My friend Charles Franklin is a YA author who is releasing his debut book, Children of the Forgotten. It’s an exciting story of a dystopian world where a city of survivors are looking for hope, and they’ll find it in unlikely places. I’m going to do a review tomorrow, but today here’s Charles telling me about his inspiration:

 

children of the forgotten
What inspired you to write this story?

Post-apocalyptic stories are some of my favorite, and I always enjoy how the characters fight against whatever foe has caused this end-of-the-world scenario. As a fan of these stories, though, I found myself wanting to tell my own tale and fill it with faith. Plenty of authors have done it, and done it well, but I hope I put a bit of a different twist on it!

What do you hope people are going to get out of your story?

I want them to know that, even when it seems like the world is ending, it’s not. Each of us is fighting a battle, and some days the enemy seems to be winning. But, this is not true. We serve an awesome, powerful God, Who only has good things in store for us. One of my favorite lines from the novel is, “All is lost. All is gone. But this one thing: hope.” I hope my readers remember that when things sometimes seem too much to bear.

What are some of your favorite authors?

I’ll start with the usual for a fantasy author, and say Tolkien and Lewis. In addition to them, though, I read a lot of Anne Rice and I’ve always given her credit for helping me fall in love with stories. There was just something about how she brought her characters to life in a way that made me fear, yet love them. Robert Ludlum introduced me to action thrillers, and is a big influence on a novel that I’ll talk a bit more about in a later question!

What’s a secret pleasure you use to motivate yourself as a writer to get through a tricky spot?

I’m really big on music as inspiration, and when I’m writing I’m normally on some type of movie score channel since music with lyrics distracts me. So…when I hit a tricky spot, I’ll usually turn up the movie score station, close my eyes, and picture a scene from my book. This is almost always an instant pick-me-up and helps me at least get a scene on the page. It can always be edited after that!
 
What’s a real world thing you’ve done that found its way into your book?
Having a military background, I tried to use my past experiences when I wrote a fight or battle scene. I’ve always wondered how some stories can have a really detailed fight scene when, in reality, things are moving so quickly that the details are often fuzzy at best! I also know that readers need to see everything that’s happening, so there’s a balance between making the scene fast-paced, exciting, and also descriptive enough. I hope I was able to do that.
What are you working on next?
There are still two more books left in the Anistemi Series, so I’m currently working on Book 2 (Title TBD!). When I take breaks from that, I’ll be working on the Ludlum-inspired action thriller that I hinted at earlier. There aren’t a ton of details to share yet, but I can tell you that it is focused on combating human trafficking. Think Charlie’s Angels meets X-men. 😉
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Charles Franklin grew up in Mineral Wells, Texas. Following a 22-year Army career including plenty of middle-east combat, he lives in Texas with his beautiful wife and three children and is starting a new career as a middle-school teacher. As an author, he enjoys telling tales of adventure filled with faith and purpose. When he’s not writing, he enjoys spending precious time with his family. Find him online and get a free short-story prequel to his Anistemi series at CharlesFranklinAuthor.com