Daniel Arenson - An Exciting, Heartbreaking and Triumphant Space Opera

Daniel Arenson is a bookworm, proud geek, and USA Today bestselling author of fantasy and science fiction. His novels have sold over a million copies. The Huffington Post has called his writing "full of soul." He's written over seventy novels. As our Author of the Day, he tells us all about his book, Earthrise: Earth Alone.

Please give us a short introduction to what Earthrise: Earth Alone is about.

Earth Alone is about Marco Emery, boy who survives a devastating alien invasion. In a post-apocalyptic world, he is drafted into the military and trained to fight the alien invaders. The novel focuses on Marco's boot camp experience, leading up to his first battle.

What inspired you to write this series? Was there anything in particular that made you want to tackle this?

Earth Alone is largely inspired by own my experiences in boot camp. I'm also a fan of military science fiction like Starship Troopers and Battlestar Galactica. Hopefully Earth Alone combines strong authenticity with a feeling of sci-fi adventure.

Your aliens are bloodthirsty and from deep space. Please tell us more about them.

I grew up watching 80s sci-fi horror movie like Predator and Aliens. In this genre, filmmakers get to invent the scariest aliens they can imagine. For Earth Alone, I wanted to do something similar. To create a real 1980s style sci-fi monster. The result was the scum, a race of giant alien centipedes.

Besides writing, what other secret skills do you have?

In addition to write, I'm a bookworm (most writers are), I dabble with the piano, and my wife and I raise monarch butterflies.

Do any of your characters ever go off on their own tangent, refusing to do what you had planned for them?

All the time! They're horrible this way. I usually write outlines for them. And they never want to obey the rules. They do what they want.

This is book 1 of a series. Can it be read as a standalone? How do the other books in the series tie in with this one?

Earth Alone is about Marco going through boot camp. You can read it as a standalone, but I hope you stick around for the sequels, which follow Marco and his friends throughout the war. There are fifteen novels in the series in total.

Tell us more about Marco Emery. What makes him tick?

He doesn't want to be in the army. He doesn't want to fight. He's the son of a librarian, and he grew up surrounded by books. He wants nothing more than to hide in the library, read books, and write books of his own. He is not the typical action hero, that's for sure. He is drafted into the military, not given a choice, and sent to fight. But along the way, Marco finds his sense of duty and learns how to become a soldier.

Marco has gone through a lot of trauma in his life. Why did you give him this backstory?

The series is set in a post-apocalyptic world. The alien scum destroyed much of Earth and keep the survivors under their heels. Everyone in this world has trauma in their life. They are fighting internal wars as well as an external one. I think that's true for most soldiers.

What was your greatest challenge when writing Earth Alone?

Capturing the right tone. I wanted to combine a somber tone (think The Deer Hunter) with dark comedy (Full Metal Jacket) and military science fiction (Starship Troopers). It's a mashup of three distinct tones, which hopefully work together.

Interesting cover, please tell us more about this.

The cover was painted by the fantastic artist Tom Edwards. He painted all fifteen covers in the Earthrise series, as well as the covers in the spinoff series, Children of Earthrise and Soldiers of Earthrise.

When starting on a new book, what is the first thing you do?

Grab coffee. Write the first line. Then take a deep breath. The first line is the hardest. Once the novel is officially begun, some of the nerves settle.

Do you have any interesting writing habits? What is an average writing day like for you?

I carve quiet times during the day and night (the night is easier), put on loud metal music, and just type away.

What are you working on right now?

Right now, I'm writing a novel titled Mintari: A World of Dinosaurs. It's a dinosaur adventure in the style of Jurassic Park. It's coming out in January 2017.

Where can our readers discover more about your work or interact with you?

Please visit my website, where you can find all my books -- and also download three ebooks for free. See you there: DanielArenson.com