Mightier than the sword: Local author releases new novel in August

MOSES LAKE — The realms of speculative fiction and fantasy have only seemed to grow in popularity in recent years as more fantastical worlds are shared through television, movies and books. Avid readers of the genre might have picked up a novel by local author Voss Foster.

Foster recently published his third novel in his ongoing “Office of Preternatural Affairs” series on Aug. 20 and has eight novels available, with four of his other works no longer in publication. He has also published one non-fiction novel aimed at writers. Foster, 29, of Warden, said he remembers writing frequently as a kid and still has his first short story he wrote on a typewriter in first grade.

Foster said he didn’t really take his writing seriously as a career until about 2010, around the time he graduated from Moses Lake High School.

“I was shocked to find a pretty robust writing community in the Moses Lake area so I hooked up with them and some of them were getting published,” Foster said. “That was sort of the first time it clicked that, ‘Oh, you could get published and you could make money at this.’”

He said his first publication credit was in 2012 with a piece of “flash fiction,” 1000 words or less, titled “Sky Symphony.” A little more than a year later, he would have his first novel, “Tartaros,” published.

“Tartaros” is an urban fantasy novel focused around demon hunters initially working to prevent the apocalypse. Foster said he pitched the novel on a Friday and heard back from the publishing house the next day. He said he was pretty surprised to see the quick turnaround when the process can typically take months.

He said his next venture was a trilogy with the same publishing house before he branched out to other publishers and indie publishers with his recent work. In general, he said most of his work tends to deal with speculative fiction, primarily fantasy, with a few science fiction books.

Foster said he aims to have a diverse cast of characters from all walks of life. He said it helps provide a wider representation while offering a more interesting dynamic, having characters work off one another.

His biggest growth since his first book has probably been in his plots.

“I’d say my plots are a lot more tight and intent and higher stakes than they used to be,” Foster said.

Through practice and the editing process with publishing, Foster said he gets a lot of notes from editors and eventually begins to see patterns he can address in his writing. As he reads more, he said he picks up on different things, too, trying them out to see what works. Foster also said it’s easy to sit down and edit a project once it’s completed, but impossible to edit a good idea in his head.

Foster said he has a following in readership, particularly with his current series. He said it’s nice having readers who enjoy his writing and reach out to him.

“I’ve wanted to be able to provide the experience that I’ve had with other books where I’m like ‘Oh, that’s cool,’” Foster said. “I want to follow that; so to see that, it’s pretty nice.”

Edgar Allen Poe has been one of the biggest influences on Foster in his writing style. Foster said he “devoured” a ton of Poe’s work and learned a lot of writing techniques from the renowned author. Catherynne Valente, Christopher Moore and Christopher Yates are other authors Foster said he’s drawn inspiration from or aspires to match.

Foster said he tries to write about 30 hours per week if he isn’t too busy with errands. He said he typically finds himself writing in his recliner with his laptop board, beginning the process with a big blank sheet of paper and a sharpie.

From there, he said he starts to brainstorm before fine-tuning his ideas on a Word document. Once he’s ready to move to the writing process, he turns to Scrivener, a writing software built to handle the heavy word count of a novel.

As a fantasy writer, he said he’s learned the hard way spell check can only do so much when he’s crafting his own universe.

“I learned you can break the spell check on Word if you make up too many words,” Foster said. “Halfway through writing my books, it will just turn off spell check and say I can’t help you.”

Foster said he’s got a few projects he’s not going to tackle just yet, but hopes to someday. One of those is a high fantasy novel, which he said requires a more intense, different skill set than his urban fantasy books.

Other than that, he said he’s continuing to write and build more recognition. For young writers starting out, Foster said the biggest thing is simply finishing.

“When you actually finish your first full book, it’s such a high that you end up chasing that high again,” Foster said. “If you can just make yourself sit down and slog through and write, absolute terrible writing if that’s what it takes to get through a project, and finish it, you are more likely to continue forward.”

Casey McCarthy can be reached via email at cmccarthy@columbiabasinherald.com.