Jak Koke is a freelance novelist and short story writer. His works for FASA include Dead Air and Stranger Souls. His current Shadowrun novel is Clockwork Asylum.

TSS: First, the important question. How did you get involved with FASA?

Koke: This is a long story, though I'll try to make it relatively short.

A few years back, I wrote part of a supplement for Steve Jackson Games — an adventure called "Jericho Blackout" in GURPS: Cyberpunk Adventures. There's a whole sordid story behind the writing of that as well, but I won't go into it now.

I was writing a lot of short stories at the time, and had sold one or two to genre magazines. "Jericho Blackout" was based on a short story that Jonathan Bond and I co-authored. When the supplement was published I showed it off at my writer's workshop — The Pulphouse Gang group in Eugene Oregon. We had a lot of publishing writers: Dean Smith, Kris Rusch, Nina Hoffman, Jerry Oltion, and others.

After the workshop, this guy comes up to me. I didn't know him, really, except his name was Greg and he drove down from Portland every other week for the workshop. He introduced himself and said that he hadn't known that I did game supplements. He said that he was a game designer and that he was currently designing a fantasy role-playing game.

We talked about role-playing and fiction writing and generally hit it off.

A month or two went by before anything else of significance happened. I kept writing short stories and kept sending them out. It's a tough lot, trying to break into the fiction writing business. I made a few sales and had a lot of rejections. I have over three hundred now.

Anyhow, back to the story ... Writer's workshop a month later, Greg announces that he is working for a game company, designing this very cool fantasy game, and that the company needs good writers to submit novel proposals. Talk to him after the workshop if interested.

He was mobbed.

I got the guidelines from him. All proposals were to go through him, the company was FASA, the universes were Battletech and Shadowrun. The FRP he was designing was Earthdawn, but FASA didn't want any proposals for Earthdawn novels at that time.

I started thinking about ideas for novels.

Two weeks later, Greg talks to me after the workshop. FASA has a problem. They have to produce five Earthdawn novels to give to Roc. Chris Kubasik is writing the first three, Greg is cranking out the fourth, and the fifth is a braided anthology featuring six stories. They only have five writers: Lou Prosperi, Tom Dowd, Chris Kubasik, Scott Jenkins, and my friend, Greg Gorden. They need a sixth writer — someone who can learn the rules of the Earthdawn universe quickly and submit a proposal for the story. Would I be interested?

Don't have to ask me twice. I wrote the proposal for what became "Coiled in Dark Amber" — my story in the Talisman anthology. Sam Lewis who was then president of FASA, liked the proposal. He sent me a contract and I wrote the story. It was published in Earthdawn: Talisman in 1994.

That's how I first wrote for FASA, but the story doesn't really end there. After they bought "Coiled in Dark Amber," I submitted seven (count them) SEVEN novel proposals — four Shadowrun and three Earthdawn — before I got a response on one.

Donna Ippolito, the editor of the novels, contacted me and asked me to write a detailed outline and several chapters based on the proposal I sent in for Liferock, an Earthdawn novel which chronicles the story of a young obsidimen and his quest to save his liferock (and his entire Brotherhood) from annihilation.

I wrote these chapters and the outline, and made the sale. The book is written now, awaiting publication. It's really a very cool book. I'll talk more on it later.

After Liferock, I switched to Shadowrun exclusively, mainly because FASA quit buying Earthdawn novels. I wanted to write a Shadowrun book anyway, but I still liked the Earthdawn universe. Still do.

I came up with the plot for Dead Air based on a short story that Jonathan Bond and I wrote in collaboration. You can read the original short story from my web page. Jonathan and I have written over forty stories and about one and half novels together.

Anyhow, Donna liked Dead Air and took me seriously when I suggested writing a trilogy about some "big events" that would give movement to the Shadowrun universe. She passed my desire to participate in these sorts of discussions along to Mike Mulvihill, and he invited me out to Chicago for the series of meetings which spawned the ideas for the election, the assassination, etc. Steve Kenson and Paul Hume were the other non-FASA people at these meetings.

