff so often—the overarching
plots, backstories, and hidden motives—that I quite often forget to
describe the little things as they are now. Thankfully I have an
amazing wife and mother who are more than happy to tell me when I've
neglected to say if a character is a man, woman, or cyclops.
What
was the hardest part of writing your book?
The
hardest part was probably finding the middle ground between giving
away too much information and not enough information. There's a lot
of mystery in the book, and I wanted there to be intrigue, but no so
much that it frustrated the reader. Hopefully I found a decent
balance!
Did
you learn anything from writing your book and what was it?
If
your goal is traditional publication, then writing the query letter
and synopsis BEFORE you write the book is a great way to go about
things. You can create an irresistible query, and then write the book
that lives up to it. That's what I did with Metl, and it was the
first of my six novels to get any sort of agent/publisher response.
Do
you have any advice for other writers?
Write
your query letter first! Or, if you've already started your book,
write it now. You may discover that your story is lacking conflict,
stakes, or something else that could hinder its chances of getting
published. There's nothing worse than pouring months/years of your
life into a book, only to be met with radio silence and rejections
when it comes time to send it out to agents.
Do
you have anything specific that you want to say to your readers?
Don't
forget to SMASH that "like" button and WHACK that subscribe
lever and RING that notification bell and... oh wait, books aren't
YouTube videos. Uh, just enjoy the book at your own pace then!
What
were the challenges (research, literary, psychological, and
logistical) in bringing it to life?
Caden,
the main character, is a stable boy, so I learned a LOT about horses.
Thankfully my wife grew up with horses and even knew a horse doctor I
could ask questions to, but man, I feel like I should go on horse
Jeopardy.
What
genre do you consider your book(s)?
It's
tough to pick a genre for Metl. It's kind of sci-fi, since it takes
place in the future, but since all technology is illegal, there's not
a ton of the usual sci-fi stuff. If I could use any genre I wanted
though, I'd say "shonen," the Japanese genre of manga/anime
that is aimed toward kids. "Shonen" stories usually have a
starry-eyed protagonist who, over the course of the series, gets
stronger, makes friends, and overcomes more and more powerful
adversaries. Dragon Ball Z, Naruto, My Hero Academia, and more are
all examples of "shonen," and I think an argument could be
made for Metl too.
Do
you ever experience writer's block?
I
am not a great writer. I am constantly shocked and impressed by the
writing ability of other authors and I wish I could write like them.
But, to make up for that lack of skill, there is one thing I am
extremely good at: making a schedule and sticking to it. I've never
really experienced writer's block, because I force myself to write
every day. Some days are certainly better/easier than others, but
I've never had a blockage so bad that I've been unable to continue,
and I feel pretty lucky about that.
Do
you write an outline before every book you write?
Oh
yes. I am a compulsive outliner. If I don't know the ending to a
story, then I can't start writing it. That being said, I do like to
leave some room for discovery as a I go along. There are a ton of
cool things in Metl that weren't in the outline, but appeared out of
necessity or as a spur-of-the-moment idea while writing.
Have
you ever hated something you wrote?
When
I first finished the sequel to Metl that I just sent out to my
publisher, I hated it. It was a confusing, complicated mess, and I
had no idea how to simplify it. It took a full month of yelling at
the manuscript, apologizing to it, and banging my head against the
wall to even just figure out what to do, then another two months to
implement it. That process was miserable, but the outcome—a sequel
that I now love—was completely worth it.
What
is your favourite theme/genre to write about?
I
love the speculative genre. Anything that takes something about our
world, twists it a bit, and then explores the ripple effects has my
immediate attention.
What
are your expectations for the book?
I
hope that the people who read it like it, and that I can continue to
write more books in the Metl series!
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