Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’ve been reading science fiction and fantasy since I was a kid. I also fly radio controlled jets and it was through the jets that I fell into photographing and writing magazine articles covering the Electric Ducted Fan (EDF) jet events I’ve attended. I was laid off from a great job in the computer industry in July of 2015 and a year later decided to see if I could write a book. There were some detours along the way but in May of 2017 I decided to give being a full time author a try.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My first book is called Luni327: The Journey begins – Book one of the Lunar Age series. There were a couple of things that inspired me to write the book. The first one was that I read a lot and it just seems really hard to find a book where the main character isn’t a current member of some armed forces, ex-special forces, vampire, anything other than a normal person. Don’t get me wrong, I greatly admire the men and woman who step up to serve their country. I love a good space battle. But I think variety is the spice of life and sometimes I really enjoy reading a story about a normal Joe thrown into unusual circumstances. That’s what’s at the heart of Luni327, Bryce Burns, the main character and his fellow classmates are just kids. Their parents are talented but only in the kind of things that are common in most towns in the US.
The other thing that inspired me was that as I started researching the book I found there’s a lot of activity outside of NASA that’s come well beyond the concept stage and is nearing actual industrial level use. Things like near Earth asteroid mining and regolith volatile reclamation. Right now there’s about six people working in low Earth orbit every day. A lot sooner than most people are expecting, that number is going to start growing much larger and that was something I tried to pull into the novel.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Writers can be a weird bunch so I don’t know if this is unusual but I do find it annoying. I’ll wake up in the middle of the night with all this dialog for the book buzzing around in my head. I usually have to get up and go downstairs to my office and get it all into Scrivener before I can go back to sleep.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
I grew up reading folks like Clarke and Asimov. I also really liked Zenna Henderson’s “The People” stories. Getting older, I liked Jack Campbell, Jack McDevitt, and David Weber. Now days I really like Niall Teasdale’s Aneka Jansen series, Christopher Nuttall and Allan Black.
What are you working on now?
I’m starting in on book two of the Lunar Age series, Luni327:Strangers at the Door. I’ve got an aggressive writing schedule with the book due to be out in the Fall of 2017. I think I can do that but I don’t know if I can. I’m certainly going to give it a good run for it’s money. Luni327:Strangers at the Door will build off the first book. My intent is to delve more deeply into some of the other characters. We’ll see if Bryce has a shot with Nina and why on Earth someone would want to nuke the facility. It should be an interesting ride.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I’m still learning so I don’t have a best yet but I’m certainly open to suggestions.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Learning how to successfully publish a book is a really broad learning curve. Sometimes it’s like drinking from a fire hose. When you’re listening to some expert tell you that you have to do something and you’re about to go catatonic, turn the crap off. Step back, take a deep breath, and just concentrate on what you need to do to get through the day. There is some good advice out there but even with people I’ve learned to trust I’ve also learned to take advice in small chunks less I be overwhelmed by their good intentions.
Also, when there’s doubt blame the computer. There’s no way I made all those mistakes in my first draft. It had to be that dang auto-correct function.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
The worst piece of crap written that is out there being sold is far better than the ‘perfect’ manuscript sitting unpublished somewhere.I found T.S. Paul to be very inspirational in his rule breaking.
What are you reading now?
I’m reading Jamie McFarland’s Corsair Menace (Privateer Tales Book 12). Privateer Tales is the story of two nice normal guys (okay, their girlfriend’s are ex-military) wandering around having adventures.
The even better series to read is Nathan Lowell’s Trader’s Tales from the Golden Age of the Solar Clipper Book. Normal people, doing normal things, when normal includes commerce between the stars.
What’s next for you as a writer?
After Luni327:Strangers at the Door, there’s two more books in that series that need writing. Then I have a new series probably called Empires in Ruin. When that’s done, I may write a fan book just for me. I love Zenna Henderson’s People. The cannon is they used to be just like us, they can mate with us so maybe some place far in the past there was some contact with Earth and of course, something happened to them that changed them so. I’d like to explore those ideas some day even if it’s a book I have to keep just for myself.
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?
Hmmm, that’s a hard one. Let’s start with Zenna Henderson’s Ingathering since it’s a big book with all of the People stories in one place. Next would Arthur C Clark’s The City and the Stars which has always been my favorite book. The last one or two I need to cheat a little since I can only think of series that I would want with me. If I’m allowed a series then the only logical choice would be David Weber’s Safehold series. At the rate things are progressing on Safehold, by the time he gets the poor people on Safehold back into starships there might be enough books to build me a shelter.
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