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Hello everybody!
Today I have a a lot of fun interviewing Daniel O’Brien, author of Perisiam, a psychological, urban-fantasy set in the modern day. ✨
I was deeply inspired by Daniel, who was able to write this amazing fiction book amidst the fact that he has a full time job and is a first time parent. He even goes to the gym! Way to go Dan!
In this detailed interview, you’ll learn:
- How Daniel got into writing and his writing routine
- The way Daniel develops his plot and characters
- The challenges of writing a book
- The process behind self-publishing a book on Amazon
- …and more!
Tell me your story. What inspired you to become an author?
I grew up near the Australian bush and moved to Toronto Canada in 2014, where I have been living since.
In all honesty my writing began as the need for an outlet… Every single person needs one. Creative people are able to channel frustration, fear, anger or even positive emotions like joy into amazing things such as music or artwork. Writing was my outlet and I’ve always fallen into it when my environment or situation became too much.
I started putting small pieces of writing up on Facebook and Tumblr about a decade ago and received positive feedback from people who were feeling the way I was, but were unable to articulate it themselves. That kind of grew into full on storytelling, and PERISIAM.
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Tell me more about your book, Perisiam.
PERISIAM contains 3 parts, 3 stories. The fun side of the book is that these 3 stories all follow different genres, such as the first being more of a crime-mystery thriller, the second a sci-fi story and the third part a psychological horror, BUT! All 3 stories interweave and intersect. Pay attention and a reader may just notice a passing remark in part 3 explain something profound from part 1.
These parts each offer a unique and different first-person perspective, but what brings these characters together, and the universe they reside in, is their different forms of agony. They are each suffering in their own ways, and each needs something to survive and that is kind of the central theme of PERISIAM. I can’t give away each parts ‘HOOK’, but they all offer something unique for readers.
Lastly, the book itself is designed to bring the reader in and test them, psychologically and emotionally, so a reader may notice very small, minute but strange occurrences in Part 1, but these will start to unravel, twist and test the reader the deeper into PERISIAM they go. As things ramp up, readers will be treated to a few literary mechanisms never before attempted in written media *Winks*
Tell me more about the process behind writing your book. Where did you get the idea? What inspired you?
About a decade ago I was writing very short pieces and I started to slowly write larger concepts, actual stories, and PERISIAM became a culmination of these. I personally, really need a story to bring something new and mind-bending to the table, I need a story to pull the rug out from under me and leave me feeling psychologically and emotionally exhausted, to make me think.
The other side of the coin is that PERISIAM was also an outlet, a funnel for my own emotions, good and bad, the things I couldn’t handle or keep inside of myself. If I was frustrated with a part of life then I would channel that into my writing.
Slowly, PERISIAM became both sides of this coin, it’s what you get when you take raw emotion of every kind, tie it to a bunch of paradox’s and then throw it into a black hole ❤️
What is your routine as a writer, if you have one?
Phew! My routine was to dedicate an hour a day to writing! My beautiful son was born this year so it’s a good thing I was 90% of the way through PERISIAM because trying to write as a first time parent is HARD! But I did manage to finish it up thanks to the support of my amazing wife.
I’m a morning person, so I would hit the gym, then write for an hour, then start work! Of course once the baby was born everything stopped for several months and then I ended up writing before bed, skipping the gym and surviving on energy drinks and granola bars ❤️
How do you develop your plot and characters?
The characters are all really facets of myself, and I think that’s the same for a lot of authors? I mean, even the bad guys, the villain’s harbor some of my negative traits. As the story started to unfold I really tried to get out of my comfort zone with a lot of the characters and write from perspectives I could only try my best to emulate or understand, and I hope I have done these justice.
The plots for my stories or “Parts” take a LOT of pondering… I need to come up with a core idea, something that people haven’t experienced before and something that will really push not only the literature itself, but the idea of what can be done with written words.
I walk a lot, sometimes I would simply walk and listen to music and when the smallest idea came to mind I would jot it into my phone, then another, then another, then string them together until an interesting core concept came to fruition.
What was the most challenging thing about writing this book, since you started?
Time – I would LOVE to write all day long (PERISIAM II anyone? ❤️ ) but there just isn’t enough time in the day, and even less so nowadays. I didn’t initially intend to publish a book until so much time and effort went into it that I had to publish it in order to justify the work, hah, but I always wish I had more time in the day.
Also, I would say self-confidence sucks too. There’s always a lingering voice in the back of your mind that no matter how amazing and interesting you think a concept might be, everyone else may think it is outright stupid, and that can make things difficult.
