My name is Erik Martin Willén, a first time author from Sweden who loves books and loves writing even more.
I recently published an original science fiction novel titled NASTRAGULL: Pirates, the first book in a projected series that combines the non-stop high-tech adventure of Star Wars with the awe-inspiring, complex cultural backdrop of Dune—with quite a bit of Quentin Tarantino thrown in for good measure. This action-packed novel includes elements of military SF, traditional space opera, dystopian SF, and the sociological explorations of writers such as Ray Bradbury and Ursula K. LeGuin. At heart, though, it's a love story—the tale of two literally star-crossed lovers, and their Herculean efforts to move Heaven and Earth (sometimes literally) to find each other again and again as circumstances rip them apart.
This is a story that I've kept coming back to since I was very young. Back then, a friend and I decided to create a cartoon. He was a great artist and could draw anything—and I was a bit crazy with my creative imagination. We decided I would come up with the story and he would handle the drawings. Boy, what a team we were! We produced a couple of pages, and then we got bored and went outside to play.
Through the years, I made notes on the topic...many notes. Several times I attempted to write a book based on those notes, but didn't have the patience to complete it; after a few pages, I simply stopped. Years went by, and from time to time, whenever I faced difficulties in my life, I made more notes. Eventually I wrote the outline for the saga and turned it into several screenplays: Dawn Sets In Hell, Twenty-First, Nastragull, etc.
The turning point in my life, the one that made me an author, was when my younger sister Sofia was diagnosed with Lupus SLE—and died shortly thereafter at the young age of 24 in Edinburgh, Scotland. Sofia's death came as an incredible shock. It hit my family and me very hard, and made me revaluate my life. During my grief I started to write, and I wrote and wrote, and I held back nothing. Finally I had found my author's voice, and the result is the saga called NASTRAGULL.
THE NASTRAGULL SERIES (part 2)
(Reposted from Sunday, August 4, 2013)
Writing a great story is like drawing a beautiful painting. Sometimes an artist will use a favorite color, and at other times a lesser favorite. Why? Because all the different colors are needed to complete the artwork.
The Prologue
Writing a prologue for a science fiction story is apparently a big no-no. Well...whatever. Whoever came up with this idiotic "rule" is a shithead! Several comments have been made about my prologue, questioning whether it's necessary to my story. How can anyone know? Have they read the entire story? Of course not; I haven't published them all yet.
Actually, the prologue to Nastragull is very necessary for the overall story—and when I wrote it; I sure didn't know that I'd broken any unwritten rules. Then again, even if I had known, I would probably have written it anyway.
Show & Don't Tell
This is a very important rule for me as an author, and even though I feel that I have found my own authorial voice, I'm still learning. I prefer detailed descriptions that give the reader an experience through action, thoughts, feelings/emotions etc. rather than through my description or summary.
However, In Hunted there are a couple of sections where I choose to break that rule. I felt it would be necessary for the reader to know what was happening around the near universe, while the main plot was focused on the story's characters in the story. If I hadn't done this, none of you would have read Pirates yet—I would still be writing it. Hopefully I will develop and learn as I go, so please be patient!
Sex & Violence
There are parts of my story that I didn't enjoy writing, but I wrote them anyway, because they were necessary—especially the detailed acts of violence, and the sex scenes. All of them are part of the story; and for that reason, I wrote them and will keep writing them. There are many great authors out there who sometimes write things I dislike; they glorify violence to an extreme, at times turning it into comedy. Hence the reason I write the way I do.
I don't and I won't glorify
violence in my stories; I want the reader to be disgusted by it, and realize
that violence exists all the time, everywhere, in real life: from wars to
domestic violence. Any form of violence is to be avoided if possible; however,
sometimes it's necessary to use violence in self-defense and protection of
others...and not just in a novel.
The sex scenes...well, what can I say? Love scenes offer an excellent means of character development and make the story more interesting reading, I think—and frankly, you rarely see them in science fiction stories.
There's a section in Hunted that will make some people ill, and I expect it to generate even further discussion -- and disgust. On more than one occasion, I have discussed with my editor and one of Hollywood's more successful producers—both of whom have become mentors to me—whether I should remove several paragraphs and tone certain scenes down, because they are very gruesome and graphic. Both of my mentors, who know the story, insisted that I keep it just the way I had intended, and so I did. So yeah—you might not want to eat before you read the last chapter of Book 2.
