J.M.’s Comments (group member since Dec 06, 2013)

J.M.’s comments from the Q&A with J.M. Salyards group.

Emily wrote: "I kind of see Quintain growing up to be an elementary school teacher. He's got the patience and love of learning for it."

That's so true.

Joanna would make an outstanding civil engineer... although I doubt there is much she couldn't do if she set her mind to it.

Carver screams "Russian mob boss" to me.

Well, I found Xchyler through a simple internet search for open submissions as I was querying the book around. In fact Xchyler was the second publisher/agent I'd contacted- the first, a literary agent, responded almost instantly to tell me she wasn't interested.

Xchyler was different. The stringent requirements just to query them made an impression. It did not take long to receive their request for the full manuscript.

The hardest part was perhaps the synopsis, and the forms within the author workbook. That work was completely worth it, however. Nothing quite helps an author know his own work better than taking it apart and putting it back together again.

Editing was a long process, but simple and occasionally fun. That really surprised me. I was very fortunate that I was able to work with Penny and McKenna, the content and line editors, respectively. Thanks to them, I can consider myself twice the author I was before we began. A truly rewarding learning experience.

Not in the sense that I'm worried the work will become a series of comic book style super-powered slug fests in which humanity is ignored in favor of special effects. The Next Man saga is about people. Perhaps odd or extraordinary people in bizarre, extraordinary circumstances, but I will strive to keep a very humane touch.

An expanding cast is helping to offset that inevitable "power creep" also.

I resolved to give authenticity a measure of importance in Volume 1, so I drew on what I know to flavor the story with locations, measurable geography, and local idiosyncrasies. Of course, the war of the Next Man is a global one, so the sequel will naturally widen in scope.

The mid-atlantic east coast of the US was always my starting place. It could not have been anywhere else.

George wrote: "Are you facing the urge to amplify everything in the sequel?"

Perhaps not everything, but in some aspects I hope to up the ante in Volume 2.

There is a chance to use two different economies of scale in the sequel- one for the real, physical world, and another for the astral, spiritual realm. While they are not separate and certainly affect one another (and occasionally bleed into one another), I think that having Quintain lead an entirely disembodied existence lends a unique opportunity. After all, he'll inhabit a subjective world where nothing counts but imagination, and the only limit to what one can achieve is based on his willpower and strength of resolve vis a vis any opposing forces.

Alouine would make a good FBI or CIA agent.

Emily wrote: "Dystopian settings draw extraordinary qualities out of ordinary people (not that Harrow or Alouine are ordinary). If we put these characters in today's society, what do you think they would have wo..."

Harrow could probably pass as a member of 1st SFODD (Delta Force, CAG, or whatever they call themselves now).

I could see him wearing this:

I'm J.M. Salyards, author of the Next Man Saga. Feel free to start a discussion here, to ask me about "Shadow of the Last Men", how and why I write, and what's in the pipeline for the future.