Please introduce yourself and tell us about your background as a writer.
Hello! My name is John Rak, and I am the author of a short story titled “The Hole in the Tree” that appears in the Samhain Sorceries compilation from DMR Books.

I don’t really have a background as a writer; “The Hole in the Tree” is the first thing I’ve ever published! I am, however, very involved in the independent speculative fiction publishing scene in other capacities. I am the lead science fiction and fantasy editor for a boutique publisher known as the Montag Press Collective. I also judge the Fantasy, Horror, and Paranormal categories for the Indie Book Awards.

But I’ve definitely got writing the bug now that I’ve found my niche – Sword and Sorcery short fiction is my sphere.

What are the most prominent influences on your writing? How do you incorporate those influences without being derivative?
There are almost too many to list! I am of course influenced by Robert E. Howard, but so is every sword and sorcery writer. He is the OG. I also count Joe Abercrombie among my influences. I love his ability to write brutally without relying on gore and easy shock value. I also think I take a little from the ‘60s and ‘70s New Journalist movement (Wolfe, Capote, Thompson, Southern) in how I try to use language - strong and concise but still artful, with discernable internal rhythm.

I think I avoid being derivative by drawing from a lot of influences both inside and outside the genre in which I work. I have so many influences it is almost impossible to be overly reliant on any one of them.

Also, I try to be able to turn on the editor/contest judge switch when reading my own work. If I was evaluating this work for someone else, would I call them out for being derivative here? Being an honest and harsh self-editor is key.

For example, I was working on a short story about a thief who was a failed wizard’s apprentice until, in reading my work back to myself, I realized that Fritz Leiber’s Grey Mouser was EXACTLY that. I had to return to the proverbial drawing board on that one.

Many authors say marketing is one of their biggest challenges. What tactics have you found to be most effective for getting your name out there?
This is a skill I need to continue to develop. I admire people who can network and get eyes on their work. I suppose I try to take any avenue that is offered to me. I love speculative fiction, and I try to be involved with it any way that I can.

How much do your audience’s expectations factor in to what you write? Does this ever cause you to hold back from experimenting?
Fantasy/sword and sorcery is genre fiction – I do not consider this to be a slight on the stories or those who write and read them, but that is the simple truth of the matter.

So when I write in that genre, I realize that certain expectations need to be met. You can’t bang out a fantasy work with ABSOLUTELY no magic in it whatsoever – I’m pretty sure that’s just medieval historical fiction.

I try to internalize that people read sword and sorcery fiction because they want some of the tropes to be there. But subverting those tropes without completely ignoring them is what makes a story truly engaging. A great example of this is Moorcock’s Elric of Melnibone. He’s a monarch in a magical land with an enchanted sword. That’s some straightforward S&S stuff right there. Yet he’s a skinny, drug-reliant, albino - not a tan, iron-thewed barbarian like Conan and his ilk. Also, Elric is gripped by a profound ennui rather than a bold sense of purpose and destiny. Moorcock both works with and subverts sword and sorcery tropes.

Even so, the bottom line remains: would S&S fans want to read about a perennially bored, effete, drug-huffing albino if he didn’t wield a humongous, magic, ebon sword called Stormbringer?

Also, without getting too deep into the weeds, the traditional sword and sorcery authors were very much people of their times – and their work reflects that. I choose to subvert expectations a bit and make stylistic and thematic choices that are a little more modern, without losing that classic tone and feel.

Have you had any new stories published recently? Are you currently working on any?
Nothing new published, but I am working on one that I plan on submitting to DMR for their next anthology (no pressure D.M., no pressure). It’s the inadvertent Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser rip-off I mentioned earlier. I basically had to revamp the main character’s entire backstory and the world’s magic system, but I’m actually pretty happy with the changes I made to make it more my own.

Name one newer and one older book you have read and enjoyed recently. (“Newer” meaning from the past year or so, and “older” meaning written before 1980.)
As far as recent works go, I really enjoyed Jonathan French’s “Bastards” trilogy, the final volume of which, The Free Bastards, came out just over a year ago. I’m not much of a motorcycle guy, but the conceit of half-orc biker gangs whose “hogs” are literal giant pigs ended up really working for me. Plus, while not exactly sword and sorcery, the trilogy definitely had an S&S vibe, especially with how the books treated wizards and magic – powerful, inscrutable and not to be messed with.

As far as older works go, I’m going to cheat a little (since it came out in 1984) but I recently discovered David Gemmel’s Legend and it melted my face right off of my skull. Perhaps it’s because I (probably) have more years in the rear-view mirror than in the windshield, but the notion of an aging warrior picking up his battle-axe for one final stand hit me right in the feels. And Gemmel knows how to turn a triumphant phrase.

Any final words?
I’m probably preaching to the choir here, but sword and sorcery is a fascinating, time-tested, and quite simply bad-ass fantasy sub-genre, and I think it’s great that DMR Books is helping to keep it alive in the 21st century.