Interview With Author Joshua Taylor
Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
This is my first book, A Face of the Master’s Cube. A Science Fiction book. I’m an IT Project Manager by day and Sci Fi enthusiast by night. I never realized I like writing so much until I took up a challenge from my fiancé to write my own sci fi after complaining one evening about a movie with overly reiterated themes that I could not find true enjoyment in because of its predictability. Anyway, here I am now and I hope to continue writing. I have several cool as hell stories stuffed in my head I’ll eventually have to let out into the world but for now it will have to come slowly. I have to work during the day and I’m old.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Well, I gave that one away in the above answer. My book is a collection of Sci Fi short stories. Each one is unique. You might think you can figure out the ending. Think again. The way I choose to write makes every reader from teen and up think about the science and the characters all at the same time. Sometimes I write just for fantasy but most stories are filled with some sort of hard science and theory and challenges those norms. At the same time, it is just a great all-around story will well built characters and excellent plot archs.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I write in spurts. I’ll do as little as 100 to 150 words in a day when I just can’t get going up to 3500 words in day on a rainy Saturday working almost non-stop 6am to 11 pm. I’ve done that a couple times. Sometimes it just flows like that and other times you can’t even buy a vowel.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
I’m not going to name names because in the Sci Fi community you can catch yourself a whirlwind of people asking you, why not this modern author, or why not that classical author. People are very, very touchy about who they like, love, and promote as the greatest of all time in this genre. I will say this though, I’ve found when answering this question in other forums that many younger people just cannot put the classic author’s in the right perspective. In fact, they tend to have very little genuinely insightful perspective about many of the classical Sci Fi authors. But when you really think about them and the times they lived in and then take into consideration what they wrote, you see how great they really were. They all wrote for their generation with incredible creativity. We have so much science nowadays, we have to either directly challenge the science that exists, as I do when confronting hard science in my stories, or step way out into unbelievable levels of scientific fantasy for which there is little or no science to build upon. It just is what it is in the story. That’s cool with me but I like a little more of a challenge sometimes. Other times I’m like everyone else and just want to be whisked away into a great story. So to answer this question completely, I’m greatly influenced by the classical Sci Fi authors but I’m also influenced by several modern writers as well, including some modern female authors who are really quite excellent. I won’t name names, but the ladies have made up ground in a big way in modern Sci Fi.
What are you working on now?
I have several stories outlined in separate documents now. Sometime during the holidays coming up, I’ll start a true Sci Fi novel I’ve been mulling for a month or two now. I’ve also outlined 11 other sci fi short stories which will eventually work their way into follow on books to, “A Face of the Master’s Cube” short stories. The Master’s Cube is my construct for a collection of short stories (small cubes on small cubes) making a larger cube.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Do you have any advice for new authors?
You don’t know what you’re getting into. If you think you are going to make money from anything you write, you are sadly mistaken. Everyone involved in helping you get your book out the door and promoted wants more from you than you’ll ever make from their efforts. What you make off each sale is a pittance and you will be pressured to give away hundreds if not thousands of copies of your book for free, and that will be your reader base. People who read free books. You have to want to write for the love of writing itself. You will get no other reward and you will shell out a lot of your own money to end up with little to no sales in the end and a thousand hours in your own labor. What are you worth per hour? Start a YouTube channel instead.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Just get up and keep going. Eventually the universe fades us all into oblivion.
What are you reading now?
Taking a break from any reading before I engage in my next writing effort. Need a clear mind.
What’s next for you as a writer?
A Sci Fi novel.
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?
Lord of the Flies, How to Make Friends and Influence People, Sun Tsu’s Art of War.
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