We are thrilled to welcome AJ Super to The Debutant Ball this week! EREBUS DAWNING is jam packed full of space pirates, mutiny, AI and technological gods! Keep reading to learn more secrets about AJ’s writing journey and EREBUS DAWNING! Share or comment below for a chance to win a copy of her book.
ABOUT AJ
Angela Super earned two Bachelors’ degrees from the University of Idaho in the Creative Writing and Theater programs. She has been an author since she was old enough to write (and illustrate) a stapled-together ABC book, which she still has packed away in a box of childhood memorabilia. Currently, she lives in Kansas with her husband who is a High School Graphic Arts Teacher and two fuzz-brained kittiots. She loves to make costumes, cosplay, and occasionally she plays D&D or MTG with teacher-friends during summer vacation.
FOLLOW AJ online on her Website, Twitter and Instagram
THE INTERVIEW
Were you an avid reader as a child? What kinds of things did you read?
I read a lot as a kiddo, and I grew up visiting my mom’s parents in Bellingham, WA, over the summers. Well, ends up my grams Bobbi was a big science fiction and fantasy fan. The biggest collections that I remember she had were Ursula K. LeGuin, Anne McCaffery, Mercedes Lackey, and a couple others. I devoured those books every summer, much to my mother’s consternation. She would have rather I were outside playing with my cousins than inside reading. But books were my jam, and I adored my grandmother’s books. I still remember one of the last visits I was reading The Dispossessed, and I hadn’t finished. I was near tears because I didn’t want to leave without finishing the book. Grams Bobbi just looked at me and told me to take it with me. That I could always return it. I still have that book.
Tell us what you’re looking forward to reading.
I have a huge to be read pile… But at the top of the list right now is a fantasy—Lodestone by Katherine Forrester—two science fiction books—First Light by Casey E. Berger and One Day as a Lion by Jonathan E. Hernandez—and another fantasy—The Frozen Crown by Greta Kelly.
Tell us about one of your writing disappointments or failures.
My first “finished” manuscript. It was the year 2014. I loved it soooooo much. So much that I queried it very very very widely. At about 45,000 words. A science fiction book at 45,000 words. It doesn’t even beat Nanowrimo standards. I really didn’t know what I was doing. I trunked it for some time and have since edited it and may query it again, selectively, because it was an interesting premise… But back then, I was a total noob… Of course, in some ways I still am. Publishing is still very new to me. But we all start somewhere, and we all have our own learning curves.
Tell us about the title of your book. What is the story behind it?
I like to say that Erebus is the actual hero of the story, not Nyx, that it’s Erebus’ rise that causes all the conflict in the tale. But the title is more than a reference to that rising conflict. In Greek myth, Erebus is the god of darkness and the title is an overt reference to a rising darkness in Nyx. Erebus Dawning is the beginning of her path, and the beginning of her rise to power. So, the title plays on many levels, not only on the titular character, who isn’t the main character, but the unconscious motivations of the main character.
Do you have a regular first reader? If so, who is it and why?
I actually do have a regular first reader. My husband. This story started out as a brainstorm between the two of us on a drive to Denver based on some ideas I saw in some overpowered anime characters. We planted the seed together, and while on vacation, I started writing it. But I had no illusions of this wild idea being agentable, or even publishable, so I basically wrote it for him and me and because my grandma Bobbi would have loved it and my grandma Lillian would have told me to do what I want, who cares if no one else would see it. So, the hubster has read just about every iteration of Erebus Dawning from the roughest zero draft to the finished product. He’s even looking forward to listening to the audio version. Best husband ever!
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