Every story begins with an idea, but the journey from concept to completed novel often reflects years of observation, imagination, and creative development. This interview features author Christipher Ulm, creator of the Vengeance series, whose work combines coming-of-age storytelling with elements of paranormal mystery, horror, and suspense. Vengeance: Children of Faust introduced readers to a story that explores resilience, relationships, and the unknown through a character-driven narrative. In this conversation, Ulm is invited to share the experiences, creative decisions, and lessons that have shaped his writing journey, while offering readers an opportunity to learn about the craft, discipline, and inspiration behind his work.

Christopher, thank you for joining us. Could you introduce yourself to our readers, tell us about your background, what you do today, and what you hope your work contributes to readers?

Sure. Hey, my name is Christopher, but most people just call me Chris, and yes, my name is spelled with an ‘I’. I’m just a normal, 32-year-old dude from New Hampshire, USA, who happened to get sucked into the obsession that is writing. I didn’t go to school for it, or have a figure in my life that got me into it. It just sort of happened and never stopped. Yeah, I guess in middle school I did write poems or song lyrics, and any story I wrote was based on real events for a project in school. I absolutely never thought that I would write a whole book. In fact, I never planned on doing much of anything with my life. All I had in my viewfinder was video games, working at my stupid job, and making YouTube videos and drawing as a hobby. For the most part, that’s how my life has played out, except after graduating, writing sort of became my primary focus going forward. It was a new constant, an escape. It turned into a way for me to vent and unravel my own complicated feelings and views about myself and the world. It’s literally the only reason I managed to graduate high school in the first place.

I hope that those few who discover my books can not only find a unique comfort in the world and characters, but I also hope to inspire them to take the next step in their own creative journey. Like I said, I’m just some guy. . . This first book took me over ten years to get it to where it is now. And every book past that takes over a full year to finish. My point is, it’s daunting, and it’s scary, but it’s also the most rewarding experience of my life. If someone like me could publish a book, then anyone can follow their passions and make something uniquely theirs.

Many stories begin with a simple idea before growing into something much larger. How did the central concept behind your writing evolve into the world readers encounter in your novels?

So, it actually started off as a dream. I couldn’t tell you anything about what happened in it, or how I felt that following day. But I can say that it stuck with me enough to doodle the character that I saw. A young girl with a twisted smile, and stitches across her lips. This was during the final quarter of my senior year of high school. I had given up on graduating with my class, and I was slipping into a hollow, languishing self that I knew all too well from childhood. Depressed, hopeless, yet weirdly fixated on that one random sketch. I started asking myself questions. What was her story? Why was her mouth sewn shut, and why did she have that sinister grin? In a day, a quick prose grew into a single page. Through the week, that single page ruminated in every waking moment, carefully reigniting my malady mind. One page quickly became forty, and I just kept asking myself questions. . .

The basic principle for my first book stayed mostly the same over the years: ‘Vengeance’, it’s in the name. We all love a good revenge story that’s simple and to the point. That’s how it started out. A girl wronged by those in her life, seeking the power to get back at those that hurt her. I didn’t ever plan on developing the world much beyond that. In fact, the earliest drafts are so weird and needlessly complicated to the point where it doesn’t even make much sense if you picked it apart. Which, at the time was fine by me. I didn’t care much about filling every hole and ensuring the timelines all made sense. But the more time I spent with my characters, the more I felt like I owed them answers. I couldn’t stand having a little inconsistency or unjustified motivation. It ate me up if not every single detail had a reason for being. The world and characters just kept expanding, changing at a pace I couldn’t keep up. As much as I was the writer, I was also merely a conduit. Many authors will say this, but the book almost writes itself at a point. By that, I mean the characters and world building reaches such a level of coherency within you, that you don’t have to give much thought into their dialogue or reactions. It just flows. But the process isn’t without speed bumps, and I’ve hit plenty. There was a time when I deleted almost one-hundred pages from the end. Just chopped it off, wrote in a brand new character to fill a need, and trudged forward with an evolved concept that expanded the lore beyond what I was able to see. Vengeance remained the core concept, but as the story progressed and the characters became three-dimensional, much of the focus shifted to themes of friendship and growth. Instead of a hopeless, downright brutal and unforgiving motif, it all comes together into something we can all relate to. The concept changes from Vengeance, to being human.