I tried to work around this by taking those feelings and channeling them into the work itself, by taking that self-doubt and using it to put myself in the shoes of a character who has those issues on some level.
How much research did you need to do for your book?
Zilch! I mean, I stopped spelling the word Grammar ‘Grammer’? ❤️ The concepts and story are my own, so no research was required…
That’s not really true, I had to research everything about actually publishing a book though. I knew nothing! I had to learn how to hire a cover artist, editors, beta readers etc. I also had to sit through a 4 hour course on how to take criticism (just kidding!)
I must say, self-publishing through Amazon was pretty amazing to me… I have worked with Amazon’s Web Service tools in my day job so I already knew that they were a pretty efficient organization, but they laid so much stuff out for me and anyone looking to self-publish through their platform, it was amazing.
Which part of the book is your favorite?
Part 3 – PERISIAM is designed to slowly, sub-consciously ramp up it’s psychological tricks and it all kind of comes together there. Plus it was an interesting writing experience for me, the perspective was different and I really wanted to do it justice. I hope I did.
I won’t spoil anything here but I had to dig pretty deep for that one. I had to really ask myself what this character would be feeling in this story, and then find a way to articulate it.
Tell us more about the publishing process behind the book.
I couldn’t really dedicate a crazy amount of money to this project but through research I found a really great website called FIVERR where you can hire someone for pretty much any service! It was here I hired a Cover Artist, Beta Readers and my Editor. I had already designed the cover myself I just needed someone to “spruce” it up to 8K or whatever ❤️
Amazon’s Self-Publishing platform really let’s you take it step by step and makes everything pretty clear, it basically lists the expectations needed to Publish and you just meet those one by one.
I think the hardest part was just the insane amount of formatting required of my actual word document that contained my novel – Like, margins need to be exact, fonts need to be specific and I did myself no favors by including tricks and puzzles in my stories and then had to format those to work. Across a 600+ page manuscript this took a LOT of back and forth and double checking – The first PROOF I ordered from Amazon (Like a first, physical DRAFT) was hilariously formatted… My PERISIAM was there, but boy was it ugly ❤️
What are some tools, apps or tech you used to write this book from start to end?
Microsoft Word! But I also used the Notes app on my Android Phone to jot stuff down – Seriously if you are out on a walk or just laying in bed and have a great idea, quickly put it into your notes for later, it may make all the difference. I have a pretty rad Gaming PC with a nice ultrawide monitor so it was great to be able to work on my novel on such a great space.
Don’t let tech hold you back though – The first inklings of PERISIAM were written on a first edition iPad AIR 10 years ago at Chicago O’Hare Airport at 6am while waiting for my red eye… Write on a napkin if you have to, just get it down!
What have been the most influential artists that inspired you into becoming an author yourself, if any?
I always wanted to sing for a metal band, seriously. And I feel like I would have made a pretty good lyricist, HOWEVER my singing voice is abysmal. No, abysmal doesn’t cover it, let’s just say that if I started singing you would call the police on account of a possible murder going down – It’s so bad.
So I think my writing was the next best thing that I could do and could control.
I am a HUGE fan of the band TOOL and was lucky enough to meet them in 2013, my favorite TV Series is Mr Robot (Mixes incredible psychological horror with modern-cyberpunk ❤️) and I love mind bending books like Fight Club, House of Leaves or anything by Philip K. Dick. I love anything that pushes you out of your comfort zone mentally and emotionally and leaves you reeling, in any form of entertainment!
What advice would you give to a writer just starting out?
Be brutally, horrifically honest with yourself. Some of the best times to write are when you are feeling like a broken mess, because if you can channel that into your words, into your worlds then it can really effect people. Having a bad day? Go write your book. Feeling really down? Go write your book. Stepped on a LEGO? Definitely go and write your book.
There can be a wall that people are afraid to cross, a threshold or boundary when they create something and while it can be scary to open yourself up like that, it makes for an incredible story and most of the time you will find out that many, many more people out in the world feel the same way that you do. Your words may even give them something to relate to, which can be incredibly empowering.
Oh and get a cat… I don’t know why, but cats and books seem to go together. I have two, and look at me now, Published… It can’t be a coincidence.
What are your future plans?
I want to write another book, but it will have to be after my son starts daycare, hah! I’m going to take a little break and ride the rest of the year out and only focus on my son and my job, but I am really curious to see how PERISIAM goes.
The most amazing thing in the world to me will be if a complete stranger reaches out to me one day and says “Hey, man, this really affected me.”
To connect with Daniel, follow him on his Facebook account.
Have you enjoyed Q&A with Daniel? Let me know in the comments below! ❤️