Interview with Patrick D. Carlson, Author of The Winged Lion: Marion’s Match

Hello,

I’m pleased to bring you this interview today with Patrick D. Carlson, author of The Winged Lion: Marion’s Match.

Please enjoy!

Best,

Vincent Lowry

Interview:

1) What is your author name and in what state do you live (or country if not in the US)?
Patrick D. Carlson, Minnesota

2) What is the title of your newest book and what is the genre?
The Winged Lion: Marion’s Matchdystopian fiction

3) What is the book about? 
In the year 2090, the Commonwealth, the tyrannical world government headed by Premier Kerioth, has a stranglehold over all its citizens. General Nathaniel Marion leads the nonconformist resistance forces, with the ultimate goal of toppling the dictatorial regime.
Peter Barclay is a prodigious teenager who is trying to find his place in this society in which he is so different from his peers. His intellect and profound “gifts” make him admirable to some and vilified by most. Peter’s mysterious role in the larger plot to take down the Commonwealth eventually becomes known through the many unexpected turns within the tightly woven plotline.
What will win in the end, freedom or tyranny? You’ll have to find out.

4) Where did you come up with the idea?
I wouldn’t say there was one specific catalyst with regard to the idea for my book. I have always been deeply interested in politics in the U.S., geopolitics, military history and technology, and ideological struggles in history. I am kind of a movie buff of sorts (mostly older movies), so I probably got some bits and pieces from things I’ve seen over the years too.

5) How long did it take you to write it?
I started contemplating writing a book in 2013 and started writing a different storyline. I didn’t like it, so I started over and began writing the first chapter of “The Winged Lion: Marion’s Match” in the fall of 2015. I would say if I were to add up the bits and pieces over the last four and a half years of writing, it would probably be a solid eighteen months to put the storyline together, then about twenty-four months of editing and revising. That was the best I could do given my other dedications in life: my marriage, my three sons now, and having a full-time career as a home care physical therapist in the northern suburbs of Minneapolis.

6) Did you learn anything from the project?
By and large, I enjoyed the writing process. I would say it’s much easier to write five pages or more than to write one page because once I was able to get inundated in the characters’ minds or within the story, then the words flowed much more easily. Being “in the zone” was probably the most vivid part of writing from me. From time to time, especially when I had a longer period of time during which I could continuously write, as I was writing, it felt like I was in a movie of my own creation, so that was pretty cool. The most difficulty certainly came from the editing process. I know the finished product (although, finished is debatable, and I realize this is a problem for most authors–never being completely satisfied with their work) arrived after at least eleven revisions after having gone through the whole story over and over. I certainly became a better writer as I learned how to refine my craft through this difficult editing phase. My wife and dad were probably my greatest editors-in-chief, aside from myself. My publisher, Page Publishing, helped me move forward to present a much better version than what I initially had, so I am grateful for them as well.

7) Do you have an author website and/or blog? How about a book video?
I am still in the process of determining the kind of website I’d like to have created. I do have one on the Page Publishing website.  https://www.pagepublishing.com/books/?book=the-winged-lion. 
No book video or blog yet, although I’m sure I’ll do something like that in the future.

8) Do you have any success tips to pass on to fellow authors? How about any great editors/cover artists? 
I would say that one major form of writer’s block that I had to overcome was getting too consumed by researching. I’m a fairly detail-oriented person, and so I would research geographical locations where the storyline takes place, military technologies, etc. I found that my desire to find more and more information would, at times, take away from the actual story writing itself. So, my advice would be to always continue to write something down to keep the project moving forward. Technical details can always be added later.

9) What genres do you like to read? Are you open to reading new authors and reviewing their work?
I do quite a bit of reading on any given day, but Ironically, almost all of what I read are articles and non-fiction books. I read a lot of U.S. and world history books, military history, Catholic apologetics, and some other theological books as well. I haven’t really read a whole lot within the genre of dystopian fiction. “Starship Troopers” is probably the only one I’ve read.
I would be open to reviewing aspects of new authors’ work as my time allows.

10) What is your favorite book of all time and why? 
My favorite book of all time is Theology and Sanity, by Frank Sheed. It enlightens the reader about what it means to be human, and what our place is in the order of creation. After reading this book, you’ll never look at life the same way.

11) Fun Question: Do you have any pets? If so, what kind?
I don’t have any pets

12) Fun Question 2: Do you own an electronic reading device? If so, what kind and how do you like it?
I prefer a physical book, so I don’t own an electronic reading device.

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