Author Interview with DJ Edwardson

Fiona: It’s a real pleasure to have DJ Edwardson here and learn about his newly released science fiction, Through the Viscera, the second book in The Chronotrace Sequence. So, DJ, what inspired you to create the original story? A person, the idea of the bioseine/esolace, or simply the desire to explore post-apocalyptic life?

DJ: First off, thanks for having me for this interview. The original concept was to take the promise of science for the future and make it real---to make everything faster, better, more efficient, to stretch those things out to their limits and imagine what such a world might be like. For instance, computers are getting smaller and smaller, and it seemed logical to think that people would eventually want to just absorb the computer into their bodies so that they would be always “connected”. I took it to the extreme so that in this series there really is no distinction between people and computers. People become the computers. And yet it’s not what you’d think. They don’t look like robots, they still look just like normal human beings.

It was sort of that “what if science could do almost anything?” question that was the basis for creating the world of the Vast. And yet, just as strong was the concern that if mankind really did have that kind of power, what would happen if we reinvented ourselves and basically created our own ideas of right and wrong.

Fiona: Interesting! I found your world of the Vast horrifying yet enchanting. A constant praise you receive from your readers is the fantastic world building. How did you develop this type of skill? Are you always a person sensible to the environment?

DJ: Hmm…I’d like to think that the reason the Vast is an interesting place for people to discover and explore is because of all the work that went into creating it. I wanted the environments to feel very different from standard post-apocalyptic books. I didn’t just want New Los Angeles or a shelled out New York City, but something the reader could explore from a blank slate. The fact that the main character Adan has lost his memory made that even more of a necessity.

In one sense this made it harder to write the book because everything is brand new to the reader and almost everything has to be reinvented and explained. But I think this has the potential to help readers identify with the struggles of the characters without being distracted by pre-conceived ideas about how things should be.  The idea is for the readers to place themselves inside the story so that they’re thinking, “What would I do in that situation?” And the more familiar things are, the more sometimes I think we compare it to our own experience and start to think how it should be this way and that gets in the way of the story. That’s one of the reasons I love science fiction and fantasy. It is the other-worldliness that draws you in and you’re free to experience the events of the story on a more primitive, purely imaginary level, which I think enhances the story.

Fiona: In the world you created for us, a group of people can read one another’s minds and communicate instantly. What are the pros and cons for this type of society? Do you think it would make us happier? Is efficiency worth the price of individuals’ privacy?

DJ: You know, it would obviously have benefits in terms of the clarity of communication. One of the hardest things about writing is getting what’s inside your head onto the page in a way that readers understand. So in that sense it would be extremely helpful if we had something like that!

On the other hand, I tried to show in the novel some of the real problems such technology would create. Because just like with physical computers today, for these devices to be able to communicate and function properly, you need a shared system through which to communicate. And because it’s not natural, this system needs to be maintained. So you need system administrators and “developers”, technical people who will keep the thing up and running. But if people are really just computers, then the people who are in charge of this system would have inordinate power over the lives of the people on the system. And what do you do when there are “errors”? What if someone is starting to think violent thoughts? As the administrator it would be your job to spot that and fix it before it causes a problem. Ultimately, I think such a role would dehumanize people in the minds of the gatekeepers. They would tend to see them more like objects to be manipulated rather than people. Efficiency would be the only standard and things like human dignity and worth would be useless concepts. It’s not a pretty picture!

Fiona: We definitely need to think twice before taking that step. So far, both books in the series are hard sci-fi. What was the biggest challenge you encountered when making up the science?

DJ: One of the parts I most enjoy in writing science fiction is getting to invent and think of names for all of the different technologies. I spent a lot of time coming up with names that I thought were unique and evocative of what I was trying to convey. While there are certainly scientific ideas and concepts underlying what I wrote about (organic computing, for example), it seems to me that science is always changing and shifting and the sorts of nomenclature in use today might not still be around in the distant future. I felt a lot of freedom to sort of strike out on my own with new ideas.

My approach was to assume that science will reinvent itself in the future. I think down the road it’s very possible that there will be entirely knew paradigms and ways of understanding the universe, and I tried to hint at that by shying away from using standard scientific terms. I felt more comfortable imagining what science could do rather than being constrained to what current understanding says it can do. At the same time I worked very hard to make the technology operate in a consistent manner and to seem as plausible as possible without going into all the minute details of how everything works.

Fiona: From your first book, Into the Vast, I got the essence of friendship, love, and faith, which prevents us from becoming slaves of our own creation --- technology. Is there a similar theme in the second book, or are you going to present us with a surprise?

DJ:  I think you’ll find the themes pretty similar. There’s a quote by C.S. Lewis that I put in the front of the new book where he talks about how man’s conquest of Nature is paradoxically Nature’s conquest over man. Because this technology does not really change all of the baser things about humanity, if anything it makes them more pronounced.  The more sophisticated we become, the more danger there is that people will use this technology to remake the world according to their own designs, to impose their will on others, even for “good” reasons. Such endeavors will ultimately end up in tragedy if there is not some sort of outside moral, corrective force to intervene and I wanted to show that theme throughout the entire series.

At the same time, in the wake of the tragic events at the end of the first book, the characters also explore this idea of how to respond to tragedy. What do we do when things don’t make sense? How do we cope? How do we move on through loss? You’ll see a variety of different responses to that in the next novel and not all of them are good ones.

Fiona: I like the concept that during our conquest of nature, we risk becoming nature’s captives. I know that Into the Vast had some success on Amazon during the last year, reaching #1 on the Metaphysical Science Fiction chart over the summer. As a new author, could you tell us how you’ve met the challenge of getting your book out into the hands of a wider audience?

DJ:  Well, the first year certainly had its ups and downs. I do think I have ended up doing things a bit backwards, leaping first and looking later. I tried a little of everything the first year, doing interviews, getting involved in social media, just trying to connect with readers. I put a lot of work into my website and at one point was writing a weekly column there. But I think I still haven’t really found a consistent audience for my work despite some blips on the sales charts here and there. Don’t get me wrong, it was fun to see my book shoot up for a while next to other, more well-known authors, but when it’s all said and done, I have to realize that I’ve only got one full-length book out (well, two now), and that things don’t usually happen overnight.

In the first half of this year I’ve been focusing more on writing and less on promoting and my book hasn’t done so well, but I’m in this for the long haul. I think it’s important for me at this point to focus more on my craft and to maybe let things happen more slowly. I believe the most important thing is to write great stories that will connect with readers. Not everyone will like your work, but if you do that on a consistent basis, I think the readers will come back for more. That’s the plan, anyway, to just keep the ink flowing and the words coming and to try and write the best stories I can possibly write and to let the books fall where they may.

Before I go, I just want to say thank you again, Fiona, for having me for this interview. Your questions were really great and I had a lot of fun answering them!

Fiona: Thank you very much, DJ! Over the years I’ve been very impressed with your persistency and professionalism. I wish your new book a big success!