Interview with Jeff LaSala, author of the Darkwood Mask

Jeff LaSala (aka Ashlock)

I recently interviewed Jeff LaSala, fantasy author, game designer, and NY Speculative Fiction Examiner. We discussed role-playing games, episodic fiction, and Rush.

MT: Tell us a little about yourself.   

MT: Your home page is ashlock.org. Who is Ashlock?

JL: Ashlock was a character I came up with when I was 16. He is the quintessential hero of my imagining, but he's probably far too unrealistic, and idealistic, to really portray. For now.

MT: What interested you in becoming the NY Speculative Fiction Examiner?

JL: The term "speculative fiction" is the umbrella for the genres of fantasy, science-fiction, and horror, and I love them all. Fantasy is certainly dearest to me, but without scary monsters and the occasional touch of science even that can grow tiresome. Moreover, I just like fiction.  I'm one of the few people out there who isn't hooked by the tagline "Based on a true story."  Good or bad, true stories are everywhere—especially the morning and evening news. I’ve always believed that science fiction and fantasy both offer another world from which to better view our own. Get someone’s attention because you’ve got a good story going and you can use that to talk about life, science, and the human condition. Yes, even with robots, dragons, and zombies. And to readers unreceptive to such things (which is perfectly fine), these genres at least offers a dose of escapism and sheer entertainment.

MT: You’ve written a book for Wizards that was nominated by the International Association of Media Tie-In Writers in the category of Special Gaming Scribe—Best Original. That’s awesome! Tell us how you got published, what the book’s about, and how we can mimic your success.

JL: It's very awesome, but in that category I'm up against some contenders. Notably Don Bassingthwaite, whose novels I was reading before I even got started on my own. If he takes the award, I'll be pleased, and honored to have been listed beside him.

The book is The Darkwood Mask, and it's a stand-alone novel about a psionic detective, an ex-soldier vigilante, and the sinister incident they get mixed up in. At a glance, it's a murder mysery in a world where magic is more common than technology, but as the case evolves, the heroes begin to unveil a deeper puzzle. That might sound like a fairly clichéd plot description, but the particulars, I feel, are much more unique. The title actually refers to one of the story's alleged antagonists, an industrial wizard who wears robes and a mask to hide his scarred body.

I haven't been writing long enough to tell anyone how to get nominated for an award, but I can tell you what I did, and it's a formula that sadly will not always work.  Care about what you're doing.  Give it your all.  I threw myself into the writing of TDM and become very involved in the characters—even the secondary characters. When you've finished writing a book and you find yourself aching to write up more stories about the characters, or each characer's life story, then you've probably become pretty invested in them and understand them well.  Whether it's in the cards for you to write and publish such things...well, that's another story.

But I do think that characters are key. And they can come from anywhere. Take characters you like from favorite books, TV shows, or films, fuse them together, and make something new. For example, one of the protagonists of The Darkwood Mask is a man named Tallis (depicted on the cover of the book). In the back of my mind he was inspired by both MacGuyver and Madmartigan (Val Kilmer's character in Willow): Roguish, resourceful, unconventional, but still a warrior at heart.

By the way, I have to give props to Michael Komarck. He's the artist who did the cover art for TDM and continues to churn out amazing illustrations, such as the cover art for the upcoming Player's Handbook 3.  His work for my book makes me want to shout, "Please, do judge this book by its cover!"

MT: In your Wizards interview you mention getting hold of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons books, specifically the Monster Manual.  What role-playing games did you play? Do you play any now?

JL: While I've dabbled in other games, Dungeons & Dragons will always be my game of choice, no matter what edition is center stage. Writing may be my greatest passion, but D&D is my favorite hobby. I can't imagine it any other way.  Currently, life isn't giving me enough time to play the game regularly. I do, however, find an outlet by running a play-by-post Eberron campaign.  It lets me play with friends who live nowhere near me.

MT: You’ve also contributed to quite a few books for Goodman Games, for both 3.5 and 4^th edition Dungeons & Dragons.  What’s your favorite and can we look forward to any further RPG projects from you?

