Author Interview with Drew Avera

Please welcome Author - Drew Avera

Hi, Jeanette, thank you for this opportunity. My name is Drew Avera, and I am a self published science fiction author. I am an active duty Navy veteran. I live in Virginia with my wife and two daughters.

Where are you from?  

Mississippi, born and raised. I joined the Navy at 17 and have been in Virginia since 2001.

Do you have a favourite saying?  

"Absolute power corrupts absolutely" I first heard this in history class when I was in 9th grade. Mr. Edwards also shared the quote "The ends justify the means," I had no idea what he was talking about at the time, but now my stories use both of those quotes within their plots. I think the way the world is today I understand that power/corruption idea a bit more than I did as a 14 year old kid.

How long have you been writing? 

I began my first book when I turned 30. It was going to be a fantasy novel, but I  quickly lost thie vision to see it through. I tried my hand at short fiction a couple of months later, but the rejection letters began to stack up. I heard about NaNoWriMo during this time and I jumped on that bandwagon. I wrote the first draft to my first novel, Dead Planet: Exodus in 20 days using my IPhone. I published it 5 months later after finishing the revision process. This entire thing started within the last eleven months. I'll be 31 this June (2013).

Where do you get your ideas from? 

I was diagnosed with ADHD as a kid. I will confess that I feel like ADHD is an overused diagnosis, but I have trouble focusing on one thing at a time. I have an over active imagination and it works constantly. I usually am planning a story while writing another story. Things happen and come to my mind so fast that if I don't write it down then I will lose it to another idea.

Do your personal experiences affect your writing? 

I believe they do. I had a rough childhood and abandonment issues stem from my experiences. I use that within the stories I write, not as a negative thing, but I feel that family, or a family like unit is capable of inspiring something within every person. You need to know what you're fighting for, and what's at stake. I think if individuals only fought to survive then eventually they would give up, but if you are fighting for the life of your wife, child, loved one, then you will stand before the gates of hell before giving up. That is the passion that I want my characters to have, even if it kills them in the end.

Dead Planet Book 1 Exodus by Drew Avera

Synopsis

For twenty five hundred years the civilization on Mars has been ruled by the Syndicate, an organization run by the top one percent. Every need and desire of the average citizen has been fed by the machine in return for a lifetime of obedience. What happens when the profit margins fall and the people become a burden to the pockets of the Syndicate? What happens when their plans to exile their citizens to a certain death is revealed? This is the story of a man named Serus Blackwell who has a job to do. Serus is a policeman who works for the Agency, but it isn’t what you think. Can he protect his sister, Kara, before the Agency kills her, or will the programming he received from the Agency override his emotions and condemn Kara to the same fate as the rest of the planet?

Excerpt

Pain was my only friend in this dark laboratory. This labyrinth of hell has held me captive for the last two months. It wasn’t bad at first, mostly physical exertion to the point of exhaustion. I had endured that kind of training growing up playing sports, but this new part of my training was something else entirely. ‘The human mind can only endure so much torture,’ at least that is what they told me coming into this. I wish I had volunteered, at least then I wouldn’t feel as if I were a prisoner being tortured by my guards.

“Dr. Roblin, how is Prospect Blackwell holding up?” the man in a black Agency uniform said as he walked through the door. I could not see his face but I had heard his voice before, come to think of it I had heard his voice several times throughout my time here. Wherever ‘here’ is, I’m not sure.

“He is physically a perfect candidate, Agent Gentry. I must confess that I am concerned with his mental capabilities though,” the doctor talked about me like I was a caged animal, unable to think on my own.

“What capabilities would that be, Dr?” There was an air of concern in the agent’s voice, though I’m not sure why. I would think that the idea of someone who is willing to put up a fight would be an attribute worthy of a member of the Agency.

“He is not responding well to the reprogramming. Each time we show him a picture of you he becomes discontent, almost as if he is remembering what you did to his father,” Dr. Roblin said. Just the mention of my father brought me back to remembering what had happened. I can only see it in short spans of time, my father dead in the street, Kara crying in my arms, flashing lights surrounding the scene, and finally his face, the man who murdered my father.

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