Dragon Soul Press took some time to interview Eric J. Juneau, an author featured in Fairy Rites and At The End.
- Introduce yourself.
- Hello, my name is Eric J. Juneau. I live in Minnesota and I am a software engineer by day and writer by night. Primarily I write fantasy, but dabble in science fiction and horror. I wish I could say I’ve got lots of publications and award, but that hasn’t happened… yet.
- What prompted you to begin writing?
- I’ve had two “epiphanies” in my life that started me on my road to professional writing. One was in high school. We always had computers in our house growing up and got the Internet early (in the form of America Online). At that age I was big into Star Trek and I would visit the fan fiction forums every day, scraping for anything new to read. As time went on and I matured, I also got into Mortal Kombat. However, its forums were sadly lacking reading material. And one day I just thought “if no one’s going to write anything, I’ll have to be the one to do it.” And since I would be a big fish in a small pond, I’d have a immediate audience. So I wrote my first terrible fan fiction that was essentially a rewritten version of the Mortal Komba movie. In the next few years, I continued to dabble in writing, never being too serious or too dedicated about it.
The second epiphany happened when I was in my first real programming job. I had a lot of downtime while my programs compiled or ran tests. But if I was surfing the Internet or watching YouTube videos, my boss might see me. Text wouldn’t draw any attention. So I downloaded a bunch of pirated Stephen King books. And somewhere along the line, I realized “Hey, I can write like this.” I didn’t have to be a Steinbeck or Dickens to be published. So I started my journey by reading Stephen King’s “On Writing” (which had just come out around this time) and I haven’t stopped trying to get a book published since.
- I’ve had two “epiphanies” in my life that started me on my road to professional writing. One was in high school. We always had computers in our house growing up and got the Internet early (in the form of America Online). At that age I was big into Star Trek and I would visit the fan fiction forums every day, scraping for anything new to read. As time went on and I matured, I also got into Mortal Kombat. However, its forums were sadly lacking reading material. And one day I just thought “if no one’s going to write anything, I’ll have to be the one to do it.” And since I would be a big fish in a small pond, I’d have a immediate audience. So I wrote my first terrible fan fiction that was essentially a rewritten version of the Mortal Komba movie. In the next few years, I continued to dabble in writing, never being too serious or too dedicated about it.
- Do you have a favorite story or poem you’ve written? What’s it about?
- I still have a soft spot for Black Hole Son, which was the first novel I wrote (and is available for free on my website). It’s a science-fiction zipper story that follows two identical boys with amnesia and psychic powers—one with telemetry and the other with pyrokinesis. It’s a study on “Nature vs. Nurture” and how people become good or evil. The prose was amateurish (as one would expect for a first novel), but I still love the characters I created.
- How many projects do you have planned over the next few years? Tell us about one.
- I’ve written five novels but none of them have been considered by an agent. This year (2024) is the year of short stories. I’m trying to write one a week, because someone once said “try writing a short story a week for a year. You can’t write 52 short stories and have them all be bad.” I intend to prove them wrong. My hope is that these will fill out my curriculum vitae and give more “oomph” to my novel submissions. My next novel is based on an old tumblr post about “what if a make-a-wish kid wanted to meet a supervillain?”
- What is your writing process like?
- Gene Wolfe said “you never learn how to write a novel, you just learn how to write the novel you’re on”. Every book is different, and for each one, you have to learn how it wants to be written. What it needs, where the strengths are and where the weaknesses need to be reinforced. Fortunately I’m at a point where I know what I need to make that happen.
What it mostly consists of is finding a quiet space during lunch to write for an hour. John Cleese said “all creativity needs is dedication of time and dedication of space.” During that hour, I can get down about 1200 words (1400 or 1600 if I’m really flying).
I am very much an outliner—every time I’ve tried to pants something, I’ve failed. So when I get a story idea I roll it around in my head, see what it picks up along the way, what kind of characters or plot events get added to it. And then I write the outline, which consists of a lot of imagination tempered by the “save the cat” structure.
