We recently had the chance to connect with W.D. Kilpack III and have shared our conversation below.
W.D., really appreciate you sharing your stories and insights with us. The world would have so much more understanding and empathy if we all were a bit more open about our stories and how they have helped shaped our journey and worldview. Let’s jump in with a fun one: Are you walking a path—or wandering?
I am walking a path. I have never been a wanderer. In everything I do, I have a destination in mind. I’ve always been that way. If you think about it like a video game, there are a string of milestones constantly streaming toward me in a series of rows. I might step off onto a different row, but I am constantly moving forward. Boredom leads to stagnation. Stagnation is my enemy. As far as the path I’m on, I put my novel-publishing goals on the back burner (pushing that stream of milestones further back a long way) so I could raise a family. I did that. So now I have jumped in with both feet and I’m making the most of every minute. It’s been an amazing ride thus far!
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
I am an an award-winning science fiction and fantasy author who has been published and recognized for my works across various media, including print, online, radio, and television. I was published the first time when I was nine, when my fourth-grade teacher entered a poem I wrote into a contest without my knowledge. My first four books — Crown Prince, Order of Light, Demon Seed and Pale Face — each won the International Firebird Book Award and The BookFest Award, with Crown Prince also receiving the International Impact Book Award. In the Outstanding Creator Awards, Crown Prince won the Ultimate Championship Trophy, Super Champion Medal, Best Fiction Writing, Best Book in the following categories: Fiction, Fantasy, Action/Adventure, Myths/Legends, and Romance; Best Character for Natharr, Most Beautiful Character for Darshelle, and Best World-Building. I had no idea I was a romance writer. My books Demon Seed, Rilari, and Vengeance Borne were featured as Editor’s Choice on BooksShelf, and both Order of Light and Rilari were named Top Picks. Pale Face earned Honorable Mention from L. Ron Hubbard’s Writers of the Future Contest. To date, my books have garnered 45 awards.
In addition to my writing career, I have served as the editor and publisher of 23 print and online news and literary publications, with circulations as high as 770,000. I hold both a bachelor’s and master’s degree from Westminster University, where I double-majored in communication and philosophy and completed the Honors Program. I went on to earn a Master of Professional Communication with a writing emphasis. As a high-performing athlete, I also qualified to represent the USA in Greco-Roman wrestling.
For 25 years, I was a communication professor and a nationally recognized wrestling coach. I reside in Salt Lake City, Utah, where I am happily married to my high-school sweetheart, and helped raise five children and five step-children.
Appreciate your sharing that. Let’s talk about your life, growing up and some of topics and learnings around that. What did you believe about yourself as a child that you no longer believe?
My head (from a bird’s-eye view) is kind of rectangular. They may be rounded, but my head has four corners. So, when I was a kid, I was convinced that I was growing horns. I was really excited about it. I would go up to my mom to have her feel my horns and verify that they were growing (because I knew they were). She would rub the rear corners of my head and say, “Yep! I can feel it! They’re growing!” But they were never growing fast enough for my taste, so I had to indulge in behaviors that required horns to speed it along, like pawing the ground with my foot (hoof) and charging into things with my head. It was very logical (and Lamarckian): I would need my horns to do it better and/or protect my head. Now I know I wasn’t growing horns, and I may never recover from that disappointment. However, I would still love to have them, although I think I would prefer antlers to horns, if I didn’t have to shed them every year. (If I’m going to have them, I want to have them all the time.)
When did you stop hiding your pain and start using it as power?
