The Write Way Café welcomes Steven M. Moore to discuss The Last Humans.
Tell us a little about your post-apocalyptic thriller, The Last Humans.
First, let me say that I thank you, HiDee, and the Write Way Café for interviewing me today. You offer a great service to readers and writers by sponsoring these posts about authors and their books.
Now to
The Last Humans: This novel from Black Opal Books starts with Penny Castro, an ex-USN diver and current Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy, surfacing from a forensics dive off the SoCal coast. She finds everyone around her dead. But she’s not the last human on Earth.
Some survivors become cannibalistic hordes; they pursue her. Two other survivors join her within a few years; they form a family unit. Penny’s adventures in the drought-afflicted, torturous apocalyptic landscape, scarred by fire and quakes and overrun by gangs of wild humans, are now shared adventures as they try to survive. Penny has a family to protect. But when they are placed in a refugee camp at Edwards AFB, Penny acquires a new foe, the mostly incompetent survivors of the US government. More adventures come her way as military leaders manipulate her and her new family.
Some reviewers have called this book an unusual post-apocalyptic story, and they’re correct. Post-apocalyptic is a subgenre of sci-fi, but many books in that genre have a strong but depressing message that’s really a warning—Atwood’s
Oryx and Crake comes to mind, for example. That novel has a similar biological apocalypse. My novel ends a bit more optimistically, though; hence the difference: the sane survivors make a new life for themselves. Same warning essentially, but a bit of hope in the aftermath too.
If The Last Humans was made into a movie, who would play your main characters, and why?
This is a difficult question. Penny’s sweet but also smart and tough. At the risk of being accused of cultural appropriation, my first choice would be Jenette Goldstein, who played the tough Latina marine and almost upstaged Sigourney Weaver in Aliens. I think she’s been in a few TV shows too, but I haven’t seen her lately. Her role beside Ripley in Aliens might not exhibit enough sweetness and innocence, though, but she certainly can play smart and tough.
I write about and feature a lot of sweet, smart, and tough female characters in my thrillers. Too often Hollywood includes them only as a romantic interest for the strong, male lead character to save. I’ve known quite a few real women who have shattered the glass ceiling in different ways and belie that Hollywood image of helpless female, though.
Sean Astin would make a good Sammy, Penny’s adopted son, but he’s a bit heavyset and too old for the part right now—I’m thinking more of his role in The Goonies than Lord of the Rings. I’d like to have Ben Kingsley play the physicist Ben, Sammy’s friend who becomes the surrogate patriarch of Penny’s new family.
Tell us about the sequel you’re working on!
It’s done, it’s different, and I’ve submitted the manuscript. While the publication process is percolating (one is generally in a long queue), authors should be writing their next novel.
The first book is about Penny’s survival adventures, and it’s written in the first person. The sequel is written in the third person and uses multiple points-of-view as the reader hops back and forth between action in the country responsible for the biological attack and SoCal.
At the end of
The Last Humans, most readers must wonder, “What will become of Penny Castro and her adopted family?” The sequel answers that question. The remaining leaders of the US government are bent on avenging the biological attack and forcefully draft Penny and her new husband. Their children held captive, they’re forced to join a government-sponsored SWAT group that’s planning an invasion. Half their incursion fails, and Penny becomes a prisoner.
How things evolve from there make
The Last Humans: A New Dawn more of a standard thriller, although it still takes place in a mad, post-apocalyptic world.
Who is your intended audience and why should they read your book?
Hmm. Interesting question considering marketing gurus always tell authors to look for that “target audience.” Let me say this: At book events, I’ve met readers from young adults to ninety-year-olds who enjoy reading thrillers. It’s a very popular genre. The first book and its sequel are more thrillers than sci-fi, although the post-apocalyptic nature places them in the sci-fi genre. It’s very hard to define a target audience in this case.
I’d say anyone who enjoys a thrilling plot, lots of action, and strong characters would probably enjoy these two books. I certainly read books of this type for my own reading entertainment.
How did you become involved with the subject or theme of your book?
I’ll start by defining the theme.