- Gene Wolfe said “you never learn how to write a novel, you just learn how to write the novel you’re on”. Every book is different, and for each one, you have to learn how it wants to be written. What it needs, where the strengths are and where the weaknesses need to be reinforced. Fortunately I’m at a point where I know what I need to make that happen.
- Where do you draw inspiration from?
- Wherever I can get it. My ideas usually come from “what iffing” or filling in gaps from other works. Like “what if Medusa were real” or “what are the female dwarves like”. Often they’re rooted in considering the “other guy’s” side of the story. If an idea doesn’t have much to it, it gets filtered out through my mind sieve. If an idea is good, if it’s got heft and bulk, it’ll stay in my head like a sesame seed between the teeth, trying to escape.
- Wherever I can get it. My ideas usually come from “what iffing” or filling in gaps from other works. Like “what if Medusa were real” or “what are the female dwarves like”. Often they’re rooted in considering the “other guy’s” side of the story. If an idea doesn’t have much to it, it gets filtered out through my mind sieve. If an idea is good, if it’s got heft and bulk, it’ll stay in my head like a sesame seed between the teeth, trying to escape.
- Who is your favorite author / what is your favorite book?
- I will never miss a John Scalzi, Neil Gaiman, or Peter David release. But my favorite novel wasn’t written by any of them. It was by Stephen Chbosky – “The Perks of Being a Wallflower”. It’s a melodramatic YA novel, but for some reason I just felt “seen” when I read that. I really connected to the characters, the setting, the time period. It’s about being an observer, a chronicler to humanity, and the price that comes with that.
- What is one goal you have for your writing future?
- Right now, my only goal is to have a book traditionally published. A lot of people submit their works to Amazon and tout being a “published author”. But anyone can do that. It’s no different than posting to a message board. You didn’t pass a filter. You didn’t have to prove that your book is engaging or exciting or event that you can string basic sentences together. It’s no different than shouting into the wind.
Publishing is a 98% rejection rate on a good day. I want to be able to say that I passed that gate. That my work was good enough for agents and publishers to get behind and invest in. That’s how I’ll know that I made it.
I’m scared of dying. I’m not like Jimmy Stewart in It’s a Wonderful Life. My life doesn’t revolve around others. I don’t have a lot of friends. My greatest fear is being forgotten, having no impact in the world. But when you read a book, especially a good one, it integrates into the reader’s consciousness. The reader absorbs it into themselves and is changed by it. And in that way, you can become immortal. A story-teller lives on through their stories.
- Right now, my only goal is to have a book traditionally published. A lot of people submit their works to Amazon and tout being a “published author”. But anyone can do that. It’s no different than posting to a message board. You didn’t pass a filter. You didn’t have to prove that your book is engaging or exciting or event that you can string basic sentences together. It’s no different than shouting into the wind.
- What do you hope readers enjoy most from your work?
- Like a lot of writers, I started out with the mission to “tell the dumb reader something”. But that made my works too preachy, too much of an “issue book”. Now my primary focus is on entertainment based around an intriguing question about humanity. Because if something’s not entertaining, no one’s going to stick around to get everything else you put in.
I’m hoping that readers can enjoy the humor, that they get something out of the dialogue, the debate between parties, and that they come away satisfied and knowing a bit more about the world than they did before.
- Like a lot of writers, I started out with the mission to “tell the dumb reader something”. But that made my works too preachy, too much of an “issue book”. Now my primary focus is on entertainment based around an intriguing question about humanity. Because if something’s not entertaining, no one’s going to stick around to get everything else you put in.
- Where can readers learn more about you?
- The best place to find me is at my little corner of the Internet where I maintain an active blog. I’m on Twitter, but I don’t post to it often (I just don’t seem to have the mind for bite-sized writing. I’m a long form guy.) I’m also on Instagram and Threads.
- The best place to find me is at my little corner of the Internet where I maintain an active blog. I’m on Twitter, but I don’t post to it often (I just don’t seem to have the mind for bite-sized writing. I’m a long form guy.) I’m also on Instagram and Threads.
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