Author Interview: Victory Crane
Author of Freedom: A Jake Dani novel
With Brittany Perez (Oh My Bookness )
October 31,2015
1. Tell us a little bit about yourself: What got you interested in writing? Have you ever taken ay creative writing courses or any literary courses because of your interest?
I’ve attended a few creative writing courses and have belonged to some critique groups. I recommend both to beginning writers. I will stay far away from a masters in fine arts, the MFA. They only teach you how to write for literary journals. I write genre fiction for the lay person.
I’ve been a storyteller since I was a little kid. I used to play school with other kids and somehow it was always close to story time and naptime. I would make up a story on the spot.
Later, I told bedtime stories to my younger brother. He told me a few years ago that those stores were the part he remembered the most about living in a certain house.
Later, when I was a younger adult with kids of my own (I have two sons), I would act as the babysitter at all the family holiday dinners. I would ask the other women what time the main meal would be served.
Since it was in Toledo, Ohio, and it snowed in the winter time, I would take all the kids downstairs to the basement, or to a far bedroom. If it was warm outside, we always went outdoors.
Now, the first few times I did this, some older children would say something like, “I don’t wanna hear Goldilocks and the Three Bears.”
I would reply, “I’ve heard that story too many times too. This story is so NEW even I haven’t heard it yet.”
That usually piqued their interest.
I could go on about HOW I did that but I don’t want to bore your readers.
2. What is your preferred way to write a book, hand write a draft first, or type, or a mixture of both and why? Since you write in Dual languages do you have preferred method of approach to tackle the Challenge since you do it all on your own.
I always use a computer for drafts. I use Microsoft Word and Excel. I NEVER use a pen on paper. That would just slow me down.
3. Do you have an online portfolio or a blog where we can view your work? For example do you share samples of your work online or other works beside your books through a blog or a portfolio?
If you go on my website at www.crayne.com, and if you are willing to give your email address to subscribe to a mailing list, you can get a FREE ebook of my short stores. That ebook is titled “Twelve Minute Clock.”
I also have two of my short stories (“Spies” and “Barbara LeFang”) for free reading.
4. For those who don't know the Jake Dani Series, can you give a little insight to what it's about?
Jake Dani is a spy on another planet. This planet, Rossa, is NOT being colonized by astronauts from Earth but by common folks. Many bring with them their beliefs and cultures. Most folks on Earth are poor and not very educated. Many do not even have access to a compute or the Internet.
Most poor folks on Earth hope to “start over” on Rossa and are willing to sign a document to work for a firm on Rossa in exchange for their passage to the new world. Sound familiar?
But most of the immigrants on Rossa find that life is not better. They are charged more for their food and medical care (and the education of their children) than they earn in a day, so their indentured contracts keep getting extended. They are basically slaves to the large plantation owners. Does that sound familiar? Substitute large corporations for large plantation owners.
Jake Dani starts out being indifferent to slavery but after he is shanghaied and sold into slavery, he finds it sucks big time. This is his story of how he escaped and brought down the slave owners.
5. Freedom: Jake Dani (Volume 1), the first in the series, can you share a brief overview/synopsis of what it is about in your own words?
And spoil the ending? No way! Please see my answer to your previous question.
6. Would you be willing to share a brief excerpt from your book Freedom: Jake Dani?Here's the first chapter:
“Is this Jake Dani?” screamed a female voice in my ear implant amid voices in the background.
“Yes,” I replied. “You don’t have to yell.”
“You've got to help me!” screamed Mimi Mikado.
“Where are you?” I replied to my lover.
“I'm in jail.”
“Would you stop yelling?”
“I can’t. There’s too much noise here.”
That explained it. The voices echoed off cement walls and metal. I tapped my nostril. “Comm, lower incoming by fifteen decibels. Increase outgoing by ten decibels.” The sound in my ears dropped.
“Why are you in jail?”
“I got arrested at a protest march. Some protesters went overboard, and it got a little violent. The police arrested all of us. I didn't do anything!”
I smiled at the efficiency of my comm.
“Then you should have no problem.”
“You've got to help me!”
“I'll be there as soon as I can. I'm south of the city of Zor right now. Should be there by nightfall.”
The pair of hot dogs on the plate in front of me looked appetizing. I wondered if I could get them in a take-out package, not that it’d make any difference. The train wouldn’t leave Sam Waterman’s Rest Stop until the others boarded. Besides, we were hours away from the jail in Zor.
“I don't know if I can wait that long,” added Mimi. “This is terrible.”
“Protesters must learn patience. Rome wasn't built in a day and you can't dismantle it in a day.”
“I don’t need another history lesson. I just need outta here!”
“All right. I’ll get there as soon as I can. It may take a few hours though.” I tapped my nose twice to disconnect, followed by another bite of hot dog.
