witch

In this episode, Paul Sating interviews urban fantasy author Whit McClendon. Whit writes The GrimFaerie Chronicles, a series about a hunter and a witch who team up to protect humankind from evil Fae.

Find Out More About This Week’s Featured Author

Buy Grim Undertakings on Amazon: https://geni.us/grim1

Find This Author on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/whitmccauthor

Transcript of This Week’s Author Interview:

(Note: This is a machine generated transcript, so please excuse the typos. ~MDM)

Announcer (00:00:01):

Welcome to The Urban Fantasy Author Podcast! From indie authors to trad-pub, gritty contemporary fantasy to lighthearted urban fantasy, masquerade to unmasked… Every week, we’ll bring you new authors and novels from the world of urban fantasy publishing. Now let’s introduce this episode’s featured guest.

Paul Sating (00:00:24):

Hey everybody. Welcome to urban fantasy author podcast. I am not MD Massey I’m fellow author, equally shaven headed, and just as good looking urban fantasy author, all sating author of the Zodiac series. It was my great pleasure for MD to ask me to come on board this podcast and help him do some of these interviews. I’ve got 10 years of podcasting experience and I’ve recently retired. My writing podcast called horrible writing, even though I still have one podcast out there called audio fiction, but I was more than excited at MDs invitation. And I’m more than excited to have met you and be able to bring you some outstanding interviews starting today with this first episode with urban fantasy author, Whit McLendon.

Paul Sating (00:01:14):

So let’s get into wit’s interview with McLendon was born on Halloween in Freeport, Texas. He grew up in Angleton, Texas and was active in martial arts track and field and playing the clarinet in band one year at Texas a and M proved that lacrosse was far more fun than electrical engineering. And he eventually graduated with a degree in engineering design graphics from Brazosport college. After working in the petrochemical field as a CAD drafter for many years, we finally realized his life’s dream of becoming a full-time martial arts instructor. Now lives in Katy, Texas plays lacrosse as often as possible and runs Jade mountain martial arts. It lasts a lot more now than he did when he worked at an engineering firm. Let’s get into the interview.

Paul Sating (00:02:06):

I’ve told people in the introduction who you are, so I want to jump right in and welcome you to the show. Welcome to be in my first guest on the urban fantasy author podcast. Thank you. Hey I’m honored and thrilled to be here. I’m glad to have you. And I’ve been stalking you out there on the, you know, the big bookstore in the sky kind of have an idea of who you are and what you’ve got going on. But I was wondering, I was curious, give us a little bit of background on who you are, but specifically since you know, this is an urban fantasy author podcast. Why in the world urban fantasy?

Whit McClendon (00:03:00):

Well let’s see. My name is Whitton McLendon. I live in Katy, Texas. It’s just outside of Houston. I run Jade mountain martial arts and martial arts school out there. And Katie have for nearly 20 years out here or Epic fantasy was my first love, I mean, comic books when I was a kid and Lord of the rings, Dennis McCarran and just a, a Conan, I mean, Oh yeah. Conan. And so I always loved that kind of thing. And I used to write stories in junior high and high school just to amuse myself. I got a couple of little awards from a literary magazine and in high school, but I never really thought about writing anything beyond that. And the early nineties, I got ticked off at an author because I was trying a new author. He had tons of books and I bought the first two of his first trilogy and I got irritated and said, man, I gotta be able to write better than this guy. It took me 20 years and I gained a new level of respect for what it takes to be that guy.

Whit McClendon (00:03:50):

And so cause he turned out book after book and I was like, I go blue. So so I turned out my first Epic fantasy in 2014 and it’s been about a book a year ever since the urban fantasy came about. I just had this idea for a scene, which is usually how my books come to life and I started writing the scene and then put it away and then somebody suggested, Hey, why don’t you do NaNoWriMo? You know, it’s fun. Yeah, it’s fun. They said. So so I, I went ahead and pulled that concept out and I managed about 30,000 words. But it wasn’t you know, it wasn’t near to the end of the book, but by then I picked up some steam and I was enjoying the character and enjoying what was going on and went ahead and finished it out. And that became my first urban fantasy. It was grim undertakings book, one of the Grimm fairy Chronicles. And I just I liked it and people liked it. That was a pleasant surprise for me. People really seem to enjoy it. And so I wrote another one and I’ve got a third one that you know, that’s my newest release.

