This week, we’re talking with Dalton Roberts, author of Singularity Dawn: In Other Worlds: Volume I.
Tell us something unexpected about yourself!
I cannot snap or whistle. Please do not try and teach me or tell me how easy it is. It is not and you cannot teach me. Thank you. I'm not sure if that's what you were looking for, but I just thought I'd share!
Why do you write?
For me, it's fun. It's kind of that simple. I enjoy the creation and storytelling. I grew up on summer reading programs and have always been a reader. I mean, I was reading my dad's Alistair Maclean novels when I was ten or eleven years old. I know a lot of what was in them went over my head, but I remember reading them and thinking ‘Wow, how did he come up with all of this?' and being impressed that someone could just create an entire work like that. C.S. Lewis' space trilogy was another big influence at probably too young an age. Most kids my age were reading the Chronicles of Narnia, which are great, but I was drawn into how grand the whole story arc of that trilogy felt to me. It was truly epic, and it made me want to create my own stories.
Once my schooling was done, I lost touch with that side of myself a bit, but in recent years I've come back around to it and am really enjoying myself again. And for the first time I'm sharing those stories with an audience, which has raised that level of enjoyment for me.
Where did you get the inspiration for your current book?
The initial spark of inspiration happened while sitting around a fire in my yard with a couple of my brothers. We watched satellites go overhead and played a ‘what if?' game with them. Two of us attempted to get the other to bend on his non-believer stance and admit they could be something other than man-made satellites we were seeing.
That conversation stuck with me in the weeks following it when I'd be in the yard and see more go over, so I started piecing other parts of the story together. Maybe there were suddenly so many who didn't care about being seen because the world was ending. Were they the cause of Armageddon or trying to help?
I took those pieces, added in some of the mystical sites and stories I've always been fascinated by, and really this one flew out of my head and onto the pages
What do you enjoy the most about your genre?
There are no limits or boundaries. With paranormal thrillers or sci-fi stories, whatever I imagine exists in a world, or whatever I believe a character can do (or needs to do to make the plot work) I simply create it. For me, that's a must in storytelling and it's a big reason why you will probably never see my name attached to something like I a murder mystery, despite the fact that I really enjoy reading them.
How would you describe your writing process?
I am a pantser all the way. I envy those writers that plan and outline their stories and characters before ever writing a scene. I've tried to do it, but it doesn't work for me. I enjoy the chaos of the journey that takes a random idea I have late one night and turns it into a finished story.
I was a fan of those Choose Your Own Adventure books when I was younger as well as LEGOs, and I think they both influence my writing. I love building out a story. It's like reaching into that pail of LEGO bricks and just making something, but you're not sure what.
Early on in the process, I'll just write whatever comes to mind, often times with no idea how it will end yet. I'll write some scenes for a character, then decide that's not how they'd react, so I'll go back and give them a different path. By doing that I know who they are a little better and have a better idea how to write the rest of their scenes.
As I continue that process, the random mix of LEGO bricks takes shape and I now know what I'm building and can reach into the pail to pull out the right pieces to complete it.
What do you think authors have to gain from participating in social media?
Everything, really. Direct connections with your readers, insights from other authors, ideas for new stories. I am not someone who gets heavily involved in social media in my everyday life, but as an author the benefits of it have caused me to get more engaged. And if I'm being honest, I've enjoyed most of that engagement, to my surprise.
What advice would you have for other writers?
I'm not sure how qualified I am yet to be giving advice, since Singularity Dawn is my first book, but I will preach to not get bogged down in self-doubt or caught up in sales numbers. Obviously, if you are in this as your career choice, yes, the sales matter. Even if that's the case, try and always change that word from ‘sales' to ‘readers'. Each one of those sales is another person who decided your story was worth reading. And all those page turns that get counted show you have them engaged. It's all still fairly new to me, but I hope to keep that perspective on those numbers and always appreciate that I found an audience with something I created.
How do you select your books’ titles and covers?
The titles are all part of that LEGO building process I talked about earlier. There's a piece of my mind reserved for deciding a title, and somewhere along the way in the story it'll hit me. Once I have it, I don't generally spend a lot of time second-guessing it or trying new titles.
For covers, I will second guess and tweak until I feel I've found the right look and feel to match the contents of the book. With Singularity Dawn, I spent a lot of time staring at the mocks until I was convinced the one that I went with was the right choice. There's another cover that I really liked, but it just didn't vibe with what you were going to get once you opened the book, so it didn't make the cut.
What's your next step?
Well, the micro next step is wrapping up the In Other Worlds story with the release of Fallen Divinities on August 31. It'll be difficult to walk away from the Barlow boys and this world I've been so entrenched in for a long time now. But to achieve the macro next step of growing my audience, I need to give some of these other stories in my head a chance to be told. And I am really excited for that. There's paranormal suspense and even some horror percolating around up there now that this sci-fi tale is reaching its end. I really can't wait to share it all, and I hope you come along for the ride.
What book do you wish you had written?
Forever by Pete Hamill. Mr. Hamill creates this incredible tale of a man who is blessed with the gift of living forever, as long as he remains on the island of Manhattan. I always felt it was such a brilliant way to tell the story of the history of Manhattan Island and I aspire to have the research ability, patience and skill needed to weave such a story.
How do you react to seeing a new review for your book?
I feel like I need GIFs to properly answer this question. Joy and humility are the words that pop into my head, though. I have written stories for myself or for fun for a long time. Singularity Dawn is the first time I decided I was going to actually share that story with an audience. So, when someone out there takes the time to say ‘Wow I really enjoyed that' or leaves a star rating, it's still mind-blowing to me.
I would imagine the same is true for so many independent authors like me. I personally have a rule that if I read a book by an unknown author start to finish, that's worth a minimum of three stars. You captured my attention long enough to see the story through, great job.
Now that I'm on the other end of that, and have written something myself, I'm glad I took that approach. I hope those ratings I gave helped those authors feel confident enough to do it again, like the ones I've received have done for me.
