Title: The Prelapsarians
Author: John Gaiserich
Publisher: CreateSpace
ISBN: 978-1517528638
Pages: 644
Genre: Dystopian-Fiction/ Action & Adventure
Interview Questions for John Gaiserich
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About the Author
John Gaiserich started writing fiction in 2009. He is an avid aviation and history enthusiast with a particular interest in the cultures of Russia and the Caucasus. “The Prelapsarians” is his first novel, inspired in part by the films of Andrei Tarkovsky. Gaiserich currently resides in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Interviewed by: Lisa Brown-Gilbert
Today we are talking to John Gaiserich , author of “The Prelapsarians.”
PBR: What prompted you to write The Prelapsarians?
The book was actually born more or less on a whim! I was working on another writing project, which just wasn’t coming together, so I scribbled a few paragraphs down, and the story fell into place from there. When I write, I usually just sketch out a few major characters and the general setting, and then try to figure out what’s supposed to be happening.
PBR: Writing dystopian fiction can be somewhat rocky terrain to manage, what made you decide on this genre for your book?
I’m a huge fan of the movie “Stalker” by Andrei Tarkovsky. It’s an ambiguous science fiction art film from 1979 that follows a trio of men through a wasteland as they search for answers to their most intimate questions about life. There was a particular scene, about halfway through the movie, where the camera pans over some relics as chilling duduk music plays and a child’s voice recites a verse from the Book of Revelation. That was the atmosphere I was trying to convey when I wrote the beginning of “The Prelapsarians.”
I’d been studying Russian/Soviet history for a while. I thought a great deal about the Chernobyl disaster, particularly since I grew up in the shadow of Three Mile Island, which had its own meltdown four years before I was born. Had that deteriorated to the same degree as Chernobyl, I probably wouldn’t be sitting here right now! It made me wonder, “What would happen if, instead of a localized disaster, a similar event happened with long-lasting global consequences?
PBR: Do you have a favorite dystopian book or author?
Actually, I don’t read much in this genre! I suppose that was part of the challenge: writing a type of book I have little experience with. Most of the inspiration, as I said, comes from film, other media, and history. I can understand how that might cause a few readers to raise an eyebrow. But I do my best to minimize subliminal influence from other authors’ work, so I think that the fact that I don’t read much post-apocalyptic literature might enhance the novel, in a way.
PBR: Your characters in the book are a diverse cast, are any of your characters fashioned after people you know in real life?
This is something I try to avoid, because I like “grey” characters. Everyone has positive attributes, everyone has negative ones, and not everyone can be a hero. Now and again, I’ll be talking to a friend or colleague, and I’ll mention that I’m writing, and they’ll ask me to add a character based on them. I have to explain to them, “Okay, but there’s a very good chance that your character will have some less-than-chipper qualities, otherwise, it’ll just be bad writing!” They don’t always like that…
PBR: The book touches on some interesting history, how much research went into writing the book?
I posted a bibliography on my website/blog that lists nine nonfiction books that I used as primary sources. I spent a month or two ravenously gathering as many facts, anecdotes, and personal stories as I could, then went back through relevant chapters at various intervals to ensure that what I was putting on the page was relatively accurate (though I didn’t want the historical narrative to come off as too perfect; my narrator isn’t a scholar, after all).
PBR: What was the most difficult aspect of writing your novel?
Just keeping the momentum up. In addition to writing, I work full-time as an aviation professional, which necessitates nonstandard hours and overtime. Furthermore, I’m as susceptible to writer’s block as anyone else; I’d have days when I wasn’t working, and the weather was terrible, and they’d seem like perfect opportunities to get a good deal of work done, but the muse would elude me, and whatever I wrote would be a torrent of junk. Between that, the hard drive of the laptop I used to write crashing at one point, and real life finding its way to intervene, I suffered more than a few setbacks.
PBR: How long did it take for you to complete the book, including editing and publishing?
I started writing in February of 2014, and wrapped up about fifteen months later. Editing took about a month and a half, and it was complete and available for purchase in October of 2015.
PBR: Looking back, is there any aspect about the book you would change?
This is a tricky question to answer, because on the one hand, I have extreme confidence in the product I created, but on the other, I’m constantly looking for ways to improve as an author, which means reading over “The Prelapsarians” in a critical fashion. Are there a few superficial things I’d change? I might truncate Chapter 14 by a few lines, sure, but nothing major. I put a great deal of effort into ensuring that “The Prelapsarians” was as solid a product as it could be.
That being said, I’m not terribly satisfied with the cover. I’m thinking about re-releasing the book with a better cover, even though I did pay a decent amount to have the cover done. Honestly, I could’ve done substantially better with five minutes in PhotoShop.
PBR: Do you have any future books that you are working on?
Indeed! I’m researching for what I hope is a multi-volume series told from multiple points of view. I don’t want to divulge too many details, as I’ve already started and shelved two other ideas since finishing “The Prelapsarians,” but if this project comes together the way I envision it, then I think it’s got some serious potential.
PBR: What is the best advice you would give to other less experienced writers?
I’ve said it a million times and I’ll say it a million more: Hire an editor! I hear so much about independent authors these days trying to do everything themselves. “Self-editing” doesn’t work. Believe me. I went over my manuscript at least a dozen times in painstaking detail before I shipped it off to my editor, and it still came back with a bunch of red marks on it. The eye often sees what the mind wants it to see.
As an author, your book is your product. It’s the representation of you as a business entity. You therefore have an obligation to ensure that the product you’re offering is something worthy of your customers’ hard-earned money. After all, if you’re not willing to invest in your product, then why should readers?
To learn more about “The Prelapsarians” please read the review at: Pacific Book Review
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