Paul Sating (00:05:00):

It’s interesting to me that you went from a Epic over to urban that’s because, and I haven’t shared this with you, but I’m doing the opposite direction. My heart is being called by the Epic journeys and you know, the battles in the worlds and all that stuff. But like you I’ve always, you know, for, at least for me when it comes to Epic fantasy, I think that I cleaned the, that word Epic and I picture, you know, the, the six to 800, 900 page tomes that I want to write. No, it is absolutely. It is. And it’s not very how shall we say responsible for, for an indie author. Who’s trying to make a career out of this, you know, trying to pump out 900 page books, you know, I can get away with shorter books with urban. Yeah. So that is interesting.

Paul Sating (00:05:53):

I do have a question cause I want to dive into your series here, but I, I see you on camera. My patrons, see you on camera as well. We know you’re in a Stu, a martial arts studio here. You, you teach all kinds of physical combat stuff. So in my head, this doesn’t make sense is big tough guy teach, teaches the physical combat arts for a living. And then he’s writing urban fantasy about fairies. So chicken and egg martial arts and fairies. What came first and how in the world did you put those two together?

Whit McClendon (00:06:23):

The, the I’ve been doing martial arts since I was 12. And I knew from day one, I wanted, I wanted to be a seafood, you know, a traditional Kung Fu instructor. And I pursued that. I took the long road, but, you know, I finally managed to get my own school. So the martial arts definitely came first in, in some ways, even though at that time I already loved reading fantasy, but in terms of writing it, it was just kind of a natural thing. I mean, you know, you write what you know, and you know, I, I feel really fortunate in that I’ve been trained in both traditional Chinese Kung Fu with, you know, swords and daggers and PSI and big giant, you know knives with long handles, all kinds of fun stuff. But at the same time, I’ve also trained in what some would say more applicable arts in terms of actual fighting such as, you know, Krav Maga and Brazilian jujitsu and judo and all of that stuff, which made the traditional stuff more accessible.

Whit McClendon (00:07:25):

Like, Oh, that’s what this is for. Oh, that’s what that’s for. And so it created kind of a really interesting body of techniques both traditional and you know, like, like street self-defense to use in the writing, because if you’ve got Epic fantasy, you’ve got urban fantasy there was going to be fighting. And in both, there are opportunities for bladed weapons for, you know good old fist to cuffs and punches kicks and elbows. And in the urban fantasy though, that’s where we bring in the guns. And so it was really fun for me to be able to talk about, you know, how to take the guns away without being super technical, but still being real in how you would deal with someone with a gun close far, whatever. And so it’s been so much fun to kind of put all of that into the stories to, I hope give them a certain sense of realism with the action.

Paul Sating (00:08:27):

You balanced that as as somebody who you, you know, you’re pursuing the professional authorship aspect, but you also run the studio. I find that I I’ve read some authors that you can see their life’s passion kind of bleeding into their stories because they overdo it. How have you found this, a technique that you’ve used to kind of like, Hey, Whit pumped the brakes. You’re, you’re going a little geek on the reader because maybe the reader need all that. They might want some of that. Right. But so is there anything that you’ve, have you even noticed that about your, or maybe your work?

