Adam Holt, the author of the Tully Harper Series, interviewed me about volleyball and writing my first book.
I’ve posted the interview here but be sure to check out Adam’s blog and his books.
Q&A with Writer and Pro Volleyball Athlete Billy Ketch Allen
This week, the Lone Star Rambler introduces you to two people.
This is writer Billy Allen.
This is pro volleyball player Billy Allen.
Okay, well, one person, and I’m glad he agreed to an interview.
A brief bio…
Billy Allen is a pro beach volleyball player and writer, among other things. He played volleyball and studied Creative Writing at Cal State Northridge. He hasn’t stopped doing either of those things, and he’s done them both quite well. As a beach volleyball player, he has racked up impressive wins on the AVP and some solid finishes in international play, with an eye on qualifying for Tokyo in 2020. As a writer, he’s recently published his debut novel, Good Blood.
Watch him win a tournament here.
Skip my interview and read his new book here!
Still reading? Okay, cool. 🙂
I’ve been thinking about the interplay between my own writing and volleyball lives. How do they influence and improve each other? With his Olympic ambitions and
I was not wrong.
Q&A | ADAM ASKS BILLY…
First of all, give us a great elevator pitch for your new book, Good Blood.
It’s a fantasy novel set in a medieval world where blood is the most important commodity. The ruling class has enslaved a race of people to harvest their healing blood for themselves. When a mysterious boy shows up with off the charts blood, everyone fights to get their hands on him.
In your book, the characters’ bloodlines determines their fates. Where did this idea originate?
It started with the idea of the different blood types. How some, like a universal donor, could be more valuable. Then it became, what if people were born with a special blood type that had healing properties that could be transmuted to others? What would your
At first, it was going to be a sci-fi book, but then I read a fantasy book I really liked (The Name of the Wind) and I thought it would be fun to write a story in that vein. So I shifted the premise to a medieval fantasy setting.
Will you also give us a great pitch for yourself as a volleyball player?
Ha, not as exciting. I’d say I’m an everyman who worked hard and stuck with it longer than most, basically outlasting the competition. I’m not the best in a single category, but I have a good all-around game and I’m steady. I get a little better every year and that has paid off for me.
You’ve trained as a volleyball player since your earliest years and now play the beach game at the highest level. What about that has shaped your creative process?
I think the work ethic of an athlete translates to writing. Putting in the effort and working hard even when I don’t feel my best, or am lacking motivation. Sitting in a chair and making stuff up can feel hard sometimes, but it’s easier than going to the gym.
Also, in my volleyball career I’ve seen how much improvement comes from learning new things and working on my game little by little. I didn’t expect to be a pro right out of the gate. I look at writing the same way. My focus is on improving more than being perfect today.
Do you look at literature as an escape from your daily life? If not, what about your art imitates your life?
I think creative projects balance me out. They give me a different outlet than
Training for sand, like revising and editing, can be grueling processes. What keeps you motivated during that process? How do you overcome barriers, whether it’s writer’s block or a setback at a tournament?
Taking the long-term view has helped. It’s easy to get frustrated with one bad game or one bad tournament, but if I’m learning from it and improving, if I’m moving in the right direction, then it’s paying off. Every rep I get is making me better and putting another brick in the foundation. It’s the same with writing. The story might not come out as good as the idea sounded in my head, but I did the work, it’s on down on paper. I can learn from it and the next one will be better. Those words, even the bad ones, are necessary steps in getting to the better ones. As far as editing, it’s easier to be objective and get feedback when I separate my value from the book and look at it as a piece of work I’m trying to make better.
Also, you should enjoy it. Sometimes it will suck, but it helps me to step back and reflect on how lucky I am to be where I am or to look at what I’ve created. I lost in an AVP final this year after having match point, and it crushed me for a couple of days. Then I realized how much the me from a couple years ago would be dying to get the chance to play in a final. It’s all about progress and how you bounce back.
What’s one tip for improving as a writer? And what’s one you can give me – I mean, us – about playing great volleyball?
Done is better than perfect. That idea has helped me. I’ve always written, but I never finished projects, things just stopped and existed as abandoned stories on my hard-drive. If you fiddle with stuff forever, afraid to put it out there and show others because it’s not as good as To Kill A Mockingbird, you’ll never finish anything.
For volleyball, I’d say have a specific focus in practice. It’s easy to resort to old habits and what’s comfortable when you’re competing and there is a score involved. Use training games to push yourself out of your comfort zone and focus on improving one specific focus, rather than juggling too many things or just trying to win.
Who are your mentors in volleyball and writing? What do they have in common?
In both I mostly modeled from afar, watching videos of Todd Rogers play or reading writers like Kurt Vonnegut. What those two have in common are precision and efficiency. No wasted movements or words with those two.
John Mayer is a more recent mentor for me in volleyball, and I’m lucky to have him coaching me now. His work ethic and how he values learning is inspiring. Similarly, the prolific writers of today who publish multiple books every year are extremely inspiring.
As an athlete, you’re shooting to qualify for Tokyo 2020. How does that affect your everyday life? What would you consider “medaling” as a writer?
