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How do you feel about self-publishing?
I think for the most part, self-published authors tend to sacrifice quality for cost. They don’t think spending a few thousand dollars on a good editor is worth it, hoping their friend, who was an English major, is good enough. Or they buy stock photo images for their book covers instead of something custom. It’s one of the reasons self-published authors rarely make more than $500 a year by selling their books. On the other hand, if you want to publish your book just to say you’ve published something and not try to make it a career or business, then self-publishing is a great, cost effective way to accomplish that.
Do you find the time to read?
Absolutely. I think every author needs to at least read 12 books a year, at a minimum for your own education. There have been many times when I’ve read a passage and thought, ‘Wow, I really liked how the author phrased that’ or described something. Reading is learning for authors. Just this year alone, I’ve read 70 books.
How did you come up with the title?
Each title of the Legends of Amun Ra series is chosen with the specific purpose of highlighting the theme of the book. The Soul of the World’s theme is air and the name ‘the soul of the world’ is a Greek mythological reference to the god of air, Aether.
How did you develop your plot and characters?
I usually try to put my characters in realistic situations which force them to make challenging decisions. It pushes them to the limit of their growth if I make them go outside their comfort zone.
Who designed the cover?
The cover and logo of book 1, The Emerald Tablet, was designed by Reflection Studios. The silver logo of book 2, The Soul of the World, was designed by artist Joshua Ballze.
Did you learn anything from writing this book and what was it?
Of course. With each book I’ve grown as a writer. Book 1, The Emerald Tablet, focused too much on exposition and internal thoughts of the characters. So I learned from those critiques and penned book 2, The Soul of the World, with an eye towards action and dialogue. If the characters wouldn’t say it, I tried to cut it out. Surprisingly, when you edit out a lot of heavy-handed exposition, the flow of the book picks up tremendously because it’s all dialogue and action.
How much of the book is realistic?
There are aspects that are inspired by history. Such as in book 2, The Soul of the World, the character Axios mentions the Serpent Column in Plataea District of the Thothian Empire. However, a Serpent Column really exists in Istanbul, Turkey and was created to commemorate the Greek defeat of the Persian Empire at the Battle of Plataea in 479 BCE.
How important do you think villains are in a story?
They’re just as important as the hero. I really try hard to not make my characters one dimensional. In fact, it’s one of the things I get complimented on the most, how three dimensional my characters are and how realistic they can be. I think authors need to spend as much time thinking about their villains as their heroes.
Do you have to travel much concerning your book(s)?
I travel once every few months to a convention or a signing. Hopefully, as the series becomes more popular, I’ll be doing more traveling.
Can we expect any more books from you in the future?
Yes, tons. There are 7 books in the Legends of Amun Ra series, 1 book in the expanded universe, three more books coming in a trilogy and I have a second trilogy planned in paranormal/urban fantasy.
Have you started another book yet?
I’m writing two books currently: book 3 of Legends of Amun Ra and an untitled piece set in the legends expanded universe. I’m also outlining 3 more books.
Do you have any advice for writers?
Don’t be so gung ho to finish your novel as fast as possible. We live in a world where quick, low cost publishing is only a few clicks away. But that doesn’t mean you need to publish Saturday what you wrote Friday.
When you wish to end your career, stop writing, and look back on your life, what thoughts would you like to have? In terms of writing, I’d like to think someone learned something from my series, whether it’s something historical, mythological, or just about humanity. I want people to continue growing and challenging themselves.
The ancient powers lost to Potara have returned. The Brotherhood of the Black Rose rises to bring Thoth into disorder. And, while the Brotherhood reclaims their power, chaos reigns among the survivors. Six individuals have emerged from the aftermath struggling for control over their lives and a divided land. Kem and Shirin, who abolished the five thousand year reign of the Amun Priests, rule from the golden throne of the Oracle’s Chair in the Hall of the Nine.
Dio and Axios struggle to piece together a resistance worthy to challenge the ancient magic which resides in the Great Temple of Amun, and Leoros and Atlantia try to remain true to their hearts and their cause despite tragedy.
But when the Book of Breathings is discovered, the path to immortality is revealed. Leoros and Kem race to capture the Soul of the World unaware of the challenges awaiting them. This time, the gods themselves will intervene.
In a tale where boys become men and girls become women, where treachery and deception are around every corner, and where primeval mysticism finds its way back from the grave, victory is reserved for neither the good nor the evil, but the powerful.
Genre – Science fiction, Fantasy
Rating – PG-13+
What was the hardest part of writing this book?
Given that both my novels were based on fact, and that the facts were not in my field of expertise, I had to go to enormous lengths to find mentors who could guide me in subjects like religion and science in general and energy and climate change in particular. Relative to actually writing the story, the research was probably 85% of the problem.
