I’ve reviewed a number of Jon Del Arroz books, reading ones as diverse as “The Stars Entwined” and the steampunk short story “Knight Training”. I recently had the honor of interviewing him after his first Nano Templar book came out.

Tamara Wilhite: Your Nano Templar book hit number one in Amazon’s Christian Futuristic Fiction category upon release. I saw it praised as yet another category where you’ve hit number one. What are all the categories you’ve been published in?

Jon Del Arroz: Amazon lets a book be in about 6 or 7 categories. So this one’s in a general military science fiction, Christian fiction, religious fiction and a couple of others. I’ve also had space opera, genetic engineering, steampunk, superhero, so I’m a bit all over the map but always in a science fiction or fantasy capacity (so far!). I was a little nervous about going into Christian fiction because it’s such a different market than my others, but it seems to be resonating more than many of my books.

Tamara Wilhite: Do you want to talk about why the Science Fiction Writers of America keeps turning you down despite all these number one books?

Jon Del Arroz:  I think there’s an element of jealousy there. They’ve set the bar so they can let in anyone they want so there’s a lot of non-professional writers masquerading as pros, who really make less than a thousand a year on their books. It’s become a political club as a result of people who wish they held power over the industry, and try to tightly control what they’ve got. They see me as a threat to it, which is sad because I’d just help them sell their books if they weren’t rude to me.

Tamara Wilhite: It looks like the third edition of Flying Sparks hit its fundraising goal on Kickstarter. How many comics have you created or helped fund to date?

Jon Del Arroz:  This is my 4th graphic novel on a crowdfunding site. I also have a single issue comic on Amazon, with about 8 more in development. Comics is moving along as a different part of my business model, with a small amount of overlapping customers but somewhat different too. I aim to produce both comics and books regularly.

Tamara Wilhite: Steampunk, super hero comics, classic science fiction. What else are you working on?

Jon Del Arroz:  A sword and sorcery secret project. I won’t say book because it’s going to be much, much more. It’s my most ambitious artistic endeavor to date.

Tamara Wilhite: Is there anything else you’d like to add?

Jon Del Arroz:  I really just want to shout out to all the great people like you Tamara, who have been around since day one, check out the books, review the books. Your word of mouth is 100% how this grows. The way we transform culture is talking about the culture we want the culture to transform to. Everyone can complain about Star Wars or Marvel all day, but that only keeps the conversation on those properties. When my books or Heinlein’s books get discussed on your blog or whatnot, changing the conversation results in longevity of different properties.

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Be sure and check out Jon’s new Nano Templar series!