Interview With Author Elton Gahr
Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
My name is Elton and I’ve published 12 books with two more coming out this year. I also have many short stories and more coming out every week.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My most recently released book is The Thirteen Gates: The Oracle of Baltimore. It’s the fourth book in the Thirteen Gates series.
I was inspired by my frustration with the many fantasy series that introduce magic to our world and then never actually explored what would happen as people found out. So I wrote a series where magic returns to our world and actually changes thing.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
It’s been my experience that many people, including some authors, find actually writing unusual. Beyond sitting down every day and putting words on paper my most interesting habit is probably the use of the pomodoro technique. For me that means writing as much as I can as fast as I can for twenty minutes and then taking a break. On a good day I might do that eight or ten times and get five or six thousand words of a first draft written.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
There are so many, but the biggest influences are probably the big names in science fiction and fantasy. I grew up reading Tolkien, Ursula K. Le Guin, Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, Philip K. Dick, Orson Scott Card and Douglas Adams.
I try to bring some of the best lessons I learned from each of them to my writings.
What are you working on now?
I am currently writing the fourth and fifth books of the Spaceship Vision series. They continue to explore the ramifications of the discovery of faster than light travel and the many possibilities and dangers that it leads to.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
My newsletter works the best for me. It’s allowed me to share free short stories every week and connect with my audience in a more direct way.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Never compare the first draft of your novel to the final draft of a professional author’s best work. Their first draft was bad too.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
If you don’t have time to read you don’t have time to write.
What are you reading now?
I’m working my way through the Diskworld novels. They’re a major oversite in my fantasy reading. I’m two books in and still not sure what order I should be reading them in, but other than that I’m enjoying myself.
What’s next for you as a writer?
I am beginning to work on the beginnings of a new epic fantasy series. It’s still in the beginnings but I have a few characters, a couple of locations and a conflict that I think can be melded into something.
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?
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, The Lord of the Rings and Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance. The first two because I can reread them and enjoy them many times and Grit because I’m going to need the reminder.
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