I spent 10 years of my life as a member of the Board of Directors of a Muslim family owned company and this was of enormous assistance in allowing me to understand the Muslim way of looking at life. It did not happen by accident. I told the elder statesman of the family when we first became business associates that one of my objectives was to learn about Islamic culture even though this particular family was not religious in the formal sense. He was/is a true gentleman and also a sort of elder statesman in his community. We developed a strong relationship of trust and I believe I helped him significantly in his business. Over the years I came to understand that the “traditional” Muslim values and the “traditional” Jewish values are very similar. But it took over a decade. I already had a personal relationship with a highly respected Catholic priest, who kindly gave me invaluable guidance as to the Christian perspective.
Similarly, it took around four years under tutelage of my world-class scientific mentor for me to finally get to grips with the issues surrounding nuclear energy, over-unity electromagnetic energy and climate change.
As I had spent over 30 years in and around the finance industry, the central banking and economic issues were “my meat” so to speak, but it had taken a huge amount of research over a period of 20 years to finally understand what really drives the global economy; and it was quite frightening to discover that the central bankers don’t really understand the implications of what they have been doing. Effectively, their actions have been blocking the arrival of (meaningful) new energy paradigms. By analogy, we are travelling in dangerously shallow economic waters which are hiding exceptionally sharp rocks from view; and largely without either a compass or sonar.
Ultimately, the fact is that “energy” is what drives the world economy and that’s why both my novels focus on alternative energies to fossil fuels. Writing the fictional stories was the fun part. But even that took me a couple of years to master under the tutelage of Beyond Neanderthal’s editor/publisher. The big challenge in writing the books (the other 15% of the work) was how to communicate all the facts without boring the reader to tears. That’s why my stories lean heavily on humour and on the very human interactions and adventures of the attractive characters. I also rely a lot on travelogue type writing, where I take the reader to exotic places. If the books are ever made into movies, those movies will be visually unusually compelling in those scenes.
Is there a message in your novel that you want readers to grasp?
Abso-defi-lutely-nitely yes! The whole point of writing those novels was to communicate a primary message of hope, flowing from the subsidiary messages which define the seven “core” problems facing 21st century humanity and present some potential solutions to those problems. To find out what those seven core problems are, you will have to read the novels.
Will you write others in this same genre?
My books fall within various genres and it depends on who is the potential reader as to what genre I choose to emphasise. “Conspiracy Thriller” is the main genre of both books – because the largest selling novel of all time (The Da Vinci Code) fell into that category with around 80 million books sold.
Another main genre is “Sci-Fi Thriller”, and I have tried to model my work loosely on Michael Crichton’s work, because he sold around 100 million copies of all his books combined during his career. However, given the intent of the third (as yet unwritten book) these two genres will be inappropriate. Other genres that I have focused on in my first two books are “Science Fiction” , “Adventure”, “Spiritual”, all of which will be appropriate for my third book. I may have to read Jules Verne’s various books again because his work was oriented towards what the future might look like; but I will be emphasising the value hierarchy of society that I believe will exist in the future, after the dust has settled following the next – and final – down leg of the Global Financial Crisis.
Did you learn anything from writing this book and what was in it?
Again, abso-defe-lutely-nitely yes! We have talked about the “hardest” part of writing the books. Well, overcoming those obstacles required me to climb a steep learning curve on all fronts.
How much of the book is realistic?
Where the science is concerned, all of it as far as I have been able to validate it.
Ditto where the modern day central banking/economic situation is concerned
Ditto where the subject of religion is concerned.
I have used author’s license in interpreting the meaning of some of the biblical passages to which I referred, but even that is within the bounds of reasonable probability. For example, by cross referencing selected information in the ancient tomes of the various religions across the planet, I was able to arrive at a startling conclusion that is objectively defensible and, to my knowledge, no one else has arrived at this same conclusion – yet.
The stories are totally fictional but, again, they are based on carefully researched fact. For example, the little town in the Dominican Republic is just as I have described it in Beyond Neanderthal, right down to the names of the owners of the various retail outlets. It is a matter of fact that the experiences of the two main characters as they flew through the Bermuda Triangle were capable of replication in a laboratory. Indeed, what I described was drawn from those laboratory experiments as augmented by actually reported Bermuda Triangle incidents. For another example, the intentions of the military Junta in Myanmar (in The Last Finesse) were deduced from carefully researched fact as provided by the Democratic Voice of Burma, amongst other sources. This begs the question as to whether the military Junta has genuinely let go of the reins of power when they allowed democracy to prevail, or whether they have just changed tactics.
There is an energy force in the world—known to the Ancients—that has largely escaped the interest of the modern day world. Why? There are allusions to this energy in the Chinese I-Ching, in the Hebrew Torah, in the Christian Bible, in the Hindu Sanskrit Ramayana and in the Muslim Holy Qur’an. Its force is strongest within the Earth’s magnetic triangles.
