Author Interview: Carl Wilhoyte

Meet Carl Wilhoyte, the mastermind behind the obscure dystopian novel Ultimart.

In this interview, Carl shares his writing process, the inspirations behind Ultimart, and his journey to becoming a debut indie author.

📌 Check out Carl’s socials and dive into the world of Ultimart!
📲@carlwilhoyte
☁️@carlwilhoyte.bsky.social
💻carlwilhoyte.com

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What sparked the initial idea for this dystopian world? Was there a particular event, concept, or question that drove its creation?

Well, these days is it really that hard to get inspired to write a dystopian book? It’s kinda like we live in the cyberpunk future’s political, social and ecological decay, but without any of the cool gadgets. Mark Fisher once called it the “slow cancellation of the future” and that evocative phrase stuck with me.

Growing up around big box stores and crappy politics, I started working on the idea a very long time ago. The last decade sort of solidified the necessary tone and absurd world; the decadence, stupidity, and crass cruelty of the time period fit it perfectly. After working on some other projects, I decided that this would be the first book I wanted to write.

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Sci-fi often explores “what if?” scenarios. what big societal or technological question does your book tackle?

In a culture that continually champions not just material wealth, but a ruthless, bloodless, borderline sociopathic drive to achieve success at others’ cost, what sort of person would be created on the fringe of that society? What would they need to do to break in to that magical world of success? Who would thrive? What would a world look like if it was actually run by that ideology?

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Many dystopian stories have a deeper commentary on society. What underlying themes or messages do you hope readers take away from your book?

Corwin, my main character, sees his struggle as a personal war he needs to wage against the world he lives in. His main flaw is thinking that he can win without sacrificing his soul. He mistakes being clever for being right. That all he needs to do is escape to a place of suburban comfort and everything will be fine. No, my dude, the whole thing is rotten, you can’t just trade one box for another and think you’re out of the maze.

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How did you balance scientific realism with creative storytelling when building this world?

Ultimart is not a realistic setting. It’s not supposed to be. It’s morally realistic, but not physically. It’s a parable. I cared less about plot holes and scientific realism and all that tedious crap slop YouTubers like to drone on about because I wanted to tell something emotionally and socially real. The key is to set up rules for your world and be consistent, and then let the story just happen in that world.

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Ultimart discusses some pretty heavy topics such as depression, grief, and the feeling of living in a constant state of crisis. How did these topics affect your writing process?

The “constant state of crisis” should be very familiar to anyone who actually works for a living these days. The hidden message of Ultimart is that people may be naturally depressed or stressed, but the hypercapitalist world that is created and exacerbated around us makes these emotional problems not only common, but an integral part of its mechanisms. Happy content people don’t get on a brutal, ruthless grind to make someone else richer.

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What books, authors, or sci-fi/dystopian films have most influenced your writing style?

My main influences are Kurt Vonnegut, Ursula K. Le Guin, Charles Yu, J G Ballard, and China Mieville.

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Was the self-publishing process different from what you expected, given the specific market for speculative fiction?

Way more complicated. Learning about distribution and taxes was way more work than I thought. Also, Amazon’s proofing process is garbage. I can’t believe they’re the biggest bookseller in the world considering how hostile and over-complicated the publication process is. Another annoying curse of modern publishing is the subscription model and micro-monentizing of every aspect of the process (especially advertising). I got so many spam emails from shady tax service providers and marketers in my business email. It’s a gold rush for writers and everyone’s selling shovels.

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Did you find challenges in positioning your book within the sci-fi/dystopian genre? How did you navigate that?

#1: You do in fact judge a book by its cover. Having a unique and striking cover illustration that’s NOT AI SLOP is worth every penny. Most of the immediate reaction to my book has been about the cover art, done by John Michael Berry.

#2: Writing a dystopian book in a crowded genre but meant for an underserved audience: actually adults. YA has plenty of stuff, plus I was writing more mature content. Also making a explicitly political dystopian book that doesn’t try to both sides an objectively terrible society and doesn’t devolve into hero Chosen One tropes.

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Speculative fiction allows authors to explore possibilities. if you could live in a world you created, would you?

The world I created for this book? Absolutely NOT. But then again, I kinda do already, which is a much different problem.

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