1- Tell us a little bit about yourself.
“Who am I? I am Spiderman.”
Well, not really, but this should tell you all you need to know about me and my writing style.
I’m a huge Marvel (plus Game of Thrones, Star Trek AND Star Wars) fan, which shows since my novel is loaded with pop culture references. If you are a sci-fi fan (I assume that you are, otherwise what are you doing here?) you will enjoy them tremendously. I even went full Deadpool in my first draft and broke the fourth wall multiple times, until my editor told it was distracting and kept taking her out of the moment. Shame. Those fourth-wall breaks were hilarious. Still, I can guarantee a few laugh-out-loud moments. Case in point: The “good” aliens in my novel are a race of pranksters, whose main goal in life is pulling other people’s legs (They have four legs, hence the slight change in the idiom). My favorite author is Jim Butcher (The Dresden Files), which is probably how I ended up writing in a first-person POV with the same light-hearted, funny tone as he does. The fact that my MC’s name is Jim is purely coincidental though.
I am a university/college level English teacher, and including Canada, I have lived and worked in five different countries. I have met people from all around the world. Plus, my parents are from a different background, and so is my wife. As a result, diversity has become a major theme in my novel. My characters look like the bridge crew from Star Trek. One of my female characters even impersonated Uhura once, albeit posthumously.
2) What inspired you to write your book?
I have got purely obsessional OCD. What this means is a thought enters my mind—usually something negative—and doesn’t leave. I end up having to think about it 5000 times a day, and once this starts, my life is ruined for a week, two weeks, a month, or six months. I’d tried a lot of different ways to get rid of this problem: therapy, medication, meditation… Nothing ever worked, until I read an article that said the people who had this problem had an overly active imagination, and it would help if they channeled it into something productive, like writing.
I’d always wanted to be a writer. This is literally a childhood dream, one of those you give up when you grow up. I had the story of The Crimson Deathbringer in my mind for years (even started writing it and stopped a few times). When I read that article, I was going through a tough time in my marriage (fighting with your wife is no fun, even for sane people), and my mind had gone into its life-destroying over-drive, so I told myself, “Well, you’ve tried everything else, let’s give this a shot.”
And then a miracle happened.
My mind put the same energy it used to put into producing BS and making my life miserable into coming up with stories. Ideas would come to me fast and furious, and I had to stop whatever I was doing several times a day to write them down. I’ve been OCD-free since then (I know, I sound like a recovering alcoholic). When TCD (cool, eh?) was finished, it took my out-of-control brain half a day to plan my second novel, which is about a nerdy scientist and a sexy female mercenary who use a time machine to defeat an alien invasion.
3) What theme or message do you hope readers will take away from your book?
To be perfectly honest, I’m not trying to send a message. All I want is to entertain my readers. If they are so absorbed in my story that they forget about real life and its problems (and hopefully laugh a few times) my job is done. That said, being a Star Trek fan, I hope my book presents the same themes of optimism and diversity as OST does.
4) What drew you into this particular genre?
I think I was 9 when I watched the first Star Wars movie, and I never looked back. I’ve been a big sci-fi/space opera fan ever since, so it’s only natural that I write the same genre.
5) If you could sit down with any character in your book, what would you ask them and why?
I’d love to ask Jim how he manages to shrug off the most terrible things a human might suffer using nothing but humor!
6) What social media site has been the most helpful in developing your readership?
My publisher, Creativia, has a FB page called Creativia Street Team. Members of this group helped a lot.
7) What does the future hold in store for you? Any new books/projects on the horizon?
Besides the one mentioned in question 2, I’ve started planning for TCD’s sequels.
Twitter is @seanrobins300
https://seanrobins73.wixsite.com/website