New year, new resolutions: 2018

As usual, at the end of December I find myself taking stock of the year that is coming to an end and setting goals for the next one.

Writing this article was relatively easy in the past years, as many of the projects I would undertake depended on factors under my complete control. One year ago, however, I had to limit my resolutions, as I didn’t know if some things that were at stake would have come to completion and therefore I wasn’t able to plan anything specific after the month of May. Now for 2018 it’s going to be even more complicated due to some pending matters, one of which ended just at the beginning of December, and then in the next few months maybe I will be able to understand a little better in which direction I should address my efforts. However, there are some fixed points: some resolutions on which I have clear ideas.

But let’s go by order, starting with the resolutions expressed a year ago that I managed to complete:

- I completed “Beyond the Limit” (the final book of the Detective Eric Shaw trilogy), I did the editing of the book and I published it on May 21 in Italian;

- I stopped for about a month after the completion of the first draft of this book, but I cannot say that I fully recharged my batteries, because I was quite taken by family and even health issues (I became allergic to mites);

- I tried to commit myself to promote the Detective Eric Shaw trilogy by means of offline events, starting with a book signing in Carbonia (Italy) a few days after the release of the last book. It was a very entertaining event and many people attended it. Unfortunately, no more events followed, even though I received several proposals, because due to organizational reasons, and/or due to lack of time on my side, it wasn’t possible to do them. But I trust that it will happen in the future;

- I devoted some time to FantascientifiCast (Italian podcast about science fiction), even if only in the first part of the year. In the second part it wasn’t possible simply because I didn’t watch any new science fiction series on TV and I saw very few new science fiction films. Moreover I mostly read old science fiction books. Fortunately, the second season of “Westworld” and “Mars” will be released in 2018, so I’ll probably come back to the podcast;

- I read about 52 books (I say about, because I’m writing this article well in advance, but I’m confident of reaching that number by 31 December);

- until to September I managed to schedule in advance the posts for this blog (and also for the Italian one), then I actually let it go (except for this post), because at the moment this isn’t a priority. I have a series of articles in progress (in Italian) and I have to write several reviews of books that I read, but beside this I’m going to write on my blog only when I feel I have something interesting to say, without trying to do it as a duty;

- I think I managed to plan my working time a little better. I enjoyed last summer, thanks to the particularly stable climate here in Sardinia. I also had a nice trip (a cruise to Denmark and Norway). In autumn I was able to dedicate to some interesting things (I’m writing about it later in this article) and to resume a certain work pace, after a long pause from writing that I really needed;

- finally I took stock of my first five years as a self-publisher. This is obviously a positive evaluation, but at the same time it is accompanied by the awareness that many things have changed in the publishing market and this requires the development of new approaches.

What wasn’t I able to do?

Unfortunately in 2017 I couldn’t repeat the experience of the class I taught in Varese, but I already knew that there was a risk of skipping at least one year. Hopefully I’ll do that again in 2018.

Moreover I haven’t written so much, but this was my choice. I started writing again, very slowly, in November, knowing that I have to increase my pace on January.

What else did I do or happened to me in 2017?

First of all I found an agent to manage the translation rights of some of my books, in particular of the Detective Eric Shaw trilogy. I came to this person after almost one year and a half of seeking representation, during which I discussed with other agents about a possible collaboration without being able to find the right agreement. Working with her took me some time to prepare the material she needed. In fact, this person does not speak Italian and has therefore no way to read some of the books she is representing, at least until they are translated into English. This forced me to write very detailed synopses for her. And I hate writing synopsis!

We are still at the beginning of our working relationship and I don’t have big illusions about it, but it represents a first step towards my search for new ways to reach more readers in markets where I might never otherwise arrive.

The second important event, which is also the most recent (it happened at the beginning of December), was the reversion of the English translation rights of “The Mentor” (first book in the Detective Shaw trilogy) by Amazon Publishing.

This suddenly put me in front of new choices and potential opportunities.

In the past months, while waiting for this to happen, I decided to resume studying specifically some aspects of the English language. I started studying this language as a child and I use it for work and in my private life for about twenty years (since I have access to the Internet). Moreover I have already translated other books in English (the “Red Desert” series and “Kindred Intentions”). But now with the reversion of the rights of “The Mentor” and with the collaboration with a British agent I need to make a step change.

Well, to tell the truth, all this is fun for me, since it involves practicing a foreign language, as well as reading books, watching films and TV series because I need to improve my writing skills and listening skills.

