SM: Okay, so here we go—Welcome to Sylvia Says, Eric. It’s a real pleasure to have you featuring on the blog today. ET: Thanks, Sylvia. It’s a pleasure to be here. SM: Eric, like me, you’re a multi-genre author. Every author has a reason as to why they decide to be multi-genre instead of sticking to one particular genre; so what is your reason? ET: Sci-Fi is my passion, and what I feel most comfortable writing, but my first children’s book, Sam and the Dragon, was based on a story I wrote years ago when my boys were little. At the time, I didn’t really consider trying to get it published, but I liked the story and kept it around. Once I started publishing my SEAMS16 series, and got a decent understanding of the process, I dug up that old tale, rewrote it, recruited my brother to illustrate it, and put it out there. At that point I became a “multi-genre” author, but didn’t really think of myself that way as I had no intention of writing any more children’s books, but then I was struck with an idea for another children’s story, and it wouldn’t let me continue my “real” writing (the next SEAMS16 novel) until I wrote it down and sent it to my brother to illustrate. And that’s how most of the children’s stories came to be, not so much a decision to become multi-genre, but more like an itch that needs to be scratched. SM: Among your numerous works I noticed you wrote an illustrated poem entitled “Everyday Wonders”, which is directed at kids who wear glasses, right? What made you write about this and why? ET: It’s dedicated to kids who wear glasses, but it’s just as much for those who don’t need them. Growing up, I didn’t need glasses, but everyone else in my family wore them. And my younger brother got them at a very early age. I didn’t really understand his need, and when I tried looking through his glasses, I didn’t understand how they could possibly help. But they clearly did, so I accepted the concept without really understanding. When my son got his glasses, my wife told me that on the way home, he was pointing out things he had never seen before - birds in flight, names of streets on signs, individual leaves on trees – things I took for granted. Flash forward thirty some years and I’m visiting the optometrist for my own pair of glasses, finally understanding beyond an intellectual level. The memories of my brother and son, and my better understanding of what getting glasses really meant for them, worked together to inspire the poem. SM: Please tell us a little about your books in the different genres you write in. Which would you say is your favourite genre and why? ET: I have released five novels in the SEAMS16 series. The first, SEAMS16: A NEW HOME, the second, SEAMS16: ARRIVAL, and the fourth, SEAMS16: FRIENDS AND FOES, take place on the Space Equipment Authority’s Maintenance Station number 16 (SEAMS16), a repair depot for spacecraft in the Solenty planetary system, said to be the finest repair station in the known galaxy. These stories follow the lives of Charlie and Susan Samplin and their life on the station. The other two books are retrospectives. Book three in the series, AND SO IT BEGINS, reveals the origins of the society, and book five, THE KLINDORAN WAR, recounts an important event that happens some 500 years after the book three, and 500 years before SEAMS16 is built. I’ve also released five stand-alone children’s picture books. SAM AND THE DRAGON, a story in the style of an old legend to explain a modern day convenience; BILLY’S FAMILY, an introduction to family relationships and genealogy; THE WIZARDS OF THE BODY SHOP, fantasizing the roles of regular workers; YETI IN THE FREEZER, a modern day legend to explain another convenience; and as mentioned above, EVERYDAY WONDERS. All of my children’s books are designed to be read-to-me-books, and I imagine a man reading to a small child on his lap when writing them. I think of my novels as my “real” writing, and the children’s books as a bonus. I don’t usually set out to write a children’s book, but as I mentioned above, I get struck with an idea, and it won’t let go until I’ve written it down. Yeti in the Freezer is the only story I deliberately set out to write, as it came as a request from my niece, when she explained how she calmed her children’s fears of the “scary” refrigerator that seemed to growl at them from time to time. SM: So what’s next up for you, Eric? Any works in the pipeline? ET: I’m planning to write one more SEAMS16 novel, but haven’t worked out the story for it yet. In the mean time, I’ve been trying my hand at a murder mystery and a Middle Grade sci-fi story. At this point, it’s hard to tell if either of them will be published, since I’m writing them as an experiment, but we’ll see how they turn out.
