USA
Age 54
Jeff Chapman explores fantasy worlds through fiction and is the author of The Merliss Tales fantasy series, The Huckster Tales weird western series, and The Comic Cat Tales series… Trained in history and computer science, Jeff writes software by day and explores the fantastic when he should be sleeping. His fiction ranges from fairy tales to fantasy to ghost stories. His short stories have appeared in various anthologies and magazines. He’s not ashamed to say he’s addicted to dark hot chocolate and he loves cats. Jeff lives with his wife, children, and cats in a house with more books than bookshelf space.
Plagues kill but Merliss has far more to fear than a disease.
Merliss is no ordinary cat. She’s a young girl’s spirit trapped in a cat’s body. While the magic that banished her has snatched away her ability to speak to humans, it has given her a life spanning millennia. For centuries she has lived with the cunning folk, assisting their efforts to heal the sick and ward off malevolent creatures. Now a bleeding sickness has thrown the medieval community into chaos.
The cunning man Hailaird and his apprentice Fendrel are in danger from the disease. The life Merliss has worked so long to build is in jeopardy. Before she entered the cat, she had trained to be a shaman. Do her centuries of experience hold a secret to a cure? But the disease isn’t her only nemesis.
A pair of malevolent creatures have crossed the moor into the forest, threatening more havoc. With disease and monsters ravaging the land, Merliss is hard-pressed to survive. It couldn’t be worse until a mob looking for a scapegoat turns its wrath on Merliss. Tooth and claw and magic may not be enough.
The Great Contagion is the gripping first novel in the dark fantasy Merliss Tales series. If you like strong and dynamic characters, rich descriptions, magic, and intrigue, then you’ll love Jeff Chapman’s Merliss Tales.
Read The Great Contagion to see Merliss use her wits and magic to rescue her friends and herself.
Romelia L.: What is the most difficult part of your artistic process?
Jeff Chapman: The writing itself (creating the story) is the most difficult part but also the most rewarding. I’m a pantser so there are many times when I sit down to write that I don’t have a clear idea what’s going to happen. The difficult part is overcoming the fear that the ideas won’t come.
Romelia L.: Does your family support your career as a writer?
Jeff Chapman: Yes, my family respects the need for some alone time to write each day.
Romelia L.: If you had to do something differently as a child or teenager to become a better writer as an adult, what would you do?
Jeff Chapman: Read more and read more widely.
Romelia L.: How long on average does it take you to write a book?
Jeff Chapman: Too long! It takes around nine months for me to write a novel. I wish I could write one in half the time.
Romelia L.: Do you believe in writer’s block?
Jeff Chapman: Sometimes while writing I will come up with a new idea for a major turning point in the plot such that going one way or another will alter the story’s trajectory, length, and ending. When I’m uncertain about which path to take, I will work on a different project for a few days to let my subconscious work on the problem. I would call it writer’s indecision as opposed to writer’s block.
Romelia L.: At what point do you think someone should call themselves a writer?
Jeff Chapman: When they start committing stories to paper (or whatever medium they use to record their words).
Romelia L.: What difference do you see between a writer and an author?
Jeff Chapman: A writer creates stories. An author tries to sell the stories they create. I haven’t given the distinction a lot of thought. Maybe you’re an author when your picture appears on a card in the game Authors?
Romelia L.: How do you process and deal with negative book reviews?
Jeff Chapman: First, I curse a bit. I think that’s a healthy response. Someone is reacting negatively to something I poured my heart into for months. If it appears the reviewer put some thought into their comments, I’ll read it again as objectively as I can. I usually find it’s not as bad as I first thought. Also, negative reviews tend to tell you more about the reviewer than the book under review. For instance, a recent reviewer said that I didn’t write as well as Tolkien and complained that I used some words he didn’t know. What fantasy writer wouldn’t want to be compared to Tolkien? One thing I never do is engage the reviewer. It’s fruitless to argue with someone’s opinion.
Romelia L.: What is the most difficult part of your writing process?
Jeff Chapman: The beginning of a story is the easiest part to write. I’m full of enthusiasm and ideas. The directions seem limitless. The middle is hard because I start to question if I will ever finish the story. Also, the plot and characters now have history and what comes next must be consistent with that history without being predictable. The ending is the hardest. To be satisfying, the ending must bring the threads of the story together into some form of resolution.
