Dax
Harrison
looks like a great science fiction adventure. Any plans for this to
be made into a series?
Absolutely!
I had zero plans in the beginning beyond writing a single fun story.
But of course, I fell in love with my characters, and the wonderful
feedback I’ve received has stoked the fires even more. So I’m
currently hard at work on Dax 2, with a few character arcs and plot
points already sketched out for Dax 3!
What
do you think makes a great story?
Everyone
has their own ideal stories, but for me, it’s the characters. Give
me characters that I’ll care about, that I’ll root for, and that
make a fantastical world believable because they are so affected by
it. I want to feel when my characters feel. And I’m an easy mark.
You ever cry at movies? (Raises hand) All the time.
What
inspired you when writing Dax
Harrison?
Three
things: My love of adventures, comedy, and film. Dax
began as a screenplay, inspired by my love of the grand adventures
during my childhood. Indiana Jones, Star Wars, Back to the Future,
etc. Spielberg, Lucas, and Zemeckis own my heart, forged on the
silver screens of the 80s. And I pretty much can’t do anything in
life without injecting humor, whether it’s writing stories or
making breakfast. So expect anything I write to have high adventure,
but somehow, somewhere, someone’s gotta slip on a banana peel.
What
are your ambitions for your writing career? Full time? Part time?
I
would love to say goodbye to the day job and make a full living from
my writing. Who wouldn’t want to work from home and make their own
hours? We’ll see what happens. For now, I’m simply focusing on
squeezing in time for the projects I want to do next and just having
fun with it.
When
did you decide to become a writer?
Admittedly,
movies were my first love, not books, which may be author heresy. But
once I realized I could create my own stories, and make them as
insanely over-the-top as I wanted, without having to convince a
studio to give me a $200 million budget, or worry about casting, or
an executive producer wanting to add a teenage supernatural love
triangle mid-way through production because THAT’S WHAT SELLS… I
turned to books. Dax
the 2014 screenplay became Dax
the 2017 manuscript, and I couldn’t be happier with the result.
When
writing Dax
Harrison
did anything stand out as particularly challenging?
With
the story originating as a film script, I had to do a lot of mental
gear-shifting. Film scripts are usually a barebones blueprint by
design. It’s the screenwriter’s job to convey the story based
only on what you will hear and see on-screen. No inner thoughts of
characters, no wordy paragraphs about the history of the world, nada.
Directors, producers, cast and crew will then form the rest of that
vision and see it through. Novel writing is the opposite, so it took
some re-training my brain and a ton of rewriting/reimagining scenes
to make Dax’s world come to life as a proper book.
How
did you come up with the story of Dax
Harrison?
An
idea came to me for a 5 minute short film: A drunk space captain
falls asleep at the wheel, almost crashes into a planet, and blames
his robot co-pilot. I thought it would be a fun little skit to make
with friends for dirt cheap. But once I thought of the character, I
couldn’t turn my brain off. I started working from a standard
hero’s journey outline and kept building from there. A classic
space-age hero with a ridiculous twist. I decided that even if it
wasn’t something I could film, it was worth pursuing.
What
do you like to do when not writing?
Consume
all manner of content! Movies, music, TV, videogames, books (lots of
audiobooks, thanks to my daily commute). I have an ever-growing list
and never enough time for it. The wife and I have been constantly
on-the-go during the holidays, which has been fun. But we’re
definitely looking forward to some downtime to catch up on our
favorite nerdy things!
How
can readers discover more about you and your work?
You
can follow my blog at tonyvwrites.com, where I post all things
writing-related, and occasional random silliness. I’m also pretty
active on Instagram at @rockhollywood.
Homepage: http://www.daxharrison.com/
I offer signed paperback copies at http://www.daxharrison.com/
Regular paperback and ebooks available at links below:
Inkshares (Publisher): https://www.inkshares.com/books/dax-harrison-2276
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Dax-Harrison-Tony-Valdez/dp/1942645988/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1507527586&sr=8-1&keywords=dax+harrison
Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/dax-harrison-tony-valdez/1127070701?ean=9781942645986
Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Tony_Valdez_Dax_Harrison?id=Q-M5DwAAQBAJ
iBooks: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/dax-harrison/id1296546709?mt=11
Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/dax-harrison
I offer signed paperback copies at http://www.daxharrison.com/
Regular paperback and ebooks available at links below:
Inkshares (Publisher): https://www.inkshares.com/books/dax-harrison-2276
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Dax-Harrison-Tony-Valdez/dp/1942645988/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1507527586&sr=8-1&keywords=dax+harrison
Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/dax-harrison-tony-valdez/1127070701?ean=9781942645986
Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Tony_Valdez_Dax_Harrison?id=Q-M5DwAAQBAJ
iBooks: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/dax-harrison/id1296546709?mt=11
Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/dax-harrison
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