An Interview With Ian Benke
Referring to my award-winning, YA paranormal romance, Illusional Reality duology. You need to be able to create a new world. Where do they live? What’s their environment like? How do they speak? How do they dress?
Science Fiction and Fantasy are hugely popular genres. What does it take for a writer today, to write compelling and successful Science Fiction and Fantasy stories? Authority Magazine started a new series called “How To Write Compelling Science Fiction and Fantasy Stories”. In this series we are talking to anyone who is a Science Fiction or Fantasy author, or an authority or expert on how to write compelling Science Fiction and Fantasy .
As a part of this series, I had the pleasure of interviewing Karina Kantas.
Karina Kantas is an award-winning author and writes in most fiction genres. She’s also an award-winning filmmaker and podcaster with the show Behind The Pen, which can be found on Spotify, Apple podcasts and Google play and is also the host of the radio show Author Assist on the Artist First Radio Network.
Karina is a born storyteller and loves nothing better than creating a world from her imagination.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive into the main focus of our interview, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you share a story about what first drew you to writing over other forms of storytelling?
I’ve always been writing stories in my head from a young age and then during school holidays, I would staple together poetry, short stories into A4 book and decorate the page borders and make colourful covers. So I’ve always had that artistic talent. When I moved to Greece into a small village, I was so bored, I took a step back and thought of my two passions, singing and writing. That’s when I started taking my writing seriously and that’s when I got my first novel published. It was actually the YA author S.E.Hinton that made me want to become an author. From there, I’ve gone on to write and publish fourteen books. I get an obsession for a genre, and I soak in a much knowledge I can about it, from both films and books. I go through them like I have an addiction until I’m finally satisfied my thirst and I’m ready to write my own story.
You are a successful author. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success?
IMAGINATION: You need a great imagination for creation and storytelling to write in these two huge fiction genres. To make these new worlds come to life you don’t just have to create them in your mind, you have to live in these worlds as well. You have a forest in your world. Walk inside it. What do you hear, what do you smell, what can you touch?
TIME: Many fantasy and science fiction books are not stand alone reads and certainly unlikely to be a novella. Why go through of the time of creating a world only to not let it live to its full potential. And to do that, you have to find the time to write, dream and write so more.
STUBORN: Rejections are all part of the course in this industry. But don’t give up your dream. If you have 100% confidence in your book/s then there will be professionals that will see the same potential you see. They will understand where you’re coming from. And can hear your voice and also know if there is a place out there for your book.
Can you tell us a bit about the interesting or exciting projects you are working on or wish to create? What are your goals for these projects?
I am working with a co-author on a dystopian sci-fi trilogy. Book one is already published. We have just finished the first draft of book 2 and we already know where we want to go with the concluding part.
It was a project we started as we both wanted to delve into a new genre and wanted to collaborate together. After a 2-hour web meeting, we had built our dystopian world. We had the plot. We had the title and even the names of the main and secondary characters. You can never know how big a story length will be until you finish it. When the story had been told we had a novella that we knew would make a great pocketbook paperback. No matter the size of the story, we couldn’t let this world we built just fade and go away., We knew straight away that we had created a world that was much larger than we could have imagined. And so, it wasn’t until we had another web meeting and started hashing out that second plot, that we knew we were going to keep it as a trilogy. Yes, we could easily put all three novellas together and have a nice sized novel. But we wanted to do something a little different. Not only are the books novellas, and pocket-sized paperbacks but there are two versions of the same book: one naughty and one nice. Giving the reader a choice, of which book they wanted to read. Ever heard of a dystopian sci-fi erotica?
We have a publisher standing by for all six books.
Wonderful. Let’s now shift to the main focus of our interview. Let’s begin with a basic definition so that all of us are on the same page. How do you define sci-fi or fantasy? How is it different from speculative fiction?
The basic definition for me is that for fantasy there are no rules. Everything and anything can be real because it is fantasy.
As for science-fiction. It’s not just about aliens and space, it’s about technology, man-made viruses, scientific experiments. The word science covers so many topics.
It seems that despite countless changes in media and communication technologies, novels and written fiction always survive, and as the rate of change increases with technology, written sci-fi becomes more popular. Why do you think that is?
It’s scary to think that there were books out there, fiction books that talked about Covid. There have been films that showed what it could be like if a virus became an epidemic. It’s scary that our world as we know it is turning dystopian in some ways and its doubtful things will ever get back to how they once were. Too much damage has been done. So now we are living the fiction rather than writing it.
There are some that have picked up a pen and started writing about the pandemic or something similar. It’s certainly not a book I would want to read at this time. So maybe it’s curiosity that bringing in the need for more sci-fi books. Maybe writers are thinking. What next? Now we’ve experienced what sci-fi author and filmmakers have shown and written. What’s next? What horror can we now unleash?
In your opinion, what are the benefits to reading sci-fi, and how do they compare to watching sci-fi on film and television?
The benefits are hopefully enjoyment. Some say the book is better than the film, others that the film was better than the book. The problem is, fans of a book that’s been tuned into a movie, have high expectations. But are disappointed when it doesn’t follow the book or misses out crucial part of the plot. They don’t realize that they have only so much screen time and many films based on a novel don’t have enough time to follow the book exactly, most of what the director decides is not needed, ends up on the cutting floor.
