Ask the Author: Edward Aubry
Answered Questions (13)
Edward Aubry
Hi Jeff! Yes, there are plans for the rest of the series to be released as audiobooks. I don't know what the schedule looks like for those, but as soon as I hear anything about release dates, I will be sure to announce it.
Edward Aubry
Hi Jude! That's a great question. The short answer is you should read Prelude to Mayhem first.
The longer answer is that you probably have the original, out-of-print version of Static Mayhem (purple cover showing the ruins of the Brooklyn Bridge, by any chance?), which includes some of the content that eventually became Prelude to Mayhem. Two years ago, when that novel changed publishers, I took the opportunity to revise it, and split it into two books. The first book, Prelude to Mayhem, is a heavily expanded version of the first section of the original Static Mayhem. The second book is a less heavily revised version of the rest of the book, so I chose to keep the title Static Mayhem for that one. The new version of Static Mayhem came out last month for Kindle, and should be available in paperback soon. For a wordier description of that process, check out my blog post about it from last year:
https://www.goodreads.com/author_blog...
Ideally, you should read Prelude to Mayhem first, then the new version of Static Mayhem, and consider the out-of-print version you bought to be a rare collector's item. Alternatively, you could read Prelude to Mayhem first, then skip past the first section of the version of Static Mayhem you have, and read it to the end. You will get the whole story that way, with the caveat that you will miss out on the few scenes I added in the rewrite, suffer through a couple scenes that I have since cut for reasons of them not being very good, and generally experience an earlier, less polished version of my prose. I recommend getting the newer version, which I think is a much, much better book, but that's entirely up to you.
Either way, I hope you enjoy them! Book 3, Mayhem's Children, is due out this December, and is a brand new book without a complicated revision history.
Thanks for reading!
The longer answer is that you probably have the original, out-of-print version of Static Mayhem (purple cover showing the ruins of the Brooklyn Bridge, by any chance?), which includes some of the content that eventually became Prelude to Mayhem. Two years ago, when that novel changed publishers, I took the opportunity to revise it, and split it into two books. The first book, Prelude to Mayhem, is a heavily expanded version of the first section of the original Static Mayhem. The second book is a less heavily revised version of the rest of the book, so I chose to keep the title Static Mayhem for that one. The new version of Static Mayhem came out last month for Kindle, and should be available in paperback soon. For a wordier description of that process, check out my blog post about it from last year:
https://www.goodreads.com/author_blog...
Ideally, you should read Prelude to Mayhem first, then the new version of Static Mayhem, and consider the out-of-print version you bought to be a rare collector's item. Alternatively, you could read Prelude to Mayhem first, then skip past the first section of the version of Static Mayhem you have, and read it to the end. You will get the whole story that way, with the caveat that you will miss out on the few scenes I added in the rewrite, suffer through a couple scenes that I have since cut for reasons of them not being very good, and generally experience an earlier, less polished version of my prose. I recommend getting the newer version, which I think is a much, much better book, but that's entirely up to you.
Either way, I hope you enjoy them! Book 3, Mayhem's Children, is due out this December, and is a brand new book without a complicated revision history.
Thanks for reading!
Edward Aubry
Yes! There will in fact be audio books for the next *three* in the series, and hopefully also for the fifth and final book. I do not have information about release dates for those yet, but as soon as I do, I will announce it here.
Edward Aubry
Absolutely! Static Mayhem will be reissued this July. The original version went out of print because I made some changes when it switched publishers, most notably removing the first section and expanding it into what is now Prelude to Mayhem. If you are interested in the whole story of that transformation, I wrote a blog post about it last year.
https://www.goodreads.com/author_blog...
Thanks for reading!
https://www.goodreads.com/author_blog...
Thanks for reading!
Edward Aubry
Nice. Very fitting. Thank you for sharing it!
Edward Aubry
Hi Kandice! Thanks for reading!
If you want a detailed, slightly spoilery answer, look through all my questions here, because one of them was that. The short answer is I wanted to try two different things with time travel that aren't done very often, and after working on two different outlines for a while, I realized they were both the same story, which ended up being this one. I'm glad to hear you are enjoying it!
If you want a detailed, slightly spoilery answer, look through all my questions here, because one of them was that. The short answer is I wanted to try two different things with time travel that aren't done very often, and after working on two different outlines for a while, I realized they were both the same story, which ended up being this one. I'm glad to hear you are enjoying it!
Edward Aubry
I was actually working on two different time travel stories for a while before I realized they were actually the same story told from two different angles.
One was a reaction to Time Traveler's Wife. That’s a great book, but I came away from it vaguely troubled by the deterministic nature of that world. She goes to great lengths to demonstrate that it is impossible to change past events, to the point where when the characters find out there is a terrible thing coming, there is nothing they can do but wait for it to happen. Downer. I wanted to write a story in which every act of time travel permanently and irrevocably alters the past, but only the traveler is aware of it. Kind of like Back to the Future, but with less slapstick.
The other story was about someone using time travel for an unconventional purpose. Heroes want to use time travel to fix terrible things in the past, and villains want to use it for power and personal gain on large scales. I wanted to talk about what an ordinary, flawed person would do, if given a chance, to use time travel for something very small and very personal, and how that could still have catastrophic consequences.
It took me the better part of a year batting these ideas around separately before I realized they were the exact same story. After that it cascaded, and the story came to me more quickly than I could write it down. It took me two months to write the first draft, which is faster than anything else I’ve done.
