Interview With Author Paul Blackwell
Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
My interests have been varied since childhood: Astronomy, Physics, Languages, History, Theology, Music and Visual Arts. For years I swung from one discipline to another, until in the mid 1980s when my attention became focused on Theology, for the next fifteen years.
Throughout that time, I dabbled with writing. I say, “dabbled,” because I never submitted my work for publication. This was because of a lack of confidence, and a life focused elsewhere by necessity. In 1994, I took one of my short stories and examined the possibility of expanding the tale into a novel. That tale eventually became Chaos Rising: The Erstallius Chronicles, Volume One, which was published in 2015. The second edition, which includes maps, was released in 2021. The Rhysu Alternative, volume two of The Erstallius Chronicles, was also released in 2021. My non-fiction, Lawless Tradition, was released last September.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest endeavors are with Volume Three of The Erstallius Chronicles, the last book in the trilogy. The book is untitled at present.
The series is a complex saga about the human failure to govern without conflict and the impact a mysterious alien presence has on the inhabited worlds populated by the human expansion into the galaxy.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Not to my knowledge.
Writing is hard work, but I have always enjoyed the process and the joy that comes from a phrase well stated. I begin with the seed of an idea, and as that seed grows, the plot forms. Sometimes the growth is trimmed down to the roots and I begin again. I know I am on the right track when the growth sprouts from the characters, which it should because it is their story.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
In the Science Fiction genre there is Frank Herbert, Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, Ray Bradbury, and Arthur C. Clark. Stephen Crane’s, The Red Badge of Courage, an Early American masterpiece, is still fresh in my memory. In the non-fiction arena, there is Paul A. LaViolette and Graham Hancock.
What are you working on now?
My main focus right now is finishing “The Erstallius Chronicles, Volume Three.”
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
The best method or website when it comes to promoting my books is https://www.pdblackwell.com/
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Be meticulous in your plotting. Understand your characters: they will show you where they need to go.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Keep writing. The result may differ from what you expected, but will be better than you ever thought possible.
What are you reading now?
Subquantum Kinetics: A Systems Approach to Physics and Cosmology, by Paul A. LaViolette .
What’s next for you as a writer?
“For Elisabeth,” a short story I wrote many years ago, that I plan to expand into a novel. It’s a thriller that revolves around childhood friendship and the future we create by the things we refuse.
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?
1. A survival handbook.
2. A book about the seamanship of Polynesian sailors—they could tell where other islands were by the movement of ocean waves.
3. The works of Shakespeare. I have yet to read most of them.
4. A Bible.
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