{"id":34192,"date":"2023-11-29T06:30:35","date_gmt":"2023-11-29T11:30:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tellest.com\/?p=34192"},"modified":"2023-12-04T07:45:24","modified_gmt":"2023-12-04T12:45:24","slug":"interview-with-the-authors-of-the-golden-gull-steve-drew","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tellest.com\/interview-with-the-authors-of-the-golden-gull-steve-drew\/","title":{"rendered":"Interview with the Authors of The Golden Gull \u2013 Steve Drew"},"content":{"rendered":"

Welcome, travelers.\u00a0 While we typically conduct interviews that go a bit deeper into the content and character of a world and its author, we\u2019ve come upon a very interesting opportunity to talk to a number of storytellers who have all worked on the same anthology.\u00a0 These authors have collaborated on Beth Connor\u2019s collection, The Golden Gull<\/em>, which takes place in her world of Isdralan (and beyond).<\/p>\n

Because of the shift in the way we\u2019re interviewing these storytellers, we\u2019re going to keep things a bit more open-ended, with this format serving as a sort of template for each of our interview subjects.<\/p>\n

Today, you\u2019ll get to meet one of the authors, and find out a bit more about them, including what other stories they\u2019ve got in their catalog, and what they\u2019ve got coming up.\u00a0 Read on to learn more about one of the authors of The Golden Gull<\/em>!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Tellest:<\/strong> Greetings! \u00a0First off, let me say that I appreciate you taking the time to share a bit more about yourself, and to talk about your story in The Golden Gull, as well as any other stories you\u2019re prepared and excited to talk about!\u00a0 If you wouldn\u2019t mind, could you please give a very brief introduction of yourself to readers?<\/p>\n

Steve Drew: <\/strong>Hello! Thank you for inviting me into your process. My name is Steve Drew and by day I am a designer of software, changes to software and all things dealing with data. I spend my evenings alternating between amusing and annoying my wife, two kids, and two dogs with stories, jokes and my sense of humor. I have to remind them frequently that I am hilarious.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

T:<\/strong> In the typical interviews that I conduct, I first try to find out some of the formative information about what turned an author to writing and storytelling.\u00a0 What was it that inspired you to tell your own stories?\u00a0 Did you have a favorite author, story, movie, or show growing up that helped to encourage your creativity?\u00a0 Or did you have a family member or person in your community who had the storytelling bug, and they managed to pass that on to you?<\/p>\n

SD: <\/strong>Superman, Wonder Woman, Justice League, Batman and Battlestar Galactica were early contributors, followed by the A-Team. However, the Star Wars universe was the single largest contributor. I spent so many hours riding my bike around the neighborhood pretending it was an X-Wing. Dismounting my X-Wing (jumping off the bike) to have lightsaber battles or later to deliver newspapers. I wonder how many adults at that time thought the kid on the bike was a bit unhinged. I had quite a few of the action figures as well. No matter how cleverly I snuck them into school with me the teachers always seemed to know I had them in my desk. It was years later that one of them told me the lightsaber noises were a clue I was playing with something\u2026<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

T:<\/strong> How did you begin your own writing journey?\u00a0 Did you have a specific story that was turning in your head that you needed to commit to paper?\u00a0 Was there some sort of contest that you were invited to participate in?\u00a0 Or was it something else altogether?<\/p>\n

SD: <\/strong>I have always injected elements of fun writing into my communications and technical writing. It started with inserting humorous or thematic elements into technical documents to see who read them. (Hint, no one.) Most of the writing between there and Covid was for friends or the pen and paper gaming crews. During Covid I collaborated with Beth as a voice actor on some of her Crossroad Cantina episodes. That progressed to writing a few and then to writing short stories. Raama and his friends are characters that have been with me for a while and needed to be let out. As I record his story, other short stories I have written work their way in.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

T:<\/strong> How did you first collaborate with Beth Connor?\u00a0 Were you already familiar with Isdralan when it was determined that you would write a story for The Golden Gull?<\/p>\n

SD: <\/strong>I have known Beth for years and been privileged to participate in her process with Crossroads Cantina and also to see early drafts of her books. We even collaborated on a few short stories for competitions. When I started writing Raama\u2019s story I asked her if he could or should tie in with Isdralan. She read all my drafts as we discussed how the two worlds overlap. The concepts from my book in progress have shown up in Beth\u2019s books. In Raama\u2019s narrative, the ship life is a transition point in his hero\u2019s journey. It is a point where despite his best intentions and his own personal sense of honor, things just go awry. When I reached that part of the story, I asked Beth if she could help craft the description of the Caves of Time. It was around then that she conceived the concept for the Golden Gull anthology.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

T:<\/strong> Could you describe the process of developing your story for The Golden Gull?\u00a0 How did the ideas come about, and how much would you say you communicated with Beth throughout the creation of your tale?<\/p>\n