The Last Humans is about how failures of diplomacy and guessing wrong about an enemy’s intentions can make things go terribly wrong in a flash. A focused biological attack on the US West Coast morphs into a worldwide contagion and even affects the country that organized the attack. California, already battered by drought, brushfires, and earthquakes, becomes a battleground between a few sane survivors and groups of wild humans. In brief, the book is a warning about unintended consequences.
But it was also a personal challenge to return to my roots a bit. I’m originally from SoCal, my hometown of Visalia not far from Lemon Cove where Penny ends up. My other books take place on the US East Coast, Europe, Korea, China, or South America. Also, I’d done dystopian sci-fi, so it was also time to do post-apocalyptic. I’ve done a lot of reading in both subgenres. I was an avid reader as a kid—all my life, in fact—and the Cold War and threat of Soviet attack was a constant in our everyday lives, leading to a plethora of books in those subgenres that I devoured.
Who is your favorite character from your book and why?
Penny is undoubtedly my favorite, but I like Ben Hur a lot. That’s the nickname given to the ex-physicist Ben, Sammy’s friend. Although it sounds a bit immodest, Ben’s a bit like me. He becomes the surrogate patriarch to Penny Castro’s new family, the sage of the family who helps Penny stay focused. He has a less important role in the sequel, but he’s still around and kicking.
How about your least favorite character? What makes them less appealing to you?
That’s easy: Penny’s brother Roberto. There are many villains in
The Last Humans, but he’s the worst because he’s family. He tried to control Penny’s life previous to the apocalypse and left her alone to take care of their mother, who had Alzheimer’s, and became furious when she joined the USN. He’s a mental distraction for Penny all through the book and haunts her until the end. He’s the flip side of Penny, not a nice guy at all. Yen and yang, darkness and light—whatever you call it, that describes Penny and Roberto.
Tell us a little bit about your cover art. Who designed it? Why did you go with that particular image/artwork?
Black Opal Book’s cover artist Jack Jackson designed the cover. As is my custom with cover artists, I offered him several “word pictures” taken from the novel to give him ideas, and we agreed upon the one you see today. He let his creative juices flow to produce a great cover. It’s the scene where the purposeful Penny is on a borrowed Harley coming off I-5 and heading towards the radio station to broadcast her “Help me!” message to whomever might be listening, hopefully not the gangs of wild humans.
This is all before she finds other survivors and begins to create her adopted family. She thinks she’s all alone with the world against her as she rides on that motorcycle. (By the way, her only experience with a Harley was on a road trip with an old boyfriend, a Navy SEAL she’d lost during a tour of duty in the Persian Gulf. She dwells on his loss throughout the book, yet still finds love again.)
Give us an interesting fun fact or a few about your book or series.
Part of the book takes place in Yosemite Valley, now an air force fuel supply depot and a sanctuary of the sane against the insane bands of roving humans. I cut out a scene where Penny climbs to the top of the falls. I did that once and discovered I was afraid of heights. I was afraid that fear might enter my prose! Penny is such a strong woman, I couldn’t imagine her fearing anything.
Okay, maybe that’s not a “fun fact”—acrophobia is a serious business—but it’s an example of how a writer’s life experiences, no matter how trivial, can affect her or his prose.
2019 has been a productive year for you! Would you like to share your other accomplishments?
Considering the time it takes to publish a novel, I suppose we’re talking about more than a year’s stretch of time that ended with my new book
Son of Thunder. In March, Black Opal Books published
The Last Humans; in May, Carrick Publishing published my YA sci-fi mystery
Mind Games (written under the pseudonym A. B. Carolan); and in September, Penmore Press published my mystery/thriller
Son of Thunder. I also finished the manuscript and submitted the sequel to
The Last Humans to Black Opal Books.
Writing a novel is a mental marathon. I ran four of them, so I thought I deserved some time off. Writing a lot of short fiction and taking a trip to Europe we’d been planning for a while (lots of new ideas for stories!) gave me a bit of a respite from these four mental marathons. I also plan to dedicate more time to my blog, helping other authors with reviews and interviews in particular. I’ve been doing this all along, but I hope to do more.
I’m also a bit involved with the Wolfpack Authors. They have an anthology of short fiction and poetry out titled
Once Upon a Wolfpack. All proceeds of that go toward helping wounded wolves and wounded warriors, so it’s a good cause. They’re planning another anthology too.
