Review of Black Cross and Q&A With J.P. Ashman

I came to Black Cross via the Fantasy-Faction Facebook page, which appears to be my main source of information about which books to read in the fantasy genre these days. It was recommended by a few folks on there, plus I got speaking to the author (J.P. Ashman) a bit and decided it was worth giving it a whirl. J.P. then very kindly agreed to do a Q&A with me, and after months of life generalyl getting in the way I’ve finally managed to collate all the bits together. So, without further ado, let us begin.

About the Author

A self-confessed “Northern lad through and through”, J.P grew up sharing his parents interest in wildlife, history, fantasy and science fiction. Reading and writing has always been a big part of his life, and he somehow manages to juggle his career in optics and the demands of being a new father with this passion.

Now relocated a bit further south to the picturesque Cotswolds he finds himself inspired daily by the rural life and the views on offer. In his spare time he lives the genre; reading, writing and playing it whenever possible.

His first novel in the Black Powder Series (Black Cross) was self-published and is now available in paperback, hardback and e-book format.

A quick (well, depends on your definition of quick!) Q&A with JP

Ok, here we go. Medieval-based fantasy is currently experiencing something of a golden age at the moment. There are a phenomenal number of titles out at the moment, with some pretty heavyweight authors on the scene. With that in mind, what is it about the Black Powder Wars that is different – the “Unique Selling Point” of the series?

There isn't one. Sorry, couldn't resist.

For me it's always been about the story in my head – I'll likely bang on about that. I love history, especially medieval Europe. The thing with history is you have to get it right, you have to stick to what's known. There's likely lots we don't know, but the historical fiction I read and love by authors such as Conn Iggulden and Bernard Cornwell has to be as close to known fact as possible. Fantasy doesn't. It's a fantasy, after all. And so, I like to create a mixed period setting, despite being heavily medieval based. I like galleons and cannons and such, not the 'takes half a day to load' medieval cannon, but the decks of thundering guns we see in swashbuckling movies.

In Brisance, the humans have skipped a few hundred years development and, thanks to the largely unseen dwarves, are starting to play with the big guns, whilst still dallying in magic. The series is largely based on that, amongst other, more arcane things. Where will this newfound power lead them? How will it affect their relationships with neighbours? Who's attention will it attract?

That's what I hope entices and retains readers. That and the gritty realism, unlikely friendships, betrayals, banterous humour and brutal conflicts throughout.

You often hear authors say “write about what you know” when asked for advice from budding writers. How much of your story was influenced by what you know and have experience with, and how did you then go about filling in the gaps?

I've had my head in fantasy/sci-fi books and historical text books all my life. I've played online and tabletop fantasy and historical games (still do). I've taken part in medieval re-enactment, which I miss. My childhood was spent cracking knuckles with wooden swords and loosing arrows from makeshift bows. From all of that I draw.

The rest? The rest comes from anything and anywhere: the news and current affairs, conversations with friends, walks in the woods; snowboarding and scuba diving, travelling and nights out drinking (a lot when I was younger) and everyday emotions. You feel frustrated sometimes, right? Write it down. When one of your characters feels frustrated, you've already written it, you just didn't know who or what it was for at the time.

The world of Brisance could be described as your typical “western medieval” fantasy world, complete with those species that are often found inhabiting them. How aware are you when you use these species of the need to both stick to expected norms (elves are ethereal and magical, dwarves like mining and treasure) whilst also ensuring there is enough uniqueness within the world to set it apart?

I honestly write them how I best imagine them. I've read, played and watched countless elves, dwarves, gnomes, goblins and the like. Most have their own little, unique, traits. I like to think mine do too, although they're still individuals, we mustn’t forget that. Certain things appeal to me and stick with me, other bits don't. It's a combination of all those things that make up each race, to me.               

I've said it above and I'll say it again, Black Cross and the series as a whole was always about dragging a world I had in my head and whacking it down onto paper and keys. It feels like a pressure builds in my brain: a world and its histories and stories wanting to be told, through me. I just tell is like it is in my head and that includes the races involved. I certainly don't consciously try and alter them to conform or not. Everyone's preferred or hated race is different, you can't please everyone so I write what works for me.

