Val Muller

This week, I had a chance to chat with Mary Fan, author of the sci-fi novel Artificial Absolutes, which I’ll get the chance to read later this summer. You can check out the trailer here.

Tell us about yourself:

I’m an opera-singing, kick-boxing, violin-playing millennial currently residing in New Jersey. During the day, I work in financial marketing, and at night, I write books. I was a music major in college (specializing in composition), and although I’m not pursuing that at the moment, I still scribble songs in my spare time (when I have any).

Tell us about your book:

Set in the distant future, Artificial Absolutes is a sci-fi adventure through space and cyberspace that follows a young woman’s efforts to save both her kidnapped friend and her falsely-convicted brother from a powerful, invisible enemy known only as No Name. It plays on familiar sci-fi tropes—chases through space, laser gun battles, virtual worlds—while focusing on the characters and their internal as well as external conflicts.

Did you always know you wanted to be a writer?

Yes and no. I’ve always loved reading (I was that weird kid who spent lunch hour in the library and lugged around books too big for me), and I also liked making up stories in my head. My favorite projects in elementary school were the ones that involved writing a story or making a book. I started writing in earnest in middle school and continued through high school, then had to give it a rest because I had too much work to do for college. Also, I realized how freaking hard this whole writing business was and thought maybe I wasn’t cut out for it, especially since I was really getting into music (which, funnily enough, is even harder).

A few years out of college, though, the writing bug bit me again, and I haven’t been able to stop since. Even during the years when I wasn’t actively writing, I was still making up stories in my head and just telling them to myself. So I figured, why not write them down and see how far they go?

Who is your favorite character in your book, and why?

Jane Colt is my protagonist, and so naturally she’s my favorite. She’s ordinary in that she’s not a bounty hunter or secret agent or anything like that — she’s a 22-year-old office worker with dreams of becoming a musician. When it comes to fighting bad guys, her skills include flying a ship and… not much else. But although she is somewhat aware of her disadvantages, she sticks to the belief that she can do anything. She’s very headstrong, perhaps with a touch of arrogance, but at the same time, she can be very insecure. She hides her insecurity behind a mask of confidence and, when in doubt, isn’t above charming her way out of a problem.

Are any elements of your book autobiographical or inspired by elements of your life?

Anyone who knows me will see that Jane’s a composer working in an office, and I’m a composer working in an office and instantly conclude that she’s me. I must protest! While elements of my personality did end up in her character, she’s a mishmash of many people—my sister, Scarlet O’Hara, Princess Leia, Elizabeth Swann… at this point, I think she’s just herself. I did draw upon my experiences in music to bring hers to life.

I think pieces of myself ended up in each of my characters, including the villains, which I think is inevitable since they all came from my head. However, nothing comes directly from real life. Especially since Artificial Absolutes takes place in outer space.

What’s your favorite scene or location in the work you’re currently promoting, and why?

My favorite scene to write was chapter 2, where the reader is first introduced to Jane. It depicts just how dull her life has become–she just gets up and goes to work–and it reveals a lot about who she is. She’s a dreamer who won’t allow herself to pursue her passions out of a somewhat misguided sense of rationality, a self-proclaimed loner who misses having company, and an opinionated young woman who has a hard time keeping her some of her not-so-nice thoughts to herself. It’s something of a “day in the life” chapter, and it gave me a chance to show the reader a bit of what life in the Interstellar Confederation is like.

Then her friend gets kidnapped at the end of chapter 2, and everything starts getting crazy.

Are you working on any other projects at the moment?

Yup—too many for my own good! While Artificial Absolutes was conceived as a stand-alone book, I left the ending open enough to invite a sequel just in case. Well, I couldn’t help wondering what would happen next, so I ended up planning out two more books. The second installment, Synthetic Illusions, was recently picked up by Red Adept Publishing and will be out in spring 2014.

Meanwhile, I have a YA dystopian fantasy series under contract with Glass House Press, called “Flynn Nightsider.” It’s a five-book series set in a future in which, following an apocalyptic battle with the evil Lord of the Underworld, the magical Enchanters have taken over the world and oppress the ordinary, non-magical people. The first book, Flynn Nightsider and the Edge of Evil, is scheduled to be released in March 2014.

