Interview With Author: Michael Stevens

Michael Stevens, author of FORTUNA

1. Please tell us a little about yourself.


I have worked as a writer all my life, starting as the music columnist for my hometown newspaper when I was in high school. I owned a high tech advertising agency in Silicon Valley for many years, but now I freelance from my home office, mostly for very large companies with a global presence. I’m a serious amateur musician and have produced four CDs.

2. Who has been the greatest influence on you with respect to encouraging you to write and become a published author?

I would have to say my dad, Will Stevens. Like me, he made his living as a writer (a reporter for the old San Francisco Examiner) but still found time to write fiction, and he got published. So, he was a model of what can be achieved.

3. Writing a novel takes such a tremendous amount of time and concentration, how do you balance your life responsibilities; work, family, etc., with your time to write?

I’m fortunate in that I don’t have to fill up 40 hours every week with freelance gigs in order to pay the bills. So there are “holes” in my daily schedule. If the right energy is available, I’ll use that time to write. Plus, I always write on Saturday morning. Concerning concentration, I work mainly in cafés without a cell phone or a Blackberry in my pocket, so no one can disturb me.

4. The blurb for your novel, Fortuna, reads:

From the first, fateful mouse click, Jason tumbles into the vibrant, lush, and anonymous world of Fortuna. Swept up in this highly complex, highly addictive game of fame, fortune, and power, Jason quickly transitions from casual gamer to compulsive player.

Soon tangled up in a steamy, virtual love triangle, Jason becomes obsessed with breaking Fortuna’s code of anonymity. But Fortuna is anything but fun and games, and when a sizeable debt incurred in the game spills over into reality, Jason is forced to leverage the legacy of his father, a high-tech legend killed in a car accident years before, to pay off the debt.

What started as a great escape may only leave Jason trapped, as the game that transported Jason deep into the past exposes a shocking, present-day reality. In the world of Fortuna, it’s not how you play the game; it’s if you survive.

5. Why Fortuna? What prompted you to write it and what do you hope your readers will get out of it?

When I learned that the currency in online role-playing games has real-world value – it’s no different that euros or yuan – I knew there was a story to be told. It’s about a new version of reality. I chose Renaissance Florence as the setting for the game because there are so many parallels to Silicon Valley in the 1990s. I think the central question posed by Machiavelli – a Florentine, by the way – is still relevant. How can a good man guided by a code of morality succeed in an evil and corrupt world?

6. I’m fascinated by the concept of this deadly online gaming addiction. Have you always had an interest in writing thrillers or did your interest evolve from another genre?

Always thrillers. And I reject the idea that the thriller genre rules out thoughtful writing (not that you imply that). I like books grounded in ideas. In Fortuna, one of my characters quotes Plato.

7. Please give us some insight into your writing process. In other words, did you outline the chapters? Did you think about the plot for a while before writing it? What steps did you take before you wrote the first sentence or do you have another method or organizing your work?

Actually, the first thing I do is write the first sentence, or, more accurately, the first page. For me, writing is about energy, and, in a sense, the energy needed to produce the whole book is there for me in that first page. When I begin, I have a general idea. Kid gets hooked on online game. Runs up real-world debt. Obsesses about who the other players are in real life. Has a father who’s a Silicon Valley legend... and so on.

As I said, I only write when I feel I have the right energy, and only in cafés. From time to time I will jot down a list of scenes that have to take place – perhaps seven or eight, each described with three or four words. That’s the extent to which I outline or look ahead in any detail.

8. How long did it take you to write Fortuna?

About eighteen months.

9. Please tell us a bit about your protagonist, Jason Lind, and describe your inspiration for this character.

In essence, he’s a young man looking for “something more.” He’s brilliant, he’s on a track for academic success, but his life doesn’t nourish him. He also is a young man who needs to grow emotionally, develop empathy, and find a way to be in the world. I think there’s a little bit of that in all of us when we’re young.

10. Please share with our readers a little about the plot, the characters, the setting, of your novel.

That’s a tall order. I guess the driving force for all of it is to create an expanding horizon, where more and more is revealed to the reader because the characters are driven to seek out answers. I think I show a somewhat dark side of Silicon Valley, which most certainly existed during the boom. The rules governing the game Fortuna were ones that I conceived on my own, but they are plausible.

11. What has been the greatest challenge you faced in writing this book? Why it was difficult, and how did you resolved it?

I think it’s a toss-up between the research on Renaissance Florence, which was extensive, and the last chapter. There are some scenes where it’s very difficult to balance the flow of emotion, the need to convey certain facts and the requirements of plausible dialog.

12. How much and/or what kind of research went into writing this book?

It’s a long list. Medieval coinage. The architecture and street layout of Florence in the 1400s. The layout of specific cathedrals. Classical schools in Florence. Dress. The format of Catholic confession at that time. Business practices of the Medici. Theories of physiognomy. How many pages do I get?

13. What do you find the most difficult part of writing in general and what do you do to overcome it?

Writing is not difficult for me. I know what to do and how to do it. More importantly, in the things that matter, I am guided by inspiration that comes from outside me in a way I don’t really understand. I just know I get, for lack of a better phrase, “help from above.”

14. What are you working on now? What’s next?

Berlin, 1923. The Weimar Republik is in chaos. Drugs, kinky sex and weapons of assassination are available on every street corner and in every cabaret. The hero, a Jason Lind-like figure, has been sent there to learn how to commercially manufacture the new German wonder drug known as aspirin. Instead, he discovers a secret cabal within the German chemical establishment working on what the scientists referred to as a “U-Bomb,” because its main component is uranium.

15. Any words of wisdom and advice to aspiring writers?

Go to writers’ conferences, particularly ones that focus on marketing. There, you can at least get a glimpse of what you’re getting into. Don’t quit your day job.


About the author:
Michael Stevens has worked as a writer all his life, starting as the music columnist for his hometown newspaper when he was in high school. He owned a successful high tech advertising agency in Silicon Valley for many years, and now freelances from his home office, mostly for very large companies with a global presence. He is a serious amateur musician and has produced four CDs.