Interview with Author Seymour Benson

 

 

1. What inspired you to write this book?

About twenty years ago, I was chatting with a student who was enamored with writing. At the time, she was taking an advanced writing class at school, and, from the wealth of information she had gleaned from the class, she challenged me during the course of the conversation that a writer can't write a book without an outline. Seizing the challenge in both hands, I went home that night and wrote five chapters of a story that have subsequently spanned the first two books in the Issachon Series. Over the intervening years, far too many distractions have waylaid my efforts to finish any of my writing projects, but every time my work was shipwrecked, someone would come along and read the unfinished chapters and say, "This is great! You need to finish this!" I would dutifully comply and return to the effort. The ongoing inspiration is that I love the characters and I so vigorously want to see how they are going to resolve their endless string of growing predicaments. There are chapters that give me goose bumps every time I read them. 

2. What exactly is it about and who is it written for?

I have always been fascinated by the unpredictability of magic and the required precision of technology. Throw magic and technology into the pot with the ultimate struggle of good versus evil and you have a recipe for a fun and chaotic story. Dark Ascensions is about Alystra, a woman who was struck by an out-of-control magic spell that transformed her into the Issachon, a primal being and the enraged embodiment of evil. We pick up the story 12 years after the transformation after she has spent more than a decade trying to discover the source of the spell so she can be free of the evil presence within. In an out-of-the-blue encounter she meets the first of many unexpected allies who join her on a journey that continually spins out of control and leads them in unexpected directions. In sum, swords, spaceships, magic, and wonder. Cool!

I started reading fantasy and science fiction when I was about 12, having been exposed to the surrealistic space fantasy by Arthur C. Clarke 2001: A Space Odyssey. Although Dark Ascensions leans more toward fantasy than science fiction, I would make the case that any person who likes either genre will be intrigued by Dark Ascensions.  

3. What do you hope readers will get out of reading your book?

Enjoyment! Entertainment! Dark Ascensions is a wild ride with unexpected twists and turns, interesting characters, and clever wordplay. This is not a heavy and ponderous book, nor is it overly dark and brooding. And finally, it is decidedly not preachy or filled with controversial issues. Relax and escape! If I had to pinpoint one specific goal, I would say that I want my readers to fall in love with the characters and deeply care about their well being in the face of the danger before them. It is interesting to me that different readers I have heard from seem to latch on to different characters. But I am not giving away any names. M**** S***** is my personal favorite, because she is kinda like my wife. 

4. How did you decide on your book’s title and cover design?

LOL and Ugh. The title is a painful topic. Darkness is associated to the evil within Alystra, and ascension is both thematic, and tied to something in the story. The book almost named itself. More on this in the next question. The cover had to be black. I wanted Alystra, in some form, against a background of stars to capture the cosmic playground of the story. Outside of that, I needed Alystra to be showing some magic. Above all, I know the artist and like his work. 

5. What advice or words of wisdom do you have for fellow writers – other than run!?

Never give up. Read constantly. Write every day.  Read Steven King's book on writing - he will give you more useful tidbits than I can here. Read a lot. If you aren't already 99.98% proficient with spelling and grammar, get a good book to master it. Read day in and day out. Read books that challenge your vocabulary. Read the classics. Learn from the masters, and read them again and again. Their books are classics because they know how to turn a phrase that brings the magic of books to life. 

If you want to self-publish, get good advice from someone who has done it. I probably read a hundred web pages on different sites, and there were a few things that were consistent with all of the websites I encountered that you need to remember. They are not there to help you. They are there to make money. And not one web site described every step an independent author needs to know in order to publish. Piecing the process together took me months, and I had to go back, figure out what nobody had mentioned, undo mistakes that nobody had described. It took me more than two weeks to publish my first book on Amazon and Ingram Spark and the next time I publish, I will be able to do all of the steps in one relaxing day. 

Finally, and most importantly, before you choose your title, create your cover art, and commit to copyright and an ISBN, do a Google search of your title. I didn't do this and have discovered that Dark Ascension (without the S on the end) is the title of a famous book series, a dozen other books, and a card set in the fabulously popular Magic: The Gathering card game. If my entire career as a writer fails it will be largely because my pretty awesome book is hidden behind the massive walls of other already famous products. Alas. 

6. What trends in the book world do you see -- and where do you think the book publishing industry is heading?

The publishing industry is always going to be monolithic and impenetrable on the big publishing house end and painstaking on the independent publisher end. However, the fact that an independent author can publish a book in a day and have copies available on Amazon for people to buy provides an option that doesn't involve hundreds of rejection letters. What I hope to see is an ever-growing community of writers, readers, and facilitators who create networks to make the flow of good books to interested readers a smooth pathway. Much of social networking is superficial, but the connectivity it affords can be a boon for the book industry. As an unknown author, I sure hope it works that way. ;) 

7. Were there experiences in your personal life or career that came in handy when writing this book?

From first grade through graduate school and then a bunch of decades as a teacher, and now as a writer for my current employer, I have been exposed to the required rigor of precise writing for about 50 years of my life. The academic world not only encourages reading in an environment where books are all around, but the discipline of writing is a constant. Being surrounded by other teachers, many of whom were famous authors, provided me with an environment that maintained high writing standards. On the other hand, I have had about 50 different jobs in my life. This level of diverse experience does not help to pay the bills or to save for retirement, but it is a great source of ideas. 