Volleyball is my priority right now. Some days are too full with training and lifting and watching video that I know I won’t get writing in or as much as I’d like to. I’m learning to be okay with that. My volleyball window is much shorter, but hopefully I’ll be writing for the rest of my life. Anything I do now is a head start on the post-volleyball writing career.
I guess medaling as a writer would be growing a readership of people who love my books and be to able to make a living writing full-time, not just in the cracks of my life or when I get home from a real job. But I can’t control the money part as much as the work I produce, so, job or hobby, I’d like to keep putting books out that I’m proud of.
You said, “I am not my book just as I am not my hitting percentage. If I look at it objectively I will welcome feedback and watch those mistakes over and over so I can make changes. Mistakes are only changeable if they’re acknowledged.” I love this idea of creative distance. I try to apply that, too, and I tell my students “You are not your results. You’re not your grades. You’re more important than that.”
Yeah, who you are as a person is more important than your performance. That separation is important and something I have to remind myself.
So now that book reviews are coming in, how are you doing with keeping that creative distance from your work?
Ha, I think all those times I’ve been heckled on the volleyball court has been preparing me for bad reviews. I tell myself this book just isn’t for them. There are books I didn’t like or didn’t connect with for whatever reason, and it has nothing to do with thinking
Does this idea of “I am not my book,” of identity beyond accomplishment, bleed into your fiction? If so, how?
I think I set my expectations pretty low for myself. I like Good Blood a lot, and I’m really proud of it, but I told myself throughout the writing process that it is my first book and that the next one I write will be better.
As far as bleeding into my stories, I might be more understanding of a character’s mistakes. They’re going to try and fail and lose fights, but losing doesn’t define them. How they respond does. I love a hero who gets up and keeps fighting, no matter the outcome.
You’re writing fantasy. How did you develop your world? What influenced it, and what overlaps do you see with our real world?
Creating a new world is fun, coming up with the differences in currency, religion, and names. I want it to be mostly familiar—not too out there so the world is unrecognizable–but to definitely have some tweaks. But you can get lost world building and planning out every detail. I keep the setting descriptions pretty light and get on with the story because that’s what I like as a reader. Two pages describing a tree can be pretty self-indulgent. Though, creating a map was fun.
There are lots of overlaps to the real world, human nature stays the same. People in power take advantage of those without power. My characters have struggles and temptations and dilemmas like everyone faces. They just fight it out with swords 🙂
Which AVP pros willingly nerd out with you about fantasy? Which ones are immune to fiction? I know some of my volleyball friends are non-readers, but I’m making some progress.
Lauren Fendrick is a big fantasy reader and one of the first people I approached to read an early draft. I’ve talked to Todd Rogers about fantasy books and authors, I sent him an early copy, but I never heard back. He must not have liked it.
I’ve chatted with Travis Mewhirter about writing and publishing. He writes non-fiction, but we both can share how good it feels to get the cover art back or to get that first copy of your book in the mail.
So we’re wrapping up 2018. I know this because Facebook reminded me
I’m playing with a new/old partner this year, Stafford Slick. We’re trying to qualify for the Olympics so we’re going to as many tournaments as we can. So, it’ll be a busy year of traveling. More than I ever have in the past. My goal is to commit fully and go for it.
As a writer, I have two projects I’m working on and would like to finish in 2018. They’re different genres. One is a thriller set in present-day Jaurez/El Paso. The other is a coaching book, based on lessons learned from Coach Your Brains Out, a volleyball coaching podcast I’ve done for a few years. That one is a collaboration with John Mayer, so it has been fun writing with someone else. After that, it’s back to the fantasy world of Terene with the Good Blood sequel.
Anything else you want to add?
Thanks for chatting. It’s easy to get caught up focusing on the next tournament or the next book, it’s nice to stop and reflect for a change.
Ready to start Good Blood or hear more from Billy? You’ll find all your needs fulfilled right here.
BONUS CONTENT! Billy had some good questions for me, too. I’ll post some of those as bonus content at some point, but here are two.
Q&A | BILLY ASKS ADAM…
How are you getting better at volleyball? What are you working on, what’s your approach?
Telling this to a pro makes me feel like I’m confessing my sins. “Forgive me, it has been five days since my last decent cut shot.” So I play a few times a week and it’s often king of the beach. I like the KOB format, to play with different people and try to figure out what it will take for us to win. It’s helped me become a better indoor coach, too. But I think in particular, I’ve worked on aggressive consistent jump serving and better defensive reading. Playing well in open tournament has always been my long-term motivation, and trying to win our KOB tournaments is the short-term. I don’t get fixated on winning since this is a hobby for me, but I do want to play my best every time I hit the court.
What does being a successful writer mean to you?
When I get questions about the book from young readers, that feels like success to me. I’ve made them think, and that’s one of my big goals. But more broadly, thinking about poetry and music, too, I want to write and perform in such a way that is inspiring and uplifting to readers and listeners. I don’t know how many people will end up reading my books, or when they will get read. Maybe I’ll be long gone or maybe not, so I can only define success by picturing those small impact adding up over time, kind of like the number of words in my current draft. Success is one more word than yesterday.
Love and rockets, – A
Thanks Adam!