Interview with Richard Hacker, Author of Die Back: Book One of the Alchimeia @richard_hacker #fantasy #thriller

Richard Hacker is a longtime resident of Austin, Texas who now writes and lives in Seattle.

His writing has been recognized by the Writer’s League of Texas and the Pacific Northwest Writers Association. In addition to his writing, he provides editing services to other writers and is the editor of an online science fiction and fantasy journal, Del Sol Review. His three published humorous crime novels ride the sometimes thin line between fact and fiction in Texas. DIE BACK, his first fantasy thriller novel, has been published by Del Sol Press.

When not writing he’s singing in a vocal jazz ensemble, cooking with a sous vide and a blow torch, or exploring the Pacific Northwest with his wife and his springer spaniel, Jazz.

Website Link: http://www.richardhacker.com

Twitter Link: @Richard_Hacker

Facebook Link: http://www.facebook.com/RWHacker 

About the Book:

Title: DIE BACK (Book One of the Alchimeia)
Author: Richard Hacker
Publisher: Del Sol Press
Pages: 332
Genre: Fantasy/Thriller

BOOK BLURB:

In 272 AD Egypt, an enemy thwarts an attempt by League Inkers, Thomas Shaw and Nikki Babineaux, to obtain the Alchįmeia, a document holding alchemical secrets. Sensing his impending death, Thomas secures Nikki’s promise to keep his son, Addison, from the League, an organization defending the time continuum. After his father’s death, Addison inherits a mysterious pen, accidentally inking himself into the consciousness of a man who dies on a muddy WWI battlefield in France. Hoping to make sense of his experience, he confides in Nikki, his best friend and unknown to Addison, an Inker. Keeping her promise to Thomas, she discounts Addison’s experience. 

Fixated on the pen, Addison inks into a B-17 bombardier in 1943. The pilot, whose consciousness has been taken over by someone calling himself Kairos, gloats over killing Addison’s father and boasts of plans to destroy the League. As Kairos attempts to wrest Addison’s consciousness, Nikki shocks Addison out of the Inking. She confesses her knowledge of  the League. When Kairos threatens to steal aviation technology, she she sends Addison and his partner, Jules, to an Army test of the Wright Flyer in 1908. Believing they have succeeded, they return to find the continuum shifted and Nikki knowing nothing about the League.

Inking back to his father’s mission in Alexandria, Addison and Jules hope to get his help in returning the time continuum to its original state. Instead, Addison’s father gives him the Alchįmeia to hide in a crypt at the Great Lighthouse on Phalos. On their return to the present a Kairos agent murders Jules, her consciousness Inked into the past. Addison follows the clues, Inking into Pizarro in 16th century Peru. He finds Jules in the child bride of the Inca emperor. His plan to find the technology and save Jules without destroying the Inca civilization is thwarted by a fleet of Inca airships. Captured, he is taken to Machu Picchu. With Jules help, they find the stolen schematics, but are confronted by Kairos. He stabs Addison, forcing Addison’s consciousness back to the present and traps Jules in the 16th Century. Addison returns to another altered world. Nikki no longer exists, the world is at war with the Inca, and Manhattan lay in ruins.

Addison Inks his father, learning the origins of the League. Thomas urges Addison to uncover their enemy with the help of his colleague, Maya. Putting suspicion on another inker,  Cameron, she insists he must be killing Inkers and acquiring Pens. In a final attempt to stop him, they entrap Cameron, only for Addison to discover Maya is Kairos, his enemy.  She kills Cameron, also wounding Addison.  He chases Maya, who intimates that she holds his mother’s, Rebecca’s, consciousness. Confused he delays, giving her time to scrawl a name with her pen before shooting her dead.

Inked away when Maya died, Kairos finds himself, not in his intended host, Hitler, but in a German infantry soldier POW in the Ardenne during the Battle of the Bulge, WWII. Hoping to repair the shift in the time continuum, Addison brings the League Pens together with the fate of the world and everyone he loves at stake. He awakens to a dissimilar world, but Jules and Nikki exist. And with life there is always hope.

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Q: Welcome to The Writer's Life!  Now that your book has been published, we’d love to find out more about the process.  Can we begin by having you take us at the beginning?  When did you come up with the idea to write your book?

