Q1. Hello, can you please introduce yourself? Readers would love to know more about you.
My name is Craig Weidhuner, I’m from Toronto, Canada. I’ve always been gifted with imagination since I was a child. I inherited from my father a love of science fiction and fantasy. Everything from Star Trek, to Star Wars, to Godzilla as well as comic books (just to name a few). I would often play a fantasy role as a child and I was fortunate that I never grew out of that. I’ve been writing for years, creating my own fictional worlds as a way to escape the real world. After years of working in various warehouse jobs, I began worrying about my finances and how I would support myself. One night in my dreams I saw what they call “angel numbers” telling me not to worry about my finances but to follow my dreams, or “do what you love and the money will follow”. Also around this time I read a book called “Conversations with God” and I remember one line in the book which said, “Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.” Having been held back by fear for far too long, I finally decided to take that leap and actually write Mystical Force. Ironically I originally planned it as an anime series, or even a manga. However, having limited finances, not to mention artistic (drawing) talent, I decided it was easier to start by writing a book, those adaptations may come at a later date. The advantage of spending years writing synopses of my various stories for leisure means that I already have a vast back catalogue of material from which to draw from. That’s how I write so prolifically. I’ve written basic plot synopses (like the kind you’d find by looking up a book or movie on Wikipedia), so I just take those and modify/expand them into a full fledged manuscript.
Q2. What were the key challenges you faced while writing your book “Mystical Force: Vol. 1 Stranger in a Strange Land”?
Having never written a novella before, I was in unfamiliar waters. The hardest part was letting go of my ego when I first got back the notes from my editor. As the author, I know why my characters think and do what they do but you as the reader don’t. Thus when I get notes back asking me to better explain things/actions or pointing out basic plot holes/inconsistencies (“Why does Bob have blond hair and blue eyes in chapter 1 but dark hair and brown eyes in chapter 3?” for example). As such I had to remind myself this wasn’t criticism of my writing but my editor helping to make my story the best it was. Now I am extremely grateful for my editor Tereza who has done a fabulous job of turning my work from a rough manuscript into the book you’re enjoying right now. In fact, when I got back my notes for Mystical Force Vol.5: Shadows and Darkness, she said she was becoming emotionally invested in these characters. What greater compliment could an author receive that that?
Q3. What books or authors have most influenced your own writing?
Honestly, it’s not so much other books or authors that have influenced my writing but more movies and television. My two biggest inspirations were:
- Shinichi Sekizawa, screenwriter of many of the classic Godzilla movies (such as my personal favourite “Mothra vs. Godzilla”) for the way he turned the Toho kaiju (giant monster) genre into a genre of its own. I like the fact that he made the monsters flesh and blood characters rather than the typical plot devices/obstacles for the human characters to defeat. As someone once said “In monster movies, monsters threaten people and people resolve the problem. In Toho monster movies, people threaten people and monsters resolve the problem.” I also love how in the movies “Mothra”, “King Kong vs. Godzilla” and “Mothra vs. Godzilla” not only are the real villains of these movies people, but they tackle the theme of self destructive greed and this was decades before issues of wealth inequality became popular talking points in society.
- Star Trek. I’ve always loved how Star Trek uses sci-fi as a way to explore deeper themes of humanity such as poverty, war, racism and such. I love using my work to tackle such issues. Especially the theme of conformity vs. individuality. Are you one of the types of people who thinks for yourself or are you the type to simply blindly follow the crowd and let others do the thinking for you.
Though if I must choose a book which influenced my writing it would have to be “Conversations with God”. It was that book which confirmed what I already believed to be true, that we don’t need religion or anything/anyone else in life to tell us what to do. That fate and free will are NOT polar opposites but fate is simply God/the universe (call it whatever you like) providing us the means to choose our own destiny. But most importantly, it showed me that “Hell” is something we create ourselves by our negative thoughts and actions toward each other and ourselves. We can either surrender to fear and live our lives in misery and anger, blaming fate/others for everything bad in our lives, or we can embrace love, choose our own fate in life and live according to the principles of our higher self. Your thoughts determine your reality, so you can either dwell in negativity and see the world as a terrible hostile place, or you can be grateful for your blessing and see the wonder and beauty in life, thus you’ll no longer see life as a constant struggle for survival. This is the highest truth in life, this is what I try to convey through my writing.
Q4. What’s your favourite spot to visit in your own country? And what makes it so special to you?
The banks of the Saugeen River in Walkerton, Ontario (where my mother grew up). We used to go up there all the time to visit Oma (my grandmother). My brother and I would often go for walks beside the river. Away from the cities/towns, away from other people. Just being alone with nature, alone with my thoughts. These were the moments in my life when I truly felt at peace, when I truly felt at one with nature, with mother Earth. Moments like these bring me closer to God than the church ever did.