Some folks had weak nostril muscles and moved their lips upward to move their nostrils. Or they tapped their nose if their hands were free.
Thank heavens for drones flying high over Waterman’s and other rural areas of York. At least I could use my comm this far from the capital city of York.
I sat on one of three long benches. Fellow travelers took up most of the seats. Families. Lone males and females. Screams of laughter came from behind my back and I turned to see dozens of kids running around and playing on the merry-go-rounds, slides, swings, and colored tunnels.
The local sun, Gordon, baked us with its heat.
The wind gusted so I covered the edge of my paper plate with my mug of beer.
On the side opposite the children, two dogs barked at the tall weeds. Several boys played baseball on that side. One guy got up and walked toward the dogs. “Dingo! Shut up!”
But Dingo and his smaller canine friend kept up their incessant yapping while looking at the weeds even though both were on leashes. I wondered what they saw.
“I hear there are screechies around here,” said an old gray haired woman with a white scarf over her head. She spoke to an old man sitting across from her. His comb-over hair flew in the breeze.
The man shook his head. “I doubt if they’ll come this close to people.”
Screechies were native to the planet Rossa. The damned reptiles reminded me of the prehistoric velociraptors of old Earth. They walked on two legs and looked like overgrown chickens but with smooth skin rather than feathers. The adults got to a foot and a half tall and had teeth. Lots of them. They got their name from their blood-curling screams when they charged their prey, to freeze their unfortunate victims in fear.
I took another bite of hot dog. With one hand on my plate to keep it from blowing in the wind, I used the other to take a sip of beer. A scream of delight came from behind me and I turned.
One girl ran into the weeds to escape four small pursuers.
Then I spotted something moving in the high grass fifty yards beyond her. The V-shape of the disturbance in the grass kept advancing toward the girl.
Then it dawned on me. A favorite tactic of screechies was to have one of them divert attention while the pack they always hunted in packs inched closer to their prey from the other direction.
The barking dogs alerted us, all right. But away from the real danger.
I rose to my feet, cupped my hands over my mouth, and yelled to the children, “Screechies! Get back to the benches!”
I lifted my legs over the bench seat and ran toward the kids, fearing I would be too late. Already, most of the children had run to the benches. In seconds, I ran past the playground and into the grasses.
Where the heck was the little girl?Without thinking of the danger, I knew I had to get to her before the animals did. I ran straight toward where I had last seen her, six feet into the grass.
Sure enough, I found her there. She crouched with her face toward the playground. I doubt if she had any idea the danger she was in. I repeated my earlier warning and pointed toward the adults.
“Screechies! Get back to the benches!”
As I got to her, she looked up at me with wide open eyes.
Good. She was afraid.
“Hurry!” I yelled and put out my arms.
She stood and reached out her own.
I picked her up and ran back toward the benches. Just then, I heard a trademark screech. They’d spotted us.
She was heavy for a tike, maybe fifty pounds, and dressed in a plaid skirt with white shirt. She wrapped her legs around my torso and I held her with two arms as I ran. With my extra Binger strength, it didn’t take long to get to the edge of the line of men facing me. Several men had grabbed sticks, knives, whatever they could, as they ran toward me. One older man held his cane up in a menacing pose.
When I got to the men, I paused and turned. I looked back to see the grasses part as a dozen of the reptiles came into view.
The screechies stopped just short of the playground toys and stared at us. A woman ran up to me and took the little girl from my arms. A man came up beside me with a pair of baseball bats. He handed one to me and I joined the group of men standing guard at the edge of the playground near the benches.
The advance guard of the reptiles soon swelled to dozens. They had long, jagged teeth. We had a few clubs, knives, and forks. Not a fair match.
I waved the bat in the air and screamed as I advanced at the reptiles. The other men joined me in a loud chorus. There were twenty of us men versus dozens of the creatures. I walked toward them and the line of men moved with me.
Two men with white aprons around their waists came up to us with shotguns. They fired both guns at the wild animals, cutting down the ones in front in splatters of skin and blood.
The lead reptile let out a squawk and ran back into the tall grass. The others followed suit.
I lowered my bat and stopped yelling. We watched as the last of the little reptiles vanished out of sight. I turned toward the other men.
“We scared 'em!” said one man.
The others soon joined in a loud cheer and we walked back toward the waiting women and children. I spotted the proprietor, Sam Waterman himself. I recognized his face from the billboard above the restaurant.
He dropped the point of his shotgun, broke the gun to expose the three barrels, pulled out the shiny shells, and reloaded from pockets in his apron. He had a bald head, a huge belly and wore a white apron with the words “Waterman’s Rest Stop.” Below that, food stains marred an otherwise white.
I approached him.
“You need a fence around the playground area,” I said.
“Costs money,” he replied.