Whit McClendon (00:09:03):

I try to be careful with that because as you know, I mean, I’ve, I’ve been a teacher for forever at this point. And, and I recognize that there’s a tendency when you know, something really, really well, and you’ve known it for a long time. You might accidentally expect that someone else knows the same things, you know, and they don’t. I mean, they don’t, you know, there’s, there’s so many people walking around that look very tough, but they, they literally do not know how to throw a one, two punch with anything resembling good technique. You know, they’ll filling something out there that could hurt you. But as far as technique goes, they’ve simply never been taught. Right. And so when I’m writing, I really want to be careful to describe the action well enough that someone can get an idea of what’s going on and somebody can tell, yeah, this sounds, that does actually sounds technically right. Without bogging it down. So that it slows down everything because, you know, that’s, yeah. I could geek out about, you know, exactly what, you know, Oka you’ll get up like this and then you turn it and then you’re, you know, it’s like, you could do that, but I try not to, I really want to get the action going, get it moving, but still have it feel good, feel right.

Paul Sating (00:10:16):

Is there a difference in your Epic versus urban descriptions in those fight scenes then?

Whit McClendon (00:10:22):

Oh yeah. Well, you know, firstly in the Epic fantasy, no gums, you know, you don’t have to take those things away from somebody. And I tend to have my urban fantasy is written first person, you know, from the main character’s point of view with a little bit of a third person, if it shifts a viewpoint to someone who is somewhere else. But then the, the Epic fantasy is all a third person. And so I tend to be a little bit more formal in the Epic fantasy as I’m describing the action. I don’t want to sound too pretentious. I just want it to be, to be in that fantasy feeling. You know, I want my readers to feel like, yeah, this is fantasy. And then the urban fantasy, I want them to feel much more like, well, yeah, well this is real life, except there’s a, there’s a monster there, you know? And so I’m trying to balance those two things.

Paul Sating (00:11:15):

It’s a different mindset, right? Like you and I both share that love for Epic and urban fantasy. And when I sit down with an Epic, I want you to explain the way you cook the meal. I don’t want the McDonald’s dropped on my plate, whereas urban fantasy, right. Just give me the food. I just want the food. Right. And there’s something, there’s something about that experiential submersion in Epic that we can get away with it. We can’t necessarily get away with it with urban fantasy or people would just kill us about the pacing of stuff.

Whit McClendon (00:11:46):

Absolutely. It’s well, when everybody, when it’s in present day you know, everybody knows you know, everybody knows a drive through is, you know, and so it’s like, it’s a little easier to gloss over some of those mentions of things that everybody already knows about. Whereas in a fantasy setting, you know they want to know more about the whole situation, you know, where is it, what does it look like? What’s it like to be in this? What is in actually an alien environment, although it is also familiar because so many of us have, you know, been immersed in medieval fantasy for so long.

Paul Sating (00:12:21):

Right. So let’s talk about the, this mixture then. So you’ve got this background in the, in this passion for the art martial arts combat sports. How did you get to Fay in creating this kind of, you know, tough guy, tough Gail Fe story. Was it just a moment of inspiration or did you deliberately go out and see what fantasy race species can I grab and mix this in these two worlds? You know,

Whit McClendon (00:12:53):

It really wasn’t anything like that. I am, I am so much pantser okay. Like they’re really, I get picked at, by some of my friends that are like, you could plot a little, no, I can’t. And so most of what I write is very much like I’ve got a YouTube channel going on in my head and when the connection’s good, I’m just reporting what I see. And I have the luxury of being able to change it later, if it doesn’t fit. Sometimes the connection is a little more spotty and then, you know, staring at a screen hoping for the best. And so it really, wasn’t a conscious effort on my part to blend, you know, okay, I want a Berry creature, but I want him to use martial arts or, you know, there, there was nothing like that. It was more that the CRE the, the Kane, the main character in this he appeared, you know, kind of fully formed and I followed him on his adventures.

