Semi-Live Interview with A.J. Trevors, author of The Gaia Chronicles

A.J. Trevors is an up and coming author from Melbourne, who has be gracious enough to grant an interview. We American girls are suckers for an accent, and even more for a good book! Read on to learn about this writer and his newest creation The Gaia Chronicles: Birth of Hope!

Hope: I always like to ease in, so are you a night owl or an early bird when it comes to writing?

Actually, I’m both! When I first started writing this book, I woke up at 7am and wrote until 9.30am before I left my home for uni. However, I realised that this tired me out quickly and was a detriment to my studies. So I switched to writing at night during my second and third year of writing, usually writing from 8pm to 10pm before knocking out at night.

Next up, top three favorite movies or tv shows?

Oh there are too many. Let’s see…

1. Game of Thrones (duh!)
2. Batman: The Dark Knight
3. Dead Poets Society (R.I.P Robin Williams!)

How about your top three authors and why?

1. Brent Weeks (Author of the Night Angel Trilogy) = The first author that eased me into dark fantasy. Despite the fact that his books draw on fantasy aspects, the situation surrounding his characters reflect the malaise of real life e.g. prostitution, child beggars, politics, war etc. whilst you can’t help but fall in love with his characters and the relationship they share with each other.

2. George RR. Martin (Author of the Game of Thrones Series) = What is there not to like about this gregarious old man and his awesome writing? The epitome of how a fantasy epic should be written, with lots of twists, complicated character relationships, politics, awesome battles and a storyline that kills off it’s main characters, with equally able support characters then taking the limelight. The suspense of wanting to know which character is going to die next and growth of existing characters serves the series well.

3. Daniel Silva (Author of the Gabriel Allon series) = The undisputed star of the new wave of action thriller novels, with a mysterious main protagonist backed by an able support crew consisting of some of the most shadiest organisations in the world. Daniel Silva has a direct and curt style of writing, focusing more on delivering a story than building the world that is presented in the book. What happens is that you get a fast-paced novel that keeps your heart beating wildly all the way to the end.

What was the first book you really loved reading and what did you love about it?

I can barely remember what it was! I think it was Huckleberry Fin. I can’t really recall what it was about but the book was my ‘baptism’, so to speak, into a higher category of novels that were more complex in storyline, with more depth and substance, definitely different from the Jane and Peter kid stories I read when I was younger.

Are your stories written for mature readers, young adults, both? Would it be ok to hand this book to a 12 year old?

Most of my stories so far have been written for a general audience. I have two novellas that had been published before Gaia, which are “Stab in the Back”, an action thriller, and “Phae and the Sun Chariot”, a fantasy themed novel. They both contain content that is appropriate for all ages.

I know you're at university, what are you studying? Is it a challenge finding time to write?

I’m currently doing a commerce degree, majoring in accounting and finance (I know it’s weird!) but my passion has always been writing and telling stories. It is sometimes a challenge to find the time to write but I believe that if you passionate at something, there is always time to explore your interests and try to make a career out of it. You are only happy if you do something you love. We live life only once. We might as well live it happy, you know?

What would you say The Gaia Chronicles: Birth of Hope is about?

If you can look past all the cool summoning of monsters, the battles and the strange new world built into the novel, I would say that Gaia is a novel about people. It’s about relationships and the struggle that brings between two people. It’s about hate and how that can bring down even the most righteous of people. Above all, it’s about Damien and how he copes with the responsibility of being the ‘hero’ when he knows that he is just a simple boy at heart yearning to live a simple live devoid of war.

Do you plan on this being a trilogy? If so, how long will your readers have to wait to find out what happens next?

Yes! It will be a trilogy. The next book is already in the works and I am hoping to release it by the end of 2017.

Have you written anything else, and where can we find it?

I have written two novellas. One is an action thriller entitled Stab in the Back and the other is a fantasy entitled Phae and the Sun Chariot. Both can be found in the iBookstore and on Smashwords.

Will you be participating in any promotional deals, such as Kindle Unlimited or free chapters?

Throughout the month of November, I will be providing teasers in the form of excerpts from the novel. Kindle Unlimited is an interesting deal I would love to explore in the future. Also, the novel will be cheaper if you pre-order the book in November.

Do you have a newsletter, website, Facebook, Twitter, smoke signals, psychic morse code transmitter? What is the best way for your fans to stay informed?

To stay informed, please do follow my Facebook page (facebook.com/andyjamestrevors). I also have Twitter feeds as an author (twitter.com/andyjamestrevor) and for the novel (twitter.com/gaiascifi). These feeds will provide my future readers immediate information on book promos, preorder and release dates!

When and where will The Gaia Chronicles be available?

The Gaia Chronicles will be available for pre order the 15th of January 2016.

Pre-order price is at $2.99 whilst the price after release on 1st of February 2016 is $4.99.

