Tips and Thoughts on Publishing a Novel By the Author of Sky Tracer

Life newsletter #12 with updates on CC-6 and an interview with the author Hayden Moore

Author Hayden Moore (with permission)

I sought out Hayden Moore’s posts out of curiosity. There you have it, I’m not shy about saying that I was drawn in by the comments where his readers sing paeans to his talent for words. And I was not disappointed by what I found.

In case you haven’t read this superbly talented writer, I invite you to check out his Medium page and if you are a writer who is interested in publishing a book down the road, I hope you find Hayden’s suggestions helpful.

So without further ado, let’s get into the interview!

Me: It must be super exciting to have a novel coming out this summer. Can you tell us more about it?

Hayden: It’s been quite a journey and I’m beyond excited about the upcoming release. SKY TRACER is a work of Fantasy inspired by the entanglement of mycelium and tree roots in what has come to be called, The Wood-Wide-Web.

Through mushrooms and the World Tree, I began world-building, while my previous short stories I’d published engendered the characters who would navigate this world. This is a book about identity, the nature of power, and beauty. It also presents a moral conundrum when the fate of an entire ecosystem is at stake and there’s no clear choice, even though a choice must be made.

The spore cloud keeps the realm in eternal darkness, while the World Tree, spreading it branches, high above, is a realm of light and wind. Mycelium and its entanglement with the World Tree becomes the center of a power struggle. As far as the characters in the darkness of the Fungal Realm are concerned, the Sky Realm above is outer space.

Essentially, I found metaphors through research and needed to find a way to make them real. I didn’t set out to write a work of Fantasy, but the world and its characters all source from very ‘real’ places.

Hayden Moore (with permission)

Me: Each time I read you, I can’t help feeling you are a magician with words! Can you tell us what kind of research you do, and how long you spend researching before beginning a book?

Hayden: That’s deeply appreciated… Any magic you feel comes from my deep love for what draws me in as a writer, a need to find a way to make the world a little more thinkable. When I moved to NYC fifteen years ago, I was fortunate to find a mentor who was a historian and taught me how to research everything from the fickle history of the potato to post-modern philosophy.

As far as SKY TRACER, it began five years ago when I read a book called, The Hidden Life of Trees, by Peter Wohlleben. This work of non-fiction delved into the entanglement of trees and mycelium and sewed the seeds and spores of wonder for me. About two years after reading that book (for the first time), I began writing short stories loosely based on myths from Ovid’s Metamorphoses and had around fifty of them published in literary journals, so I got a feel for what worked in the eyes of editors and readers.

Characters began to take shape and names soon followed, while I continued reading heaps of non-fiction, ranging from books on nature to physics. I started writing SKY TRACER about two years ago, so the ‘formal’ research for it took around a year.

SKY TRACER draws from my life experiences in the mountains and woods of the South, along with the complex nature of human beings and what they do with power, something that my time in NYC has certainly impressed upon me. In that regard, I wrote a book drawing from my entire life. It’s an imagined world created as much from Science and Nature as it is my own experience of the world. I had to believe it, live it, before I wrote a word.

Image (with permission)

Me: Do you think someone could be a writer if they don’t feel emotions strongly?

I do. Curiosity and imagination run on many fuels. Emotion is like the wind, through my experience with writing. Feeling deeply often inspires me to write and certainly acts as a catalyst while I’m writing. Wind turns to a breeze and stills. But the ocean is still there. Some forms of writing demand dispassionate inquiry.

I don’t know if writing fiction without feeling emotions strongly would go so well. But this leaves me at ‘maybe’. That’s the beauty of creating. It’s entirely possible to write with deep understanding and create a dispassionate narrator. If the creative drive is there, it can be done. I’d like to believe so, but emotions rise back up in me and make me doubt.

Image (with permission)

Me: What advice do you have for writers who hope to publish one day?

Find what moves you and breathe it like air. Creation is a messy process, in the best of times, but the one thing that never changes over the course of writing is the Time it takes. It becomes your world. Writing the first draft of a book is as daunting as it can be thrilling, but what follows is such a fundamentally different experience.

At this point, I’ve worked through the 100,000 words of my book well over 50 times. If I didn’t find wonder in the imagined world and the characters, I’d have been lost. If there’s ever a sense of completion, a feeling that everything is resolved and complete, something’s wrong. Find a thread and pull it. If something larger pulls back, seek it.

For me, it’s the wonder of the woods, the hidden magic of entanglement and the experiences of characters interacting with that environment. Characters who seek to do good often do terrible things with power and this has always fascinated me, so the dynamics this creates is as messy as it is bountiful. Find the dynamic that moves you. You can’t write yourself through anything without a sense of wonder. Somebody else, whether it’s an agent or a publisher, will eventually read that work and see the living story.

Wonder is what shapes a writer’s style, imbues the writer with an authentic voice, since that wonder forces the writer to find a way to convey it. When we pull that thread and a world pulls back, there’s no choice. Beyond that, write what you love and see what happens…

Me: Thank you so much for agreeing to be part of the interview and best wishes for your novel! I invite readers to check out Hayden’s website at

https://www.haydenmooreauthor.com/.

---

Hi there Stackers!

🌸As you may know, I am currently running a challenge for Coffee Times to encourage you to build your newsletter on Substack and win some cool cash prizes.

Ist Place — $100

2nd Place — $50

3rd Place — $25

🌸In case you have missed the reasons why it’s great to have a Substack newsletter and tips and strategies for building an effective newsletter, I will link to my Medium article below👇

🌸We have also extended the deadlines of the challenge:

Submission for the prompt response has been extended to May 15th.

Submission for the testimonials has been extended to May 25th.

Winners will be announced on May 30th.

🌸 Here are the entries we have received thus far. (Please let me know via the comments if your name is not mentioned).

Marilyn Flower — Do You Want or Need More Light and Laughter in your Life? Or at Least More Alliteration?

Ese Walter — Why You Should Subscribe To My Newsletter

J.R Heimbigner — Why You Should Subscribe To My Newsletter

Julie Green — Newspapers, Newsletters, and News Stations, All Granting You What You Want Most!

Jane Frost (Jane Grows Garden Rooms) -A Weekly Dose of Hope, Inspiration And Connecting with Nature

Wendi Gordon — Why You Should Subscribe to my “Changing Lives” Newsletter

Tamil — Discover the Joy in You

Charisse Tyson — Why You Should Subscribe to my Newsletter

Vashni Stories — Behind the Book

Alicia Dominguez — The Breadcrumbs Towards My All-In-One Best Content

🌸Want to participate? Then you have time till May 15th — don’t worry the guidelines are easy to follow and Substack has made starting a newsletter a breeze. For more info here is the link to my Medium article👇

---

🌸Don’t forget to subscribe to my Substack, WriteEZ, in order to receive important updates.