Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I have written several spec scripts (screenplays) that placed well in competitions but were never optioned. I kept a journal of writing ideas and I had one that I felt would make a good novel.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
I was inspired by a documentary about the moon’s effect on the Earth and what would happen if the Earth had no moon or never had a moon. I thought it would make a great story and started concocting plausible ways to get rid of the moon, but after consulting with a nuclear physicist it became clear that it would be pretty difficult without a “death star” type weapon to do this.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I write when I have time which is usually in the evening. If an idea pops into my head during the day, I e-mail it to myself for later use.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
I really enjoyed the classic sci-fi writers like Aldous Huxley, Margaret Atwood, and George Orwell. For awhile I was into utopian or dystopian type fiction and I always wanted to write something with my own social commentary.
What are you working on now?
Editing Part 2 of When the Earth Had a Moon and a spin-off children’s series. Who could have imagined a spin-off of an apocalyptic sci-fi story – but I found a way!
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I don’t know yet. My understanding is that it should be your author website, but that takes a lot of time. It’s a chicken or the egg kind of problem. A catch-22 really for new authors. So, I think we are relegated to giving our work away for free in hopes of building an audience, but what I learned from screenwriting, was that, if you aren’t going to produce it yourself you are at someone’s else’s whim/mercy. So at least with a novel, you can be your own publisher. However, with that comes a great deal of marketing responsibility and you have to approach it as a business.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
My day job is that of a lawyer, which requires a lot of research. So, I consider myself to be a good researcher. I think authors need to vet the advice they receive online and the way to do that is to keep looking for answers to your questions and when you start hearing the same thing over and over and over, that’s your answer.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Keep writing.
What are you reading now?
Dr. Seuss, the cat in the hat knows a lot about that series to my kids.
What’s next for you as a writer?
I’m just going to keep writing and develop my self-publishing company.
If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
Joseph Campbell’s – The Hero’s Journey. I’d like to read it again because it’s a very dense book with a lot of concepts that I wish I understood better.
The Torah – because there are a lot of supernatural interesting things going on Genesis and I’d like to see what it says in comparison to other Christian Bible translations, especially about things like the Watchers, the Nephilim, and the plural reference to God creating humans (male and female) in God’s image.
The Veddas because I think there is a lot of ancient wisdom in them that would be enlightening today.
Author Websites and Profiles
A.M. Cunning Website
A.M. Cunning Amazon Profile
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