What genre do you write and why?
My novels are all in the science fiction and fantasy genre. The Sorcerer’s Letterbox and The Heretic’s Tomb are historical
fiction adventures set in medieval England, The
Alchemist’s Portrait is a time travel story, The Emerald Curse is all about superheroes and comic books, The Doomsday Mask is all about the
legend of Atlantis, and The Sphere of
Septimus involves the characters traveling into another world and is in the
same vein as the Harry Potter series,
The Chronicles of Narnia, or Lord of the Rings. Future Imperfect is a technology-driven story featuring mysterious
messages from the future and Flashback
and Twisted Fate are in the
paranormal genre.
As writers, we tend to gravitate
toward what interests us. That’s what ‘writing what you know’ really means. I’ve
always been interested in these genres and tend to write the types of stories
that I’d like to read. The novels are also the types of stories that I would
like to have read as a young adult. As writers, we all have our own sources of
inspiration but it’s a lot more fun to write about a topic that interests you.
I also write a lot of nonfiction on a wide range of topics for younger readers,
as well as books featuring tips and advice for aspiring adult writers.
Tell us about your latest book.
Twisted Fate is the second part of the paranormal Flashback trilogy. The first instalment, entitled Flashback, was published in 2015. The
novel features ghosts, psychics, and Project Mindstorm, a secret operation
involving deadly mind control experiments, as Max investigates events concealed for over twenty
years. Twisted Fate begins around
the time of Max’s fifteenth birthday
when he receives a box of personal items that once belonged to his mother and
soon begins to have strange dreams and experience disturbing visions. Max
steadily learns the shocking truth about his mother and her possible connection
to Project Mindstorm. Max also meets Julia, a girl with dark hidden secrets, as
he attempts to alter his mother’s fate and his own, for better or worse. He and
Julia embark on a seemingly impossible mission involving deadly psychics,
paranormal phenomena, and multiple shifting timelines. On the run and pursued
at every turn by the powerful and ruthless Kane, Max and Julia engage in a
desperate race against time in an attempt to save countless lives and transform
their own destiny.
What marketing methods are you using to promote your
book?
Full details of all my books are on my website at www.simon-rose.com and I’m promoting the
latest novel on social media as often as possible. I’m currently running a blog
tour, in which my fellow authors publish an interview about the book and in
return I run an interview on my own blog. It’s a great way to increase
visibility for Twisted Fate online
and also introduce both the latest novel and all my other titles to an entirely
new audience. I’ve also been working in partnership with some of my fellow
authors to run promotions in their newsletters that are sent to their mailing
list, once again running promotions for their books in return in my own monthly
newsletter.
In the local marketplace, I take part in events such as the Calgary
Comic and Entertainment Expo and conduct book signings at local bookstores on a
regular basis, which has allowed me to promote Twisted Fate as soon as it became available. The bookstore events
also provide me with an opportunity to meet not only my readers, but also
parents, teachers, and other influential people, all of which helps to promote
the book. I also attend writers’ conferences and conventions throughout the
year.
My publisher runs promotions and marketing campaigns for the book. Twisted
Fate has also been sent to reviewers and reviews should be online in the coming
weeks and months.
What formats is the book available in?
Twisted Fate is available as a paperback and as an ebook. It may also be available
as an audiobook later in the year.
What advice do you have for other writers?
Many new authors decide not to
listen to advice regarding their story and suggestions regarding how it might
be improved or how to fix problems in the plot, believing that they know best.
You don’t have to make those changes if you don’t agree with them, but as an
author you at least need to consider them. Some new authors, especially those
that self-publish their books, also often don’t do enough editing and checking
of their work before they make their book available to readers and this should
be one of the most important aspects of the process, no matter how a book is
published.
What’s the best thing about being a writer?
I enjoy many aspects of being a writer but I think the best
thing might be seeing your ideas develop and a project coming to fruition. Writers
usually have lots of ideas for stories but not all of them become fully developed
or may not have that much potential. Once I’ve had the initial idea and started
to think about the characters and the plot, there’s usually a stumbling block
of some kind that threatens to derail the project. It’s a wonderful feeling
when I suddenly resolve the problem and the ideas flow even faster than I can
get them down on paper or onto the computer. That’s usually the moment when the
project becomes very exciting and I know that writing the novel is going to be
a great experience.
Where can a reader purchase your book?
Twisted Fate is available worldwide on Amazon,
Barnes and Noble, Kobo, iBooks, Indigo/Chapters in Canada, and at many other
locations online. Your local bookstore should also be able to order a copy. You
can learn more about the book on my website at www.simon-rose.com.
Are you a plotter or a pantser?
I usually create an outline before I start work on writing a novel. I like
to make sure that the plot works well before I start work. The outline might
certainly change during the writing process but it helps to keep me on track
and to write the novel more quickly.
What is your work in progress? Tell us
about it.
I’m always working on something but currently I’m putting
the finishing touches to a dystopian parallel universe novel that I hope will
be published later this year. I’m also working on a historical fiction novel
set in the turbulent era of the English Civil War in the 1640s. Both these
novels are for young adults.
Who or what inspired you to become a
writer?
When my children were small, I
starting reading children’s books again for the first time in many years. Some
of the books were wonderful and I wished that I could write something similar.
However, some of the books were very poor and I was surprised that they’d ever
been published. This made me wonder if I could write stories of my own. I
started thinking that I should write fairy tales and picture books for younger
children but after reading the first three Harry Potter novels, I realized that
I wanted to write for the age group that those books are aimed at. I wasn’t interested
in writing about the same things, such as magic, wizards, and imaginary
creatures, and instead focused on themes that I was interested in, such as
science fiction, fantasy, time travel, history, comic books, ancient mysteries
and civilizations, superheroes, other dimensions, and the paranormal.
You can learn more about Simon and his work on his website
at www.simon-rose.com or online at the
following social media sites:
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Facebook
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Twitter
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LinkedIn
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YouTube
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Google +