What authors and artists, dead or alive, inspired you to write?
Pullman, Rowling, Tolkien, Becca Fritzpatrick, Cassandra Claire.
If you could ask your favourite Science Fiction and Fantasy author a question, what would it be?
Tolkien. He’s the reason I wrote Illusional Reality, my YA fantasy. So, I would ask him what or who inspired him to write Lord of the Rings.
We’d like to learn more about your writing. How would you describe yourself as an author? Can you please share a specific passage that you think exemplifies your style?
Haty pulled a handful of weeds out of a crack between two old paving stones and stood to rub her back. She groaned as she looked at the rest of the patio. There was still so much to do. She knelt back down and dug the metal gardening fork into a cluster of Dandelions. A rustle from the bushes lining the west wall caught her attention. She glanced up, squinting in the heat of the sun. There was no wind, no reason for the sound. She waited for a cat or squirrel to run out, but the crunch of leaves and twigs told her something much heavier had crushed the debris.
“Danny!”
She threw the fork aside and jumped to her feet, clutching the garden chair for support. Her knuckles turned white as she surveyed the wall of foliage. They were moving. Something or someone was trying to push its way through. Her heart pounded, forcing a rush of blood to her head.
Her security detail rushed through the patio door with his gun drawn. “Get inside.”
Haty charged through the living room, and almost collided with the hallway door. She slammed it shut as she ran into the kitchen and yanked the cutlery drawer open, before spying the wooden block with the kitchen knives. She grabbed the chef’s chopping knife. It would be no competition against Danny’s Glock, but she was in survival mode. She crept back to the living room and hid behind the couch, straining to hear what was going on outside.
“Come out slowly,” Danny barked. “Who are you? What are you doing here?”
There was a mumbled response, followed by Danny threatening physical violence and then silence. Haty gripped the knife in both hands to keep it steady, thinking the worst when footsteps approached. It had to be a Senx. They had come for her before, and she had nearly died. She wouldn’t allow them to hurt her again, and especially not now, when she had so much more to lose.
She held her breath as the footsteps closed in but released it when Danny glanced wide-eyed at her and stepped back. “Woah.” She jumped as he held his hands in the air and gulped. “Hey, it’s me. It’s okay. He’s gone now.”
“I … I …”
Danny eased the knife out of her hands and knelt beside her. “It’s okay, you’re safe.” He pulled her into a hug. Yet Haty was frozen, unable to lean into his warm body. Unable to feel safe.
“Jeez, Haty, you’re shaking.”
Pushing him away, she looked up into his face. “W-who was it?”
“Just a tramp looking for food.”
“He must have been d-desperate to push his way through the brambles. I-I mean wasn’t that the reason Sam planted them. To st-stop anyone from getting through?” Haty’s body shivered as her mind played out what could happen if it a Senx had found its way to her.
“Yeah, I’ll get the boss to look into that. Why don’t you go upstairs? I’ll make you a cuppa.”
Haty nodded and made her way to the staircase. She gripped the wooden banister and walked slowly up the stairs, her legs still shaking. At the top of the landing, she took a left and entered the bedroom at the rear of the upper floor. She had made her home her sanctuary and until now she’d been secure and felt safe and just that one unfortunate incident, had ripped that safety net to shreds. Dread filled her stomach, leaving her feeling sick.
Based on your own experience and success, what are the “Five Things You Need To Write Compelling Science Fiction and Fantasy Stories?” If you can, please share a story or example for each.
Referring to my award-winning, YA paranormal romance, Illusional Reality duology.
You need to be able to create a new world. Where do they live? What’s their environment like? How do they speak? How do they dress?
Most stories have a good vs evil, staged plot. What is bad guy wanting? What’s his ultimate goal?
There has to be conflict and drama otherwise where is the story? So, then you need to know what started this conflict and what’s the conclusion will be.
If you want to make it into a thriller or suspense. Keep the reader guessing and make sure to add a shocking twist or two.
Make sure to use the five senses in each new scene: Touch, Smell, Taste, See, Hear. This allows the reader to picture what’s happening, as if they are watching a movie.
We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Entertainment, Business, VC funding, and Sports read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US, with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we both tag them 🙂
Quinten Tarantino — to discuss another one of my books 😉 And Stephen Spielberg to discuss about screenwriting.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
https://www.facebook.com/ExplosiveWriter
http://bit.ly/INSTKK — Instagram
http://bit.ly/TwittKK — Twitter
Thank you for these excellent insights, and we greatly appreciate the time you spent. We wish you continued success.
About The Interviewer: Ian Benke is a multi-talented artist with a passion for written storytelling and static visual art — anything that can be printed on a page. Inspired by Mega Man, John Steinbeck, and commercials, I.B.’s science fiction writing and art explore the growing bond between technology and culture, imagining where it will lead and the people it will shape. He is the author of Future Fables and Strange Stories, the upcoming It’s Dangerous to Go Alone trilogy, and contributes to Pulp Kings. The CEO and Co-Founder of Stray Books, and an origami enthusiast, Ian is an advocate of independent, collaborative, and Canadian art. https://ibwordsandart.ca
Author Karina Kantas On How To Write Compelling Science Fiction and Fantasy Stories was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.