Romelia L.: How long have you been writing or when did you start?
Jeff Chapman: I started writing when I was a teenager. I’ve been more and less serious about writing throughout my life, but it’s something I always come back to.
Romelia L.: What advice would you give to a writer working on their first book?
Jeff Chapman: Don’t stop. Don’t give up. The only failed writer is one who quits.
Romelia L.: What, to you, are the most important elements of good writing?
Jeff Chapman: Well-developed characters and a story that flows from the character’s decisions and reactions to unexpected events. That’s what I’m striving for.
Romelia L.: What comes first for you – the plot or the characters – and why?
Jeff Chapman: Characters in a situation come first. The plot and characters develop from there. In most cases, I have an idea of where the story will go and how it will end before I start writing, but I usually come up with better ideas during the writing process.
Romelia L.: How do you develop your plot and characters?
Jeff Chapman: I put the characters into action. Throw problems their way and see what happens.
Romelia L.: When did you first call yourself a writer?
Jeff Chapman: When I started writing stories. It took a few years and some positive encouragement from teachers before I told other people that I was a writer.
Romelia L.: How do you use social media as an author?
Jeff Chapman: I have a Facebook author page and I’m involved in some Facebook groups devoted to SciFi-Fantasy literature.
Romelia L.: what’s your favorite and least favorite part of publishing?
Jeff Chapman: My favorite is seeing a new book appear on Amazon among my publications. My least favorite is struggling to write the blurb on the sales page.
Romelia L.: What would you say to an author who wanted to design their own cover?
Jeff Chapman: Find a professional to do it or buy a premade cover from a graphic artist.
Romelia L.: How many books have you written and which is your favorite?
Jeff Chapman: I’ve published four novels: The Black Blade; Cat Sidhe; The Great Contagion; and The Sniggard’s Revenge. I’ll go with The Great Contagion.
Romelia L.: What part of the book did you have the hardest time writing?
Jeff Chapman: The middle. Much of the plot for The Great Contagion developed organically as I wrote the book. The controlling idea is to explore how Merliss deals with events directly and tangentially related to a plague. The plot has a sprawling feel to it. By the middle of the book, I didn’t know if I could hold all the threads together to reach a conclusion.
Romelia L.: What part of the book was the most fun to write?
Jeff Chapman: A couple scenes come to mind. First is the scene in which Merliss has an unexpected meeting with one of the old gods. Second is when Merliss invokes an unbinding spell to free a group of cats.
Romelia L.: Which of the characters do you relate to the most and why?
Jeff Chapman: Merliss is the spirit of a young woman who has been trapped inside the body of a cat. She lives as a cat and is perceived by people as a cat, albeit a very strange one that appears to outlive everyone. Merliss has acquired a great deal of wisdom and understanding from her long life. However, her ability to communicate her understanding and affect events is severely limited by her physical form. Merliss must pick her battles and use her resources carefully to be a positive influence. I think a sense of powerlessness in the face of events is part of the human condition. The trick is to find some way to act and make a difference, even if it’s a small difference.
Romelia L.: If you’re planning a sequel. can you share a tiny bit about your plans for it?
Jeff Chapman: The events in Cat Sidhe follow The Great Contagion for several decades. The story I began in Cat Sidhe will require two more novels to tell. A group of Cat Sidhes from a remote land to the north have discovered a portal along a ley line to the land where Merliss dwells. That part of the story is covered in Cat Sidhe. The next two novels will explore the land of the Cat Sidhes and find a way to stop them from traveling along the Ley line. Some of the events from The Great Contagion will tie closely into the Cat Sidhe trilogy.
I’m also working on another Merliss novel set several centuries in the future from The Great Contagion. The Breath of the Sea is about an injured mermaid and Merliss’s efforts to return her safely to the sea.
Romelia L.: Tell us something funny about your adult life.
Jeff Chapman: I’ve twice lived with as many as four cats at a time. I currently have three.
Romelia L.: Describe yourself in a few sentences. Tell us something we do not know about you and something you hate about the world.
Jeff Chapman: I’m the shy, quiet person at the party who listens to and remembers what everyone is saying. I once dreamed of becoming a diplomat and traveling the world living as an expatriate. I became a software engineer instead. I hate climate change. I hate hot weather.
http://www.jeffchapmanbooks.com/
https://www.facebook.com/JeffChapmanWriter
Books for Life 