Steven Boyett on Fata Morgana, his new WWII/alt-history mashup novel

Today on John Scalzi's Whatever blog, Steven R Boyett (author of the classic fantasy novel Ariel) writes about Fata Morgana, the new alternate history/WWII novel he's just published with Ken Mitchroney.


Fata Morgana has all the tight plotting and vivid action we'd expect from a Boyett novel, with lots of chewy historic detail thrown in for good measure.

(They're appearing all around southern California this week)


Our novel Fata Morgana is basically a mashup. It's an intensively researched WWII historical novel about a B-17 Flying Fortress crew on a harrowing mission over Germany in 1943. It's also a post-apocalyptic fish-out-of-water story, in the tradition of A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court or The Time Machine. That fusion of sensibilities caused our agent to market it as "Band of Brothers meets Lost Horizon" — a bit marketspeak, but totally fair.

Ken is primarily a movie guy. He's been a storyboarder, head of story departments, and director for Hollywood studios for decades. He's a cartoonist and animator, published & illustrated comic books (Space Ark, Myth Conceptions, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Ren & Stimpy), raced NASCAR modified sportsman cars, and rebuilt and run locomotives. He pinstripes cars and did artwork with Ed "Big Daddy" Roth, of Rat Fink fame. The Baltimore Orioles wore his artwork. He's the voice of Zurg on the Toy Story ride.

He's also weirdly steeped in Forties American culture: swing music, movies, slang, fashion, cars – and B-17 bombers. Ken is an Old Soul. You talk to him and you realize he's been around before. He's the single funniest guy I've ever met.

I write fiction. I've published books almost literally since I was a kid. I'm a lifelong martial artist. I once made a living as a paper marbler. Through a fairly strange series of events, learning overtone singing led me to playing the didgeridoo, to recording electronic music, to being a club DJ with two very popular music podcasts (Podrunner and Groovelectric). As a DJ I'm enamored of the mashup, and as a writer I'm enamored of the idea of putting music into words. Music has had a huge influence on my writing – the rhythm of the prose, the symphonic structure of a larger work, sometimes the subject matter itself. My fiction is often steeped in postapocalyptic imagery, what Salvador Dalí and Tears for Fears called "the beauty of decay." Road trips are a big theme with me. Imagine Jack Kerouac writing The Lord of the Rings.


The Big Idea: Steven R. Boyett
[Whatever]