Listening In is a series of author interviews, featuring authors whose works have been transformed into audiobooks! Caldwell Turnbull is the award-winning author of multiple novels and short stories. His latest is We Are the Crisis, the “long-awaited sequel to No Gods, No Monsters.” The second book in The Convergence Saga “sees humans and monsters clash as civil rights collide with preternatural forces” and is now available in audiobook form. We Are the Crisis is narrated by Dion Graham.

Please tell us more about We Are the Crisis! Why should we listen to it?

We Are the Crisis is the second book in The Convergence Saga, the first being No Gods, No Monsters. It is your (mostly) typical monster story, only with a healthy dose of political intrigue and cosmic horror. Monsters are real and coming out of the shadows, but there are also gods acting in the background. These two elements are colliding with the human world.

Why should folks listen to the audiobook? Because it is narrated by the amazingly talented Dion Graham, and he does a beautiful job bringing the many characters in the book to life. In my mind I often see these books as an ensemble prestige show and Dion is the right person to bring that quality to a listening audience.

Could you please tell us about your career as an author? What first drew you to writing?

The truth is I had a teacher that believed in me. I turned in an essay in middle school and she asked me if I’d ever considered pursuing writing. Up until that point, I hadn’t, not believing I could do something like that. I didn’t know any writers personally. But once I considered it, I knew that’s what I wanted to do. Or try anyway.

We’d love to hear about your writing process. Please elaborate!

For much of my writing career I’ve had to juggle other work with my writing life. For a long time, I put a lot of pressure on my writing, setting goals I’d often fail at achieving, which set me on constant struggle-spirals. Now I set manageable goals. Generally speaking, I set a 250-word minimum per day. This is easy for me, and I often cheat up. I can write a thousand words much easier if that’s not my goal to begin with. But the lessened pressure frees me up to spend much of my writing time reading and editing.

I typically start my writing routine with a close reading of work I admire. Seeing someone else doing the thing gets me into the headspace to attempt doing the thing myself. Then I write for a while. I end with editing, doing much of that work long hand before taking my edits to my computer. Editing is the bigger part of the work. I tend to go over a draft a dozen times fine-tuning things. When I can’t find anything else to change, then I know I’m getting there. Time for another reader.

You write both short stories and full length novels, how does your writing process differ between those two types of projects?

In the past they were roughly the same. I’d approach parts of a novel like separate short stories. When I wrote short stories, I’d hop around and then compile the parts later. I still do that with novels. But I’ve become a bit more linear with short stories lately. I think that’s partly because I’ve built up stamina. I can hold a little more in my head and I’m less afraid to just follow the path in front of me. But I still think there are merits to both linear and haphazard approaches, and I will fall back on a haphazard approach if a linear one isn’t working.

I also outline in both mediums, but loosely, leaving myself room to discover. With short stories, I tend to condense in revision. My short stories lose words. With novels, I end up expanding while I’m trimming.

What drew you to Science Fiction and Fantasy? When did you know these were the genres you wanted to write?

In high school I read 1984 by George Orwell. Of course, at the time I didn’t have the language to call it dystopian science fiction and the class itself treated the book as simply a literary classic. I’d watched a ton of science fiction and fantasy TV shows, some of them with my mom, but I’d never imagined that I could write in the visual medium. It just didn’t feel attainable, even less attainable than writing fiction. But when I read the book, I knew I wanted to write fiction like it, that interrogated society, or created new societies. In college, I read Le Guin‘s The Lathe of Heaven, then The Dispossessed. It was a wrap after that.

Where is your favourite place to write?

I really like coffee shops. I really like that sort of soft accountability. It is good to see other people working. I also think the ambient noise helps me silence the noise in my own head. If it is too quiet, if I’m too isolated, I start to pace and about 10 percent of it is actually useful pacing. Libraries are a close second. Bookstores with coffee shops are also fantastic. Occasionally, if I’ve locked all distractions away somewhere, I can have a decent time writing at home.

Describe your writing style in five words or less.

I feel weird describing my own style. But I can say what my goals for the writing are: spare, approachable, layered, deceptively simple.

Do you believe supernatural creatures could walk hidden among us? 

Sure. I’m pretty agnostic about most things. I am open to being surprised, which I suppose has led to me doing thought experiments in my own head that inevitably turn into fiction.

I spend a lot of time thinking about how strange the universe is. Supernatural creatures would barely count as strange in comparison to the strangeness we already know about.

What inspires your lore of monsters? How did you make your lore unique?

I was deeply inspired by home, stories I was told as a kid, and Caribbean folklore more generally. Still, the series remains a love letter to popular lore. I don’t think that’s bad. Tropes are there to be used.

For almost two decades at this point, I’ve been building up a cosmology in my own head: beings that hide and continue to re-emerge in the background of my stories. I think the more unique parts are the places where popular and Caribbean folklore combine with this expanding cosmology.

Any advice for emerging writers?

Steady is better than prolific. Don’t hit your head against your work (unless that is something you’re particularly talented at). Show up often (doesn’t need to be always) and keep coming back. Let the work be the point.

The other thing is figuring out your limits. Set a pace you can maintain. Take care of yourself.

What do you do when you experience writer’s block or reader’s block?

If I have writer’s block, I read something. This is most helpful if I can find something to read that I fall in love with.

Reader’s block happens less often, but when it does, I just dip my toes into a book I already love, or read many things at once, until something draws me in. So far, I’ve always eventually found something that gets me out of the slump.

What has been the most exciting part of having your novels transformed into audiobooks?

I love hearing someone else transform the words on the page, make them better through their interpretation. For me it is no less than an adaptation of the work. Someone else’s engagement changes everything. And I just love audiobooks. I sometimes listen to them as a I read along. I have favorite performances and favorite parts of performances. It is immensely gratifying to experience that with my own work.

Dion Graham narrated both books in this series. Did you have any say in his intitial casting? Is having the same narrator across your series important to you? What made Graham the right fit?

Blackstone Publishing did give me a lot of say in picking who’d read the books. Truthfully, Dion was on the top of the list from before it got to that stage. If he was available. Luckily, he was.

What I love about Dion is that he is specific and impressionistic in his approach. He asks a lot of questions. Sometimes I didn’t know the answers to some of his questions and we spend time brainstorming possibilities. I’ve talked to him for hours on the phone about the books, a gift I am deeply grateful for. In the end though, he trusts himself. He lets himself go where his instincts take him. That leads to pleasant surprises. In that way it feels truly his as well, which I like. I am honored he has kept showing up. I think his consistent presence has made the books come alive.

Please recommend an audiobook you absolutely adored!

Can I recommend a few? The Mountain in the Sea by Ray Nayler (narrated by Eunice Wong). The Sparrow (narrated by David Colacci) and Children of God by Mary Doria Russel (narrated by Anna Fields). Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver (narrated by Charlie Thurston). The Broken Earth Trilogy by N.K. Jemisin (narrated by Robin Miles). 

What are you reading (or listening to) right now?

Currently I am all over the place. I’ve been listening to A History of the World by Andrew Marr (narrated by David Timson) for a minute now. Often at the gym or on walks. I’ve also been slowly working my way through Our Share of Night by Mariana Enriquez (translated by Megan McDowell and narrated by Frankie Corzo). It is brilliant.