Next up in my series of author interviews with SFINCS contest finalists, I’m now welcoming Andrew Watson, author of Silence is Silver, a fantasy prequel novella (and this one’s available free, FYI!).
Silence is Silver by Andrew Watson
The Urdahl believe pain is inevitable. But if one can lean into that suffering they can achieve anything.
Beneath the desert sands, Bas has spent his entire life training to become a fully-fledged Urdahl. And now his time has come to prove his worth. First, he must drink from the Seeing Bowl to clear his clouded mind and witness visions bestowed to him by ancient deities. Next, he must prove strength of body with the Passage of the High Pass. But destiny is shrouded in red and strength of arm will not be enough to survive its true tests.
Will he ascend to a full Urdahl or will his visions of blood come to pass?
The turning season has begun.
Taking place before the events of the Shadowbinders trilogy, “Silence is Silver” is a novella for both old and new readers.
Also available in print and signed.
About the Author
Andrew Watson lives on the outskirts of Edinburgh where he rambles about made up people and places. He has a first class degree in Digital Media from Edinburgh Napier University and currently works as a freelance video editor and author. Andrew can also be found on YouTube and Instagram where he jumps around excitedly shouting about books.
ANow, let us begin!
PW: What inspired you to write Silence is Silver?
AW: While writing Harbinger of Justice, I had outlined a story for a side character called Bas. He is quite a mysterious character as he’s part of a sub culture that I didn’t get to explore in the main book. But I had his origin story in my head and loved the idea behind the Urdahl (the sub culture), so I knew that I had to explore that part of the world with this unusual, stoic group of people.
PW: Was it always intentionally a novella?
AW: I always planned Silence is Silver to be a novella. I wanted to delve into Bas’ origin and a key turning point in his life that set him off into the narrative of the main books. It was an element of my outlining for the main series that would have felt tacked onto Harbinger of Justice as the events are more tangential than directly related. However, I loved the story and character of Bas so I put it aside to write as a novella so that I could scratch that itch. I also wanted to have a free shorter piece of writing that I could give away for free to let new readers see if they enjoyed my writing style.
PW: Good to hear it went to plan! Do you find you’re usually able to stick to what you intend with writing? (As this isn’t always the case!)
AW: I’m pretty good at judging the length of a story. I usually fall around the word count goal by a couple thousand words. The content is a different matter. Even with an outline, I discover so much of the story from the first draft. It’s still malleable at that stage and I can add characters, combine characters, change or add plot points etc.
PW: And how does this book fit into the rest of your work?
AW: Silence is Silver is a prequel novella to the Shadowbinders Trilogy. It takes place about a year before book 1, Harbinger of Justice. However, I wrote it in a way that it isn’t required reading and both new readers and those who had already read book 1 can enjoy it. I would recommend it to be read before book 3 but otherwise it’s a side adventure, fleshing out a secondary character that shows up in the main series.
PW: Duly noted! So, next, do you find this length of story presents any particular benefits compared to longer or shorter forms?
AW: What I love about writing a novella is that you can really focus on one element of the story. Be it a character or setting or moment in time. For me, it is perfect for supplementing the main series with side stories that I have in my head, and personally love, but that wouldn’t make much sense to drop into the full books as lengthy B stories. As well as this, the Urdahl are self-serving and rather insular as people, so it made sense to have a more stripped back story following Bas and the Urdahl.
PW: Definitely agree there, particularly when we’re dealing with fantasy where there’s an expectation to always do something bigger, when sometimes you just want to scratch a smaller itch… Though does publishing a novella present any particular challenges compared to longer or shorter work?
AW: One of the troubles I ran into while planning Silence is Silver is that the story has a lot of world building that isn’t explored in the main books relating to this sub culture. They have a very different outlook on life compared to the rest of the country and trying to explore that within a shorter work, while still getting across all the important elements, was something I considered a lot while planning the novella. However, my philosophy on world building, and information dumps, is that the focus should be on what comes up naturally in the narrative. It is about finding ways to organically share the information required. That way nothing is forced and everything feels natural to the story. I also included epigraphs with short ideals that the Urdahl follow before each chapter that further helped build their sub culture’s identity.
PW: This is a good point, particularly with novellas we can’t put in too much background. So did you find there was a rather disproportionate amount of work needed to flesh out the world?
AW: I wouldn’t say there was more work involved. When outlining I made sure all the world building was given as it was needed. Or in some cases alluded to, so that I could have a full explanation later when it better fit the story. I did have some world building notes that weren’t required to understand the narrative. So while outlining, I did look over the information given to ensure it was organic and made sense to share it, otherwise it was cut. I will keep all my notes and if the Urdahl show up again in other works I may use some of it, but I’d rather share what the reader needs to know and makes sense to include rather than dropping excess lore.
However, some of it will likely come up in book 3 as the Urdahl are involved. They are equally affected by what’s going on in Tarris in book 2, The Black Mantle. That being said, as it’s an additional novella I’ll have to take into consideration readers who haven’t read Silence is Silver and cover whatever world building is required to understand the events of book 3.
PW: Do you have any notable experience to share for marketing novella-length fiction?
AW: I am giving away Silence is Silver for free. So from a marketing stand point, I reference it as a free way to check out my series to see if it works for the individual reader. With the huge amount of terrific reading material available, having this short and free novella is a great way for new readers to try your work with little time (and money) investment.
PW: That’s very true. So what’s next for this book, and your work in general?
AW: The Shadowbinders Trilogy is only the start to a larger connected series that will contain more full length books and novellas. I’m incredibly proud of Silence is Silver and glad it was first. However, there is another novella planned between books two and three coming this year. And then the final book in the trilogy, Storm of Shadows, releases 2026.
PW: Lots go be getting on with! That’s what we like to hear, more more more. Lastly, how has reaching the SFINCS finals impacted you?
AW: The SFINCS competition has brought new readers to Silence is Silver and also the main series. Which has been incredible and I’m very grateful to the team behind SFINCS. However, I’ve also loved interacting with some of the other authors too, who are just the nicest people. Not to mention the fantastic sounding novellas that I have added to my TBR. I’m very excited to read a bunch of the other entrants.
PW: Me too! Thanks for your time and good luck in the contest!
I’ll be back soon with the next of our finalist interviews, and remember you can keep up with the full competition here. And be sure to check out Silence is Silver!
