I’m delighted to chat today with J. S. Dewes, author of the fast-paced, sci-fi adventure The Last Watch, where a handful of soldiers stand between humanity and annihilation.
Can you tell us a little about your novel’s backstory?
I discovered the family video camera when I was maybe 7 or 8, and immediately fell in love with making movies! I pursued my Bachelors in Film Production with a focus in cinematography, and after that worked freelance on independent shorts and feature films all around the Midwest. I’ve written scripts for my own films most of my life, and those skills definitely propelled me into my current love for novel writing.
Can you pinpoint when in your life you decided to be a writer?
I loved reading and writing as a kid, and English was always one of my favorite classes. However, once I started making films, that quickly became my primary story-telling outlet! It wasn’t until 2015 that I really re-discovered my love for fiction writing when I started to write fan fiction for some of my favorite video games. It was an incredible feeling to get positive feedback from readers who loved the story and were always so excited when I’d post a new chapter. Eventually, it gave me enough confidence to try writing my own novel!
Who are your favorite authors?
A few of my long-time favorites are Arthur C. Clarke, Ray Bradbury, Brandon Sanderson, Martha Wells, and Kevin Hearne. There are a few newer authors whose repertoires I just know I’m going to love as well, including Megan E. O’Keefe, Alex White, and C.A. Higgins.
What was your path to publishing for this book?
I drafted The Last Watch in about four months, then did a few rounds with critique partners and beta readers over the next six months before I started querying agents. I queried agents for about nine months before signing, then we revised for a few months before going out on submission to publishers in May 2018. Then I signed the contract with Tor in December 2018! We ended up with a pretty long lead time before the first book published in April 2021, mostly due to wanting a rapid release schedule for the second book, which comes out already this August!
What’s a piece of advice you’d give to aspiring authors?
Take the time to find yourself great critique partners and beta readers—ones who not only give great constructive feedback, but whose opinions you trust and whose own work you love to read yourself. It’s so hard to put yourself out there as a young writer, but critique partners were such a crucial part of my growth, I can’t stress enough how critical I think that step of the process is!
Connecting with the right people can take time and diligence, but it’s so worth it in the end. Your craft will improve and you’ll make some great friends as a bonus! (Might I suggest: www.scribophile.com, where I first connected with all of my current amazing, incredible, wonderful, talented critique partners.)
What inspired you to write this book?
The original concept for The Last Watch was inspired by a song lyric! There’s a song I’ve loved for years called “Highwayman” (written by Jimmy Webb), with a line: “I’ll fly a starship across the universe divide.” That got me thinking about what might lie outside the confines of the universe, or what might happen if the universe stopped expanding and you tried to find the edge.
Other aspects were inspired by a variety of things: other song lyrics, sketches that inspired some of the characters, and film/tv/games. I would say Battlestar Galactica and the Mass Effect video game series are two primary inspirations.
What is your pitch for this book?
I typically lead with “it’s the Night’s Watch in space,” which honestly is pretty accurate. Readers can expect a fast-paced, character-driven adventure, twists on familiar sci-fi tropes, competence porn, gallows humor, knife battles with gross aliens, dangerous ship maneuvering, and misfit underdogs saving the day! (We hope!)
What makes your book different from others in your genre?
Something unique that readers may not have seen before in The Last Watch is the setting itself, at the edge of the universe. Outskirts of a system or galaxy maybe, but there aren’t too many stories I’ve heard of that depict a finite universe, or variations on the typically accepted universal models for their settings.
But understandably, positing a finite universe can somewhat challenge one’s suspension of disbelief, so I made sure readers would find a lot of familiar tropes as well to help create a sort of comfort balance if you will—so you’ll find things like found family, royalty in space, time dilation, ancient alien artifacts, nanotechnology, and much more!
Which character is your favorite?
I love every one of my characters in different ways, but if I had to pick one favorite it’d probably be the ship’s long-suffering second-in-command, Jackin North. He’s competent, loyal, and always standing by with the healthy dose of pessimism every saving-the-universe effort needs.
He also kind of came out of left-field for me. I never intended him to play more than a secondary role, but through revisions and in writing the second book, his role grew tremendously. He now plays such a crucial role in the course of events, I have no idea how I’d ever conceived of the series without him!
Describe your main character in three words.
Adequin Rake: competent, empathetic, tired.
Cavalon Mercer: sarcastic, intelligent, idiotic.
What is the central message you hope readers take away from the novel?
I don’t think there’s any one specific takeaway, but one of the great things about genre fiction is that it can lend itself well toward becoming sort of a thematic melting pot, and The Last Watch is no exception! Some of the more prevalent themes are camaraderie, duty, societal ostracism, failure, and redemption. But it also touches on things like disillusionment, trust, assumptions and skewed perceptions, morality, eugenics, political corruption—just to name a few. Really, I just hope the readers connect to the characters and through them are able to find a connection to the narrative that’s personally significant to them.
Do you hide any secrets in the book that only a few people will find?
Years back, my critique partner circle realized that we’d all—completely separately of one another—happened to name a character in our books some version of Ivon/Ivan, and it became somewhat of an inside joke. Because of that, I made sure to include one in The Last Watch (Ivanna), and there’s one in the sequel as well! I intend to include one in every book I write. 🙂
Also, any time I need a random string of numbers, I pull them from something connected to my family or friends!
What’s one thing readers would be surprised to learn about you?
During the early 2010s, I worked as a lighting director for presidential, vice presidential, and first lady speeches. Locations ranged from atomic laboratories to nuclear submarine shipyards to high school gyms. I worked with the Secret Service, became highly skilled at packing a TSA-Approved bag in under five minutes, and learned more about pipe and drape than I ever wanted to know. 🙂
What’s your favorite personal quote or motto?
“Kill the closest snake.” I saw the saying on a pennant years ago and immediately connected with it, then promptly purchased it and hung it up in my office. It helps me remember to focus on the next, achievable issue, and to try to not get too caught up in the bigger picture, which can overwhelm my perfectionist tendencies sometimes, haha.
What is your official author bio?
J. S. Dewes has a bachelor of arts in filmmaking from Columbia College Chicago and has written scripts for award-winning films, which have screened at San Diego Comic-Con and dozens of film festivals across the nation. A creative at heart, she enjoys video games, drawing, photography, graphic design, and all things visual. The Last Watch is her debut novel.
Where can readers purchase your published work?
The Last Watch is available pretty much anywhere books, ebooks, or audiobooks are sold! I would always encourage supporting a local indie bookstore if you have one, but here are some links to common online retailers: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Indiebound | Powell’s | Macmillan.
What are you working on now?
Next up for me is the release of The Exiled Fleet on August 17—the second book in The Divide series and sequel The Last Watch!
And finally, where can readers find you on the web?
I’m most active on Instagram, but you can also find me on Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest, @jsdewes on all platforms! And my website, www.jsdewes.com.
Synopsis of The Last Watch
The Expanse meets the Night’s Watch from Game of Thrones in J. S. Dewes’s fast-paced, sci-fi adventure The Last Watch, where a handful of soldiers stand between humanity and annihilation.
The Divide.
It’s the edge of the universe.
Now it’s collapsing―and taking everyone and everything with it.
The only ones who can stop it are the Sentinels―the recruits, exiles, and court-martialed dregs of the military.
At the Divide, Adequin Rake commands the Argus. She has no resources, no comms―nothing, except for the soldiers that no one wanted. Her ace in the hole could be Cavalon Mercer—genius, asshole, and exiled prince who nuked his grandfather’s genetic facility for “reasons.”