Joel C. Scoberg on ‘The Stench of Freedom’ and Writers of the Future

The L. Ron Hubbard Writers of the Future Contest has been shaping the next wave of genre storytellers—turning starry-eyed dreamers into published sci-fi and fantasy authors with a legacy that’s as cosmic as the stories themselves. Find out more about the contest here.

All winners of the contest get their short stories and illustrations included in the anthology for that year – this year is Volume 41 – and we spoke to one of those winners, Joel C. Scoberg, to find out more about his story ‘The Stench of Freedom’…

When did you first get the idea for The Stench of Freedom?

I often get ideas for stories as images in my head. I daydream a lot and I have a very active imagination, which I guess is true for all writers. For ‘The Stench of Freedom’, I had an image of a person strapped into a chair being struck by lightning from the sky (rather than it being an electric chair). I wondered who that person was, why were they in the chair, what purpose did the lightning serve—punishment or power? Were they controlling the lightning or was someone else?

Those questions led me to flesh out the idea of a society fuelled by people who can summon lightning to provide electricity for factories and so on, sort of like an Industrial Revolution powered by elemental magic. Being from Wales, where the Industrial Revolution played such a significant part in our modern history and culture, that setting really appealed to me. It was a dynamic time of technological progress but also great social upheaval and inequality, with political activism for better working conditions and rights. I wondered how the various elementals (magic users) would get along, would there be rivalries and which faction would have the upper hand. All those questions eventually led me to develop the fog-shrouded city of Inglebad, a kind of Victorian inspired London with magic.

What was your writing process when crafting The Stench of Freedom?

I find it easier to develop story ideas by beginning with creating the setting and high level ideas like magic systems before moving on to think of the type of people that would exist in that world. Once I had that spark of an idea for a setting, I immediately started wondering who or what would be able to exploit, and keep under control, such powerful magic users. And what sort of person would do that role? It would have to be an equally powerful magic user, but how would they justify their actions? As you can tell, I ask myself a lot of questions.

I also wanted to write a story that looked at the transformation of a character, particularly through becoming a parent. I really started writing after my daughter was born and now that I’m a dad I see the world differently and I prioritise what is best for my children. I wondered how becoming a parent could change someone who starts off the story as a pretty awful person.

Once I have the setting, the main character and a rough idea of the main plot line or conflict, I like to picture the ending so I know where the story is going. For ‘The Stench of Freedom’, I had the end scene in mind early on, pretty much as soon as I hit upon the idea for the main conflict. Then I wrote more freely in the middle.

What is the meaning behind the story’s title?

The title speaks to the main character. There is a scene at the start of the story where the main character instigates something unpleasant happening and the resulting smell, rather than repulsing or horrifying the main character, has the opposite effect. I liked the kind of jarring quality and this applies to the title too. Stench is usually used in a negative sense, so why would this apply to freedom, which is typically used in a positive sense. I wanted to pique the reader’s interest.

Is there a particular book, movie or TV show that directly influenced The Stench of Freedom?

I don’t recall having any conscious influences while writing the story. However, now that I think about it, two of my favourite books are ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’ by Oscar Wilde and ‘Frankenstein’ by Mary Shelley. I read both as a teenager and they really influenced me at the time, in the atmosphere and the questions they were asking of the reader. For example, I love how Dorian Gray was perceived by society as a very respectable young man but in fact was anything but. And, in Frankenstein, the ‘monster’ was—to begin with at least—a rather innocent, curious and lonely character who wanted to find someone like him but was mistreated based on his appearance and it caused him to lash out against society. My story touches upon those themes in the opposing roles of the mistreated ‘sparkies’ (lightning elementals) and the respectable (but really not) ‘earthers’ (earth elementals) who exploit them, which leads to the protagonist to start to question who is the real villain and is it ever too late to redeem yourself.

And, of course, my story and Frankenstein both include a prominent use of lightning to spark the story to life (excuse the pun!).

The main protagonist, Hywel Arfon (cool name by the way!) is complex to say the least – how did you go about creating him and do you think he is a sympathetic character?

