Wesley King is not your average YA author. In The Vindico, he explores the themes of heroism and villainy as a bunch of bright young kids are recruited to become…supervillains. King shares more on his book, his background and his dream of becoming a Jedi warrior below.
Young Adult: When did you decide to start writing?
Wesley King: I was always writing as a kid. I used to imagine new superheroes and villains, draw pictures of them, and then make up elaborate backstories. So I pretty much do the exact same thing now. Except I gave up on the pictures. I’m a terrible artist.
YA: Tell us a little bit about your latest work.
WK: The Vindico is a story about people and relationships that just so happens to include superpowers, dark humor, and epic battle scenes. It’s about five regular kids who are taken on as protégés by the world’s most dangerous supervillains, The Vindico. Through that premise the book explores the grey areas between good and evil, the new friendships that form between the very different protégés, and the secrets we all have in our lives and the ways we choose to deal with them.
YA: What are some of the qualities in your latest work that set it/you apart from what’s currently out there on the market?
WK: There isn’t a huge superhero component to the genre, apart from graphic novels and comics, so I think it’s a nice change in the current YA market. And it’s funny: The Vindico is a novel with serious questions and serious issues, but it’s also is full of one-liners and ridiculous situations and general good fun. At the end of the day, it would be awesome to have superpowers, and I wanted the story to convey that. I did spend most of my childhood thinking about what it would be like, and actually, I still do.
YA: What are the top three things that appeal to you about the young adult genre?
WK: Number one is that I still feel like a teenager. I love fantasy and new worlds and other things that I can only find in a good book, and the young adult genre has always been full of imagination. Number two is that young adult is flexible. Adults read it, and middle graders read it. It’s the perfect middle ground. Number three is that I like happy stories. I love historical fiction, but it’s generally full of murder and failed romances and so forth. Sometimes it’s nice when books don’t end with cheating scandals and coup d’états. Of course, sometimes they contain children fighting to the death. There goes that theory.
| YA: Who would you count among your strongest influences, and why? WK: In terms of authors, I think I was definitely influenced by J.K. Rowling in the sense that I fell in love with the idea of growing up with your characters and delving into darker and darker themes. That’s a concept that I hope to emulate. But it’s hard to choose really—I’ve read a lot of books, and I suspect they’ve all influenced me in one way or the other. I was a big time Star Wars nerd (still am), and so I read a ton of Star Wars novels growing up. Mainly they influenced me to try and be a Jedi, but I’m sure I learned a few things about writing along the way. YA: If you could cast the Dream Film Adaptation of your work, who would you cast? |
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YA: Do you have pursuits outside of young adult fiction?
WK: I do indeed. I’ve also written the first book of an adult science fiction series, and I’ve recently started writing screenplays. My first original screenplay is a very dark horror/comedy that most certainly falls in the adult range. I love YA, but it can be fun to write for adult audiences. It doesn’t have anything to do with complexity. Young adult readers are the sharpest ones around. It just lets you write about some slightly more mature themes. And then there are sports and my ongoing dreams of becoming a Jedi!
