It’s a story about loss, and the stamp it leaves on every part of your life. It’s about losing even the trust in yourself—and learning who you are once the rest has been stripped away. It’s about rebuilding or reclaiming what was lost: drawing strength from unexpected places, be it the anchor of found family, the crucible of old wounds, or the conviction born of new purpose.
Paul Kivelson and Owen Greenwald – 12 February 2024
The Back Flap
Master your emotions. Perform your duty. Follow the Tenets. Tala has lived these rules for twenty years: the rules of an Enhancer. Then a mission goes wrong, and she finds herself framed, branded Renegade, and called to face judgment. Fleeing means violating the Tenets, the moral precepts of her order. Yet in that moment, she finds she cannot stay. Hunted by the endless forces of the Galactic Coalition and her own mentor, famed Renegade killer Exemplar Scratch, Tala will pursue the proof of her innocence to the very heart of the galaxy. But cling as she might to the tatters of her honor, she cannot deny the true purpose of her mission: revenge. And the further Tala strays from the Tenets’ path, the greater the risk she runs of losing herself. In a galaxy of strange aliens and hostile humans, danger casts its shadow on every wall. Friendships are forged, lost, and tested. And the lies that keep the galaxy running just might be about to come crashing down.
About the book
What is the book about?
Weapons of the Mind is the story of Tala, a young and talented warrior. Raised to master the impossible power of Enhancement from a young age, Tala has dedicated her life to serving the galactic government. Tala loses everything on a mission gone wrong: her friends are murdered and her life upended. Walking the knife-edge path between justice and vengeance, Tala pursues the murderer across space from the outskirts of the galaxy to its center, pursued in turn by her old mentor.
It’s a story about loss, and the stamp it leaves on every part of your life. It’s about losing even the trust in yourself—and learning who you are once the rest has been stripped away. It’s about rebuilding or reclaiming what was lost: drawing strength from unexpected places, be it the anchor of found family, the crucible of old wounds, or the conviction born of new purpose. It’s about what happens when authority fails. When guiding principles become shackles; when boundaries start to look more like limitations. It’s about the lone question that begets an avalanche of skepticism and leaves behind no firm ground except the small patch beneath your own feet.
Weapons of the Mind is a story about falling, and the choice to stand back up.
When did you start writing the book?
We started writing in early 2016. We were fresh out of college, both determined to make a career out of writing, and thought it might be fun to have a go at it together. Somehow, our friendship survived.
How long did it take you to write it?
Far too long! About five years from first words to final draft. We assumed that by co-authoring, we would be cutting our writing time in half. Instead, the process of “prose-matching” to make sure the book felt like it had one author was incredibly time-consuming, especially because we felt it was so important to get right. Over the course of our first draft, we were still getting a feel for the world and characters, so there was a lot of revision to make sure things fit together as those aspects of the story solidified
Now, with everything set in stone, we hope sequels will not take nearly as long.
Where did you get the idea from?
We actually started with the idea to work together. During our initial meeting, we were tossing around story concepts we’d been thinking about doing individually to see if anything meshed well. Paul had a magic system he’d been messing around with, and I had a setting with a secret at its heart. We decided this combination was the one.
From there, the story’s specifics took shape over the course of many conversations. We talked a lot about what we found enthralling as readers. The priority was always writing something that we would want to read. In service of that, we tried to capture the feeling of discovery and adventure that made Star Wars such a household name: a vast galaxy that captures the imagination, teeming with aliens, exotic locales, and hidden secrets waiting to be discovered—yet is comforting in its familiarity.
As much as the book has changed and matured over the drafts, those two original ideas (the magic system and the secret) have remained its two core pillars.
Were there any parts of the book where you struggled?
Our greatest struggle was probably Tala herself. She went through multiple revisions as we tried to get her to a place where readers would root for her success. From the beginning, our goal was to avoid standard protagonist tropes that create a quick emotional connection to the reader. Don’t get me wrong, they’re standard because they’re incredibly effective, and it takes real skill to employ them effectively—we just wanted to do something a little off the beaten path.