SM: Eric, before we close off please tell our readers a little about yourself. That is, who is Eric B. Thomasma aside from being an author, where is he based, what are his likes and dislikes, etc. You can pretty much share anything you like with the audience. ET: I’m a husband, a father, and a grandfather. I married my wife nearly 42 years ago, we raised two sons together and now we’re enjoying two grandsons. We live in a house we built near the city of Grand Rapids, MI, about six miles from the home where I was born and raised. I’ve held a number of different jobs in my life, mopping floors, delivering furniture, licensed electrician, servicing sophisticated telephone systems (to name a few), and enjoyed many hobbies including swimming, computer programming, and video production. I’ve always been a do-it-yourselfer in almost everything. Often preferring to repair instead of replace, extending the usefulness of many of the items around the house. (This comes in handy on a writer’s salary.) I suppose that’s a large part of why I self-publish. I enjoy the formatting and other processes involved in preparing my book for Amazon and Smashwords distribution. SM: Well, thank you so very much for taking the time to feature on Sylvia Says today. I really enjoyed learning more about you and your work, and I look forward to seeing what’s coming up next on your agenda. I’ll be sure to tweet about it! Ha, ha! ET: Thank you for inviting me. It was a pleasure. And thanks for all you do to support the writer community. For more information on Eric B. Thomasma and where you can purchase his books please visit here for his sci-fi works: www.seams16.com or here for just the kids: www.rtycati.com
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 English rocker Adam Ant For those of you old enough to remember 1980s English post-punk group, Adam and the Ants, you’re in the wrong blog post. Today, I’m thrilled to have as a guest English scientist and sci-fi author extraordinaire, Ant Ryan. AND he’s got a thing about Spanish caves! So read on ...  English scientist and sci-fi author extraordinaire Ant Ryan SM: Welcome to Sylvia Says, Ant. It’s great to have you as a guest on my blog. From one animal and coffee lover to another, you’ve already captured my heart (just don’t tell the wife!). And I see you have cats and rabbits—I hope the cats are not staying up late at night swapping rabbit stew recipes. AR: Thanks for the kind invite and nice to be “here”. Ha, yes, I need a lot of coffee to keep up with the cats and rabbits. Rabbit stew! I’d better not mention the 5ft fish tank then. SM: True, forget about the fish. We don’t want to give the kitty cats any ideas. I see you’re from NW England. The only thing I know about this area is the Beatles Museum in Liverpool, which I visited in 1985 (giving away my age here). What’s it like to live in your part of the world?  WARNING: This is NOT where Ant lives but merely a futuristic representation of some city--maybe London? AR: Actually, we’re just a few miles across the river from Liverpool. I was at that museum, too, in ’85 – I turn 40 this year ;-/ There are lots of great museums, art galleries, superb architecture, many restaurants, bars and cafes fit for writing in. This area has really improved since the 1980’s, when there were still World War II damaged buildings. Now, though still relatively small, it is vibrant, cosmopolitan, friendly and quite a pretty city. Plus several great football (soccer) teams are nearby. I really do love living near Liverpool. We have national parks within a short driving distance, also the Welsh coast and mountains, as well as Manchester and Chester cities nearby. You can even take a ferry to Dublin, Belfast, and the Isle of Man. I sound like a tourist guide on commission ;) SM: Well, if I ever revisit your part of the world I expect a full tour, and I’ll buy you all the coffee you want! But tell me, being a scientist who tries to solve physics problems, I thought I’d ask you if you’ve come up with a way to travel through a wormhole into another galaxy or even a parallel universe. I’m forever trying to locate my idol, David Bowie; and I’m sure he’s somewhere in our universe. What do you think? AR: I think that the overall universe is infinite in size as opposed to the observable universe, so in many theories, Bowie could indeed be performing still, or dressed as a Goblin King, but we could never meet that version. Sadly missed and on my favourite lists on iTunes by the way. I loved how his music made the Life on Mars/Ashes to Ashes TV series more atmospheric; wish they had done a third called Starman. SM: I have to confess I never saw the TV series, but when I watched the film “Martian” and they played Starman in one scene, I bawled my eyes out—just don’t tell anyone. And on that note, down to business: Just so we know a bit more about you, you’re a scientist, but you also write sci-fi short stories. Is that right? First of all, what kind of scientist are you, and what kind of work do you do as a scientist? AR: I work in a chemistry lab pressing buttons, nothing too exciting. If I say "top secret" that might make it about 0.0001% more interesting ;) Yes, short stories are what I’m getting into. I thought at first this was because I couldn’t write anything longer, but I actually think that it is what I prefer myself. Twitter has taught me to be concise (not that I am being here), but I value people’s time. There’s a fine balance between getting enough detail in to be able to tell your story well enough and superfluous text, and I hope this is something I will improve at.