Your work combines everyday human experiences with elements of mystery and the supernatural. What interests you most about bringing these different storytelling approaches together?

The human mind is frighteningly good at altering perception, in a way that almost feels deliberate and malicious at times. As though something beyond ourselves is actively choosing to plague us with precisely the right brew of antagonism. I know personally how clever the mind can be, and how the dark part of ourselves salivates at a chance to twist what your senses into fear, and make you question what is real. I’ve endured anxiety, depression, personality disorder, and post-traumatic stress. Things that affected my sleep from a very young age. As such, I often teeter at the edge of sleep and suddenly wake in a Hypnagogic Hallucination. I would be covered in spiders all stringing their webs over my arms and face. I would see shadow people attempting to enter through my window, or even a ghastly teen girl at the foot of my bed. In those moments, I would have sworn in front of whatever God or deity you put in front of me, that those things were real and happening. I find it terrifying, yet fascinating how my own thoughts and senses can completely alter what I believe to be tangible and real. As such, in the context of my stories, that ironic deceit and malleable sense of reality is exactly what I find makes the perspective of the characters so interesting to experience as a reader. You never truly know what’s real or just a trick of the mind. With the supernatural, you get to make your own rules based around ideas that already exist. Ghosts, demons, vampires, whatever. It’s out there and you have such immense lore to pull from, while at the same time, the freedom to just do whatever you want with it. The uncertainty of what’s being displayed is an excellent tool for developing the questions that drive the plot forward, and the best part about it, is that you really aren’t obligated to explain every single thing, even though it kills me not to.

The characters in your stories face personal challenges alongside extraordinary circumstances. How do you develop characters whose emotional journeys remain relatable even in imaginative settings?

Well, because much of the turmoil is personal. I want to make it clear that there was no AI usage in any way when writing my books. AI has never and will never touch any aspect of my writing, art, or process. I don’t believe in generative AI for a multitude of reasons, but a big reason being that it can only regurgitate. Emulate. The emotions, the trauma, the pain, and the happiness that my characters feel comes from a genuine place. Something that only a person with a soul can identify and understand enough to describe.

I didn’t set out to write a main character who checked a list of boxes, and I never really intended for there to be a message or lesson in the story. Kim is me, and Tansu is me. Joey, Alex, Stacy, Alice: every character is derivative of some part of me, or inspired in part by people I know/knew, good and bad. As such, the way characters interact with the world and themselves, internally and externally, mimics reality because much of it is based in my own experience. I believe spending time in those somber moments, where the main plot is just out of view but the characters are still present, are exactly what is needed to develop those authentic comforts and connections. It’s the monotony that makes Kim’s story feel real. At least, to me.

Settings often shape a reader’s experience as much as the characters themselves. What role does atmosphere play in your creative process, and how do you approach building it?

Writing an atmosphere saturated in rumination and mystery is one of my favorite things to do. When I watch a show or movie, and things slow down and the music dies out, and I am left with only the visuals of the set and subtle audio clues telling me how to feel. . . that’s the best. I want to emulate that in my writing to the best of my ability. The power to dictate an emotional state, a sense of vulnerability, or genuine unease with words on a page is astounding. The fact that my book can override the world around you and pull you into the scene as I wrote it, is as close to a superpower as I think I could ever get.

