Hello and welcome to this Rapid Fire author interview here on Track of Words, where today I’m welcoming Jonathan D. Beer to the site to chat about his debut novel – The King of the Spoil, out now from Black Library. The latest novel in BL’s Warhammer Crime range, I was lucky enough to get an advance copy of The King of the Spoil and very much enjoyed it, so I’m delighted that Jonathan was up for talking more about the book. Whether you’re a hardened 40k veteran or this is your first step into the world of Warhammer Crime, read on to find out more about what you can expect from The King of the Spoil, its characters and locations, Jonathan’s writing process, and loads more.
Without further ado then, let’s get straight to it.
Track of Words: First of all, congratulations on your debut novel! To start us off, could you tell us a bit about The King of the Spoil and what readers can expect from it?
Jonathan D. Beer: Thank you! The King of the Spoil covers the events of a few hectic, violent days for the Spoil and the surrounding districts of Varangantua. The Spoil is a blighted region of the city, abandoned by its lords and left to fall into ruin. The man who holds the patchwork of gangland territories together under some semblance of order, Andreti Sorokin, is rather brutally murdered at the outset. The chaos that is unleashed by his death threaten to spill the banks of the Spoil into the surrounding districts, and so Melita Voronova is tasked by her cartel masters with uncovering who killed Sorokin, and the motives behind his death.
The novel covers a fairly broad range of perspectives, and is less of a “whodunnit” and more of a “whydunnit”. I set out to explore some of the essential tensions and lines of connection and exploitation inherent to Varangantua, while keeping the characters and threats firmly rooted in the feel of Warhammer 40,000. Hopefully fans of the Warhammer Crime novels and short stories will enjoy my dive into this particular corner of the city.
If you are new to the mean streets of Varangantua, I hope that The King of the Spoil is an accessible and engaging entry point. You need not be familiar with Alecto and its continent-spanning city to pick up Melita’s story, and those of the other characters whose lives will be forever altered by the death of the King of the Spoil.
ToW: Without spoiling anything, who are the main characters and what do we need to know about them?
JDB: There are two central perspectives through which we see the novel unfold – Melita Voronova, an info-broker drawn against her will into the service of an all-powerful merchant-combine cartel, and Haska Jovanic, a teenaged ganger caught up in the violence that overtakes the Spoil.
Melita is a troubled young woman. Convinced of her own intelligence, she resents the controlling hand of the Valtteri cartel on her life and affairs and their disrespect for her skills. What is more, the travails of her life have led her to drug abuse. But Melita is unwilling to face up to the reality of her addiction, driving a wedge between Melita and her ex-enforcer bodyguard, Edi Kamensk.
Through Haska’s eyes we see what life is like for the denizens of the Spoil, and the immediate consequences of Sorokin’s death for those who live in his domain. Haska is, I think, the more sympathetic of the two leads – born into a world that values neither her life or her death, and with no apparent way to escape the crushing poverty and brutal violence of the Spoil.
ToW: You’ve previously written a couple of short stories featuring Melita – what is it about this character that drew you back and inspired you to write a full novel about her?
JDB: Melita is an interesting character to write. She’s more than a little conceited; she has a high regard for her own abilities, and resents just about everyone and everything for failing to recognise and respect them. Of course, her backstory puts this bitterness in a different light, and her substance abuse only complicates her already precarious state. This was something I particularly felt I had to get right – I didn’t want Melita’s drug problem to be a cheap trope or throwaway line.
Her role as an info-broker makes her a useful character, as it places her at the intersection of many worlds. Plus, her particular skillset as a data-knife allows for some novel (I hope) perspectives on action and investigation.
ToW: What were your inspirations for the Spoil, as a sector of Varangantua in which to set this story?
JDB: I learnt early on when I was planning Old Instincts, my first short story for Black Library [featured in Broken City – ToW], that travel between districts in Varangantua is heavily restricted, and that in many cases the borders are heavily guarded. Immediately, I knew I wanted to explore where these boundaries met, and the different ways the city’s restrictions could be circumvented. Placing the Spoil outside of the control of the city authorities made complete sense to me; a lawless (or, at least, Lex-less) zone that people on all sides exploit to their advantage, regardless of the lives lived by those within it.
In terms of real-world references, I leant heavily on instances of high-density urban sprawl and the conditions that can often arise around them. Places like the infamous Le Vele in Naples, the Piggeries in Liverpool, and Kowloon Walled City in Hong Kong were big inspirations, along with images of late Victorian dockyards and tenements.
ToW: While you do have a detective character, this takes a different approach to the usual investigator-driven crime story. What was your thinking behind exploring a sort of criminal underworld power struggle, with the Valtteri cartel and the Har Dhrol?
JDB: I knew when I first started writing Warhammer Crime stories that I didn’t want to focus on probator characters, or at least not centre my stories on them. For one thing, those perspectives are already being told with superlative ability. I wanted to explore other lives and experiences within the city. Those who live outside and beneath the Lex, rather than enforcing it.
