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Anders Aaslund 

Interview With Author Anders Aaslund

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
So I sent my first manuscript to a publisher here in Sweden when I was 16. Thankfully, they didn't accept it, but they did leave me a very kind review. Since then, I've written numerous books, but none that will ever see daylight again. I only seriously started writing in English a few years back, and "The Challenger" is my debut in any language.

As for me personally, I'm 47, married w/o children, and except for writing and reading, I spend (waste) my time on a full-time job as a communications officer with a university. I also travel whenever I can (Mexico is next) and enjoy good food and drink.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
"The Challenger" was inspired by world events of the past decade, but is set a thousand years into the future. Sort of a humanity-will-never-learn trope, I guess. The thing is, I feel as if we haven't learned anything from the horrors of the 20th century. It went in one ear and out the other, and here we are, once again applauding proto-fascists. When we openly support and admire people who would strip you of your freedoms and act like pigs with impunity, we're in trouble. I wanted to write something that speaks to a younger generation about the dangers of complacency and apathy, and how easy it is to allow democracy to fail.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I doubt I'm very unusual in any aspects of my writing. I do take time at least once a year to rent a cabin somewhere for a weekend and just… write. Dress in comfy, indoor clothing, drink buckets of tea, make a fire in the fireplace (there's gotta be a fireplace), and write like a motherf****r. Last time I did this, I churned out some 25,000 words in three days.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Too many to count, and across many genres. If I were to list three authors that are more responsible than others, I'd say Arthur C. Clarke, Becky Chambers, and possibly Neal Stephenson. Ask me tomorrow, I'll mention three others.

What are you working on now?
I'm currently writing the sequel to "The Challenger". Yep, it's to be a trilogy. Terrible, I know. But the idea for it came to as a trilogy, and so here we are. I have a pretty tight schedule for the two sequels, as I'm planning on getting them out there within a year.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Being new to the indie publishing scene, I scurry about the net like a neurotic rabbit, making it difficult to be forthcoming. Ask me again in a year.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Three things.
1. Being a planner or a pantser is not an either-or choice. It's a sliding scale, and you need to find your place on that scale. I'm an intuitive planner, which means I plan first, then abuse that plan badly as I write.
2. Writing is work. I'm not going to say there's no such thing as inspiration, but inspiration is not a tool or a necessary condition for writing. It's a nice-to-have that, at best, starts you off thinking about writing when you didn't expect it. Never wait for inspiration. Just write (work).
3. Don't get stuck researching how others write. I don't even want to know how many thousand hours of writing time that are wasted listening to some Booktuber explain the basic tenets of writing. 1 and 2 on this list is all you really need.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Well, in keeping with what I just said, I'm going to go with "Find out what kind of writer you are". It took me years to do, and it was, ironically, a Youtube video by novel editor Ellen Brock that set me straight. This has nothing to do with creating great characters or plotting a book, it's about balancing your ideas and abilities, which, in the end, is a far better way to achieve writing stamina and determination.

What are you reading now?
I've finally picked up James S.A. Corey's Expanse books, which I find delightfully easy and exciting to read, while also being fairly believable as far as science goes.

What’s next for you as a writer?
Well, the rest of the trilogy awaits. I have a couple more ideas for books in English, but I'm actually planning a return to writing in Swedish again. Should be interesting. It'll be a contemporary drama without any kind of sci-fi stuff.

If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
Bear Gryll's "How to Stay Alive", I guess. And three other books on survival. Sorry, I'm far too pragmatic to romanticize not dying…

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