Hello riders and readers. Today I am sitting down with sci-fi thriller author M. Paul Whelan. He has a campaign for his book "The Legacy Program," going on right now over on Kickstarter. You can check it out HERE. But hold on to your breeches. You can find out some details about this campaign from the author himself right below in his very own exclusive author interview. He not only is going to discuss his campaign on Kickstarter but his life too. If you love sci-fi thrillers and authors that love that genre too you might want to stick around to read more about Mike. I hope you do and then head over to his Kickstarter page to back his project. It only has a few days left so don't wait head there now. Happy reading everyone :).
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Author Interview with M. (Mike) Paul Whelan
I’m Mike Whelan, though I use M. Paul Whelan as a pen name just to put one step between me and any potential crazies, LOL.
I was a paramedic when I was 18 to 21. I wanted to be a fireman, so I went to EMT school in High School at a local Community college and did an apprenticeship at a local fire department my senior year. Then I joined the Air Force reserves and became a fireman there, and started paramedic school as soon as I got back from basic and tech school training. At 21 I decided to go to college, and got an English Literature degree.
As far as writing goes, I was always in advanced placement English, even in grade school, and throughout high school & college, so I’ve written volumes of papers, even thirty, forty, fifty page papers. But very little of it was fiction.
I think I learned about as much about writing fiction in paramedic school as I did getting my English Lit degree. I had two fiction writing classes, and we (the other students and me) were all terrible at it. It’s really a shame that they don’t teach novel framework or fiction writing anymore – they used to in the sixties and seventies and prior. Granted, that was 1997, so it might have changed.
I personally learned fiction writing both from books about writing, reading fictional books themselves, and trial and error. Lots of errors over way too many wasted years. There should be an entire year in an English degree dedicated to novel construction, scene development, major plot points and writing fiction. There was very little in my coursework. It was as if the professor didn’t want to insult us and assumed we knew how a novel is constructed and how to write fiction, and we didn’t want to sound stupid, so we pretended we did. But none of us knew anything. Sure, we’d all read dozens and dozens of books, but it’s not the same as writing one yourself.
Tell us about what you have written in the past and what genres you enjoy writing the most…
So that preamble was basically the lead up to this answer. So my first attempts at writing were pre-internet and were really bad. Like 15-pages-without-dialogue kind of bad. Too much description of scenery… because that was my experience of fiction reading classical literature from days when there were no televisions, let alone mini-computers we take with us even into the bathroom. I needed to learn craft, but all writing an author does is ‘good’ writing, even if it’s bad. Good as in valuable. It teaches you what not to do.
There were some glimmers of promise, don’t get me wrong, but I just didn’t know what I was doing. I needed to learn. I started doing some short stories, and a few turned out ok. My first attempt at a full novel was a Civil War story about the volunteer fire departments of New York City during early months of the year the war started. After Lincoln was elected, everyone thought it would be a small battle, the South would lose, and everyone would go home with a story to tell. It switches to the wealthiest woman in Richmond who ran a spy ring all throughout the war. I will finish that novel. I’m a much better writer now and can do it justice. I shelved it to learn the craft so I could do it justice, ultimately to work on the current novel.
The current novel is speculative Science Fiction in a 'what if?' about a government run program to collect crafts of alien visitors to our planet reverse engineer the technology.
The origin of my interest was that I was watching an ad for a documentary on Netflix, which had a the now famous “Gimbal” ufo video. I knew it was nonsense, but the parties looking at the images in FLIR (a heat sensitive camera) were Navy fighter pilots… not people who would be joking around about UFO’s on the clock to their superiors. There’s a lot of testimonial evidence from highly placed, serious & sober people to support the claim that there are non-human visitors to this planet interacting with humanity, and the government knows about it and keeps it secret.The novel centers on who would be in such a program, and why they would keep it secret, as well as examining the moral and ethical ramification of doing so. It’s a fun story as a ‘what if?” even if some folks think the topic is nonsense. It's fine if people do think that; I used to think that too – admittedly that was before I knew anything about it.
Do you have a day job or do you write full time or run your own business?
I’m actually in the trucking and transportation business as my full-time job. Writing a novel is a part-time job. Getting a novel ready for market is a full-time job, so I’m doing both at the moment.
What tropes do you enjoy writing about?