Whit McClendon (00:13:47):

And it turns out that he is a, basically a Fe assassin who keeps the balance between light and dark by taking out some of the, some of the bad guys before things get too bad. And he, he doesn’t really use a lot of martial arts. He has claws and fangs and certain magical abilities, and he’s, you know, kind of a nasty character for a good guy. But the people that he meets there’s a a witch that he meets in the first book and she is a tough Texas girl, a two gun Toten, which, you know, and she loves her firearms and she loves her magic and, and she’s a lot of fun. And that’s where I get to explore a little bit more of what we see is martial arts, because she’s been trained, you know, she likes to kick and she has to know how, and so

Paul Sating (00:14:40):

For, for the series of talk, I mean, we can talk about that, jump into the Chronicles now that take on fairies. I, what inspired that? I’ve always that

Whit McClendon (00:14:53):

That’s a really interesting society, you know, and, and I mean, the cool thing about urban fantasy, there is so much material to draw from in terms of you know fantasy creatures legends myths so much stuff, you know I, I feel like Jim butcher has done a fantastic job in that kind of thing, you know, but it’s like, ah, w when I was looking at my face society, I’ve kept it at a very surface level so that I can explore it myself as we go and then start, you know, kind of laying out relationships and hierarchies and different things. Like at this point, Cain takes his, or his marching orders from the goddess from basically mother nature. And, you know we don’t know very much about the rest of his face society. But I can feel a lot of that burbling around in there and it starts to starting to want to come out

Paul Sating (00:15:54):

Those pesky stories. They do that to us

Whit McClendon (00:15:56):

Do that. Yeah. So

Paul Sating (00:15:59):

They do you have a world concept that you’ve, that is rumbling around in there in the head that your readers haven’t seen yet, that you are planning on getting to, at some point in the series, does a world get bigger and bigger? It does.

Whit McClendon (00:16:17):

As I, as I’ve progressed, I’ve gone through three books and I’ve managed to introduce a few new characters there in this the second and third books, I introduced a female detective who probably has some faith in her bloodline because she is intensely powerful with magic, but has suppressed it. So as she wouldn’t seem different but now it’s to the point where she’s having to be taught how to use it, otherwise it’s dangerous. But she, she’s an awesome character. I really like her. And there’s, there’s a werewolf character, basically, he’s the King of a werewolf clan. And so as these new characters emerge, bad guys and good guys it allows me to kind of fill out those ranks of the society within the books. And I’m starting to see opportunities and stories that, that, you know, that flesh, all those things out. And, and that’s so much fun. It’s just so much fun to explore those things.

Paul Sating (00:17:18):

When you start seeing the layers, it’s, it is a lot of fun. It’s one of those things that I mean, I don’t know how long of a series I could write, but like with the Zodiac series, you know, by default, you automatically think 12 books because of the Zodiac type of thing. And there’s a lot of people who say, I don’t know how you could even think to write 12 books. And now I keep saying, but there’s just so much, I haven’t even touched on yet. Right. I can see myself. There is, I was, I don’t know if you listen or read more contemporary, Epic fantasy, but if, you know, Terry Mann, Coors spell mongers series, it’s 12 or 13 books now. And I saw a recent interview with him that right now, notionally he’s, he, he said it was a 32 or 33 books.

Paul Sating (00:18:08):

I’ve never even imagined a 30 plus book, Epic fantasy series. That’s a remarkable. So let’s talk about with the writer that you’ve been guiltily admitted or not. So guiltily admitted that you’re a pantser. I am. Yeah. So kind of give us a, give a, you know, a lot of folks who will listen to this will be fans of urban fantasy as well, but there will be a lot of either aspiring authors, people who only consider themselves writers as a passion or people who are already published and maybe just interested in what other folks are doing. So what does your writing day look like?

Whit McClendon (00:18:45):

I have to fit my writing in, around my school’s activities. And so some days, you know, I’ve got classes in the morning classes at noon classes in the evening, and, you know, there’s other things that I have to do. I have, I have to get my physical training done. I have to get my own practice in as well as all the errands. And so it’s, it’s, I have to be really brutal with my time management to get any writing done at all, because, you know, it’s like the school is what pays the bills and the, you know, and I would love to kind of shift my writing and, and, you know, so that the writing is taking more you know, bringing in more income than that, but that’s a process, you know, and it takes a lot. So at this point, I’m, I’m managing my time really, really harshly so that I can, okay, I got 15 minutes, boom, I’m going to go, you know, so I’ll set a timer and I’ll do 15 minute sprints for writing. And then, you know, depending on what else is going on, maybe it’s going, well, I’ll keep going. Other times I’ll try and block out an hour or two in a row. And that’s like exciting.

