Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I am a bit of this and a bit of that. I’ve tried really hard to be just a very specific type of professional (physicist, mathematician, programmer…), but I only got a feeling of claustrophobia out of it. Eventually, I concluded that, strictly speaking, I am none of those professional figures, and I just have a little bit of each of them in me. This holds true for other things as well, like playing the piano or drawing portraits—I’m nowhere close being an actual musician or portraitist, but I manage. I certainly always had an urge to create something, and while all of the different possible careers options above could have provided an opportunity to satisfy it, I eventually realised that writing was the easiest and most pleasing way for me.
I always liked writing. I had fun writing essays in school, and I can remember several childhood attempts at writing a novel (they all failed, unfortunately). Things got a bit more serious around 2005, when my idea for ‘The Elynx Saga’ became sufficiently mature to be turned into a series of novels. As a matter of fact, I wrote four out of the planned six novels, I started to take the writing business seriously only in 2015. That’s why as of this writing, only the first book in the series—’The Fall of the Gods’—has been published. Others are closer to drafts than to finished books, really, and it will take time before they’re published.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My first book’s title is ‘The Fall of the Gods’. It is the first instalment in my sci-fi series ‘The Elynx Saga’. It’s hard to say what inspired the first book specifically; a better question would be what inspired the whole series, and the answer to it would be ‘Two different video games’, whose titles I’m not revealing because I think readers would prefer to find out for themselves.
However, there are plenty of elements in the first book as well as in the entire series that have been more or less loosely inspired by movies, TV shows and comics, such as Star Trek and Batman, for example. Other elements have been inspired by my own life experiences.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Not really, no. The most unusual thing related to writing that I do I can think of is that I translate my own books in English. I’m Italian, and I naturally write my books in Italian. I figured if I wanted to have a chance to be successful, I needed to have my books written in a more international language than Italian, and English was the obvious choice. I decided to go full indie about it and translated ‘The Fall of the Gods’ myself (although it was of course proofed and double-checked by a professional, English native speaker editor). I enjoyed the process and I plan to translate subsequent books myself again.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
I’m a bit ashamed to admit none probably have. As said, ‘The Elynx Saga’ has been inspired by several among TV series, movies, comics, and video games only. However, it is only my first series and you never know what may happen in the future.
What are you working on now?
Presently, I am revising the first draft of ‘The Pillars of Hercules’, the second book in ‘The Elynx Saga’. It’s the Italian version and I wrote over ten years ago, so I know it’ll take a lot of work both to refine and translate. I am hoping to publish it in mid 2017 at the latest.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
That one I still have to figure out… This is my very first experience with self-publishing and the advertising bit is especially hard. I’m going to try different options, including paid ones. I have a hunch Facebook ads can be very effective, but I haven’t tried them out just yet.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Be yourself. Inevitably, you end up reading articles about how successful authors did it, and you may get a feeling that if you don’t do it the way they did, you’re going to fail. However, I think comparing yourself to others will only get you a panic attack. It’s certainly good to read how others did it and learn from their experiences, but don’t try to be like others or to do exactly what they did. In my experience, your worst failures happen when you try to be someone else than yourself.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Same as above, i.e. be yourself. I’ve learned it the hard way (i.e. try and be someone else, and fail miserably).
What are you reading now?
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. I know, I know—’you mean you haven’t read HP already?!’ That’s right, I haven’t. I read the first HP in summer 2014 and I liked it, but I picked up the second one only recently.
What’s next for you as a writer?
I’ll be working on ‘The Pillars of Hercules’ for at least a year, and once that’s published, I suppose it’ll be time for me to pick up the draft of my third novel and start working on it. I’m not revealing the title just yet, though.
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?
Easy choice—manuals teaching you how to survive in extreme situations.
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