SD: <\/strong>My original story was a humorous chapter of misfortune for Raama. As the Golden Gull concept started forming, I created a few drafts that roughly outlined the experience. Beth shared one of those drafts with all the authors. While they wrote their stories, I went back over mine to flesh it out.\u00a0 I kept iterating over it until I felt the key personalities shown through and the story made me smile again. As I narrowed in on my final draft, I shared it with a friend that is not a fan of the fantasy genre. When he got sucked into the story, I knew I was done.\u00a0 I wrapped it up and gave it to Beth. Regarding how often we spoke, it was a fairly constant dialog. During the early stages it was around my book connecting to her world. Then it was around several ways of connecting my story with the stories of the other Gull authors. At the same time, she took elements of Raama\u2019s life and incorporated them into Prodigy of Flame. I\u2019m not sure if she had the other authors write the interludes between the stories or she did that herself.\u00a0 But we spoke about each to make sure Raama\u2019s voice, motivation and state of mind were well represented. I am exceedingly pleased with the result.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

T:<\/strong> What other stories would you like readers to know about that you have written\u2014or that you are working on?\u00a0 Could you also give us a quick synopsis of any of the tales you want to bring attention to?<\/p>\n

SD: <\/strong>I hope the readers enjoy the glimpse into Raama\u2019s world. I hope to share his full story soon. In the meantime, the Crossroad Cantina episode \u201cTwo Immortals Walk into a Bar\u201d was written in collaboration with my daughter. We voiced it as well and it is a great glimpse into the dinner table with the Drew family. \u201cHalf Assed Adventures\u201d was another episode I contributed when Beth was trying to nudge me to do a full podcast based on a D&D campaign I ran for a group.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

T:<\/strong> Where would you like to see yourself in the next several years?\u00a0 Would you like to have a full series under your belt?\u00a0 Are you designing a massive, shared universe that you\u2019d like others to play in?\u00a0 Or are you excited by telling shorter, more intimate tales?<\/p>\n

SD: <\/strong>Raama\u2019s story has three distinct parts.\u00a0 I am uncertain yet whether that is three books or one longer book with three acts. I will have to finish it to know for certain. My hope over the next 5 years is that I\u2019ve published his story and the stories of some of his intersecting characters. Raama is notoriously bad with names of people and places. I have used that to my advantage, because the locations he visits can intersect with anywhere. I would love to have other authors connect their world with his and use the magic system or any other part that tickles them. I found it exciting that Beth was so fascinated by certain elements of my drafts that it inspired some of her story. I\u2019d love to be that catalyst for other writers as well. Stirring the imagination\u2026 that\u2019s the goal, right?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

T:<\/strong> Finally, what is the best way for readers to learn more about you?\u00a0 Do you have a website that they could visit, or do you prefer for them to follow you on a specific social media channel?<\/p>\n

SD: <\/strong>I am light on the Social Media front, so far. You can find more at amazon.com\/author\/stevedrew\u00a0 <\/a>\u00a0or https:\/\/wolfgrove.media\/steve-drew<\/a> I always welcome feedback. Fans can contact me directly at my Stevedrew@wolfgrove.media<\/a> \u00a0I try to reply to everyone. Sometimes it takes a while when my day job has gotten crazy. Of course, they can always call Beth and ask her questions. Her phone number is xxx-xxx-xxxx.\u00a0 (Who edited that out?)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

T:<\/strong> Thank you very much for spending some time chatting with us.\u00a0 This was a little bit more of an unconventional interview than we normally perform, but I hope that you had a bit of fun discussing your writing journey, and that this helps more readers find you!<\/p>\n

SD: <\/strong>Thanks again for including me! You made me reach deep here, but it was a fun experience.\u00a0 I hope to go through it again when Raama\u2019s story is finished.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Tellest<\/strong>: Once more, let’s thank Steve Drew for his contributions to The Golden Gull (both the book and the story therein), and for sharing some more about how it all came to be.\u00a0 Remember to check out the author’s social media links, and to dive deeper into The Golden Gull: The Isdralan Chronicles<\/em> on Amazon<\/a> today!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Welcome, travelers.\u00a0 While we typically conduct interviews that go a bit deeper into the content and character of a world and its author, we\u2019ve come upon a very interesting opportunity to talk to a number of storytellers who have all worked on the same anthology.\u00a0 These authors have collaborated on Beth Connor\u2019s collection, The Golden […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":34193,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[463,145,350,462],"tags":[303,3601,3610],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/tellest.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Featured-Steve-Drew.jpg","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1UVey-8Tu","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tellest.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34192"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tellest.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tellest.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tellest.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tellest.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34192"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/tellest.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34192\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34196,"href":"https:\/\/tellest.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34192\/revisions\/34196"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tellest.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tellest.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tellest.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tellest.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}