Today, we welcome Fushigi! He’s releasing a new novel today, called Substitute Hero. It’s an otherworld fantasy, so if you like isekai stories with knights, magic, and heroes, you can check out the first 20 chapters here!
Grandia sat down with him for an interview about his newest release!
********************
Welcome Fushigi! So, how did you find Creative Novels?
A couple novels I follow online are posted here. One of them, “I didn’t want to reincarnate”, is an original, so when I was looking for a good site for my work, I looked at CrN and liked the quality of the other writing here as well, so I decided this was the place for me.
Thank you for joining us! Now to the fun bits! Tell us about Substitute Hero. What will we see in this novel?
The first thing to understand is, this novel initially came into existence simply as a writing exercise, and I started out purposefully hitting clichés, so the first thing you see is Truck-san. Anyone who reads Japanese otherworld fantasies is very familiar with this omnipresent character. To anyone who is tired of Truck-san, please forgive me. I promise I won’t do it again…
Ooh, starting off with a well loved (or hated…) cliche! What’s the update schedule for this novel?
Twice a week is the plan. I could back off on it after the first volume or so, but I’ll definitely keep up twice a week at least through chapter fifty.
Yay! Lot of reading every week then! What’s your favorite thing about this novel?
The fact that I immediately veered off the standard pattern after setting it up. I’m writing a novel that refuses to stay on genre. It starts out a summoned hero story, and immediately starts trying to turn into a school fantasy, a romance, back to heroic ventures, back to slice of life…
Hmm, twisty-turny! I like it! Do you have a favorite character? Or one that you identify with?
Definitely the Manager of the After Life’s Hero Relocation (HR) Department. She hasn’t received anywhere near enough print so far, and I’m looking to get her into the later chapters more.
Now that sounds like an interesting department! I’d love to work there, haha. What inspired the idea for your novel?
I have for the last several years been unable to write thanks to my health. I had advanced liver disease, and one of the things that liver disease does is cause something called “encephalopathy.” It’s a cool name for ‘can’t concentrate, can’t stay awake.’ Chemical imbalances in my blood were robbing me of my lifelong writing hobby, not to mention my ability to do my job.
I received a liver transplant in December, which did three things for me. First, it saved my life, because I probably had only a year or so left before my old liver died. Second, it inspired a cool story (which I am still developing but I intend to write some day.) Third, it returned to me my ability to actually sit down and crank out words.
So, to get into the writing habit again, instead of working on existing material that I would have to re-read and get back into, I just started writing something fun. As I mentioned, it was only intended originally as a writing exercise, but the novel went well enough, I found that I had more than thirty chapters finished already and I liked how the story was progressing, so I decided to look for somewhere to publish it.
Oh my gosh! That sounds like an unlooked for adventure in and of itself. I’m glad you’re here with us and able to share your story.
You’re an author, so I’d love to see how you’d finish this sentence: When I looked up, the night sky was full of stars but no moon, and I knew…
Moon-theft crimes were clearly on the rise this month.
Haha, that’s great. I think that’s my favorite ending yet! Thanks so much for talking with me! Is there anything you’d like to say to your readers?
You haven’t seen the last of me! BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA
…pfft. Now there’s a joke to round us all off! Now for the serious part.
Seriously, I have more novels coming, and I hope I can entertain y’all with them. I’ll do my best!
Ooh, can’t wait! Anyways, I hope you learned a little bit about our new author after this, readers. Please do check out Substitute Hero here!