Early versions of Tala were more passive participants in the narrative. Her first incarnation was more of a “perfect” Enhancer (magic user), possessing incredible placidity and mental control which would gradually erode over the course of the story as her control slipped. Unfortunately, this made her insufferable in the crucial first few chapters, when readers are developing first impressions. There was a plot trying to happen, and Tala was trying to keep it from getting started. So we made her a more atypical Enhancer, someone who had always struggled with mastering her emotions and wanted to stand up and take charge of the plot. Thankfully, despite this change, she still had plenty of room to develop further.
Tala also suffered from lacking concrete goals until the inciting incident, making her a fundamentally reactive protagonist. We added in some extra tissue around the inciting incident so that while she IS reacting to a big, life-changing disaster, that her decisions and emotions are informed by the goals and wants that she carried in with her.
What came easily?
The conspiracy at the heart of the book! We don’t want to reveal too much about this, but for a setting that was constantly in flux early on as we tried to get on the same page about basic details, the primary meta-conflict that gives rise to Tala’s story remained remarkably stable—and tended to strengthen as we tweaked other details rather than needing emergency patching.
Tala is not a newcomer to the setting; that was the opposite of what we wanted. But the galaxy she thinks she knows so well is full of secrets, and every secret shifts the territory in fundamental ways until the familiar becomes unrecognizable. The seeds of these revelations are baked into Weapons of the Mind, and they are not mysteries for their own sake, or afterthoughts to build intrigue while the plot happens. They are deliberate, they are meaningful, and when the curtains are pulled back, we hope it will feel more inevitable than shocking—because the galaxy has always worked this way.
Are your characters entirely fictitious or have you borrowed from real world people you know?
I find it incredibly uncomfortable to write characters that bear any more than a passing resemblance to friends and acquaintances. For this project especially, so many of the characters are aliens with distinct, inhuman thought processes that there was very little from real life that could have been realistically mapped onto their personalities. That said, I’ll happily borrow a little bit here and a little bit there, so long as the end result isn’t recognizable. Many Weapons of the Mind characters are a hundred little bits borrowed either from our lives or other media, stitched together into one whole being by two different people.
We all know how important it is for writers to read. Are there any particular authors that have influenced how you write and, if so, how have they influenced you?
I’ve always admired Terry Pratchet for his mastery of off-kilter humor to knock readers off balance, followed by truly compelling, resonant emotional writing. Pratchet never got bogged down in cliches unless it was to give them an original spin; he found the weirdest way to address mundane concepts and forced the reader to think about them from a new angle, but one that always made perfect sense. It was such a gift!
Brandon Sanderson has been a primary influence of mine since I first read Mistborn. His stories are like intricate machinery to me. Every cog is in place, doing its job, building to a purpose. There’s a reason “Sanderlanche” has gained niche use in fantasy discussions – his climaxes are the result of meticulous, book-long setup. Some of Sanderson’s best tricks are techniques I’ve shamelessly taken for myself (see if you can spot which ones I’m employing in Weapons of the Mind), but the most important thing I’ve taken from him is the importance of keeping a narrative internally consistent and carefully managing a reader’s expectations.
Scott Lynch and Joe Abercrombie are masters of the adage “any explosion is only as interesting as what’s being blown up.” If I ever need a reminder that action is best served sparingly, alongside action and stakes, I’m cracking open something by Lynch or Abercrombie.
Do you have a target reader?
Anyone whose imagination is sparked by a heroic protagonist adventuring through exotic frontiers, found family at her side, fate of the galaxy on her shoulders. Though it may wear the trappings of science fiction, this is a classic fantasy story at heart, in the vein of Star Wars—whose fans will find a lot to love about Weapons of the Mind. If you have ever looked up at the night sky and imagined what grand stories might be taking place above your head, we want you to read this book!
