Andrew M. Crusoe wrote “The Truth Beyond The Sky” which I reviewed on my site. To see the review click the title above. I loved the book and am currently reading his second book “The Island On The Edge Of Forever”. Keep an eye out for the review!
This is an author to really keep an eye on. He has a great philosophy on life and an amazing gift for telling stories.
Author Bio
Author. Traveller. Net-diver.
As a citizen of Earth, Andrew is primarily interested in growth, not only for himself, but for all. His debut novel, The Truth Beyond the Sky, is the first book in the Epic of Aravinda, an award-nominated mythic science fiction series that draws inspiration from around the globe, including eastern mythology and channeling. Since its release, the novel has garnered a multitude of glowing reviews, received write-ups on pro reviewer websites, and qualified for an ACX stipend, attracting prime narrator talent for the Audible.com edition of the book, available now.
Andrew firmly believes that storytelling can be used to improve the world. And thanks to reader support, the series continues now with The Island on the Edge of Forever, inspired heavily from Andrew’s experiences living within the jungles of Hawaiʻi.
Wherever Andrew seems to be in time and space, it’s important to him to keep the lines of communication open with his readers. You can reach him at: amc@myth.li
Facebook Andrew: facebook.com/amcrusoe
Follow Andrew: twitter.com/hellocrusoe
Get free videos & stories, visit: http://MYTH.LI
The Interview
Q1: Your book “The Truth Beyond The Sky” has very philosophical themes. As with books of that nature, was there a particular message you were relaying to your readers?
AC: First of all, I’d like to thank you for your interest in my Epic of Aravinda series. Writing these books is a deeply personal and important endeavor for me, and I appreciate you taking the time to interview me.
My message is really quite simple: we are one people, and if we are going to survive into the long term, everyone on this planet needs to start acting like it. This truth of Oneness is probably the core message of the series, but there are others woven in, too.
— Me: Supporting and promoting Indie’s is a passion of mine and I am happy to do it. I agree with you Andrew, that our survival is completely intertwined with our compassion and relationships with one another. We are all connected. I love that your book has such a strong message.
Q2: The technology described in your book is fantastic. Where did you find the most inspiration in creating it?
AC: Which piece of technology? There are all kinds of influences, depending on the specifics. Of course, I would be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge influences like Contact (1997) and Stargate when it comes to the gates used, especially in the first book. But really now, once Einstein-Rosen Bridges were hypothesized in the early twentieth century, it’s really not a big jump to incorporate those ideas into storytelling; and the aforementioned films were not the first to do that. And I know my stories won’t be the last. Truth is, it’s hard to pin down on area of most influence. Some of the ideas, such as the living starship being an artificially grown crystal, I can’t even source at all. They were just ideas that felt right and made sense.
—Me: The living starship was such a new take on artificial intelligence. I have never seen anything like it mentioned in a book before. It was a delightfully fresh idea.
Q3: Where did the idea for this story come from?
AC: At the onset, I never intended on making “The Truth Beyond the Sky” the first in a series. I started with a list of ideas I’d been collecting for almost a decade, and felt a great pull to do something with them. I also wanted to do a story inspired by the Law of One books, which I consider the most intriguing non-fiction book series of the last 50 years.
I had also been fascinated by Joseph Campbell’s research into a shared global myth, what he calls a ‘monomyth,’ for some time. Campbell is quite an interesting fellow in that he dedicated his life to understanding the role of storytelling in human history, specifically oral traditions passed down for millennia. He travelled the world and realized something incredible. While every civilization, every tribe, had many oral traditions, they all had one in common: the Hero’s Journey.
How could this be? Campbell’s basic theory was that the Hero’s Journey was a natural reflection of the human psyche, which hasn’t changed much in 50,000 years. And it makes a lot of sense with what I discovered later: that the Hero’s Journey story is the basis for our most successful modern myths, like Star Wars and The Lord of the Rings. I love these stories, and during my outlining phase, I wanted to do my own spin on that mythic structure, but also incorporate the concepts of oneness and timeless truth in a way that hadn’t really been done before.
Q4: As a writer, what do you think are the most important things a book must have to be successful?
AC: That would depend on how you define ‘success’. If you mean, how a book can sell the most copies, then it must have a story that moves people, and then it has to have a marketing budget. (Character development is great, too, but as we’ve seen with some recent ‘successes’ it’s not always a requirement for making money.)
As for me, I never positioned the Epic of Aravinda series to be a formulaic New York Times Bestseller. I’d rather have a smaller audience of incredibly intelligent folks that are more dedicated to my work than a large audience that happens to be fickle. To earn an audience like that, you must achieve a deft balance between plot, pacing, and character development. I love to continually improve at achieving that balance in my own stories.
