Welcome Barry E Woodham ‘Author 2
Author’ Blog Chat.
Today we have an amazingly talented guest and I am
absolutely psyched to have you here today Barry, thank you so much for taking
the time to be here and being apart of our Blog Chat, please sit and make
yourself at home and we’ll begin...
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| A~B~E~W |
Facts about Barry Woodham
from his page…
I spent my working life as a design engineer/draughtsman on the
nuclear fusion project and have been an avid reader of science fiction for over
fifty years. I found himself with nothing to read one lunchtime and began to
write Genesis 2, the saga of the Gnathe.Many of my colleagues on the project
began reading my efforts as quickly as I could finish the new chapters. I was
persuaded to carry on and was halfway through the final section when the
project drew to a close and I was able to take early retirement before
redundancy, through a legacy. I promised my friends I would continue the story
and let them know when I had finished. The joys of early retirement followed -
fishing and walking the dogs, and the separation from my old colleagues meant the
story remained unfinished. I lost the text through changing computers and it
took some effort to retrieve the full story. I knew how Genesis 2 would end,
but could never seem to be able to get round to finishing it.
“I hope you will enjoy reading Genesis 2, as much as all the others and as much as I have enjoyed writing them!”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~There is also The Elf-war that I wrote recently. Elves armed with AK47's and using dinosaurs as weapons!!!!!!! That one was fun to write.
Here is a list of Barry's work, truely amazing
work...
The Genesis Project
(In eBook and paperback)
Book 5 - Genesis
3; - A NewBeginning
The Elf-war & Molock’s Wand are being
written.
Tales of the Ferryman
--- 1 – 15.
Ghost stories.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
So lets get to the
questions for the moment and we'll chat about them. Tell everyone something
else about yourself?
I am a retired design engineer/draughtsman of 70 years old. I worked with atomic physicists for 13 years on the nuclear fusion project. I am happily married (48 years) and have three sons, two of which I helped to deliver into this world. I now have three granddaughters and one grandson. I am still over six feet tall and mass 280 lbs. Big fella! Gentle giant. I share my life with a dog and two cats and lots of fish in aquariums and ponds! I wait for the frogs return each spring.
How would you
describe your books?
My books are science fiction. The series that I called the Genesis Project will in the sweep of the action go from the beginning of the universe to the end and the creation of the next universe. Quite a wide canvas. Basically I write about humans and aliens assisted by artificial intelligences defeating a common foe and learning to live together!My aliens are a strange bunch and are as weird as I could imagine them. The other books – The Elf War and the sequel, Molock ’s Wand are not fantasy! My elves do not do magic! They live on parallel worlds and have an interaction with humans. I treat them as flesh and blood creatures, but telepathic. I have used mystical records (!) tucked away on the internet. Also there are gnomes (Who have fuzzy minds!), goblins, trolls and dwarves (Neanderthals) and intelligent velociraptors! So plenty of scope for adventure there?My Tales of the Ferryman start out as fantasy, but end in SF! The 15 Tales are free to read on my blog. They tell a moral story, sort of!
What Genre is your
work mainly? Do you tend to stay in the same vein or are you hoping (if not
already) to explore new ventures?
I stick with what I know! Science fiction, ghost stories and fantasy.
What inspired you
to write 'your books?
Boredom! I had run out of reading material one lunch time and started to write my own SF story. It has always annoyed me the SF shows humans happily breathing the alien air on different worlds without all dying from microbial infection! So I set about thinking about this and Genesis 2 was born. When I finished that first book I could not leave my characters with unfinished business, so Genesis Debt was written. When that was done I thought that I would write about a different set of characters, but halfway through I realized that I had a created universe already made to set the third book in! I then took all this apart with book 4 and carried on with the final book that took my human and aliens into the next universe. Complicated? No! It all hung together bit by bit and came to a proper finish.It was while writing book 5 I got immersed in writing the Elf War and in the end abandoned book 5 and gave myself a ‘rest’ writing that one and went back to finish with fresh ideas. I had the idea of an elf having his wings cut off for getting the High king’s daughter pregnant! The story just took off on its own and I found that I was enjoying writing it so much I was quite sorry to finish. I thought hard about a life form that measured its span in thousands of years and the fleeting relationships that an elf would have with humans. Quite like our relationships with dogs and cats! I have shared my life with ten cats and ten dogs since I got married. I then introduced all the othe odd characters and had the Elf Peterkin enlist mercenaries from earth to rescue his ‘princess’ and the story took off from there! Some of my wife’s friends read it and pleaded with me to write another! I had not meant to carry on and then I had an idea ---- That’s when Molock ’s Wand was born! Still writing that1
Who was the easiest
character to write and why? Hardest and why?