After that, I began to work on the "uber" plot of my trilogy and how it tied in with the other events. Mike Mulvihill and Steve Kenson and Jordan Weisman were all intricately involved in this plotting. Together we refined the entire sequence of events from Super Tuesday through Portfolio of a Dragon and ending with the last book of my trilogy, Beyond the Pale. Steve wrote the majority of the key game products while I worked on my novels. Mike, meanwhile, was busy coordinating and setting up clues to the big events.

All in all, a very exciting time to be associated with Shadowrun.

I hope that answers your question. <smile>

TSS: Tell us a little about yourself, if you would. Where do you live, how old you are, that sort of thing.

Koke: I am 33 years old. My name, while spelled Jak, is pronounced exactly like Jack. My parents decided that it would be cool to change the spelling because my initials are JAK. I think it's cool now, too, but when I was in grade school, I caught mega-doses of crap for it. Oh well ...

I'm married to a wonderful woman who is a Ph.D. candidate at Scripps Institution of Oceanography in the Marine Biology department. She does research on a bacterial symbiont of a marine invertebrate which produces a chemical called Bryostatin. Bryostatin has been effective against leukemia.

We have a four-year-old daughter, and we live in La Jolla. It sounds ritzy — La Jolla is the rich part of the San Diego area — but it's not. We live in married and graduate student housing. It's nice, but not fancy, and it's surrounded by condos, million-dollar mansions and streets filled with Lexuses (Lexi), BMWs and Mercedes.

We drive a Honda.

It is very nice here. Close to the beach, lots of sunshine, but not hot. Average temp is 70, and it's never been below 58 or above 88 in the nearly four years we've been here.

Eventually, we'd like to move back to the Pacific Northwest. We miss the mountains and the green and the forests and, yes, even the rain. The main thing we miss is the scarcity of population. It's hard to get away here, sandwiched between L.A. and Mexico with 8 million other people.

TSS: What else have you written that we should keep an eye out for?

Koke: My full bibliography is listed on my web page. My novels are Dead Air, Stranger Souls, Clockwork Asylum, Beyond the Pale, and Liferock. All of them are in print except for Beyond the Pale which is due in February or March of 1998 and Liferock which is due at some unknown future date.

I've also had several short stories published, some written solo, some in collaboration with Jonathan Bond. My first sale was a cyberpunk novella called "Deadwise" — one of the collaborations. It ended up in Amazing Stories with full color art. Way cool for a short story. I've also sold horror and fantasy.

Almost none of my stories are available in print anymore, but I have put some of the up on my website. "Coiled in Dark Amber" can be found in Earthdawn: Talisman edited by Sam Lewis. It is still available through FASA, Amazon.com or any bookstore can order it. There is a horror piece called "Pieces of Prison" which was published in Young Blood (edited by Mike Baker) that might be available. The others will be hard to find. Perhaps I'll eventually make it big enough to have them anthologized, but I'm not holding my breath.

I do have a current short story out in a great little 'zine called Talebones. The story is called "Cadillac Truth" and was just published. It was written as a tribute to the brilliant short fiction of Harlan Ellison. Visit http://www.nventure.com/talebones/ [link no longer active] for info and an excerpt.

TSS: What upcoming Shadowrun projects do you have coming up, besides the rest of the Dragonheart series?

Koke: Recently, I have shifted my attention away from Shadowrun to focus on trying to break into more mainstream science adventure fiction ala Michael Crichton. I suspect that the step into this arena is going to be as difficult if not more so than it was to sell my first novel. I have confidence in my writing ability, but there are many, many other good writers out there who are competing for a very few openings in popular mainstream fiction. My agent has advised me to keep my current projects a secret for the time being, but if and when I finish them and they sell to a publisher, I'll let you all know.

What I can talk about is the Shadowrun novel that I am writing in collaboration with Jonathan Bond. The working title for this book is Edge of Fadeout and although we both like that title, it has almost nothing to do with the book so I'm sure it'll change before we're done. This novel is about vampires and magical genetic experimentation and organized crime and well, lots of drek. It has nothing to do with Ryan Mercury or the Dragon Heart Saga books, except that we've put in a cameo appearance by Nadja Daviar, and it has a very, very loose tie to Dunkelzahn's will.

