Official Interview: Andri E Elia

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Official Interview: Andri E Elia

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Today's Chat with Sarah features Andri E Elia author of Yildun.

Official Review

Purchase Kindle edition (free on Kindle Unlimited)

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1. What does your writing environment look like?

I have two offices. One is my house's intended office with my special "Hemingway" desk that my late husband gifted me for my birthday years ago to encourage me to write. The desk chair is too bulky for me, so it sits to the side while I use a dining room chair with no arms. Two bookshelves surround my desk, one overflowing with chess books and portable chess sets, the other with my favorite books. Andrew Wyeth prints cover my six walls. A good inspiration room, right?

My other office is a spacious glass box behind my kitchen with a granite top for a desk and a counter stool for the chair. I write almost everything here, especially my action scenes, surrounded by windows and light and a spectacular river view.

I never write on paper. My desktop computer sits on my desk in my office, where I do most editing and all publishing. My laptop is stationed in my glass box, although it moves around the house. I sometimes write in the living room in front of the TV with the sound off. My cats "help" me no matter where I write.

2. What, to you, makes a successful book?

I want to give this in bullet-point format. A book is successful when:

•Many people read it.
•It enthralls.
•It transfers and immerses you in new worlds, exotic landscapes described in such detail that you can smell the flowers on Ios' Tail or hear the unicorns
neigh in their valley on the moon.
•Vivid characters fill its pages.
•It offers scenes and dialog so natural that you think you're in the middle of the action and participate in the discussion—or banter.
•Its action is riveting.
•It is cinematic. You can imagine it as a movie or TV series that will glue you to the screen.
•It incorporates ideas or different paradigms organically.
•When you finish it, you want to fish out your telescope, climb to your roof, and look for Ursa Minor. Find Yildun below Polaris, and think there. That's
where they are.
•You want to read the next book. Or write it.

3. Let's discuss your book Yildun. How did you come up with the idea for the book?

It was about ten years ago. An image of a woman kneeling on a frozen lake popped into my mind. Her head was bent, and she hugged herself and rocked back and forth as if crying. Once in a while, she would look at the sky, and I could see red flashes in her eyes. Even from that point, I knew she was a Worldmaker! But such a lonely, compelling figure! Who was she? I wanted to understand everything about her—why was she alone in this vast icy desolation? Who/where were her people? Did she have family? Why was she bathed in darkness? And what was the tiny figure that lay crumbled on the ice before her?

Then she unfurled her wings and "flew" to the moon! The creature she left behind on the ice, broken, lifeless, was a fox! Ah! The Worldmaker was Snowfox's mom! And the fox was his companion, Snowdrift! Snowfox was a character in my earlier novel that I wanted for ages to write his backstory. Now I had this breakthrough, and I began connecting the dots. But my husband passed away...

A couple of years went by, but Yanara wouldn't leave me. I needed to tell her story. So I immersed myself and created her world, fleshed it out. Where was this planet she called her earth? What star did she call her sun? Could I see it from Terra (my earth)? How did she fly to the moon?

4. How long did it take to write the book? How much research went into it?

It took me three months to write Yildun cover-to-cover. I spent about two months before that doing research, first and foremost, astronomy—where to locate Yanara's world. I settled on Ursa Minor because Polaris is prominently visible from Terra. I wanted Yanara and her people to be our celestial neighbors, albeit light-years away. I picked the star Yildun as their sun because it starts with Y, like Yanara. All the names of worldmakers and wormhole masters flowed from Yildun: Yanara, Yira, Yildiz, and Yileen. Asimia and Silvia broke that line for a reason revealed in the third book, Eltanin.

Yildun is a young white star, so its fictional planet Yand had to be icy, mountainous, and volcanic—less than half the planet was habitable. The planet's nature influenced Yandar society, culture, and industry. I gave them four moons to make their skies exciting and something to tether the K'tul armada on.

Then I refreshed myself on the science of wormholes, the way Yanara traverses the universe. Black holes are essential to that, so I looked up the most prominent ones in Yanara's neighborhood.

