Superversive stories are filled with heroes who find a way to overcome trials and triumph over evil. There’s a lot more to it than this of course.
Richard Paolinelli inherited his love of writing from his mother, but it wasn’t until he was nearly killed on a drilling rig that he decided to get serious about writing. After almost forty years of freelancing and sports writing, Richard returned to his first love, writing novels and he set up a publishing company to help indie authors publish their books.
Lyndi: You call yourself a Superversive Scribe. Can you elaborate on this for us?
Richard: Superversive writing is a mindset, and the opposite of Subversive writing which appears to be what many of the so-called “mainstream” authors in sci-fi practice. Where subversive seeks to destroy and tear down what came before, as well as approaches storytelling as everything is bad and everyone is evil, Superversive seeks to build up. Superversive says: “Yes, there is evil in the world and bad things happen, but there are good people in it that will rise up and come through when needed.”
Superversive stories are filled with heroes who find a way to overcome trials and triumph over evil. There’s a lot more to it than this of course. The best way to learn about Superversive writing, and to discover a long list of Superversive authors both past and present who have compiled a large library of Superversive works, is to go to this page on my website where I have a lot of information and links on the subject: https://scifiscribe.com/superversive-publishers-authors/
Lyndi: Before becoming an Indie author, you published with a traditional publisher. Why the change and how has that gone?
Richard: There were two events that triggered the change. When I first started out, I wanted to go the traditional route. I went through the process of finding an agent, then finding a publisher. Reservations was my first traditionally published book and it did very well. At one point it was the third highest selling book by that publisher. Then the publisher closed up shop and my agent and I decided to part ways. It was at that point I decided to make the move to Indie and I haven’t regretted that decision since.
I have more creative control over my books and I am making more money as an Indie than I ever did in the traditional path. And, I am now a co-owner of my own publishing house helping other authors get their books published.
Lyndi: You’ve published Galen’s Way as the first book in the Starquest Saga, which will have multiple authors. How do multiple authors write a cohesive saga?
Richard: John C. Wright created the Starquest universe with the intention of having multiple authors come “play in his sandbox.” His wife, Jagi, helps keep everything cohesive along with an impressive bible that John created to help guide the rest of us along as we go.
It helps that John fully established 12 different ages well into the future and in a completely different galaxy than ours. Where John’s stories (which hopefully will be out soon) will be in the 12th Age, mine are set in the 4th Age as well as in the pre-migration years before humanity is transplanted from the Milky Way to the Andromeda Galaxy. That separation makes it easier to keep from having conflicting stories within the overall Starquest universe.
It was more happenstance than planned that Galen’s Way would be the first Starquest book to be published and I hope I have helped set the stage for what should be an incredible saga.
Lyndi: What is the Writer’s Block and how did you become involved?
Richard: The Writer’s Block is a weekly internet radio show on LA Talk Radio that airs at 6 p.m. Pacific time on Thursday. We have an author on to not only talk about their book, but to also talk about their writing process as well.
I was a guest back in 2016 and found out that the host of the show, Jim Christina, lived in the same city as I did. I wound up coming back on as a last-second replacement guest and then as a fill-in co-host a couple of times before becoming a regular co-host back in 2017.
Lyndi: You mention that this year is about balance for you. What does this year’s goal of balance between work, family, and fun look like?
Richard: Well, this year is not making that goal easy to achieve to be honest. But I am starting to get everything arranged to where I think I will have it as close as humanly possible by this spring. The stress levels are already lower even though things have still been a little crazy, so I thing in the long term this is going to work out very well.
It is something that I would recommend to every author, even the ones just getting started. Don’t lose that balance and let writing consume you to the point where you miss out on a lot of other great things life has to offer.
Lyndi: After ditching Twitter and deciding that Facebook is not the place to market books, you’ve taken to TikTok. In what ways have you used this platform to market your books and have you found other marketing methods effective?
Richard: I’m still working out the kinks when it comes to TikTok so I don’t think I’ve found my stride on that platform yet. But I’ve found that having my blog and a mailing list is proving to be one of the better ways to market my books right now and I have been focusing on building up my subscribers there.
Richard began his writing journey as a freelance writer in 1984 and gained his first fiction credit serving as the lead writer for the first two issues of the Elite Comics sci-fi/fantasy series, Seadragon. In 2010, Richard retired as a sportswriter and returned to his fiction writing roots. Since then he has written several award-winning novels, two non-fiction sports books, and has appeared in over 20 anthologies including eight of the 11-book Tuscany Bay Books’ Planetary Anthology Series and five Sherlock Holmes collections. He also blogs on his website, www.scifiscribe.com. He has written a Star Trek fan fiction, The Calling, which he plans to revisit with a sequel soon and is also planning a Hogan’s Heroes fan fiction story which will be posted free to his website when completed.
He has published multiple novels including, Galen’s Way, a space opera set in award-winning author John C. Wright’s Starquest Universe. Galen’s Way is the first of six novels connected to Starquest that Richard will be writing and releasing over the next two years, including Galen’s Blade on April 29th. He also has three other standalone novels.
He is also a regular co-host on The Writer’s Block on LA Talk Radio and has a podcast, In The Superversive Spotlight.
