Cover illustrator: Author | Site
Publisher: Self | Amazon Page
Release Date: Summer TBD, 2024
Pre-Order Link: TBA
Blurb
Alvaro Hernandez has just detected an irregular object outside of Saturn’s orbit, throwing off his research. Advised to check and recheck obviously faulty data by his mentor, he enlists the aid of his close friend to help him see his mistake, if there is one.
Komozoi has been sleeping for most of his life, waking only to perform the simple task that has been assigned him; to maintain the course. But when he discovers that his journey is nearly at an end, the destination is not what was promised.
The courses of both of their lives are quickly approaching a point of world shattering intersection, but can they convince those around them of a civilized solution before less rational heads prevail?
Author Q&A
Please read on for an exclusive Q&A with the author and my second ever interview!
Q: When did you begin writing?
I started in earnest in 2019 to write fiction and more specifically speculative fiction. I’d dabbled in the past, but life and situation never really supported it more than just as a dream. The pandemic provided that opportunity in more ways than one; I ended up having more time, but so did my father, who had also been dreaming of writing more. We picked it up together and often write in parallel, using similar prompts for stories. It has brought us closer, especially since I live eight time zones away from him.
Q: Best advice for new writers?
As I’d consider myself among them, I can only speak to the advice that I’ve found most helpful. Don’t follow trends. This is advice I got both in my career as a graphic designer and as a writer, and it holds true. Writing to a trend may be easy, but it will leave you with a less fulfilled feeling when you’re finished. Come up with an original idea and make it yours.
Q: What is your favorite personal piece of writing you’ve done?
I poured a lot of my own history and personality into the three main characters in Exolegacy (Metanoeia’s sequel that came out last year). Each of the siblings have a little bit of me in them, and a little bit of my two sisters as well, but none of them are one-to-one to any of us. It helped me explore my relationship with my father as well and I found myself getting emotional at multiple points in the process.
Q: What was your favorite part of writing Metanoeia? Least?
I alluded to a lot of history in Exolegacy, especially since that book opens with the wake of Alvaro Hernandez, who is the main character of Metanoeia. I found it fun to make sure that those details matched up and were immersed in the story that takes place in an area where I lived nearly half my life. Less enjoyable parts were finding continuity mistakes and trying to reverse engineer the details to that they make sense in the editing process.
Q: As this is a prequel, how was the writing experience of going backward in a sense? Was the prequel planned before book one was released?
I intended Exolegacy to be a stand-alone novel from the beginning, so I didn’t plan anything out before or after those events. However, since its release, there have been questions from readers about the characters, and that prompted me to explore backwards. Since Metanoeia is set within a decade of today’s time, it was an interesting experience to explore the characters’ lives and society’s reactions to the events of the story based on an extrapolation of where today’s societal climate might point in ten years.
Q: How has your writing progressed or changed with time?
I love world building, but including all of the details in a story that only takes place in part of that world can lose readers. I’ve been that reader, and I’ve been that writer. I aim to find that balance between exposition and character driven stories, and I think that I’m on the right path. The Idiom “getting lost in the weeds” means that a story is too detail oriented (or too much exposition). If I imagine that the opposite is a well cleared and maintained trail, my stories are somewhere in the middle, which is how I like to hike anyway; push aside the branches and going off trail now and then.
Q: Would you consider writing in the same world even after the main series closes? Short stories, novellas and the like?
I think so, yes. I have the seeds of an idea for after the events of Exolegacy, and there is a whole aspect of the relationship between Humanity and the Manisae that I haven’t explored yet as well, but no spoilers!
Q: With its growing popularity these days, have you given any thought to creating a fancast of your novel?
I have an idea of what my characters look like in my own head, and have hinted at some of their physical properties within the text, but showing readers who I think would be best cast in a film version of the story takes some of that wonder away. I think we’ve all been disappointed in the past by some director’s casting choice in an adaptation of a book we’ve read.
Q: Best advice you’ve received on writing?
Aside from the above advice to not follow trends: ‘Better done then perfect’ (the typo is intended). Many writers will obsess over little details and proofing to the point that they never finish a project. This can (and has with me) cause stagnation and writers’ block. Your writing will get better over time, don’t focus on making your early work perfect to the point that you never leave it behind for better projects.
Q: What are some of your favorite authors?
I grew up reading Larry Niven and Orson Scott Card and many of their ideas still live rent free in my brain, but more recently, I’ve grown to appreciate more complicated stories and styles. Sequoia Nagamatsu left a huge impression with his book “How High We Go in the Dark”, and I appreciate the complexity and world building in William Gibson’s and Kim Stanley Robinson’s work.
About the Author
Conrad Altmann (AKA Andr Moș) is a Yankee immigrant who has been living in Transylvania since 2013. He writes speculative fiction exploring humanity’s connection to nature, relationships between cultures and family. He is a graphic designer, husband, adoptive father, small orchard owner and amateur botanist. Andr drinks his coffee black, and has since he was ten years old.
He is passionate about how humanity’s actions today will determine our future, whether for prosperity or stagnation.
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