8. How would you describe your writing style? Which writers or books is your writing similar to?

I didn't know this until I read his book on writing, but my writing method is what Steven King follows - start with an idea, and see where it takes you. Numerous times as I was writing Dark Ascensions, a character would say something unexpected and the plot would veer off in a direction that eradicated my original plan. Many times when this happened, I wrote whole chapters or even whole story arcs over many chapters that I would later remove as a really cool idea that might be used later. As I relate this method, I feel obliged to present the following encouragement and warning: Although relinquishing control of the narrative to the characters generates really cool plot twists that are natural, and feel genuine, it makes it much harder to reach your overall plot destination. Writing this way is a ton of fun, but I ended up needing to turn one book into two, and it has taken (and will take) a lot of work to get back to the final ending. And, who knows, maybe one of my characters will change the ending too.

People who have read Dark Ascensions have told me that my writing reminds them of Roger Zelazny. This makes sense since he is one of my favorite authors. Buy Zelazny's Amber series and enjoy all ten books. After you buy Dark Ascensions, that is. 

9. What challenges did you overcome in the writing of this book?

The most frustrating roadblock to my writing has been the need to work full time doing other stuff in order to pay the bills. The way I hurdled this obstacle was to schedule time every weekend, wake up at 4:00 AM countless mornings, or skip family movie time (and a hundred other sacrifices). This is a challenge that I will continue to face. 

Writing for me has been tremendously lonely. The student I mentioned above, who told me that nobody can write a book without an outline, was a tremendous source of encouragement for a couple of years, but then we lost touch. I joined a writing group which was comprised of a bunch of people who couldn't place an interesting sentence on a piece of paper. They were fun people with whom I enjoyed some great meals and from whom I learned little. I yearn for a crew of folks with whom I could enjoy inspiration and accountability. By mentioning this, I am not looking for pity. I would suggest two observations. First, writing is a lonely task. Ultimately the author needs to type or write every word required, with or without encouragement or input from others. Second, if you can find some people with whom you can find support, seize the opportunity. 

10. If people can buy or read one book this week or month, why should it be yours?

Reading Dark Ascensions will get you through that week or month with a newfound hope that there is still great literature being written in the 21st century. The story is fresh and different. The plot is surprising and the characters are people you would want to invite over for dinner, fencing practice, or to help fold the laundry. (There is one magical character who is sarcastic and smells pretty bad, you might want to keep him outside.) Nevertheless, as one reviewer astutely proffered, "Buy this- you won't regret it." I don't think that I could have said it better. 

About The Author: CMour B is a former teacher with experience spanning 7th grade to graduate school and topics as diverse as literature, astronomy, photography, math, and history. He brings this odd cacophony of masteries together in Dark Ascensions where characters tumble through a story with unexpected twists as they wage a complicated war of good versus the ultimate evil. Please for more information: https://www.Issachon.com. 

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About Brian Feinblum

Brian Feinblum should be followed on www.linkedin.com/in/brianfeinblum. This is copyrighted by BookMarketingBuzzBlog ©2024. Born and raised in Brooklyn, he now resides in Westchester with his wife, two kids, and Ferris, a black lab rescue dog, and El Chapo, a pug rescue dog. His writings are often featured in The Writer and IBPA’s The Independent.  This award-winning blog has generated over 3.6 million pageviews. With 4,800+ posts over the past dozen years, it was named one of the best book marketing blogs by BookBaby  http://blog.bookbaby.com/2013/09/the-best-book-marketing-blogs  and recognized by Feedspot in 2021 and 2018 as one of the top book marketing blogs. It was also named by www.WinningWriters.com as a "best resource.” For the past three decades, including 21 years as the head of marketing for the nation’s largest book publicity firm, and director of publicity positions at two independent presses, Brian has worked with many first-time, self-published, authors of all genres, right along with best-selling authors and celebrities such as: Dr. Ruth, Mark Victor Hansen, Joseph Finder, Katherine Spurway, Neil Rackham, Harvey Mackay, Ken Blanchard, Stephen Covey, Warren Adler, Cindy Adams, Todd Duncan, Susan RoAne, John C. Maxwell, Jeff Foxworthy, Seth Godin, and Henry Winkler. He hosted a panel on book publicity for Book Expo America several years ago, and has spoken at ASJA, Independent Book Publishers Association Sarah Lawrence College, Nonfiction Writers Association, Cape Cod Writers Association, Willamette (Portland) Writers Association, APEX, Morgan James Publishing, and Connecticut Authors and Publishers Association. His letters-to-the-editor have been published in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, New York Post, NY Daily News, Newsday, The Journal News (Westchester) and The Washington Post. His first published book was The Florida homeowner, Condo, & Co-Op Association Handbook.  It was featured in The Sun Sentinel and Miami Herald.