A Conversation with Richard Blunt, author of ‘Lucas Trent 3: Grand Theft Magic’

It is our pleasure to have author Richard Blunt with us today! Publishing under a pen name to keep his personal life separate from his writing life, Richard Blunt was raised in the heart of Europe, in a nation where English is not the native language. Like his heroes, Richard blunt is nothing more than a shadow – a specter that whispers a story for everyone to hear.

His latest book is Lucas Trent 3: Grand Theft Magic.

You can visit his website at http://www.lucastrent.com/ and his blog at http://richardblunt.blogspot.com/.

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Q: Thank you for this interview, Rick. Can you tell us what your latest book, Lucas Trent 3 – Grand Theft Magic, is all about?

“Grand Theft Magic” is the third part of the Lucas Trent book series. The heroes by now have familiarized themselves with their magical abilities and have begun to understand the magnitude of what they have stumbled into. At least they thought so, until something goes terribly wrong. When one of their own almost dies they do start to realize that it’s not a game they are in and that the challenges have only just begun.

Q:  Can you tell us a little about your main and supporting characters?

The main character of course is Lucas. The entire story revolves around him and is almost always written from his point of view. (Or at least centered at the location he is in at the time.) He is a 16 year old IT student that has stumbled into the world of magic. He is quite anchored in the world, mostly by his principles of loyalty and honor, but he also has a lot of issues that sometimes threaten to derail him significantly, at least from his point of view. Then of course there are his companions, Stephanie, Jasmin, Marcus, Cedric and Darien. They are all a little extreme in their ways, and bring a lot of issues on the table when interacting with Lucas. But in the end they are all very good friends and always there for each other.

Revolving around the bunch of young heroes are basically two groups: The first ones are the “guys in the black robes”. They are a bunch of magic users that are perceived hostile by the heroes, and clearly act like it. But as their real intentions are still unclear the heroes still keep discovering that even their work is not always as black as it seems. On the other hand you have the mysterious group revolving around they grey wizard who calls himself “Archangel”. They seem to be on the good side of the coin, but their intention is even harder to grasp. And while they always have a watchful eye over the heroes they so far never directly interacted with them.

Q: Do you tend to base your characters on real people or are they totally from your imagination?

The characters themselves are totally imaginative. Each of them has aspects though that are based on real life experiences. And interesting enough, those are normally exactly the treats that people find utopic.

Q: Are you consciously aware of the plot before you begin a novel, or do you discover it as you write?

The big picture is very clear to me from the get go. As a matter of fact, it has already been clear when I started the first part. The issue is with the details though… The story keeps changing and evolving as I go along, and some aspects are only incorporated out of spontaneous ideas.

Q: Your book is set in Luton, England.  Can you tell us why you chose this city in particular?

Well, the framework I needed for the story was an English speaking country as a base, a bigger town or small city to work in and a metropolitan area close by, so it would be in reach of the main characters. Putting the setting in the US seemed a little lame, everyone keeps doing that, so I chose Great Britain. London was the obvious choice then as a metropolitan area, and Luton was just where the pin landed that I threw onto the map.

Q: Does the setting play a major part in the development of your story?

Not really. As I already said, there are a few aspects that are key to the story, but mainly it could be anywhere in the western world.

Q: Open the book to page 69.  What is happening?

69 is an interesting page. Not exactly a key point storywise, but key to the development of one of the characters. The title character had noticed an odd behavior in their youngest group member for quite a while now and just found out that two others in the group seem to know more about it. On page 69 he is confronting them, trying to shed some light.

Q: Can you give us one of your best excerpts?

I have been asked that before, and it really is like being asked for your favorite child…  Anyway, here is the one line that I would pick:

“They call me Guardian.” He said calmly. “And I am here to set things right that you have done wrong.”

Q: Have you suffered from writer’s block and what do you do to get back on track?

A lot… What do I do against it? Nothing… Stop writing and wait for a better time to continue

Q: What would you do with an extra hour today if you could do anything you wanted?

I don’t think that one extra hour would make much of a difference. Too little time seldomly is the issue in my life, although I have to juggle two jobs, two time consuming hobbies and writing. But somehow this just works out…

Q: Which already published book do you wish that you had written and why?

I don’t know if there is a book behind it, but anyway… It would be “Babylon 5”. It is the only long running story that I know that is consistent in all major parts. This is an amazing feat to make happen…

Q: What kind of advice would you give other fiction authors regarding getting their books out there?

Be patient and have some cash at hand… Publishing a book is not a way to make easy money, all the contrary, it is something that doesn’t come cheap. And be very careful… People tend to promise you a lot, but only few of them really deliver.