Fantasy baseball meets science fiction in my interview with author Michael Barbato-Dunn. Thank you, Michael, for taking the time to chat to me. Please sit down, get comfortable and let’s begin.

If there was a film or TV adaptation of your book, who would you like to see play your characters?
Bradley Cooper as Andrew Naughton, Ian Holm as Lord Bart, and Helen Mirren as Lady Vivian Lynam. Also, the late Alan Rickman would have been perfect as Phangorious Hood.

How important are character names to you in your books? Is there a special meaning to any of the names?
I actually spent quite a lot of time on the names of the characters in this novel. This is a steampunk novel, and while it is not set in Victorian England (the world of Setheridge is fictitious), I knew that using Anglo-sized names was essential. For major characters, I worked in reverse: I chose aspects of their personalities that were dominant, and researched names whose roots had those meanings. For minor characters, I used a historical British name generator to create a massive list of names, ported it to a spreadsheet, then chose from that list a name that felt appropriate as each new character arrived.

Give us an insight into your main character. What makes them unique?
Andrew Naughton was described by one reviewer as “tormented”, and I think that is quite appropriate. He is fiercely loyal, and trusting of those to whom he is loyal. Yet when the circumstances of the novel fracture that loyalty, the order of his world is shattered and Naughton finds himself uncertain in whom to place his trust.

Ultimately, he must decide whether to risk what matters most – his well-being and his family – in order to learn who is, in fact, worthy of his loyalty.

Where do your ideas come from?
For “Lord Bart”, I was inspired by H.G. Wells, a forefather of steampunk. Wells was very much a pacifist, and in his non-fiction book “Little Wars”, he proposed that games could serve as a far less bloody alternative to war. My novel embodies that theme, so setting the story in a fictional steampunk world seemed a natural homage to Wells. I imagined a world divided by years of civil war, in which the exhausted inhabitants turn to the sport of baseball as an alternative to bloodshed. I infused the book with a huge cast of memorable characters, political intrigue, bizarre science, a bit of romance, and an epic pennant-race. But Wells’ notion of games as little wars remains at its core.

What do you think of trailers for books? Do you have a trailer or do you intend to create one for your own book?
I used a trailer to promote my novel, and created it myself on a very small (>$100) budget. Here’s the nitty-gritty, for those who are interested.

The key was using the free trial version of Adobe After Effects I learned that folks make templates for AE that you can purchase, then adapt. As my book is steampunk, I simply googled “Adobe After Effects template steampunk”. I found a one was perfect for my trailer. I purchased a license for $33. This allowed me commercial use for one end product.

I then searched for music and found some great soundtrack material at independent composer Kevin Macleod’s website. I found one of his works, Ryno’s Theme that seemed perfect for the project and was a far better fit than the music that came with the video template. For about $6 I purchased his higher-quality .wav files for the project.

Then I downloaded the free 30-day trial for Adobe After Effects. I created 10 graphics for use in the template, with some of the art from the cover art of my book and some from Pond5 stock photo/video site. (They have a lot of free-for-use material). I created the graphics using the freeware paint.net. Creating the still graphic “cards” for the trailer took some time. For example, I adapted the airship on the back cover of the print edition of the book to make a graphic for the trailer.

When these were ready, I inserted the ten graphic images into the template then exported it to an .avi. I used Adobe Audition to edit the music, taking the final minute of the longer theme. Then I downloaded the free (30-day) trial of Adobe Premiere to actually render the full video, with audio and closing credits.

In all, it took about 20 hours of work for a 1-minute trailer. But the financial cost was low, and I believe it looks pretty professional. Here is the final result.

I will note that it was very important to me that the trailer be less than a minute, and I’d recommend anyone trying this to do the same. The dropoff in viewership beyond that is apparently tremendous.

There are tons of After Effects templates available at numerous sites, some even free. And there are folks, like on Fiverr, who will do the production for you.

Have you always liked to write?
I have wanted to write fiction for as long as I can recall, and in junior high school wrote my first ‘novel’, about an alien that crash lands in the Juan de Fuca Strait off the state of Washington, only to be pulled out of the waters by the crew of a fishing trawler. I have no idea why I chose that setting, since I grew up on the east coast. I also remember around that time getting my first electric typewriter as a birthday present, and writing a screenplay version of the Richard Matheson short story “Born of Man and Woman.” So yes, the desire was there quite early.

What writing advice do you have for aspiring authors?
My advice is for those of us who are older, who maybe have never tried fiction writing, or who have tried but never with the level of devotion that is necessary. When my real life got difficult and overwhelming, I gave up writing and walked away from the dream — only to discover, years later, the desire had never left me. So I sat down and started over, and now my first novel arrives at age 57.

That’s my advice: no matter what your age, no matter how real life has gotten in the way, don’t tell yourself it is too late to start. Or to come back. It is never too late.

What are you working on now?
I am now working on plotting out a 9-part young adult science fiction series, a space opera of sorts, about a small band of misfits who really don’t like one another, yet who find themselves banded together as they are chased across the galaxy by all sorts of evil forces.

“Lord Bart” became a bit of an unwieldy monster — 140-thousand words that took four years to complete. I’m hoping these novels will be about 50-thousand words each, and thus I’ll be able to bring each to completion in far less time.

“Lord Bart”, by the way, was completely ‘pantsed’, — I had no outline when I sat down to start writing. I had done a tremendous amount of world building before I sat down to write, but had no idea where the story would take me. For this next novel, and the series, This time, however, I am trying to outline. I have the first novel of my new series plotted out and have begun a first draft, and I’m pretty excited about it.

Where can readers go to discover more about you and your books?
Website | Facebook | Amazon Author Page | Goodreads