But I’m addicted to storytelling, so 2020 might be just as busy as far as novel writing goes. I hope I can pace myself better!
Why are you a writer?
The last paragraph indicates the reason: I’m addicted to storytelling. I’m having a great time as a full-time writer without the hassle of stealing a few hours to write while working at a stressful day-job. That’s where many people often start now, and I know the difficulty. However, I always wanted to be a writer. As a kid, I would tell myself after finishing a book, immodestly to be sure, “Hey, I can write stories like this.” The joy in telling a good story or in reading one keeps life interesting.
I have to admit I’m a bit of a nerdy introvert, but writing has also allowed me to associate with intelligent people and make many friends, even if it’s via the internet—readers who love to read books and authors who write them. Of course, there’s also the wonderful people who help readers and writers learn about books. They all create a wonderful community.
Do you have any tips for readers or advice for other writers trying to get published?
Here’s a bit of advice from my English prof at UC Santa Barbara: “I simply kept my goal in mind and persisted. Perseverance is a large part of writing.—N. Scott Momaday. (Note: Prof. Momaday, a Kiowa Native American, taught me to love poetry, even though I can’t write it very well! He would later receive the Pulitzer for
House Made of Dawn in 1969.) Of course, the goal always is to write good stories. Persistence, perseverance, and patience are all required to get the job done. When added to talent and skills, we have a winning combination.
What can readers who enjoy your book do to help make it successful?
Tell their family and friends. Word-of-mouth is still the best advertising. If they belong to a book club or discussion group, have them suggest it to their group (I can provide a list of discussion questions to help out). Write a review on Amazon saying what they liked about the book and why—or anywhere else, for that matter (almost every online retail site allows reviews). In general, create buzz about the book. Small press and self-published authors offer great reading choices that are often lost among the many books that are published. Authors need readers’ help to get their books known.
What can we expect from you in the future?
The sequel,
The Lost Humans: A New Dawn, is coming. I also generated a lot of ideas for a third “Esther Brookstone Art Detective” novel during that recent trip to Europe. I also have lots of ideas percolating for other stories. Many only become short fiction, which I now give away at my website, either via free downloads or in blog posts. But I’m sure there will be more novels in my future.
I intend to maintain my efforts of helping other authors and small presses. We’re all in this together, and I think readers can help there too. After all, the more good novels that are available, the more choices readers will have for their reading entertainment. And storytelling and reading those stories are quintessential human activities that must never be lost—they’re what make us human.
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The Last Humans. Penny Castro, ex-USN Search and Rescue and current forensics diver, goes on a forensics dive for the LA County Sheriff’s Department off SoCal shores and surfaces to find herself in a post-apocalyptic world. A bioengineered and airborne contagion has been delivered to the West Coast. It will be carried around the world, killing billions. Her adventures trying to survive in this new and dangerous world will make you ask, “Could this really happen?” (A sequel has been submitted.)
Amazon
About Steven: Born in California, Steven M. Moore is now a full-time writer of many thriller, mystery, and sci-fi novels, short fiction, blog articles, and book and movie reviews. His stories reflect his keen interest in the diversity of human nature that he has observed in his different abodes across the U.S. and in South America as well as in his Latin and European travels for work and pleasure. After spending more than two decades in scientific R&D in the Boston area, he and his wife now make their home just outside New York City, where he devotes most of his time to storytelling. For more details, visit him at his website
https://stevenmmoore.com. He can also be found on
Facebook and
@StevenMMoore4.
About Steven: Born in California, Steven M. Moore is now a full-time writer of many thriller, mystery, and sci-fi novels, short fiction, blog articles, and book and movie reviews. His stories reflect his keen interest in the diversity of human nature that he has observed in his different abodes across the U.S. and in South America as well as in his Latin and European travels for work and pleasure. After spending more than two decades in scientific R&D in the Boston area, he and his wife now make their home just outside New York City, where he devotes most of his time to storytelling. For more details, visit him at his website https://stevenmmoore.com. He can also be found on Facebook and @StevenMMoore4.