So, after a few months spent studying (let’s call it this way), I’m translating into English again: I started a new translation of “The Mentor”.

In 2017 I also followed nine MOOCs (Mass Open Online Courses), thanks to which I learned several things that will be more or less directly useful for my work. Some have been a kind of research for future fiction projects, others helped to improve my English, others to broaden my knowledge of fiction and writing in general, and others to add more knowledge to my scientific education. Among these, undoubtedly the most interesting (and long: eight weeks) was “Moons”, a course on the moons of the Solar System organised by The Open University on FutureLearn.

Apparently not satisfied, I already registered to five more courses for 2018 and I tend to think that others will be added.

Although I haven’t written much this year, it doesn’t mean that I didn’t create new stories. I have in fact written many notes, outline sketches and sometimes complete outlines for nine future book projects. These include also a short prequel (a novella) of the Detective Shaw trilogy, of which I already have a complete outline, although I don’t know yet when (or if) I’m going to write the book. It’s just a matter of deciding to write it.

In addition to these nine projects, there is also “Sirius. In caduta libera” (Sirius. Free Falling), but I will talk about it in the resolutions for the new year.

Among the new experiences in 2017 is Wattpad. Actually I have an account on the site for a couple of years and in the past I just published a preview of two books in English. Since last October I started to be interested in the Italian readers and, out of curiosity, I started posting my old fan fiction “La morte è soltanto il principio” (Death Is Only the Beginning). Its publication on Wattpad was completed just before Christmas (sorry, it’s in Italian only). It was also a way to review it for the umpteenth time and see if I could use it to find some more readers.

I don’t think I would ever use Wattpad to write a project in instalments, but it could be an interesting tool to do some promotional experiments.

At last, but not least, I started writing “Self-publishing lab: Il mestiere dell’autoeditore” (in Italian), a book based on the self-publishing class I taught at the University of Insubria in 2016.

In short, in the end you can’t say that I did nothing in 2017, can you?

Image by Tomasz Rozkosz

And now here are my resolutions for 2018:

1) write and publish “Sirius. In caduta libera” (Sirius. Free Falling) in Italian, the fourth part in the Aurora saga. I’m starting to write it immediately after the holiday season and I intend to publish it, as planned, on 30 November. Speaking of this book, I will say more on it, when its translation is started. For now I only say that it is set about five years before “The Isle of Gaia” (I must translate this one and another book in the saga yet), it’s main character is Hassan Qabbani (you know him from “Red Desert”) and that the story takes mostly place in Earth orbit;

2) finish translating “The Mentor” into English within the first few months of the new year (including the editing and proofreading process). This project is a priority, as I would like to have it available as soon as possible in its final version to evaluate the various opportunities for republication and promotion of the trilogy on the English market. In this regard, I would also like to be able to start the translation of the other books in the trilogy (maybe complete the second one), but I’m not setting any deadline now. Anyway, I promise that I’ll do my best to have the whole trilogy published in English as soon as possible;

3) complete the first draft of “Self-publishing lab: Il mestiere dell’autoeditore”. I would love to complete its final draft as well, but I prefer not to set any deadline. This is my first non-fiction book and it requires a different attention on my part both for the content and, above all, for the packaging. When I have completed it, I will program the details of its publication and promotion;

4) read longer books. In past years I decided that I would read an average of one book a week. I realise now that this is not for me, as it forces me to read several short or not particularly long books to achieve the goal. I don’t think it makes sense. As a reader my ideal novel has at least 400 pages, but if it has 800 or even more, and it’s a good book, it even becomes perfect to me, because it has a more complex plot. And I love complex plots. So I decided not to set a minimum number of books a year, but a minimum length (for example, 400 pages on average) for about 80% of the books I will read in 2018. Moreover, among these at least one third will be novels in British English, since this is the English in which I am translating my own books.

That’s all: only four resolutions, but all important and under my full control, except causes of force majeure.

What do you think?

Of course I have more projects, but I prefer to tell you about them when I decide which one to prioritise.

As usual, I want to conclude this article thanking all my loved ones, my friends, my collaborators, and my readers. With you, thanks to you and also for you, I do this work with determination and passion. And my results are also partly yours.

Thank you so much.

I wish you all a 2018 full of satisfactions and, if you like, I would be happy to know your resolutions in the comments of this article or on the various social networks in which I’m sharing it.
As we say in Italy, have a good end and good start!