SM: And what inspired you to write? As you probably know by now (unless you’re enjoying the fame of JKRowling or Stephen King) writing is very much a labour of love unless one is discovered. So please expand on why you started to write and how the creative mood strikes you. AR: Great question. I think it was from writing theoretical physics papers. Friends had made the transition from science books into fiction, so I researched it and now I’m getting there I guess. I like the idea of leaving the real world with something that can outlive our lifetimes. It’s nice to create imaginary worlds and characters, and the process is becoming addictive. Creativity seems to strike randomly, so it’s useful to note these thoughts down as and when they do arrive. SM: As novelists we always reflect something within ourselves through the characters we create. What do you feel you reflect most about yourself that is revealed through your characters? AR: The big questions about the Universe – is there life out there – our obsession with (many different) gods – pushing boundaries of possibility and technologies, and humanity’s fantastic achievements versus our easily avoidable mistakes that we can’t seem to stop making. SM: Yes, I can relate to that—the mistakes humanity keeps on making. But I won’t digress now, otherwise this blog post will turn into a long novel :) So please tell us a little about Celestial Spheres. AR: Tri-gods sum it up. An extra-terrestrial binary star system with humans, and humanoids who exploit them; these “higher” beings have one of three god-like abilities – ultimate power, infinite knowledge or can travel freely in space-time. There are also lower humans, more zombie-like. Wars have occurred between the species and the finely balanced symbiotic status quo has been threatened before. It follows the story of a Potent (powerful humanoid) wanting to gain the other two abilities and explore the Universe, but society’s rulers don’t like this sort of ambition. SM: Very interesting; and if I had to choose one ability I’d go for travelling freely in space-time. This could come in very useful. I also think this kind of story would make a good premise for a sci-fi film. So what are you working on at present, if anything?  AR: I’m finishing Celestial Spheres part 3; drafting part 4; and plotting part 5 (the final part). I’m also drafting/editing a standalone short entitled “Liver Pool”, which is sci-fi/fantasy, plus I’m plotting a fantasy short. SM: Well, it sounds like you’re a busy bee then. You know, on writing, I feel it’s not always easy to tell the world what we think and feel through our stories; however, I feel blessed we can do this, even if it makes us feel vulnerable at times. I know some readers may not take away anything from our work, while others will go on to criticise and bring us down; but despite this, I believe that if we can touch just one heart or one soul with the stories we write, then we’ve done a good job. What do you think? AR: Great way of looking at it. I think negativity is better than nothing, as it means one’s work has been read, plus we can learn from constructive criticism. The scientist side of me likes numbers, however, so the more reads and reviews we get the more accurate and precise the average view is. There will always be love and hate for most things. But note to self – grow a thicker skin now! ;) SM: Well said. We can’t please everybody nor can we avoid those who love to ‘heckle’ us in a destructive rather than constructive way. But at least we got off our arses and did something useful. And as they say in Hollywood: "Everyone’s a critic." So let them criticise away! I think as authors we start off with fear of what others will think or write about us, but we know we’ve become veterans when we "don’t give a load of dingoes kidneys" what others think (the latter part of this sentence was borrowed from the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy). LOL. Anyway, it was great having you on Sylvia Says, Ant. But before we go, what’s with the "caves in Spain" thingy? AR: Sadly, I lost close family in the last few years, so I wanted to spend a small inheritance on something nice that I could enjoy in the future, and as a reminder of them. I named the cave after my loved ones “Casa Therene Robles”. The place is in the middle of a working town in a desert, so it’s great because a cave naturally stays warm in winter and cool in the very hot summer! 1.5L of wine is €1.10, and it is "muy bien". SM: Actually, I’m going to correct your Spanish if you don’t mind :) and say "muy bueno" (meaning the wine is very good, which I’m sure this is what you meant to say). Yes, I know I’m a smartarse, but I still love you, my friend. Thank you for clarifying the cave mystery, and thank you for being my guest today. I wish you all the best for the future, and I’ll be looking for that invite to your cave house in Spain! AR: Likewise, and thanks very much for having me! The invite’s on its way :) For more information about Ant Ryan, please click HERE  |
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