The concept of reality is shattered when a young man suffers a traumatic experience and transcends worlds in his mind. The Utopia he retreats to is under siege from evil forces and it’s up to Scott and his newfound companions to free this brave new world from evil, but a dark force with more than meets the eye is determined to watch the world burn. In a debut effort from an emerging author, you are cordially invited to explore this Utopia.
With our invitations received and acceptance confirmed, we have been welcomed by author Scott Towers in the world of Utopia and the battle against evil that it houses. Scott, thanks for preparing this guided tour through the lands described within your debut novel Utopia. As this is your first foray into the world of writing, I love for you to take us through how Utopia came to life.
It came to me after we did a unit on imagination for high school English. It started out as an idea, retreating into your mind after trauma, then imagining a perfect world, followed by the trauma following you and tainting the world. Then it just kept coming, thoughts would pop into my head, wherever I was at all hours.
It almost sounds like that your idea ebbed and flowed over time. Do you feel that this flow of idea was influenced by what was going on in your life during this period?
To be honest it was more like a diary at first, I literally wrote the first quarter of the book in first person, but the characters took on a life of their own, developed their own personalities and it was off to the races from there.
Wow, that is a lot of first person perspective! What kinds of ideas did you feed to the characters to help add more depths to their lives to move out of the diary-sequel format and into a format that encouraged the growth of other characters?
I drew inspiration from incredible, talented or intelligent people in my life.
I love your use of real life talented and intelligent people as a template to creating multidimensional characters with the talent and intelligence to move the plot forward, whilst having flaws to display their humanity. Smart and talented people generally have quite a bit of interesting knowledge. Did you research to breach the knowledge gaps, and if so, what did you look into?
Definitely, especially into mythology and beasts. There is even a bit of ancient Latin involved.
Who doesn’t love a little ancient Latin? What was the central idea did you want to capture and share with the readers of Utopia through English, with that little lick of Latin?
I wanted to tell a great story, I have always loved storytelling and I hope I get across in my book the strengths and weaknesses of my main characters and how they have grown.
It’s great to hear that your characters have grown during the course of you novel. As a debut novelist, I’m sure you also found growth from taking on the self-publishing challenge. How have you grown as an author during the creation of your debut publication?
As the book evolved so did my writing style, I hope to continue to grow with it.
What satisfaction have you found so far from your journey and growth within the world of writing?
It has been very therapeutic to deal with my mental issues. I suffer from panic attacks and anxiety and it was nice to go on a journey, even if it was only in the safety of my own mind.
Now that you’ve seen that the journey is safe, how do you feel that the journey would change if you could take it again?
Definitely have more confidence; it took years to get the courage to publish.
Congratulations for mustering up your courage and publishing! Have you turned your mind to a new project to take advantage of this courage to publish?
Yes, the sequel, Dystopia. The books form part of a seven part series, and the universe is so vivid it will expand beyond that both before and after the current era.
Wow, a seven book series! You have your work cut out for you! With a total of seven books planned, how are you keeping track of all of those little ideas that are no doubt already appearing?
An overflowing notepad document.
What kinds of details go into that overflowing notepad document? For example can you run us through the level of detail that you document that you go into for each new writing project, and their position in the seven-book arc?
I see the beginning and the end of the series and the flow of the book, there’s room for change and we are all constantly evolving but the book is plotted out quite thoroughly.
With that though level of plotting being done, how do you approach translating this plot into published pages?
I write in a study with noise cancelling headphones and soothing music. Usually with a nice cup of tea and my German shepherd sitting on the rug enjoying my company.
Who is one of the best artists behind those soothing tunes?
Alan Walker, especially his instrumental remixes.
What tricks do you use if the canine company, tea and instrumental remixes fail to get the words on the page?
Start, either go back and edit the last paragraph or just start writing a new one and then go back and delete it if you’re not happy (Most of the time you aren’t).
Do you find this step of editing while you write crucial to ensuring quality?
Yes, self-editing is very important. Fortunately my partner is very supportive and a teacher to boot.
I’m sure you’ve just made many another writer jealous by having your own live-in teacher to support and improve your self-editing practices. Other than finding your own live-in support systems, what do you feel new authors should try to get past the challenges of self-doubt?
Confidence, just write it down and don’t delay. Don’t be afraid to fail be afraid to never try. Do It!
In the spirit of doing it, let’s take meander a little from the self-publishing path we’ve been pursing, to ponder the person behind the Utopia through out quick fire question round. Let’s kick off the fun with: What is your favourite quote?
Fortune favours the bold
Indeed, the bold find fantastic fortunes! What fortune brings you back to writing?
Passion.
What is your favourite ocean?
Pacific
What is your favourite word?
Farbanti
If you could breed two animals together to defy the laws of nature what new animal would you create?
A German shepherd cross Albatross
*Laughs* I’m picturing a great big German Shepherd with wings! I’m not sure if that was the image you wanted to paint, but I’ve got it and I’d now love to see it in action. What is your favourite flavor of ice-cream?
Peppermint choc chip
Yum! Where is the line between insanity and creativity?
No line, the creative are insane until they are successful.
Oooooh, that’s a fantastic point. Scott thanks for sharing your debut into the creative world of writing, and I will eagerly watch your growth from possible insanity into success in the next six volumes of the series.
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Excited to read the book we discussed today? Find it here on Amazon: ‘Utopia ( ASIN: B073X16VRC )‘.
Want to find out more about Scott Towers? Connect here!