Audiobook Series Launch from Podium – Kradak the Champion

ABOUT THE PODIUM TITLES INCLUDED IN THIS LAUNCH

·  Shadowplay: Spellmonger by Terry Mancour and Emily Burch Harris (Podium Audio; October 5, 2021; ASIN: B09DZ4S8MG) : This bestselling epic fantasy is the first in a new spin-off series and narrated by award-winning audiobook narrator Fiona Hardingham. The novel follows Gatina, popular Spellmonger thief and shadow mage, in her early days in Falas as she is introduced to the truth of her mysterious family and is initiated into their secret legacy. The backdrop is a deadly Goblin War and the assassination of the Duke and Duchess of Alshar by a hereditary rival. Gatina must work undercover against the rising tyrant while training under the tutelage of an enigmatic and mysterious master.

·     Kradak The Champion: Arkana Series Book 1 by Shawn Inmon (Podium Audio; October 12, 2021; ASIN: B09GHR4NTD) : Narrated by Wayne Mitchell, this is the first book in a sword and sorcery series about a case of a mistaken identity and an actor who must  take on the role he plays on TV. When a portal opens and Steve is kidnapped by Rista and Grint, who truly believe Steve to be Kradak the Champion, Steve must help them save their world or risk losing everything.

·      The White Tower: The Aldoran Chronicles Book 1 by Michael Wisehart (Podium Audio; September 2017; ASIN:  B075DGP9Y6): Narrated by Tim Gerard Reynolds, this award-winning epic fantasy set in a world where magic is forbidden throughout the Five Kingdoms and wielders are forced into hiding. With war looming, the outlawed wielders might be the Five Kingdom’s only hope.

AND COMING THIS DECEMBER, THE 3RD AUDIO BOOK IN THE ALDORAN CHRONICLES!
·      The Four-Part Key: The Aldoran Chronicles Book 3 by Michael Wisehart (Podium Audio; December 14, 2021; ASIN: B09H9HMCMJ : Narrated by Tim Gerard Reynolds, The Four Part Key is the highly anticipated third book in the award-winning epic fantasy saga and continues where the second left off, with a world in desperate need of saving, as powers beyond their control threaten to bring the Five Kingdoms to its knees.

• What do you do when a new idea jumps out at you while you’re still working on a book? Do you chase the squirrel (aka “UP syndrome”) or do you finish your current project first?

When I took the Clifton Strengths Test, I was unsurprised to find that ideation was high on my list of strengths. Ideation is simply the forming of ideas or concepts. It’s what I think of as my creative engine.

It is inevitable that while I am working on a long project like a novel that other ideas will suddenly vie for my attention. I encourage my subconscious to constantly feed me new ideas, but I can’t let it get in the way of my current project. I am not a writer who can focus on more than one project at once, so I never put down my current novel to work on a new idea. If I did that, I would have fifty unfinished novels instead of the thirty-two finished ones I have.

New ideas are like a survival of the fittest. If it occurs to me, then dissipates because I don’t consciously work on it, then I believe it wasn’t strong enough to survive. The strong ideas—the ones that become full novels, or the first novel in a series—will always stick with me.

There was an idea that occurred to me mid-novel about six years ago. I was fired up about it, but it wasn’t the time to write it yet. Other things kept jumping in line in front of it. Finally, just the past few weeks, it nagged at me enough that I put a few minutes time into it while I was between books. There it was, just as it had been all along, just waiting for me to acknowledge it. Now, that book is on my writing schedule for next year.

 

• Who is your favorite character to write, and why is that person your favorite? If picking a favorite character would be like picking a favorite child, which character seems to be the most demanding or your attention and detail as a writer?

I love to write side characters. Protagonists tend to be the most fully-formed characters, but side characters are usually more colorful and fun to write. For the twelfth book in my Middle Falls series, I envisioned a character that I didn’t put a lot of thought into. I just thought, “He’s Tommy Chong.”

Then, when that character emerged, he had some elements in common with Tommy Chong, but he was so much more than that. He arrived fully formed. I knew that he loved to drink odd teas that he imported from all over the world, and what kind of books he loved to read and that he loved Leon Redbone albums. Most importantly, I knew that he had the power to believe in things when a normal person would be cynical. He immediately became on of my favorite characters.

Also, I tend to write animal sidekicks and imbue them with a lot of personality. In my Alex Hawk Time Travel Adventure series, Alex adopts a tiny runt puppy in the first book. That puppy grows into a fearsome, 300 lb. fighting animal who, when he isn’t fighting, has the sweetest, quirkiest personality you can imagine. In my Kradak the Champion books, I create a dragon named Fuego. She is sly and hilarious and I loved writing her scenes.