Teaching self-publishing at university, the Detective Shaw Trilogy and more

It’s a long while since the last time I wrote on this blog. I had been so busy lately that I was forced to give priority to the Italian market.

After publishing “Kindred Intentions” in English I had a very long May, in which I taught a class about self-publishing at the University of Insubria in Varese, in Northern Italy, that is very far from where I live. Actually I had to take a flight, a bus, a metro train and a train to get there from my city, Cagliari. I spent two separated weeks there, at the beginning and the end of the month, during which I ran a 16-hour course.

It was a great experience. I had the chance to teach what self-publishing really is to some students who had no much information about it. But, as you can imagine, the preparation for this job needed more time that the one used for the actual classes. I had been preparing it since January and when it finally ended I realised that I had fallen behind with everything else, also because in the meantime I was finalising the publication of the Italian edition of “Syndrome” (the sequel to “The Mentor”), which was published on 21 May (see the Italian cover of the book at the bottom of this article). Then its promotion followed, and therefore I found myself at the end of June and, now, at the middle of July.

But I haven’t forgotten my English books and my English-speaking readers.

Right now, I don’t know when I’m going to translate another book into English. I wished that the next one were “Syndrome”, given that “The Mentor” had so many readers (more than 165,000), but as you know, the latter was published by AmazonCrossing and, since they don’t appear interested to translate its sequel, at least at the moment, I decided to focus my efforts regarding the Detective Eric Shaw Trilogy on the Italian editions, so that I can have it completed by next May. Once I have the whole trilogy ready, I’ll decide whether I should self-publish book #2 (Syndrome) and book #3 (Beyond the Limit), unless I get a suitable offer from the publisher.

I must say that having no control of book #1 limits the chances to promote the other novels (which reminded me why I love to be a self-publisher!), but I could maybe bypass the problem by creating a book #0 and/or a book #1.5 (probably novellas), which would raise interest in the series in potential readers and even fill the gaps for those who haven’t read or doesn’t want to or even couldn’t (because they aren’t Kindle users) read book #1.

I don’t lack imagination, so I think I’ll find a way. The only thing that I lack at the moment is time, so I must focus on some priorities.

Anyway, I have some news concerning my English books: “Kindred Intentions” will be available on more retailers starting from 26 July!

I tried KDP Select for 90 days, and I’m not satisfied.

Kindle Unlimited was a total disappointment. I didn’t get enough read pages to justify giving exclusivity to Amazon. Moreover, this isn’t a long book; therefore the maximum amount I can earn from a full read copy is minimal.

Paid promotions on Amazon website were useless, and I wasn’t allowed to put advertising on Kindle devices because there are guns in the cover. This is hilarious, given that “Kindred Intentions” is an action thriller! Apparently you can buy a gun whenever you want in the USA, but you can’t see a gun pictured on a book cover in an ad on your ereader.

You can just laugh at this, can’t you?

Finally, I used Kindle Countdown Deals. They worked only because I had paid some third party services, but there was no long-term effect on the sales and couldn’t fully exploit them because the book wasn’t available outside of Amazon. The Kindle Countdown Deals are surely a convenient way to schedule a priced promotion, but 7 days out of 90 aren’t enough, and you can get the same effect if you have your book elsewhere, do a priced promotion there, and let Amazon adjust the price. So it can be fully replaced.

Once “Kindred Intentions” will be available everywhere, I’ll focus on finding new ways to promote it, before taking decisions on further translations.

Anyway, there’s another book that I’d like to translate in the near future, i.e. “The Isle of Gaia” (original title: L’isola di Gaia). It is the second part in the Aurora Saga, which includes the “Red Desert” series as the first part.

I’m currently editing part #3 in the saga in Italian; it is titled “Ophir”. And there will be two more novels in this series, which will keep me busy until 2020.

I promise all of them will be translated into English. I’ll be able to give you more details at the beginning of the New Year.

Moreover, I’m actively seeking new opportunities for exploiting more rights from my books. I can’t be specific now, but I hope that, if some of them are successful, it’ll make a difference in the English market, too, and could speed up the translation of more books of mine.

I just have to keep working, but I also ask you to keep your fingers crossed for me.

And now, just stay tuned, because this blog is coming back to life. I’m going to publish more posts starting from next week. They’ll include book reviews, a series of articles related to forensic science in fiction, the locations of my books (some suggestions for your next holidays?), my favourite TV series and authors, and much more.