I think people will like it. Jonathan is a really good writer and I'm glad to be working with him again. Look for more novels from him in the coming years.

Other than that, I don't have anything in the works. I did write more entries for "Threats" than made it into the Threats sourcebook so perhaps FASA will publish those down the road.

Also, as I mentioned, FASA has yet to publish Liferock. They experienced trouble with their Earthdawn novel line a few years ago (after Talisman). Several Earthdawn novels have been commissioned, written, but not published.

Caroline Specter has two books, the first and second Aina books — Scars and Little Treasures. I have read these books and they are excellent. I have one novel, Liferock, and I think there are one or two others. It is a shame that these books remain unpublished because they are very good. I wrote Liferock in 1993. I have been paid for it, but no one has been able to read it. One of the main reasons that I write is to reach people, to entertain and occasionally to teach. I am very distressed that my book may never see print.

I'd really like to see the Earthdawn novel line start up again, and if enough people tell FASA that they'd like to see them, perhaps the books will eventually get published. Send email to FASAMktg@aol.com. [address no longer active]

TSS: What advice would you give someone who was interested in writing something for FASA?

Koke: First of all, go to my web page and look up the "7 steps to becoming a professional writer." They apply to all venues, not just FASA.

As I mentioned above, the first novel I sold was Liferock. I had already gotten an "in" with FASA via Greg Gorden, and still it took me seven proposals to get a good response. If I had stopped after 4 or 5, I would never have sold Liferock, and never have moved on to Dead Air or any other books and we wouldn't be doing this interview.

My main advice is to write and keep writing. If you don't enjoy sitting down at the keyboard and creating story and characters, you'll hate being a writer. I know a lot of published writers who don't actually like to write; they like being published, but they don't enjoy the act of writing. My question to them is: why do you do it then?

So if you know you like to write, and you have the drive to keep doing it through rejection after rejection, then just keep doing it. Keep meeting editors, keep improving your craft, and eventually you'll get a break. That's just the way it happens. It is true that you can be a good writer and not get published, but the business of making a living as a writer is also about networking and finding an agent and a lot of things that aren’t actually writing, but are more about business in general. I hope I'm being clear. If you don't like to the non-writing parts, you won't like being a writer either. It's all part of the package, at least it has been for me.

Specifically, if you want to write for FASA. Get the guidelines and follow them. Send in proposals and more proposals. That's the basics. Now to give yourself an edge, go to a convention like GenCon and meet Mike Mulvihill and talk to him about your proposal ideas. Perhaps try to set up an appointment to talk to him. Be confident and act professionally. Novels are edited by Donna Ippolito and are much harder to get, but it can be done. Same tactics. Remember that there is a fine line between persistence and annoyance. Stay on the side of persistence!

Good luck.

TSS: Do you play Shadowrun?

Koke: This one is easy. I have played Shadowrun once. When first edition came out, a friend of mine GM’ed a single run. I enjoyed it, but he didn't like the game mechanics so we never played again.

My background in role-playing consists mostly of playing original Dungeons and Dragons and later AD&D. This was a long time ago when role-playing was in its infancy. I have also played GURPS and several custom games designed by friends, but I never again was part of a group which tried out Shadowrun.

TSS: Do you still play on a regular basis?

Koke: I only role-play about once or twice a year now at best. I just don't know anyone in this area who plays, and I don't really have time to search out a group anyhow. I find that when I'm writing books, I don't need the creative outlet that I use to get (long ago) from role-playing. So I suppose I don't really miss playing because novel writing serves the same purpose, I get to interact with my novel characters all the time.

I think I should use this opportunity to point out that I believe that role-playing did have a positive impact on developing my creativity. The act of creating a character and playing him or her taps into the same part of the brain that is involved in writing fiction. I believe that role-playing fostered my creativity and allowed me to develop some of the skills I now use as a writer.

With that said, however, I must hasten to add that I think it is rare that a role-playing session will make a good story. The fundamentals are different: In role-playing, characters are confronted with a situation and the outcome is uncertain, based on probabilities, luck of the rolls, and skill at role-playing. It is a game.

