Interview With Author John Sauer
Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’m a scifi/fantasy/post-apocalypse writer living in the Pacific Northwest. My fiction books center on indigenous mythologies and what would happen if they came to life. The Divided Man Book One and upcoming Divided Man Book Two are my first two fiction novel. I have several other books throughout my writing career including guided walkthroughs of popular PC and video games.
I am a Washington State Guardsman and specialize in military emergency communications, which is helping all the people involved in managing an emergency to share information with each other.
I am also a traveling phone salesman, which is a good cover for other clandestine operations such as rock hunting and fishing. Which I do. A lot.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
The Divided Man Book One is my latest Kindle Select book. What inspired it was the Ghost Dance movement that swept Native American tribes like wildfire in the late 1890’s. The movement caused such white fear and panic that the government sought to end it. The result was the Wounded Knee Massacre.
As I read the accounts of the rise of the Ghost Dance and Wounded Knee, I had to ask, what would have happened if the prayer of the Ghost Dance had been answered. I started to imagine and the Divided Man was born.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Not unusual but I am an early bird. Most mornings I am up by 5:00 AM and writing by the time I am halfway through my first cup of coffee.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
Wow, all of them and each new book I read. My fiction all-time favorites are Islands in the Stream by Hemmingway, The Stand by King, and Ghost Story by Straub.
What are you working on now?
The Divided Man Book Two is almost done and I am drafting the next book in the Ghost Dance novels, and a new end-of-the-world novel outside the Ghost Dance universe.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Awesomegang for the world of readers and Amazon for source-based promotion. Then my personal website, www,johnmsauer.com, and Instagram.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Don’t get caught up in promoting your book, until you actually have a book to promote. Worrying about the cover, where you are going to promote it, or the clever stuff you will put on social media just takes your eye off the prize, which is creating the book. Write it first. Then Edit. Then get a cover. Then make your promotional plan. But write the book first.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
If you really want to be a writer, then write. Every day.
What are you reading now?
I am working through the 12-book Cradle series by Will Wight. I don’t know him personally but am a fan of his work.
What’s next for you as a writer?
The Ghost Dance universe opens the door to so many future books that it would be doing it a dis-service not to explore more indigenous myths from around the world. Their living gods all have a place in the Ghost Dance. There there are the other realms…
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?
Tai-Pan by James Clavell because it is so rich and long, and the complete set of The Foxfire Books because they contain every bit of knowledge you need to survive anywhere.
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