259: Crafting a Police Procedural in a Fantasy World - Interview with Dan Stout

Hey there word nerds! Today I have the pleasure of interviewing Dan Stout on the show.

Dan is an author who writes about fever dreams and half-glimpsed shapes in the shadows. His prize-winning fiction draws on travels throughout Europe, Asia, and the Pacific Rim as well as an employment history spanning everything from subpoena server to assistant well driller. 

Dan's stories have appeared in publications such as The Saturday Evening Post, Nature, and Intergalactic Medicine Show and his debut novel, Titanshade, a noir fantasy thriller, is available now.

So listen in as Dan and I chat about this amazing book and how to combine the plot of a police procedural with the worldbuilding of fantasy. 

In this episode Dan and I discuss:

• Character driven stories vs. issue driven stories.
• How to set a speculative fiction world in a “retro” time period.
• Following predictable story tropes in unpredictable ways.
• How to discover your author’s Achilles' heel.
• Presenting the world of your story to readers in an authentic way.

For more info and show notes: DIYMFA.com/259