Roanoke’s Rod Belcher, who has risen to the top ranks of science fiction writers in the U.S., has a lot going on in the next couple of weeks. His new hardcover King of the Road debuts December 3 and Queen of Swords, which came out in June 2017, will debut as a trade paperback Thursday, November 22. Belcher, 51, has been writing books since 2012. Between 2002 and 2012, he was a freelance journalist.
King, says Belcher, (who goes by R.S. Belcher professionally) “is the first sequel to Brotherhood of the Wheel, the book being developed for TV. It’s my seventh book and part of my third book series. The other two series are the weird western Golgotha series and the supernatural noir detective Nightwise series.
“Golgotha has three books in the series to date. Queen of Swords is the third and latest book in that series. I have a fourth I’m close to finishing. The Nightwise series has two books at present.”
It all equals a complex balancing act for Belcher. “I’m at work on a project right now I can’t discuss publicly because of [a non-disclosure agreement], but I’m hoping to be able to talk more about it by next spring. After I finish that I have a deal with Audible to write a new book exclusively for it to release as an audio book. [Then] I’m working on a stand-alone novel set mostly in Roanoke.”
How does he keep these very different plot-lines separate? “I take lots of notes to keep thing straight. I usually get six to eight hours [of work] in a day as family and life [he has two young adult kids] permits.
“I’m averaging about four months to finish a novel and I draw a lot of inspiration from my life experiences, my family and to this part of the country. This area is rich in stories and people who make great inspiration for characters. Some pop up in my head but they’ve usually been percolating a while.”
Brotherhood of the Wheel and the new one, King of the Road, “deal with a secret society of truckers, motorcycle gangs, state troopers, taxi, Uber and Lyft drivers and anyone else who lives or works on America’s highways. These normal working-class people protect travelers on the roads from menaces and monsters both mundane and supernatural. The books use a lot of American folk lore and Urban Legends. King of the Road pits our heroes against an interstate serial killer connected to an army of lethal killer clowns.” Oh.
His advice to budding fiction writers: “I’m actually speaking to students at my old high school, Glenvar High, after Thanksgiving,” he says. “I tell anyone who wants to write for a living to read as much and as broadly as you can. Don’t give up, no matter how many rejections you receive and to remember life isn’t a support system for art. It’s the other way around (that last is from Stephen King).”
Belcher will be the keynote speaker for the annual Roanoke Regional Writer Conference as well, sharing the “Before and After” of his journey in the publishing industry, and how writing has always been a part of him. (Learn more about his keynote here.)
About the Writer:
Dan Smith is an award-winning Roanoke-based writer/author/photographer and a member of the Virginia Communications Hall of Fame (Class of 2010). His blog, fromtheeditr.com, is widely read and he has authored seven books, including the novel CLOG! He is founding editor of a Roanoke-based business magazine and a former Virginia Small Business Journalist of the Year (2005).