I wrestled for 12 years. and coached wrestling for 25 years Wrestling is the hardest sport there is. To have any kind of success requires a certain mindset and approach to life that includes a high level of endurance, resilience, and self-drivenness. I’ve heard it said a lot of different ways: “wrestlers are a different breed” or even “wrestlers are a totally different species.” This approach to life is often the inability to accept defeat. I wrestled for 12 years and, of course, I lost matches. However, I don’t typically say I lost to so-and-so. What I usually say is, “It took me three years to finally beat him” or something along those lines. Personally, any challenge in life, regardless of where it takes place, is viewed as an opponent that must be beaten. Defeat is not an option. Even if there is a loss, it’s only temporary, and the loss is a good thing if something was learned in the process. One of Red Skin’s Laws (in my dystopian sci-fi trilogy the Battle Calm Cycle) is a direct result of my philosophy as an athlete and a wrestling coach: “Red Skin’s Laws, number ten, strength is not most important in a fight; it is not strength that survives, but cunning. If there is any doubt in how to proceed, then attack. Nine out of ten battles, the attacker achieves victory.” My goal as a coach was for every one of my wrestlers to be a technician, to execute their techniques correctly. Yes, they need to be strong, in good condition, mentally tough, be able to endure pain, etc., but all of those things can be developed in any athlete to some degree. When all things are equal, the one who does it right wins. If both are doing it right, nine out of ten times, the aggressor wins. I have written a syllabus of wrestling moves, breaking them down so that a 4-year-old can understand them or an adult. This feeds into my action scenes and the descriptions of what’s happening. In addition, as a high-performing athlete (I qualified to represent the USA in Greco-Roman wrestling), I have sprained, dislocated, torn, or broken just about anything you can name at least once. I have broken my nose nine times. I have had nine shoulder dislocations and now have two screws in one shoulder. I’ve had three knee surgeries (my left knee ended my career). I’ve been knocked out more than fifty times. I bit off the edge of my tongue. I laid my front teeth back against the roof of my mouth. I wrestled 3 minutes with a shoulder so badly dislocated the trainer could not get it back into socket. I once had a concussion that left me unable to walk for ten days and erased memories from throughout my life (some of which never returned). I can tell you if it’s going to rain or when the rain is going to clear out, based on the type of ache in my knees. I have detached ligaments in both thumbs and had to teach my five children not to grab my thumbs to keep them from popping my thumbs out. I cut so much weight that I damaged my liver and my metabolism. I still bawl my eyes out every opening and closing ceremony of the Olympics because I missed my window for that level of competition due to injury. I’ve had five surgeries in the past ten years as old injuries have caught up with me. Those things affected my life and still do, physically, emotionally, psychologically, and I use those scars to add color to my characters.
Sure, so let’s go deeper into your values and how you think. Whose ideas do you rely on most that aren’t your own?
Friedrich Nietzche and other existentialists. Life is nothing but a collection of wills, ebbing and flowing, agreeing and disagreeing. Nietzche’s concept of individualism also rings true to me. No one can be an authentic individual without first severing all ties. Once those ties are cut, then he or she can put them on the table and take a look at them from a more rational perspective. From there, he or she can make a better, more active and rational choice about that particular idea. Only after that can that person be truly committed to it and educated about it. As Robert Frost said, “Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence.”
Thank you so much for all of your openness so far. Maybe we can close with a future oriented question. Could you give everything your best, even if no one ever praised you for it?
This question relates back to not wandering. Just like always having milestones in mind, I only have two gears: park and full-speed ahead. If I am going to do something, I am going to give it 100%. If it is something that is even more important to me, then I will give it more than that. It’s how I’m wired. If I don’t give it my all, then it feels like I’m doing it wrong. It probably developed from my years wrestling. In that sport, particularly when at the elite levels, you simply can’t phone it in. Beyond that, I was the coach’s kid so, if people couldn’t beat me, they wanted to injure me. So every time I stepped on the mat, I had to be on my best game, even if I was sick or hurt. So I am always giving it my best.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.Kilpack.net
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wdkilpack/
- Twitter: https://x.com/WDKilpack
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wdkilpackiii
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@wdkilpackiii
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@wdkilpackiii
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/19339956.W_D_Kilpack_III
https://www.amazon.com/author/wdkilpack
Image Credits
Photos by Alison Kilpack
