Q: Please tell us about yourself.
My journey as a writer started when I was a child growing up in Las Vegas, Nevada. Back then it was a small, dusty town with a population of 60,000 and I grew up on the outskirts of town, surrounded by desert. In the early days Las Vegas wasn't the glamorous international destination it is now and as a kid there wasn't a whole lot to do. We only had three television stations and they went off the air fairly early, though that didn't matter, as I didn't get to watch a lot of TV. My father wasn't a big fan of the idiot box or the boob tube as he called it—he was a reader.
I can't remember exactly how young I was when he first gave me a book to read, but I do remember the book itself. It was A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs. That book opened up the universe for me. It was unlike anything I had read before and I was taken away by the alien worlds that surrounded me. From that point on, I devoured every book in the series, and from there I went onto Burroughs’ Tarzan series. Along the way, I took in books on Asimov, Frederick Pohl, Robert Heinlein and many others. These were the writers that inspired me and filled my head with dreams of fantastic ambition. They were the cornerstone for me wanting to become a writer—that and the other curse my father gave me. He insisted that I learned how to type.
Q: Tell us about your book
Well, as I mentioned earlier, I grew up in Vegas and as fate would have it, I eventually went to work in the gaming business dealing both Craps and Blackjack. NANOVISION is, in part, the results of my years working in numerous gaming establishments including those on the Strip. The story is a culmination of what I experienced and learned; running the gambit of working for the mob, seeing the personal toll gaming can take on individuals, and the magical allure it has in drawing people in. Now understand, NANOVISION is a tale of science fantasy delving into realms of pure unadulterated make believe, but I hope the reader's journey will be enriched by the realism and attention to detail perhaps showing a side of the gambling industry that is not normally seen.
Q: What inspired you to write Nanovision?
This is perhaps the easiest question to answer. When you deal blackjack you realize people would give anything to know what the next card is. They want to know what the dealer's hole card is, and even more, they want to know what the next card coming out of the shoe is. If they knew–it would be game over for Las Vegas, but they don't. So they guess, they count, they analyze, they hope and they pray and most of the time they are wrong. But what if you were given x-ray vision and you could see the next cards coming? What would happen? How would it happen? And that's how NANOVISION was born–a little idea coupled with a dose of science and fantasy that relates the tale of Daniel–a young man violently wronged, then saved, and in the process given the chance of a lifetime to see justice served.
Q: How much time per week do you spend writing/editing your work?
Usually every day when I'm crafting the story or re-writing. I re-write over and over filling in the details and building the story like it's a paint by numbers set. First comes the skeleton, then the muscle, the skin and flesh, then I pass it out to people who will give me feedback. With their opinions and assessment I begin the process again. Even now, if I was to read Nanovision, I would probably see minute changes I could make, but there comes a time to quit and let the story be.
Q: If you could meet three authors, which authors would you choose?
Edgar Rice Burroughs–he was a prolific writer with a wonderful imagination. His books were one of the first in serial format, but they were fun, and who hasn't heard of John Carter of Mars or Tarzan? It was Burroughs who inspired my first work: The 5 Moons of Tiiana, also available on Amazon
Michael Crichton–he was a brilliant writer, physician, screenwriter and director. Jurassic Park is probably his most famous work along with the hit television series ER. What I like about his work were the cautionary warnings about unbridled technology and allowing the government to obtain too much control as in gene patenting.
Jack L. Chalker. I can honestly say I am not a fan of everything that Jack Chalker has written, but his series "The Saga of the Well World" was unbelievable. I cannot begin to describe the detail or the imagination he used to create the Well World. It has everything–science, magic and fantastic creatures beyond belief. It is one of the best I've ever read and I don't think it got half the credit it should have. Thanks to Amazon his books are available again.
Q: What are you working on at the moment?
Unfortunately I'm in the marketing mode. It is my least favorite time. I would rather be writing. My next story will probably be HAVE GUN / TIME TRAVEL. It's the story of a bartender who is thrown back in time to the end of the Civil War where he must prevent the South from winning the war.
Title: Nanovision
Author: Paul Harry
Genre: YA Science fiction / Fantasy
Synopsis:
Daniel Raye was only sixteen when he walked in on a mob hit against his father. Brutally beaten and left for dead, Daniel awakens in a hospital to find himself blind and with no memory of the hit. Placed in the FBI’s witness protection program, Daniel is relocated to Northern California where he’s given residence with a long, lost Aunt who runs a bio-tech firm called NanoBytes. Over time, Daniel rebuilds his life and adapts well to his newfound family, but as fate would have it, comes under the scrutiny of the mob once again–but not before his Aunt finds a cure for his blindness. Using a radical untested procedure incorporating robotic nanites spliced with the DNA from animals and insects, Daniel is injected with a serum that only a mad scientist could create.
Does it work?
Better than anyone imagined.
What would you do with x-ray vision?
As a young boy I cut my teeth on Marvel Comics, Edgar Rice Burrough’s serial novels,(John Carter & Tarzan)and classic movies like “The Day The Earth Stood Still.” I also spent many days reading classic science fiction works by authors such as Asimov, Heinlein, Clark, Silverberg, and Bradbury to name a few.
In school my favorite subjects were English and Theater Arts. It is the combination of all of this that led me into writing, especially screenplays. I love the visual medium of movies and television though too many movies today put special effects ahead of the story. I think the greatest compliment I’ve received about my writing is that people can see the visual images I am creating as I write.
NANOVISION is my latest novel and I think readers will have a lot of fun with it. In writing the novel I used my forty years of experience in the Las Vegas gaming industry as a background for the story. So for those of you who might ask—Are the casino scenes real? The answer is most definitely, Yes!
My other works on Amazon are: THE 5 MOONS OF TIIANA, and THE GARDEN, The Unauthorized Biography of Adam and Eve.
Links
http://bit.ly/Nanovision
https://twitter.com/Sphere_Books