Sure, I can just tell you how Kim is feeling about a particular day or event in as little as three sentences with some quick descriptions or maybe expository dialogue. Or, I can put you behind her eyes; plop you down in a chair in a shadowed corner of her thoughts, and let you observe and dissect her mannerisms. I can let you experience exactly how she navigates a bedroom stripped of childhood whimsy in exchange for postulating maturity, and let you interpret what that means for her based on how she responds to her environment. I want the shadow she sees on the paint-drip ceiling to conjure intrigue, to inspire the reader to quietly wonder. To maybe take a moment and look at their own surroundings, find the little details that only they get to see from this angle, at this time of night. On the surface, the book takes place in our simple, bland world. But it’s only bland if you see that first layer of perception. It’s a duality. By setting this story in a familiar world with easily understandable and digestible scenery, it ensures that the reader can allow themselves to let their guard down. But it’s in that complacency that the atmosphere takes hold and breathes on its own.

Every author develops a unique writing routine over time. What habits, practices, or lessons have helped you move from an initial idea to a completed manuscript?

Oh man, I used to be so particular in my “process”. When I first started taking writing seriously, maybe a year after I wrote the first 40-page short story (Which, embarrassingly enough, can be read in its entirety in the 10th anniversary hardcover edition.) I took about an hour or two before bed, every single day, to just write. During work hours, my mind was always spinning with chaotic thoughts of the expanding story. I carried a small notebook to write things down as they entered my head, and when the pages were full, I would rip receipt paper from the printer to keep writing. I still have most of these handwritten notes safe in a box. Anyway, I got into the routine of writing before bed. Then that switched and I started writing as the very first thing I did after waking up. Eventually, I made a habit of writing in a secluded space like my town’s public library to write, because I would get too easily distracted at home, procrastinate, or just go days without writing because it was stressful. While at the library, I made my own iTunes playlist to keep my brain in the proper mood, featuring soundtracks from games like Alan Wake, Shadows of the Damned, Life Is Strange, and D4: Dark Dreams Don’t Die. These days, I still write at the library multiple times a week, usually for about two hours at a time. The best thing for me when it comes to writing, is keeping distractions and outside stimulus to a minimum. I don’t even listen to music while writing anymore; just silence. As far as the general process going from concept to manuscript, I am usually ‘writing’ two books at once. While doing the final draft for one book, I’m laying out the blueprints for the next one as ideas strike me. Typically, I get all the foundational ideas on a separate document, laid out in timeline order. Then, the next phase is rough draft where I go through and expand upon every paragraph and start to formulate the overall plot. The following edits are ironing out details and adjusting earlier segments based on how things changed in the later parts. Then, I get a true ‘First Draft’ where, after probably 6-10 months, it’s considered readable and covers the basis of what I’m trying to accomplish. Then it’s just start from page 1 and go through line by line to the end, endlessly refining and adjusting. That’s basically the long and short of it. At which point I start thinking of the synopsis and book cover art.

Looking back on your writing journey so far, what milestones, recognitions, or accomplishments stand out to you personally, and what have those moments meant for your growth as an author?

For me, I love hearing about who someone’s favorite character is, or how they resonated with scenes and moments I didn’t think would have much impact. Oh, and I get super giddy if someone quotes a line I wrote. There is truly no greater joy in this world, than someone finding something to love and cherish in your art. I’ve cried over positive reviews, and I’ve gotten full-body chills from someone telling me how they felt seen by my book. It’s magic, truly. I want everyone in the world to experience that feeling. That being said, I suffer a lot from impostor syndrome and generally being down on myself. Feeling like I’m wasting time and that no one cares about my books. But every single time I get a shred of positivity about them, I get a burst of energy that my keyboard has learned to fear. That little bit of reinforcement keeps me going. Additionally, hearing from someone that my book is one of, if not, their FAVORITE book absolutely blows me away.

Readers often connect with different aspects of the same story. What kinds of conversations or reflections do you hope your books encourage after someone finishes reading?

Firstly, I want my story to either instigate or perpetuate a conversation about worth with yourself. Kim functions on a negative feedback loop that reinforces nihilism, and rewards isolation with perceived safety via emotional walls. While I think people should always try to put themselves first in life and keep their own peace intact, I also believe that it’s really easy to go too far in one direction and trigger a social decay. My story shows that the people we love and choose to keep in our lives, deeply matter. They keep us sane, they keep us human. So, I hope that my readers see the impact, the dichotomy, of self-estrangement and meaningful relationships alike.

