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Web Site is Live!

All right! My web site is officially going live! I hope to see a lot of you visit here to check out various blogs, keep an eye out on upcoming information about my books, and to find out more about me and the NANO series!

If you haven’t already, make sure you check out NANO Archive 01: The City of Fire on Amazon for your copy! It’s only $2.99 (or free if you’re part of Kindle Unlimited!) I would love to see a review from you about the book! So please purchase it, tag it, read it, review it, and spread the word!

If you’re interested in becoming part of the project and helping to speed up the launches of future books, please visit my Kickstarter and make a pledge! Even if you can’t pledge, spreading the word helps me immensely! I would love to get these books into your hands faster!

And let’s not forget following my Facebook Page and Twitter in order to get all the latest social media updates!

And just in case you’ve already been following me, stay tuned for details about a limited-time book giveaway!

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Interview with emerging author about himself!

In addition to presenting me with various questions about my book, Hannah Shouppe decided it would be a good idea for readers to get a feel for me as the author! I’m not exactly shy about it or anything, but if you keep reading the only thing I can really say is, “you asked for it!”

 

 

1) How did you first get into writing?

I’ve been writing ever since I was in middle school. I went through a bit of a rough childhood, so I think I had been subconsciously searching for an outlet or escape all my life. A friend of mine named Greg Hale was the first person to show me I could use prose to do just that, and he showed me in a very interesting and surprising way. To this day, he probably doesn’t realize the impact he had on my life when he sat me down in front of that computer and pulled up America Online.

For those of you not born in the eighties or nineties, America Online was a chat-based program where you could seek out chat rooms with like minded people and just talk. But Greg opened up an entirely new world to me when he introduced me to text-based roleplaying using that program.

Most of my descriptive writing style and storytelling was born through countless hours roleplaying stories created by hundreds of people all across the country with nothing more than text and my imagination. I roleplayed characters in genres from completely made up fictional stories about medieval warmongerers, to fan-based adaptations of the Legend of Zelda video game series. It was a blast, and it really helped to increase my vocabulary, polish my style, and sharpen my imagination.

Fun fact: The AoL roleplaying community had its own little subculture, and it based a lot of how “cool” you were by how “cool” your screenname was. I eventually ended up with crazy “hip” names like “Chained Divinity,” “Artillery Addict,” and “Silver Calamity,” but I’ll never forget the days I started with Greg. Him as Zer0Lit and me as Finder8p. Oh, man…

 

2) Writing an entire novel can be cumbersome and take a lot of time, how did you get it done?

I like to think that I’ll never forget the start and end dates for my first series. I started writing NANO November 5th, 2012, and wrote the last line of my epilogue on April 1st, 2014 (And man, after six months of telling people “I’m almost done,” it was really hard to convince most of my friends and supporters that my announcement wasn’t a lame April Fool’s joke!). A little over a year and a half went into writing the 530,000 word first draft of the story. And several more months of cutting those 530,000 words into 4 digestable books followed. I just finished editing my first book, and am formatting it for Amazon. Even as I write my responses to this interview, the last formatting touches for book 1 of 4 are being worked on by my tech-savvy friend, Jonathan Pace.

That being said, I wish I could say that I got it done because every day of writing was filled with fun and inspiration, but that would not be the case. Some days I was completely drained of all creative energy and didn’t want to touch my story, some days I was writing a part in the book that I knew was necessary but hated writing it which made me want to rip my computer out of the wall, and other days I was so full of inspiration and creative juice that there were not enough hours to get it all out!

But I wrote every day. I wrote on the days that I felt drained, even if only a little. I wrote on the days that I hated the material. And, of course, I wrote on the days that I was full of all the right mojo. Some days I wrote 500 words; other days I wrote 3,000, but I wrote every single day. And while it probably sounds like an oversimplification, that’s really how I got it done. There was nothing more and nothing less to it than that. And I want to stress the “nothing less” part, because it’s a feat that’s so much easier to say than to do.

 

 

3) Who is your favorite author?

