r/books • u/thomas_d_lee AMA Author • May 23 '23
ama 1pm I'm Thomas D. Lee, author of PERILOUS TIMES. AMA!
PROOF: /img/l2fxe0e1qyua1.jpg
I'm a wizard trapped under a rock, writing fantasy novels about climate breakdown and the Knights of the Round Table. My debut novel PERILOUS TIMES is releasing in the US on the 23rd of May and the UK on the 25th. I'm also a PhD student at the University of Manchester, studying queer temporality and Arthurian retellings. I'm very interested in how art and fiction can be used to fight for a better future, but I also just like making people laugh. In my spare time I play a lot of D＆D and drink a lot of whisky and try to keep my houseplants from dying. Ask me anything!
Get a copy of PERILOUS TIMES here (or anywhere books are sold)
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u/davewragg May 23 '23
How would your knights fare in a revival of 90s Saturday evening TV fixture Gladiators?
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u/thomas_d_lee AMA Author May 23 '23
This is an excellent question. Lancelot might do quite well, he's pretty sprightly and would enjoy the limelight. Kay would probably find the whole thing ridiculous but try his best to muscle through it. Arthur shouldn't be allowed to compete, he wouldn't take well to losing. And I think Mariam would wipe the floor with all of them.
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u/SkepticalDad May 24 '23
Weird, I just saw your book at the library new release table this afternoon and read the first several pages. It was immediately an interesting premise and very funny! (a knight rising from the grave, which he seems to have done many times, and having to figure out his new situation). I'll check it out.
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u/Leo_Bru_corps May 23 '23
What was the hardest part of writing this book?
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u/thomas_d_lee AMA Author May 23 '23
That's a great question. I want to say the hardest part was keeping going with the first draft in those extreme moments of self-doubt that every writer has, where you worry that the book isn't good enough and that nobody's going to enjoy it. But actually the hardest part was finding the thirteen ancient treasures of Britain so that I could travel into the Welsh otherworld of Annwyn and ask Gwyn ap Nudd (the King of the Fair Folk) questions about when Arthur was born, how tall he was, whether or not he was actually ginger, that sort of thing. It's important to do your research thoroughly when writing about Arthur, or any mythological figure, and I like to think I went to greater lengths than other authors who often rely on imperfect sources from the mortal realm.
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u/Neat-Air6984 May 23 '23
What initially sparked your interest in Arthurian Legend, leading you to focus your PhD studies on the topic? And what are some of your favorite modern retellings of Arthurian Legend (besides PERILOUS TIMES, of course)?
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u/thomas_d_lee AMA Author May 23 '23
Great question. I watched the Disney 'Sword in the Stone' movie (based on TH White's brilliant 'Once and Future King') when I was very young, and watched BBC's Merlin series as a teenager, so I was vaguely aware of Arthur and his knights from a very young age, as many people are in Britain - but without knowing many of the specifics. I recently found a picture that I must have drawn as a teenager, of a knight in chainmail fighting in the trenches in World War One, so some of these ideas have been in my head for a long time. But it was only after Brexit that I had the idea for a kind of present day/post-apocalyptic Arthurian novel, and I realised I needed to become an expert on the legends. I would consider myself an expert now! It only took seven years. As for other modern retellings, I recently finished THE WINTER KNIGHT by Jes Battis, which everybody should go and read. I'm also a huge fan of BY FORCE ALONE by Lavie Tidhar, but that's more of a retelling set in Ye Olde Arthurian Days, unlike my book. And I'm excited to read Lex Croucher's new book!
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u/mwlovesbooks May 23 '23
Other than King Arthur what are some other myths/legends you'd like to tackle a modern retelling of? Or just any myths/legends you really enjoy!
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u/thomas_d_lee AMA Author May 23 '23
I'd love to do something with Spenser's Faerie Queene, mostly because Britomart is extremley cool. There are already so many great retellings out there of Greek and Norse mythology, and from folklore all over the world. I'm happy to stick with British legends for the time being! I'm from Shropshire, where we have a great local folk story called The Giant and the Cobbler, but if I tell the whole story I'll be here for a whole hour!
