What is your name, where were you born and where do you live now?
My name is Aaron Jordan. I was born in Salt Lake City, Utah. I currently live in Charlottesville,
Virginia, but only while my wife is in school.
Did you always want to be a writer? If
not what did you want to be?
I have wanted to be a writer for as long
as I can remember, though I have wanted to do other things also. When I was a child and watched the television
show The Fall Guy, I wanted to be a
Hollywood stuntman. Later I wanted to be
a jet fighter pilot and astronaut and study aeronautical engineering. By high school I wanted to be a pediatric
heart surgeon, but this goal ended once I started the pre-medical program in
college. That is when I decided to get a
law degree and become a diplomat. I now
have the legal education and have not entirely ruled out diplomacy, but I am
not actively trying to get into the Foreign Service at this time. I will probably continue to practice law . .
. unless my writing takes me in a new direction.
Probably when I was nine years old and
wrote a Star-Wars-like science fiction story in elementary school.
It took probably about four or five
years to see my first novel in print after I first attempted to write a novel.
Yes.
I work as an attorney.
The name of my latest book is Insanity, which asks two main questions:
Are people basically good or evil? Can
they govern themselves in freedom or not?
Who is your publisher? or do you self
publish?
My publisher is Cedar Fort, Inc. It is a small publisher in Utah, where I used
to live. Cedar Fort publishes a lot of
LDS books, especially for the local Utah market, but it also publishes
mainstream fiction for a broader national and international market. Insanity
falls into that broader category. All
books published by Cedar Fort have to meet certain basic standards to maintain
the publisher’s family-friendly image, so you won’t find any swearing or
graphic sex or extreme violence in Insanity.
Insanity is a stand-alone novel. I
suppose I could write a sequel to it, but I have no such plans at this
time. Right now I am getting close to
finishing a new novel that is more in the fantasy genre. It’s about a boy whose mother is dying, and
he is given an opportunity to travel into a parallel realm to obtain a unique
flower that can heal her.
My first novel, A Dream of Freedom, is historical fiction about a Soviet spy in the
United States during World War II. Insanity is soft science fiction—dystopian
science fiction, to be more precise. My
new novel, which I will probably name The
Elixir, is fantasy.
I wrote Insanity as a dystopian novel because I felt that dystopia was the
best genre to address the moral and political issues that Insanity raises. Much of the
real world, especially in politics, reflects the sad tendency of human beings
to make imperfect reality worse while intending to make it better. It is the old tragedy of seeking perfect
solutions to life’s intractable problems.
Some people eventually realize that they are chasing after castles in
the sky, while others never shake off their delusions and carry the fantasies
with them to their graves, sometimes leaving havoc in their wake. Insanity
explores different worldviews about human nature and political society.
So far, my favorite is Insanity. I am a political junky who has always been a
sucker for dystopia. I put my heart and
soul into writing Insanity, and I
learned much along the way. I hope that
in the future I will produce something even better for readers to sink their
teeth into.
Do you have a favourite character from
your books? and why are they your favourite?
My favourite character so far is
probably Angela Turner from Insanity. I love her passion for human liberty and her
keen moral intuition.
For the past couple of years, I have
done most of my writing in the front passenger’s seat of my Toyota
Corolla. As a lawyer, I drive all over
the Commonwealth of Virginia conducting real estate auctions at courthouses,
and I usually have a little time each day while I am waiting for my sales. That is when I try to squeeze in my writing,
because I find it almost impossible to get anything done at home.
My mother read Insanity and hated it—well, she hated a particular scene in it and
demanded that I alter the plot. Her
strong, visceral reaction convinced me that the story had real punch to it, so
I left the plot alone despite my mother’s objections. You know you’re doing something right when
your mother reacts with such palpable intensity.
Do you gift books to readers to do
reviews?
Right now, yes. But I can’t give away free books to everyone.
Do you read all the reviews of your
book/books?
I’ve read the reviews of Insanity, but so far only a few people
have reviewed it. I look forward to
seeing more reviews on the Internet, such as on Amazon and Goodreads.
Would you ever ask a reviewer to change
their review if it was not all positive about your book/books?
No way.
If you hate my book, let the world know why you hate it. All I ask is that you’re honest about it and
don’t misrepresent me or my book. As far
as improving my writing goes, negative feedback helps me probably more than
positive feedback, because it shows me what I should change. Of course, negative reviews might hurt the
sales of my book, but then again, if my book isn’t good enough to earn positive
reviews, then it does not deserve success, and I don’t want readers wasting
their money on an inferior product that does not leave them feeling that they
got their money’s worth. Competition and
feedback are what the market is all about, and anyone who knocks me down in a
review will see me rise again with a better product later on. So hit me with your best shot and show me
where I need to do better. And if you
love what I have written, give me a boost.
How do you come up with the Title and
Cover Designs for your book/books?Who designed the Cover of your books?
Brian Halley at Cedar Fort is
responsible for the cover design of Insanity.
I have never met Brian, nor did I
collaborate with him directly, but he did an awesome job. Cedar Fort asked me for suggestions for the
cover, and I gave them some ideas. I
proposed a black book with a red title and a large, gray DNA double helix. I mentioned some other ideas, such as a
picture of the world or the city where the story takes place. I even toyed around with images of mushroom
clouds from atomic explosions. But in my
response to Cedar Fort’s request for input, I dismissed these other ideas just
as soon as I mentioned them, because I loved the symbolic imagery of the DNA
double helix. I assume it was Brian who
took some of these secondary ideas of mine and incorporated them into the final
design.
So I helped with the concept for the
cover design, and Cedar Fort added some other things, but ultimately Cedar Fort
did all the work on the design. For
example, the idea of using the double helix as the “S” in the title was totally
Cedar Fort’s, not mine. I thought that
was a great touch. I also had nothing to
do with the catchy phrase above the title that reads, “SOMETIMES THE CURE IS
WORSE THAN THE DISEASE.” Another great
touch.
Do you choose a title first, or write
the book then choose the title?
I originally chose the title Millennium and then wrote the book, but when
I looked at what I had written, I realized that Insanity was a much better title.
I originally had intended to write about the dystopian society that
existed for a thousand years, but I had to write my story before I really
discovered it. The writing process
revealed the story to me, and in the end, that process showed me that my story
was not really about the thousand years of utopia, but was rather about the
collapse of that utopia and the consequences unleashed by its demise. So I guess the answer to both parts of your
question is “Yes.”
Insanity is full of morals, metaphors, symbols, and lessons, but I, the
author, do not know what all those lessons are.
Some of them are hidden even from me!
Only my readers can uncover them.
I wrote Insanity with various
ambiguities and different points of view built into the plot so that readers
will have to decide for themselves what the morals of the story are. I did not want to tell my readers what they
should believe.
What piece of advice would you give to a
new writer?
Never stop learning and never give up.
Your blog details?
http://www.aaronjordanauthor.blogspot.com/
Your web site?
www.amazon.com/author/aaronjordan
www.insanitybook.com
Your facebook page?
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Aaron-JordanAuthor/216061015116924
Your Goodreads author page?
http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1607096.Aaron_Jordan
Your Twitter details?
aaronjordan11
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