An Interview with Ohio
Author Evan Grahm
Science Fiction Author Evan Graham writes stories to take you to another place – another realm. Through engaging characters and captivating scenarios, Graham finds a way to drive you into his storytelling, creating an encounter that entices every reader.
From Evan’s Bio: “I am, among many things, a writer, although that word doesn’t fully encapsulate my experiences with story-crafting. “Junkie” might be a better term. I am absolutely ravenous for stories, and have been all my life. I love them. I love hearing them, I love sharing them, and I love the pseudo-life they take on inside your head, where the seed a story plants in your imagination can bloom in a hundred unpredictable ways.”
Welcome, Evan!
GM: What is the premise for your new book?
EG: Tantalus Depths is a sci-fi horror-thriller story about a woman
fighting for her survival on a mysterious world filled with unfathomable
threats. When Mary's crew arrives on Tantalus 13, they discover quickly that
the planet is not what it seems. In fact, it's not even a planet, but an
ancient megastructure built thousands of years ago by an unknown alien
civilization. Mary and her crewmates take it upon themselves to explore the
vast inner workings of the alien structure to learn its secrets, but the thrill
of discovery is soon tainted with horror as tragedy strikes the mission. To
make matters worse, their AI assistant, SCARAB, seems to know more about this
world than it lets on, and the lengths it's willing to go to pursue its own
agenda could put the lives of the entire crew in deadly peril.
GM: Do you use close
friends and family for developing characters and scenarios?
EG: I try to avoid
basing any of my characters too heavily on any one real person. I like my
characters to live a life all their own on the page, with personalities and
motivations tailor-made to suit the story they're in. I do take bits and pieces
of inspiration from people I've known throughout my life, but it tends to be on
a case-by case basis. I might meet someone with a conversational quirk I like
and incorporate that into a character's dialogue, or pick up on a particular
nervous fidget someone does and slide that into a character who gives the same
kind of vibe that person gives me.
In a broader sense, I'd
say most of my strongest heroes and heroines are built on a foundation of all
the people I've most admired in my life. Family, close friends, romantic
partners; the same strengths of character that draw me to form strong bonds with
people in real life are the ones I integrate into the core identities of my
protagonists. General virtues like compassion, perseverance, curiosity,
self-awareness, humility: these are traits I look for in the people I surround
myself with. In my opinion, they're some of the best features humans can
embody, and I try to show them abundantly in characters I want my readers to
respect.
On the flipside, I have
also definitely taken some inspiration from people I do not respect for
characters as well. Commander Gorrister in Tantalus
Depths, for instance. He's supposed to be the leader of the mission,
but his leadership skills are abysmal. He doesn't know how to handle a crisis,
he takes himself way too seriously and undervalues the competence of his crew,
he's more beholden to corporate regulations than he is to common sense. He's
the kind of guy who gets into a position of authority because he wants to boss
people around, not because he's a skillful leader, and his by-the-books
leadership style causes serious problems when problems arise outside of the
regulations he wants to follow. I took quite a bit of inspiration for his
character from many of the bosses and managers I've had in various jobs who I
didn't have much respect for. That was a cathartic experience, in
many ways.
GM: How do you maintain
thoughts and ideas for storylines?
EG: Storylines come
very naturally to me. Worldbuilding is my biggest writing strength, and the
world of my stories is a constant living entity in my mind. Many of my stories
bud off of each other naturally: I'll create a character or a planet or some other
concept in the course of writing one story, and it'll interest me enough that
it stays at the forefront of my brain long after the story I wrote it for is
done. It's like a grain of sand in an oyster's shell, teasing me with potential
as more ideas start to stick to it until it becomes a pearl big enough to be a
story in its own right. When I started this writing journey, all I had was
Tantalus Depths, but in the course of developing that book I ended up creating
five short stories from little seeds of inspiration that grew from that first
book. I've got a whole anthology series now, The Calling Void, with more
short stories and another whole novel coming soon.