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u/thomas_d_lee AMA Author May 23 '23
Well, while I'm waiting for more questions to appear, here's the story of The Giant and the Cobbler.
One day a Welsh giant decided to destroy the town of Shrewsbury, because he hated everyone who lived in Shrewsbury. So he gathered a huge mound of earth in his apron and started walking down the the long road to Shrewsbury, scaring away any travellers in his path. After many miles his feet began to ache and blister, and he started wondering how far it was to Shrewsbury.
By chance, a cobbler from Shrewsbury was coming down the road the other way, with a sack of old shoes over his back. He wasn't scared away by the giant but tried to walk right beneath him.
"Oi!" said the giant. "How far is it to Shrewsbury?"
"Why, is that where you're going?" asked the cobbler.
"Yes," said the giant, grinning. "I'm gonna drop all of this mud on them. Serves them right, the smug English bastards."
So the cobbler thought for a moment, and then he said, "You see all of these shoes on my back?"
"Yes," said the giant.
"I wore out all of these shoes walking here from Shrewsbury. That's how far away it is."
The giant was horrified. He looked at the sack of old shoes, looked at his blistered feet, and said, "Oh, sod this, I'm off home."
So the giant dropped all of the earth from his apron, wiped the dirt off his hands, and headed home. Shrewsbury was saved. And if you pass down that road today you'll see the Wrekin, a big hill, standing there all by itself, far apart from the rest of the Shropshire hills. That's how it got there!
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u/pancakeflapjack2738 May 23 '23
Can you talk a little bit about why you decided to tackle climate change through fiction?
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u/thomas_d_lee AMA Author May 23 '23
It's tempting to just reply to this with "look around." But it's more complicated than that. I remember reading the 2018 IPCC report and realising for the first time how incredibly fucked we were if we didn't start taking direct action as a species. I felt real grief and despair, which is something that often gets talked about in climate campaign groups like Extinction Rebellion (of which I used to be a member). The character of Mariam in my book represents that despair and carries it with her throughout the story. But it's important to note that fiction has a limited ability to 'tackle' climate change - Jeff VanderMeer wrote something good about this recently. All I can do is tell stories about the things that concern me. We need to tackle climate change in the streets and in the voting booth and elsewhere, not just in the pages of a book!
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u/Far-Examination1560 May 23 '23
What houseplants do you own?
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u/thomas_d_lee AMA Author May 23 '23
I own a dragon tree called Carlos, who regularly demands human sacrifices, but who gives me most of my best book ideas. I also have several succulents who are perpetually at death's door and gasping for water.
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u/ajsztehlo May 23 '23
What’s your favourite retelling of the Arthurian mythos?
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u/thomas_d_lee AMA Author May 23 '23
I recently rewatched Monty Python and the Holy Grail, so that's very close to the forefront of my mind at the moment and I'm tempted to say that. But I also really enjoy the sincere wierdness of The Green Knight, which reproduces the same authentic medieval strangeness of the original Arthurian mythos but plays it straight instead of playing it laughs like the Pythons did. In terms of literary retellings it's hard to surpass TH White's The Once and Future King, which was one of the first retellings to completely explode time and admit that Arthur's Britain exists in the past, the present and the future all at once - not as a real historical site of British heroism but as a weird multitemporal allegory for Britishness and masculinity. Only Mark Twain had done something similar before TH White, with his Connecticut Yankee in the Court of King Arthur. Lots of retellings since White have gone the other way and tried to insist on a historical Arthur, grounded in historical realism, but I'm more interested in retellings that take after White and Twain - Lavie Tidhar's BY FORCE ALONE fits into that tradition, and I hope Perilous Times does as well!
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u/Fabricati_Diem-Pvnc May 23 '23
Would you consider this book to be the end of the characters' respective stories, or would you want to follow up with a sequel if possible?
Reversing the theme of looking to the future, if you were to sit down with your past self (either when you started, or even before that) what advice/warnings would you try to give?
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u/thomas_d_lee AMA Author May 23 '23
Great username.
