About Bruce Butler
Bruce is a Canadian author, retired Professional Engineer, and member of the Science Fiction Writers Association. He has published non-fiction books about two of his passions: cycling and engineering.
In 2023 Bruce published his first science fiction novel, 'n-Space: The HYDRA Chronicles - Vol. 1" and is currently working on 3 other books in the series. He is also chipping away at a techno-legal crime novel.
Bruce is an accomplished triathlete and ultra-marathon runner. He spent most of his engineering career in the Metro Vancouver area. He currently lives in Penticton, BC, Canada, just finished building a house, and enjoys doing long-distance swimming, road and gravel cycling, and working part-time as a lifeguard/swim instructor/lifesaving instructor.
Interesting facts about Bruce:
Made 5 trips to Canada's High Arctic and has lived/worked at Canadian Forces Station Alert and out at remote ice camps on the Arctic ice pack for a total of 111 days
4x Ironman triathlon finisher (Penticton 2010, Cozumel 2012, Whistler 2013 & 2016)
Completed the Diez Vista 50km trail ultramarathon race 7 times
Completed the Haney-to-Harrison ultramarathon (100km - all 8 legs of the race)
Completed the Skaha Lake 11.8km Ultra Swim in 2019
Has swum the Rattlesnake Island cross-lake swim 4 times
Cycle-commuted to work in the Lower Mainland for 15 years
Has worked on many diverse engineering projects such as telecommunications, autonomous underwater vehicles, differential GPS marine radiobeacons, autonomous mining equipment, and vessel traffic/harbour surveillance systems
Cycling advocacy accomplishments:
2016: had a cycling ban on Abernethy Connector (Maple Ridge) reversed only 2 days after ban was implemented
2012: lobbied successfully for installation of cyclist-activated crossing lights southbound on Old Dewdney Trunk Road at Lougheed Highway (Pitt Meadows)
2010: had a cycling ban lifted westbound on Golden Ears Way (Maple Ridge)
2007: pushed for changes to the intersection at 1225 Kingsway Ave (Port Coquitlam) after being struck by a driver turning left across a double-solid line. A protecting island was added along with "No Entry" signs and traffic delineators so drivers can no longer turn left there.
Bruce's Author Pages
Interview with Bruce
When it comes to writing fiction, are you a "pantser" or a "plotter"?
Yes, ha ha.
No, seriously... I recognize the value of spending the time to create a story plot and lay out a rough outline with chapters before getting serious about writing. But there are times when an idea for a scene springs into my head—I push the plot aside and just write the scene to see where it takes me. Sometimes the scene will mesh nicely with my plot and outline, other times it doesn’t but is just too damn good so I adjust the plot so it fits in.
What advice would you give to aspiring authors?
Write your story—the one in your head that’s screaming to get out—then figure out how to get it in front of readers. Odds are someone wants to read it.
Some authors’ only goal is to get published, so they follow the “write to publish” path, which means developing a relationship with a publisher and writing something the publisher wants to print. The problem with that is they often end up writing what the publisher wants, not what they want.
What's your writing schedule like? How many hours a day do you devote to writing?
Lately (and by "lately" I mean the last 2 years), it's rather unstructured as I've been building a house. I do try to get in a couple of hours a day, mostly in the mornings and evenings.
Do you use any writing tools or software?
I originally used Microsoft Word on a Windows machine, but got fed up with Microsoft's subscription-based businesss model, so I switched to Linux and LibreOffice.
For editing, I originally used Grammarly but found it buggy and not worth the time or money. A few years ago I switched to ProWritingAid and really like it. They claim it is now "AI-assisted" but I find its "re-phrasing" feature gets confused easily. Between the spell- and grammar-checker and ProWritingAid, I find my writing has improved significantly!
What are your thoughts about using artificial intelligence (AI) in writing?
I’m cautious.
I recently gave ChatGPT a sample scene from my second HYDRA book and asked it to just to copy-edit. What I got back was very similar to what I’d written, but with some minor improvements (mostly better verbs and adverbs) - the kind of suggestions a better writer/editor might make.
But when it comes to AI, I’m concerned about copyright issues. Imagine you write a novel and ran chapters through ChatGPT, asking it for improvements. It’ll probably give you some good suggestions. OpenAI's Terms of Use clearly states that its input and output are owned by the user, but here’s the rub: it still remembers everything you send it and everything it sends you.
So at this point, I’m not going to be giving ChatGPT any significant amount of my content.
Also, if you self-publish through KDP, you are now required to answer the question: "Did you use AI tools in creating texts, images, and/or translations in your book?
Do you do any online training, takes seminars, etc?
Absolutely! I read self-help guides, and take tutorials from Jerry Jenkins, Jane Friedman, the ProWritingAid community, and KDP.
You've self-published 3 books so far - what are your thoughts on "indie" vs "traditional" publishing?
When I wrote my Cold War non-fiction novel “Into the Labyrinth,” I pitched it to about a dozen publishers in Canada, the US, and the UK. Ultimately I was rejected by all, although many said it was really good writing, just “too niche for us.” So I took the indie-author path and never looked back.
If your goal is to "get published," you will need bags of patience as you will spend many, many months writing submissions and book proposals, then wait many more months before getting replies. So you have to decide whether it’s worth that lost time, when you could have self-published, got your story out, and making sales.
Do you have any other writing projects on the go right now?
Absolutely!
Besides keeping the HYDRA Chronicles moving forward, I’m working on a techno-legal novel with my partner Lorna - it's about self-driving cars and what might go wrong. The novel runs the gamut from engineering to software quality to linguistics to law. In my engineering career, I’ve worked on autonomous vehicles in the subsea and open-pit mining so I have a pretty good understanding of what’s possible (and what’s not). Lorna has a PhD in forensic linguistics and is a practicing lawyer, so she’s providing most of the content on those parts of the book.
What do you do when you're not writing?
We are building our dream home on acreage in the south Okanagan, so there is never a shortage of work around the house. I also keep active, cycling and running with local groups. When Okanagan Lake is warm enough, I thoroughly enjoy open-water swimming. I also recently started working part-time as a lifeguard/swim instructor/lifesaving instructor at a local aquatic centre.
Contact Me
Get in touch with Bruce Butler for inquiries or collaborations.
bruce@brucebutler.ca
