Interview with Daniel T. Jackson
Hello book pals! Pop the kettle on and settle down for a great interview with Daniel T. Jackson.
Jackson is a fantasy author from the UK and his novel, ILLBORN, is set to be a classic. It’s the first in The Illborn Saga and is stuffed full of incredible world building, beautifully written characters and perfectly paced scenes. He’s a personal hero of mine, so I was so excited to interview him!
In this chat he dives into his writing philosophy, the upcoming release of AIDUEL’S SIN and his literary influences.
You can find Daniel on Instagram, Twitter and his books are available worldwide through Amazon and other major retailers.
AKM: Illborn is a fantastic example of truly rich settings and history. What is your philosophy when it comes to world-building?
DTJ: Haha, I think it would be overstating it a little to describe my approach as a philosophy! My starting objective was to create a world which would provide the best possible platform for me to tell my story. In epic fantasy, many of the greatest stories often emerge from conflict or potential conflict, so I wanted to establish a world where there was plenty of opportunity for that, whether that be territorial, military, political or religious. I also wanted to portray a sense of scale and history.
Before I started writing ILLBORN, I created a detailed planning document which provided a basis for the world. I started with a hand-drawn map, and then over a period of time fleshed out the countries and the peoples who inhabited that map. This included considerations such as history of the world and lore.
This was all done with one eye on the prime objective; to tell an interesting and compelling story. As I fleshed out the detailed plot, if it made it easier to achieve my storytelling objectives to change the world and the pieces in that world, I had no hesitation about doing that, as part of an iterative process. That continued (to a lesser degree) as I was writing the first book.
AKM: I’m a planner, too! I marvel at those who can just dive into writing without a plan. It takes a whole different set of skills!
What literary pilgrimages have you gone on?
DTJ: I have been a keen reader since I was 7 or 8 years old. My favourite genres since then include fantasy, historical fiction, horror, science fiction and factual history.
In fantasy, I started with books like The Hobbit and the Fighting Fantasy Choose Your Own Adventure books. In my teens, I initially read series such as The Lord of the Rings, The Dragonlance Chronicles, the original Shannara trilogy and The Thomas Covenant Chronicles. Later, I discovered series such as Raymond E. Feist’s Riftwar Cycle, Tad Williams’ Memory, Sorrow and Thorn trilogy, and the Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan. By the time my teenage years had finished, I was hooked on fantasy for life!
Since then, the fantasy series which have stood out for me above all others are ASOIAF by George R.R. Martin, and Malazan Book of the Fallen by Steven Erikson.
In historical fiction, the first writers I loved to read were James Clavell (Shogun might be my favourite book) and Ken Follett, the latter primarily for his Pillars of the Earth series. Later, I loved the wonderful Poldark series by Winston Graham.
In the horror genre, I have read many books by the genius Stephen King (possibly 25 – 30 books in total now, more than by any other author), and lots by Anne Rice. I think King is the most imaginative storyteller across any genre.
Throughout that period (but actually less since I published ILLBORN) I have also read lots of factual history books across many diverse time periods. My favourite writer in that genre is Max Hastings.
AKM: I absolutely LOVE Follett’s books. They help bring history to life!
What is one writing tool or strategy that you cannot live without?
DTJ: I don’t really use any formal tools. Personally, I am a detailed planner, so I create a bullet-point plan for the whole book before I start, and then create a much more detailed plan for the 6-8 chapters immediately ahead of me (almost on a scene-by-scene basis setting out all key events, decisions, consequences etc). I also use an excel spreadsheet to track which chapters have been written, which edits have been undertaken etc, but this is fairly informal.
AKM: What is your writing Kryptonite?
DTJ: As anyone who has read ILLBORN probably recognises, I am not really a flowery prose-type person. Probably as a result of my career background, I prefer prose which is clear, concise and easy-to-understand. Writing which is too descriptive (e.g. taking three paragraphs to describe a sunset) can sometimes bore me to tears.
I suspect that this reflects in my own writing, and where scenes arrive in which I absolutely must describe a setting in detail to make the scene work, it is probably what I find most difficult to write. For such scenes, I might take several times as long to write a single page compared to the aspects of writing which I enjoy most, which are action and dialogue. My other Kryptonite is noise! I need close to silence to write because I regularly speak the words to myself to check for lyricism and flow. Therefore, I cannot write well during school holidays, when there is too much noise in the house from my 4 children! I am amazed by writers who can write in a cafe or when listening to music, because I just could not do it.
