My series featuring Indie authors continues today with Simon Coates, author of The Discovery of Love.
Story introduction:
The story is based in Simon's local area (North East England - Teesside/North Yorkshire). The central premise is of an event in the 24th century that is available only to wealthy individuals, of which Remus Tallantyre is one. He has domestic staff, but Remus is nasty and selfish; two of his staff members fall in love, but are unable to form a relationship due to the house rules laid down by Remus. So the story is about frustrated love and affection of two people. Then, the 'event' that is only possible for rich people in the future happens and turns everything on its head...
Here is a short excerpt from the story - one of the chapter introductions:
Destiny works in strange ways. A person with all the material wealth in the world cannot change it. What happens, happens, and you just have to go with it, powerless to do anything about it. When things go wrong you are in the lap of the gods, and you hope they are on your side.
Get the book here:
Interview:
1. It looks like this is your first book. How has it gone so far and what are you working on now?
2. Who are some of your favorite books and authors?
3. What made you decide to write Science Fiction?
4. What have you learned from writing and publishing your first book that you wished you knew beforehand?
5. For those that are reading this that are new to your work, what can you say to them about The Discovery of
Love that might convince them to give your book a try?
All my stories are around a fiction concept of what life might be like in the 24th century. I think of ideas of events and things that could happen then, and from there the stories are formed. It is different to the usual sci-fi fare such as aliens invading Earth, spaceships going light speed, etc, more focusing on what could actually really happen. The possibilities of stories are endless!
The Discovery of Love is not my first book. That was a spaceship racing diary - to cut a long story short (forgive the pun) it is a year in the life of a full time racing pilot competing in the major sport of the 24th century, Formula X Spaceship Racing; think of Formula One, but spaceships instead of cars. I have since unpublished this one, as I feel it needs pictures, which is what I am doing at the moment; or rather, my artist who has taken the task on. The final result on this will make the book look absolutely amazing. I have seen some of the pictures, and they are utterly breathtaking!
The Discovery of Love is not my first book. That was a spaceship racing diary - to cut a long story short (forgive the pun) it is a year in the life of a full time racing pilot competing in the major sport of the 24th century, Formula X Spaceship Racing; think of Formula One, but spaceships instead of cars. I have since unpublished this one, as I feel it needs pictures, which is what I am doing at the moment; or rather, my artist who has taken the task on. The final result on this will make the book look absolutely amazing. I have seen some of the pictures, and they are utterly breathtaking!
My first book actually published was Bike Racing into the Red, a cycling story of an amateur bike racer taking on the highest mountain in the known universe, Olympus Mons on Planet Mars. The idea is that if we lived there, as I have suggested is the case in my potential future, then this colossus would be the target of extreme sportspeople looking for the ultimate challenge. For this story, I was delighted to get the services of one of the greatest British road racing cyclists Paul Curran, who won many championships, including two gold medals in the 1986 Commonwealth Games.
Book sales have been good. I am constantly promoting it at events in the local area. I get very few downloads from the Kindle version, as people I meet tend to prefer a signed physical copy.
2. Who are some of your favorite books and authors?
Well funnily enough, I have never written up until I got the idea for this future concept; I haven’t read much either! That is changing now as I am getting involved with authors on the internet and local to me, so I am reading more. So unfortunately I don't have a favourite as such!
3. What made you decide to write Science Fiction?
The idea of living in the 24th century seemed like a fun thing to do; it just happens to be this genre. What is quite striking to me is that the stories come out in a way where you would think it is the present day; or indeed from a century ago, as The Discovery of Love focuses on the relationship between a housemaid and a butler, serving their boss, so it has a bit of an English Classic feel to it which I find rather interesting, but makes total sense in the context of the story.
4. What have you learned from writing and publishing your first book that you wished you knew beforehand?
Where do we start? I have learnt so much in the past year or so. One of the big things is to realise that you are an author for only a very short period of time; once you book it is written, you then need to sell it. So you then become a book distributor, marketing manager, accountant, etc as I am self published. So it is learning what I need to do to sell the book. I am getting a substantial awareness of what events work better than others. On a writing side, getting a book professionally proof read is essential. Also - and people will hate this - avoid the internet publishers. I have seen books printed by CreateSpace and Lulu etc and they are clearly of a very low quality; you can tell the books produced this way over others very easily. This is OK if you want to give your book to friends and family, but if you want to sell your book to the public, then you need to look elsewhere. I have a local book publisher who prints my books and the quality is fantastic; it is not just the general look and feel, it is the fact that I can have one to one meetings with the publisher himself and this ensures the book is produced to the highest standard. Ultimately we are on bookshelves against the books produced by he big names, and having a really high quality book in look and feel is very important, otherwise you are already on the back foot...
5. For those that are reading this that are new to your work, what can you say to them about The Discovery of
Love that might convince them to give your book a try?
It is a love story, but in no way a typical romance at all; firstly, there is no sex, as this would destroy the story. The title is The Discovery of Love. The two main characters are in love; that is obvious; so they have already found it. The discovery needs to be done by someone else… it is a story that has a really powerful message about what life is and what love actually is…
Bio:
Simon is 41 years old and lives in Middlesbrough, North East England, UK. Keen bicycle racer, competing up to National Championship level. Rode the British National Hill Climb Championship in 2013 which led to the idea for Bike Racing into the Red!
You can follow Simon at the following links:
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