Whit McClendon (00:19:49):

And so really it’s, it’s about writing when I can and making those opportunities. And so, because with all of the other stuff that I have to do, if I don’t prioritize, then stuff gets dropped off the list and then I get in trouble later. So being able to manage your time and plan when you’re going to do it, even if it’s in little bitty bursts, I mean, I wrote most of this third book and a little bitty bursts and you know, in the end it all came together. Okay.

Paul Sating (00:20:16):

Really encouraging because there will be a lot of people who will cling to folks like me who do those more marathon sessions and it can be, and I can understand it can be discouraging, maybe if you’ve only been writing for a few years or if you’re just starting out. So it’s really encouraging, even for me to hear somebody like you talk about you know, making that time and if it’s 15 minutes it’s, and that’s all I can do, it’s still 15 minutes. I get some more

Whit McClendon (00:20:43):

I have a couple of friends, one of them both authors. And one of I was she was talking about how it was difficult and whatnot. I said, look, just do a hundred words, just a hundred words and, and do your best and see what happens. And that ended up becoming kind of a joke between us. She’s like, I did my a hundred words and then I did 500 more, you know? And like, yeah,

Paul Sating (00:21:06):

I like how she gave you attitude about it too.

Whit McClendon (00:21:09):

Yeah. Attitude. She’s awesome. Yeah.

Paul Sating (00:21:13):

A number of us back in the day when I had the horrible writing podcast, I actually did an episode and it was called a hundred word day. And it was basically, I was trying to, I’ve got this theory right. Every day. Don’t give me an excuse. Why you can’t get words down. Yes. We’re all busy. Congratulations. Everybody’s got stuff going on, but you can write every single day. And I gave them an example of, you know, my average word count is between three to 5,000 words a day, depending on, and in context, I do this full time, so I’ve got more time for it, but there was a day when we had a family thing going on. So I got up a little earlier, I’ve jumped in here. I pound out literally a hundred words cause I was just struggling that day. And then I went and did important family stuff. Cause the, the stories can wait. Right. And it’s about keeping that balance. So I really liked that. You said that, especially in the context of what everything else you’ve got going on, I’m really curious how you shift that quickly. Is there any advice or any tips you could give us from the business mindset? You know, I’ve got the heating and air heating and cooling guy coming by the gym to fix a thing. And then you go right into that creative mindset. Is there anything that you’ve learned over the years to help you shift quickly?

Whit McClendon (00:22:27):

Almost everything that you want to be able to do is simply a skillset that takes practice and you will get better at it. The more times you do it, you know, it’s like, I wish that I could say, you know, it’s like, well, I come in here and I ring a chime thing and I get into, and then I hit it. But a lot of times I just don’t have time for that. And instead I pull up the document and I’d take a deep breath and let it out and be like, all right, I read the last page or so to kind of see where I am and then I’ll start the timer. And, you know, in the beginning I would get really frustrated because I only had so much time and then class would start or something. But now it’s like, I use those actively like, okay, 15 minutes. And that gives me like, see what I can get done in 15 minutes and then I’ll, I’ll get it done and then either go beyond it or because of my time constraints, I’ll just stop. But I will feel good about what I’ve done,

Paul Sating (00:23:24):

That self motivation, that self challenge. And then that learned behavior of doing it, doing it, doing it, getting through the suck. So let’s talk about urban fantasy, then I’m going to kind of shift into the genre itself. What is it besides the you said earlier, I can’t remember exactly how you started, but as something along the possibilities, right. There’s boundless possibilities in urban fantasy. What is it that drew you to it and that you’re, you’re doing it and you kind of want to play around with maybe experiment with going forward in your stories, whether it’s this series or something you’ve got planned.

