What can you tell us about your new release, Titanborn?
Other than that it’s finally coming out? I think the most interesting thing about the background of the novel is that I originally wrote it as a short story. It was a fairly long one I’ll admit, but as I read through it I knew something was missing. It was a fairly straightforward bounty hunter tale, but I fell in love with writing in the world and the mind of the main character Malcolm Graves. So I scrapped everything I had and started over, taking the premise and the characters and turning it into a rather gray story about family, coming to terms with mortality and the dangers of colonization. The most important aspect of Titanborn is that there are no outright good guys or villains. It’s everyone fighting for survival.
What or who inspired you to become an author?
That’s a tough one. I’ve always written, going back to middle school. I used to craft epic fantasy short stories which are probably garbage now! I’d say the first time I really thought, “hey, maybe I’ll try to actually be an author,” must have been when a high school English Teacher checked out a rough manuscript I said and thought it was better than what she usually gets from students. That, and maybe when a reader critiqued another unpublished manuscript and absolutely tore it apart. I think that was the final push to pursue writing as a craft and get better at it.
What books are currently on your night stand?
I hate to say it, but I actually only really read from the kindle app on my phone these days. I just like having it on the go. Currently, I’m reading a first draft of a space opera novella for a friend. My fiancée, however, has a copy of one of my books on her nightstand that she’s pushing through!
What’s your favorite thing about Science Fiction?
I think it’s the way it relates to our own world. Even without meaning to, I often draw so many parallels to things I see or read in real life. It’s like putting on glasses that can see a millions different possibilities of a future and writing about it. It’s why I tend to keep my scifi close to Earth so that it’s more believable and relatable. I want readers to read my work and think, “What if that really happened?” There’s just so much freedom to explore the nature of humanity when it comes to scifi. Plus, who doesn’t love spaceships?
BAM. You’re a superhero. What’s your superpower?
Hmm, tough call. I think telekinesis. I’m a huge Star Wars fan, so it’d basically be like having the force. Imagine being able to type without moving my fingers? Or build a house while just sitting on a bench?
What advice would you give your teenage self?
Keep writing, but also READ! I didn’t really start reading other genre writers consistently until reaching college. High School kind of forced me to read genres I didn’t like and knocked me out of the groove. But one I got into all of the golden age classics I realized that you can’t write without reading.
What scene in Titanborn was your favorite to write?
In every book there’s always a scene that I can’t wait to get to. There’s one in Titanborn that exists just as it did when it was only a short story. I couldn’t bear to change it. An offworld terrorist is laying alone out on Earth, dying and staring at the mountains. Malcolm arrives to take him in, but things couldn’t go more wrong. I don’t think any scene in both the Titanborn books I’ve written so far captures the mindset of the offworlders like that one.
Do you have a motto, quote or philosophy you live by?
Do or do not, there is no try. Like Yoda? I don’t know, there isn’t really. I just try to do my best at everything I try and prefer not to give up. I can be stubborn that way.
Rhett C. Bruno is the author of the new book Titanborn.
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