Believe it or not, my favorite book in the entire world is a book called The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Emma Orczy. It is a work of historical fiction that has nothing to do with the science fiction genre I write in, but the story and characters were so impacting and the tale was so romantic! I’m a sucker for a good romance.

Aside from that book, J.R.R. Tolkien has a special place in my heart. The Hobbit was one of the first “thick” books I ever read as a middle schooler, and the subsequent Lord of the Rings trilogy kept me engaged for quite a long time after. Considering so many stories I read were written in real-time behind a computer screen, I’d be remiss not to mention that some of my favorite “authors” are ones on the aforementioned AOL community that will never have their names on a best seller list. I don’t even know their actual names, myself!

For the cutting edge stuff, I’m not as well read as I should be. When I started writing back in November of 2012, I stopped reading since I felt that I might subconsciously alter my style after reading another author’s. I have a lot of catching up to do. I hear that Mr. Martin fellow is all the rage these days.

 

4) What are your future plans for your writing?

The NANO series takes place in a universe I’m calling An Era of Dusks and Dawns. There are several more series set to take place in that universe. Some may be chronological, others not so much. My current plan involves finishing the editing and formatting for NANO Archive 01: The City of Fire; after that I intend to go back and finish cutting up, editing, and formatting the other 3 books in the series. You can look forward to NANO Archive 02: The War for Uriel probably within six months of Archive 01’s release.

Once the four book installment is available for purchase (Over the course of the next year to year and a half) I intend to write the universe’s second series. The current working title for that series is The Dawn Maiden, and you can expect it to be a trilogy or more in itself, likely following the same naming scheme as NANO. Other than continuing my An Era of Dawns and Dusks universe, I have thought about dabbling in a few other genres. Namely the science fiction/paranormal romance genres. It’s a niche genre that has always interested me, and I may one day try my hand at contributing to it.

 

5) Where do you write? Do you ever use traditional pen and paper, or is it all done on your computer?

I primarily use my computer. I would say 90% of the 530,000 words for NANO were written on my computer in a program called FocusWriter. If you’re a writer looking for a good, free program to help you focus on your writing, I highly recommend it.

The other 10% of NANO was written on my cell phone. This became more of a thing toward the end of the project, when my day-job hours kicked up and I was working shifts from 5 am to 9 pm. My job involves sitting in the back of an armored truck for a large part of the day, so in between service locations I would pull out my phone and jot down my ideas or conversations between characters to make sure I kept the continuity right. I didn’t want to sit and think about all the plot points coming together and then forget about them later, so I did some of my writing on the phone. I tell you, though, I type on a computer so much faster than I text that it was oftentimes a frustrating experience for me!

I never did use traditional pen and paper. This is largely due to the tail end of my response in the previous paragraph, haha. I type pretty quickly, and I can usually keep a steady stream of ideas, dialogue, and action running through my imagination at a pace that works well with my typing. I can’t imagine how frustrated I would be if I had to scribble everything down with a pen. I tip my hat to the authors of old.

 

6) Tell us something personal about you, that readers may be surprised to know:

Aside from being socially awkward, a complete anime addict, a video game nerd, and a roleplayer? I suppose if that doesn’t surprise my readers, they might be surprised to know that one of my favorite outlets for creative energy was/is participating in tabletop roleplaying games as a Dungeon Master.

I love anything that serves as a storytelling outlet, and DMing for tabletop let me do that. I started off playing a character, but it didn’t take very long for my friends to adamantly request that I be the DM for all our sessions. I ran several “stories” called campaigns, and no single campaign lasted less than a year. I’m not talking about a year-long campaign where we gathered together once a month to play for a few hours, I’m talking level 1-20 Dungeons and Dragons edition 3.5 playing once a week, all day long, for over a year (sometimes two!)

Out of all the tabletop gaming I’ve done, my favorite is Dungeons and Dragons. But I would say that Dark Heresy is a very close second; I love the combat system in that particular game. Plus, everyone dies in Dark Heresy. And it’s usually in the most gruesome way you can imagine. It’s like the Game of Thrones of tabletop gaming.

 

 

 

 

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Interview with aspiring author about his book!