AKM: I know what you mean, I can’t write if there’s any noise around. I get distracted by other words!
I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again, I’d LOVE to see ILLBORN made into a movie. If you were to cast Corin, Leanna, Arion and Allana in a movie, which actors would you choose?
DTJ: Haha, that is an incredibly difficult question (would have to be a lavish TV series though, with a healthy royalty percentage for the author!).
Probably the easiest to answer is Corin; a number of people have said that Tom Holland would be a perfect fit, and I am inclined to agree. Leanna – possibly Elle Fanning? She is a brilliant actress (she is awesome in The Great!), and I think she could capture the essence of Leanna perfectly. For Arion and Allana, I am a little more stumped. A young Chris Evans lookalike would be perfect for Arion, but I have no idea for Allana.
Haha, if anyone has better suggestions, please send them on a postcard to the heads of Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney+ and HBO, along with a copy of the book.
AKM: You heard it here first, readers - we need to get Tom Holland on board!
As writers, we often find ourselves writing about subjects and situations that no human ever really dreams of having to dive into. You have scenes of torture in Illborn. Did you do research on the practices used? What was it like to write those scenes?
DTJ: I did do a level of internet research on the torture scenes, but primarily I have read about torture processes in factual history books, and I am sure that I have absorbed some of that knowledge over a period of time.
Being careful about spoilers, there are scenes in the book which I recognise are horrific, and that I would wish on nobody in the real-world (and indeed would wholeheartedly condemn if committed by a real person against another real person). Before talking about how it felt to write those scenes, I want to make a critical point however that a novel is a work of fiction. No one real ever suffers as a result of the events described in a novel, no matter how horrible those fictional events might be.
Therefore, as an author writing darker scenes, you have to both detach yourself from the horror of what you are writing, but also immerse yourself in it from the perspective of the character. How would they be feeling? What would they be thinking? How do you want the reader to feel as they are experiencing the words on the page? Sometimes, I wanted the reader to be as appalled as I believe I would be if I was to witness those things actually happening to someone.
Stephen King is a master at writing horror, and I hope I have absorbed just a shadow of his ability in writing the darker scenes in ILLBORN and AIDUEL’S SIN.
AKM: Nosey question, but what did you do with your first advance?
DTJ: Haha, I should be so lucky! I have only had royalties / revenue in arrears since publishing the book, and most of these have gone into covering my up-front costs and funding subsequent larger print runs, or are going into funding the production and publication process for book two. Hopefully, I will get a commercial return from the books eventually which reflects the time I have put into them, but money was not my motivating factor for becoming an author.
AKM: I’m sure you’ll do fantastically well with book two. I can’t wait to read it!
What does literary success look like to you?
DTJ: My main motivation in becoming a writer was to fulfil my lifelong ambition to write a novel and to tell stories. Obviously, along with that, I want those stories to be something which other people want to read.
In simple terms, I ultimately want to have a substantial following of readers who enjoy (or even love) my books, and I want to see that base grow over a period of years. It has been wonderful to see the readership of ILLBORN grow over time, and I would love for a large proportion of those readers to want to continue with the series.
I also want to complete the Illborn Saga, and wish for that to become a series which a large number of people read in full and later regard with fondness.
AKM: And last, but not least, can you tell us about any news, updates, or current projects you would like to share with the world?
DTJ: I recently shared a full update on Instagram, Twitter and Goodreads that I have completed Book Two of the Illborn Saga. Titled AIDUEL’S SIN, it is going to be published on 28th January 2023.
I am going to be releasing more information about the book in the next couple of months, including the cover and the blurb, and I am very excited for the readers who enjoyed ILLBORN to read the second book in the series.
I also hope to be announcing some other news about ILLBORN at some point in the near future.
It would also be remiss of me not to mention that a certain book called The Worthy has recently been released by a debut author whose name is Anna K. Moss. I have bought a copy, and am looking forward to reading it in 2023.
AKM: Thank you so much, Daniel!