Today we’d like to introduce you to Bryan Cole

Hi Bryan, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?

I’ve loved the fantasy genre for as long as I can remember. I vividly remember the first fantasy novel I ever read – Dragons of Autumn Twilight – and the first time I watched movies that inspired me, like Star Wars and Willow. The first day I started reading the Eye of the World, I recall getting close to the end and feeling tired, then realizing it was 5 am and I had school starting soon. Falling into a world, and loving (or hating) the characters within it has always appealed to me.

A medium that represents fantasy extremely well is video games, and I fell in love with those also. This led me to a love of computers more generally, and I’ve built a long career in the enterprise software space, developing expertise in performance engineering over many years. I’ve learned that telling a good story and using analogies can easily explain technical concepts to people in a way that allows them to understand how they work. I’ve been a communicator for a long time, and if I do some simple math I figure I’ve delivered between 30,000 and 35,000 PowerPoint presentations to live audiences over the last few decades.

Then Covid hit, and I found myself with an abundance of free time. All the stories I’d been consuming over the years, and the stories I told to my friends, all led to me finally putting hands on the keyboard to write my first novel. Much to my surprise, I fell in love with the writing process, and bringing the characters and story to life.

Today, while I still have my full-time job, I aspire to be a full time writer and just let my imagination bring life to characters in the minds of my readers!

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?

It’s been an adventure becoming an author. My initial book, Beginning of Arrogance, largely spilled out the way I imagined it. It took me a little over three months to write the first draft, and then many MANY rounds of editing before it went to a professional editor, then back to more editing again. Yet fundamentally, the story remained the same throughout.

My second book, Futility of Defense, was a different story entirely. The initial plot was drastically modified as I realized the consequences of the first book would need to be addressed. This resulted in a book with a surprising direction for me, that I hadn’t anticipated. This was both tremendously rewarding and extremely frustrating. Rewarding, because the characters had come alive in my imagination and suggested to me the actions they would take, leading to what feels like a realistic set of behaviors from them. Frustrating, because I would have every intention of writing a chapter in a certain way, and the characters – Krell and Tristan and Kraven in particular – decided that they would not conform to my plans! So while I wrote an awful lot of content that ultimately did not make it into the books, the books are substantially better for the effort I put into them.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?

As an author, one of the biggest issues I have with any sort of story is a lack of internal consistency. What that means is that if a character demonstrates a specific ability or power, and then later finds themselves in trouble, I question why they just don’t use the ability or power to get themselves out of it. I remember watching an episode of Castle (a police procedural set in New York city) where our main characters are running from an assassin because they don’t have guns or phones or money to use pay phones… okay. Unlikely, but okay. Then they find a cell phone, but it’s locked and they can’t use it, and I shouted at the TV. You can always use a phone to call 911, regardless of how locked it is!

This desire for internal consistency in stories exists everywhere, and one of the reasons I decided to become an author. The other big reason was to read the stories that I couldn’t find anywhere else. I love the paladin archetype, a warrior called by a divine power to manifest their will in the mortal world. Yet the vast majority of those representations always seem to portray the paladin as a heroic and honorable character, because the god or gods they worship are good and just and noble. The Deed of Paksenarrion is a fantastic book series, and I love the story, but it’s a good example of what I mean. What a paladin of a god who isn’t evil, but that doesn’t value honor or justice or anything else like that… what would that paladin look like? I wanted to read that story, and when I couldn’t find it, I started writing Beginning of Arrogance.

Alright so before we go can you talk to us a bit about how people can work with you, collaborate with you or support you?

The best way to support any author is to buy a copy of their book. The next best thing is to leave an honest review on any sites that you can find it. Especially as an indie author without a publisher to support them, finding readers is always a challenge.

Note the key words “honest review”. I’m perfectly okay if you don’t like my books (though I hope you don’t just like them, but love them!), but I appreciate anyone who will take the extra time and effort to leave their thoughts on my work. I find for myself, looking at the reviews for anything I want to read can give me a lot of insight into whether the book is something I’ll enjoy, or not.

And if you’re interested in talking, feel free to reach out! You can find me on my website at https://www.fatpaladin.ca. I’m always interested in talking and learning more.

Pricing:

• eBook – $4.99 USD
• Paperback – 13:99 USD
• Hardcover – 23.99 USD
• Audiobook – 17.05 USD

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.fatpaladin.ca
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fatpaladinbooks/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FatPaladin

Image Credits

Vilenko Vujicevic
Edwin Menzo