Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
LOST HELIX is my debut novel but I have had some success as a short story writer. My first published story, “Firewall,” appeared in Nth Degree Magazine in 2006. “Enduring Winter” was a finalist in the Writers of the Future Awards, won Second Place in the New England SciFi Writers Assn Contest 2016, and was published in Bewildering Stories, Issue 849, March 2020.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
LOST HELIX is inspired by my work as an Army Intelligence Analyst and as a programmer for a major bank.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I write for long blocks of time. To give my brain a break, I often stop and play an arcade game. I have Ms. Pac Man, Galaga, a fifty-eight more in a cocktail cabinet.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
My ideas often come from asking the question, “Yeah, but what next?” Terraforming is a recurring concept in science fiction, like in James S. A. Corey’s Leviathan Wakes, but what happens when the planet is done? How does humanity go about populating it? The world of Lost Helix is my answer to that question. Another source of inspiration was the video game Sid Meier’s Civilization. Every time I built the domed spaceship bound for Alpha Centauri, I wondered what would become of it after the colonists stripped it for parts and left its remains in orbit. In Lost Helix, I give my science victory colony ships a second life as a farm, feeding the miners of Stone River.
What are you working on now?
I have other novels in the works and more short stories too. Once people have had a chance to read and enjoy Lost Helix, I will be ready to give them more. I also have promotional events being planned for Lost Helix. To find out where to read more of my work and where I will be appearing, visit www.ScottCoonSciFi.com and sigh up for my mailing list.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
That is somethign I am still learning. I’m guided by my publisher, Dancing Lemur Press, for which I am very grateful. To learn more about marketing, I turn to YouTube stars like iWriterly and Jenna Morice.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Learn. Learn the art. Learn the business. Then assume that everything changed while you weren’t looking and learn it all again. Modern readers are different from just twenty years ago. Learn what publishers and readers want now, both in content and presentation. But not in trend.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Before you can write a good novel, you have to write three or more bad ones. I read that in a forward written by Piers Anthony in his forward. Always read the author’s forward. They sometimes tell you something useful about being a writer.
What are you reading now?
I am currently reading and loving Dark Eden by Chris Beckett. Set on a planet that has escaped its star and the galaxy, the stranded humans survive thanks to the biochemical heat of the indigenous fauna.
What’s next for you as a writer?
Keep writing. I have other novels in the works and more short stories too. Once people have had a chance to read and enjoy Lost Helix, I will be ready to give them more. I also have promotional events being planned for Lost Helix. To find out where to read more of my work and where I will be appearing, visit www.ScottCoonSciFi.com and sigh up for my mailing list.
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 Hobbit, the one book I’ve read more than any other. Ready Player One, it’s all the pop culture I’ve ever loved taking on a corrupt corporation–what’s not to love. Hocus Pocus, the best of Kurt Vonnegut.
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