My next focus was wings and flight patterns of various avians. It made no sense that humanoids would have feathers, although feathers are sexy. So I gave the Yandar dragon wings, which are like bat wings, but not identical. I studied bat flying patterns and was intrigued to no end. I adopted that to humanoids. Then I studied military flying formations to create the Yandar Flyer Force (Air Force).

I also researched many types of warfare, swordsmanship and archery, and space cannons. And, uh, a little research on personal romantic encounters.

5. How did you keep all the details straight—planets, moons, characters, languages?

This is easy for me. The world is so vivid in my head... Plus I write down new things as I go chapter by chapter, so I can refer back to them if I need to. I have a glossary of all kinds of alien things. I will publish it in the next book in a couple of months.

6. Which character is your favorite?

This question is totally unfair. Yanara! But Snowfox has held a piece of my heart for years! And the Pathfinder! Frost! But I think Mandolen!

7. Is there a central theme you wanted to convey or is the book entirely fun?

The book is entirely fun, but I also wanted to convey a central theme. That war is savage and ugly, often utterly lopsided, and can devastate a world. "The beauty and industry of millennia, the K'tul reduced to rubble in a heartbeat with their celestial cannons," says Yanara about the distraction of the Comi Keys. It was so with my personal experience of the distraction of my hometown when I was a kid. And look what's happening now to Ukraine.

But I didn't want that to be the overwhelming gloom-and-doom message of the book. So I brought forth a second, more brilliant theme: love and romance and hope blooming impossibly, telling the story of a growing young family with parents determined to make life "as normal as possible" for their kids amidst the looming chaos of intergalactic warfare. And I highlighted the bravery of a people as their world faced unfathomable odds; their incredible determination to survive with dignity, "humanity," cultural identity, and sovereignty intact. Sounds familiar?

8. What's next on your agenda? Any other books in the works?

I recently published Polaris and Eltanin, the second and third books in the Worldmaker of Yand trilogy. I also have a companion book of short stories, Worldmaker Stories, that go into more detail on battles and other events and some key romances that the books left out. And introducing the fifth novel in the series with the story Shadow. I am currently editing Queen of Highwings, the fourth novel in the series, which I should be able to publish around June. Then on to the next one, Shadow's story.

I hope to do a couple of book signing events later in the year. I'm also planning to hold a few sales on Amazon and T-shirt giveaways on my website, www.WorldmakerUniverse.com, trying to get more reader reviews for my book and build up my Email list.

I like to end with fun questions.

9. What do you enjoy in your free time?


Getting together with friends and family. Meeting my readers and discussing my books. Going to the movies or binge-watching Sci-fi/fantasy and period drama series on TV. I love to travel and have traveled extensively around the globe.

10. What was your favorite game as a child?

Soccer.

11. What's your favorite sci-fi movie, TV show, or book other than your own?

Anything Star Wars and Star Trek, movies and TV. Besides them, my all-time favorite TV series is The Expanse. You didn't ask about the fantasy genre, but here it goes: The Lord of the Rings movie trilogy and The Untamed on TV.

Favorite Books: Anything by Tolkien, the Pern books by Anne and Todd McCaffrey, and the Taltos books by Steven Brust.

12. What is the most trouble you've ever been in?

Growing up in a war-torn country, I've known much trouble. The worst was the big invasion that left me and 200,000 others displaced and with nothing. The most relatable came after that: I was shot as a freshman on the OSU campus by an unidentified shooter.
A book is a dream you hold in your hands.
—Neil Gaiman
Destined8
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Post by Destined8 »

Hello~ So glad you recovered from those old negative childhood memories. You are filled with creativity, and it shows in this interview~ Best wishes to you in your writing adventures.
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kutloano mogane
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Post by kutloano mogane »

You are truly filled with creativity is what I can say and interesting lines - I like your text format
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Edibo Suzan
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Post by Edibo Suzan »

This is so interesting and creative, I'm sure you will be your very best on your writing journey ❤️
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