In fiction, characters are also confronted with a situation, but the author has spent myriad hours picking the exact nature of the situation and the characters such that he or she knows the outcome, which leads to the next situation, and the next, building and building to the climax of the novel where the character undergoes internal change or solves the mystery or whatever. The author knows the outcome of each situation that will arise, or he learns the outcome as it arises and discards those situations in which the outcome is not consistent with the desired movement of the story. Thus plot, theme and structure are developed and maintained throughout the narrative.

Some of these things can be present in role-playing, and often are, but rarely all of them.

TSS: What is your favorite type of character to write about?

Koke: So far, my favorite type of players to write about are physical adepts (thus Ryan) or riggers (Jonathan Winger), but I believe that any type of character can be fun as long as he or she is fully developed and fleshed out, then played out in a non-munchkinous way that is consistent with the internal motivation of the character.

The main character in Edge of Fadeout is an artist, a mundane really, though he has latent magical powers which he expresses through sculpture. He happens to be the heir to a Mafia family's biz, but other than that, he's not special. Also featured is Martin DeVries, vampire who is also a vampire hunter. Not that I've ever played a vampire character, but he is a fun one to write.

TSS: When Role-Playing, do you prefer being a GM or a Player?

Koke: When I role-play, which as I said is rare these days, I much prefer being a player. First of all, I don't have the time to create an entire campaign. Also, when I did GM in the past, I tended to ignore rules in favor of cinematic storytelling. Sometimes it pissed off my players and sometimes they did things which didn't jive with the predetermined plot of the adventure. I know that that is the nature of role-playing, but as a GM, I wasn't very flexible or great at encounters that weren't predetermined.

I do however, like to develop cool interesting characters when I have the chance and play them in other people's campaigns. I like to focus on the adventure.

TSS: What is your opinion of Immortal Elves, Horrors, and all the really big, oddball stuff that has crept into SR over the years?

Koke: I know it is fashionable to hate Immortal Elves and Shadowrun/Earthdawn crossover stuff like Horrors in the Sixth world. I don't. I can see how Immortal Elves and Horrors can unbalance a game, but so can powerful NPCs like Great Dragons and unstoppable mega-corporate executives with thor-shots at their command.

I must admit that when I was first exposed to the concept of Shadowrun when first edition came out, my initial reaction was; how ludicrous! How can they expect anyone to believe that magic and dragons and elves can coexist with the Matrix and smartlinks and guns and drones? I didn't buy into it at all.

After I got over that, however, and I actually read the background material that discussed the Mayan calendar and tied the SR universe into an established historical context, I started to think; you know, this is actually pretty cool. The background is consistent. Once you suspend your disbelief and buy into the cycles of magic (for which there is a historical/mythical precedent) then everything flows.

It works because the SR universe is internally consistent.

This consistency includes such untenable creatures as Immortal Elves, Great Dragons, The Enemy, and a previous high-level of magic (IE Earthdawn). Therefore I think these elements are appropriate for Shadowrun. However, I also believe that in many respects they have been over-emphasized in the fiction. Some novelists loved Immortal Elves, and they wrote solely about them. I believe that creatures of such power are part of the universe, but should not always take center stage.

Shadowrun should be primarily about shadowrunners, the little guys with exceptional skill and a lot of guts who move among giants (including IE, megacorps, dragons, etc. ...) and accomplish things they cannot.

TSS: What do you like to do to relax?

Koke: Hmm, let me see. I like to have fun with my daughter; she usually picks the game. I also play soccer or basketball, and I like to go camping, and have recently learned to scuba dive.

Of course I also do the typical things like watch TV, rent movies, drink good beer and read books (although reading seems to be less and less of a typical thing to do for most people). The shows I currently like on TV include but are not limited to Babylon 5, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Star Trek (both), Xena, and X-Files. Also recently, I've taken a liking to Earth: Final Conflict. It sounds like I watch a lot of TV, but I usually record the shows and watch them with the commercials edited out.

TSS: What was the last good movie you saw?

Koke: This is a tough one. I don't get to go to movies in the theater much, being a father and a pretty active guy, and I am very tolerant of those I do see in the theater. I loved Contact, for example, and Men in Black, though for obviously different reasons. I don't usually see a movie in the theater unless I'm going to have fun. Too expensive in both time and money. If the chances are low that I'll enjoy it, I wait until the video is released.

