Stories, Struggles, and Success: A Chat with E.S. Wynn
Uncover the unique experiences and diverse influences that have shaped the literary and creative legacy of this prolific storyteller.
E.S. Wynn is a remarkably prolific author with over seventy published books, including the cyberpunk Pink Carbide series, the sci-fi thriller The Cygnus War series, and the writing-focused Modern Creative Writer’s Workbook series. An experienced editor, Wynn owns and operates two fiction magazines while also providing editing services for authors, scholars, and businesses since 2005. Wynn’s articles and stories have appeared both online and in print, including the California Freemason Magazine. Beyond writing and editing, Wynn is also known as “The Voice” of the Dark Dreams Podcast, the Blackout City Podcast, and a series of mystic heathenry meditations, demonstrating a creative range that spans multiple genres and media.
Where are you from? What is your background?
I was born in a rural part of California, but I didn’t stay there. I’ve been all over the state, and even lived in Oklahoma for a time. My background has always been a mixture of survivalist, gothic, and academic. I have been a sword salesman, a pilot, a tutor, a paralegal, and a full-time author during the course of my life.
What inspired you to become a writer?
I learned when I was very young that I can’t draw well. No matter how much I tried, I couldn’t replicate the skill of the other kids who were creating amazing things in charcoal and crayon. When I discovered that you could show people pictures without drawing them, though—that’s when I started writing. That’s when I fell in love with it. I still can’t draw very well, but I’ve definitely spent a lot of time creating pictures with words as a writer.
What was the first thing you remember reading at an early age?
I think the first books that I fell in love with were science books, specifically the ones that were packed with colorful 1970s sci-fi art. We had a handful of Terran Trade Authority books at the school library, and I couldn’t get enough of them. The first really substantial book I dug into, though, had to be Michael Crichton’s Jurassic Park. I think I read that book ten times over one summer between fourth and fifth grade.
What performer or artist/writer inspires you the most?
I think the late, great Storm Constantine has been the biggest influence on me and my writing as far as artists and writers go. Her work is as edgy as it is decadent, and I feel very privileged to have been able to have written three books and a handful of short stories side by side with her in her Wraeththu universe before she passed away.
What other areas of art are you involved in?
I do a lot of design work in AutoCAD, most of which I put up for free on Thingiverse or sell through my site Punkin’ Figs. I still can’t draw for love or money, but I can create three-dimensional objects that I’m pretty proud of. Almost everything I do creatively has an element of writing to it, and even when I do battle reports for wargames I’ve played, I always end up writing a short story, or a series of short stories, about what happened during the playing of the game. Those are typically posted on my wargaming blog, Fistful of Valkyries.
Do you think your environment, where you live, has an effect on the type of art you create?
I think growing up in a very Lovecraftian shade of rural California has definitely influenced not only my writing style, but also my perspective and the kinds of things that I write about. Living in the Central Valley of California now maybe forces me to look at the county I grew up in with an outsider’s eye, but then again, I just finished the draft for a new book that happens entirely in Sacramento, so maybe it has more of an effect than I’ve been willing to accept up until now.
What long-term goals do you have?
Happiness is my main goal and always has been. Contentment, and as much of it as I can set aside for myself. Following my passions, creating what I’m most inspired to create in the moment, and just sort of rolling with the creative urges as they come. Becoming the next Michael Crichton would be nice too, but I’m not letting my happiness hang on something like that.
What do you think popular culture will be like in ten years?
If you’d asked me that ten years ago, I would have given you an answer that would have been totally wrong today, so I’m not even going to hazard a guess. What I can say is that I live by a maxim given to me by a radical old philosophy professor in college twenty years ago. “The pendulum swings both ways.” Society goes to one extreme, then swings back to another. Where a given extreme lies, well, that’s for hindsight to determine. History, as they say, never repeats, but it does often rhyme. With AI and Disney tying up everything, though, it’s really anybody’s guess where popular culture will be in ten years. I think there will be more of it, and it’ll get easier and cheaper to share, but other than that, I wouldn’t even try to guess.
What’s the strangest thing you’ve been asked to do in your profession?
Writing erotica. I didn’t have to write anything particularly gross, but I am glad those days are behind me. Funny thing is, I have nothing against erotica—I’m just all about the art, and when I’m writing a piece of art, I rarely find a place to artistically include erotica in a way that makes the story stronger and more beautiful. Instead, I tend to find beauty in desperate human interactions, even those that look like they’re about to turn into erotica, only to fall apart at the last minute because the characters have unresolved struggles they’re dealing with. Character healing and bonding is, to me, way sexier than sex scenes, especially when most erotica just reads like a poorly written car chase.
What projects are you working on now?
I have more writing projects than I can count. I just finished the working draft of a fiction book tentatively called Express Blue that focuses on a queer, pagan paralegal prepper caught up in what looks like a huge viral apocalypse. The book’s focus tends to be around this concept of what an apocalypse really is, and if you would really know when you’re in it, or if you might think you’re in one, only to discover it’s all just in your head. It’s a departure from what I usually write, which is almost exclusively science fiction. As such, I have five books in various stages of completion that are all set in my Cygnus War universe that I’ll probably start getting back into next week. In terms of personal projects, I’m also working on creating an entire Level IV of ComStar units for a game called BattleTech. That’s a big project, involving the assembly and painting of about 216 individual miniatures for the game. It has no real practical use for gameplay, and it’s more of a passion project, but I’m still working on it.
