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Today I had the immense pleasure of interviewing Eric Martinez and Armani Salado, authors of The Old Universe! The Old Universe is a science fiction space opera released November 21st this year, and part of an epic saga also know as The Spear Saga.
Eric and Armani have been best friends for over 10 years and they told me it’s been humbling and insane to see ‘The Old Universe’ as a novel out in the world. They’re looking forward to seeing what readers have to say about the lore and story they’ve been cultivating for over a decade.
Here’s the short synopsis for the The Old Universe:
Star Wars meets The Lord of the Rings in this debut epic fantasy about a universe before our own caught in the middle of a war led by a son who finally wishes for freedom across the cosmos.
No one knows where the Spears came from, but they do know that the Spears of Time and Space created the universe. They know that The All Father yields the Spear of Space. They know that his planetary kingdom looms over every star, every galaxy, and every world-casting a shadow of fear and servitude. They know that serving The Black Palace is a matter of life or death.
Corrin knows this as well. Being a herald for The All Father has made him into a symbol of war and anguish. Devastation always follows when Corrin enters a planet’s atmosphere sporting The Black Palace banner. But to Corrin, enough is enough.
As rebellion against The All Father breaks loose across the universe, Corrin begins to fight an internal battle of who he is and what future the Spears have in store for him. War against The All Father seems unimaginable, but Corrin knows that if nothing changes, chaos is inevitable.
The Old Universe launches an epic, gut wrenching, and powerful series that takes readers on a journey back to witness the beginning of the end.
Now lets get to meet Eric and Armani more!
Please tell us more about yourself – who you are, where you’re from and what you do.
My name is Eric Martinez, I’m 27 years old and I live in Sanford, Florida. I currently work as a credit analyst and I’m married to my wife Brandi, an elementary school teacher. I have a bachelors degree in Finance and live with my wife in our house we purchased in 2021. This is my first book, and it was officially published.
I’m Armani. I was born in Boston and currently am in enrolled at Full Sail University. I started writing as a kid, letting my imagination run with stories and scenarios. Eventually one of those random stories in my head turned into a war before the Big Bang. Now it’s a novel called ‘The Old Universe’. I’m the youngest of 4 children and can’t wait to spend the rest of my life bringing my stories and lore to life.
Tell us your story. What inspired you to become an author?
Eric- I always had stories that I wanted to share with people. I never thought myself as writer, but when I met Armani we could collaborate well. This inspired me come together and create The Old Universe.
Armani: I have a binder in my house full of stories I came up with over the years. During COVID I realized that instead of letting that binder collect dust, I should put it to use. Back in 2019, I decided to write my first book, after years of reading Tolkien, G.R.R Martin was inspiring. Seeing authors like John Gwynne and R.F. Kuang succeed pushed to pursue this as a career.
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Describe a typical writing day.
Eric-I would come up with ideas, then I would note them. After that I would contact Armani and discuss these ideas. We would then flesh ideas out and develop them from there. I would credit Armani as the main writer.
Armani: A typical writing day for me is reading everything I have so far. Then when I start to jot down new ideas, I put on one of my playlists that I made which sets the tone for whatever particular scene or chapter I’m working on. After I feel like I have a decent rough draft, I’ll send it over to Eric. Then we discuss, revise, and I get back to it.
What do you like to do when you’re not writing?
Eric-I like to play video games, watch movies, watch live sports. Running outside. Having quality time with my wife.
Armani: I call myself a professional binger. If there’s a show I haven’t watched yet that I’m interested in, I’ll watch it in like one sitting. I live alone so I’m either working on new lore, binging a show, drawing concept art for ‘The Old Universe’ or doing all three at once.
What was the most challenging thing about writing this book?
Eric-The biggest challenge I would say is finding the right book printer. When we started, we used one book printer but the proof copies were sub par. This caused a lot of back and forth and some headaches. So we decided to find another book printer. This was stressful but it has since been resolved.