Whit McClendon (00:24:00):

Well, you know I I’ve thought about that. And really the, the thing that keeps coming up for me is just, it’s, it’s fun, you know? I mean, it’s just so much fun to you know I have, I have my, my guys they’re, they’re going up into a, a skyscraper in downtown Houston, you know, and it’s like, well, the, there, there were quite a few supernatural issues in this tower because there are guards, you know? And so I just think it’s, it’s a really interesting and fun, you know, to turn a corner somewhere and then there’s a mountain troll. Oh yeah. And so, you know, being in an urban fantasy environment lets me do that. It’s like if you’re in an Epic fantasy environment and you’re walking around in the mountains well, and there’s a mountain troll, it’s like, Oh yeah, they warned me, you know, it’s but you know, you’re just going to the stop and go. You don’t necessarily expect like a Reaper to come out at you or some kind of a goblet and, and and that’s just fun. So I really enjoy that part of it.

Paul Sating (00:25:06):

It is a lot of fun to to play around with that and see the possibilities in the world, you know, that all the Epic fantasies always attracted me because they were magical and foreign and new. And I think that’s one of the things I appreciate the most about urban fantasy is that it takes this mundane world that we live in, where we’ve got the gray, concrete cities and, you know, technology, and then, you know, it could be very boring, but urban fantasy has forced us to see the fun that, you know, I’m with you

Whit McClendon (00:25:39):

On that. Oh yeah, absolutely. With you on that.

Paul Sating (00:25:41):

So let’s, let’s kind of get people to know who you are as a, as a person a little bit. What are you currently reading when you’re not busy doing a million other things that is right? What are you reading right now?

Whit McClendon (00:25:53):

Well, I, I kinda stepped into my, my youth a little bit here recently. I managed to find almost all of the red Sonja books David C. Smith, you know, and it’s just been so long since I’ve enjoyed those and that is nothing but swords and sorcery, you know, sandals and, you know, the most ridiculous armor that a woman would never wear, you know? Gosh. but in terms of the writing, it’s like, it is just, it’s pure candy for me. Yeah. And, and so I really enjoy that. And the last couple of things that I’d read before that I read Dean, thriller, the silent corner, very modern you know, with certain fantasy elements. And that’s something that I’ve enjoyed about Koons is stuff. A lot of times is that it’s a very, very real world, thoroughly research thing. And his writing is really colorful. But there’s always some kind of fantasy element in there. And it’s really well thought out. So I really enjoyed that. And Stephen King too, you know, he had some good stuff that I’ve read lately. Yeah.

Paul Sating (00:26:58):

Yeah. He I mean, tried and true his intro, we got so much, we’ve got so much in common when it comes to what we actually work on and what we actually read on the side too. I like, I love the darker stuff I always have. And it’s always interesting when you do urban, right. Urban fantasy, how those elements can kind of influence your fantasy world. For example, when you’re reading something like King and you know, you’ve got those heavy horror elements, if you will.

Whit McClendon (00:27:27):

I love that. You know, it’s like I, in fact, I looked back over my Epic fantasy and there are some pretty horrific parts in there as well. And it’s like, you know, it’s like, yeah, I know. I like the bloody stuff. Just a little, just a little,

Paul Sating (00:27:40):

Just a little bit. I I’m with you on that. I think one of the most enjoyable, I don’t know if you were a fan or not, but the Jordans wheel of time series Sanderson came on board and he finished that series in that had Hapic battle. I can’t even, I asked somebody once I’ve never looked it up myself, I think is actually I Google. Same, but that for those of you who haven’t read it, I’m not going to give away any spoilers, but there’s this massive, good versus evil battle thing in that scene. I don’t remember something like 500 pages long, just the scene itself. And, you know, you know, I liked the intense horror stuff, but man, if you can drag out the, the fighting and the blood and the killing, that’s good. And you can make it work, I guess that’s the key. Yeah, he did. He did that. Well, I couldn’t, I couldn’t Brandon, I can’t hold your a pen. So if you could do this all over again, if you could pick up the Quill for the first time, starting with books, zero again what would the aspiring author do differently? If he had that second chance?