Do make sure to preorder early to obtain the discount! :D

Guest Post from A.J. Trevors, Author of The Gaia Chronicles: Birth of Hope

Hi, guys! This is A.J. here, author of the upcoming fantasy/sci-fi novel The Gaia Chronicles: Birth of Hope. Hope you enjoy my contribution to Hope's blog today and grab your copy of the book at the dates listed below.

How to Get Past Writer’s Block

Writer’s block is a condition that is associated with the inability to think of what to write and how to proceed with writing. For many aspiring authors, this is akin to a debilitating disease, a cancer that can eat away at the quality of your writing. Before you know it, your manuscript is at death’s door and the editors are unable to resuscitate it, shaking their heads in despair.

For writers, the block could arrive at any moment. Some experience it in the middle of their writing, their fingers flying in full flow across the keyboard before it stops jarringly; your brain applying the brakes on the highway of creative thought. It may arrive even before you start writing, that moment when you boot up your computer and your mind just runs a blank as your struggle to complete the first sentence.

Getting past the block is important. In my experience, good ideas come in spurts and I feel that it needs to get on paper somewhere, anywhere, before that spurt peters out into nothingness. A block can be like a dam, a solid, concrete wall that prevents the river of ideas from fully taking shape as a waterfall of words on your manuscript. This detriment of ideas needs to be combated so that the quality of your manuscript, as a whole, improves.

Here are a few ways I fought against the dreaded writer’s block as I completed by debut novel, The Gaia Chronicles: Birth of Hope:

1. Express your ideas in bullet points before writing

My first suggestion may seem to be pretty obvious to many writers out there. However, it is a basic skill that is surprisingly not practiced by many writers. To them, they see no value in wasting their time listing down short pointers in the structure of their writing as they reason they might as well write it out instead!

However, I cannot stress enough how important it is to master this fundamental concept. By not writing your ideas down in bullet-point form, you leave yourself at the mercy of short-term memory of your original inspiration that your brain will conceive to forget just moments after you start writing. Always list down what you want to write and communicate to the readers before you start.

If you didn’t and face the block in the middle of your writing, don’t worry! My advice to you is to just stop writing and close your eyes for a few seconds. Then, start listing down the rest of your writing in bullet point form. You will be surprised to note that – it works!

2. Read books that are similar to your writing style

Since The Gaia Chronicles was a scifi/fantasy novel, I would frequently come across writer’s block as I struggled to describe a desolate world destroyed by war. Description of places wouldn’t flow smoothly on paper and there were adjectives that were wholly inadequate in describing the environment characters had to face in each chapter.

When this occurred, I would take a break and, instead of brainstorming, just taking the time to read the works of other authors. There are many authors that I take inspiration from in terms of writing style. It’s all good to, metaphorically, learn from their feet and understand how they conveyed their ideas that could be similar to the problem you are facing.

Never be ashamed in learning from others. After all, life is short. We might as well learn how to write beautifully and professionally from those that made it before the chance passes us by.

3. Call your friends out of the blue and talk

I believe that all writers can relate to this next statement. In plain English, writing dialogue sucks. When you have so many characters, with diverse motivations, histories and relationships with other characters mashed together in a 400 page manuscript, you are going to struggle differentiating how each speaks to each other. Each character needs their own nuance, inflections, habits of speech that only they do and helps the reader uniquely identify themselves with the character’s cause and actions.

In The Gaia Chronicles, writing dialogue was doubly hard as there were aliens, monsters and other characters that needed a totally different way of speaking compared to regular humans. As I pieced dialogue together, writer’s block occurred so frequently that I would struggle past a paragraph or two before calling it a day.

However, I found a partial cure to this problem. Whenever the block occurs, I would stop writing and just call a friend. You might ask ‘Why?’. Well, the reasons being is that I have a large selection of friends that come from all backgrounds and hence all have their own way of speaking. By talking to them, I would understand their inflections and habits which help shape the dialogue of a particular character. Friends can also give you support if you divulge your writing difficulties to them, lifting your spirit and renewing your determination to complete writing the dialogue.

4. Take a break!

More often than not, the reason why you have writer’s block is due to the fact you overworked. You wrote too much, inspiration squeezing your brain dry until it can’t cope any longer. This is where it’s time to take a break and just do something else! Hit the gym, grab a snack or take a power nap. I guarantee that once you finish any of the above activities, you will get back to your computer with renewed determination and write the night away.

This is the end of my guest blog post. My thanks to Hope Woods for having me as a guest on her awesome blog! My author details are below:

Name:

Andy James Trevors

Age:

21

Nationality:

Australian

Books:

The Gaia Chronicles: Birth of Hope

Stab in the Back (Novella)

Phae and the Sun Chariot (Novella)

Release Date for The Gaia Chronicles: Birth of Hope

Pre-order Available: January 15th 2016. Order during this time to get the pre-order price! $2.99

Release Date: February 1st 2016 Retail price $4.99

Find me on Social Media:

Facebook.com/andyjamestrevors

Twitter.com/andyjamestrevor