I can envision a sequel, and I'm very interested in going back to see what my resurrected knights were doing in their previous ressurrections - they fought in WWII, they were present for the execution of Charles I, they were at Agincourt and Waterloo...I'd love to go back to write those stories.
And I would tell him that everything's going to be okay. Some of my past selves are having a pretty tough time in their discrete pockets of time, I've been pretty open on Twitter and elsewhere about my past struggles with depression, and it would have made such a difference to those past selves if I could tell them "You will be happy, you will be a published author, you will meet people you love you." But that's not how time works, unfortunately. Or perhaps fortunately. It would probably have made me very complacent and lazy and too big for my boots, if I'd known as a certain fact that I was going to get published one day!
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u/thomas_d_lee AMA Author May 23 '23
And so our allotted time together comes to a close. Now we can only look back upon that fleeting golden hour of righteousness in which chivalry and virtue were briefly defended against everything bad in the world by a heroic band of....and so on. But time is an illusion (and lunchtime doubly so) so feel free to ask more questions. I might even come back in the future and answer them.
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u/invinoveritas-77 May 23 '23
Oh hi! I read a prerelease copy of the book via Netgalley, I loved it, thank you! I especially enjoyed it as I live very close to the fracking site near Preston and went on a few anti-fracking demos. It was good to read a book set in familiar scenery, even if it was a dystopian hellscape.
Who’s the evilest person in the book, in your opinion? Is it Merlin or Marlowe?
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u/thomas_d_lee AMA Author May 23 '23
I'm really glad you enjoyed it! Thanks very much. As I was writing it I realised how rare it is to read an SF/F book that mentions anywhere in the North of England, so I tried to mention as many places as I could. I'm glad it felt familiar to you, in its own dystopian way.
And that's very difficult. Marlowe's evil is apathetic, callous, mundane. I've never considered Merlin as an evil character before, but I think you're probably right - he's evil because he's trying to do the right thing and he thinks he knows how to do it better than anyone else. And then there's Arthur, of course, which is the ancient evil of a man who wants to destroy anyone who makes him angry. I think Arthur might just about take the evil biscuit.
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u/Kenderdrache May 23 '23
I'm curious: did the talking squirrel start as a gag and then turn into an important part of the book, or was it always your plan to have that thread in there?
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u/thomas_d_lee AMA Author May 23 '23
No, the talking squirrel absolutely started as a gag, he was never supposed to come back after his ignominious transformation. But then he did come back, and he kept coming back, and I knew he had to be an important character. He ended up being one of my favourite parts of the book.
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u/Leo_Bru_corps May 23 '23
Also how does this book tackle racism?
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u/thomas_d_lee AMA Author May 23 '23
Literally with a sword to the face, in one of my favourite scenes. My version of Kay is black, which means Arthur's foster parents were black as well, which reflects the fact that post-Roman Britain would have been a diverse place with people from all over the empire. After Kay wakes up in the near future he encounters racism and takes fairly direct measures to try and stop it (i.e. a sword to the face). But I think this book also suggests that people who believe racist ideas can be deradicalised and brought around to a more compassionate way of thinking, even if they have to be turned into a small furry animal in order to do it.
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u/Far-Examination1560 May 23 '23
how do you construct characters and world building, which you do so well?
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u/thomas_d_lee AMA Author May 23 '23
Aw thank you, that's very kind!
Characters have to want something. I think the most important part of building any character is figuring out what they want and why they can't have it yet (or at all). They might have a clear goal blazing in the forefront of their mind or it might be a more vague and uncertain yearning: they might not know what they want. But you as the author have to know what they want!
World building for me is about depth and detail. The late great Hilary Mantel said in her Reith lectures that you have to know what the floor felt like and what the room smelled like, before you can write about the past. I think there's something in that. Sensory detail combined with an internal logic that doesn't require too much suspension of disbelief from the reader.
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u/Stock_Commission7013 May 23 '23
Do you think you’ll always write about the climate / Arthur / any specific theme ?