The totally logical AI called Kamiel was interesting. Think of Terminator two, the shape changer, but benign. I cannot say that I had a difficult character to write in as when I am in ‘full swing’ they are all so real!
Are your characters
based on real people? People you may know or TV/Movie stars?
Absolutely not! They are all unique to my imagination.
Without giving
anything away, what is/are your favorite scene(s) in 'your book'?
All of those dealing with aliens and the AI’s. The taking down of the High King in Elf War and the confrontation with the Dark Lord!
Do you listen to
music while you write your book (s)? If so ... what songs?
No, I prefer silence.
What inspired you
to be a writer? Is there anything in particular that spurred you on?
I have 55 years of evolving SF to draw upon. I have read the SF magazine Analog for that time and many, many others.
Is there anyone
else besides you in your family who write?
My eldest son has written a book about his five day walk along the ridgeway. He is the only one of my 3 sons to read most of my books.
Do you have any
other Talents or hobbies other than your literary wand?
I have built several dolls houses and a large department store to 1/12 scale. I used to paint in several mediums. My greatest hobby was fresh water fishing, but old age infirmity has put that aside.
What’s came first
the chicken or the egg? Lol
The egg came first, long before chickens evolved. That was how life started on land.
A little background
into your writing: when did you start? What was your first piece?
First
published piece, tell us about your general history…
I first started to write 15 years ago. I self-published Genesis 2 and managed to sell 200, making quite a loss. I realised that I had no marketing ability, besides being told that my style of writing was good, so I carried on writing for a small number of people that wanted my books. After a few years the Kindle reader came out along with other types of electronic book readers, so I got in touch with the editor of my first two books and asked his advice. He recommended a new self-publisher that would help me promote my books and illustrate the book-covers. I decided to use some of my children’s inheritance and spent a copoul of thousand pounds doing this. The Illustrations are great and I have managed to market some of my books. I shan’t know until June how well or badly I have done, but I feel that I have done the right thing. People know about me and over 3,000 people have visted my blog and read my ‘free’ stories. I just wish that I understood more about what I can do on this blog. I keep finding out new things!
Do you have any
favorite books or authors?
David Brin’s books. Tad Williams, Julian May. The list could go on for many pages.
Are you working on
anything else besides this?
As I said earlier, Molock ’s Wand tells what happens centuries after the Elf War when One Dokka'lfar lived through the pogrom that Peterkin unleashed. She is a Halfling the daughter of Molock and a human woman and she will have her revenge!
Please see my blog for the illustrations that memoirs Publishing did for me.
Could you give
us a few words to people who haven’t yet read your book (s).
Sell your work ;)
My stories are about people dealing with alien problems, not ‘hard science’ and some of the strangest alien beings that you will ever meet! I try to get underneath the strangeness of co-operating with intelligences that are so different in their attitude to life and make it entertaining! On the way you will fly through a star, mine for crystals at the bottom of a gas giant, meet a race of people that are instinctive genetic engineers and breed tools. Then there are the Kresh who wander back and forth in gender after pregnancy. A fungus that lives inside you as a symbiotic partner and many others.
As for the Elf War, you will meet creatures out of fairy tales that are as real as you and I and can die just the same way!
This is wicked,
thanks so much Barry!
And check this out guys... here are the places you’ll
find Barry:
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