Whit McClendon (00:28:47):

Oh man, I would jump into some indie publishing courses right away. It was, I I’d already, you know, I’d gotten the first book out and was working on the second and I don’t remember when it was sometime I think between the second and third, when I really started digging into some of the bigger courses out there that that really starts you from the ground up as far as like, okay, maybe I wrote something or maybe I’m thinking about writing something, what do you need to do to be an indie author? You know? And it’s like, well, you end up with a kind of a big checklist you know, get a website, social media presence, you know, you gotta write the book, you know, write the book how to get it up on Amazon or how to go wide. If you’re going to do that, how to think about mailing list, it’s all of these things.

Whit McClendon (00:29:37):

It’s kind of like when I was a kid and I, you know, day one in the Kung school and I said, I want to be a thief. That’s what I wanted. I want to be a kung-fu instructor. Nobody says anything about the desk work. You need to do all the other stuff that goes along with being a teacher of martial arts. If you run your own business and an author business is no different, you have to know or hire somebody and I’m not doing that. You have to know how to do all of those little things that make that your author business become a business. And I wish that I would have started that earlier. That’s the big thing that I would have done

Paul Sating (00:30:13):

Meat. I I’m, I think I’m absolutely, I’m still at that point you know, two years into taking this serious and I’m still just doing baby steps, you know, and taking those little nibbles of learning all of these things that you’re hinting at, because it’s just, you know, frankly it can be intimidating and I’ve been doing this, like I said, full time for over a year now, but seriously for the two years. And it’s just, I can see why a new person coming in would just be absolutely, you know, throwing in the towel before they even just overwhelming.

Whit McClendon (00:30:46):

Yeah. I mean, there’s, there’s so much to do and there’s so much information on how to do it, that that can also seem overwhelming, but you know, I’m a Kung Fu guy, you know, I’m, I’m used to starting at the bottom. It’s like, stand like this. Okay. Now do this now breathe. You know, it’s like, I’m used to starting with just the tiniest little things and then eventually, you know, adding as you go. So it’s like also, it will take me a thousand years if I started now, then, you know, I got a shot.

Paul Sating (00:31:18):

I mean, but that’s that, you know, that is so important to keep we, you and I spoke about mindset earlier and it’s, you know, about that, my you’ve got to have that practical mindset, or, or if you do, you end up throwing in the towel and being one of those folks who was going to try to write a book and then, you know, that was one of those things on your death bed. You look back and go, gee, I wish I had tried. So

Whit McClendon (00:31:41):

People ask me like at booths at the conventions, they would come up and say, I always wanted to write a story. And then they would spend the next 10 minutes telling me the story. And my comment is always the same.

Paul Sating (00:31:52):

Go home and write that start now. Exactly. No, I’m exactly with you. Yep. What what’s the future of Grimm fairy then? What can we expect coming from it?

Whit McClendon (00:32:05):

Well, and the third book, there is just a hint of romance going on in there. So that’s been fun to explore the feelings of the characters as things emerge. And also I got kinda hit in the face the other day with an idea for some of the characters. They’re more supporting characters, but max, who is the King of the werewolf clan you know, a billionaire businessman, a very noble character throughout the series. But I, I suddenly got hit with an idea or something where they are, he is the main character and it’s, it’s a pretty involved thing and I don’t know what to do with it. Somebody dropped this thing in my lap and I’m like, well, that’s not a grim very story. That’s a Maxim story. That’s a werewolf story, you know? And, and, and so I’m trying to figure out, I feel like I’m cheating on my Granbury right now. Like yeah, no, I, yeah. Let me get, let me just get back to you. I got a little thing and then I’m coming right back.