I shook my head. “It will cost you a lot more if word gets out that families who stop here could lose their children to those damn screechies.”
He raised his head, with his eyes opened wide, and he nodded before he walked back to the front door of his restaurant. A taller and younger man, wearing a food-stained apron and carrying his own shotgun, followed him. The two looked alike, even in the way they walked.
Must be his son.I made my way back to my seat. In my rush, I had left the beer off the plate and the mug stood alone. I spotted the plate turned over on the ground. I picked it up only to discover my hotdog covered in dirt.
Oh well.The voices of the families echoed in my ears.
I pondered buying another hotdog.
As I got up to walk toward the restaurant, several men came up to my bench and laid plates of fresh food, obviously purchased from the restaurant and still in their wrappers, in front of me.
“Thanks, buddy,” said one. “You saved my daughter.”
Several other men did the same and thanked me for saving their children. I looked up to the little girl I had rescued. Her mother waved her arm at me. I waved back as I smiled.
All in a day’s work, ma’am.
7. What can readers expect in books to come in the Jake Dani Series?
In the next book in the series, Jake battles discrimination. Most of us have experienced some form of discrimination. The “Humans Only” organization is basically a white supremacist hate group.
Jake experiences the hatred of this group and at one point is captured and tortured.
Of course, he will win in the end. All my books end with his winning.
The third book will focus on rejuvenation. As modern medicine gets closer to solving the problems of aging, this book will cover some of the ups and down of a prolonged life.
The fourth book in the series will deal with a local political problem. I won’t say more except to say it involves nuclear weapons.
8. What would you like to tell readers who come across the Jake Dani Series? (General consensus)
I don’t understand that question or how to answer it.
9. What would you classify Freedom: Jake Dani? What type of readers do you feel would enjoy this book? (Those who enjoy scfi, mystery etc.)
Most readers who will enjoy this series will be adults in their own minds. This is not a children’s book, or a romance, or a vampire book. Those adults will like spy stories AND science fiction.
The science fiction in this story is NOT overwhelming.
10.What do you feel the age range would be for Freedom: Jake Dani? Or would you find teens to adults be a suitable audience?
This series will be like the most by those who are mentally adults. That can occur at any age. The day you can accept responsibility for your own words and actions is the day you become an adult.
11. Do you have a favorite Author? If yes, what draws you to that person's work?
I like several authors, tops of which is David Baldacci. Next comes Daniel Silva, Nelson DeMille, and Robert B. Parker.
I like stories where the lead character overcomes adversity.
12.Can you remember one of the first things you wrote if it was teen or adult/first published piece of work either independently or by publisher/ now you started writing if it was for personal or school paper, or shorts stories etc. anything you can think of. Explain? What makes each memorable?
I can’t think that far back. As far as I can tell, I’ve always been a storyteller.
13. Have you helped design a book cover or help stylize a book such as font style, formatting, book? If not, would this be something you’d be interested in doing?
Nope. I use the talents of others for my cover art, editing, and interior design of the books. I have the good luck to have some incredible editors who are willing to help me.
14.Where do you gather most of the inspiration for your works?
Oh dear. That’s a really tough one to answer. My only reply: I make it all up. I’m a creative person.
15.Have you ever stepped out of your comfort zone and discovered a whole new genre? How did it turn out?
I’ve always like to write science fiction. I’m the president and founder of www.sfnovelist.com. The group writes only science fiction.
17.Do you have any other interesting hobbies or maybe a fun story about an experience involving your writing or design and publishing journeys and whoas.?
Nothing comes to mind. I’m a compulsive storyteller. If I didn’t write I’d die.
18.Where can we find your work if we are interested in purchasing one of your books?
On Amazon.com, Barnes&Noble, Apple, Kobo, etc. All the major retailers.
19.What, in your opinion, is the hardest step in creating a piece of work in your mind that may be considered your “masterpiece”?
Oh that one is easy to answer. The editing. I spend far more time editing and revising than in the original outline and drafting stages. I’m an outliner, not a pantser, so I first create an outline of a story. I always know how it is going to end.
Then I write the first draft from the outline.
Next comes editing and revising. I probably spend 4 times as much time editing as drafting.
20.And finally, I would like to give you this opportunity to share three to five images and tell us a little about each (if there an inspiration to you, have special meaning, are your motivation, maybe it inspired your work, etc. Anything you may think of):
Nothing comes to mind. I read the bestsellers and consider them my mentors.
21.Please tell us where readers can follow you, discover more about you and your books (blog, Twitter, personal website, Amazon author page, smashwords, personal website, etc.
I have a personal website at www.crayne.com as well as a biography on my Amazon Author Page, etc. I don’t spend much time on social media. I’d rather spend the time writing new books.
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| Book 1 of A Jake Dani Series |
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