About Writing
Do you have a writing process? If so can you please describe it?
I try to write a little bit a day. And I do mean a little bit. Five sentences.
Of course, at five sentences a day, it would take forever to finish something. But committing to five gets me to the computer with the word doc opens and starts my fingers moving. Usually, by the time I hit five, I’m warmed up and ready to keep going.
Sometimes, my schedule is packed full of other responsibilities, social engagements, etc. On those occasions, maybe all I can do is squeeze in five sentences at the end of a long day. But all that means is that even on my busiest days, I make forward progress.
Generally, accountability helps as well. That was one of the advantages of working with a coauthor: we could commit to finishing in X amount of time, set each other deadlines, and hold each other to our word.
Do you outline? If so, do you do so extensively or just chapter headings and a couple of sentences?
I am an outliner…but no outline survives first contact with the keyboard. You can only spend so much time modeling a character’s thoughts before they start to make their own decisions, and plot developments that seemed sensible as bullet points suddenly seem forced and arbitrary when committed to the page. Because of this, extensive outlines have always seemed like a waste. Better to have a flexible outline that can be reexamined and updated when necessary. Weapons of the Mind has the same general storyline as its first draft, but roughly half the original chapters have been entirely replaced.
As I work until very late, I will sometimes “run out of gas” and not be able to put a proper sentence together. When this happens, I’ll do a sentence-by-sentence outline of the next few paragraphs, jotting down a very basic idea of movement, dialogue, environment, etc., that my more awake self can use as a blueprint for actual writing.
Do you edit as you go or wait until you’ve finished?
A little bit of both. I’ll write a sentence, frown at it, and play with it a few times before moving on. Sometimes I’ll read the previous day’s work back before starting on new material, and during that time I usually find some errors or clunky sentences that can be easily fixed. More substantive edits wait until I have a full draft to look at so I can create a road map of changes with knowledge of the full picture—though even with this map, I sometimes scrawl “HERE BE DRAGONS” in the margins and hope for the best.
Did you hire a professional editor?
For much of the writing process, we were each other’s professional editors. To make sure our different writing styles wouldn’t create jarring transitions, we were constantly editing each other’s work. Commonly, one of us would take a section the other one wrote and revise it until it was almost unrecognizable. Then the original author would get it back and go through the changes, either accepting them, reverting them, or changing the revisions even further away from the original. At this point, with these two revised versions to compare, we would argue over every single point of difference until we reached agreement.
Not many mistakes can survive a treatment like that.
We did eventually have it looked over by professionals once it was as good as we could make it. A family friend who is a magazine editor gave it several close reads, and Will Dreamly’s team took a look as well. It’s amazing how many minor errors can slip past whole teams of eyes scanning for them, but at this point, I really want to say we got them all.
Do you listen to music while you write? If yes, what gets the fingers tapping?
I cannot listen to music without being distracted. For me, writing is a silent process (occasionally interspersed with cursing).
About Publishing
Did you submit your work to Agents?
We went through two rounds of submitting to agents, with some revision between rounds. While some agents expressed interest in the full manuscript, we were ultimately unsuccessful in attracting one.
We were researching agents for a third round of submission when Will Dreamly Arts Publishing notified us of their interest.
What made you decide to go Indie, whether self-publishing or with an indie publisher? Was it a particular event or a gradual process?
After a long time researching agents, tailoring queries to fit their interests and specifications, reading books written by their existing clients, etc., and often receiving no response, we were fairly burnt out on the process. We had planned to shop Weapons of the Mind around to a third slate of agents one last time and then see if we could drum up any interest among indie publishers. However, unbeknownst to us, a copy of our manuscript had found its way to Will Dreamly Arts Publishing during our second round of querying. Will Dreamly reached out to us out of the blue expressing interest in publishing and distributing Weapons of the Mind. It seemed like a miracle. We had a preliminary phone call with them and came away impressed with their dedication to supporting their authors, as well as their belief in our manuscript’s potential. After that conversation, we were ready to sign!