My journey from science to science fiction . . . and back

With my science background (I’m a biologist specialised in ecology), one would think that a career at university would be a likely choice for me. Instead, I’ve become a writer.

Actually I worked at university for six years after my graduation. I was the assistant of a professor and the head of a research team. We used to make researches in the field of estuarine and marine ecology.

Unfortunately, various circumstances forced me to let it go. My professor retired and our laboratory was dismissed. I could have kept on pursuing that career, of course, but I had lost the momentum. I didn’t like so much the academic world, at least not the one where I should have tried to continue my career.

So I decided to change. I had already started my business as web designer when I was still working at university, so when I left it, I just continued and I added scientific translations and some music management.

But writing was something different. I discovered my love for writing when I was a teenager. I was never particularly encouraged as a writer at school. I must say I didn’t like Italian literature. It was mostly due to the way it was taught to me, I guess. In fact, I did like English literature instead. Anyway I liked writing, I liked the way I wrote. My professors didn’t particularly like my style, so I wasn’t encouraged by them. What I liked most were the weird ideas I had about stories. I loved to invent stories. I do love it.

Inventing stories, and then writing them, is a way to live your life in a different way. To experience different kinds of lives.

As I was a cinema addict, I started writing screenplays. I wanted to be a screenwriter, but it’s quite complicated to become a screenwriter, I mean, to have your script transformed into a movie. Then I changed to fiction. Initially it was fan fiction. I am a huge Star Wars fan, so my first fan faction was in the Star Wars expanded universe. Then in 1999 I fell in love with a silly movie called “The Mummy” and in 2000 I started writing a book inspired by it.

Then I just stopped with fiction for a while, well, years. I’ve tried poetry and song lyrics.

In 2006 I had a dream; a lot of what I write comes from dreams. It was about a story set in the future, where people lived in an isolated island. From that dream came the first idea for a novel, titled in Italian “L’isola di Gaia”, which means “The Isle of Gaia”. I actually wrote it between 2009 and 2011, before “Red Desert”. I had completed the first draft on the 30th of December 2011 and five days later I started writing “Red Desert - Point of No Return”.

In 2013 I made a first revision of “The Isle of Gaia” and in 2014 I re-wrote it completely and edited it, then I published it in November, of course in Italian.

 “The Isle of Gaia” is set in the same universe of “Red Desert”, but 35 years after the end of my Mars series, and this quite long novel together with “Red Desert” and three more novels, I will be writing in the next few years, are part of a bigger saga, whose name is Aurora.

So I’m still going to write science fiction for a while.

But I don’t forget my love for science and especially biology. Inspired by Anna Persson, the main character of “Red Desert”, who is an exobiologist, I started widening my knowledge on astrobiology. There’s a lot of affinity between it and ecology, and I have always been interested in space science, so I think I will continue on this path.

And this scientific background is one of the reasons I decided to write hard science fiction, but I’m now exploring more subgenres. “The Isle of Gaia” is a cyberpunk technothriller and the next science fiction novel I’m going to start writing in April (not connected to the Aurora saga) is a space opera.

Anyway I’m pretty sure that my scientific mind will somehow guide me in this new writing adventure, as much as it does even when I write thrillers or I do everything else in my life.

Am I a science fiction or thriller author?

I don’t like labels. Every time someone asks me what genre my stories are, it’s difficult for me to give an answer. Actually it depends on the book and sometimes different genres can be detected in the same book.

“Red Desert” is between hard science fiction and technothriller. Some readers say it’s Crichton style, though in my stories there’s a lot more character’s introspection than in his. There’s a lot of real science, of course, and a lot of invented science, too. But there’s also suspense, a mystery to discover, murders, a lot of action, adventure, and even romance. The main character Anna Persson is a woman and is an anti-heroine, a very flawed character.

Anyway, if the question is whether I am science fiction, my answer is ‘not exactly’. I’m also a science fiction author, but I mostly consider myself a thriller author, because in whatever I write there’s a thriller soul. There’s something hidden to the reader, which they never expect. Things are never as they seem. There are a lot of twists. This is the typical stuff you can see in thrillers, but I put them in different contexts, including science fiction ones.

Beside “Red Desert” and that first novel inspired by The Mummy, which was an action-fantasy story, with a lot of thrilling in it (!), I also wrote a crime thriller, “Il mentore” (it’ll be published soon in English with the title of “The Mentor”) and an action thriller that will be published in Italian in May.

