Meet Eric Swett, Author of Apocalypse Rising
What inspired you to become an author?
That's tough to answer really. Creativity came hard to me until I started playing Dungeons and Dragons as a kid. Creating characters and adventures was almost as much fun for me as actually playing the game, so I would say that was my first step toward becoming an author. Even with that, I rarely committed anything to paper other than badly written love poems until I took a creative writing class in college. Suddenly I was writing all of the time. I started with short stories, but worked my way up to writing a novel. I still haven't finished that first one, but I was hooked and I knew I wanted to be an author some day.
How did you come up with the idea for your book Apocalypse Rising?
Apocalypse Rising actually started out as a writing exercise. I read in a book that you should commit to writing for fifteen minutes a day, but that if you couldn't do that, then you should try just 100 words per day. So I started writing a story at 100 words per day. I worked on it for a year and decided I liked it better than the novel I was spending most of my time on, so I switched gears and started working on it even more until it was done. Thus was Apocalypse Rising born. Because of the way I started working on it, and the extended amount of time it took to write it, I did not have a real clear idea as to how the story was going to go until I was half way through, but I liked the idea of a fallen angel living amongst the poorest of the poor, so that is where my inspiration originated.
What do you think readers will enjoy most about your book?
I think the action sequences will be what the readers will enjoy the most. I tried to make them fast and interesting. It is hard, at least for me, to get the right balance between detail and pacing, so I spend a whole lot of time working out the scenes in my head as well as on paper. I'm constantly asking myself if it makes sense, and can I picture it? Another part that I think some people will find interesting, is the crisis of faith that the main character has to struggle with. It is easy to say someone believes in something, but to question and to plumb the depths of what one knows to be true and compare to what he suspects? That is hard for anyone to deal with.
What advice would you give to a new author trying to get their book published?
Don't listen to other people while you're writing your first draft and definitely don't share it with other authors unless you REALLY know them well. I was almost derailed from my writing when I shared my work with other authors that I did not know. Authors are hateful people, whether they mean to be or not, and they will judge your work against their own, or against the works of professionals they have read. I had a piece I was working on compared to George R. R. Martin's A Game of Thrones. Okay, what budding author can survive a direct comparison between his book and that of a master of the genre? Of course my book was crap when compared to a Game of Thrones, and I imagine my critic's book was not any better, but he held up all of the differences as an example of why my writing was not good. Keep your work close to your chest until you have written it, edited it and you feel like you're getting close to submission or publication. Even then, listen to their criticism and praise with a careful ear. Consider what they say and decide for yourself if their thoughts warrant a change in your manuscript. If it does not, toss it to the side and move on.
Are you currently working on other books?
I am currently working on the sequel to Apocalypse Rising, but I have two more books waiting in the wings, ready for editing and rewriting if I ever get the time. I hope to have Apocalypse Rising Two (currently unnamed beyond AR2) ready for publication by the end of October, but that will be pretty aggressive since my wife will be giving birth at the beginning of October and I'm likely to be swamped with a return to baby duties.
You can find out more about Eric Swett and his books by visiting mywriterscramp.com.
That's tough to answer really. Creativity came hard to me until I started playing Dungeons and Dragons as a kid. Creating characters and adventures was almost as much fun for me as actually playing the game, so I would say that was my first step toward becoming an author. Even with that, I rarely committed anything to paper other than badly written love poems until I took a creative writing class in college. Suddenly I was writing all of the time. I started with short stories, but worked my way up to writing a novel. I still haven't finished that first one, but I was hooked and I knew I wanted to be an author some day.
How did you come up with the idea for your book Apocalypse Rising?
Apocalypse Rising actually started out as a writing exercise. I read in a book that you should commit to writing for fifteen minutes a day, but that if you couldn't do that, then you should try just 100 words per day. So I started writing a story at 100 words per day. I worked on it for a year and decided I liked it better than the novel I was spending most of my time on, so I switched gears and started working on it even more until it was done. Thus was Apocalypse Rising born. Because of the way I started working on it, and the extended amount of time it took to write it, I did not have a real clear idea as to how the story was going to go until I was half way through, but I liked the idea of a fallen angel living amongst the poorest of the poor, so that is where my inspiration originated.
What do you think readers will enjoy most about your book?
I think the action sequences will be what the readers will enjoy the most. I tried to make them fast and interesting. It is hard, at least for me, to get the right balance between detail and pacing, so I spend a whole lot of time working out the scenes in my head as well as on paper. I'm constantly asking myself if it makes sense, and can I picture it? Another part that I think some people will find interesting, is the crisis of faith that the main character has to struggle with. It is easy to say someone believes in something, but to question and to plumb the depths of what one knows to be true and compare to what he suspects? That is hard for anyone to deal with.
What advice would you give to a new author trying to get their book published?
Don't listen to other people while you're writing your first draft and definitely don't share it with other authors unless you REALLY know them well. I was almost derailed from my writing when I shared my work with other authors that I did not know. Authors are hateful people, whether they mean to be or not, and they will judge your work against their own, or against the works of professionals they have read. I had a piece I was working on compared to George R. R. Martin's A Game of Thrones. Okay, what budding author can survive a direct comparison between his book and that of a master of the genre? Of course my book was crap when compared to a Game of Thrones, and I imagine my critic's book was not any better, but he held up all of the differences as an example of why my writing was not good. Keep your work close to your chest until you have written it, edited it and you feel like you're getting close to submission or publication. Even then, listen to their criticism and praise with a careful ear. Consider what they say and decide for yourself if their thoughts warrant a change in your manuscript. If it does not, toss it to the side and move on.
Are you currently working on other books?
I am currently working on the sequel to Apocalypse Rising, but I have two more books waiting in the wings, ready for editing and rewriting if I ever get the time. I hope to have Apocalypse Rising Two (currently unnamed beyond AR2) ready for publication by the end of October, but that will be pretty aggressive since my wife will be giving birth at the beginning of October and I'm likely to be swamped with a return to baby duties.
You can find out more about Eric Swett and his books by visiting mywriterscramp.com.
Stacie Theis / beachboundbooks@yahoo.com / copyright 2012