Near one of these–the Bermuda Triangle–circumstances bring together four very different people. Patrick Gallagher is a mining engineer searching for a viable alternative to fossil fuels; Tara Geoffrey, an airline pilot on holidays in the Caribbean; Yehuda Rosenberg, a physicist preoccupied with ancient history; and Mehmet Kuhl, a minerals broker, a Sufi Muslim with an unusual past. Can they unravel the secrets of the Ancients that may also hold the answer to the future of civilization?
About the Author:
In 1987, Brian and his young family migrated from South Africa to Australia where he was employed in Citicorp’s Venture Capital division. He was expecting that Natural Gas would become the world’s next energy paradigm but, surprisingly, it was slow in coming. He then became conscious of the raw power of self-serving vested interests to trump what – from an ethical perspective – should have been society’s greater interests.
Eventually, in 2005, with encouragement from his long suffering wife, Denise, he decided to do something about what he was witnessing: Beyond Neanderthal was the result; The Last Finesse is the prequel.
The Last Finesse is Brian’s second factional novel. Both were written for the simultaneous entertainment and invigoration of the thinking element of society. It is a prequel to Beyond Neanderthal, which takes a visionary view of humanity’s future, provided we can sublimate our Neanderthal drive to entrench pecking orders in society.
The Last Finesse is more “now” oriented. Together, these two books reflect a holistic, right brain/left brain view of the challenges faced by humanity; and how we might meet them. All our problems – including the mountain of debt that casts its shadow over the world’s wallowing economy – are soluble.
Genre – Thriller
Rating – MA (15+)
Connect with Brian Bloom on Twitter
Did writing this book teach you anything and what was it? I learned a few things about structure, character development (which I am light on), and keeping attributes consistent. Do you intend to make writing a career? Yes, definitely. Have you developed a specific writing style? Probably. What is your greatest strength as a writer? Sequences. My action sequences are fast, descriptive, and keep the reader going. Have you ever had writer’s block? If so, what do you do about it? Everyone does. I usually write with a timer so I just keep going, writing nonsense til something comes to me. But I also will stop and think about the story and what I, as a reader, would want to see happen next. Usually, that gets me back on track in mere minutes. Can you share a little of your current work with us? The Dream Rider is an up-tempo Science Fiction Novel about a boy who travels to another world in his dreams, and saves an entire planet from an evil emperor. Is it real or just a dream? You decide. How did you come up with the title? Honestly, it was the first thing that came to my head so I stuck with it because it sounded cool and went right along with the content. Can you tell us about your main character? Finn McClaren is an average college student. He comes from an Irish American dad and a Mexican American mom. He is mediocre at everything in life and, while he hates being so average, he also finds security in his non-dramatic life. How did you develop your plot and characters? I wrote the thing twice, got to about halfway done and threw it away. Twice. That was like 80,000 words I totally scrapped. I started over because I didn’t like where the story was going and the flow. I guess I just saw the plot in my head, and the characters too. They are based on people I’ve seen in life. 
When you wake up, does it seem like your dreams were real? Maybe they were. Imagine if Stephanie Meyer and Suzanne Collins sat down together to write an up-tempo, action packed sci-fi thriller featuring terrifying nightmares, an evil emperor, a beautiful princess, and gladtiator games on another planet. That’s The Dream Rider, the newest release from Ernest Dempsey, the author who brought you The Secret of the Stones and The Cleric’s Vault. Falling from buildings, being attacked by terrifying strangers, and ghostly hands that strangle in the night are just some of the fears The Dream Rider must overcome. Finn McClaren is an average college student, mediocre in every possible way, until one day, when strange men try to kill him. Finn wakes up in his dorm room to realize the whole thing was just a dream. Or was it? The nightmares continue, forcing Finn to face his deepest fears until one night, he stops running and fights back. When he awakens, he is no longer in his dorm room, but on a strange planet on the other side of the galaxy. After being arrested, Finn is thrust into an underground prison where the inmates are forced to fight to the death in the arena games. While there, he learns he has incredible powers, and of the true reason he has come to the alien world. The Dream Rider is a fun, fast-paced, science fiction adventure that also asks serious questions about our fears, self-esteem, beliefs, and facing challenges in life. Buy Now @ Amazon Genre – Science Fiction Rating – PG13 More details about the author & the book Connect with Ernest Dempsey on Facebook & Twitter Website http://ernestdempsey.net/