It seems I’m not able to write two stories in exactly the same genre. Another novel I’ve recently published in Italian (“L’isola di Gaia”; one day it’ll be published in English as “The Isle of Gaia”), though it’s science fiction and in the same universe of “Red Desert”, it’s in a different subgenre of science fiction, i.e. cyberpunk, but again it’s definitely a technothriller. The story itself has nothing to do with Crichton style I was mentioning earlier; it is more similar to Dick style.

And now I’m about to start writing a space opera, but again with a thriller twist.

Anyway, I must say that I particularly enjoy writing in a science fiction context. Beside the fact I’m a space exploration enthusiast, which would be enough a justification for my enjoyment, speculation fiction in general gives me the power to create a world with my rules, where characters move. This gives me a lot of freedom and let my fantasy go wild.

So, to answer to the question on the title: I’m a thriller author enamoured of science fiction settings. That doesn’t mean it’ll be like that forever.

New Year, new resolutions: 2015

Here we are again. 2014 is about to come to an end. For what concern me, it was a year rich of events, and it almost seemed longer than the previous ones, which looks like a good sign, as it means I’ve been occupied with many different activities, more than those normally characterising a typical year.

But let’s start from the beginning. Do you remember about the resolutions I mentioned one year ago?

As I scroll down the list, I see I accomplished several of them; it didn’t go so well with others, but I had the chance to add new unexpected events, so I’m more than satisfied by the results.

Let’s see them in detail.

I successfully completed the editing and published “Il mentore” (a thriller in Italian; trans: “The Mentor”) during spring and “L’isola di Gaia” (trans: “The Isle of Gaia”) by 30 November (exactly on the 28th).

I read 53 books during the year, one more than the number I had wished.

I had hoped to sell at least 3000 copies in Italy and, instead, I sold almost 4000 (more than those sold in the two preceding years together). But what makes this result really amazing is that approximately half of these copies were sold at a price over 2 euros, thus showing that I’m succeeding in my intention to transform my activity as an indie author into a real source of income. And it was possible also thanks to the fact that I’m dedicating over 80% of my time to it. In other words, my worry about the difficulty to sell books costing more than 1 euro has revealed fortunately wrong. This happened partially thanks to the fact that there was a significant increase in the digital book market in Italy in this last year and, in the meantime, I succeeded in reaching a different target of readers, by exploiting the internal promotional mechanisms of the retailers (Amazon, but not only). The biggest surprise was that “Il mentore” became the one of my books having the more lasting and constant sales in the first five months after its publication, so much as to draw the attention of someone who asked me to acquire its translation rights in English and German. Concerning this matter, I’ll tell you more in the very next future, since an English edition (expected, indeed, in 2015) should be of some interest to you, but for now I still prefer to keep a little secrecy about the details.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t fulfil a few resolutions. I didn’t participate in NaNoWriMo, also because I was in holidays for two weeks in November, so I had to postpone the writing of a new novel. For the same reason, I didn’t succeed in writing 200 thousand words during the year, but only 135 thousand of the re-writing of “L’isola di Gaia”.

But you must add to it the translation of three full books from my “Red Desert” series (approx. 140 thousand words), and I’m working on the last one right now, which I should finish by the first days of February. Meanwhile, I’ve published the two first books, “Red Desert - Point of No Return” and “Red Desert - People of Mars”, whilst the third one, “Red Desert - Invisible Enemy”, is scheduled to be published on 2 February (my proofreader is working on it).

Moreover, as you can see here, I’m still working in extending my readership here in the English market. Next year will be particularly relevant for what concern this aspect. But what makes me hope for the best is that my books have been liked so far.

My account of the past year becomes even better if I consider the results I’ve reached, which I wasn’t event aiming at.

Here they are:

- I was awarded by Wired Italia as one of the 10 best Italian self-publishers;

- I was a guest at the Salone Internazionale del Libro di Torino, the most important Italian book fair, in May and then at the Frankfurter Buchmesse, the international book fair of Frankfurt (the most important European book fair), in October;

- the omnibus of “Deserto rosso” (in Italian) hit the first position in the Kindle Store on Amazon.it (yes, the top of the big chart!) for two days;

- I received fantastic reviews of the Red Desert series both by Wired Italia and Tom’s Hardware Italia. The latter also reviewed my latest Italian novel, “L’isola di Gaia”;

- this latest novel was the most sold book in the Kindle Store on Amazon.it during the days of the launch (in the charts only counting the sales in the previous 24 hours) and it continues selling well, beyond my expectations;

- I also gave a speech at two more interesting events: one was in Todi, during a national series event concerning publishing and involving all Italy (titled “Maggio dei Libri”); the other one was a conference at the Università degli Studi dell’Insubria (in Varese) concerning science, science fiction and self-publishing.