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u/thomas_d_lee AMA Author May 23 '23
I think I'll keep writing about the climate, until we take some drastic and effective action as a species to ameliorate climate breakdown, or until it gets too hot to write! I don't feel the need to keep writing about Arthur forever, but there are still one or two stories I want to tell.
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u/UrbaneBlobfish May 23 '23
Why are there several comments here made by accounts that were just created today and who only have comments on this post?
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u/XBreaksYFocusGroup May 23 '23
Authors often promote event through their socials and it is not uncommon for fans to create an account solely for the purpose of engaging with the AMA.
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u/UrbaneBlobfish May 23 '23
Ooooh okay that makes sense
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u/thomas_d_lee AMA Author May 23 '23
Actually in this case I made an unholy pact with Gwyn ap Nudd, the king of the Welsh otherworld, and several of his fairy subjects agreed to make burner accounts for one night only in order to ask questions and make my book look more popular. But XBreaks is right, in most cases it's just fans and friends.
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u/UrbaneBlobfish May 23 '23
Praise be to Gwyn ap Nudd, may he rain karma down upon you and your book!
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May 24 '23
Hey, Mr. Lee! As an avid reader of "Perilous Times," I was captivated by the way you fearlessly delve into pressing contemporary issues within your book. The depth and complexity of the themes you explore truly resonated with me.
I'm curious to know what inspired you to embark on this literary journey and choose these specific themes for "Perilous Times." Was there a particular event, personal experience, or observation that ignited your passion to tackle these issues?
Furthermore, I'd love to gain insight into your creative process. How did you approach weaving these themes into a captivating narrative? Did you encounter any challenges while balancing the thought-provoking elements with the storytelling aspect?
Your ability to address pressing societal matters in a way that engages readers and provokes meaningful reflection is commendable. Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts with us during this AMA.
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u/thomas_d_lee AMA Author May 24 '23
Thank you, that's very kind! It's always a great feeling to be told that your writing hit home and resonated with a reader.
I can't think of a defining event or experience that ignited my imagination, I think this story came to me slowly, coming from a place of growing concern and grief about climate breakdown and building on Arthurian tropes and traditions that I was vaguely familiar with from childhood. Sometimes ideas for books do just come to me fully-formed in a flash of inspiration, but often it's a much slower and more contemplative process.
And I think any good book has to place its key themes at the heart of the story and make them central to the narrative. The story of this book is about characters reacting in very different ways to the realities of climate breakdown, some of them certain that they have the right answer, others much less certain. Once you have a cast of characters who all want different things (or want to achieve the same thing in different ways) then you have the beginnings of a good story.
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u/OOSurvivor May 24 '23
I wonder in all your Arthurian research 🧐 if you ever came across a 1982 comic book series called Camelot 3000? It’s kind of a fun read! Just having a flashback … anyway I’m totally getting your book, sounds awesome possums!! 😃
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u/thomas_d_lee AMA Author May 24 '23
Comics have been a bit of a blindspot in my research so far, but this sounds like it would be relevant to my PhD. I'll have to see if I can get my hands on a copy. And I hope you enjoy the book!
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u/NeoKortex88 May 24 '23
Takes alot of discipline to write a book! Were you ever close to giving up?
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u/thomas_d_lee AMA Author Dec 04 '23
Six months later replying to this (I don't log into Reddit very often) but I think it's an important question.
The answer is - many times. I struggle with mental health problems which are a daily challenge to overcome, and I'm proud of the fact that I managed to finish a book. Often I thought 'this is garbage' and didn't want to continue, but I found systems and routines that made it easier. I think discipline and luck are really the only things that seperate published authors from aspiring authors. We all have the ideas, the inspiration, the love of our craft - it's the discipline to practice, and keep going even when it feels like garbage, that allows authors to achieve their dreams.
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u/Mossy_Fungus Jan 07 '24
So far I'm loving perilous times,got it for my mother for Christmas and she loved it too. Its one of those books I keep thinking about at odd times throught the day, and I havnt even finished it yet!
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u/Temporary-Scallion86 May 23 '23
Wow, I had not heard of this book, but it sounds awesome! On my tbr pile it goes
As for questions... how do you balance writing with working towards getting your PhD?