Q5: Do you have any odd writing quirks?
AC: Hah, this question reminds me of when I was revising my first book. Apparently, I had an “AND” problem the first time around. A good friend of mine was looking over an early draft and pointed out that I had about ten sentences starting with “and” in one chapter alone. It was pretty silly and really highlighted for me how indispensable good beta-readers are. I don’t do the “and” thing anymore, but I still catch myself overusing some words. In fact, I have a whole list of words and phrases I search for during editing. You don’t even want to know how many instances of “in a blink” I remove or reword before I release a book. It’s pretty silly, but I think we all have habits we fall into, and what is most important is finishing the actual story. Cleaning up bad habits is what editing is for, after all.
Q6: What advice would you give to new writers?
AC: Two important bits about this. 1: Before you do anything, go for a walk and ask yourself “What am I excited to write? What stories excite me?” If you can figure out what story you’d be so excited to write that you’d spend months or years working on it, then you’re MUCH more likely to actually finish your first book. (The first book is always the hardest, anyway.)
2: Once you have your idea, the real work begins. If you honestly want to write a book, you have to be committed to it. This means you will have to say no to other things in your life to complete it, but the great thing is, once it’s done, it will always be there. The single most important bit here is to keep WRITING. Nine people out of ten fail to finish their first book because they keep rewriting the first chapter. Don’t do that. Keep moving ahead. If you can do that and keep your eyes on the end goal, you will finish. Even today, I don’t let myself read anything older than 24 hours when I’m in the middle of a writing project.
Just for fun questions:
Q7: If you could go back in time, what time period would you visit and what would you do?
AC: That depends. Can I come back to the present whenever I want? If I can, I would go back to 2,504 BC to see the completion of the Giza Pyramids. After a few months perhaps, I would return to the modern day when we have fun things like Vitamix blenders and antibiotics. However, if I could not return, I would probably choose the 1970s and use some present-day knowledge to get a job working at Apple in the early days. I always thought it would be great to work with a group of people with laser focus on changing the world.
—Me: Of course you can come back! Ha Ha! I wouldn’t want to be without modern medicine either. Can you imagine having an infection then? You would be covered in leaches or cut open to bleed out the impurities. Not my cup of tea.
Q8: If there was one thing that you could change about the world, what would you change?
AC: That the illusion of separation be shattered. I would love a world where everything we make someone else feel, we feel too. I think it would utterly change every human system on the planet. Greed and poverty would be eliminated, and we might actually have a shot at a golden age, for once.
—Me: Andrew, we truly share a common philosophy here. The dehumanization of our fellow species is disturbing. Like you, I really want a better world than what we have.
Q9: What was something you thought was totally cool as a teenager but now wish you had never done or worn?
AC: Easy, maroon corduroys. Never again.
Q10: If the zombie apocalypse actually happened, what would be your survival game plan?
AC: I’d probably catch a train out of Macon and look for a boat in Savannah. Just kidding! It depends on when. If it were to happen now, we’d probably have to jump into the car and find shelter in a more secluded place. Yellowstone might not be a bad spot for a little while. I have a feeling that the wildlife there would beat back any slow-moving bipeds. But who knows? Know anybody with a helicopter that I can add to my speed dial?
Holy cats, that was the last question? That was a blast! Can I do a quick plug?
—Me: Yellowstone would be great unless that pesky volcano erupts!
Q11: Sure! Be Shameless! J/K
AC: I just started giving away a Sci-Fi starter pack. If you sign up for my mailing list, The Aravinda Loop, you get two of my ebooks for free. And it’s all automatic now, so you get them instantly in EPUB & Kindle formats. I think your readers will enjoy them: http://bit.ly/THELOOP
Mahalo!
Summary:
Twelve years after his mother’s disappearance, Zahn makes his annual hike up to Zikhara Peak to sleep above the clouds — only to be awoken by a monstrous roar. He watches as an extraordinary object thunders down from the sky and impacts onto the silvery beach below, changing the course of his young life forever.
The object is far more than a mere meteorite, and Zahn is swept up into an adventure to the galactic core, encountering a stunning pilot, 5th-density creatures of light, and an ancient chthonic evil, bent on consuming every star in the galaxy by tearing the fabric of spacetime itself. Only the Tulari, a stone that can heal these fissures, offers any hope to Zahn and his new friends. Unfortunately, it’s been missing for aeons…
THE TRUTH BEYOND THE SKY is the 1st book in the EPIC OF ARAVINDA — a mythic, Sci-Fi, action-adventure series.
This book is available to purchase at Amazon. Click the title “The Truth Beyond The Sky”
This is a series you will be sorry to miss out on!
AlliesOpinions 