Introductions
Author c.b. strul: making a new generation of readers fall in love with sci-fi
It was back in middle school that science fiction author
c.b. strul saw a movie that set the course for his writing future.
"Science fiction became particularly important to me after I watched the film
Gattaca," c.b. says. "That film showed me that sci-fi could appear in many different forms."
Now a seasoned storyteller, c.b. is excited about the upcoming release of
Quantum Mable in the River of Time, a story about a ten-year-old girl who can travel across time and space—and it's available for pre-order now.
So strong was c.b.'s urge to tell stories that before he was a novelist, he spent years honing his skills as an actor and screenwriter. In our interview, c.b. shares the insightful reason he decided to change direction in his career.
Here's c.b. to talk a little about his life and work:
Welcome, c.b.! Why was indie publishing the way to go?
Man, indie publishing is wild. You get up in the morning and check your social media to see if anyone's commented on your latest post, how many likes it got, how many new followers—sometimes how many fewer followers. And then you make yourself coffee and start to think about the actual project you're working on.
In a lot of ways, indie publishing is an exercise in frustration because the actual craft can often feel secondary to trying to create hype.
I try very hard to keep the main thing the main thing. That's why sometimes you'll see my accounts go dormant for a good couple of weeks while I'm focusing on the actual writing.
All that being said, I honestly came into indie publishing out of necessity for the work. Science fiction is a notoriously difficult genre to market and most major publishers won't even sniff the query envelope if they know there's sci-fi in it—which I find a bit odd, because historically sci-fi sells, especially in film, but certainly in literary circles as well.
Anyway, I came into indie publishing out of necessity. I had a couple of projects that—with the state of the world being what it is—I feared might get leapfrogged by actual current events, if that makes any sense. A couple of examples for you: In my novel
CONNECTIVITY, some of the characters use projection mapping technology in their personal homes. This is a genuinely up and coming industry and one I really hope succeeds. But I did want to get there first, if you know what I mean. Quite separately, in my short story
The Last Trucker, I show the imminent threat of AI to everyday careers in a way that is personal but barebones and tragically comedic. It's a topic that I'm certain a great many of us are struggling with. And I knew the project couldn't wait because the event itself feels closer than ever before.
There are more examples, but I don't think I have time here to address them all. So, in a roundabout way, I had to embrace indie publishing because I didn't feel these projects could wait for the years of agent-publisher back and forth of mainstream publishing.
What's your best advice for someone who wants to do what you do?Keep the main thing the main thing. If you want to be a writer, write as often as you possibly can. Your audience will forgive you for not posting every single day as long as you show up some of the time and have something cool to show them. You can only have something cool to show them if you've been actively writing.
Also, don't be afraid to try new things. In fact, it's important that you allow yourself to embrace the new all of the time because people's interests can change very quickly and you never really know what's gonna be trending in a week or a month or ten years down the line when your books might really be taking off.
Right now, I'm doing what I think is a very interesting experiment for myself: I'm focusing on writing with my nine-year-old niece in mind. So rather than the more adult-oriented sci-fi I had been focusing on for the majority of my prose career, I'm doing these chapter books, like
Quantum Mable. I'm intentionally keeping the science grounded and the stakes high in these because I want my niece to feel what I felt when I first watched
Gattaca, but she's still a little younger than I was when I saw that. Regardless, I'm trying to play in a different playground than normal and the results of the work are impacting me and my own life experience in a way I really hadn't seen coming, which, I think, is critical to the artist's life. That is, to surprise yourself. To allow yourself to be surprised.
Don't stay stagnant. Keep the main thing the main thing. And don't be afraid to try new things.
I try very hard to keep the main thing the main thing. That's why sometimes you'll see my accounts go dormant for a good couple of weeks while I'm focusing on the actual writing.
What did you study in school?I was an actor. As a kid, I did a lot of theater and I wouldn't really begin writing seriously until the beginning of college. Somehow, I thought, as an actor I could tell the story. But what I think most people will find if they dabble in both acting and writing is: as the actor, they live one life, one individual truth; as the writer, they live the entire story.
Eventually, the entire story became more important to me personally. So I turned my focus fully to writing. I can also see the merits and joy that might have come from choosing the other path. But for me, it ultimately became writing first and then less and less of the acting on the side.
Quantum Mable, you say? What's it about?Here's the back of the book:
10-year-old Mable is from the future. She's also quantum which means young Mable can travel wheresoever and whensoever she wishes. With her robot friend Dartmouth in tow, she travels across time and space to learn about the true nature of reality ... and sometimes even change things for better or worse.
In Quantum Mable in the River of Time, the duo leaps back in time to explore the Amazon Rainforest of old. From boto dolphins to stinger-less bees, Mable and Dartmouth experience the great forest in a new light.
Cool science and strange adventure awaits those brave enough to join them on their adventures!
What's on the horizon?Well, I've got
Quantum Mable in the River of Time coming out very soon in the summer. As of this interview, I'm about 30% into writing the second
Mable book.
I also have plans to release a mainline Odom's Library novel (that's my book series) in the fall. That one's probably about 90% there as of this interview.
Beyond that, I'll be trying to scale up my book signings, festivals, and convention appearances as much as possible. Health and world events willing, I'll be able to focus on keeping the main thing the main thing.
c.b. strul is the author of
The Ancient Ones,
CONNECTIVITY,
Papillon IV, and the soon-to-be-released
Quantum Mable chapter book series. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Madison, their extended family, and four sweet pug doggies.
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