Excerpt
He leaned against another tree and slid into a sitting position. He noticed the grass sticking through Serissa’s bare feet. “So I have to decide, basically, the course of my life from here on out—assuming, of course, I’m not simply losing my mind.”
Serissa stood her ground, summoning Rip with her finger. “Give me your hand.”
Rip climbed to his feet and stepped forward, hesitant.
He reached out, unsure what to expect from a dead, intangible girl.
Nor did the dead, intangible girl know what to expect.
She had no idea if this would work, but her lips curled up in the anticipation
that it might. Serissa slowly interlocked her fingers with his, and they both
squeezed.
Contact. Solid contact.
“You’re warm,” Rip said, feeling a soft human hand,
indistinguishable from any living person’s.
“Only to you,” Serissa said, smiling at her first
physical sensation since…in a long time.
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Interview
What inspired you to write this
book?
A
random thought in the middle of the night—or rather, one random thought that
built into an even better random thought. I was thinking about ghosts,
naturally, and I thought about someone being able to physically interact with
ghosts as if they were flesh and blood. Then I turned it around and wondered
what if a ghost was able to touch a living person for the first time since he
or she died? The first thought was a kind of interesting notion, but the second
thought had substance and I knew this needed to happen.
Can you give us an interesting
fact about your book that isn't in the blurb?
I
originally wrote RIP as a TV pilot script. It was a finalist and semi-finalist
in a couple of competitions, and I eventually got it in the hands of a producer
who was nice enough to read it. He passed on it, though, as he preferred to see
it executed as a procedural. That gave me the hint that maybe this might work
better as a book series.
How did you choose your title?
Titles
are always tough. At some point early on, I realized, “Hey, I can name the main
character Rip and then call the series RIP.” See what I did there? I forget
where “Choices After Death” came from, but I knew it was right the moment I
thought of it, given that people generally aren’t used to making post-mortem
decisions.
Tell us about the cover and how
it came to be.
I
hired a talented cover designer named Mike Messina. He found the image and made
everything look great. He deserves all the credit for it.
Did you self-publish or publish
traditionally and why?
I
self-published. I can’t say whether indie or traditional is the better route,
but my feeling is, in any creative medium, indie is the place to start (well, the
place to start getting your work out there after you’ve spent many years
refining your skills). That’s how you show you’re serious about this work and
start building an audience. Then maybe after I’ve proven myself I might try
looking into traditional publishers.
What do you consider the most
important part of a good story?
It
has to be entertaining. Your story can reveal all the secrets of the universe,
but if it doesn’t entertain, it’s not a good story. Might be a good textbook or
philosophical tome, though.
Are you a plotter or a pantser?
A bit
of both. I plot enough at the beginning to assure myself the story will work
and that it has somewhere to go, but I might be a bit vague about later parts.
Things change along the way. In fact, RIP:
Choices After Death originally had a different ending scene…until my trusty
beta readers pointed out how it didn’t feel right. I had an ending I thought
needed to happen all along, but the characters went and grew in a different
direction than I had intended. So, yeah, I’m going to have to alter some of the
plans I had for the second book now, and that’s why you don’t plot too
specifically too far ahead.
What part of the writing process
is the hardest for you?
Physical
description. Much of my background is in playwriting, so I’m used to being very
specific about what characters say and less specific about what things look
like and precisely how everyone moves. In theatre, the director, actors, and
designers fill in all those details. In books, I’m on my own. Sometimes I’m
able to find my way into description by getting into a particular character’s
headspace and viewing the scene in his or her idiosyncratic way.
What tips can you give on how to
get through writers block?
Exercise
has many wonderful benefits, including clearing your head.
What kind of music do you like to
listen to while you write?
Mostly
instrumental soundtrack music, plus some musicals and classic rock. With RIP, Les
Miserables was playing a lot, as well as Alice Cooper and Buffy the Vampire Slayer soundtracks.
Who is your favorite character
from a book?
My
favorite character happens to be from my favorite book. Atticus Finch from To Kill a Mockingbird is basically the
soul of Superman, as I see it, and how can you beat that?
Read anything good lately?
I recently
remarked that I had been failing as a nerd lately by reading books like Breakfast at Tiffany’s and Silver Linings Playbook, both of which I
enjoyed. But now I’m rectifying that by reading the first John Carter of Mars book, which is interesting mostly from the
historical perspective. It’s the original sci-fi western, and it influenced
everything from Superman to Star Wars.
What do you like to do when
you're not writing?
Well,
there’s always reading. But aside from that, I take a kickboxing class (I
earned my black belt last year), I play with my four-year-old niece, and I
occasionally get addicted to TV shows like Buffy
and Doctor Who.
What advice would you give an
author just starting out?
Don’t
write about writers. Also, realize that it takes time to get good at anything
new. I started writing when I was nine years old putting together homemade
comic books, and I never stopped writing something. Comic books gave way to
screenplays and novels and plays, but I was always working on some project. I
published my first book, Earths in Space:
Where Are the Little Green Men?, at twenty-nine. So that was twenty years
of constant writing before I unleashed any books on the world. If you’re a
nineteen-year-old college student eager to publish, then pause. Put the book
aside, work on something else, and promise yourself you won’t publish anything
until you’re at least twenty-five, maybe even older. You’ll thank yourself,
because even if your teenage works have wonderful qualities, your first release
years later will be that much stronger. I suspect I would’ve made the mistake
of prematurely publishing if I had the option back then.
What's your next project?
I’m
finishing up the second installment in the Earths
in Space series. This series is basically adventurous space travel without
the aliens. A team of explorers visits other Earths scattered throughout the
universe, and each one has a unique human civilization. The second volume, We Must Evolve, will consist of four
novellas that build on each other and show a clear arc for the main character,
Amena. I’m hoping to get it out the first half of this year, but I won’t
release it until I’m certain it’s ready.
Daniel Sherrier is a writer based in central
Virginia. This is the guy who writes the Earths
in Space and RIP series, which
you’ve doubtless heard much about. Occasionally, a play he’s written gets performed
somewhere. He graduated from the College of William & Mary in 2005, where
he earned a degree in the ever-lucrative
fields of English and Theatre. Recently, he achieved his black belt in Thai
kickboxing. And there was that one time he jumped out of an airplane, which was
memorable.
Wonderful interview, Daniel!
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