Recently Hannah Shouppe, a friend of mine and a striving public relations professional, excitedly approached me with a proposition. Given the coming release of my science fiction series, she thought it would be a stellar idea to ask me a few questions about the book (and myself) in order to generate some exposure and awareness about my upcoming series. I have to say, I’m certainly not used to the air that comes with calling it an “interview,” but I was pleasantly surprised by the questions themselves. For a lot of the questions she asked, I had never actually sat down to attribute words to my feelings, so many of those feelings were an obscure cloud until I actually put my fingers to the keyboard.

I’d like to point out that this, my novel’s debut launch, and everything I’ve done through social media platform and other mediums of exposure have all been thanks to my wonderful PR team, Hannah Shouppe and Josh Newby!

Without further ado, here is the first part of the interview!

 

1) What genre/category is NANO: Archive 01?

NANO is Science Fiction. Although many have said that it reads a bit more like fantasy. I suppose the best categorization I could make would be to say this: think about Star Trek (With all its technical jargon and detailed exposition) and then think of Star Wars (where the answer to just about any conundrum is “The Force.”)
NANO falls closer on the Star Wars end of the spectrum. Just substitute “because The Force” with “because Nanites.”

Though I should point out that I personally think there’s still enough jargon in NANO to satisfy the Trekkie in most of us.

2a) What led up to your decision to write this book?

I don’t think any one thing contributed. Sometimes you’re just sitting and you have a spark, an idea, and then you start writing it. For me, once the writing began the story and its characters took on a life distinctly their own. I fell in love with the world, the technology, and all the characters very early on. I wish I could say that it was some Eureka moment, but that’s not the case. The story and characters predominantly wrote themselves with naught but minor guidance from me.

I can’t tell you the number of times the story’s main protagonist, Ihlia, threatened to cut off my fingers in my mind when I prepared to have her say or do something outside of her character.

2b) Where did you come up with your ideas for the style the book would be written in?

I have only just recently been recognizing that some of my ideas are similar to things I’ve seen before. The wardrobe and action sequences are very Matrix-esque. The setting is a bit of Wild West blended with high-tech, which I might have pulled from Firefly.

And, don’t tell anyone, but Japanese Anime largely inspired my combat scenes! I just love anime and the way so much of a story is revealed when two characters are engaged in mortal combat. The actions are all over the top, but no fight is meaningless. Every battle reveals something about a character or propels them forward into a new discovery. I love that, and I incorporated it a lot in my book!

3) What was the time frame for getting this book written and published?

Haha, as a new author I grossly underestimated the time frame required to write and publish a book. I had hoped to have the book written and published by mid 2013. It wasn’t until I took a look at the story, the characters, and my overall progress at the end of 2013 that I realized how naive I had been. Once I realized that and accepted the fact that I did not want to rush through anything, I decided not to worry too much about a time frame. I was engrossed in the writing, and I wanted to make sure I conveyed everything the way I wanted. I figured since I wasted ten years of my life doing nothing in regards to my passion, why not spend an extra year completely drowned in it?

I started the project November 5th of 2012 and finished the series on April 1st, 2014. In the end, it’s taken me about a year and a half to get the first book published, but I should be able to stagger-release the other three books in the series shortly after I release Archive 01.

4) Where did you get your ideas for the futuristic equipment and landscapes in your book?

I guess this goes back to the other question about what made me write it, but a lot of the stuff comes from all kinds of various sources- a lot of which I didn’t recognize I pulled from until after I finished writing and took a step back.

There are things called starch bars that replace basic food in that universe. They’re essentially processed carbohydrates that give the body energy, and then people take synthesized vitamin and mineral pills to keep themselves somewhat healthy. The Panacea implant takes care of the rest. Those starch bars, as they’re called, probably come from Warhammer 40k, where a soldier receives “Corpse Starch” for rations. But in Warhammer 40k, I think those things are actually recycled corpses. Yuck.

Then things like Holocoms are just holographic computers, which I think is a staple in most science fiction tech arsenals. Nanites are used predominantly as a support element in most science fiction I’ve read/watched/played. A “nanite infused suit” or “nanite mesh” or “nanite enhancements.” But I don’t think I’ve ever read or watched science fiction that centered the setting on those nanites the way I have.