All that happened in spite of being subjected to an operation at my right hand in February, which kept me partially out of them games for almost two months.

In a nutshell, I’m satisfied by my achievements.

And now it’s the time to state my resolutions for 2015.

1) Publishing “Red Desert - Invisible Enemy” on 2 February (it’s almost done) and complete the translation of “Red Desert - Back Home”, to be published in summer.

2) Editing and publishing a thriller titled “Affinità d’intenti” (trans: Kindred Intentions) in Italian by May.

3) Writing at least two novels, a science fiction one (possible title “Per caso”, i.e. “By Chance”, in the subgenre of space opera) and a thriller (maybe “Sindrome”, i.e. “Syndrome”, a sequel of “Il mentore”), and writing at least half of “Ophir”, the third part of the Aurora saga, which also include the “Red Desert” series, by exploiting the two sessions of Camp NaNoWriMo (April and July) and the regular NaNoWriMo (November). I intend to win all of them. In general, given that I won’t have to do any translation of my own books (for once, someone else will do that in my place at their expenses!), I want to dedicate most part of 2015 to writing.

4) Publishing “Per caso” by the end of November.

5) Reading at least 52 books, like I did in 2014.

6) Outlining the novels I’ll write in 2016, which will go from science fiction, thriller and even possibly Egyptian fantasy, and maybe something else. Who knows?

7) Finally, for what concerns my future sales, I just wish to keep the growing trend of the latest seven months on the Italian market. I also have very good expectation for the English market, thanks to some recent commitments I took in October, which will hopefully be the triggering event for a first leap.

What do you think?

2015 will be my fourth year as a self-publisher. The moment to look back and take stock of my accomplishments will be the end of the fifth year, but I’ve just passed the turning point with very good expectations, so next year will be crucial in giving important indications on I’m getting along with this difficult job. I won’t hide you that the idea to make a living as an author is becoming a possible target. It wasn’t so one year ago, because the requirements were missing, but recently this idea is starting to become more realistic, even if I still have quite a long road, but maybe not too long, in front of me.

As usual, I must thank my friends, collaborators, and readers for what I could do up until now. Without you, I wouldn’t have had the motivations to get thus far, and I know your support will be essential again in the next twelve months of this journey of mine in the publishing industry.

Together we’ll see what happens.

And now tell me about you. Have you fulfilled your resolutions for this year? And what are your resolutions for 2015?

Why I wrote a series set on Mars. Interview on Mars Pirate Radio

Mars!
I don’t know exactly when I started to be fascinated by the Red Planet. Maybe it was back when I used to study astronomy at school, or maybe later when I followed NASA’s Pathfinder mission.

Fact is that I love this planet. It makes me dream of a future when mankind colonises the Solar System and perhaps pushing themselves even further.

In this scope, the step from science to science fiction is short.

I’ve recently had the chance to talk about this subject with Doug Turnbull, a fellow science fiction author, who runs a podcast called Mars Pirate Radio about space science fact and fiction.

He asked me why I chose Mars as setting of the Red Desert series and encouraged me to talk about the genre in which I write most (hard science fiction), about the first book that is now available also in English (Red Desert - Point of No Return), and about why I decided to become a writer, instead of continuing my career at a university as biologist. 

We also had a nice chat about space colonisation, Mars One Project, and other related topics. 

In the end he asked me to read an excerpt from the book.

The first part of this conversation is already online (see below). The second part will be published next week.

For additional information on the other topics of this episode or if you have problem to listen to the podcast from this player or if you want to download it, check out Mars Pirate Radio page by clicking here.

Enjoy your listening and, please, share the podcast with your friends!

Also check out Doug Turnbull's website and his own books set on Mars.

“Red Desert - Point of No Return” is now available on Amazon, Kobo, iTunes, Barnes & Noble (also Nook UK), Google Play, and Smashwords starting from only $0.99.

Blog hop: four questions about my writing

I’ve been invited to this blog hop by my dear friend and fellow author Stefania Mattana. She’s writing a series of detective stories featuring the ex-Scotland Yard detective Chase Williams, now living in Italy. Moreover you can learn more about her on blog, Daily Pinner, and her website.