So that’s already two more books I’ll be editing and promoting side-by-side, and for some reason, I thought it’d be a good idea to start a third project entirely removed from those two series. It’s a YA sci-fi/paranormal romance, and it’s kind of new territory for me because I’m accustomed to plot-driven adventures while this project is more of a drama. So we’ll see how it goes…

Finally, where can we find you? (blogs, website, facebook, twitter, etc.)

I have two blogs: Zigzag Timeline (http://zigzagtl.blogspot.com), where I blog about books and post reviews, and Astral Musings (http://astralcolt.tumblr.com), where I post whatever randomness happens to come to mind. My website is http://www.MaryFan.com, and I’m on Twitter as @astralcolt and Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/mfanwriter (all my social media links can be found on my website).

Today I’m happy to feature Nancy Klann Moren, author of The Clock of Life (which I’ll be reviewing later this summer). I love her point about writing by hand. I agree that it’s an important (but dying) art. Hope you enjoy!

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cor·re·spond·ence   [kawr-uh–spon-duhns, kor-]   noun

 1. communication by exchange of letters.

2. a letter or letters that pass between correspondents.

I received a card from my friend Kendra today.  An honest to goodness card, sent through the postal system.  She put pen to paper just to say hi, you’re my friend and I like you enough to make the effort.

Other than the rare individuals like Kendra, it seems the only hand written cards traveling the pony express routes these days are from children forced to send thank you cards to Grandma and Grandpa for the latest birthday gift, or to dispatch a “Flat Stanley” school assignment to that same set of grandparents.

Every time I get something in the mail from Kendra it makes me feel great.  Of course, that’s the intention.  She has the thought, makes the effort, puts in the time―and the cherry on top; she chooses a novelty stamp to fit the occasion.

I once got a note on the back of a deposit slip because she thought of me when she was in line at the bank.  Well, that just blew a hole in the “I don’t have time to write” excuse, didn’t it?

She once cut the front panel off a Mac and Cheese box, wrote on the backside and sent it like a postcard.  “You’re the Cheesiest,” was all it said.  Just, “You’re the Cheesiest.”  For me, it doesn’t get much better than that.

She says she loves pretty paper.  And pens, of every size and color.  And stickers, and stamps.  She says there’s something that goes on in the brain when you transfer your thoughts on paper trough handwriting―that it slows you down so your intensions are more deliberate, your thoughts more true.

I’m sure that’s all spot on, but I think she simply wants to share a part of herself to lift someone’s day, and let them know they are appreciated in the most personal way possible.

There’s a heartfelt moment in my novel, The Clock Of Life, where my protagonist mails a post card to his mother:

I sulked for a good while, then remembered an old, unused postcard I’d seen in the catch-all drawer. The background showed two paddleboats, the Delta Queen and the Mississippi Queen. Big red letters across the middle said Hello from the Mississippi River Parkway.

I wrote in the small section on the backside and told her it’d been seven days since she left. “I know you’re working real hard to get better, and Uncle Mooks and me are working real hard, too.”

That’s all that fit. I didn’t mention anything about the box, or the many secrets she’d kept from me, or how I was starting to feel like a man.

I stuck my thumb in a jar of beet juice and pressed hard where the signature would be, then signed J.L. inside the smudge―just J.L.

Have we all been using the computer so long we’ve forgotten what Kendra (and J.L.) know?  Tangible trumps virtual every time, and I plan to stalk up on pens and pretty paper, and “correspond” more.

Author Bio:

I tried my hand at writing short fiction while traveling for work in advertising and marketing, as a creative outlet on long plane rides. That led to me signing up for writing classes, writer’s conferences and local workshops.  My goal―to create unique stories told in a distinctive voice.  I’m happy to say my stories and have garnered awards and publication in anthologies.   My collection of short stories is titled, Like The Flies On The Patio.  

Short stories were my primary genre until one morning while in a workshop at The Santa Barbara Writers Conference, I read an excerpt.  When I finished, the instructor, Sid Stebel, asked what I was doing for the next couple years, because, “What you have written isn’t a short story, it’s a novel.”  After a good deal of foot dragging I realized the subject matter was so important I took up the challenge and penned the novel, The Clock of Life.

I am now working on a new novel loosely based on the time my friend and I found an old diary in an antique shop and took a road trip to find the lady who wrote in the book.  The girls will not be named Thelma and Louise, but the story will take the girls cross country and they will get into all sorts of trouble.

Nancy Klann-Moren,  Author