Then there’s Osmiridium. It’s theoretically an actual material, but I don’t know why anyone would spend the money or resources to regularly make it. The video game series Mass Effect utilizes Iridium to upgrade equipment in Mass Effect 2, and from there it wasn’t much of a stretch to concoct osmiridium bullets and other equipment. I’m no smelter or even a chemist; most of these things are probably completely unfeasible and/or silly. Have mercy on me, and just read them for fun! If Stan Lee can get away with vibranium and adamantium, I say I can have osmiridium!

As for the landscapes… For most of them I couldn’t pinpoint an exact source of inspiration if my life depended on it. There are really only four major locations that the characters visit throughout the series. Two of them are in the first book: Junction City and Loftsborough.

Lastly, one of the things I wanted to do in my world is make sure that we, as a species, had advanced far enough technologically to have cool gadgets, but not so far that we were firing phasers or quantum gatling guns or black hole generators or shooting through the universe at faster than light speeds. It was something I decided early on. People will still chop you up with a cleaver, and a sniper rifle will still put a bullet between your eyes. The cleavers, rifles, and bullets are just a little more effective than ours today. Oh, and nanites.

5) Tell us a little about your main characters:

I could go on for hours on this topic. I love my characters immensely! All of them either stem from pieces of myself, people that I actually know, or mixtures of both. With each character, and each person that character represents, I took a trait or two from them and exaggerated it. Sometimes to a ridiculous point, but with most of the characters, you would be able to identify who their real life counterparts are after meeting them for only a few hours.

Ihlia Lorando – Ihlia is the main character of the book. The story is told entirely from her point of view. She’s an ex-US mercenary. Her former group, The Bald Eagles, inducted her into their ranks when she was only a child for reasons you’ll have to read about. The leader of The Bald Eagles, Bradich Lesfort, is the story’s main antagonist. It is he, for reasons you’ll have to read about, that destroys the world and spurns Ihlia to undertake a quest for revenge in the first place.
Ihlia is pieces of me mixed with attributes of various women in my life. I very much wanted to break away from the mold of “Male dominant lead with female support.” From the beginning, Ihlia was a woman and the main heroine in my story. I never made a conscious decision to change a man into her, nor did she start as a support character and get switched later on. She was very dominant in stepping forward, in my mind, as NANO’s lead character right from the get-go. And she’s a total badass!

Crelyos Highwind – Crelyos is, in almost every regard, my brother. I love his character to death, and he’s arguably the “lead support” character. If Ihlia’s in the thick of things, Crelyos is in the thick of things. And sometimes… he’s in the thick of things when she isn’t. He’s got a lot of vices (he drinks like there’s no tomorrow, for example), but his values and ideals are unwavering. Most of his character involves those ideals and how they get challenged by the people around him.

Doctor Oswald – Doctor Oswald is one of my favorite characters. He is actually a mix of two close friends of mine. He is extremely intelligent, far too wordy for his own good, sarcastic to a fault, and along with Crelyos, adds a few much-needed scenes of comic relief to an otherwise grizzly setting. The two of them are always at each other’s throats in a typical personification of brains-vs-brawn. I can only hope the readers consider these two characters as endearing as I.

 

 

 

And there you have it! The first part of the interview from my PR team about my book! The next post will be about me, personally, so I hope it gives you as much of a chuckle as this one, because it’s packed with just as many nerdy answers!

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Launching! And… Blast Off!

I am now putting the finishing touches on my website! IF you’re visiting for the first time, please feel free to look around at the various links! Be sure to follow me on facebook and twitter (both of which can be done from the sidebar to the left) to get all my latest social media updates!

I’ll be using this front page to post various blogs and updates, so bookmark this site and visit it frequently for all kinds of interviews, science fiction-related things I find interesting, and, of course, updates about me and my series!

Feel free to check out the About the Author section to read about me, personally, and check out any of the titles on the drop down menu to learn more about NANO and the rest of the Era of Dusks and Dawns universe as it becomes available! Thank you so much for your continued support, and I hope you enjoy reading my work as it comes out!