When working on a story, writers will sometimes figure out the character’s back story as a way of determining what that character will do, and why.
Though in the following email interview with author Tim Akers about The Eccentrics (paperback, Kindle), the third book of his urban fantasy series Knight Watch, he explains that the idea for this book, and the one that preceded it, Valhellions, were actually conceived of us as the backstories for the series’ titular first installment.
I’d like to start with some background: What is the Knight Watch series about, and when and where do these stories take place?
It’s mostly present day urban fantasy. The pitch is Men In Black at the Ren Faire.
John Rast is a fantasy nerd who goes to the Renaissance Faire to pretend to be a knight with his friends, and gets pulled into an unreal world where the monsters of myth and legend actually exist. He’s recruited by Knight Watch, the secret organization that protects the mundane world from these monsters.
And then what is The Eccentrics about, and when does it take place in relation to the second, Valhelions?
Knight Watch’s responsibility is the Unreal, and consists of the legends of fantasy and myth. The Eccentrics are another organization charged with policing the future that never was, namely, the steampunk world of the Gestalt. Led by the 8th incarnation of Nik Tesla, they scour the world for clockwork spiders, spiritualists, and rogue alchemists.
The events of the novel occur immediately after Valhellions.
When in the process of writing Knight Watch and Valhelions did you come up with the idea for The Eccentrics, and where did you get the idea for this story?
Surprisingly, I conceptualized both of the sequels while writing Knight Watch. They were just throw away ideas that I dropped into the backstory as I was writing. Once it came time to write the sequels, I just went back to my notes and expanded the seeds I had already planted.
As you just said, The Eccentrics are led by the eighth incarnation of Nikola Tesla. But to be clear, that means it’s Nikki’s eighth go-round, we’re not talking about his great great great great great grandson, right?
Correct, this is the eighth manifestation of Nik Tesla. Turns out there are a lot of ways to die when you’re an experimental electrical engineer.
So, is there a reason why he’s Tesla reincarnated and not Einstein reincarnated or Edison or maybe someone like Bram Stoker or Mary Shelly?
I think Tesla resonates more in the mythos of steampunk than those other names. The future Tesla imagined never really came to be, put him strongly in the realm of imagination, rather than history.
You also said the Knight Watch books were urban fantasy tales. But are there other genres or subgenres at work in The Eccentrics?
I would still call it urban fantasy. There’s a little bit of Gothic horror in there as well, but it’s mostly a straightforward portal urban fantasy.
Obviously, The Eccentrics is not your first novel. Are there any writers who had a big influence on The Eccentrics but not on anything else you’ve written, and especially not any of the previous Knight Watch novels?
Bringing in all those steampunk elements harkened back to my days of worshiping China Mieville and Tim Powers. There’s some of that in my earliest novels, the Veridon books and Horns Of Ruin, but I’ve strayed away in recent efforts. It was nice to revisit old tropes.
How about non-literary influences; was The Eccentrics influenced by any movies, TV shows, or games?
Steampunk in general draws a lot from Westerns, and from a strong LARP / cosplay community that continually breathes new life into the genre.
As we’ve been discussing, The Eccentrics is the third Knight Watch novel. But is this an ongoing series, or is The Eccentrics the third book of a trilogy or something similar?
The books are what I think of as serial novels. Each one can stand on its own, and there’s no closed loop narrative, but the meta-narrative continues with each installment. I think Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files are the best example of that kind of writing. It’s best to start at Knight Watch and go through to Valhellions and Eccentrics, but it’s not necessary.
So, what are your plans going forward for this series?
My plans are open ended. For now I’m focusing on additional novels in the Wraithbound series, but I will probably return to the world of Knight Watch eventually. It’s all a matter of time commitments and contractual obligations. It’s a fun world to write. Hopefully it’s a fun world to read, as well.
Earlier I asked if The Eccentrics had been influenced by any movies, TV shows, or games. But to flip things around, do you think The Eccentrics and the rest of the Knight Watch series could be adapted into some movies, a show, or a game?
I think it would make for a great game world. Either RPG or TCG. The core of the world is this idea that there’s a mythic version of ourselves out there somewhere, waiting to be discovered. I think that would be a great fantasy to play out, and be something most gamers could relate to.
The secret is that I’ve done a fair amount of game writing in my life, so I’d probably want to helm that project, if it ever came up. My first paying jobs were for TTRPGs back in the ’90s, and I’ve kept my hand in that business ever since. So maybe someday we’ll be rolling dice in the world of Knight Watch.
Finally, if someone enjoys The Eccentrics, and they’ve already read Knight Watch and Valhelions, which of your other novels would you suggest they read next?
That’s a tough one, because Knight Watch is almost an aberration in my career. I write a lot of epic fantasy and action, and Knight Watch is just a lot of goofy fun.
If they like traditional epic fantasy, I would point them toward The Hallowed War trilogy, starting with The Pagan Night. I also have Wraithbound, which is a high action, hard magic epic set in a post-apocalyptic flintlock fantasy world.
