Power Ponderings

1) What is your Author name; use your Pen name if you have one.

Derek Power

2) What is your genre and what drew you to it?

I mostly write fantasy-comedy novels, although I have dabbled in sci-fi noir. The main reason I think I was drawn to the genre is because I’ve always enjoyed reading fantasy novels. When I was in my teenage years and didn’t have the shackles of household bills and work I would read a book in a few days. I remember one time my mother got me a book for Christmas and I had it finished by the 27th, she apologized for not getting me a longer book. But what really drew me to fantasy with comedic elements was Terry Pratchett’s writings, particularly his Discworld series. After reading my first fantasy novel that had me laughing out loud I decided that this was the genre I wanted to write in some day.

3) What is the best time of day for you to write?

So work takes up a considerable amount of my time, sadly. Typically, I get most of my writing done in the evenings after 8p.m. At the weekends it is a bit easier to do some writing at two points of the day, sometime around lunch and then again after eight.

4) Which character of yours is your favorite and why?

I’d be lying if I didn’t say Filthy Henry is my favourite. He is such an easy character for me to write because I sort of just think about what I would say, then have him say it. I’ve taken breaks from writing his books and when I go back Filthy Henry is always the easiest character to get right back in the mind of.

5) Do you attend writing conferences? If so, which ones?

Sadly no, but I have always meant to. Work and family life tends to get in the way of going to them. One day I’ll find one that have the stars align.

6) Did you receive encouragement from a mentor, family member, teacher, coach…?

I get a lot of encouragement from my family, my parents and in particular my wife. She is forever encouraging me to enter contests, short story magazines, and advertise my books in every little indie bookshop going.

7) What is your favorite part about being a writer?

I love world creating. Sometimes I put so much effort into making the world my characters and stories happen in that it becomes a work in itself. I often get irked that some of the work I put into world building never gets read. For example with the Filthy Henry novels there are Rules that I have to follow in order for the stories to make sense, but nobody will ever read the file that grows with every novel. The amount of backstory required sometimes would be a novel in itself.

8) What is the one thing you wish you knew at the beginning of your writing journey?

That you don’t need to get the sentence perfect first time – drafts are your friends. I remember trying to write a novel back when I was in my late teens and I never got past the first page because I kept trying to have the perfect sentence before moving on. Drafts are what you use for that, but nobody told me that.

9) How many books do you try to read each year?

Well with work, two young kids, other social life aspects and then writing I am not reading as much as I would like. I am for about twenty books a year, but if I get twelve done then I am doing well.

10) Do you read books in your genre, or do you prefer reading other genres?

I read all genres if the story is appealing. Recently I’ve really gotten into crime and murder mystery novels, although I flit between sci-fi and fantasy still. Basically if the words look interesting I’ll read it and if I find out that they the story really isn’t grabbing me I will finish the book and chalk it up to experience.

11) What book protagonist would you love to talk to if he/she/they were real?

Commander Sam Vimes of the City Watch from the Discworld series. He is one of my favourite characters from the novels and I love his character development, but also how he doesn’t play by anyone’s rules – even his own.

12) What was your favorite childhood book?

The Hodgeheg – it tells the story of a hedgehog called Max who gets hit on the head and ends up speaking jumbled up. I recently found a copy of it for 25c online and bought it for my kids, eager to read it to them as it has been out of print for years.

13) What is the name of your book/series? Tell me a little bit about them.

My main series is ‘Filthy Henry, the fairy detective’. It is a fantasy-comedy series, set-in modern-day Ireland but with the Celtic myths and legends being actual things that happened. The fairy folk, Leprechauns and the like, exist alongside humans but hidden from sight. Filthy Henry is a half-breed, the only one of his kind, who works as a detective focusing on magical crimes. When the mortal and magical worlds collide, they need a neutral party to mediate things and solve the case. The only problem is Filthy Henry is a horrible person and would rather con people out of money than do actual work.

14) Do you have a website? If so, what is it?

I do indeed, it is https://www.powerwrites.com/ - all my books are listed on it, along with my socials and what not.

15) Where can we find and follow you? (Name your social media platforms.)

You can find me on books2read at: https://books2read.com/ap/xqkYXL/Derek-Power Twitter (for my sins): https://twitter.com/dcpower_author And there is a podcast: https://shows.acast.com/filthyhenry

16) If there anything important that you would want my readers to know about you?

The podcast is a free audio version of the first three novels, but it also contains a number of unpublished short stories that I wrote for in between the ‘seasons’. Maybe some day I will collect them all and publish them, but for now they only exist on the podcast.