While I'm in the theater I try to let the movie carry me into its world. I know a lot of people who can't enjoy movies anymore; critics or wannabe critics who feel compelled to comment on everything; this scene sucked because Jodi Foster's lipstick was a different color than it should be, or whatever. I don't see the point; it just ruins an otherwise fun experience that I have already paid for. After the movie, days later, if it is appropriate, I dissect the elements of the story or the filming if I think I can use something for my writing, but I don't do it in the theater, unless the movie is just so horrid that I can't help it. But as I said, I have gotten pretty good at predicting which movies I'm going to like and stick to those.

I just recently got to see The English Patient on video and was impressed by its power. The filming was very good, but it was the story which brought tears to my eyes at the end.

I did see GI Jane in the theater and really liked it. It was much better than I expected, but I have never been disappointed by Ridley Scott. Demi Moore was excellent and the movie touched on the role of women in the military and gender roles in society as a whole. Perhaps not quite as good as Thelma and Louise or Bladerunner, but worth seeing.

TSS: What is one thing you would like to accomplish some day?

Koke: Career-wise, I'd like to get a book on the New York Times Bestseller list, and I'd also like to have a movie made of one of my books. In my personal life, I'd like to have a positive impact on the world to make it better for my daughter and her generation. I am hoping I can do this through writing, but I am also supporting environmental organizations like the Planetary Coral Reef Foundation and the Institute of Ecotechnics in their efforts to develop and provide technology which can help society lessen its impact on the environment in which we must live.

TSS: What is one thing about you that we never needed to know?

Koke: Let me tell you a story. This one is true.

Multi-millionaire John E. DuPont shot my brother-in-law, Dave Schultz, to death. DuPont was not insane at the time. He was not delusional. As Dave was walking toward DuPont's car, coming over to say hello, DuPont raised his .45 and shot Dave in the chest. Dave fell to the ground, face down in the snow, crying out in pain.

Dave's wife, Nancy, was inside the house. She came to the door when she heard the scream. She watched as DuPont shot Dave two more times in the back as he lay in the snow. She started to run out to help Dave, but DuPont pointed the gun at her. Then, abruptly, DuPont drove off. He went back to his mansion and locked himself in. A standoff with police ensued.

Nancy called 9-1-1 and ran to Dave. She held him for several minutes urging him to hold on, that the ambulance was coming. Dave was probably the strongest willed person I have ever known, and the most generous. He was a world-champion amateur wrestler (Amateur wrestling is an actual sport, unlike the freakshow that is professional wrestling. Amateur wrestling was in fact the first Olympic sport.) If anyone could have held on, Dave could have.

But DuPont had loaded his .45 with hollow point rounds. Rounds that tear up flesh instead of passing through. Rounds that are designed to kill. How could DuPont's intention have been something other than murder?

Dave died before the ambulance arrived.

A little over a year later, DuPont was convicted of third-degree murder. He was sentenced to between 13 and 30 years in prison. He should have gotten first-degree and life imprisonment, but his high-priced lawyers convinced the jury otherwise.

Nancy and Dave's two kids, my nephew and niece, will live the rest of their lives without Dave. I will live the rest of my life without him.

Perhaps you never needed to know this about me; it is not directly related to my Shadowrun work. But it is a significant aspect of my life; it has helped define who I am, and how I currently view the world.

I am cynical about justice. I am cynical about the media. Whose name do you know better in this whole affair; Dave Schultz or John DuPont? The victim is often forgotten as the media focuses its sensationalist machinery on the killer, the psychopath or the rich defendant.

However, despite all my cynicism, I retain hope that positive change can happen. If Dave taught me anything from the way he lived his life, it was that the impossible can be accomplished through hard work, a continual quest to better yourself and an unquenchable love for others.

Thus, I try to use my writing and the rest of my life as an instrument to affect positive change in the world. I don't think I'm there yet; my Shadowrun novels are first attempts. But I do know that I'll continue to work at it until the day I die.

Thanks for the chance to discuss all these things with you.