The following is an interview with James Wylder on the recent release of the slice-of-life sci-fi anthology, Academy 27: School Days. In this interview, Fanbase Press Editor-in-Chief Barbra Dillon chats with Wylder about the shared creative process of bringing the stories to life on the page, future plans for expanding the Academy 27 world, and more!
Barbra Dillon, Fanbase Press Editor-in-Chief: Congratulations on the release of Academy 27! For those who may be unfamiliar, what can you share with us about the premise of this collection?
James Wylder: Thank you! This book has been a labor of love, so I’m happy to see it out. Academy 27 is set in a school on a future Mars and follows the lives of the students there. We follow their friendships, budding romances, and the awkward failures of youth as they live on a planet that seems to be growing closer and closer to an interstellar conflict with Earth.
Each story stands by itself but features the same setting and a rotating cast of characters at an over-performing school in the poorer district of a Martian city. It’s sort of like a TV season, where elements carry through the different tales, and the book itself comes to a climax as story strands come together at the end.
I’ve always been a big fan of slice-of-life stories and science fiction. Putting the two together has been something I’ve wanted to do for ages, and when the pandemic was at its worst, it seemed the best time to explore that idea with other writers I’d already enjoyed working with. The different voices that came together for this really made it something special
BD: As the editor of the anthology and a contributing writer, how would you describe the process for bringing all of the creators together for this project, as well as your thematic approach to crafting a complementary collection of stories?
JW: I’ve been involved in quite a few collections and anthologies in the past, and this one came together in ways that feel both very special and difficult to replicate. I started talking to some friends I’d worked with before about the idea, and in the midst of the chilling mood of the pandemic, this felt like a warm blanket to them. Things started coming together quickly after that — Dillon O’Hara, a close friend and talented Irish writer — and I had drafts done before we even had our pitch document ready. I was used to having to reach out and push for drafts, but the idea connected, and writers recommended the project to other writers they thought would be good fits. Maybe it was just that all of us were trapped in lockdown, and lots about the world felt awful, but there was a real joy and camaraderie in working on this book together.
Because of this closeness, I was able to be ambitious with how interconnected the writers could make the stories, and brought some of them together in online groups to discuss their stories together and how we could collaborate to strengthen each other’s tales, and enrich the themes we were interested in exploring.
I was afraid that this collaboration might be a little limiting—that writers would see someone else was exploring an idea they were interested in and lose interest, but instead it led to a wonderful sense of “Yes, and” where one writer would develop an idea, and another would get energized about building further on it. This really comes through in the stories, and there’s a cohesion we’re all very proud of.
BD: In bringing together a creator-owned anthology, were there any particular challenges about the creative process that surprised you or that provided opportunities for taking the project in an exciting, new direction?
JW: Since the stories are all set in the same world with a cast of characters open for any writer to use, making sure every story felt like it didn’t contradict anything that came before it, and that the characters felt real and grew from important events that happened to them was a challenge. As the editor I had to keep everyone on the same page, and smooth out any awkward contradictions that cropped up during the creative process. But working through those challenges led to some of the most exciting parts of the book.
I’d initially wanted a few of the characters to have an antagonistic relationship that would run through the book, but when other writers had interesting ideas that would require them to be friendlier, I realized that a much more interesting question would be—if we start the book with those characters at odds with each other, how could they change to get to that later point where we’d believe they’d want to spend time together?
Bringing together the diverse writing team, we had also brought a lot of wonderful stuff to the table; Kimberley Chiu’s story, “The Foods and Festivals of Old Asia,” is a real highlight, and if we hadn’t brought on such a talented voice from Singapore, we’d have lost out on the really incredible things she brought to these pages.
BD: Do you have further plans for expanding Academy 27 to other volumes, focusing on alternate themes or concepts?
JW: I do, in fact—we knew while working on the book that there we had too many stories for it, that we realized pretty early on. But we also realized that now that we had figured out the format and built up the world of this school and its characters, we could do something even more ambitious. So, there will be a Volume 2—and it’s going to have a much bigger focus on the characters, challenging them in ways that I think readers are really going to enjoy.
BD: Are there any other projects on which you are working that you would like to share with readers?
JW: I’m working on a serial fiction series to release late this year called Steel Changelings, which builds on the collaborative storytelling we tried out with Academy 27. That story will be a true serial, with different writers working on each chapter. I’m excited for it, and I hope that it brings something new for the readers who check it out.
BD: Lastly, what would you like to tell fans who want to learn more about Academy 27: School Days and your other work?
JW: You can find most of my work through Arcbeatle Press, at ArcbeatlePress.com, and learn more about the series at ArcbeatlePress.com/A27. I’m decently active on twitter at @arcbeatle, as well. Thank you for having me, it’s been a pleasure.
