This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Benjamin X. Wretlind will be awarding a $25 Amazon or Barnes and Noble GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.
Welcome to It's Raining Books! Why do you write in your genre? What draws you to it?
I don’t stick to just science fiction. I have always gravitated toward speculative fiction of any sort, be it horror, fantasy, sci-fi or magical realism. I never much cared for reality, and as a kid I would often invent things to make life easier. I think that’s the draw: we can use our imaginations to escape into a fantastical world with dragons or to a different planet where the problems here are not so visible.
What research is required?
I’m a research junkie, so there is quite a bit that can be done for any of these genres. In the case of sci-fi, I am always cognization of “getting it right,” which means making sure the physics are correct, the meteorology of a new planet makes sense, and even the biology of the species I create is consistent with natural laws.
Name one thing you learned from your hero/heroine.
Don’t give up! For the three main characters in All We Leave Behind--Micah, Miriam, and Joel--their quest for a stable home drives them through some very difficult situations. If they gave up at any time, many people would have died. There were times when each of them had doubts, but in the end they persevered. I think this applies to writing/publishing. Don’t give up!
Do you have any odd or interesting writing quirks, habits or superstitions?
I really don’t. I am a very organized person that borders on the obsessive, but I don’ have any particular quirks that I brink to my writing. That said, I do have a single spot I write. I’ve tried to vary that throughout the years, but I’m much more productive in that one spot.
Are you a plotter or pantser?
Definitely a plotter. I have spreadsheets, mind maps, character sheets, and the whole gamut of stuff written out before I write the first paragraph of a new book. I guess that could be quirk, but I’m betting I’m not the only one. In fact, I’m presenting a workshop on using spreadsheets for planning, writing, editing, and marketing books at an upcoming writer’s conference. My goal is to convert the pansters...or at least get pansters to plot their...um...pantsing.
Look to your right – what’s sitting there?
My 14-year old dog. He’s been here all day. Every once in a while he’ll look up at me with a “where’s dinner” look, but right now he’s dreaming of chasing squirrels in the backyard.
Anything new coming up from you? What?
I just released a nonfiction book showing how weather can and should be used as a literary device. In May, I plan to release the first book in a new science fiction series set on a water-logged world. I’m also deep into writing the follow up to All We Leave Behind, and hope to have the first draft done by the end of May.
Do you have a question for our readers?
For the readers. I do have a question: what draws you to an author you’ve never heard of before? Is it the cover, the blurb, review, the Look Inside feature on Amazon, or something else?
Following the exodus from rising floodwaters, the surviving descendants of those who came to create a society on a planet far from Earth have struggled to rebuild within the remains of an ancient temple. Now, as disease and an unfamiliar environment threaten to destroy them yet again, everyone seems to have an opinion about what to do next.
Miriam and Tobias Page, newly married, believe there may be a possible home beyond a distant canyon. Their journey with a quarter of the population doesn’t start well and soon nature and their own humanity will conspire to end it all. Meanwhile, Miriam’s two cousins, Joel and Micah, have different ideas. Joel is convinced the best course of action is to return to the mountains they left to mine for the ore that would make a great return to Earth possible. Micah hopes to stay, learn all he can about the temple’s previous occupants, and prove both of them wrong. But soon, he and his new partner Patience realize that no option is truly safe.
As the transits of three different groups get underway, new dangers and surprises emerge from within the rainforests, mountains, and deserts of the planet…and one of those may have followed them from Earth. While a final home is a dream away, present nightmares must be dealt with first if any of them are going to survive.
Read an Excerpt
Patience tried to count the number of people left in the temple at Manoach. Three hundred, three hundred fifty? Many of those had already revealed their desire to follow Joel when he returned from the Barrier Mountains. There might be a few more or less, but her calculations sounded right given the number of people who followed Miriam to the west. Of those not going with Joel, maybe a handful would be willing to pack up and leave Manoach.
Would Micah be one of them?
A cry of alarm rose from a scout to Patience’s right. She looked over and saw Theresa Atkins, a woman slightly older than Patience, wave a lit torch indicating a potential threat. Patience looked out beyond the wall and tried to focus her eyes on several shapes she saw moving out of the tree line. At first, there were three. Then four.
Now seven.
“Lord, help us,” she whispered.
Another alarm rose to her left. Levi Barrett, one of the newest scouts Patience had been training and still only fifteen, waved his torch back and forth. Fearing the worst, Patience looked out toward the tree line in front of his part of the wall.
Nine.
Fifteen.
Fifteen rychat, approaching from two directions, silhouettes in the dark creeping through the brush.
About the Author:
Benjamin lives with his wife Jesse in Colorado.
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