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  • Writer's pictureLife Between the Bookends

Interview with Shea Oliver

Updated: Aug 8, 2019



 

Shea Oliver is a father of two from Colorado. He started his writing journey back in college and after a hiatus, picked it back up and gave us his debut novel The Betrayal of Ka! I had the opportunity to ask him some questions to learn a little more about him than what readers can learn about him from his website or bio on Amazon.

 

Where did you get the idea for The Betrayal of Ka?


As I've heard others say, the book that I planned to write wasn't the one that I ended up writing. When I decided that I would get serious about writing a novel, I started with an idea about an invasion of Earth. It began with two characters who resembled my two teenage sons in some respects. Before I finished the first chapter, I started having more and more questions about this nebulous invasion that I would be creating. The more I thought about it, the more I wanted to create some social and political commentary on our situation on Earth. Additionally, I began asking what might happen if the invaders were more like us or even exactly like us. So my focus flipped to creating their world with a greedy corporate titan, a regulatory body rife with corruption, and a misaligned justice system. I wanted to avoid a heroic main character and create one with a redemption arc that can't be entirely resolved, and one that might be unresolved depending on one's point of view. In hindsight, the decision to write the book was more important than the specifics of what I was going to write.



How easy/difficult of a writing process was this?


After I made the decision that I would write a book, starting the process was a bit more arduous than I anticipated. Within a few weeks, I realized that I would need to approach the book more like a serious project. I created a spreadsheet with weekly word-count goals and a rough-draft, word-count goal range. As I love hiking, I required myself to have so many words completed before I could hit the trail each week. That idea ended up working to my advantage because my mind would ponder various elements in the book and improve the story while I was rewarding myself for reaching my goals. I did consider walking away from the book a number of times. Honestly, it was more about imposter syndrome than frustration. The idea that I could create a work of fiction that others would enjoy often seemed like a stupid idea. I never considered myself a creative person, and at times, I feared the reaction that I would get when I shared the work with others.



Who is your favorite character from this The Betrayal of Ka? Why?


I enjoyed working on all of the characters, but the title character, Kadamba Vohoor, is probably my personal favorite. I've always enjoyed the genuinely human story of redemption arcs. We too often want unchanging, perfect people in our lives. I wanted to create someone who struggled with who they were and what they had done. No matter what perspective you look at Ka from, he's flawed. He's made a terrible mistake that can't be undone, the people around him condemn him, and then those who truly get to know him also struggle with how to feel about him.



Who is on your Mount Rushmore of Authors? In other words, who is the top 4 (in this case they can be dead or alive) authors who inspired you or influences your writing?


JRR Tolkien, Anne Rice, Clive Cussler, and Piers Anthony. Just down the road, my Crazy Horse would have to be John Flanagan, the author of The Rangers Apprentice series. I have to give him a mention because he began writing the series for his son, Michael. I started writing my first book partially for my sons, Michael and Brandon. To this day, the three of us still talk about how much we enjoyed reading The Rangers Apprentice books together when they were younger.



Hindsight is 20/20. What is one thing you would change post publishing?


The biggest thing that I would have changed in the period after finishing the novel is to continue writing the series and focus more on marketing seriously. In some ways, I wrote the book to prove to myself that I could. The process was so much more satisfying than I anticipated, but I let other things in life take precedence. I'd occasionally work on the sequel, but until I put the spreadsheet together this spring and told myself that it was past time, I wasn't getting anywhere. I'm wrapping up the rough draft of book two this week, and am genuinely enjoying the whole process.


 

Want to know more about Shea Oliver? Check out his website Shea Oliver The Hiking Author and follow him on social media!

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