Paul Sating (00:33:06):

I swear. I just went to lunch. I just,

Whit McClendon (00:33:09):

So just let’s talk into the wearables just a minute. So as far as the grim period goes I don’t know exactly what he’s going to be doing next because I haven’t seen it. It just, you know, pops me in the face at some point, Oh, Hey, that’s what he’s going to do. But I know that he, and one of the characters are looking at their relationship. And so I’m kind of very interested to explore that. It sounds like it’s a lot of fun to me.

Paul Sating (00:33:33):

Do you, so do you let ideas percolate because you’ve talked about how even your friends give you a hard time about your pants saying if max doesn’t leave you alone for the next year, do you just leave max out there and just let it percolate? And then maybe two years from now he goes and has a side adventure, or are you one of those kinds of authors? I got to jump into Max’s thing. Cause he’s telling he’s screaming at me for attention.

Whit McClendon (00:33:58):

Yeah. That’s that I’ve started. I’ve made way more notes right now on Max’s stuff, his situation than on any new Grimm fairy stuff that could change at any moment, honestly, because I could be, you know, working away on some, on just making some notes on max and then all of a sudden power. Here’s a really powerful scene with the with Kane, the Grimm fairy and or Ariana, the witch or, or detective Avery Lynn, you know, it’s like something will hit me really hard and it will yank me right off of that other thing. And so it’s like, I let my creative urges run me around to a certain extent, but then I have to focus some admin skills to finish it out. If I don’t, then I’m just going to have a whole bunch of different story chunks lying around. And I won’t know, in a while, I, I don’t want 20 stories and I haven’t finished any of them. Yup. So once I get one going enough, then I will make myself finish that. And then the other one will wait,

Paul Sating (00:35:04):

There we go. All right. So there’s, it sounds like there’s plenty more to come from the world. Yeah. And all of his characters. All right. So folks who want to check you out, where can they find you?

Whit McClendon (00:35:15):

I am pretty easy to find. You can go to wit mclendon.com and there I am. Also I’m easily. Find-Able on Facebook. What McLendon author and personal Facebook page Jade mountain.org is my martial arts website, you know, and you’ll see me in there. I think I have a YouTube channel. But man,

Paul Sating (00:35:38):

I, I stink at YouTube. I’m still trying to figure that nonsense out Instagram as well. You know, it’s like, I’m, I’m on all the major things. I don’t, I don’t tweet though. I don’t, I don’t tweet well, so sorry. I’m just not good at that one. Yeah. Anybody who knows me will know that you, you know, I’m with you walking side by side and I used to be very heavy in it and I just, I can’t exhaust me and I don’t under, I’ve got a, my podcast get uploaded automatically to YouTube, or I probably wouldn’t know what to do with YouTube either. So, right. I have no idea. You know, it’s not really visually stimulating to watch an author type out a story. Yeah. So yeah, one of these days I’ll figure it out. I have no idea. Alright. So w I want to thank you for joining us.

Paul Sating (00:36:25):

It was, you were very gracious as my first ever urban fantasy author podcast, interviewee, you were very patient. I really appreciate it. And I actually am very excited to dig into some of your stuff and see what you’ve got coming out, especially as I get in there. And I started seeing how you mix the, the world, the, the races of the ferry and the martial arts stuff. I geek out about that stuff. So it’s going to be really interesting to dig into. I appreciate your time today. No, thank you. Like I said earlier, it’s an honor. I really appreciate the opportunity. And I’ve had a ton of fun.

Paul Sating (00:37:01):

I have as well. Again, urban fantasy author podcast fans. I am so humbled and appreciative that you have welcomed me into your show with open arms. And I want to thank MD Massey for not only allowing me to do this interview, but others in the future coming up, including my next one with Lindsay Buroker, if you want any more information on me or my books, just head over to PaulSating.com. Keep being epic.