E.M.Swift-Hook – Author interview

Today I introduce E.M. Swift-Hook, a British writer from the North-East of England and author of the Fortune’s Fools series of space opera books. Her first trilogy of the series, ‘Transgressor’ came out last year.

E.M. is also one of the founding members of the facebook group ‘Scifi Roundtable’ and has been instrumental in helping many authors polish their work and achieve their dreams.

What is your current project?

Thanks for asking me along today, Cindy. Right now I’m just bringing out the first book in my new Haruspex Trilogy, which is set mostly in a megatropolis dominated by criminal syndicates, called the ‘City. The book is called ‘Trust A Few’ and it includes a couple of characters which will be familiar to anyone who has read Transgressor and some new friends and enemies for them. But Haruspex is very much a ‘stand-alone’ story, so if you have not dived into Transgressor, you can start with Trust A Few instead and hopefully enjoy the story just as much as someone who has.

Give us a good one liner from your latest book

Wow, that’s a bit of a challenge off the cuff, but maybe this one, from my freighter pilot Charis, when she has been coerced into making an illegal run:  “So here I am on a cargo shunt into a war zone with a creepy looper, a psycho killer, and the galaxy’s gift to womankind. My life is so good right now, I feel really lucky – privileged.”

What’s your favourite imaginary world that’s not your own?

I have so many! But my top one for sci-fi would have to be the Blakes 7 universe. There are definite tributes to that universe in Fortune’s Fools and it has to remain one of the founding pillars of my inspiration.

Tell us about a life experience that ended up in your fiction work

I’m not sure I can think of any specifically, although obviously all anyone writes about human relationships has to be drawn from real or vicarious life experiences. But I did draw on real life as inspiration for the plight Charis finds herself in when she faces deportation and has to leave her home and foster mother in the high-tech Central worlds as she is longer a lone child refugee.

Where do you get your inspiration and ideas?

I am not entirely sure they come from a specific place, more a generic blend of the stories I absorb, life as I witness and experience it, and the way the ambitions and motivations of my characters interact with the universe in which they live.

Name another author that you would recommend reading.

Have we got a few hours? Where to begin? There are some really amazing indie authors out there, people like Leo McBride, Jane Jago, Eric Michael Craig, Warren Dean, Brent Harris, Bonnie Milani, Kat Caffee, Robert Lee Beers and Chrys Cymri  – the list goes on.

If you travelled in time, when would be your choice? Would you prefer magical or technological means of travel?

I’d probably head into the future a couple of hundred years or so – not too far, but enough that all the upcoming technology should have become embedded in society. I think going too far into the future would be too disorienting to even a sci-fi writer. As for means of transport, I don’t think I’d mind, as long as I knew it was safe.

Name 5 fictional characters you would invite to a dinner party.

Well I would enjoy meeting my own characters quite a lot, as long as they didn’t know I was their author or it could get very messy. So maybe I’ll just go for four – the main characters in ‘Trust A Few’:  Durban, Jaz, Charis and Avilon. Not sure how well we would all get along though, we don’t really have a lot in common.

What is the next project?

The next project is bringing out ‘Edge of Doom’ and ‘A Walking Shadow’, the final two volumes in Haruspex Trilogy, hopefully by the end of the year.

How can people contact you to find out more?

You can follow my author page on Amazon, or if you want to keep up to date with my projects please subscribe to my blog.

Blog: http://scifiroundtable.org/emswifthook/

Author page: https://www.amazon.com/E-M-Swift-Hook/e/B01FL8FMI0

Twitter: https://twitter.com/emswifthook

Thanks for having me here, Cindy, and I must say you have some really fascinating articles on this blog. I was reading through the ones about what people might eat in a fantasy world, intriguing ideas. Can’t wait for Druids Portal to come out and see how you’ve put all this research and fantasy together.

Enjoy this blog? Have a think about signing up via my website or catch them as they fly around the ether on twitter or facebook. They will stay where they are pinned on pinterest.

For those that have not read Druid’s Portal yet, here is a link to the first chapter  DruidsPortal