This might sound odd, but Dieback started with a fountain pen. I was holding a fountain pen one day and my mind wandered to the power of words. Human beings have been naming things since the beginnings of language. It’s how we find our place in the world and in some cases I think, gives us a sense of control. Or at least the illusion of control. So, what would happen if a character had a pen filled with alchemical ink that when he wrote the name and a date for someone living in the past, his consciousness would be transported into that person? What would he do with that astounding capability? And as with most technology, what if someone decided to use the alchemy to acquire power and control time itself? How would the protagonist fend off this attack on the time continuum and reality as he knows it? And then I put the fountain pen down, pulled at the laptop, and started writing.

Q: How hard was it to write a book like this and do you have any tips that you could pass on which would make the journey easier for other writers?

Writing is a bit like baseball. It looks easy and doable, but the devil is in the details. Dieback is a fantasy combining historical and speculative fiction, which requires a fair amount of research to get the historical details right. For example, in 1908 during the flight test of the Wright brother’s aircraft at Fort Myerm the first casualty from powered flight occurred. The get the details of the scene right required a trip to the Museum of Flight library to read firsthand accounts of the accident. And because the story alters the past, present, and future, I sometimes felt like I was playing three-dimensional chess. One of the things I do to keep me out of the weeds is to have a good outline of the story. An outline allows me to come back to the story and find my place without confusing myself. I haven’t always used an outline. My crime novels tended to be a more linear storyline and I’d just pick up where I left off each day. But I found with this story, an outline was essential for staying on top of all the twists and turns. Beyond an outline, my tips would be do the work, persevere, and stay open to criticism. By doing the work, I mean write every day. I think every author has to find their own path. Some like to write at a certain time in a certain place. I like to write anywhere, anytime. By I make time to write five days a week. And when it’s just not working, I write anyway. Which brings me to perseverance. I think the difference between a writer and an author, among other things, is perseverance. To keep writing and honing the story until it’s publishable. A novel is a long art form requiring months, sometimes years to complete. To get it over the line requires a willingness to keep at it, in spite of any obstacles. And final, stay open to criticism. I think writers who are starting out struggle with feedback. And who wouldn’t? Here’s this thing I’ve poured your life into and you’re telling me my character is one-dimensional?! The longer I do this thing called writing, the more I not only welcome criticism, but I seek it out. Maybe they’re right, maybe they’re wrong, but I need to hear it because there might be something in the critique that ups my game.

Q: Who is your publisher and how did you find them or did you self-publish?

My publisher is Del Sol Press. I attended a workshop led by the publisher, Michael Neff, a few years ago. In fact, he heard an early pitch for the book. He liked the story idea, but wasn’t enamored with the title at the time. The Geneologist. He was right, by the way. Dieback is a much better title. I had several crime novels published by a small press a few years ago and after the contract expired, I decided to get the rights back and self-publish those, just to keep them out in the wild. So, I’ve gotten to go both ways. Del Sol Press is committed to putting out top notch fantasy novels, so I’m very pleased to be working with them.

Q: What other books are you working on and when will they be published?

I’ve got a completed draft of the follow-on to Dieback—no title yet—and am hoping to publish in the Spring of 2019. I’m currently writing the third installment to the series as well, and that would hopefully come out either late 2019 or early 2020.  I also have a science fiction novel I’m probably going to self-publish just for fun. It’s called The Bifurcation of Dungsten Crease. There’s no publication date set yet for that one.

Q: What’s one fact about your book that would surprise people?

There are quite a few historical surprises in the story. For example, a section of the story takes place during Pizarro’s encounter with the Incan emperor, Atawallpa. The fictional hot air balloons of the emperor’s airborne armada are based on a hot air balloon built with what would have been available at the time in Peru. Archeologists hypothesized the Nazca could have used balloons to direct the incredible drawings on the landscaped below.  To prove the concept, they built a balloon with indigenous materials available at the time and successfully flew it. So maybe in an altered past, Atawallpa had an Incan Air Force.

Q: Finally, what message are you trying to get across with your book?

When life looks hopeless, when everything seems to be turned upside, the people who make a difference are not super heroes, but people like you and me, who persevere in spite of the odds.

Oh, and fountain pens are fun!

Q: Thank you again for this interview!  Do you have any final words?

Thanks so much for providing this opportunity to share my work with your readers. I hope they enjoy reading Dieback as much as I enjoyed writing it.