And here are the questions and my answers.

What am I working on?

At the moment, I’m translating into English the second book of my science fiction series set on Mars, “Red Desert”. The first one, “Red Desert - Point of no return”, will be published in English on 30 June.

Moreover, I’ve just published my sixth book in Italian, a thriller novel titled “Il mentore” (The Mentor) and I’m re-writing my seventh book, which will be released by November. This one is a science fiction novel in the same timeline of “Red Desert” and, together with the latter, is part of a wider saga called Aurora. Its title is “L’isola di Gaia” (The Isle of Gaia).

Yes, I’m quite busy!

How does my work differ from others in my genre?

Well, my work is quite cross-genre. Until now I have written books (some published and a few still to be published) ranging from fantasy, science fiction, adventure, techno-thriller, crime thriller and even action thriller, all characterised by very emotional, flawed protagonists; they are anti-heroes.

Normally, genre fiction novels include very typical elements. There’s the main character, maybe with some flaws, but who becomes a hero. There’s the villain to be defeated. In the end good prevails on evil and the heroes redeems their flaws. In “Red Desert”, for instance, everything is different. There’s an anti-heroine, who isn’t a good person at all and doesn’t aim at redeeming herself, nor she will. You don’t really understand who the villain is and, after you learn it, you realise their evilness is just related to the point of view from which you look at them. Good and evil become subjective and in fact everything is upside down, pushing the reader to be a fan of a character because even the reader in their place would just think about saving their lives and the one of those they love. And who cares to save the world!

Why do I write what I do?

Writing for me is just another way of living and creating new memories, with the big difference that the experiences about which I write are practically impossible to be lived for real (fortunately, I would say) and that I have full control of them (well, except when my characters take it from me). Writing is a way of travelling beyond space and time, feeling together with my characters, breaking the barriers of real life and enriching it. It is also a way to get in touch with those, the readers, who share the same way of feeling that I do. I write to find those readers.

How does my writing process work?

It depends on the book, but usually all begins with an idea, possibly an unordinary one, coming to my mind by chance, sometimes in dreams. I keep thinking about it and about a possible ending that nobody would expect. Once I find the end, then I try to imagine the beginning of the story, typically in media res, and then I look for a way to get from one to the other, possibly by following a non-chronological path. For doing this I write plenty of notes, then an outline. Finally, I start writing from the beginning in the order in which the final book will be. I never skip a scene, even if it may seem hard to face.

During the period in which I write the first draft, I give myself some word count targets, ideally 2,000 words per session (possibly daily, except weekends). When I reach the end, I give myself some time to detach from the story before starting the editing process.

I normally publish two books per year, so the time passing from starting the first draft and the publication can take as few as five or six months, when I concentrate on a single project, like I did when writing “Red Desert” in Italian. Well, except when I participate in NaNoWriMo, which I usually do during the latest preparation stages of an upcoming publication.

So, these are my answers. Now it’s time to tag the other authors who will continue this blog hop on their blogs.

Here they are.

DEVORAH FOX

Devorah Fox is the author of The Lost King, The King’s Ransom, and The King’s Redress (coming soon) in The Bewildering Adventures of King 

Bewilliam literary fantasy series, as well as co-author of the contemporary thriller, Naked Came the Sharks. Publisher and editor of the BUMPERTOBUMPER® books for commercial motor vehicle drivers, she is developer of the Easy CDL test prep apps for the iPhone and iPad. Born in Brooklyn, New York, she now lives in The Barefoot Palace in Port Aransas on the Texas Gulf Coast where she writes the “Dee-Scoveries” blog at
http://devorahfox.com.

You can also find her on About Me and Facebook. Check out her profile on Amazon.

FRANCESCO ZAMPA

Francesco Zampa lives and works in Umbria (Italy). Cinema, comics, and book addict, he is author of crime stories and novels, featuring the Carabinieri Marshal Franco Maggio, including the novel Doppio omicidio per il Maresciallo Maggio (soon to be published in English), the short stories' collection C’è sempre un motivo, Maresciallo Maggio!, and the novel Gioco pericoloso, Maresciallo Maggio!.

Visit his blog “I Racconti del Maresciallo Maggio”:
http://ilmaresciallomaggio.blogspot.com (also in English).

You can also find Francesco on Facebook and on Goodreads. Check out his profile on Amazon.