{"id":17864,"date":"2019-07-10T09:00:44","date_gmt":"2019-07-10T16:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/?p=17864"},"modified":"2019-07-18T09:27:51","modified_gmt":"2019-07-18T16:27:51","slug":"camosun-alumnus-toys-with-genre-expectations-with-new-book","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2019\/07\/10\/camosun-alumnus-toys-with-genre-expectations-with-new-book\/","title":{"rendered":"Camosun alumnus toys with genre expectations with new book"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Local author Logan Hunder recently released his second novel, Astro-Nuts<\/em>, but six years ago, he was a Camosun student about to graduate from the Criminal Justice program. Although he had never taken more than the mandatory English classes required for his degree, in the months after he graduated, he decided to attempt to write his first novel, Witches Be Crazy<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe summer I graduated from Camosun\u2014so, 2013\u2014I just sat down and I just wanted to see if I even could do a book from start to finish, and I didn\u2019t think I was going to do anything with it,\u201d he admits. \u201cI just thought maybe I\u2019d print it out and put it in a binder somewhere and show it to my friends.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
Camosun Criminal Justice alumnus Logan Hunder (photo by Adam Marsh\/Nexus<\/em>).<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The process of writing his first book took around 11 months; Hunder wrote it in his spare time between part-time jobs. Since joining the Royal Canadian Navy just over two years ago, Hunder, who works as a naval communicator on HMCS Vancouver<\/em>, admits that it\u2019s harder to find time to work on his third novel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019re actually at sea, it\u2019s a little bit tougher because you\u2019re generally working about 12-hour days,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd you don\u2019t really have internet access on your laptop or anything like that, so you have to just kind of find time wherever you can.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still, Hunder makes time to jot down ideas as they come to him. The results are some quirky novels that defy the typical expectations of their genres with humour and wit. Witches Be Crazy<\/em> puts a spin on fantasy, while Astro-Nuts<\/em> branches into the world of sci-fi\u2014a move Hunder made at the suggestion of his editor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt seemed like the most logical jump from fantasy if you\u2019re going to change genres,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hunder says he watched a lot of the TV show The Expanse<\/em> to get a feel for the kind of sci-fi he wanted to go for. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFrom there, I just kind of wing it,\u201d he says. \u201cI can\u2019t take anything seriously long enough to put a whole novel together, so unless I\u2019m making fun of it, there\u2019s no way I\u2019m going to get any work done.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After tackling fantasy and sci-fi, Hunder is toying with a murder-mystery for his next book; he says that he really wants to write a western as well. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere\u2019s so many different genres out there that I feel like I\u2019m really not going to run out of options anytime soon,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hunder says that his books use the genres more as a jumping-off point for the characters and that the cohesion of his books lies in how he tries to poke fun at the tropes and structure of whatever genre he\u2019s writing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAt its core, every story is more about the characters and the plot than the actual genre I\u2019m trying to subvert,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No matter what genre Hunder is playing around with, the one thing that his novels will always have is humour. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEven though the genres will change, all of them will have just this air of silliness and slapstick, and complete lack of regard for seriousness, right?\u201d Hunder says. \u201cAll of them tend to be fairly lighthearted stories, and I think you don\u2019t necessarily have to like the genre itself to enjoy the story.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still, there\u2019s one genre Hunder doesn\u2019t think he\u2019ll be tackling soon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI feel like if I wrote a romance novel it would be so unbearable and over-the-top that people wouldn\u2019t even realize I\u2019m kidding, and it will become accidentally successful, and I\u2019ll be the only one in on the joke,\u201d he says with a laugh.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Local author Logan Hunder recently released his second novel, Astro-Nuts, but six years ago, he was a Camosun student about to graduate from the Criminal Justice program. Although he had never taken more than the mandatory English classes required for his degree, in the months after he graduated, he decided to attempt to write his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17865,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,233],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17864","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus","category-july-10-2019"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17864","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17864"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17864\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17866,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17864\/revisions\/17866"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17865"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17864"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}