Black Cross has a number of distinct plot threads to it, which intersect and interact at various times throughout the novel. How do you approach this style of writing? Is everybody’s fate already known to you, and it is simply a case of fitting the pieces together? Or do you often find yourself (and your characters) going in directions you didn’t think you were going to as the tale evolves more organically?

Both. Much of it is planned, plotted, mapped and scribbled down onto notepads (invaluable). I follow it at times and deviate at times. Some characters write themselves and surprise me as they make decisions that go against what I'd planned. When this happens I let it. If it's happening it's because it feels right, it feels like it's what that knight or guardsman or mage would do. I've tried guiding things 'back on track' and it feels false, forced.

Saying all that, Black Cross was fairly linear in its progression. I added several threads at a later date, but generally each thread was written start to finish. Black Guild, alas... well, at the moment I have a cluster f*ck of scenes from different threads in no kind of order that's scaring The Three out of me. It'll come together though, because it's all happening, up there in my shit storm of a brain.

One of the things I love about the story is the moral ambiguity and ethical conflict surrounding a number of the characters. Lord Severun starts only with good intentions but ends up nearly destroying everything, Longoss is a ruthless, amoral killer – who suddenly develops a conscious. Even Biviano and Sears, who serve the community as police officers, have certain “darker sides” to them. Was this grey area a conscious effort on your part, and how important is it to have these multi-dimensional and ambiguous characters?

I love that too! I can't say that it was a conscious effort. Longoss for example was in Black Cross briefly, to do a sub-plot building job, but he's one of those organic bastards that won't stick to the script. I wanted him to be a dick, a viscious get (and he is), but he became so real – as good characters should – that he started to feel, started to grow and change and that was that. He's ruthless for reasons only he could know (at this point in the series), although he's hinted at them. The fact that he's changing is down to him and the places he's leading me, not the other way around, as strange as that may sound. Sears and Biviano are the same.

Those three mentioned are three of my favourites, they write themselves, they really do. Fal on the other hand... Hmm... Now Fal was supposed to be my favourite, I'd planned him to be, but 'best laid plans' and all that. I think I planned him so much in my head that he can't surprise me anymore (he's just too nice for that). I like him, but, well, he's just Fal.

I do believe the grey area adds reality. Every walk of life has the good, the bad and the... middle ground, and more of the latter I'd say. If you only have goody goody good guys vs nasty, horrid baddies then, to me, yawn. Fantasy can be fantastical and almost cheesy and I'll still enjoy it to a certain extent, but reading historical fiction (before any 'grimdark') taught me that the biggest twists and turns and scariest moments come from the unknown, from the folk who could go either way, whether they have good reasons to or not. I like to have all of the above, it's as diverse as you can get, which is the realism we seek within the fantasy worlds we love, is it not?

There must be a huge temptation when writing in the fantasy genre to throw a magic system in there which is complex, intricate and, very often, far too confusing for everyone – including the author. Black Cross is a bit more subtle in this respect, in fact magic takes a distinct backseat during the majority of the tale to good old-fashioned swords and, often brutal, fight scenes. How did you decide on the balance through the novel, was there a deliberate plan to keep the magic elements to a minimum to avoid the pitfalls commonly associated with it?

Honestly? I love Gandalf, but he doesn't do a great deal at times where I think he should. Why? He probably has his reasons. I've thought about those reasons and I might be wrong, but this is how I've come to think of magic, taken from many books and shows and games and whatnot.

When I have a lot going on at work I get mentally tired. I get home and crash on the sofa and want to escape. Why? When I physically work hard I don't. When I work hard physically I have more energy in a weird way and I feel relaxed. Mentally: drained. Physically: relaxed. How the hell would you feel if you've been freezing goblins or blinding people... with your mind!? I'm pretty sure you'd be exhausted and want to crash in the local tavern with a horn-pot full of mead.

I felt that was the case with my mages. They can do extraordinary things, but they have limits. If they don't watch it, they'll burn out. On the flip side, I don't want super mages who can blast armies day after day, thus making said armies redundant. If magic was so powerful, why raise an army in the first place? I wanted a limit, I wanted it so it had an element of realism to the mages, as people, and I wanted it so it didn't distract from the other battles going on, both within individuals and between sword wielding knights and axe wielding hobyahs.