Armani: The most challenging thing to me was believing in myself. I would write a chapter, think its good, then delete it the next day. During COVID, in the height of lockdown, I was alone writing this book and so I fell in love with these characters. I couldn’t bring myself to not do them justice when depicting their motivations and struggles. Apart from that, I’m very big into the lore of my story, and any story in general. I wanted to make the lore as easily understandable as possible, while detailed and interesting. I wanted this to be n epic and at times it was tough to express that one paper, or screen.
Which part of the book is your favorite?
Eric-Oh wow, there’s so many great parts in the book. I would say though, I really like the first 3 chapters, it’s gripping and very engaging!
Armani: Ahhhhh!!!! The Division. Chapter 7 every time I read it gives me goosebumps. And I’m the one who wrote it. It always surprises me for some reason. I think it’s because it’s such a pivotal moment within the story and for our main character.
How do you develop your plot and characters?
Eric- For this story, we actually came up with it in highschool! We were playing Soul Calibur and then got inspired to make a whole bunch of original characters and a story. We have been adding and changing the story since then and decided to finally publish it in 2020.
Armani: When it comes to developing characters, I like to think of what people around me would do in the situation my characters are in. To me, it’s paramount as an author to be able to understand people, and humanity in general. Once you have basic understanding of that, creating characters within sci-fi and fantasy themed stories becomes easy.
What do you think makes a good story?
Eric-A plot that makes people care about the world you’re showing. Also the characters must be compelling.
Armani: A good story to me is subjective. What you think is a great story might be trash to someone else. I think what makes a “good story” is decided by the reader and audience. When someone is reading your book, or short story, or poem, or article…they’re going to have their own emotions and opinions about it. A “good story” is only as good as the audience enjoying it.
How do you do research for your books?
Eric-Our current story is in a universe we created, all research is information we created. It’s very exciting and challenging to have our information like this.
Armani: for me, most of my research came in the form of what theorists had to say about the big bang, and the “before”. A lot of my research also came from reading what other authors within our genre were doing. Other than that, ‘The Old Universe’ was mostly created from scratch. Since it’s a story that predates the existence of our universe, I had the ability to create anything I wanted.
Tell us more about the publishing process behind the book.
Eric: We found our cover artist through Instagram. We collaborated so well, he joined the company as our artistic director! We have done a few interviews, one for a blog, and another for a local newspaper. We also found amazing ARC reviews through social media.
Armani: The publishing process was very fun. Eric and I started our own publishing company, Forbidden Origins. Under the banner of Forbidden Origins, we reached out to many bloggers and reviewers, with 15 bloggers requesting an ARC of ‘The Old Universe’. As of now we haven’t done any video or podcast interviews, but we have been featured in our local paper.
What are some tools you used to write this book from start to end?
Eric-Apple Pages was the software used for writing the manuscript. The book was printed through KDP services. The eBook was made through Kindle Create.
Armani: While writing the book, I used scrivener to organize the chapters and my notes. After the final draft was done and edited by our editor from Random Penguin House, I used Pages on my Macbook to format the book into a novel. After that, the process was simple to get it onto KDP.
What authors inspired you into becoming an author yourself, if any?
Eric-Evan Winter is an inspiration for me. Since he started out as an independent author, it was very cool to see his work become successful.
Armani: Tolkien, G.R.R. Martin, R.F. Kuang, and John Gywnne were major inspirations for me. Tolkien’s lore, Martin’s grittiness, Kuang’s historical fiction, and Gywnne’s norse inspired themes were enough for me to write ‘The Old Universe’.
What are your future plans and where can our readers find you?
Eric-The next installment of The Old Universe is our main focus. Everyone can stay updated by going to our website, forbiddenorigins.com.
Armani: Future plans as of now revolve around part two of ‘The Old Universe’. There’s so much more in store for this story that I can’t wait to explore it more. Eventually Forbidden Origins will be putting out other content as well.
To connect with Eric and Armani, be sure to check out the official Forbidden Origins website, as well as follow them on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram!
Have you enjoyed this Q&A with Eric and Armani? Let me know in the comments below! ❤️