Date Published: Feb 7, 2021
Publisher: The Unseeing Eye
A man is running for his life. An army is deployed to hunt him down. He has no right to be there, he has no right to live. He is not considered human.
A man is on a mission. He is looking for the hunted, for those denied humanity. He is trying to save them, to deliver them to safety, to give them a chance of life.
The year is 2058. The world’s powers have stabilised, the citizens of the newly formed super-states are living in peace and prosperity. But when safety is a privilege of the fortunate, liberty is a radical idea. For those born on the wrong side of the wall surrounding the Federated States of Europe, the price of privilege is unimaginably high.
When fate brings the two men together, they struggle against time, hostile forces and their own prejudices, towards a conclusion, neither of them would have thought possible.
What
is the hardest part of writing your books?
Plotting.
I take ten times longer to plot, and construct characters than I actually do
writing. I make LONG character sheets, write full back-stories and curriculums,
90% of which never even appear in the books, just to make the characters feel
real. I’m not one of those who describe any outward detail, so I don’ really
spend much time with their appearances, I’m more interested in their inner
workings.
Then,
of course, the plot must be water-tight. Every scene, every moment, must be
important, story -wise. Plot points, turning points, etc. must all happen at
the right moment. The actual writing after this is as easy as colouring by the
numbers.
What songs are most played on your
Ipod?
None.
I don’t have an iPod. ;) I listen to music on a HiFi, usually either any form
of Death Metal (currently I’m in a Morbid Angel “phase”) or classics ranging
from Mahler to Shostakovich, but I like old Russian composers the most.
Workouts
(like weight training) are an exception, then it’s ALWAYS The Effigy of the
Forgotten by Suffocation (again, death metal)
Do you have critique partners or beta
readers?
Yes,
from three continents, so I get a variety of opinions and lots of valuable
feedback. For my latest novella, Ledalina, I even received a great “education”
about African voodoo and witchcraft from a friend in Zimbabwe.
When
I was writing Jonas’s character for Dire Redemption, a friend from Rwanda
helped me understand naming traditions as well, while another from Kenya
translated the Swahili terms, a beta reader from England looked at the story
from a more European perspective, while I received the most feedback from the
USA. It was quite an international effort. With the English and American
friends we regularly beta read for each other too.
What book are you reading now?
A
Storm of Swords by GRR Martin, The Science of Discworld II by the late Terry
Pratchett, Notes from the Underground by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, and beta reading
an African war drama by HK Masara.
I
like to read different types of books in different parts of the day, thence the
broad selection (I don’t read all of them every day, though.)
How did you start your writing career?
I
won a special prize in a national writing contest when I was 17, I suppose that
was the start. And that was a long time ago. Later on, I wrote technical
articles, and opinion pieces for magazines, then in 2015 came my first novel,
which was finally properly published last year.
Tell us about your next release.
Hard
to say what would be the next. I already signed a contract for a sequel to Dire
Redemption, but that’s a long way off. Before that, I’ll likely finish
something lighter, and shorter, but I
have 15 book sketches to choose from that I’ve been plotting and outlining in
the past few years. I’ve recently started working on two of those, will see
which one gets there first.
About the Author
Ishmael O. Ross is an author, technical writer and software architect. His stories appeared in The Scarlet Leaf Review and The Opiate magazines. Dire Redemption is his first novel.
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