We talk about everything from my favorite writers and the challenges of writing alternate history to my own weird writing quirks. Check it out.

Please welcome Trey Garrison to The Qwillery as part of the 2012 Debut Author Challenge Interviews. Trey’s debut novel, The Spear of Destiny, will be published in 3 e-parts starting in December 2012. A print version will follow. You may read Trey’s Guest Blog – On zombies, Nazis, robots and cowboys: Writing the book was the easy part – here.

The first part, Black Sun Reich, is out on December 18, 2012.

Click here for the full interview.

This is from the press release. You can pre-order at Amazon.com or barnesandnoble.com.

Part One: Black Sun Reich will download on Dec. 18. Talk about a perfect Christmas present.
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Action! Adventure! Steampunk!
Trey Garrison combines pulp, diesel-punk, and a horde of power-hungry zombie-making Nazis in the first of his three-part alternate history novel

Equal parts adventure, snark, diesel-punk creations, and mind-bending alternate history, Black Sun Reich is pulp novel straight out of the 1920s—except it’s not. The author describes it as “…genre-mashing alternate history Nazi zombie supernatural comedy adventure with robots, cowboys and monsters.” And that doesn’t begin to cover it.

Black Sun Reich: Part One of three in The Spear of Destiny, the first novel in a new steampunk, horror, alternate history, action-adventure comedy series set in a 1920s where the Nazis have begun their subjugation of the world using the occult, advanced science, and a holy relic with awesome powers.

And don’t miss the other parts of this serialized novel – Part Two: Death’s Head Legion and Part Three: Shadows Will Fall. All are available now for pre-order on Amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com. Part 1 will download Dec. 18, part 2 will download Jan. 2, and part 3 will download on Jan. 22. The book is being published by the Voyager imprint of Harper Collins.

Trey Garrison recaptures the unapologetic adventure, wonder and excitement of the classic pulp fiction of the 1930s and 1940s, blending elements of steampunk with deeply-researched historical fiction and a good dose of humor. The novel also explores major philosophical and moral issues relevant to our contemporary world: the trade-off between security and liberty, the morality of pre-emptive war, and what fundamentally separates good from evil.

The North American continent is made up of several rival nations, and a Cold War is building between them. The Nazis rose to power a decade earlier. People travel by airship and powerful organizations calculate with Babbage’s Difference Engine. The Nazis have hatched a plot to raise a legion of undead soldiers.

Enter Sean Fox Rucker, Jesus D’Anconia Lago, two Great War veterans and freelance pilots who are pulled into the quest. They are joined by a brash Greek merchant, a brilliant Jewish cowboy, and the woman who once broke Rucker’s heart. This ragtag band of reluctant, bickering, swashbuckling heroes soon is locked in a globe-spanning race against Nazi occultists, clockwork assassins, and a darkly charismatic commando. In a world where science and the supernatural co-exist, and the monsters of legend are as real necromancers who summon them from dark realms, our heroes alone stand before the rising darkness. But all their efforts may not be enough.

Praise for The Spear of Destiny:
“Imagine an alternate version of some of history’s great events combined with a blissfully diabolical imagination. Add a cast of rogue characters and a storytelling ability that leaves you breathless. The result is Trey Garrison’s excellent debut novel, THE SPEAR OF DESTINTY, a book full of dry humor and page-turning action, sure to leave you wanting more.”
—Harry Hunsicker, Author of The Contractors and former EVP of the Mystery Writers of America

About the Author:
Trey Garrison has been a newspaperman, a magazine writer, and a soldier of misfortune. He’s a master in the kitchen, great at the gun range, and decent at Kung Fu. THE SPEAR OF DESTINY is his debut novel. He lives in Texas.

I talk to the editors at The Qwillery about the challenges of world creation and writing alternate history. In the course of it, I out myself as a nerd.

Here’s a peek:

Describing THE SPEAR OF DESTINY was about as hard as writing it. I’m still not 100 percent sure I’ve got it down pat. Along the way, I’ve made a few mistakes. Let me explain.

The last thing I want to do is invoke the ire of steampunk purists. I love the purists in any fan base. I am one. As far as I’m concerned, there is no Star Trek outside the 23rd Century and The Empire Strikes Back was the last Star Wars movie they made. Barry Allen is still dead, zombies shamble slowly, Han shot first, and Superman wears red underwear over his blue tights.

But early on when THE SPEAR OF DESTINY was being pitched it picked up the steampunk label. I’m not sure if it was my agent or my editor. It was hard enough distilling the description down to “genre-mashing alternate history Nazi zombie supernatural comedy adventure with robots, cowboys and monsters.” (Somehow, “Indiana Jones meets Shaun of the Dead” sounded too much like a bad pitch to Griffin Mill in The Player.) I don’t know how the label got thrown in there.

Read the whole thing here: On zombies, Nazis, robots and cowboys: Writing the book was the easy part