Bonding with Role Playing Games with Your Kids: Author Interview with Mark Hanson

I was intrigued in seeing you created a board game with two other family members. Who first suggested the idea? How did you develop it? 
Yeah, while my two sons were in their mid-teens, they started bugging me about playing Dungeons and Dragons. I’d grown up playing with my friends, but I hadn’t played for years. I had some personal concerns with the game, and some issues with the actual game mechanics, so we started developing our own role-playing game system. That turned into The Hero’s Tale. We’ve been playing in our family, now, for over 10 years.

Really, I’m convinced that a regular RPG session with your kids is great parenting! Not only is it wonderful bonding as you’re creating characters and stories with your kids, but you can actually set up situations in-game where they’re learning life skills, like choice and accountability, teamwork, problem solving, etc...

Is the board game available for sale or only the books?
It’s available at Amazon as shown in the link at the end.

Your books in the Tale of Heroes series are based on that game. What made you decide to add books to the game?
I’d been blogging and writing non-fiction (outdoor cookbooks) for years, and my son said I should write fiction. He’d been doing it for a long time, and doing a pretty good job, too. I had studied creative writing when I was in college, back in the Jurassic, but I hadn’t done much fiction. I wasn’t very confident in my ability to develop characters and shape story arcs. Finally, he got to me and I decided to start a fiction blog.

I took the sample characters from the rule book of the game, set them in the fantasy world of the game (named “Wynne”) and started writing. I posted two scenes a week, and just kept going. It’s yielded three full novels so far, and a fourth on the way.

How did you go about finding an illustrator? 
Finding illustrators was tough, because I had no money, and I believe in paying people for their work. I did a lot of the interior illustrations myself (both for the rule book and the novels). The covers have all been done by my daughter-in-law. She’s an art school grad and an incredible illustrator.

Now let's jump to your series on bread baking. What made you decide to write these?
So, my first foray into the publishing world was my line of Dutch oven cookbooks. I had been blogging about it for a number of years, when a local publisher approached me and asked to do some cookbooks. That was so exciting. We ended up doing 7 books over the course of the next few years. I learned a lot!

The bread book, in particular, is one I’m quite proud of. It took me three years of research to get to the point where I was confident enough in my Dutch oven baking to write that book. I had to learn a lot about breads in general, and then to perfect baking bread in a Dutch oven on charcoal heat. It was a challenge, to be sure.

What was the hardest part of putting together your books ?
In the fiction series, A Tale of Heroes, the hardest thing has been keeping up the diligence and the focus to just GET IT DONE. That was one thing that having the rigid schedule of the blog posts did for me. It kept me writing... That, and marketing. I’m really bad at that. At least on a large scale.

Did you design the full book, or did you have assistance with formatting, cover design, etc? 
Yeah, I pretty much did it all. Not by choice, though.

With the cookbooks, the publisher did it all. But for the game and my fiction, I’ve had to do everything. Having a professional illustrator in the family helps. She does the cover images, but I’ve done the text layouts of the covers. I’ve done the interior layout and all that.

I don’t think that’s a good thing. I wish I could afford to pay someone to do all of that. It would be so much better. I only pretend to know what I’m doing. That’s one of the difficulties of self-publishing, really. It’s all on your shoulders. You have to either pay someone to do it or do it yourself, and you can’t be professional at EVERYTHING, right?

What’s the best encouragement you’ve had from readers?
There are a few fans  whom I’ve been able to really talk to about the characters and the stories. We’ve gotten into some deep conversations about Thissraelle and Granthurg and why we all hate Tonklyn. Those kinds of discussions fuel me. I get to see what I had intended is actually getting across. It’s quite a thrill. I also get a rush from reading new comments on Amazon from people that I don’t know. It’s a cool feeling. 

That, and the constant encouragement from my son. He just finished his first novel, and it’s now live on Amazon and Audible, too.

Marketing is the biggest key to getting sales. What is the best marketing source you've used that has produces more sales rather than just clicks?
I’ve found a lot of success in more face-to-face ways. I’ve been doing lots of cons and markets, like farmer’s markets and game conventions. I’m not doing very well in just pure internet sales. Actually, our audio books are doing marginally well. My reader is really good, and he’s an active promoter as well.

I just find that when someone walks by my display and we strike up a conversation that’s the best possible way to share a book.

What is the best writing advice you’ve received or could give?
There are lots of things I could say here. The obvious one is to just keep writing, and to not stop as long as you feel you have stories to tell.

Another thought: it’s easy to get caught up in the effort to make your work GREAT. That’s a good thing, usually, because it keeps you learning and growing. But it can also freeze you up. If you never share your stories because you don’t think they’re “great”, then you’re just hiding your light under a bushel, right? It’s a risk to share, but ultimately, in any art form, you’re trying to communicate, and if nobody else ever receives it, you won’t be communicating, will you?

So, my advice is to get it out there. Post scenes on a blog. Participate in a workshopping group. Do an open mic reading. Make a YouTube vid.

What is the next book coming out (or tell me about the current one)? Can you give me some details?
Book Four of A Tale of Heroes, Of Gods and Dragons is just under half finished. I’m very excited about it, and I feel like it’s some of my best writing everrrr. As I look at my plot outline and what’s coming on in the story, I just get thrilled. In books 1-3, there’s a villain named Tonklyn, and Book 4 is essentially his redemption arc.

Book Three, the one that’s currently available, Of Dragons and Kings has been out for almost a year, and I’m quite proud of it as well. That’s about a young elven wizard who has to learn to control his magic while dragons are ruining the kingdom.

That's all for today's interview. If you'd like to learn more about Mark's writing, here are some links to get you started. 

Fiction Blog: https://ataleofheroes.com/
Games and books:https://mrkhmusic.wixsite.com/windmill-crusaders
Dutch oven cooking blog: http://www.marksblackpot.com/

Amazon Author page: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Mark-Hansen/author/B006T9ZEW0

And here's a bonus for my readers...Leave a comment here with your name, saying you want to win a book. Next Tuesday, we'll choose one winner from the comments. The winner will have a choice of either a print or eBook of A Tale of Heroes, Book 1: Of Children and Dragons. So what are you waiting for, leave a comment now!