What motivates you to write? First and foremost, I write because it’s an activity I enjoy. If fiction writing were torture, I definitely wouldn’t be doing it! My main motivation is the challenge, the pressure, the surprises my characters have in store for me. Creating something as elaborate as a novel comes with sacrifice, but it is an extremely fulfilling experience. Motivation for my novel also stems from all the support I receive from my wondrous critique buddies on Critique Circle. They’re all such a helpful bunch! I don’t know what I’d do without them and their comments, suggestions and support. What writing are you most proud of? That would be my debut novel Serving Time, of course! Sometimes I’m watching TV or cooking or listening to the radio, and I stop and think “I’m a published author.” I actually did it! After so many years of doing what I was supposed to do (study, get a “real job,” pay the rent…), I had finally found the time for what I wanted to do: write. I’m sure there are countless aspiring authors out there whose heads buzz with fantastic ideas for short stories or novels, but who don’t dare take that first step. They might write a few pages, then shake their heads and stuff the papers in a drawer. Their insecurity is getting in the way of their creativity. In my case, I spent many years going through that phase, until I finally broke free and got down to business. And now I have a published novel, and a second one on the way! I went all the way, and I’m proud. You can do it, too. Just keep calm and write. Don’t stop and one day you’ll reach the end. What books did you love growing up? As a kid, I loved The Berenstein Bears! Whenever my mom and I used to go to Target, we’d always check if there was a new Berenstein book! I still have my entire collection. If I ever have children, I’ll read them The Berenstein Bears, although, knowing how possessive and protective I am of my childhood books, I’ll probably tell the kids “you can look but don’t touch!” Who is your favorite author? I don’t really have a favorite author, just like I don’t have a favorite film director or music band. I enjoy books. I might love a book from a certain author, but hate the next one. This happened with Ursula Q Le Guin. I really enjoyed her Earthsea novels, but was disappointed and annoyed by The Left Hand of Darkness. Nonetheless, some of my favorite authors are: Stephen King (although I admit there are some books I haven’t been able to finish, see: The Tommyknockers), Phillip Pullman (His Dark Materials is a captivating trilogy), Richard Matheson (I Am Legend is the only novel by him that I’ve read, but it’s one of my all-time favorites), and Robert Sheckley (the master of satirical sci-fi). What book genre do you adore? I’m an unconditional fan of science fiction, and some fantasy books (I’m not so big on the elves and dwarves…). I also enjoy some historical fiction, such as the classic The Pillars of the Earth. What book should everybody read at least once? Well, this is simply my opinion as a sci-fi lover, but I believe everyone should read 2001: A Space Odyssey. I admit the first few chapters on the moon might be yawn-inducing, but the scenes with Dave and HAL are absolutely chilling. I remember reading this novel as a teen before going to bed, and it felt like I was reading a horror story. Are there any books you really don’t enjoy? I absolutely, positively, definitely can’t stomach romance, which is a shame since it seems to be so popular nowadays. Location and life experiences can really influence writing, tell us where you grew up and where you now live? Man, I’m living proof that life experiences influence writing! Just look at the mess my characters are in. The two heroes are the Cross brothers: Tristan and Eneld. At the beginning of the novel, their relationship is strained, basically because they haven’t seen each other in many years and Eneld (the younger brother) has abandonment issues regarding Tristan. The characters don’t have a known family apart from each other and their deceased mother. How has my own life experience influenced these characters? When I was 11, my parents got divorced. At the age of 12, my mother took me with her to live in Spain. We left behind our entire family in California, and we didn’t have absolutely anybody waiting for us in Spain. Sometimes I still wonder what the heck got into her to make that kind of decision. My father remarried and I have a step-sister and a half-brother. However, the long-distance relationship is difficult to manage. Do you see the similarities between my life and my characters’ lives? We’re all estranged from our families—and I only realized this after writing Tristan and Eneld’s backstory! However, it’s not all drama for our heroes; they’ve also been influenced by the beautiful place where I now live. Tristan and Eneld grew up in Barcelona, Catalonia, and you can catch some dashes of Catalan culture in their adventure throughout Serving Time. 
Life and death have been industrialized. The Forge, the birthplace of every soul, is a rumbling factory owned by the goddess Time, managed by Lucifer, and powered by the labor of demons and imps. In this dystopian world, a renegade interplanetary pilot running from his past doesn’t stand a chance. Handling Neptunian meth and dodging security cannons are all in a day’s work for Tristan Cross—not that he’s one to complain. Working for the smuggling company StarCorp is an improvement over what he used to do for a living. However, when StarCorp gives Tristan a one-way ticket into the brainwashed—and disturbingly suicidal—Loyal League, he decides to run from the company and start a new life in the only safe haven he knows: Earth. With the help of his brother, Tristan embarks on the most hazardous journey of his life, one that will place him at Time’s mercy. Little does he know the demons running the universe are craving a feast, and his own soul is the next item on the menu. Buy Now @ Amazon Genre – Science Fiction/Fantasy Rating – Adult More details about the author Connect with Nadine Ducca on Facebook
Website http://nadineonwriting.blogspot.com/
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