The Interview: Bookbag Talks To Ritchie Valentine Smith

The Interview: Bookbag Talks To Ritchie Valentine Smith

Summary: Ani enjoyed Words of Power, the first volume of a new samurai fantasy series by Ritchie Valentine Smith. She had plenty of questions for the author when he popped in to see us.

Date: 31 August 2016

Interviewer: Ani Johnson

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Ani enjoyed Words of Power, the first volume of a new samurai fantasy series by Ritchie Valentine Smith. She had plenty of questions for the author when he popped in to see us.

• Bookbag: When you close your eyes and imagine your readers, who do you see?

Ritchie Valentine Smith: When I write, I’m totally in that world – if it’s going well...! For imagined readers, perhaps some young vibrant person full of passion and curiosity, on a farm in Tennessee, or in some apartment in Bangalore, or in a quiet suburban house in England. Or a reader might be an older person like me, regretting that the late Robert Jordan can write no more wonderful books, and wanting to find some new magic...

• BB: Words of Power is your latest novel and the first in a new samurai fantasy series. Please could you tell us a little about it?

RVS: I suppose the whole series is a quest – for freedom, for self-realization, and for wonder. There is swordplay, myth, and magical happenings. The story is also a battle against the Lord of the North – who represents entropy, cold, and death. It’s quite a fight!

• BB: You travelled extensively to research this series. What were you looking for in a real world to insert into a fantasy realm and were there any unexpected discoveries and surprises?

RVS: I have been developing the story for years now, and about five or six years ago I had one long book, set in Japan, which I then split. I’ve looked over territory and examined historical scenes at first hand as best I can.

I also write because of things I’ve seen, heard and done. In Auschwitz, by the cracked concrete base of a crematorium, I once heard a rabbi say Kaddish (the Jewish prayer of mourning). I have never heard a voice like that in my entire life. When I was in Jerusalem, at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, supposedly built over the Rock of Calvary, I joined the queue and touched the rock, but what I touched didn’t feel like rock to me, it felt that I was touching warm pulsing flesh... They are some of the experiences that impelled me to write.

• BB: How much of yourself do you put into your characters and is there some of you in any of the Words of Power people? (If so, which characters and which bits?)

RVS: I suppose Man (Emmanuel-John Artur Kinross, to be formal, son of the Lord General of All Arms of Albion Imperial) might have particular resonance. He’s tall and, though often uncertain, a very determined and very loyal person. I love music, but can’t play and can’t sing, so perhaps the Voice from Afar is my fantasy. I’d love to hear her sing ‘The Banks of the Nile’, though I can’t imagine even she would be better than Sandy Denny!

• BB: Which of your Words of Power cast would you take to the pub and, if we eavesdropped, what sort of conversation would we hear?

RVS: Well, I suppose Man might be a bit dour, but Yoshi would be witty over his cups of saké, and the Voice from Afar would sit in a corner and sing, wonderfully, and Faslane would tell some story of his adventures, and Lord Okada’s daughter Joah would talk about her family...

• BB: The story is bejewelled with philosophies and beliefs mirroring some that exist in our real world. What part do you feel these more spiritual aspects play in this series?

RVS: I suppose most quests have a spiritual dimension, don’t they? You go looking for wonders, and perhaps you find them. You go looking for something beyond yourself. You certainly go looking for yourself, and perhaps you get self-knowledge. I was trying to create something different from the cynical, where at least some of the characters are full of ideals and optimism.

• BB: Samurai or martial arts fantasy is a sub-genre increasing in popularity. What attracted you to it as writer?

RVS: The knightly code bushido is powerful, and skilled warriors fighting each other is drama. Also I love ‘Seven Samurai’!

• BB: Changing your profession from Social Worker to writer must have been quite a leap. Do you have any hints on how to do it for anyone else thinking of changing their job title to that of author?

RVS: My experience as a social worker consisted of working with often very disturbed and sad people, very serious addicts. It was certainly memorable, but not something I would have done for the rest of my working life. – As for job changes, I always say that if the window of opportunity opens for you, you have to throw yourself through!

• BB: Is there anything you did or came across in writing or publishing that, if you had your time over again, you'd avoid?

RVS: If you who are reading this write, if possible make sure everybody in the chain – agent, editor, publisher, cover-designer, publicity person – is sympathetic to your work and understands it and you. If possible! And don’t sign a contract giving a publisher ebook rights to your work for 40 years. Really, don’t, though you’ll probably be told that it’s standard now!

• BB: What's next for Ritchie Valentine Smith?

RVS: I am trying to finish volume 2 of the series, Words of Fury, before I go up to Fantasycon-by-the-sea at the end of September 2016. Fantasycon is this year’s 3-day meet-up for fans of fantasy writing.

The Japan-set part of the sequence will be four books, as described in my Website Afterwards I’d like to bring the characters here (‘here’ meaning the Empire of Albion) and then perhaps India and China before the ultimate resolution. The ending I have planned for the whole series should be memorable indeed (I hope!), so perhaps a good number of people will stay along for the whole ride...

• BB: We're certainly planning to, Ritchie. We hope it's a smooth journey.

You can read more about Ritchie Valentine Smith here.

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