Speaking of brutality, there are several scenes in the novel which are, to put it mildly, rather unpleasant. Was the plan always to have these scenes the way they are or was it case of, when you got to write them, they had to be that way in order to have the necessary impact and to drive the storyline where it needed to go?

Again, it just felt real. Unpleasant, but real. Life is a ruddy shit quite often, to most of us at some time or other and to some, well, some get it bad, real bad. When the grim stuff comes about I didn't want to hold back. I didn't want to take away from the horrific nature of the act. To truly feel for a person you have to go through what they went through, be there with them, know what it was that makes them change or do things later on, whether they were the victim or the one committing the horrific act.

I certainly didn't do it for 'shock value', because such scenes stand out to me in books and I didn't want that with mine. I didn't want mindless, graphic violence for no other reason than to cause people sharp intakes of breath and shuddering cringes. I wanted them to know what's going on in Brisance, all of it, good or bad and how brutal life there can be – which is, let's face it, not dissimilar to this life through the ages, sadly.

Going back to the ensemble approach to the story. Which of the characters have provided you with your favourite writing experiences? And is there anyone particular who you have found difficulty with?

I think I mentioned above that Longoss, Sears and Biviano have written themselves. They're fun to write and I think it's the banter, how they make light of the darkest situations. I also mentioned my struggle with Fal. I have no idea why, but I feel a pressure when I write him, a pressure I put on myself. Perhaps it was because he was my first character?

As for Black Guild, which I'm currently writing, new characters have appeared that make me smile. When the book releases, keep an eye out for Admiral Charlzberg and his crew, and hard man Jevratt and his handy lads; I've thoroughly enjoyed creating and telling the story of those colourful new characters.

You will have been asked this question more times than is probably healthy – but I’m going to ask it anyway! Black Cross was self-published, initially on eBook but now in paper and hardback formats too. What advice would you give to aspiring authors and is there anything that you wish you had done differently?

Hire a good editor, one you can work with and who's criticism you can take. Actually, just learn to take criticism, you're going to get it, a lot. Don't think self-publishing is an easy way out, or cheap. Research, take advice and take your time, you don't have a deadline! Black Cross is a big book, which is partly why I decided to self-publish. If you want to submit a manuscript to agents and such, you should probably keep it to around 100k words. Actually, keeping it smaller than I did works for self-publishing too – we pay by the page to print!

Write short stories and enter them in competitions. Write flash fiction, say 500 words and stick to it. Writing such tiny stories teaches you to drop useless words as often as possible. An editor will teach you that all the more. Hire an editor and, did I mention this already? Hire an editor!

What would I have done differently? I would have hired an editor much earlier, that's pretty much it.

So, penultimate question. Somehow, miraculously and overnight, the world has become an ideal place and you can pick exactly what happens to your work over the next 3 to 5 years. Where do you see the ride taking you and what are you hoping to achieve along the way?

Haha... was it magic? If so, I hope Severun didn't have a hand in it. That's tricky. Who knows? The Black Powder Wars is a four to five book series, which is approximate, so I hope I'll still be writing them and loving doing so, as I am now. I also hope they continue to be well received and my status as an author gains trust – that pesky 'self-published' tag does seem to scare some folk off. If I make a little from it to help support my family then that'd be swell. That's it really, unless HBO wants to give me a ring?

Now the final question. How would someone find out more about Falchion, Correia, Severun, Longoss and the others? And when can we hopefully see the next tale of the Black Powder Wars hitting shelves?

Hit me up (I'm down with the kids) on social media. The links to my various pages are at the back of Black Cross or Black Martlet, alternatively here are the links:

www.facebook.com/jpashmanblackpowderseries

@JP_Ashman #BlackCross #BlackMartlet #BlackPowderWars (Also check out #SPFBO)

www.goodreads.com/author/show/12302356.J_P_Ashman (Great place to leave reviews and find new titles to read. You can follow and/or befriend me and other authors there too).

As for Black Guild and a release date... you got me there. The info I give out says end of 2016, which is optimistic at this baby feeding, changing and entertaining time, but I'd say early releases of proofs might happen then. Realistically I'd like to say January 2017. Of course, I might release another short story between now and then, to accompany the already released Black Martlet. If I do (it's been planned), it'll likely be Black Fiddler, so keep your eyes peeled.