Writing speculative fiction often involves balancing imagination with believable human experiences. How do you approach maintaining that balance throughout your storytelling?

I try my best to keep the moment-to-moment human interactions grounded in realism and easy to follow. However, when the demonic portion of this story takes over, and action pushes some of that horror-filled tension aside, it can be a bit of a challenge to keep the reader at the same level of engagement. By that, I mean in how much they have to pay attention to certain things. Whereas in the first half of the book, the reader grows keen to subtle foreshadowing and subliminal details. In the second half, they now have to consider an element of fantasy, and are unsure of how the rules may have changed. When the Teufel come into play, and our characters get into brutal fights, I had to make sure that I didn’t let my anime-inspired imagination go too far. Keeping the combat intimate and physical over magical was paramount to ensuring the reader didn’t get that ‘jumped the shark’ feeling. (That comes later). The Teufel were all given melee mutations. Alice has her claws, Destro has underarm bone blades, etc. They start off with weapons like that, because they are the animal side of us, and it’s almost intuitive for them. As a reader you understand the danger of a knife and how serious the threat is, but you don’t necessarily understand the scale of energy-based abilities. That introduces guess-work and preconceived notions. It had to start off at the lowest threshold of fantasy, and gradually increase over time.

As your work continues to develop, what creative goals or areas of storytelling are you most interested in exploring in future projects?

I have a few ideas for one-off books that are unique in their own right, but still adhere to a comfortable style I’ve grown accustomed to. Broody, melodramatic, and violent. I don’t think I could write something like romance, nor would I want to. (I had a hard enough time writing that bit of Vengeance: Transgression.) But maybe I could try my hand at more short stories with a unique angle. Like my book Incarnation, which views the world from the perspective of a tree on a forgotten foot-trail. Stuff like that.

But that’s the fun part about this series. I can write almost any dramatic story I want, and it can fit into this world. I never even have to say it takes place in this universe, but I certainly put little hints and Easter eggs throughout for people to find. Regardless, I want to have a larger catalogue outside of the Vengeance series, with broad topics to delve into. I also maybe want to write inconsequential things that don’t try and teach a lesson or dissect fragments of myself. It doesn’t always need to be deep or say something. Sometimes, it can just be fun or interesting.

If you were to write your own bio, what would you say? And as your work evolves, what kind of impact do you hope it has?

Oh, it would be so incredibly self-deprecating and boring. I would constantly stray into a tangent, which would then break apart into three more tangents until I got so far away from the original point, that I would have to awkwardly end that segment and move on. Honestly, I wouldn’t know where to begin. I’d rather get one of those books you find online, the ‘Tell Your Story’ things and just fill out a long questionnaire. . . I like answering questions. Give me a list of ‘What’s your favorite ___’ to answer and I’ll fill it out gladly, every time. As far as the impact I hope my work has going forward, I think I want to undergo some personal growth. I want to have an epiphany while writing, solve a question I didn’t know I even had, that kinda thing. Either about myself, or my understanding about this universe.

I don’t know if I’d be mentally capable, or emotionally stable enough to handle the level of notoriety as some of big name authors out there, and I don’t care about making a ton of money off of writing. Of course, if that were to happen, it would be awesome to quit my day job to write, or even turn my work into other forms of media like anime or short films. That would be cool. But to me, all I care about at the end of the day, is hearing what people think about the books, what characters they like, how they felt when so and so died, etc. Just knowing someone enjoyed it enough to want to talk about it, or write a review, means more to me than anything.

Writing has been the most rewarding thing I’ve ever done. It has connected me with so many people, challenged my perspectives, and given me insight into myself that I never could have achieved otherwise. The process, while long and exhausting, is always worth the result. I truly believe that if everyone in the world had the time and passion to be creative, then the world would be a happier place.

Related

Vengeance: Children of Faust by Christipher Ulm