You can keep in touch with the author on his twitter handle
@Chris__Slayton
What inspired you to write the book?I grew up reading a lot of comics and being into superheroes. The primary reason I got into writing was so I could create my own heroes, people who fought hard to overcome impossible odds and dangerous adversaries. I also wanted to create an action-packed story but also had a realistic tone to it.When did you realize that you want to write a book?
I found myself wanting to write ever since I was in middle school. But didn’t write my first full story until I was 16, which was the rough draft for Chaos Company. I had to take a step back from writing when I was college and picked it up again since graduating.
Who helped you in writing the book and please say about their contributions?
I wrote Chaos Company all on my own. I did have two editors; one was a Christian author who basically got paid to do a lot more criticizing than editing. The other was a woman I met on the freelance site guru.com. Her editing skills left a lot to be desired but her constructive criticism was invaluable. There were a lot of people that had their suggestions (such as someone saying I should write a fiction version of them in my story, or change the genre completely), but they were obviously ignored lol. There was one person who proofread my work that made all the difference. A friend of mine named Tessa Flores. She didn’t edit or make suggestions or anything like that. But she did take a look at Chaos Company and caught formatting and consistency errors that were overlooked and I’m really grateful for her doing that. But as for the entire creative process, that was all me.
How is your book going to inspire the readers?
If I’m being honest I don’t really see my book inspiring readers. I wrote it to be entertaining. But there are elements that readers can take away and value, such as the emphasis I put the importance of teamwork and the different perceptions people can have for patriotism.
If you are given the chance to change one thing in your book what would it be?
I killed off a couple of major characters in Chaos Company and part of me wishes that I hadn’t. I’ve put a lot into each character and their dynamics with other characters and part of me wishes they could have all made it to the end of the story relatively unscathed. But I wanted the story to seem realistic and I wanted to not only surprise readers, but to also make them feel like none of the characters are safe. So I killed off a few of them. I wish I hadn’t because I’ll never be able to develop those characters as much as I wanted to. But their deaths added necessary gravity to the situation in the story. Who knows? Maybe I’ll write a flashback so I can enjoy working with those characters some more or even write a prequel to Chaos Company.
How do you find time to write and which part of the day is best for writing for you?
It can be difficult to find time. But I always make sure I write down something before going to sleep, even if it’s just a page. I get the most work done when I have a day off from work like Saturday and Sunday mornings.
Which books have inspired you the most, in the journey of writing this book?
The first would definitely have to be Anthony Horowitz’s Alex Rider Series. The series follows a teenager who is thrown into a world of espionage. I loved the variety of villains that appear in the series. Also the Halo book series that was inspired by the game. The stories focused on the interaction between the space marines who were put through the SPARTAN program.
What is the best advice, you would give for writers who are trying to write a book?The best piece of advice I can give to a person getting into writing would be to exhaust every possible resource available to them. Writing isn’t the most difficult part to achieve success as a writer, but everything that follows afterwards. The editing, marketing, promoting is all part of becoming a successful writer. So is submitting to publishing companies, literary agents, and book review sites. If aspiring writers have people in their lives that can help them with this, or can afford to pay a professional to help them with these things I would advise them to do so. I’m not fortunate enough to have any of those resources when I published Chaos Company, but with the help of book reviewers who like my work I’m now slowly building a network of those resources.
What are your hobbies?I’m a huge fan of martial arts. I practice Tae Kwon do and have participated and placed in a number of tournaments. It’s a great exercise and I’ve found it to help me develop scenes for my writing.Comic books have been a part of my life since I was a kid. I always found the stories to be more than just good versus evil. Nowadays the plots relate to current events. When writing Chaos Company I found myself drawing from comics as inspiration for the characters and dialog.
What can we expect from you in the future?
I’m working on two stories at once right now. The first being the follow up to Chaos Company. In the sequel readers will see how the team has adjusted to the events after the first story and be surprised by some of the individual member’s actions. Readers will also be introduced to new adversaries that will challenge Chaos Company both physically and morally. The second story I’m working on is an action-packed thriller that I’m keeping very close to the vest until I get the first draft done. I’m having a great time writing both and hope to release one of them by the end of the year.
You can buy the book by clicking the link below
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00UG4RK9EHappy Reading.
