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Celeste Chaney

Goodreads Author

Born

in The United States

Website

http://www.celestechaney.com

Twitter

celesteechaney

Genre

Fiction, Science Fiction, Thriller

Member Since

September 2011

URL

https://www.goodreads.com/celestechaney

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Celeste Chaney is an American author and filmmaker.

Her debut novel In Absence of Fear examines what it means to be human in a world of algorithmic absolutism and considers the risks society faces by succumbing to fear and choosing protection over privacy. Can a mass surveillance state truly remain a democratic one?

Foreword Reviews gave In Absence of Fear an honorable mention at the 2015 INDIEFAB Book of the Year Awards.

Chaney's writing has been recognized by Writer's Digest and featured in CATALYST and The New York Times Magazine. Her forthcoming screenplay The Feed is in development with Passage Pictures.

She lives in a small mountain community outside of Salt Lake City, UT--just 15 minutes from the NSA's largest data center. ...more

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Popular Answered Questions

What’s your advice for aspiring writers?

Celeste Chaney 1.) Let fear be your compass.

Sometimes the things we're afraid to do are the very things we should be doing. If you live outside of fear, you'll not o…more1.) Let fear be your compass.

Sometimes the things we're afraid to do are the very things we should be doing. If you live outside of fear, you'll not only become stronger, you'll also have a greater wealth of experience to draw from. The best thing about being a writer is that EVERYTHING becomes fodder for your work. So get out there and live a little!

2.) Take yourself seriously.

Even after I quit my job to write my first novel, I'd tell people that I was a marketing consultant when they asked what I did. I wasn't lying, I was consulting a bit, but what I really wanted was to be a writer (hence the fact that I quit my job to do it!).

The point is, I didn't take myself seriously enough as a writer to tell other people that's what I was.

If you don't believe in yourself, how can you expect others to believe in you?

3.) Start writing NOW.

Not after you get your MFA, not once work slows down, not in a year, or after the holidays, or in two weeks, or tomorrow. Now.

I heeded this advice from Debbie Millman (look up her commencement speech) and quit my job in marketing immediately. (Literally -- I submitted my resignation letter a mere five minutes after listening to it.)

It doesn't matter if it's a novel-length project, a short story, poem or journal. Just WRITE. Do it every day.

4.) Read, a lot. Every writer says this because it's true. Diversity is key. Get out of your comfort zone and try new genres and styles. Short stories and poetry are some of my favorite things to read because they teach me, very quickly, new techniques and approaches.

5.) Join a writing group. Again, the more diverse, the better. My writing group is full of incredible, intelligent human beings with a wealth of experience between them. We have an archaeologist, a hairdresser. People in their 20s all the way up to their 70s.

And they're all far better writers than I. They push me, support me, and keep me hungry.

6.) Get Scrivener (the computer program).

I was half-finished with my novel when I found it. It saddens me to think of the time I wasted not having it.

It is simply the best program to organize your thoughts and help you stay productive.

7.) Submit your work.

I wrote my first short story after I'd finished the novel. In retrospect, this was a mistake. I wish I had done more short story writing first. It's a great way to hone your craft and get (relatively) immediate feedback on your work. Don't stop submitting something, either. Just because a literary magazine has rejected a piece doesn't mean that, with a few tweaks, it can't find a home elsewhere.(less)

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Where did you get the idea for your most recent book?

Celeste Chaney Writing is a very organic process for me. The idea for IN ABSENCE OF FEAR evolved over time as I discovered who the characters were and what kind of s…moreWriting is a very organic process for me. The idea for IN ABSENCE OF FEAR evolved over time as I discovered who the characters were and what kind of society they were living in.

I didn't know it would become a story about mass surveillance and technology. Though there are qualities that feel dystopian, I didn't set out to write the next dystopian thriller. IN ABSENCE OF FEAR has been called "1984 for the modern era" --which is overwhelmingly gratifying to hear-- but at its core, it's a story about what we're willing to risk to protect the ones we love.
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Celeste Chaney’s books

Average rating: 3.93 · 97 ratings · 31 reviews · 1 distinct work • Similar authors

In Absence of Fear

3.93 avg rating — 97 ratings — published 2015 — 4 editions

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Celeste Chaney's Blog

Local author Celeste Chaney named finalist at 2016 Utah Book Awards

Celeste Chaney was recognized as a Utah Book Award finalist during the Utah Humanities Book Festival in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Established in 1999 by the Salt Lake City Public Library, the annual Utah Book Award honors exceptional achievements by Utah writers and recognizes outstanding literature written with a Utah theme or setting.This year's Utah Book Award honored In Absence of Fearfor its repr

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Celeste is now friends with Susanna
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Quotes by Celeste Chaney (?)

“What was closure if not a clock? Not an end as everyone imagined, but a beginning.”
― Celeste Chaney, In Absence of Fear

tags: closure, grief-and-loss, time

5 likes

“There is no transparency, Marus. It can’t exist. Surveillance doesn’t go both ways. There are those who watch, and those who are watched; the powerful, and the powerless.”
― Celeste Chaney

tags: government, power, privacy, security, surveillance

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Topics Mentioning This Author

topics	posts	views	last activity
Apocalypse Whenever: [closed] April 2017: "In Absence of Fear" by Celeste Chaney	18	61	May 02, 2017 07:28PM

Celeste’s Quotes

“There are two basic motivating forces: fear and love. When we are afraid, we pull back from life. When we are in love, we open to all that life has to offer with passion, excitement, and acceptance. We need to learn to love ourselves first, in all our glory and our imperfections. If we cannot love ourselves, we cannot fully open to our ability to love others or our potential to create. Evolution and all hopes for a better world rest in the fearlessness and open-hearted vision of people who embrace life.”
― John Lennon

tags: beatles, fear, life, love

9369 likes

“There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure.”
― Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist

11915 likes

“You are constantly invited to be what you are.”
― Ralph Waldo Emerson

tags: self-reliance

308 likes

“You were born together, and together you shall be for evermore...But let there be spaces in your togetherness...Love one another, but make not a bond of love. Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls. Fill each other's cup but drink not from one cup. Give one another of your bread but eat not of the same loaf. Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone, Even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music.”
― Kahlil Gibran

tags: independence, inspirational, love, self-reliance

111 likes

“It's only those who do nothing that make no mistakes, I suppose.”
― Joseph Conrad, An Outcast of the Islands

2479 likes

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