GM: What else have you
written?
EG: Good segue, I
guess. Tantalus Depths is my first novel, and I am currently working on
the standalone follow-up novel, Proteus, set in the same universe but
with a totally new plot. I've written five short stories so far in the Calling
Void series, published in various anthology collections with Duskbound
Books (formerly Writing Bloc). The newest, Neurophage, came out in last
year's Passageways: Mythos collection. More are on the way!
GM: What are you
currently writing?
EG: Proteus is a
really, really ambitious follow-up. Set on a city-sized starship halfway into a
150-year journey across the galaxy, Proteus revolves around a crisis
among the crew as mutiny has erupted regarding the fate of the mission and the
thousands of cryonically frozen colonists aboard. One man seeks to resolve this
crisis through any means necessary: Jacob Sicarius: cyborg war hero and
intended future leader of the new colony. The problem? Jacob is a bloodthirsty
tyrant. Now the three women he has most wronged must focus their efforts on
preventing the future of an entire new human civilization from being decided by
a monstrous despot.
There's a lot going on
in this one. It's a science fiction reinterpretation of Richard III that I've
been plotting for more than 14 years, so I definitely did not pick an easy
project for my second book. I'm really proud of what I've written so far, though,
and I cannot wait for people to get to read it when it's done.
GM: What are you
currently reading?
EG: At the moment I'm
actually reading an ARC copy of another author's book, but I can't talk about
that one just yet. Outside of that, I most recently started on the Locked
Tomb series by Tamsyn Muir. It's really good!
GM: Who is your
favorite author?
EG: It's hard for me to
pick just one, because I like different things about different authors, but I
think if I had to pick just one it would be Isaac Asimov. His contributions to
the science fiction genre really shaped what it would become over the course of
the 20th century, and I really don't think his influence in the genre can be
understated. Also, his direct influence on my personal writing style, for that
matter. I've never been shy about how much inspiration I've taken from the
greats.
GM: Do you have advice
for novice writers?
EG: My one big life
hack for being a productive writer is to set aside a section of your home that
is your permanent writing sanctum. Your brain can associate a certain place
with a certain activity, so if you are vigilant about only ever sitting in a certain
chair or corner of the room when you're getting ready to write, your brain will
start associating that space with the act of writing. If you're diligent about
keeping that spot dedicated for writing and writing only, the simple act of
sitting there can start your creative juices flowing. The crucial thing is you
have to keep that space sacred. If you start letting yourself get distracted
and watch videos on your phone while sitting there or some other temptation,
it'll ruin the whole thing.
GM: Authors say that
writing is easy, but marketing takes more momentum. What are your
recommendations for book marketing and promotion?
EG: Honestly, the
hardest part for me is just balancing writing and promotion. Neither one is
that hard once you get into it: the trickiest thing is balancing your time. I
had a very productive year promoting my book last year, but it came at the cost
of my writing productivity. When you're going to a convention or a book fair
every other weekend, it doesn't leave much time for actually writing the next
book. If you want to be a successful writer, the most important thing you need
to worry about is time management. You can't spend all your attention on
writing, or there's no promotion and no one will see your work. You can't spend
all your time on promoting, or there's no writing and no one will see your
work. Find a balance, where you can manageably spend your time promoting
yourself while saving enough time and mental energy to write a few hundred
words every day.
Also, leave room for a
social life and some me time. You need to keep your own mental health up, or
you'll burnout and burnout hard.
GM: What does
authorship mean to you?
EG: For me, authorship
is an almost divine imperative to create. I have stories that dwell inside my
brain; people who live and die, nations that rise and fall, whole universes
born and destroyed, all in the confines of my mind. If I don't put those stories
to paper, they never become real to anyone but me, and that's a shame. I feel
an obligation to these narratives: they deserve to be real, and no one can make
them real but me, therefore I must do so. We've all got stories to tell, and no
one can do it but us.
Connect with Evan...
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