A Tallahassee writer is out to conquer what's widely considered the most competitive fiction genre. This author has a background that might give him a leg up in that endeavor.
Michael Ciccarelli Walsh didn't start out hoping to become a writer of books.
"It really started when I was a student at FSU. I was in the digital media production program. The aspiration was to become the next Stephen Spielberg and make lots of films. As I got more familiar with production, I really found myself drawn to writing, which I'd enjoyed doing. But when I saw how everyone was finding their niche as editors, or behind the camera, not too many people were into the story telling aspect and that was something I really sank my teeth in."
The question was, what kind of book should Walsh write? Which connected to another question: what kind of stories did Walsh really enjoy himself? That answer came quickly. He was a huge Guardians of the Galaxy fan!
"Let me just make my own thing and Guardians would honestly be the big inspiration so I picked that one and it really motivated me. I could take this cast of characters I came up with and make them quirky and fun and play off each other and build that into its own story."
It seems that cast of characters kept growing.
"The whole vision had been to create a team of superheroes out in space and send them on adventures. So in that respect I was slowly building the cast across each book. We're now on book three."
But Walsh knows an interesting story line and character lineup does not guarantee attention. Despite all the talk about online content taking over, traditional book publishing remains a ferociously competitive arena. And that goes double in the genre Walsh has selected. The respected literary database I-S-B-N-D-B ranks "fantasy" as the most popular fiction subject, with "science fiction" coming in at number two.
"If I just go and tell people it's a fantasy sci-fi, it doesn't really resonate well because it's so saturated. But to find that niche that is sort of space opera and superhero - the key words that work on Amazon - those are the buzz words that help if I'm meeting people in person selling. And I found recently going to conventions, those 'con' events where people are dressed up like superhero characters, comic book characters, movie monsters, those are the places where I really find the audience that fits that niche really well."
Although Walsh doesn't want to ignore the home folks.
"I've learned a lot of this is community based. Like to talking to people at work,
at school, around town and seeing that community come together, hearing the local author is there and rushing to get a signed copy of the book just because they know you're from this area is a big deal. Tallahassee's been an awesome place to launch the book. It wasn't where I expected to launch the book, but I'm very happy to have started my career here doing this."
Tallahassee cinema-student-turned-space opera/super hero genre writer, Michael Ciccarelli Walsh.
