Sci-fi author J. F. Bloomfield chats with me today about his new post-apocalyptic novel, Earth’s Veil.
Bio:
J. F. Bloomfield is the author of Mind-bending Sci-fi, Dystopia and other genres that beg thrilling questions. J. F. has over 35 books he needs to write, including themes like Cyberpunk, Alternate History, Space Exploration, Planetary Expedition, Lost Biomes on Earth, Transhumanism, Futurism and many more!
Welcome, J. F. Please tell us about your current release.
In this mind-bending sci-fi thriller, the world ends in nuclear Armageddon. A man from Canada, Will Ritter, must traverse the devastated east coast to find his wife, Rachel, in Florida. However, he quickly discovers that nuclear war was the least of his concerns. Unexplainable events, gargantuan alien structures, and anomalies curse the landscape with their influence. Some events are caused by human science, others not. It suddenly seems as though the whole universe wants a slice of the remains of Earth.
Yet, in a world facing horrors of unimaginable scale and threat, the most frightening are the people who remained but lost their sanity, and Will is no exception. His mind plays tricks on him and the line between madness and reality is eviscerated.
Will must make a choice. Either to allow the horrible truth to be as real as it appears, or to sink into the more comfortable possibility of denial. To prove that the world doesn’t have to change him.
It’s a crazy story about a man at the very edge of sanity trudging his way through a broken reality to find the only thing he really believes in anymore, his wife. I wanted to write the wildest story I could think of in a post-apocalyptic sense.
What inspired you to write this book?
So many novels in this genre strive to be overtly realistic, grounded and gritty. But what if you could create a novel that was insane to its core, but also retaining the grittiness of the genre? Partly, this book was an experiment, but it was also a way to use some of the story ideas that just wouldn’t leave me alone. The Inferno floating above New York, the gas that prevented people from learning new things, the near-death experience where Will meets the embodiment of Fear, Wisdom, Anger and Death. These were all separate ideas that I decided I could combine under the right circumstances.
Excerpt from Earth’s Veil:
from “The Grocery Store”
In the middle of this parking lot, there were three juvenile trees scattered randomly among the parking spaces. One of the trees had upended a car that used to park there. The scene looked as though the tree grew underneath the car with such force that it eventually toppled the car over and it landed roof first on the car beside it. Will locked his focus in on one particular family out of a dozen or so. This family was heading in the direction of the upturned car. Their shopping cart was closer to him than all the others were, so he kept his cover. He stared around the corner with one eye and noticed that their cart was violently shaking through the lot. The wheels were hitting every vine and root and tossing their groceries from one side of the cart to the other. They were a husband and wife and very happy. They laughed while saying something Will could not hear. The husband pushed the cart into position behind where their flipped car used to be and where the tree now commandeered the space. The wife brought out her keys and made all the motions necessary to pop the trunk and the husband started putting the groceries into nothing but air. It was as if they were pretending to still have their car there.
Will was puzzled by this behavior. If these people were aware enough to get groceries, why could they not see the obvious state of their car? Nobody seemed to notice the state of the parking lot or of the vicious war the land was waging on the otherwise desolate city. The grocery bags hit the ground, the woman closed the non-existent trunk, and the man returned the cart to the overgrown corral. They both opened the doors to a car that was no longer there and then tried to sit down in it and fell to the ground. They then got up quietly and stone-faced. Their disposition was no longer that of a happy family but was all business now. They stopped pretending they had a car. The man picked up the groceries from the ground while the woman grabbed the cart back from the corral. Then, like robots on a production line, they moved back towards the store for a reason that Will couldn’t guess.
What exciting project are you working on next?
I’m working on a spacefaring sci-fi set amongst a galactic human race that has forgotten how to make or improve their technology. A war that no one can seem to remember anything about has left behind complex AI viruses that wreak havoc on sensor systems, communications and anything with a network connection. This prompts a desperate mission to the Edge of the Galaxy to deploy a measurement station which is hopefully immune to these viruses. The adventurers that are chosen for this mission, Riza Exploration Services, is one of many exploration outfits that have been contracted to carry out this mission. However, what they find out there changes their whole perception of reality. Who really won The Forgotten War?
When did you first consider yourself a writer?
When I had a story that was burning in my soul. I simply had to write it down. From there, I found that I enjoyed writing and creating my world, creating the consequences, and suffering with my main character when he was frustrated at this journey of his.
Do you write full-time? If so, what’s your workday like? If not, what do you do other than write and how do you find time to write?
I do write full time for the moment. I usually wake up at 9:30. Then I write from around 10 to 12:30. Then I’ll go to the gym to give myself a break. When I come back, I’ll eat and then continue writing until 5:30. After that, I unwind, keep my book as far away from my mind as possible and repeat it all tomorrow. Weekends I have off so that I can reset my creative drive completely once a week.
What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?
I simply have to be consistent. If I only write when I feel particularly inspired, I’ll get nothing done and the things I do write will typically be lower quality. I have to do a little every day to prevent burnout. Doing too much in one day is actually slower.
As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
Oh, lots of things. A police officer, a psychologist, a business consultant. If you had told me just 5 years ago that I would be writing fiction today I would have laughed at you and said thanks, but no thanks.
Anything additional you want to share with the readers?
My number one goal as a writer is to write the craziest stories I can think of. So, I hope you all enjoy my stories, because I’m not holding anything back!
Links:
Facebook | Amazon author page | Amazon buy link | Goodreads