The clash between the Valtteri and the Har Dhrol seemed a natural way to do this. Both organisations exist outside the law but in drastically different ways, and both enforce their own forms of authority on the world. And both Melita and Haska’s perspectives let me explore the tensions between them, and with the city within which they both exist and interact.
ToW: While researching and writing about cartels and criminal gangs, were there any moments when you thought “I’m definitely going on a list somewhere for this internet search”?
JDB: I like to think (or hope!) that GCHQ and the other snooping agencies have a special category labelled “Probably an author, but keep an eye on them”.
This gives me an opportunity to mention the work of Roberto Saviano, whose book Gomorrah I read while plotting out The King of the Spoil. Saviano lifted the lid on organised crime in Italy, and as a consequence has lived under constant police protection for almost twenty years. While it feels crass to say that his experiences of very real crime influenced my story, they absolutely did, and I felt the obligation to portray my fictional characters and setting with as much authenticity as I could.
ToW: You’ve had a few short stories released already, but how does it feel to now see your debut novel about to hit the shelves?
JDB: Incredible. I’ve wanted to be a writer for as long as I can remember, and I’ve wanted to write for Warhammer ever since I first encountered the 41st millennium. I feel extraordinarily lucky to have been given the chance to start my writing for Black Library in the Warhammer Crime range – as you might expect, it’s easier to get into the headspace of a tormented info-broker or an angst-ridden ganger than it is a seven foot tall post-human warrior! I hope I manage to do justice to both Varangantua and to the entire Warhammer 40,000 canon with my contributions.
ToW: Could you give us an overview of your general writing process?
JDB: My writing process should only be viewed as a cautionary tale to others!
It will seem obvious to most people, but writing a short story and a novel are very different experiences. One is a sprint, and the other a marathon. I’m very fortunate that I can compress my day-job into four long days, giving me Friday, Saturday and Sunday to write. Despite this, I’ve found through painful trial and error that it is easy to overestimate how much I can write in a single day, and adjusting my plan around this was harder than I expected.
I also have to repeat a pearl of wisdom I learnt from Gav Thorpe (whose Patreon you should definitely join if you want to benefit from a vast store of writerly knowledge and advice). Writing is as much about thinking about your story as it is actually putting words on the page, and just as necessary. Having a store of little moments – snatches of dialogue, ideas for scenes and character beats – that sit and percolate in your head is incredibly important. Otherwise, when you sit down at the keyboard you’ll find yourself drawing from an empty well.
ToW: From a writing craft perspective, is there anything in particular that you learned during the process of working on this novel?
JDB: It turns out I’m more of a pantser than I had ever imagined! Before I started writing for Black Library, I could spend weeks plotting out the scenes of a short story, but with a deadline looming you just don’t have that kind of time. Obviously, I had to plan out each chapter, but it turns out I can spin an entire scene out of one or two lines of an outline. That was a pleasing and unexpected revelation!
And, of course, it’s hard work. I’ll go into this in more depth in an upcoming guest post that you have been kind enough to let me write [Keep an eye out for this in due course – ToW], but for now it will suffice to say that wanting to do something your entire life does not necessarily prepare you when the opportunity comes along to actually do it.
ToW: This is billed as ‘A Melita Voronova Novel’, and you’ve already written a couple of short stories from Melita’s perspective. Do you have any plans to continue this story and write more about these characters?
JDB: If there is interest, certainly! There are several characters, both big and small, I would love to return to. Melita’s journey is far from over, and writing Probator Mattix is great fun. I hope to also pick up the thread of other characters I’ve introduced along the way. I suppose it all depends on whether readers enjoy The King of the Spoil!
ToW: To finish off, if you lived in Varangantua and had to choose between working for the Valtteri cartel or the Har Dhrol, which would you go for and why?
JDB: To be a minion of an all-powerful merchant-combine cartel that has no issue with using violence to further its agenda, or a ganger locked in a constant cycle of violence and reprisal within the poverty-ridden streets of an abandoned district?
As much as I hate to admit it, I think I’d have to go with the Valtteri. I’d be selling my soul to the corporate machine, but in Varangantua that’s a small price to pay for a steady income. Plus, the chances of ending up on the wrong end of an auto-pistol would be slightly lower.
***
Jonathan D. Beer is a science fiction and alternative history writer. Equally obsessed with the 19th century and the 41st millennium, he lives with his wife and assorted cats in the untamed wilderness of Edinburgh, Scotland. His Warhammer Crime stories include Old Instincts, Service and Chains, and the novel The King of the Spoil.
Find out more at Jonathan’s website.
***
Huge thanks to Jonathan for chatting to me for this interview, and for taking the time to write these great, thoughtful answers! If you haven’t already, definitely check out my review of The King of the Spoil, and then make sure you grab your copy for another great Warhammer Crime novel.
See also: Warhammer Crime – The Range So Far
The King of the Spoil is available to order now – check out the links below to order your copy*:
If you enjoyed this interview and would like to support Track of Words, you can leave a tip on my Ko-Fi page.
*If you buy anything using one of these links, I will receive a small affiliate commission – see here for more details.
Great interview! I’d like to know how Jonathan got his start at BL and his writer’s journey so far.