I met Author Tim Susman at WorldCon in San Jose. I think you’ll agree he is an interesting author with a good story to tell. Please welcome him to No Wasted Ink.
Hi! I’m Tim Susman, a gay male American writer (he/him) currently living in the San Francisco Bay Area with my two partners and our dog. I studied business and engineering in college before moving on to zoology in graduate school and then starting a career as a database systems consultant that led to jobs as a product manager and a project manager. After being laid off in 2010 I took up writing full time and have been doing that ever since.
When and why did you begin writing?
In college, a friend of mine asked me to come up with a story for a birthday present she wanted to give me. I think in retrospect she just wanted a couple of paragraphs because when I presented her with a full-blown story she didn’t know what to do with it. The college SF magazine did, and I joined the SF club that fall. I read voraciously as a child, and I think I started writing because I wanted to tell my own versions of the stories I’d loved best.
When did you first consider yourself a writer?
Probably when that first story was published in my college magazine. Seeing something in print with my name on it, hearing that other people liked the story and wanted me to write more, made me feel confident about calling myself a writer. It would be almost twenty more years before I’d call myself an author, though.
Can you share a little about your current book with us?
My latest book is “The Demon and the Fox,” the second book in the series “The Calatians.” Set in 1815 in an America with magic colleges that is still a British colony, the protagonist, Kip, is the first in a race of magically created animal-people (Calatians) to become a sorcerer himself. In “Demon,” he searches for the perpetrator of a mysterious attack that killed many of America’s best sorcerers. While on this task, revolutionary sentiment grows around him, but even though his people are subject to prejudice and abuse, he worries that he’ll lose his opportunities to become a sorcerer if he turns against the British Empire. If he can solve this mystery, though, he’ll be a hero and much more secure.
What inspired you to write this book?
I had been thinking about parental responsibility, and wanted to explore it through several lenses: first, through Kip’s relationship with his own father; second, through the relationship between the Calatians and the humans who created them; third, through the relationship between the colonies and the Empire that founded them. Each of these relationships in the books takes a different view of the responsibilities a creator or parent owes to their children.
From an aesthetic point of view, I love writing in historical eras, and I love writing about animal-people. I have wanted to write a magic book for a long time, but worried that my engineering background would make my magic too “science-y.” I worked for a while to come up with a magic system that felt magic to me.
Do you have a specific writing style?
I focus more on character interaction and dialogue than on lengthy descriptive passages, but I also like to play around with different styles.
How did you come up with the title of this book?
Kip is an animal-person with the traits of a fox, and the first in the series is called “The Tower and the Fox,” so I wanted the rest of the series to be thematically linked. In this book, a demon is responsible for the attack, but Kip also summons a demon to help him in his search and begins to learn more about their world, so I wanted the title to focus on the demon as well as our protagonist.
Is there a message in your novel that you want readers to grasp?
Mostly what I discussed above: to think about our responsibilities to those who depend on us, or those over whom we have power.
Are experiences in this book based on someone you know or events in your own life?
Generally no, although everyone in my life creeps into my books in one way or another.
What authors have most influenced your life? What about them do you find inspiring?
Ray Bradbury’s lyricism was an early influence. Madeleine L’Engle and Susan Cooper’s very personal stories of fantastic magic have stayed with me ever since I discovered them at an early age. Kij Johnson’s beautiful language and emotion were inspiring. David Mitchell’s imaginative and meaningful stories are some of my current favorites. Kazuo Ishiguro’s grasp of the human experience is something I strive to approach in my own work.
Who designed the cover of your book? Why did you select this illustrator?
Laura Garabedian is a friend of mine and a fantastically talented artist. I’ve admired her fantasy illustrations for years and was delighted to have the chance to work professionally with her.
Do you have any advice for other writers?
I have this paraphrased quotation on my desk from William Faulkner: “Don’t bother being better than others. Be better than yourself.”
Do you have anything specific that you want to say to your readers?
Just a very heartfelt thank you.
Tim Susman
Mountain View, CA
The Demon and the Fox
Cover Artist: Laura Garabedian
Publisher: Argyll Productions
No Wasted Ink 
Reblogged this on DSM Publications and commented:
Check out this interview with author Tim Susman as featured in this post from the No Wasted Ink Blog.
Great interview, thanks for sharing, Tim! I can relate to your concern that as an engineer, your magic might come off as too much like science. I’ve been struggling with the same thing, as I have a hard magic system that was originally from a home brew RPG campaign — so how do I, as the author/god, keep track of the rules and keep it consistent while still making it feel like magic to the characters and the readers.
These books sound very interesting, both the cool fantasy elements and the deeper themes. I’ll check them out!