Getting The Words Down
When you are a parent of a three-year-old, working on adopting a second child, have a career that keeps you traveling, busy almost 24-7, with a husband who is equally busy and has started his own company, where do you find time to do something creative that you absolutely love but needs time, focus, and effort?
I would like to say that James Suriano is a super human/android hybrid who eats strings of code, just like his characters in his latest novel, Dark, for energy and knowledge allowing him the ability to write five novels, publish three (make that four with The Cult of Mao being published in 2017), and complete a collection of short stories in five years.
However, James simply does what many parent/writers/career people do who see the world around them as a great canvas of creation and must write. He fills the endless minute moments commuting, waiting in line, running errands, the sacred toddler nap time, to put the words down before they are lost forever.
Listen to James read from Dark, discuss his creative process in an interview, with me and his advice for aspiring science fiction writers
The Dark Side of Interplanetary Politics
In his latest science fiction political thriller, Dark, Suriano gives the reader a world where Mars is fully colonized along with its moons’, Earth has a direct democracy with one month presidential cycles, and is governed by a virtual mass Consciousness that provides everyone on Earth, who is connected, with the same information which allows for instant communication regardless of where you are.
Mars is yet to be linked but the ethereal and elusive Majesty, who is in charge of the Consciousness and all that happens within as well as out, is intent on ensuring the MEC (Mars Earth Connection). Well, at least she would like to think so.
This interplanetary House of Cards delves into the dark side of politics. While humans live in a world where they can directly elect or oust their president each month not everyone agrees with this system especially, Former Haakon whom has just been replaced by Present Mertea. She is an Android.
Haakon believes her motives lie not with the people but with the Androids whose purpose is to take over not just Earth but Mars by slowly eroding away human’s voting rights. Former Haakon takes his team and Malaysian husband, Taichan, who has his own agenda, on a tour to regain power by directly speaking to dissenters.
Sci- Fi World Reflects Earth’s Diversity
This is not a simple humans vs. androids story. Here are powerful, interesting, and dynamic gay men, women, people of color, and machines whose lives are intricately dependent on both human capabilities and technological advances. Suriano understands that to create a multidimensional story, diversity, like in life, is a must.
Dark is a cautionary tale about what happens when blind faith trumps reason. It is a complex story of conflicting ethical issues that arise out of physical expansion due to the human belief in manifest destiny; the human and environmental consequences of continuous technological progress; and how good intentions can be used as a means to justify oppression within cultures, races, and species.
Meet James Suriano at the OutWrite book festival in D.C., Saturday, August 6 or at the Sci-Fi Convention, Intervention 7, on September 16-18 in Rockville, MD. . If you can’t make it to either here are other ways to check him out: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram.
