Teardown by William Campbell Powell

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. William Campbell Powell will be awarding a $20 Amazon/BN gift card to a randomly drawn winner. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

Welcome to It's Raining Books. Why do you write in your genre? What draws you to it?

First, let me say thank you for inviting me to contribute to your blog, and for the thoughtful questions.

The first thing for me is always the story I want to tell. I have an ‘Ideas Bucket’ – a folder where I jot one or two lines that might be an ingredient for a story. But ideas aren’t stories – the story happens when a couple of ideas get together – usually an unexpected pairing – and I’ll get a scene that gives me a pointer to what the story is – the characters and the plot. Once I’ve got that, the genre follows.

That’s meant that I end up working in different genres – my first published novel (Expiration Day) was YA/science fiction, whereas Teardown is more LGBT+ romance, with a dash of contemporary/road-trip. I’m currently working on a modern portal fantasy, with witches, loosely inspired by ‘The Wizard of Oz’, and querying a Historical Crime novel.

What research is required?

For Teardown, a lot of the action takes place in Germany, so there was a lot of research into the culture, particularly the culture that the tourist doesn’t get to see. My own experience playing in a band, and also visiting Germany (touring with my band twice, then often for business, and a few times for leisure) helped a lot, but some of those visits were quite a long time ago, so it was important to cross-check with German friends and work colleagues.

Writing about LGBT+ characters was challenging – while I do have LGBT+ friends and work colleagues, I didn’t feel comfortable quizzing them about such personal topics. So I engaged a sensitivity reader to put me right – not just on LGBT+ matters, but also on some of the hazards that women face (for example, when travelling) that men just don’t experience.

Name one thing you learned from your hero/heroine.

Although Kai shares many characteristics with me, I think there’s one thing that Kai does better than I do – eventually – which is to let go of things that tie me to the past. That’s not the same as letting go of the past itself, but rather to keep in mind that the things aren’t important. The photograph, or the letter is not the person. That’s just clutter. The things that matter about a person are the memories, and the imprints they made on you as a person are the things to be honoured.

Do you have any odd or interesting writing quirks, habits or superstitions?

I certainly had to develop a slightly quirky set of habits when writing from Kai’s point of view. Kai is non-binary and doesn’t have pronouns. So I had to write Kai without ever using a pronoun – including any comment or action from other characters that might have revealed Kai’s physiology or sexual characteristics. The writing process was like taking dictation from Kai, limited to what Kai was willing to reveal.

Are you a plotter or pantser?

I’m very much a pantser. I have an idea of where a story is going, but my characters do things that are unplanned. Writing is a wild ride.

Look to your right – what’s sitting there?

A professional musician’s microphone and a music keyboard. Also a music stand and a guitar. I’ve been recording the original songs that I created for Teardown. They’re at a ‘demo’ stage at the moment, which means they’ve got words, chords, a tune and instrumental backing. Such as they are, you’ll find the demos on my website via https://bit.ly/TeardownMusic.

Anything new coming up from you? What?

While there’s nothing committed, I’m hopeful that at least the portal fantasy above, and the historical novel will find a publisher soon.

Do you have a question for our readers?

Indeed I do. When you’re reading a book about bands (such as Daisy Jones & The Six) do you prefer to imagine the music for yourself, or is it helpful to be able to listen to actual recordings?

Growing up in a dead-end, Thames Valley town like Marden Combe, Kai knows there’s no escape without a lot of talent, hard work—and luck.

Two weeks before the Clayton Paul Blues Band plans to set out on tour to Germany, their singer quits, and drummer Kai takes matters in hand. With bandmates Jake and Jamie, they recruit a talented new singer—the enigmatic Dominique—as the new face of the band and set out on the road to Berlin in a rickety white van.

Dogged by mishaps and under-rehearsed, the band stumbles through their first shows, zig-zagging between chaos and brilliance. But as the first gig in Berlin draws near, the band begins to gel. They’re clicking with their audience, and even the stone-hearted Kai starts to crumble under the spell, first of Dom and then…of Lars.

As the end of the tour approaches, Kai must make hard choices. Dom? But she’s keeping a dark secret. Lars? Not after the acrimony of their last parting. The band? Or will that dream crumble too?

Read a Blurb

So I pulled the mic stand around to the side of the kit, set it up so it didn’t get in the way of the hi-hat, and we gave it a go. I picked ‘I Come from the Blues’, which was one of Clay’s compositions. It had fallen out of the set sometime in the last six months, but I loved Clay’s soft, jazzy butterscotch vocals on it. If it had been up to me, it would still be in the set, but Clay had said he wanted to move on.

Where did I come from? I come from the blues.
Where am I going? I’m going to lose.
Where is my future? I’m sure I have none.
Where is my hope? My hope is all gone.

I’ve always sung along—off-mic and under my breath—so I didn’t have any trouble fitting the words in the right places. And I’ve got decent pitch and rhythm. So I think I did all right.

Now, Jamie wouldn’t meet my eye.

“What?” I demanded. “What was wrong with that?”

He mumbled something.

“I can’t hear you, bro. What did he say, Jake?”

Jake looked away. He didn’t want to get involved in any squall between me and my brother. Besides, he’d used up all his words for the day.

“I’m not sure how to put this, Kai. You’ve got a good voice. It’s, well…not very, well, rock’n’roll. No…grit. Too pure. Sorry.”

“I see.”

“Look, we’ll ask around our friends. Social media. There’s got to be something online.”

I didn’t say anything. I was thinking lots though. About how I’d discovered that this was something I really wanted to do.

About the Author:

William lives in a small Buckinghamshire village in England. By night he writes speculative, historical, crime and other fiction. His debut novel, EXPIRATION DAY, was published by Tor Teen in 2014 and won the 2015 Hal Clement Award for better than half-decent science in a YA novel—the citation actually says "Excellence in Children's Science Fiction Literature".

William’s latest novel - TEARDOWN - was published 10th December 2024, by NineStar Press in the US; it is an LGBT+ romance/road-trip.

His short fiction has appeared in DreamForge, Metastellar, Abyss & Apex and other outlets.
By day he writes software for a living and in the twilight he sings tenor, plays guitar and writes songs.

Website: https://williamcampbellpowell.com/
Book Website: https://teardownbook.co.uk/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WillCamPowell/
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/willcampowell
BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/willcampowell.bsky.social

Buy Links: https://teardownbook.co.uk/#where The book will be on sale for $0.99

My comps for the book:

The novel combines elements of LGBTQIA+ romance with Road Trip fiction, and - with its focus on music - might sit alongside Taylor Jenkins Reid’s ‘Daisy Jones and the Six’ (2016) or Dawnie Walton’s ‘The Final Revival of Opal & Nev’ (2022), or - with its focus on (Kai's) gender-ambiguity and relationships - near Camille Perry’s ‘When Katie Met Cassidy’ (2018) or Beth O’Leary’s ‘The Road Trip’ (2022).

One USP: The book is about a band and contains original songs, for which I have created demos – see/listen: https://williamcampbellpowell.com/music/music.html

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