Did you get your book cover professionally done or did you do it yourself?
Will Dreamly’s team recommended a cover artist, Herb Leonhard. We had a short back-and-forth with our editor about what scene from the book would make a great “cover moment” and sent a description off to Mr. Leonhard. We’re very pleased with the result!
Do you have a marketing plan for the book or are you just winging it?
Somewhere in between, I think. We’re putting in legwork sending the book to review blogs, reaching out to podcasts and sites like this, and we plan to hit our local bookstores and local media as well as experiment with online ads. We aren’t sure which approaches will be most effective and there’s no big “master plan”, but we plan to stay busy doing everything we can to attract eyeballs.
We’re also planning to have some interactive elements on our website that ideally will spur discussion and community engagement from fans. The best publicity is organic word of mouth, so the hope is that this will get people talking to each other.
Any advice that you would like to give to other newbies considering becoming Indie authors?
One is never just an indie author. You have to be a publicist, marketer, researcher, designer, website builder, secretary, etc. as well (or be prepared to pay for the expertise of others). Don’t neglect these parts of your skill set, or see them as second to skills as a writer. They are valuable and will serve you well.
Also, find your audience and write for them. Don’t waste time trying to write a book that everybody will like. There is no such thing as a book that everyone likes, but there are plenty of books that suffered from being pulled in too many different directions trying to appeal to different groups of people. If you find and resonate with your audience, they will always have your back.
About You
Where did you grow up?
I moved from Manhattan to the San Francisco Bay Area when I was three. I have no real memories of New York, so I consider myself a bay area native—but ask me to choose between avocado toast and a bagel and you’ll see my roots still run deep.
Paul was born in LA and moved to the Bay Area a bit later, when he was eleven. It took us about a year after that to meet, and now we’re lifelong friends.
Where do you live now?
Still in the bay area! There really isn’t anywhere like it in the world. More specifically, I live in a lovely little community-focused neighborhood with no HOA, a grocery store within walking distance, and friendly dogs wherever you look.
Not a day goes by where I’m not grateful that I call this place home.
What would you like readers to know about you?
I want readers to know that I’m always reachable! Contact me via my website. I love talking about my stories, answering questions, etc. I also have a cute Havanese puppy that I love showing off to people, so if you like receiving random dog pictures, I’ve got that too.
My website also has an experimental feature called the GIAB Portal that I hope you’ll take a look at. The universe of Weapons of the Mind is much larger and deeper than one book (or even an eventual two trilogies) could ever hope to cover, and the GIAB Portal is a great way to catch extra glimpses of that world—and maybe some hints at what is to come.
Lastly, I’d like people to know that I recently designed the expansion to one of my favorite board games: Anna’s Roundtable. Fans of tactical gameplay in the style of Fire Emblem should definitely give this game a look. I had a ton of fun with this project, and I think it shows in the final product.
What are you working on now?
At the moment of this interview, I’m hard at work laying the groundwork for making Weapons of the Mind a success. New writing has taken a backseat to that, unfortunately, although a sequel is very much in the works.
I do have a few other projects I’m trying to get publish-worthy: a few short stories, a novella set in the Weapons universe, and one very long fantasy epic that draws a lot of inspiration from stories of King Arthur while exploring a rough approximation of the current political landscape. It’s meant to be a look at how kingdoms fall, not through invasion or any external force, but by the efforts of bad actors, the friction of petty grievances, and the failures of a system beyond the power of any lone individual to change. Who can say if there’s a market for it? The most important thing is that it makes my fingers come alive at the keyboard.
End of Interview:
For more from these authors visit Paul’s website and Owen’s website.
Get your copy of Weapons of the Mind from Amazon US or Amazon UK.
