Set Sytes was born in the misty, Arthurian woods of England and was raised by bears. He grew up learning how to do and be many things at the same time, including slaying monsters, sailing pirate ships, rescuing damsels in distress (who turned out to be neither in distress nor, in fact, damsels), and commanding great armies (the strategy involved inevitably being "everybody charge at the enemy").
As the Real World struck with a calamitous clang, Set was found wandering around in the desolate aftermath, completely uncertain about what was now expected of him. He faffed and stumbled around for an embarrassingly long time (sometimes failing quite spectacularly) and then finally turned his hand to the only thing he remembered being any good at as a kid: writing. He was relieved to break the curse of never having finished anything in his life, when he finished his first novel. Which was, uh, okay-ish.
Set has since authored many stories of darkness and weirdness and flights of fancy, including the pirate fantasy series India Muerte, the sci-fantasy/Weird West series The Fifth Place, the thoroughly twisted dystopian thriller Moral Zero, and the fantasy/horror short story collections of Faces in the Dark and Born to be Weird.
Set requests politely that you don't put onions anywhere near his food.
It never got weird enough for me.
Those are my principles, if you don't like them… I have others.
Only you have ever understood me ... and you got it wrong.
I can resist everything except temptation.
Perhaps the only difference between me and other people was that I've always demanded more from the sunset; more spectacular colors when the sun hit the horizon. That's perhaps my only sin.
Ordinary life does not interest me.
Ah, but a man's reach must exceed his grasp, or what's a Heaven for?
A man writes because he is tormented, because he doubts. He needs to constantly prove to himself and the others that he's worth something. And if I know for sure that I'm a genius? Why write then? What the hell for?
I never forget anything because I never intended to remember it in the first place.
It's taken me so long but now that I know I believe
All that I do or say is all that I ever will be
Too far and too high and too deep ain't too much to be
Too much ain't enough for old five and dimers like me
You fail only if you stop writing.
Books (mostly sci-fi, fantasy, horror, western, historical fiction), movies (especially action adventure), videogames, long super-thematic boardgames, music (including classical, cinematic, 1920s-30s American folk & blues, 40s wartime, doo-wop, rock n' roll, rockabilly, electric blues, classic rock, punk, prog, roots rock, country/americana (trad/honkytonk/outlaw/alt/gothic), alt singer-songwriters, metal (alt, industrial, glam, groove, black, death, doom), some hardcore rap, EBM (not EDM) and some DnB, cheesy pop, Disney music, pirate music), adventure & exploration, dreaming, dancing, dressing up, being disreputable.
Cormac McCarthy, Stephen King, H.P. Lovecraft, Philip Pullman, JRR Tolkien, Terry Pratchett, HG Wells, George MacDonald Fraser, Paul Stewart & Chris Riddell, Harry Potter, Batman. And all the movies. Especially Indiana Jones. And loads of music. And videogames.
Basically everything, really.
Imaginative, creative, ridiculously ambitious, tries to understand, reasonably compassionate, means well, anti-racist, fashion sense.
Lazy, sinful, hedonistic, stubborn, terrible short-term motivation, terrible long-term motivation, inattentive ADHD, "away with the fairies", paradoxical mixture of insecurity and narcissism, can't function in regular life, digital masochist, always digging a hole, generally hopeless, Jammie Dodgers and Jaffa Cakes, fashion sense.
How many books will there be in the India Bones and The Fifth Place series?
7 books each.
Why is the world of India Bones called "Dunia/Maji"?
The world has many names, but two of them are equally dominant, and it's a matter of preference which you use. Dunia - Earth - is the more common name used by inland cultures. Maji - Water - is the more common name used by coastal and marine cultures.
What is India Bones's ethnicity?
I don't know for sure, not exactly - I doubt even he does. But I reckon it's a mix of Mexican, Yorkish and perhaps other Caribbean. How much of the Mexican in him is indigenous, I couldn't say.
Are there plans for future stories set in Dunia/Maji, after the India Bones series comes to an end?
Oh, yes.
*shrug*
One must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star.
A writer lives the sad truth like anyone else. The only difference is, he files a report on it.
If you trust in yourself. . . and believe in your dreams. . . and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.
I have a deeply hidden and inarticulate desire for something beyond the daily life.
But I, being poor, have only my dreams; I have spread my dreams under your feet; Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.
I have immortal longings in me.
The only thing I was fit for was to be a writer, and this notion rested solely on my suspicion that I would never be fit for real work, and that writing didn’t require any.
Fortune and glory, kid. Fortune and glory.