Q5. What inspired you to write the book ‘Mystical Force: Vol. 1 Stranger in a Strange Land’?
It was a character who will be introduced later in the series, so I don’t want to give away too many spoilers. Though if you’re specifically referring to other works like “what tv show/movie/character inspired this work?” Then I would have to say there were many. It’s one of those cases where I had the basic premise of the series kicking around in my head probably since I was in my 20’s (I’m 40 as of writing this), so I honestly can’t say I remember what exactly inspired this series; that and the fact that like any story, it evolves in the writing process. In this case, the original idea I came up with decades ago is vastly different from what the series is now.
Q6. How long did it take you to write your book ‘Mystical Force: Vol. 1 Stranger in a Strange Land’?
I believe I first started writing around October of 2019. I think I finished around the spring (April or May) of 2020. I debated writing a full fledged novel but I decided to break up the various story arcs I had come up with into various short novels or novellas and they’re called. I look at it like a TV series, each book is an episode in the series. Honestly I was so excited to publish my first book I didn’t want to wait until it was a 400 page novel. The great thing about novellas is that you can churn them out more quickly, thus readers are left waiting years for “when will the next book in the series come out?”
Q7. On what platforms can readers buy your books?
Amazon, Barnes and Nobel, Chapter/Indigo, Rakuten kobo, Smashwords, Walmart (online) just to name a few. And waaaaaaaay too many regional/local book retailers to list here. 😉
Q8. Tell us about the process of coming up with the book cover and the title ‘Mystical Force: Vol. 1 Stranger in a Strange Land’?
My publisher Tellwell has a team of great illustrators under contract. I just came up with a cover image in my mind, then wrote down in detail what the characters would look like, what they’d be doing, the mood and feelings I’d wanted to convey then gave that description over to the illustrator (in my case a wonderfully talented artist named Shen Li) who came up with the great cover that adorns my book, not to mention all my other books.
As for the title, “Mystical Force” came from my brother. Originally I called it “Mystical Three” referring to my characters Shi-ria, Mystic and the mysterious “descendant of the darkness” hinted at in the book. As the series progressed and other characters were added, the “three” part was no longer accurate, thus my brother suggested changing it to “Mystical Force”. That’s where the whole idea of “All beings radiate a life force, but some have an additional ‘Mystical Force’ – a force that grants them special gifts, be it magical essence, demonic aura or spiritual power.” came into being. It was one of those cases where changing that one little word caused all the pieces to fall into place.
Q9. When writing a book how do you keep things fresh, for both your readers and also yourself?
Honestly, I don’t think about that. I don’t really focus on such things. I just do my own thing, and let my story flow naturally and organically. I think it helps that the themes of my writing like conformity vs individuality, fate vs free will, spirituality, philosophy and exploring humans nature are ideas that stand the test of time. These are themes that people will still be debating long after we’re all dead and gone. I’d rather write something that will withstand the test of time and still be enjoyed long after my time in this world has expired, instead of just churning out something based on whatever the current trend du jour is. As my old high school English teacher Mr. Sulman once said, there’s no story out there that hasn’t already been told, but it hasn’t been told from YOUR perspective.
Q10. What is the most valuable piece of advice you’ve been given about writing?
It would have to be the words of my late Screen writing professor Michael Monty, when I studied film and television at Seneca college. He said what makes a story work are interesting characters. If you don’t have interesting or relatable characters, then no amount of action, sex, violence (or in the case of movies/TV) special effects are gonna save your story. For me, one of the problems with a lot of blockbuster movies is that it’s all about the spectacle. With CGI today, you can create action scenes, alien threats, monsters, alien worlds just as realistic as anything out there. Everyone seems to focus so much on this that the characters seem unimportant, or at the very least they’re created simply for cool stuff to happen to. Going back to earlier about how Godzilla and Star Trek influenced my writing; sure the monster may have looked like a guy in a rubber suit. The space ship may have looked like a model on a string over a ping pong ball painted to look like a planet, but what they may have lacked in special effects budget/technology they made up for in writing with their themes about the horrors of nuclear war or humanity learning to overcome our prejudices and working to better ourselves. For me, I love to go into my characters heads. I’d rather ask “What are they thinking? Why do they feel this way? Why do they do what they do? Say what they say? Believe what they believe?” That’s more important than “What kind of powers do they have? Can they fly? Can they shoot lasers from their eyes? Can they bench press a dump truck?”
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