I enjoy writing about people doing bad things for the right reasons. It seems to be the backdrop of everything I write about, irrespective of genre.
Would you say you are an avid reader? If so, do you read what you write?
Yes, I am an avid reader. After college, I read a bit of commercial fiction just to see what “regular” writers write, and I was not impressed. It’s hard to go from Hawthorne or Stephen Crane to Tom Clancy, because they were largely stories for stories’s sake, entertainment’s sake, devoid of theme or bigger commentary on the human condition. After that, I spent ten or twelve years reading lots of nonfiction: soldiers, spies, mercenaries, that sort of thing. I’ve returned to fiction for the last five years and have found some writers with great use of language and even some significant social or political themes.
My tastes have always been too eclectic to pin down to one genre, but I enjoy science fiction if a great story and some bold idea can be tethered together. One example was Starship Troopers, a tale in which the global government is unapologetically fascist, and the author didn’t go out of his way to overtly criticize it. He allowed the goings on to speak for themselves, like the teenagers not respecting their parents as they weren’t citizens because they refused to serve in the military because of the horrible things the gov’t was doing. For a novel about teenagers fighting giant bugs, it was a really smart novel.
I’d like to think my novel tackles the theme of doing harm on a small scale to avoid harm on a grand scale, when it makes sense, until it goes too far. Even if one is preventing a greater harm, care must always be taken to ensure empathy for the few exists, and harm is avoided everywhere possible, not just do a math problem and wantonly do harm to the smaller number.
There are also themes of loss and redemption at work in the novel, and how emotional pain can lead someone to do just about anything to make it go away. I’ll have to see what the reviewers have to say. Early feedback has been good, but I’d be disappointed in my writing if the novel had nothing important to say, or if it weren’t expressed clearly enough for the reader to pick up on it (or worse, appeared preachy… which I loathe).
A lot of authors are going to Kickstarter to run campaigns to build awareness for their special edition books…how have you added this platform to your own author business?
Definitely agree. It’s a great venue to create a conversation about your novel, and some of those sprayed edges and 3D covers are gorgeous. I’m live on Kickstarter now, and will wrap up on the 13th (so it’s not too late to sign up!). I think it’s great for authors and readers alike, and will probably do the same for the sequel to The Legacy Program. I would really like more Sci Fi and thriller authors on the platform, though. It’s heavy on romance and fantasy, which is great to bring in readers, but we also need more authors in the thriller, Sci-Fi, and even military genres to join in. I do wish they would allow people to search by genre more effectively, though. It’s currently all kept under a general heading of “Fiction,” which is too broad in my humble opinion.
You currently are running your first Kickstarter for your deluxe edition of “The Legacy Program,” can you tell us about it…
It is my first Kickstarter, so I have a modest goal and am offering Hard covers, paperbacks and eBooks, but it’s mostly centered on the story itself. Next time I’d like to design and create one of those wonderful, beautiful books with the sprayed edges and possibly a 3D cover of a craft or even an alien eye or something. This go around I’m having my supporters vote on which cover they prefer for the paperback and hardcover. I had one done by an artist on Upwork and the other by Miblart, which is a company popular with indie authors out of Ukraine. Have a look:
What’s your vote?
Science Fiction in general is a lot like Fantasy in many respects, with advanced technology taking the place of magic, but functioning in much the same way. There’s one caveat though, and that is that you have to find at least a plausible scientific explanation for why it works, which can require a little research and a dash of imagination to make it plausible.There’s a scene in the novel where they are in a craft that has replicated antigravity propulsion, moving at what appears to an outside observer to be 17,000 miles an hour.
The truth is that the manipulation is more about the hours than the miles, as gravity causes time to run slower closer to the gravitational source; clocks at the top of a tall building run faster than ones at ground level, because ground level is closer to the earth’s gravity. That’s established scientific fact. So while it’s a lot of fun to think about that and try to describe it to the reader, try to stay true to the science. It’s a challenge, but a fun one.As far as writing The Legacy Program specifically, if there is such a program, they’re not telling anyone. Even with the recently released trove of videos from the Dept. of War/Defense, there are no pictures of downed alien craft, no crash retrievals to read about, no one in the program to tell me what your first day on the job is like, even though that’s exactly what happens in the book (that much is in the blurb… not really a spoiler). There are dozens of accounts of CIA officers or Delta Force operators, but nothing about a hidden gov’t program to recover alien craft, reverse engineer the technology and ensure that the secret is kept hidden from the public. No, Edward Snowden has blown the whistle, and no one would believe them anyway (forty or fifty whistleblowers have testified to the ICIG (Inspector General of the Intelligence Community), but it was in a SCIF, and the testimony is top secret, and will probably not be released for decades).I had to just imagine what it would be like – they have to have human resources, scientists, janitors, everything, right? – and what type of people would work there, and never divulge the secret. What threat would keep people in line, or is it something else… something they know we don’t that keeps the program hidden? Could it be that there actually is a good reason they don’t tell the public? Maybe there is, or maybe there isn’t. That you’ll have to read to find out.
