INTERVIEW with ANIMAL KINGDOMS Series author Oliver Paglia

What are your top 10 favorite books/authors?
Joseph Campell - Hero with a Thousand Faces.
        ||                 - Pathways to Bliss
C G Jung - the Archetypes of the Collective Unconscious
        ||                 - The Portable Jung

John Milton - Paradise Lost.
Most of the ‘Gotrek and Felix’ novels, published by Black Library.
My KJV Bible
Peter Hitchens - The Abolition of Britain
Edmund Burke - A vindication of Natural Society
Dante Alighieri - The Divine Comedy


What book do you think everyone should read?
Joseph Campell’s ‘Hero with a Thousand Faces’; it tells you pretty much everything you need to know about writing your own mythic adventure story.

Do the characters all come to you at the same time or do some of them come to you as you write?
Some come as I write, I certainly develop them all much more as the book progresses.

Do you see writing as a career?
At the moment, I see writing as a vocation. If I make any money from a book, I consider it a trade as well.

Do you read yourself and if so what is your favorite genre?
I like to read philosophy, politics, fantasy/myth and the occasional biography.

Do you prefer to write in silence or with noise? Why?
Silence, or with some great movie music blaring out, like Jerry Goldsmith or Alan Silvestri. It depends what mood I’m in.

If you could have been the author of any book ever written, which book would you choose?
My own, of course!

Pen or type writer or computer?
I wrote my first two books by hand first, then typed them. Now, I have the nerve to hit the keys from the beginning.

What made you want to become an author and do you feel it was the right decision?
I envisaged a story I felt compelled to write, so in that respect, my motivations were correct.

A day in the life of the author?
Sit at a keyboard and force yourself to write, make a cup of tea/coffee, stare at the computer, then finally, God willing, you hit the imagination vein and the thing almost writes itself....sometimes.

Advice they would give new authors?
Just do it!

Describe your writing style.
Concise, to the point, rolling, visual and sometimes I hit something sublime; that’s the best thing I feel I can give to my readers.

What makes a good story?
Something that transcends the everyday.

What is your writing process? For instance do you do an outline first? Do you do the chapters first? What are common traps for aspiring writers?
I outline the story with a kind of lengthy synopsis, then get on with it.
Some writers get too lost in the details and waffle too much. They need to keep their eye on the story and the emotional needs of their characters.

What is your writing Kryptonite?
Building work going on nearby....like my Land Lord has been doing for the past year!!!!

Do you try more to be original or to deliver to readers what they want?
First and foremost, I try to tell a good story.

If you could tell your younger writing self anything, what would it be?
See above (just do it!)

What’s the most difficult thing about writing characters from the opposite sex?
As a man, it’s harder writing women as you have to confront and come to terms with something that is objectively external to you, yet on some psychological level resides within you. I find understanding the fairer sex challenging but also greatly therapeutic.

How long on average does it take you to write a book?
If I’m on good form and I don’t have any other commitments, I can turn a book around in less than 6 months.

Do you believe in writer’s block?
Yes, but as long as you write something in a day, that’s what counts.

About writing:
I enjoy how sometimes I surprise myself. I go into a writing zone, on a good day, and when I emerge I read over what I’ve written and it’s as if someone else has been sitting in my chair when I wasn’t looking...strange.



The Merewyrm's Tooth
Animal Kingdoms Book 1
by Oliver Paglia
Genre: Epic Fantasy
 
Faharen was a contented enough young lad, living a simple farming life with his adopted kin the Manxii, on the North Western Plain of the Animal Kingdoms.


After a mysterious blight begins to ravage the pastures of his homeland, he must embark on a perilous quest only he can complete; to cross the Great Forest, entering the Realms of Men to retrieve a piece of ivory with healing properties from a legendary monster, the Merewyrm; a creature so ancient it predates both man and animal kind.

Not long into his journey, it dawns on Faharen that he is part of a much larger, darker world than he thought existed and must mine hidden depths he wasn’t aware he possessed to survive. 

Created by the gods to divide fallen men from the faithful animals and forsaken by them long ago, traversing the Great Forest will not be easy, for it hides many malevolent creatures such as the Satyrs to name but one; a half man, half cloven hooved beast that knows only spite and treachery! 

With the body of a man and the heart of a Manxii, Faharen must do what is deemed impossible; cross the worlds to save his people.







Gauntlet of Wrath
Animal Kingdoms Book 2
Residing in a monastery far to the east of the North Western Plain, troubling nightmares stalk Faharen’s sleep as he seeks inner peace and answers to profound questions, stirred up by his quest for the Merewyrm’s tooth.


But in the Realms of Men, all is not well.

Out of the deserts to the south, like a sandstorm on an ill wind, a force of occultists, led by an armoured giant calling himself the Ferra Demiurge, or Forged Lord, wielding the strongest ever blades made of a mysterious metal, have taken the Achaean lands by coup and sorcery. Their ambition and greed is insatiable and the Demiurge will not be satisfied until the entire known world is his, including what lies beyond the Great Forest.

With the worlds of the Animal Kingdoms and men alike set in flux by recent events, the ancient prophecy of the wild men seems to be unravelling.

Now, all those standing against the Achaeans will be tested in their defence of the sacred. Some will conquer, some will die, but all will struggle to survive.







Oliver Paglia is a writer/filmmaker and was born and bred in Hampshire, south England, where he grew up on a small farm in the picturesque Test valley countryside. He now lives in Reykjavik, Iceland with his veterinary nurse partner, Snæfriður Stefanssdottír. For many years Oliver has worked as a videographer in England and has a substantial portfolio of commercial and artistic film work spanning a broad variety of subjects.
Oliver’s artistic preoccupation is with the mythic; it is his view that it is one of the highest forms of artistic expression. It can be vague, yet illuminating, without a contemporary context yet insightful as to the human condition, absurd yet wise and dark yet moral. The legends of old are the stories that resonate with us on all levels.
As the late Professor Joseph Campbell put it, “The myth is the public domain and the dream is the private myth. If your private myth, your dream, happens to coincide with that of the society, you are in good accord with your group. If it isn’t, you’ve got a long adventure in the dark forest ahead of you.” Also, “Myth must be kept alive. The people who can keep it alive are the artists of one kind or another.”
And that is what Oliver hopes to do, to keep myth alive in his own modest way.




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