Thanks for joining us today on my blog. Lets get started. Where
did the idea for your novel come from?
The idea for Anchors
No More came from my general obsessions concerning time, technology and
political motivation. After finishing my second novel, which was very ‘inner-psychological’
in nature, I really wanted to get out of heads and into the world. A good
old-fashioned science fiction action piece sounded fun to take on. It all came
together with the idea: hey, what if someone privately uses a time machine in
their basement and then, as soon as they pop back in, they are suddenly in the
middle of a military procedure based on their ‘secret’ time travel device.
Writing Anchors
No More was a different process from my first two novels (Linus Cain: a dark fable and D.O.V.E.). For Anchors, I was releasing it in weekly installments on a great
website: SerialTeller(dot)com. This is a site based out of San Francisco that
publishes only original serialized fiction. I had wanted to try my hand in that
format and the general idea for the story was already in me head, so I sent the
first few chapters and they loved it. I quickly planned out a very detailed
road map: 46 episodes between 1000-1200 words each. That’s just
under a year. Run it from February until December and see what happens. I made
my outline for around 50,000 words and hit the gas. Once it was finished (in
three months) I edited in small batches, a month at a time and kept ahead of
the curve by always being 4 episodes ahead. Working this way allowed my to not
lose too much momentum on other projects I had going.
2. How
did you start writing?
I started writing young. Like when I was five or six. I
was born in 1970, so keep that in mind when I give you these to examples of my
early writing influences/memories. First, I do remember my first story, my
mother kept it. Pac Man was new and huge when I was seven or eight years old
and my first story (’77-’78) was first person POV: I was Pac
Man and I was teaming up with my fellow game icons (Donkey Kong, Dig Dug, etc.)
to escape our machines. How cutting edge. (haha) Memory Two: A few years later,
after Empire Strikes Back the rumor began that they were going to make a third movie
titled Revenge of the Jedi. Me, being impatient, wrote an original screenplay
for that movie. It retrospect, it was a little short (about 20 pages) but hey,
it was a start. And it did include a scene of Boba Fett escaping the Sarlac
pit. How did Lucas survive without me?
Looking back, it always feels like I am doing the same
exact thing I have always done since I was a kid not knowing what I was doing,
just happy to create and to collaborate with my friends (sometimes, of course,
against their will). Now, however, I support my family with my creativity and
this changes the relationship somewhat. Or maybe my relationship to art is the
same and it is my relationship towards my self in relation to the art that has
shifted. Hmmm… we may never know.
3. What
does your writing process look like?
My process adjusts itself all the time with different circumstances.
However, there were a few good golden years when I had myself in a steady and
regular routine. When that happens, I can get lost. Wake up, do the emails and
futzing around for an hour and slowly begin opening files and checking progress
and to do lists. Then I lock and load for four to ten hours, hopefully stop to
eat lunch. I would chill for a while, maybe walk or watch a movie, then if I
had no plans for the evening, I could do a light late night session. Those were
a couple years when I was single and had no pressing concerns but to create.
Now I am married and have a new baby so things have
dramatically changed. Now I have to get creative with my writing schedule to
make sure I have enough time to keep up with my workload. I still do my email,
administrative stuff first thing in the morning, but actually writing I do at
different times everyday but try to always do it in a three-hour block. I need
that much time to accomplish anything. Some days I can still get five hours or
so, and I’m sure as the kid gets bigger it will level out again. My
goal, as always, is to do eight hours a day just like a normal full time job.
4. Where
is Anchors No More set?
Anchors is
set in the very near future, in Kansas at a fake research facility near the
real town of Pratt. The research company is named ARLIS and that same company
has since appeared in a new novel I am writing and I have plans to include it
in a future series I am planning titled Dust
(a group of stories set on and around the moon colony – science
fiction pulpy style). These stories all take place at different times and with
different casts of characters and way different global circumstances but I
realized that with the time device in Anchors
creating split dimensions, maybe all of these stories are related but happening
in different dimensions of reality. Who knows?
5. Are
your characters based on real people?
No they are not based on real people but when I think
about it, I did have certain images in my mind when I wrote them and at least
parts of those images had roots in people I know. It is inevitable, I think.
Writers always put a bit of their surroundings in their work as well as a large
chunk of their own personality and experiences. Generally more than they like
to admit.
6. Did
you always want to write?
As I mentioned, ever since I was a child, only three
things have interested me. One, telling stories. Two, mythology. 3. Three,
science. So that’s what I try to do.
7. Which
character is your favorite and why?
In Anchors I
have a few favorites. For sure Holly and Gary are my absolute favorites. I have
a lot of sympathy for them and think they are cool and quirky folks. I bet they
could be fun to hang out with for a long dinner and a couple bottles of wine.
Other than that, I think Restrepo is a good character and I hope he comes
across as a good-hearted person. Last, I think James Brammer has the most
blatant amount of my own personality in him.
8. What authors do you enjoy reading? Why?
There are so many out there how do I even begin. I have
always been a classics guy, reading lots of old fiction by mostly Russian,
German and French authors. Of course, I love reading philosophy (I have an MA
in philosophy) and social/political non-fiction.
Lately, I have been making a real effort to read newer
authors and get the flavor of what is going on around me. I have read some
great books, some fair books and lots of bad books. Self-publishing and the Internet
has really changed the game out there. Now, anyone anywhere can get their books
out on the same platforms as the big boys and the legends. That is both good
and bad as the quality does greatly differ. I still find it amazing and feel
fortunate to be writing during this vibrant time of adjustments and change in
the various creative publishing communities.
9. What
are you reading right now?
Right now I am reading Hegal to keep my philosophy
chops up.
10. Dog
or Cats?
Wow, I really love both. How can you not. Dogs are dogs
and cats are cats. Maybe dogs are better company but when a cat digs you, you
know you’ve done something good in the world.
11. What’s next for you?
Next up I have three projects I am working on and
juggling time and energy between. First is a big ol’ novel
of about 120,000 words titled Swill. It
is about what happens when all the industrial grade android servants in the
world get hooked on a super drug called Swill. Chaos, of course, ensues. Second
is the first few novellas in my massive, multi-format, multi-volume saga of my
two favorite new characters, Omar and Theodore Blood. They are hitmen/thieves
who work for a very eccentric man with very large plans. The series is titled The Brothers Blood and it is certain to
surprise. Third on my work list is a screenplay I am pecking away at. It is
called Anagnorisis and concerns a
writing retreat and death.
Thanks for the interview and best of luck with your
writing. Let’s do it again.
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