And now the review

Well it doesn’t take long for Black Cross to get going at all. We are straight into it with the intriguing Lord Severun, who appears to be conducting some sort of magical experiment. Within a very short space of time it becomes apparent that it has gone horribly wrong, and the world of Brisance will never be the same again. It is a great scene-setter and drags you instantly into the narrative. Already questions are bouncing around in the mind and before you know it you are four or five chapters in and completely engrossed.

A good chunk of that is down to J.P.’s style – which is short chapters and a constant switching between the impressive cast of POV characters that are introduced into the tale. But these aren’t information dumps whose sole purpose is to get all the dramatis personae identified as soon as possible, you get the sense that wherever the author takes you next is where you need to be. Within a few short chapters we have been introduced to the majority of the characters that form the bulk of the story (though not all, there are a few gems who turn up later) and we have already seen a good number of the seemingly disparate threads that we know will be slowly teased together over the rest of the book (and the series for that matter).

There are some “common” fantasy elements contained within Black Cross, which you would expect as the genre does have a few “norms” that should be stuck to.

In this case we have the sprawling “Tolkeinesque” world of Brisance with the main focus of the narrative centered around the sprawling medieval city of Wesson. Brisance has your typical collection of big cities, forests, barren wildernesses and, what I’m going to call, “realms for other species” – because I can’t think of a better phrase right now.

Wesson itself is like most of the cities you encounter in these tales; grandiose palaces and churches sit alongside thoroughly destitute citizens and areas you only go in once. There are multiple different races who are trying to interact and not tear each other apart as well as political power plays involving (amongst others) the magically-inclined Clerics of the Wizards and Sorcery Guild, the religious zealots of the Inquisition and external factions such as the Elves and the (hitherto quiet) Dwarves.

People within these factions tend to behave pretty much as you might expect; the Elves we encounter are intelligent and ethereal, the Inquisition are downright unpleasant and the wizards and sorcerers do what they say on the tin – though J.P. thankfully doesn’t rely on grandiose magical powers to drag the narrative along; if you do magic, it costs you energy and effort in his world. You also have your classic portrayals of reluctant heroes, loveable rogues and ruthless killers.

The real beauties though are those characters that sit slightly outside of any of these pigeon holes such as Longoss, a thoroughly unpleasant gentleman not averse to a bit of assassination nor to frequenting the many drinking dens and brothels of the underbelly. He is thoroughly amoral, absolutely ruthless and brutal when he needs to be (one scene involving a fight with a couple of Black Guild assassins still gives me the shivers now).

I love him. He evolves fantastically through the course of the book and it’ll be really interesting to see where J.P. goes with him.

Same goes for the pair of policeman – Sears and Biviano – who clearly aren’t what they seem at first glance but provide some moments of great humour (often at the blackest of times) whilst making sure you know that they are not people to be trifled with.

I really love J.P.’s characterisations – there is depth and breadth to everyone he introduces and he manages to do enough with each of them to make them stand out from the crowd that a lazier writer might lose them in. There are shades of grey running right through Black Cross, and it feels more real for it.

Plot wise this cracks along at a decent rate, but with a constant sense that there is more going on over and above the individual narratives that are taking place in parallel with each other. Anyone who reads my reviews regularly will know this is one of the things I love about Brandon Sanderson’s work – multiple little threads being held together by larger threads that aren’t always obvious to see. Black Cross is distinctly different in tone to a lot of Sanderson’s work (there are some disturbingly brutal scenes in here for example) but the similarity with this element is obvious from the start.

Black Cross has obviously been a labour of love for J.P. and his determination to get things right and not rush it comes across throughout. His love of medieval recreations and weaponry also adds a level of detail – he knows his stuff and that always makes a big difference, it is a lot easier to make create the illusion of reality if you have a very good basis which to operate. I found it refreshing to read a debut novel (of this scale anyway) and have a strong sense that the author has complete control of where he is going, how long it will take to get there and what he wants to show us along the way.

So overall, you won’t be surprised to know I absolutely loved this. It is well-paced; inhabited by morally ambiguous characters and grey areas; lovingly described and above all, full of action and adventure. No punches are pulled, J.P. knows exactly what story he wants to tell and he has done a wonderful job of telling it. Can’t wait for the next one!

Verdict: 5 stars out of 5

Till next time,

DT