 

• What are some books or authors that you would recommend to our readers?

If they like portal fiction or time travel, I can recommend 11/22/63 by Stephen King, which inspired me to write my longest series. Nathan Van Coops also has some exceptionally fun and well-written time travel books, starting with In Times Like These.

Finally, my friend Terry Schott has a mind-bending, twisty science fiction series called The Game Is Life. There are nine volumes of it out, and he’s currently writing a tenth. They are addictive, fun, and will make you think.

 

• Have you been able to incorporate your previous experience in your writing?

The old adage is, write what you know, right? I took that to mean, write what you can talk about with complete emotional authenticity.

So, my characters may not have the same jobs I’ve had in my life, but they continually run into interesting situations that I’ve also had to deal with. For instance, my characters often end up traveling around the United States. I’ve also traveled extensively around the country and have been to all fifty states. My writer’s eye means that I constantly look at every place, every hotel, every person I meet on the road and file them away in my mental Rolodex to use at a later time.

I am also a father who helped raise three daughters. When my own characters are faced with a situation, it’s easy to dip back into the joy, frustration, or monotony of being a parent with kids of a certain age.

More than anything, I try to remember the emotions I had. Readers will always remember how a book made them feel.

 

• Do you identify with your main character or did you create a character that is your opposite?

I have thirty-two books out, so I have both. I think all of my protagonists share at least a little DNA with me, but since I’ve also written about a serial killer who has a chance at redemption, I had to mostly rely on my imagination for that.

I waited a long time before I wrote a female protagonist. That’s a potential landmine for a man to write. However, I was raised with a lot of influence from my own three sisters, and as I say, I have three daughters. That gave me some perspective on what women have to deal with.

When I wrote my first book with a female protagonist, I released it and was scared to even read the reviews initially. If I had messed up, I almost didn’t want to know it. In the end, the reviews turned out great, and I’ve written several more women as main characters. In fact, that’s true of the book I’m working on today, which will be the fifteenth book in my Middle Falls Time Travel series.

 

• Describe the book in 10 words or less for people who are just learning about it.

Kradak is Conan meets Galaxy Quest.

 

• Do you have any odd (writing) habits?

Oh, yes! Probably my most unusual habit is that I pick a single song for each book and listen to it on endless repeat until the book is finished. That seems like a shortcut to insanity for most people, but for me, when I sit down to start a session and hear the opening of that song, my mind immediately slips back into the world of my story. It’s like a Pavlovian response.

My best habit is that once I start a book, I write at least 2,000 words each day until it’s finished. If something unusual has come up and I head upstairs at 10:30 with no words written, I don’t let myself go to bed until I’ve logged my 2,000 words.

 

• What is your favorite line from your book?

“They call him Kradak, but his friends call him Steve.” That captures the essence of what the book is about.

Shawn Inmon was born into a town–Riffe, Washington–that no longer exists. This may have contributed to the type of fiction he writes. He is a full-time writer who spends his days with his head in the clouds, creating new worlds and universes so he can tell you the stories he sees.

Shawn likes to say that he’s learned everything he knows from his 400 jobs. Typical of a writer, he likes to exaggerate!

Still, he has done everything from door-to-door sales (seeds, Christmas cards, and Grit Magazine as a boy, Kirby Vacuums and Cutco Cutlery as an adult) to lying about his age to get a job as a short order cook. At the time, he didn’t have any idea how to cook anything, but he learned. He still feels bad about those first few customers who suffered through his food.

He traveled with the Unlimited Hydroplane Tour for three seasons, worked as a business consultant, a video store manager, and a retail buyer for a department store. He spent ten years spinning records as a morning DJ and another twenty-three years as a real estate agent and broker.

In 2016, he took all that accumulated life experience and took the plunge into being a full-time novelist. He’s never looked back.

His first books were based on his real-life romance with the girl next door, who is now his wife and beloved. She mostly puts up with his bad jokes, though she is fond of saying he is his own best audience.

Most of Shawn’s ideas come when he walks his two Chocolate Labs, Sadie and Hershey. It’s how they contribute to the family economy. His slightly schizo cat named Georgie does not deign to contribute in any way.

Every morning, when he wakes before sunrise and makes the twenty-foot commute from his bedroom to his office to write his stories, he knows he is among the luckiest people on Earth.

Socials:
https://www.shawn-inmon.com/
https://www.facebook.com/ShawnInmonWriter/
https://www.instagram.com/shawninmon/

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