J. Thomas Howard has been hitting the small press circuit lately, with appearances in Whetstone, Cirsova, and DMR Books’ Terra Incognita. Read on to learn more about his work, which combines sword-and-sorcery with sword-and-planet.

Please introduce yourself and tell us about your background as a writer.
Hi all I’m J. Thomas Howard. I’m a newcomer to the current revival of sword and sorcery, my first story having been published in December 2020.

I inherited a love of fantasy from my mother. When I was very little she would read Tolkien to me before bed and ever since then I wanted to write.

My family members were all avid SF/F readers. They were always buying new books, but it was the older stuff in their collections that resonated with me. There’s something about fiction from before genres were really defined, and magic had become mechanical and reductive (due to TTRPGs) that clicks with me. There’s something magical about the unbridled imagination of fiction from the earliest era.

Also my older brother was a big influence. I’m a ‘90s kid but he was a pure ‘80s kid, and introduced me to a lot of the stuff that influenced our scene: He-Man, the Conan movies, Red Sonja etc.

I got back into writing about a decade ago, but this was right when Game of Thrones was exploding, and I honestly spun my wheels aimlessly for years, because the kind of fantasy I wanted to create just wasn’t prominent anymore. Then I met Jason Tarpey of Eternal Champion in 2017 and he introduced me to DMR Books’ Swords of Steel. I fell in love and eventually DMR Books turned me on to Whetstone and I started writing short fiction and submitting it to venues in our scene.

My ultimate goal as a fantasist is to tell stories that capture the truly weird imagination of older fiction (that I think is missing nowadays), while hopefully putting my own flair on it, and without coming off as just nostalgia or purely reactionary.

What are the most prominent influences on your writing? How do you incorporate those influences without being derivative?
My biggest influences are mostly the classics: Robert E. Howard, Tolkien, Dunsany, Edgar Rice Burroughs, etc. More recently C.L. Moore, Lin Carter, Leigh Brackett, Henry Kuttner and Brian Aldiss’ fiction has been rubbing off on me. Leigh Brackett in particular is everything I’ve ever wanted. She combines the wildly imaginative settings of Burroughs with the Blood and Thunder of Howard.

With my Sword and Planet fiction I’ve tried to straddle the line between Sword and Sorcery and Sword and Planet. I’ve intentionally left the science vague and open to readers' interpretation whether it's science or magic, instead of going down the route of just having hokey science. My hope is this engages the reader’s imagination and creativity, creating something interchangeable with Sword and Sorcery. Hopefully that allows the stories to come off as more than just Leigh Brackett worship.

For Sword and Sorcery, I’ve tried to stand out by using atypical settings (or protagonists) while still maintaining the vibe of S&S. For example, I read Brian Aldiss’ The Long Afternoon of the Earth (Hothouse in the UK) and thought to myself “I need to do this but with more Conan.” I created a world where something akin to Jurassic Park happened (whether by magic or science is up to you) and mankind is pushed to the brink and reverts to barbarism. My story “The Beast Mistress” in Whetstone 4 takes place in this setting. I’m telling a familiar story, but with a very different backdrop, with the hope that makes it stand out.

I’m also hugely influenced by art. Frazetta and Jean Girard Mobius come to mind, but basically anytime I’m writing I want it to feel like a heavy metal album cover. The greatest compliment I ever received was when the editors of Whetstone compared my writing to ‘70s van art.

Ultimately, I think the key to success is doing something different that still feels very familiar. Easier said than done. I always try to color just a little bit outside the lines, without totally missing the target and hope that creates stories that stand out.

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?
Honestly, I’m very new to this and have no idea. Right now I’m just trying to write stories of high enough caliber to make it into the various small press publications in our scene. I’m just trying to get my name out there as much as possible. I also have blogged some, and have a splash page on my site with links to all my published works.

One idea I’ve had is to take my pen name and have someone like Dan Capp turn it into a logo that looks like a Metal band or Dungeon Synth logo. It’s probably corny but having that instead of a bio pic is something I want to do that hopefully will make me stand out.

How much do your audience’s expectations factor in to what you write? Does this ever cause you to hold back from experimenting?
Honestly none. I just march to the beat of my own drummer. Not that I’m immune to feedback. I trade stories with other authors in the Whetstone community and incorporate their suggestions, but I just follow serendipity wherever it takes me and hope it clicks with other people. Probably the only person whose expectations I stress about when writing is my wife’s. She’s an absolutely brutal (albeit very constructive) critic.

Have you had any new stories published recently? Are you currently working on any?
My story “The Siege of Eire” was recently published in DMR’s Terra Incognita and my story “Gladiators of Ill Satal” is featured in the most recent issue of Whetstone.

I’m always trying to work on more short stories. Hopefully some of these will make the cut for small press anthologies.

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.)
Newer, I’ve been reading the second edition of Schyuler Hernstom’s Thune’s Vision. I think when all is said and done people will still be talking about him 50 years from now. The way we all still talk about Moorcock and Howard.

Older, I recently read through Gardner F. Fox’s Kothar series. I had mixed feelings about the series, but the third novel - Kothar and the Demon Queen - really resonated with me. It’s just plain fun and has a lot of wild imagination to it.

Any final words?
I’d like to thank DMR Books for the opportunity to talk with them and publishing one of my stories. DMR is the premier publisher in the revival of Sword and Sorcery, and I’m honored to have gotten their attention.

If readers enjoyed my work they can look forward to more of my sword and planet milieu in the story “Cerulean” appearing in the Fall ‘22 issue of Cirsova, and the story “Rider in the Moon” which should be appearing in the 4th issue of the webzine Starward Shadows.

For future updates follow my website or on twitter: @j_skald. I’m also known to hang out on the Whetstone Discord. So feel free to say hi. It’s a friendly place to hang out!