An Author Interview with Russell J. Fellows Author of ‘Children of the Ancient Heroes’

Hello, everyone!! Isabelle Knight back here again with another author interview with another fantastic middle-grade author! 🙂 I was actually able to get a review copy of this author’s books, and they were fantastic and ever so much fun to read!!! You can see the my review of those books here! And I am just super excited to be here today with an interview with this author!!

The wonderful author I’ll be interviewing today is Russell J. Fellows, the author of Children of the Ancient Heroes, a middle-grade fantasy series with fun characters, a rich world, and lots of magic! His books were so much fun to read, and I loved the characters, so I am so glad to have had the opportunity to ask Russell a few questions about his series and his writing!!

But anyway, I have likely rambled on enough about this, and I should probably just let you hear from the author himself!

1. How did you get the idea for this book?

I started the story when my kids asked me to write them a story. It began as small snippets on a message board in the mornings before I went to work, evolved to emails, and slowly became what it is.

2. What do you think was the hardest part about writing Children of the Ancient Heroes? What was the best part? Were there any super surprising parts that happened along the way?

The hardest part, for me, was probably when the story moved more away from the simple story I had for my kids to the full world that it is today. It wasn’t forced or necessarily planned, but as they grew older, the story grew with them and it grew with the idea of other children joining in this adventure too. This also makes it the best part. It grew naturally and I’m excited about the story it became. Because of this kind of development, I think there were a lot of surprises along the way. Early drafts did not need the way it does now. The way the character arcs transformed surprised me and made me love them so much.

3. That’s very true — stories do tend to grow quite a bit. And I really love the world of this book! It’s so deep and detailed, and I love how it has such a rich history! How did you really come up with this world, its history, and how everything really works in this world?

I think the history came about simply by me asking myself a lot of Why questions. After early drafts, I would ask – well, why would that be that way? You say this and that happened in the past, what did that actually look like? Especially since there is such a huge history that ties my main characters to this world, I had to know what that history looked like so that I had something tangible to look back on.

4. I think that’s a really great way of figuring out the history of the world! I shall have to try that sometime! Tirza and Eli are such fun characters to read! How did they come to you and how did you really go about writing them? I know that lots of authors say that dual POV can be hard, and so did you ever struggle with that?

Tirza and Eli began as my own kids. They are their basis, though they have developed into their own persons along the way. I always find it difficult to fully describe how I come up with all my characters as they are, because a lot of people (including my wife) look at me as if I’m mad. I listen. Other writers say similar things, I know, but it’s true. Sometimes, I simply listen to what my characters have to say.

5. What did the first draft of Children of the Ancient Heroes look like, and how many drafts did it take to get to finished, completed, published version?

The first draft began as notes for my kids. After that, I think there were, officially, 13 full drafts before I had a publisher interested in it. It took over 10 years. Of course, I had set it aside for some time, but it was a long process.

6. Did you ever struggle with the middle of this book? (You know, Act Two, where a lot of the times, the excitement of the idea has faded and now you’re left to slog through with the rest of the story) If so, how did you really overcome all that?

Honestly, it was Act I that gave me the greatest struggle. I had a developmental editor look at an early drafts and they enjoyed it, except for the beginning. I dove too quickly into the action, didn’t give my characters enough of a grounding at the start to show us what it is that they actually want/need/where their arc begins. I had to take a step back and live in this world for a moment and see who they were first before I sent them off on this adventure.

7. That’s super interesting, and also very true — I do struggle with Act 1 as well. So how do you find the motivation to keep writing on a tough day?

It is hard. I’m not always successful, to be honest. However, I remember what readers (especially my kids) have told me what they love about reading my book and being lost in the story. That’s everything to me.

8. Do you have a secret pen name that nobody knows about? (hehe, a sneaky, quick question I just ask all writers…)

I’ve thought about it but haven’t come up with one, yet. (Unless I am William the Traveling Bard 😏)

9. And I’m also curious on what the publishing process was like for this book. Can you tell us a bit about that?

This story took over 10 years before it found a home with Monarch Educational Services, LLC. I spent a lot of time querying agents without success. This allowed me to find more critique partners and tweak it to be what it is now. It’s been a rough road, but it’s been worth it.

10. Do you have any tips for young writers who really want to start writing and get their books out there?

Never stop writing. It can feel overwhelming and discouraging at times, but keep writing.

Keep learning the craft, find critique partners, and never give up. 

Keep reading, too. Glean what you can from books in the genre you’re writing.

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And hello! Tis me, Isabelle, here again!! Russell, thank you so much for doing this interview!! It was amazing to put together, and I loved hearing your fantastic answers to all these questions!! I especially love the writing advice you have for young writers — very true indeed! It was great having you here on my blog, and I wish you the best of luck with all your future projects!

And thank you, reader, for, well, reading!! 🙂 I hope you enjoyed this interview and that you found a few interesting and helpful tidbits of information to help you in your own writing!! And I also hope that you’ll go and read Children of the Ancient Heroes!!! It’s such a fun and magical middle-grade book!!!!!!!!!

But yeah! I’m afraid I’ll have to leave it at that, but thank you ever so much for coming, and I shall see you again in the next blog post!!! Have a wondrous day (or night)!

Isabelle

P.S. And if you’d like to find some more fantastic author interviews/book reviews/anything in between, don’t forget to check out Marvelous Middle Grade Monday!