Interview with science fiction author William J. Fiorilli
William J. Fiorilli is a newly published Science Fiction author, self published on Amazon. We have conducted an interview with him about his writing and the latest book, Blue Dot Book One.
Please share with us more about what inspires you to be a writer?
I started to write because I've always loved to read. As a boy, my favorite place to go was the bookstore, and when I'd go to other stores with my parents most kids would ask for toys, but I would want them to buy me another book. The more I'd read about certain stories and characters, the more my mind would wander and want to create my own characters and worlds and situations. Despite writing on an amateur level my whole life, it was only recently that I decided to start self-publishing. I'm glad I waited this long, because I think my writing has matured over the years, and I'm ready to publish now.
Which kind of books do you read? What kind of books do you want to write?
I've always been drawn to fiction more than anything else because in fiction anything is possible. The late Robert B. Parker was a huge influence on my life and development because I discovered the Spenser series at a very critical time. Lately, I've been reading a lot of Neal Stephenson, and really enjoy his narrative style. I will keep writing fiction because I don't know how to write anything else, and try to focus on developing my own narrative style, and creating characters with an interesting developmental arc, while trying to avoid the usual cliches.
Do you follow a recursive process?
Not a typical one, no. Most people start with an outline, but for me, I just need one good line in my head, one way to start a chapter, something that will grab a reader right away. I will often use that line when it comes to me and just start writing and see where it goes. Sometimes I get just a paragraph, other times I get an entire chapter, and rarely I get an entire story - it all starts with one line.
What is unique about your writing in the Sci-Fi genre?
Normally I really enjoy writing dialog, but in "Telemetry" and "Blue Dot" I noticed that I used no dialog whatsoever - it was either a straight narrative or an interior monologue style. I'm not sure how that happened - it surprised me - but I think it works and I'm trying to decide whether or not to continue using this method. I think it allows the reader to focus on the story and not get distracted with a bunch of "he said" and "she said".
Who is "Blue Dot Book One" for? How many books do you plan for this series?
Blue Dot is set in an alternate near future, when NASA has abandoned the space station, and private space exploration companies have found their progress hampered by a lack of budget, or willpower, or clear direction. Blue Dot is the name of a new (fictional) private space exploration company that comes out of nowhere with a huge budget, and plans to deploy inflatable space habitats into orbit quickly and cheaply. Once they have that done, they plan to produce a wide variety of social media friendly entertainment, some of it quite immoral and dangerous, to make more money and bootstrap themselves into asteroid mining and solar system exploitation. Book One mostly tells the story of how NASA and Russia and China have failed in space, thereby leaving an opening for Blue Dot, and how they get started. This first book is only a novella, so you can read it in a few hours. I plan to write at least two more novellas in this series, then combine them all into a book and re-release it as a full length novel. I find it’s easier to write this way – small goals leading to a larger goal down the line. It’s going great so far and I’m very happy with sales and the response.
More info:
Website: http://williamjfiorilli.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/williamfiorilli