Tell us about the main characters in “The Legacy Program…” What are their obstacles?
Evan is a soldier, a medic and a rescue specialist, but he’s the one who really needs to be rescued. He running away, or trying to run away, from a traumatic incident in his past, but it’s futile – he can’t run away from himself.
His chance at being rescued comes in the form of Dylan, the man in charge of the teams of soldiers and specialists that go out and secure the scene at the crash retrievals. He tells Evan the way to overcome his fears is to become powerful, which he can use to protect the people he loves. He tells Evan that the program was designed to protect the public from an alien threat, and that Evan can be the key to unlocking the technology that will allow them to have a fighting chance. For Evan, it’s his shot at redemption.Dylan is the head of the retrieval teams. Tall, handsome, and impeccably dressed, he’s who every man wants to be. A lot is simmering beneath the surface, and he’s had his own traumas to overcome, traumas that have shaped everything about him. He’s a powder keg, and the fuse has been burning for some time.
Finally, there is Hannah, a hard-nosed former intelligence officer chased out of the military for looking too hard into to the lies told about WMD’s in Iraq early in the war. She’s lost without something or someone to fight for, so when she discovers a brutal murder in Washington, DC, she sinks her teeth in hard and won’t let go, even when evidence vanishes and witnesses disappear. When she won’t back off, the program is forced to take action, and there’s only one action they take.
It’s a classic redemption ARC, with one mentor telling Evan to see the world the way it is and respond in kind with power, and another telling him the world is what you make it and to see it for what it can be. Hannah is a rebel without a cause trope, who longs for something worth fighting for, even if it kills her.
What tiers are you offering for backers of your campaign for “The Legacy Program?”
The eBook, the paperback, hardcover + combo’s of each to get the eBook as soon as it’s over while the printer creates your printed version. There’s one additional tier that includes a live discussion regarding the evidence for an actual legacy program to recover downed alien craft, which includes whistle blower testimonies to congress, sworn testimonies in SCIF’s (places where top secret information can be discussed), and the senate bill from Chuck Schumer to exert eminent domain over recovered craft in the hands of private aerospace companies, which was shot down by the intelligence community and their power brokers in the house.
Do you have any stretch goals you are hoping to unleash on your backers when you get funded?
I will include two novellas which are prequel events to the respective inciting incidents of the two main characters. If it does really well, I would do a graphic novel of the story.
How do you see yourself using Kickstarter in the future?
I will probably do it again for the sequel. I’m hoping to have enough interested parties next time that it will be a little easier to get off the ground. The first novel has such a learning curve that the next one won’t be half as challenging, as many things are already done (like a website, for example).
What advice would you give to an author that is thinking about using Kickstarter for the first time?
Get your Pre-launch page up and ready as early as possible, keep your supporters in close contact, and learn how to do swaps and exchanges with other authors on Facebook. It’d be worth every minute spent doing it!
Tell us anything about your Kickstarter or yourself that you would like to share before we end this interview…
For starters, it’ll still be up for a week, so if you’re interested feel free to stop on by! There is more information about the story there, the book trailer, and at the very least you can always vote on that cover. 😊
Like I said, there is a lot of overlap between fantasy and science fiction. As Authur C. Clarke said, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” Too right. Many of the characters, tropes, themes and even story lines cross over, and lately I’ve seen blends of dragons and advanced tech, Science-Fantasy,’ in stories like Dragon Flight in the Pern series – my wife loved that series.
It might be worth your while to check it out. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/m1kf/the-legacy-program-a-sci-fi-conspiracy-thriller
Regardless, it was a pleasure chatting with you, and I wish you happy reading and best wishes!
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
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