Ask the Author: Elliott Baker
Answered Questions (21)
Elliott Baker
Hi D. Powell. Thanks for the question. Since my series involves the same life streams in different incarnations and time periods, your question holds possibility. I have just completed book four and started book five of the series. These three will take place around 1350 B.C.E. beginning in ancient Egypt and traveling through the world to Greece. I can't say what the story for the final trilogy will be, books 7,8,and 9, but my current plan is for it to take place in the present. Nothing is impossible especially in the world of the story. What I am enjoying portraying now via reincarnation is the very real possibility of deeper, older, motivations for our responses and reactions to people and situations in this life. You'll find clues to the character's past lives in the first three books and see them fleshed out in the next three. To echo the far future, beyond our present is always a possibility. Thanks again.
Elliott Baker
Thanks for the question. I think all of us know stuff and are quite sure of it, yet have no memory of where we acquired such information. Of course, we're also in possession of ideas which we treat as truth but which are only ego constructions that attempt to help our created world stories make more sense. Still, I think that underlying truths have a different flavor, one that we recognize even while we do our best to ignore it. I have a degree in history, mainly because it was the least onerous thing I could think to do in college. I loved to read, and it mainly involved reading the stories we told about ourselves. I minored in philosophy again because the reading hurt less than math.
The Sun God's Heir began as a very detailed remembered dream which stayed in the back of my head for years until it just wouldn't allow me to do anything but put it down. Not such a unique way a story comes to people. I think we write our affinities or almost memories. I have always had the feeling that I had the privilege of being mentored by someone who knew. Knew as opposed to believed. Not in this lifetime, but never-the-less, the feeling is very strong.
I did some fencing, but even now, I can feel a rapier in my hand. Silly, I know. but it helped me write when I was in the midst of a fight scene. I had a hypnotherapy practice for seven years and so, past lives are within my world view. The days of the rapier were very unique and very personal. I have read Sun Tzu and Julius Caesar as well as Kahil Gibran. I liked the poet better.
Writers are catalysts. The profundities we experience as a result of their doodling, belong to us. I'm glad you enjoyed the books enough to have questions. I'm working on book 4 and hope to bring you more and better questions.
The Sun God's Heir began as a very detailed remembered dream which stayed in the back of my head for years until it just wouldn't allow me to do anything but put it down. Not such a unique way a story comes to people. I think we write our affinities or almost memories. I have always had the feeling that I had the privilege of being mentored by someone who knew. Knew as opposed to believed. Not in this lifetime, but never-the-less, the feeling is very strong.
I did some fencing, but even now, I can feel a rapier in my hand. Silly, I know. but it helped me write when I was in the midst of a fight scene. I had a hypnotherapy practice for seven years and so, past lives are within my world view. The days of the rapier were very unique and very personal. I have read Sun Tzu and Julius Caesar as well as Kahil Gibran. I liked the poet better.
Writers are catalysts. The profundities we experience as a result of their doodling, belong to us. I'm glad you enjoyed the books enough to have questions. I'm working on book 4 and hope to bring you more and better questions.
Elliott Baker
Anything more by Peter Flannery. I found Battle Mage to be a wonderful surprise and one of the best fantasies I've read. I strongly recommend it. I look forward to continuing Chariss K. Walker's Medium's Mystery Series. Basically, I look for new authors. Nothing is a sure bet, but it's a wonderful surprise when a story takes hold of you and transports you somewhere else for a time.
Elliott Baker
I hadn't slept well and stumbled into the bathroom to look at my anticipated sleep deprived features. I blinked to clear the morning tears from my eyes, but the reflection remained the same, someone else's face.
Elliott Baker
It's all a mystery. If it wasn't, we couldn't raise the energy to look into tomorrow. Sorry, no bodies buried out back. Every moment is answerable. For me it comes down to perspective. From one perspective stuff is scary and unworkable. A slight movement, a different angle, and as things line up differently, the fear fades. My protagonist in The Sun God's Heir: Return, (which is free, by the way.) continues to fail to protect those he loves. With all the power he accrues, from one perspective, his life is a failure. A slight movement, a different angle and...
Elliott Baker
First let me say that I'm not so along the path to be giving writer advice. From my own experience, I would say if you think it's edited, it's not. We are all in a dead run to receive confirmation. So as soon as we think we have a book, we send it out, to agents, publishers, friends, family etc. Don't. Find a kick ass editor and then together go through your book. then sit down and read it a number of times. It will surprise you how much stuff you'll find. Have someone else read it. Then read it again. When you can't bear to look at the pages, and inside you begin to be proud of the writing, not just the story, send it out. All the best, Elliott
Elliott Baker
LOL. Would that it were so, Horatio.
Elliott Baker
Yes. Misery loves company. Just kidding.
Elliott Baker
When I was in my twenties, I kept a (guys call it a journal. :)) for years. I occasionally take a look.
When I was in my twenties, I kept a (guys call it a journal. :)) for years. I occasionally take a look.
Elliott Baker
Nope. I could always write. Might not have been worth reading, but words made their way onto the page. Was there ever a time you couldn't speak? A moment's inspiration usually requires a few moments mundane energy expenditure. I try (note the try) to lock in expectation and then just hang around.
Elliott Baker
I took lots of silly photos of me holding the book. The real celebration of accomplishment happens in a moment. Then we try to prolong it. It was nice.
Elliott Baker
Yes, unfortunately. We need to review each other. Writing is story telling. I just get to hear the story first.
Elliott Baker
Sure. And that happens more frequently as I get older. Ugh. If I think of it before going to bed, and don't get up and writer it down, no matter how hard I try to stick it in there, Next morning, poof.
Elliott Baker
I love movies. Any and all.
Elliott Baker
I apologize for taking so long to get to these. I like corresponding with folks. Helen, I am more concerned with what choices I make in the moment than after I'm gone. The only monuments I feel we can leave are the moments of love and kindness we extend to others. It sounds cliche, but for me, that's where the power and immortality is. Physical stuff eventually fades.
Elliott Baker
Routine and patience. I've found that blocks happen when the critical factor turns the volume up. Change activities. Find something that you can pat yourself on the back for even if it's only sweeping the kitchen floor.
Elliott Baker
Being the first to find out where my characters are going and how the hell they're going to get out of hopeless situations. Learning to greater appreciate others stories by writing them.
Elliott Baker
Develop a routine. Momentum is everything. It's easier to push a boulder once it has begun to move. Easy to say, harder to make happen, but doable. Distract that part of the mind that critiques using whatever methods or shiny baubles you can find. Read Steven Pressfield's The War of Art.
Elliott Baker
The Sun God's Heir, my debut novel has a sequel which is now in edits.
Elliott Baker
I gingerly and with great effort sometimes, put my butt into the chair.
About Goodreads Q&A
Ask and answer questions about books!
You can pose questions to the Goodreads community with Reader Q&A, or ask your favorite author a question with Ask the Author.
See Featured Authors Answering Questions
Learn more