There have been a few reviews comparing my first book, Nastragull: Pirates, to porn, and BDSM porn at that. Well, the Nastragull series is not porn; nor should it be compared to such, because the sex scenes are there for entertainment and character development only—not as the main thrust of the story (if you'll excuse the pun). If you're into porn, then my books will disappoint you.
The sex scenes...well, what can I say? Love scenes offer an excellent means of character development and make the story more interesting reading, I think—and frankly, you rarely see them in science fiction stories.
There's a section in Hunted that will make some people ill, and I expect it to generate even further discussion -- and disgust. On more than one occasion, I have discussed with my editor and one of Hollywood's more successful producers—both of whom have become mentors to me—whether I should remove several paragraphs and tone certain scenes down, because they are very gruesome and graphic. Both of my mentors, who know the story, insisted that I keep it just the way I had intended, and so I did. So yeah—you might not want to eat before you read the last chapter of Book 2.
There have been a few reviews comparing my first book, Nastragull: Pirates, to porn, and BDSM porn at that. Well, the Nastragull series is not porn; nor should it be compared to such, because the sex scenes are there for entertainment and character development only—not as the main thrust of the story (if you'll excuse the pun). If you're into porn, then my books will disappoint you.
One of my favorite authors is
Wilbur Smith. When I was young, my parents insisted that I read as many books
in English as possible, and eventually Smith became a favorite. Many of his
stories have some sexual content and detailed violence/gore. To me, these
scenes enhance the story, as is their intent. Nastragull is similar;
when there is violence, it will be violent—to discourage such acts, not
encourage them. When there is sex, there will be sex, more to encourage than
discourage such a wonderful gift from Mother Nature. All this will be part of
the series. Some volumes will have more than others, and it all depends on the
story context, nothing else.
Bad Reviews
Bad Reviews
There have been three one-star reviews thus far for Nastragull: Pirates (knock on wood), and one of them is actually pretty well-written and useful...while the other two are attempts at sabotage. If you weren't aware of it, Pirates—my first book—is something of a bestseller of Amazon, and some people don't like it when another writer fails to "pay his dues" with several failures first. We all know what this is about.
One reviewer insists that "Pirates" is filled with nothing but filthy porn, and from what she's written, it's apparent that she never finished the book. Now, this is all right; she's entitled to her opinion, and I as a new author have to accept that. I won't respect the opinion, though, because I don't believe she finished the book.
There is, however, one reviewer who attacks you, the reader, and not me. That is so very wrong on so many levels. Labeling an entire group of people is WRONG! During our last World War there was a "political party" that labeled other groups of people, making them wear different symbols on their clothing for easy identification— anything from a red triangle to a yellow star. This reviewer is attempting to do the same thing; labeling anyone who happens to like the Nastragull saga with a scarlet letter of shame, accusing them of being sadistic sociopaths if they happen to like Pirates. This anonymous attempt to discourage new readers from purchasing my book was written by a typical totalitarian thinker*. Good examples of these sad creatures are the last two little bastards who have ruled the Northern part a certain Asian nation, one of whom threatened to start World War 3 back in the beginning of this year because someone from the West apparently had the audacity to turn off his access to computer porn, or some such...
And that's all I have to say about that.
See post: Reviewer on Amazon “apologizes” to
Nastragull Fans! (Monday,
September 2, 2013) http://sciencefiction-nastragull.blogspot.se/2013/09/reviewer-on-amazon-apologizes-to.html
*"Some people think in extremes. They just don't
allow any middle ground. It's kind of like 'you're either with me or you're
against me' or 'you're either part of the solution or part of the problem.' A
person with this 'either/or' and 'all or none' mentality can be very demanding,
requiring total allegiance. Any hint of deviation is paramount to a total
abdication of that allegiance. A spouse may become insanely jealous, to the
point of violence, if their partner is perceived to be paying attention to
another person. It is, in the mind of an 'all or none' thinker, inconceivable
that a spouse could be friendly with many different people of both sexes and
still absolutely devoted to the partner. The perfectionist also often suffers
from totalitarian thinking when they say something like 'I should have done
better, I'm such an idiot.' It's as if you're either an idiot or perfect,
nothing in between." -- Kenneth Fields, MA, NCC, LMHC
Awesome Indies
Approved
Nastragull; Pirates (Volume 1) is Awesome Indies Approved and been awarded
a place on the Awesome Indies list of quality independent fiction.
Books that are Awesome Indies Approved are
of the same quality of craftsmanship as books published by traditional
publishing houses. This is determined
by one or more reviewers with the following qualifications.
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