1) Tell us a little bit about yourself. How did you get into writing?
My fourth grade teacher, Roger, loved to give his students creative writing assignments. Every few weeks or so, we’d write new stories and take turns reading them aloud to the class. The day I decided I would get into writing, I had just finished reading my latest story. As we were dismissed for recess, Roger took me aside. I don’t remember everything he said to me, but I do remember one sentence: “If you don’t grow up to be a writer, I’m gonna kick your ass.”
It was exactly the sort of blunt, irreverent, vaguely threatening advice my younger self needed. I was a bright kid—reading and numbers came easily to me—but those assignments were abstract tasks, always given within the context of school. I did them because they were given to me to do. With Roger’s words, writing assignments took on new importance. If I did them well enough, and got better, maybe it could be my job. I could write books just like the ones I read, making people fall in love, as I had, with characters from distant, fantastical lands. I took writing more seriously after that.
Roger’s expectations stayed with me all the way through college; I left school with degrees in literary arts and writing for performance, as well as a contract to complete six young adult novels. That was the start of my writing career, and I’m determined to keep at it! Not only is it fun and freeing, I also get to stave off my perpetual fear of Roger showing up and kicking my ass if I give up.
2) What inspired you to write your book?
I’ll be honest—my coauthor Paul and I are big Star Wars fans. When we first decided to write a book together, the Star Wars sequel trilogy was coming out, and a lot of our conversations ended up revolving around Star Wars as a result. All of those discussions generated a lot of ideas: characters and worlds it might have been fun to see, alternate ways that plot points could have played out, themes that went under-explored, etc. After a certain point, we realized we had enough original ideas to write our own book.
By virtue of this, Weapons of the Mind shares a lot of DNA with Star Wars. In some places, we haven’t even been that subtle about it. But the story, characters, and world of Weapons are all us, and it’s going somewhere truly special. There are some scenes that haven’t been written yet that I am vibrating with excitement to talk about.
3) What theme or message do you hope readers will take away from your book?
Weapons of the Mind is the first book in a planned trilogy, which was conceived as a single connected story. Therefore, it’s difficult to answer this question without revealing too much about what the next two books have in store for Tala and her crew.
I can say that symbolic death and rebirth are at the heart of Weapons of the Mind. When you lose everything, how do you move forward? What do you build to occupy the space left by your former life? Every major character in Weapons of the Mind has at some point been confronted with these questions, and their answers are key to who they have (or will) become. For any reader going through hard times, unsure what lies ahead, I hope they come away with this: No matter how far or hard you fall, you can always get back up.
4) What drew you into this particular genre?
I grew up on science fiction and fantasy, and those genres remain my favorites to this day. When you read a genre enough, you get a feel for the narrative conventions, a sort of instinct that helps the plot unfold in front of you. Ideas tied to science fiction and fantasy come more readily, and in brighter colors. My first series, The Big Bet, was far more grounded in the real world than I’m generally comfortable with, and so I was ready for my next project to explore new, uncharted horizons.
5) If you could sit down with any character in your book, what would you ask them and why?
I would ask Tala to Enhance me*! Perhaps this is a copout of an answer, but I’m so curious as to how it would feel. Paul and I wrote Enhancement as a rush: a heady, exuberant feeling that I would love to try. I’d also like to try eating a meal with Enhanced tastebuds, et cetera. It would be a once-in-a-lifetime, unforgettable experience.
*For those unfamiliar: Enhancers like Tala can channel energy into themselves or others, increasing specific targeted attributes.
For a less selfish answer, I’d love to pick Arcus’s brain about the largest problems facing our society. I likely wouldn’t have the stomach for his solutions—he’s ruthless, even cruel, in pursuit of his goals. But he’s very good at comprehending problems in their totality, and seeing him work through issues like climate change, artificial intelligence, and microplastic contamination would be fascinating in and of itself. And maybe I’d get lucky and he’d give me answers that didn’t involve any murder!
…Maybe I’d just ask Quarack how to play krukki.
6) What social media site has been the most helpful in developing your readership?
I have not engaged much with social media. I find it tiresome. Yet, these days, it’s more important than ever to reach your audience. I’m almost certainly handicapping my book by not being more active on social media sites, but I’m hoping a combination of advertising, community engagement (local and online), and positive word of mouth will be enough to overcome that disadvantage.
On the other hand, social media platforms are increasingly overrun with bots and ads, and AI seems poised to exacerbate this trend. Combine that with new studies on the detrimental effects of social media, and it seems possible that they will play less of a centralizing role in a book’s success. If that happens, I hope their replacement is something I find more pleasant.
7) What advice would you give to aspiring or just starting authors out there?
Write!
It seems simple, but that really is the most important step, and it’s a step that a lot of hopeful writers never take. There is no substitute for putting words on a page. They don’t have to be good words. In fact, it’s almost guaranteed they won’t be. But the worst case scenario is, you toss them out and try again. More likely, you have a foundation that you can revise. It is so much easier to start from something than to start from nothing, so give yourself that something. The more you write, the more you’ll develop your voice, and the easier it will be to write more.
If you don’t have time, get inventive. Write on your lunch break. Dictate sentences on your commute. Don’t worry about being profound or changing the world. Just write, and the rest will take care of itself.
8) What does the future hold in store for you? Any new books/projects on the horizon?
Fans of Shakespeare will want to check out Midsummer Night, available soon on my website! A new spin on an age-old story, Midsummer Night seamlessly melds William Shakespeare’s timeless writing with original, Elizabethan-style prose. In this reimagining of the Bard’s most beloved comedy, responsibility, agency, and trust take center stage—and mortals and fairies alike must earn their happy endings.
Fans of Fire Emblem should look up Anna’s Roundtable, a board game true to the beloved video game series. This love letter to the Fire Emblem franchise plays brilliantly (and is absolutely gorgeous). I was asked to lead design for the expansion, and preorders open soon!
Paul and I are hard at work on the Weapons of the Mind sequel. While we can’t share many details about it yet, it’s shaping up to be an amazing second installment that will push Tala further than ever before, introduce some memorable new characters, and answer some of the burning questions left over from book 1. Also in the Weapons-verse, we’re planning to release a novella that gives readers a look at a very different part of the galaxy. How does it tie in with the Weapons storyline? You’ll have to wait and see…
In my spare time between projects, I try to make progress on a very long fantasy epic that draws a lot of inspiration from stories of King Arthur while exploring a rough approximation of the current political landscape. It’s meant to be a look at how kingdoms fall, not through invasion or any external force, but by the efforts of bad actors, the friction of petty grievances, and the failures of a system beyond the power of any lone individual to change. This one will take a very long time, but I’m very pleased with it so far and I think it will be worth the wait.
About the Author
Owen B Greenwald is the award-winning author of the Big Bet series and of Weapons Of The Mind, set for release in November 2023 from Will Dreamly Arts Publishing. He is also the lead designer for the board game Anna’s Roundtable. He lives in Santa Clara, CA with his wife Jenna and his dog Kubo. He is an ardent believer in the power of stories to enrich and transform lives.
Despite the incoming glut of AI-generated entertainment, Owen plans to keep writing.