Thank you! I leaned on my Welsh heritage as inspiration for some of the names in the story, which I think lend themselves well to speculative fiction.

I wanted to tell a story about a person attempting to better themself, a person seeking redemption, which meant taking a person who would usually be a villain and making them the protagonist. I wondered what a villain would be in my world, and I pictured a man with a cane walking through a fog-shrouded city toward a generating station being struck by lightning (which is the scene captured in John Barlow’s amazing illustration for my story). The cane made me think of an earth rod, which are used for diverting excess electrical current or lightning away from buildings and into the ground, and from that came the idea for ‘earthers’ as the magical users who controlled the ‘sparkies’ that summon lightning (both names are taken from or inspired by existing words used by electricians).

I have tried to make Hywel sympathetic. I wanted to show that he was a person who was blinded by ambition and the view of society towards another group to justify his actions. He does not think he is doing wrong, and nor does much of his society, and it is only when someone he loves faces the wretched future he has inflicted on others that he is forced to confront what he has become. He finally sees himself for what he is rather than who he thinks he is, and that triggers a desire to change and be better.

The story has various ‘elementals’, who all have different abilities. Do you have a favourite and which one do you think you would be?

That’s a very fun question! I’ve always been drawn to the idea of the elements and their different (magical) properties, and the element Earth in particular. I loved playing as druids in role playing games and I always chose the grass starter Pokemon (I’m a huge fan of the Pokemon games!). Although, I’ve made the Earth elementals the villains in my story, so I don’t think I should say them!

I wanted to show enough of a number of the elements in my story to encourage readers to think of these kinds of question, so I’m glad that’s worked with you!

How difficult was it to have all of the ideas of The Stench of Freedom and to tell a succinct narrative as a short story?

I really struggled to begin with. I actually started writing it about eighteen months before I submitted it to the Writers of the Future contest but I wanted to keep it at a maximum of 7,000 words. I thought that was about the limit for it to be remotely marketable if I didn’t win the contest. But I couldn’t tell the story I wanted to within that word count and it sat on my computer unfinished for well over a year. I was messaging a former winner of the contest on the online Writers of the Future forum (James Davies from Volume 40, who is also from the UK) and that chat encouraged me to go back and just write the story until it was told. And I’m glad I did! The final version is over 15,000 words, double my planned limit, and it needed to be bigger to convey the idea in my head.

I think my natural writing length is in the novella territory, which is one of the great things about the Writers of the Future contest because it has a 17,000 word limit that allowed me to write the story I wanted with a chance of it getting published.

Would you be interested in expanding the world of The Stench of Freedom further and if so, where would you go next?

I have been thinking of expanding the story into a novel but I need to sit down and plot out what storylines I would add and where else it could go. I hope the ending makes readers want to know what happens next, so I think there is scope to continue and to have this short story as the first part of a larger story.

I also have a few other short stories I’m working on that are in the same world although not in the same time period. It is definitely a setting I will revisit as I had a lot of fun writing it.

What was it like seeing John Barlow’s illustration for Writers of the Future Vol 41?

It was incredible and quite emotional, actually. John is so talented and I am absolutely delighted with his illustration. It so atmospheric and just captures the feel and essence of my story so well. I love it.

The illustration reveal is one of the most anticipated events of the Hollywood workshops and it was probably my favourite moment of the week. We were taken into the theatre in the Galaxy Press / Authors Services, Inc. building and all the illustrations were set up on easels and us writers had to find the illustration that matched our story. I was one of the first in and I spotted John’s illustration immediately. Then John came out and talked me through his process—from taking reference photos to research including Victorian posters warning of the dangers of electricity—it was fascinating. It’s so interesting to see how a creative in another medium interpreted my story.

Featuring 15 illustrated short stories by the year’s contest winners—hand-selected by some of the biggest names in the field—Writers of the Future Volume 41 is now available in print, ebook, and audiobook editions. Order your copy and discover the future of science fiction and fantasy.