JL: For version 3.5 my favorite would have to be The Gazetteer of the Known Realms, the boxed set that I wrote alongside game designers Mike Ferguson and Harley Stroh. It's essentially the default campaign setting for the Dungeon Crawl Classics series of modules. I'm still rather proud of that product. Until a 4th Edition version comes along, my work from that boxed set lives on in the form of the "Deities of Áereth" articles in the new 4E magazine Level Up.

For 4th Edition D&D my favorite would have to be the upcoming Hero's Handbook: Tiefling, in which Aeryn Rudel, my brother John, and I take a good look at the tiefling race and breathe even more infernal life into them.

MT: I’ve heard that stories based on role-playing games make for great inspiration, they’re not nearly as interesting to people who weren’t involved in the game. Do you incorporate any of your gaming experience into your fiction?

JL: Definitely, though it's often an unconscious act. The masked wizard in The Darkwood Mask is probably an amalgam of a few NPCs I made up for a D&D campaign I once ran, and the inclusion of kobolds in both TDM and my first published adventure (The Transmuter's Last Touch) came from my wife's fondness for them in the same game. But ultimately, I'd say character concepts and plot ideas come from my gaming experiences more than specific people, places, or events. It's hard to track, but the answer is yes, role-playing games do make great inspiration for fiction. Unlike novels, the game is the creative outpouring of multiple people (one GM and multiple players), each reacting to the others involved. It's group-based storytelling, quite different than a novel.

MT: You’re a big fan of Rush.  How have you incorporated that into your writing?

JL: You noticed that, eh?  I sure am, and I sure do, but seldom overtly. The music of Rush—the best band in the universe!—is rife with both meaning and musical innovation, and has inspired me creatively for far longer than I've been writing. In the early days ('74-'78), their songs were full of fantasy and poetic idealism, while in the years since it's just been one insightful dose of philosophy or optimism after another. Even if you're not into Rush musically, you have to admit that their lyrics are awesome.

I just want to do what they do: Infuse entertainment with real significance and do it with integrity. You don't have to get preachy about it, but do say something with what you write. I admire any artist who does this.

MT: Tell us more about Escapee and how episodic fiction works.

JL: Well, okay, so Escapee was an early foray into science fiction and is very obviously inspired by Rush. In particular, 1984's "The Body Electric." It started off as a writing exercise hosted on Sidedown—a website of decidedly random content—and I was writing roughly one episode per week. Escapee tells the story of an "android on the run," but in time it panned back to showcase my crazy vision of a future Earth. Later, these 50 first episodes were cleaned up and published in the book Parallel/Serial Port. I would someday like to continue Escapee, in some form. I enjoyed it.

Any large story that's told in a series of smaller pieces is episodic fiction. Each installment should end with some kind of question or cliffhanger to keep it interesting, like plenty of TV shows like Lost or 24. You could say that a novel is episodic fiction, by this definition, but I don't think so. It's got to be something you read slowly, spaced out in a routine, not all at once.

MT: Your latest project in the works is Savant. What’s it about?

JL: Savant is my latest project, and is what I consider to be the first stepping stone for a much grander saga. I'm embarking on writing the first novel, a sort of prequel to that saga. It's really a larger undertaking than The Darkwood Mask, which came with its own readymade setting, because I have to create the world first. Savant will be a true experiment of speculative fiction since it's going to be a mixture of fantasy, science fiction, and occasional horror. In fact, the world creation is a joint venture between me and my brother. This first book will be published by Blindsided Books.

As for what it's about, well, it's still in enough flux that I'm hesitant to say anything too definite.  But how about this: A young scholar living in a fortress-library becomes privy to some hefty secrets, not only about where he lives but about the world itself. It's a sort of Tree of Knowledge scenario: Once you learn some things, you can't ever go back. So while he starts off a mere scholar, events force him down a very different path. The Savant project world is essentially a fantasy setting because there is magic, but it's as much a science as it is a mysterious supernatural force. So I'm hoping the story, once it's done, will appeal to a variety of literary tastes. Not merely one genre.

MT: Anything else you'd like to share?

JL: Oh, yes.  Thanks.  I just wanted to say....Oh. No, wait.  Nevermind.  I shouldn't mention the war.