Hello, fellow primates, and thanks for reading my post. I’m Craig Boyack, and I write speculative fiction in my spare time.
That isn’t everything I do, however. I hold down a regular job, have a lovely wife, and three adult children. We also have three pretty cool grandchildren. I like to do outdoors things with a more mellow side. I fish, forage, enjoy hunting for cool rocks, that sort of thing. I’ve panned for gold, and it’s nearly morel mushroom season here in Idaho. I grow my own fruit trees, and keep a thirtyish year old sourdough starter named Tituba.
When it comes to city life, my wife and I still do date night every weekend. We enjoy dinner and a movie, and I really like the whole craft beer movement. We save up for something bigger at least once per year, and it may be a play or a concert. When you look at the big picture, there’s a whole lot of inspiration there.
I don’t read as much as I’d like to, but when I do I want to escape. There are too many real world problems, and so a bit of science fiction or fantasy hits the spot. Which brings me to my writing.
When I write I always include some element we aren’t going to get in real life. Characters might be interacting with extra terrestrials, trying to survive an ancient curse, or living in a fantasy world. I even wrote one where a robot was the main character.
Of course the characters need to face problems, and they have to be problems the reader can relate to. I wrote a science fiction piece once where the antagonist was big insurance. They weaseled themselves into a quasi-governmental agency and dictated more than they ought to be allowed to. This was still science fiction, but I figured there are readers who could relate.
I’ve written a couple of paranormal stories too, and tried to set them in worlds that readers might recognize. I believe readers are willing to suspend disbelief, but we shouldn’t ask too much of them. That’s why I try to give my readers a familiar footing. If I’m going to ask them to believe something incredible, they ought to get something familiar to hang onto.
I always try to include fun characters. It isn’t always my lead character. Sometimes the lead has to be a grouch or stoic personality. In those instances, I always include someone who’s a bit more cheery. I also think it comes across more like real life.
I recently learned that I write a lot of animals into my stories. This came out of the blue, but it’s true. I like animals, pets or otherwise. They can add a special element to a character without having to explain too much. I have a semi-cowboy who winds up with a horse who doesn’t like him. It added a fun element to a dark section of one book.
I always try to set a personal challenge with each novel. These aren’t obvious to the reader, I hope. They help me grow as a writer. Some of mine were: a non-human main character, a buddy story with co-leads, a mildly depressed character, fairytale story structure, and one story in first person POV. It doesn’t hurt to have many tools at your disposal, and the way to learn them is to use them.
My blog is called Entertaining Stories, because that’s the end goal – to entertain. I have no intention of changing the world, or convincing readers to see things my way. I just want them to have fun. My characters make regular appearances on my blog, with dialog and everything. This gives my readers some original tales, and I usually weave in bits about my writing struggles. Is this cheesy? God I hope so. The tone of the blog isn’t always the tone of the novels. They are different things.
I hope to meet some new bloggers and reader’s via Chris’ blog, and appreciate the opportunity to visit here.
Craig Boyack
No man ever wetted clay and then left it, as if there would be bricks by chance and fortune. – Plutarch
Check out my novels at Amazon:
Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog 
Great to know more about you. I just mentioned to my husband that you and your wife still have date night. He laughed since last night our date night was a trip to Lowes. Haha. He does take me to the symphony once every summer and he reads my books so I can’t complain at all.
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It doesn’t take much. We’re both busy people and work a full week. Even a cheap meal out provides a little time together without prep, cooking, and cleanup. I believe we have a trip to Lowes on the docket today.
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Reblogged this on Smorgasbord – Variety is the spice of life and commented:
Meet Craig Boyack who has a great blog here on WordPress.. over in the Hall of Fame with The Story Reading Ape.
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Thanks Sally – have a great (if wet) Sunday – Hugs 😀
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Thank you, Sally.
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Great to see you here. Time zones are a challenge. I feel I’m eternally late or rushing ahead. I’m with you in preferring some grounding in everyday recognisable life even in science fiction. All the very best.
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Thanks, it’s probably about cocktail hour where you are. It’s 6:30 AM here. We have to remember our readers are everyday humans. It helps to have a bit of everyday material in speculative fiction.
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Another one to rack up on my interesting authors Chris. Thanks.
Craig, I like the fact you allow humour into your stories, it’s always nice to laugh along with ( or even at ) a character.
Hugs
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Thanks, David. Humor is natural, even if it’s graveyard humor during a stress point. Stories need it as spice.
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A good self-intro, Craig. Your books sound interesting, and I know what you mean about setting yourself a challenge aside from the main substance of the book. I’ve done that too — made a neglected character from one book the narrator of a subsequent one, or alternating chapters in third person present tense with first person past tense. Just to see if I could pull it off. As for animal characters, I suspect the trick is to make them engaging without being cutesy, or just humans in animal costumes.
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Another person who likes to test herself, awesome. It doesn’t take much, but we never know what we’re capable of if we don’t try things. I’d never written in first person, and it turned out to be my best writing. Animals are story spice to me. They improve the flavor. Others might write Watership Downs and make the story all about the animals.
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I almost mentioned Watership Down in my comment, as the only story I could think of in which animals were the primary characters, and mostly were not humans in disguise (although of course it is a quest/adventure tale with the rabbits playing the same roles as human characters in other tales). I recall reading somewhere that Adams did a lot of research on rabbit behaviour for the sake of authenticity.
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I never go that far. Sometimes a loner character needs someone to talk to. Animals are good listeners.
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It’s the story Panama if you’re interested. Ethan doesn’t get along with that horse, and he convinced himself he knows why. (He’s wrong.)
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Reblogged this on Entertaining Stories and commented:
I need to learn more about time zones. I was told this would appear on Sunday. I suppose it is Sunday where Chris is. Proud to make my first appearance on this wonderful site.
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I’m on London, UK time Craig, so Sunday arrives here about 7 to 10 hours ahead of your timezone 😀
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I love that you include fun characters. Those are always the ones I seem to remember and connect too. So when does that challenge appear in your process? Is it from the beginning?
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It’s generally from the very beginning. My challenge on the one that’s fermenting was to write individual stories that told a bigger story. It has a style like the movie Pulp Fiction.
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I like those kinds of movies and books. I was going to try that with one of my stories where each book followed a different hero in search of something to stop a demon. Though short stories would work better. I’m curious how one outlines that to make sure the different stories cross. I assume there’s a lot of overlapping sites, supporting cast, and events.
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There is a little bit of crossing paths, and one weak supporting character that ties a couple of them together. Two of them meet at the end and there is a big donnybrook. The third one never meets the other main characters. I still used my storyboard, and made sure each story moved ahead in rotation.
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I really hope ‘donnybrook’ gets it into the story. Don’t hear that one enough. Sounds so much more sophisticated than a melee or a brawl.
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I should use it more often. I can’t spell brouhaha.
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Brouhaha always sounds like more like a comedy fight to me.
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Reblogged this on Legends of Windemere.
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Thanks for sharing Charles 😀
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Thanks, Charles. Appreciate the help.
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You’re welcome.
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Interesting Craig. I like your purposeful approach to your writing. The thought of a semi-cowboy whose horse doesn’t like him made me laugh out loud. Well done.
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Oops, I may have answered you on the blog and not directly.
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