1. Can you please introduce yourself and tell us something about your book "Drone Life, Drone Life"
Answer: Hi. Hope everyone is well. My name is Andrew. I’m a self taught author chasing my passions. Drone Life, Drone Life, Endorsements of Barren Wildernesses, is a postwar dystopian maritime utopian journey as seen through the eyes, of a not so mad scientist, Geppetto Ruckmore. He lives in his son’s house with his family while he regroups his life’s endeavors of helping others, and himself, with his inventions. It doesn’t help that there’s fervent competition for increasingly scarce resources in this fractured world for which he’s determined to find remedies.
2. When did you get the thoughts of writing this book? i read the blurb and it looks fantastic.
Answer: Aside from an age old promise that I made to my 1st grade teacher, I also made a promise of writing a book, to my child, — the initial inspiration to build upon for this book. There was our cat, and the houseplants. And I created a fictional name for an animatronic vampire cat, ‘Vesper the Vampire Cat.’ And I just continued to build and write off that idea. The cat had to have a house, and a family had to live in that house, and so forth. Before I knew it there were around 200 pages. This is when I thought I had better read some books on writing, which is when I found out I had taught myself the bulk of writing. So I continued to edit, create, and add, just as before. All the time drawing from life experiences to tap into in depth.
3. What kind of research do you do, and how long do you spend researching before beginning a book?
Answer: I really don’t do any research. This is like a concept I really don’t understand. I draw from my surroundings, and life experiences, and my imagination. I just use eclecticism.
4. What was one of the most surprising things you learned in creating your books?
Answer: That there’s writing rules to be broken. That you don’t have to read a 100 books a year, or even 10, or 1 or 2 to be able to write. And you don’t have all perfectly structured sentences for it to make sense. That anyone that has the will, inspiration, motivation, or passion to write, can write.
5. Do you want each book to stand on its own, or are you trying to build a body of work with connections between each book?
Answer: I enjoy writing many stories in many realms, and in multiple genres. I really want my stories to be unique and different. Unless you knew whom you are reading I would prefer that you can’t tell the stories are coming from the same author, because then you’ll never know what exactly to expect, and that’s what keeps us all entertained
6. What was an early experience where you learned that language had power?
Answer: I’ve learned I’m a much better writer than I am a speaker. Maybe that’s common among writers? I’m not a very avid reader. It’s like a song to me, you know if it’s going to be good when you hear it. It’s the same with reading quote, or an article, or an excerpt, you can just tell if its worth reading. Of course we all have our different tastes.
7. Do you hear from your readers much? What kinds of things do they say?
Answer: Early in my writing process, about the same time I read books on writing, I attended
some writer conferences. I received very good reactions and feedback, however they were not completed works. I’ve been told by people with masters degrees in English, that I was writing masterpieces and had to finish them. Only one was of these meetings were at the conference, and others were hotel guests with whom I shared excerpts. They wanted to know where I studied, or who my favorite authors are or books that I’ve read? I really didn’t have much of answer for them. Outside of college texts, newsfeeds, and children’s book, I don’t know what to tell them.
8. How would you express your journey as an Author?
Answer: I’ve done the bulk of my writing as an adult. I began with poetry. Come to think of it, I was pretty good at writing abstracts in college history class. I wrote a fiction piece on war for a high school project. I also made up poetry in my head in high school, that made it paper decades later. I use this poetry to play off of in parts of my science fiction book, Drone Life, Drone Life, Endorsements of Barren Wildernesses. I guess the short answer to your question is: An eclectic journey. The long answer: It’s really a culmination of life’s experiences. While growing up in Amish country Ohio I made a promise to my 1st grade teacher, an elderly Mennonite lady, to, “…someday write a book.” You see, she was part of the English Chapter of the Shakespearian Society, which had a reputation for being more true to maritime than that of the American chapters, which had somehow been tainted by those of us that are less enlightened. Much like this man who quickly became our nemesis. She knew it’s all about the culturing of youths. His stance toward this and her, was, as he put it, “Raising a bunch of sitting ducks.” She had just seen the two of us talking in the hallway. He with his chaotic narrative of men and wars, cold or not, versus my humanitarian, religious vies I had learned form my father and the Amish kids, in what the Amish would refer to as a, “Mainstream grade school.” After all, there were electric. She could see he was angry eight me for outwitting him, as the Amish had taught me to bluff and stuff. Afterward I made this promise to Mrs. Yoder to, ‘…someday write a book,’ that had long stints of dormancy. It wasn’t until years later that I began to keep this promise. It was after moving to the city at age 11. After I attending high school, and college, and a marriage and child. Still, the passion stayed. At first it was mostly poetry. I began writing science fiction. My creative mind and adventurous spirit show through in the shared contrasts between country and city living. More recently I rediscovered singing. Something else that I also hadn’t done since I was a child. That’s another story, (God Save The Kings)
9. What other things do you love than this writing?
Answer: I love humanitarianism, — people. I love the arts, oil paintings, crafts, singing, entertainment, outdoors, the beauty in life.
10. And last, What advice do you have for writers?
Answer: Follow your passions. Tap into your subconscious, your psyche. Find the details of you and find a place for them in your characters. Be descriptive. Two of my favorite books on writing that I recommend are: “the making of a story” by Alice LaPlante. and: bird by bird, by Anne Lamott.
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