Interview With Cameo Rowe

Cameo Rowe: Defenders of the Realm has always been about a war between two factions of mystics, one that protects the world, and one that seeks to conquer it. The novel has always had a powerful and wise mystic as the leader for the good, and that leader's former student as the leader of darkness. The particulars of the conflict have evolved over time as the novel has evolved.

The first draft of Defenders of the Realm was written with more of a stream of conscious style. I focused on plot and developing setting, and didn't really get into the characters beyond simple surface emotions. It didn't start out as a novel, but as a short story that expanded as time went on. It went from one book, to a trilogy, and eventually included a prequel.

I showed the first book in the series to one of my old English teachers from high school. I'd given the short story version of the piece to her as a retirement present. She told me that the piece was too dense. Too much happened in too little time with very little development. I took the criticism and decided to step away from Defenders of the Realm, and write another manuscript using the advice I'd been given.

From there, I developed a manuscript titled The Two Kingdoms. It's a piece set in a land divided into an Earth and Sky Kingdom once its King passed away. The novel chronicles the rise of a young boy to become the prophesied One King to unite the land. I utilized fewer characters, had a simpler plot, and kept the piece more focused. Where the first draft of Defenders of the Realm was 350 pages or so, The Two Kingdoms was around 125 or 150. I wrote a second draft of Defenders of the Realm in a similar style, and simplified the plot of the first book considerably. I showed the drafts of both pieces to my English teacher, and she said they were better, but still needed some more refinement.

Around this time, I took on a second major at Pitt in English Writing (fiction concentration). I learned more about writing literary fiction, and the importance of making characters grow throughout the course of a piece, and how to derive conflict from their experiences. I came back to Defenders of the Realm and decided to use that knowledge to revise what I'd done. I rewrote the entire beginning of the novel, and included fewer characters than the original. All the names were given more of a fantasy feel. Some passages from the first set of Defenders of the Realm manuscripts were cut, pasted, and revised to come into this draft. Some passages and characters from The Two Kingdoms came into this draft. When I finished, I had a draft of Defenders of the Realm I: The World Mystic Arts Tournament.

The third draft of the manuscript is paced a lot faster than the first two drafts, but the storyline is a lot simpler. While it still maintains an epic feel, there are still aspects of character development and conflict that were lacking in the first two versions. I showed the novel to a professor here that leads a Fantasy Fellowship on campus. She read the novel and loved it. I've showed the novel to some more friends, and they loved it as well. I've since continued the story line from Defenders of the Realm I into a second manuscript, Defenders of the Realm II: The Guardians of Gaea, which I'm really excited about.

CWD: You have a diverse cast of characters in the novel. Not only in the abilities of the heroes and villains but also in their ethnicity. I grew up reading fantasy books and the most diversity I ever saw was a series of books with both talking ferrets and talking rats. Did you want to expand the ethnic boundaries of fantasy or did the characters come out of your life experience?

Cameo Rowe: When I originally wrote Defenders of the Realm, I used my friends as models for the characters, so the ethnicities carried over. My white friends were white characters and my black friends became black characters. As I continued the revision process, characters changed and ethnicities changed. I was more conscious of the choices that I made in character background and how they spoke, acted, and carried themselves.

Defenders of the Realm uses aspects of politics in modern society to provide conflict. While I take a broader approach, focusing on things like the nature of power and ethics in society, I also include some prejudices in this world, which gives the main character, Aleron, an obstacle to overcome. The prejudice doesn't focus on race as much as his cultural background. The feel you should get from reading the novel is that you're dealing with people, and that race and sex doesn't have as much weight as the choices they make. Being black, white, male, or female doesn't make you evil, but acting on your own greed does.

CWD: Like most writers, you hold a day job in addition to writing. How do you find time for writing and how do you keep up your discipline?

Cameo Rowe: While I was a student at Pitt, I mainly used my breaks to work on Defenders of the Realm. So, I didn't go out and party as much as some of my friends, even on Christmas breaks or over the summer. Majoring in English allowed me to work on my writing skills apart from Defenders of the Realm, which I think made my manuscripts better. Majoring in Engineering is time consuming, so I didn't necessarily have a ton of time to work with, but I used it well.

Now that I'm working and continuing my education, my time is constrained a little more. I have to balance promoting the book, writing and revising manuscripts, and pursuing other opportunities now. With limited time, this means drafts get written a little slower. I try to keep writing by maintaining a blog. It's accessible through my website, http://www.cameorowe.com, and also is fed to my Facebook account (search Cameo Rowe Jr) and MySpace page (http://www.myspace.com/thedefendersoftherealm). I don't focus on fiction as much as politics, pop culture, and my thoughts on the writing and publishing process in the blog. I also write for JENESIS Magazine, and interview different artists and businessmen throughout Pittsburgh. I think it's important to stay writing if you want to be a writer, even if it's part time. If you have the passion to write, then finding the time is not a problem.

CWD: I've never talked to an author who didn't have problems somewhere along the line when finishing a project as large as a novel. Did you ever get stuck? How did you deal with writer's block and creative droughts?

Cameo Rowe: Writing the book was never really a continuous process. I wrote in bunches a lot, as opposed to writing 5-10 pages a day, every day. I often find that I get stuck when I'm at a part of the book that I'm not quite sure about. I may have a vision of what happened before, and a vision for what happens next, but not necessarily for where the characters are in a certain passage. Inspiration comes to you in time, and you can encourage that by making sure you take part in different things that stimulate creativity: going to museums to look at art work, poetry readings, watching certain movies. As a fantasy writer, I try not to watch tons of fantasy movies or read tons of fantasy books while I'm working on a project, but I do like to read up on politics and history, which can provide an excellent source of inspiration. Using deadlines can help you too. If there are writing contests coming up, make note of them and use them as benchmarks for when you should be finished a manuscript.

CWD: If I gave you $10 million dollars and you had 5 days to spend it (trust me, it's a very hypothetical question), what would you do first?

Cameo Rowe: My focus is so much on my book, and developing myself as a writer and leader, that I would probably take that money and put it right into my book and other ideas. I'd hire a publicist to help me get the word out about the book, not just in the Pittsburgh area, but on a national level. I'd look into investing in different avenues to release the story, perhaps with online gaming or something else. I'd look into investing in writing programs for young minority students to help them refine their skills as well. I'm not really the kind of guy that focuses on having the houses and the cars and the trappings of success. I think what you do is more important than what you have.

Cameo Rowe: I decided to self-publish because I thought that I could get the book into the hands of the right people better, and showcase the quality of the book better by publishing the book myself and marketing it than by sending copies to slush piles. With self-publishing, you basically have to promote the book yourself, and it can grow to be very costly if you're not smart with the decisions you make. However, it provides the possibility of having someone see your work and take a heightened interest. Companies are geared to making money, so they will want to invest in a successful project. It's up to self-published authors to make their work successful. The biggest problem I face now is how to get the book out there to the people who want to read it. If I can reach fantasy fans and provide them with the right information in the right way, Defenders of the Realm will be successful. How to do that is not always clear.

CWD: Can you give us any hints about what's coming up in your next book?

Cameo Rowe: The next book is going to have some interesting new characters come in, both working for the Occult and the Kindred. The next novel takes the theme of becoming a leader and expands on it, making the young mystics see the weight of their actions and deal with intense challenges. Everything in Defenders of the Realm II gets more intense.

CWD: One last question Cameo. Do you have any advice for new or unpublished writers?

Cameo Rowe: Always continue to hone your craft and develop your writing. Develop the confidence to put yourself out there as well. I find that limits a lot of artists.