One was a reaction to Time Traveler's Wife. That’s a great book, but I came away from it vaguely troubled by the deterministic nature of that world. She goes to great lengths to demonstrate that it is impossible to change past events, to the point where when the characters find out there is a terrible thing coming, there is nothing they can do but wait for it to happen. Downer. I wanted to write a story in which every act of time travel permanently and irrevocably alters the past, but only the traveler is aware of it. Kind of like Back to the Future, but with less slapstick.
The other story was about someone using time travel for an unconventional purpose. Heroes want to use time travel to fix terrible things in the past, and villains want to use it for power and personal gain on large scales. I wanted to talk about what an ordinary, flawed person would do, if given a chance, to use time travel for something very small and very personal, and how that could still have catastrophic consequences.
It took me the better part of a year batting these ideas around separately before I realized they were the exact same story. After that it cascaded, and the story came to me more quickly than I could write it down. It took me two months to write the first draft, which is faster than anything else I’ve done.
Edward Aubry
This answer contains spoilers…
(view spoiler)
Edward Aubry
Three things:
1) Have a plan. Finding a brilliant premise is great, but it won't get you anywhere if you don't have a plot to hang on it. Write an outline. It doesn't have to follow a format, or be particularly detailed, but you need to know what your major plot points are so you know how to get to them. If you want to start writing without an outline just to get a feel for your world and your people, that's fine. All of my books have started out as exploratory passages to see what would take form. I have seen lots of writers chug along that way, hoping the story would find itself. There are probably novelists out there who are very successful doing just that, but I have never met any of them. Stories don't find themselves. We have to write them. And at some point, you have to sit back and sketch out what's coming before you go any further. If you don't already know how your story is going to end, you are never going to get there.
2) Keep moving forward. Stop rewriting your first chapter. Yes, I know, it still has lots of problems. Doesn't matter. Keep moving. When you get to a place where you have a great new idea that suddenly contradicts an earlier chapter, do not go back and rewrite that chapter. Make a note for revisions, and keep moving. Nothing can kill creativity as effectively as insisting that everything be perfect as you go. Your first draft is going to suck, because first drafts suck. Own that, and keep moving. There is nothing more satisfying than typing the words "the end." Nothing else you do to tweak your work as you go will matter if you never get there.
3) Spend more time, energy and attention to detail in your revisions than you did on the first draft. Remember how the first draft sucks? That's because the purpose of a first draft is to lay a foundation for the real book, which you can expect to start looking great no earlier than draft #3. And don't try to do that alone. You need readers. Ideally you should get into a writers group, but at the very least find someone you trust and ask them to tear your book apart. They are going to see things you didn't see, and they are going to make suggestions that you will hate. You are under no obligation to take those suggestions, but if you find yourself saying you wrote it right the first time, over and over again, you're doing it wrong. Because you didn't write it right the first time. Because no one does. Take the revisions seriously. If it was important enough to write, it’s important enough to make better.
1) Have a plan. Finding a brilliant premise is great, but it won't get you anywhere if you don't have a plot to hang on it. Write an outline. It doesn't have to follow a format, or be particularly detailed, but you need to know what your major plot points are so you know how to get to them. If you want to start writing without an outline just to get a feel for your world and your people, that's fine. All of my books have started out as exploratory passages to see what would take form. I have seen lots of writers chug along that way, hoping the story would find itself. There are probably novelists out there who are very successful doing just that, but I have never met any of them. Stories don't find themselves. We have to write them. And at some point, you have to sit back and sketch out what's coming before you go any further. If you don't already know how your story is going to end, you are never going to get there.
2) Keep moving forward. Stop rewriting your first chapter. Yes, I know, it still has lots of problems. Doesn't matter. Keep moving. When you get to a place where you have a great new idea that suddenly contradicts an earlier chapter, do not go back and rewrite that chapter. Make a note for revisions, and keep moving. Nothing can kill creativity as effectively as insisting that everything be perfect as you go. Your first draft is going to suck, because first drafts suck. Own that, and keep moving. There is nothing more satisfying than typing the words "the end." Nothing else you do to tweak your work as you go will matter if you never get there.
3) Spend more time, energy and attention to detail in your revisions than you did on the first draft. Remember how the first draft sucks? That's because the purpose of a first draft is to lay a foundation for the real book, which you can expect to start looking great no earlier than draft #3. And don't try to do that alone. You need readers. Ideally you should get into a writers group, but at the very least find someone you trust and ask them to tear your book apart. They are going to see things you didn't see, and they are going to make suggestions that you will hate. You are under no obligation to take those suggestions, but if you find yourself saying you wrote it right the first time, over and over again, you're doing it wrong. Because you didn't write it right the first time. Because no one does. Take the revisions seriously. If it was important enough to write, it’s important enough to make better.
Edward Aubry
It's the ultimate escapism! Writing is like reading, only better, because there is an element of control over the world one enters. Also, I enjoy building relationships with the people in those worlds. I write plots, but I channel characters. I always know what is going to happen to these people, but I am often surprised at how they react to those things, or how they are affected by them. That's a huge part of the fun.
Edward Aubry
I don't usually get writers block in the traditional sense. My problem tends to be more along the lines of option paralysis. There will be long stretches of time when I can't decide which project I should be focusing on, and I end up doing nothing. The thing that snaps me out of it is just forcing myself to write a chapter of something. The most important thing is just to keep moving.
Edward Aubry
Yes indeed! The Audible release date is July 28.
Edward Aubry
Excellent question! UnHappenings was originally intended to be a standalone. Then one of my students read an early draft, and asked me a question that grew into an idea for a companion novel, which is now a work in progress. The second book will be more of a spin-off than a sequel.
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