Eli Bischof
Well, the most simple answer is that it all began with a question. After years of reading almost nothing but science fiction, I kept finding myself wondering about the unexplored spaces between the novels I so enthusiastically devoured. I’d think, “That was great, but what about this? And what about that?” Those questions were always followed closely by, “I wish someone would write something from ____ angle”, but I’d been so focused on my tattooing career that I’d nearly forgotten about my nearly lifelong ambition of being an author, though I was frequently guilty of uttering the empty phrase, “I’ll be a published author one day.”
It sounds stupid, but it took me a long time to realize that I’d actually need to write books in order to make that phrase true. It was easy to say that I could do it, but it finally sank in that I needed to put my money where my mouth was and write a damn book! However, it had been a long time since I’d written anything, so I began by journaling.
By now, you’re probably wondering what the question was that gave me the idea for Every Body Dies, but I wanted to give you enough background to understand why I asked the question in the first place and why I was willing to spend the next four years answering it. Are you ready to find out what the question was? I think you are, but don’t think that you’re going to avoid a fluffy intro, because you’re not.
Though I didn’t know it at the time, September 29th of 2015 was a fateful day. My mind was swimming in the unexplored space between the sci-novels I’d consumed and the murky waters of unrealized ambitions, when I began a new journal entry with the question: “What would happen if aliens showed up today?” That question immediately spawned many others, such as: “How did they show up? Where are they from? Similar home planet to our own? If so, is bi-pedalism an inevitable evolutionary result for ruling intelligent species? Did they arrive in a craft capable of light speed or did they take the long route?” Like, really... those questions immediately followed in my journal. There was a lot more. In fact, I filled up 4 or 5 more journals and wrote Every Body Dies, 4 times from scratch, before I’d answered the question to my satisfaction. Of course, Every Body Dies wound up being set nearly 100 years in the future, so I veered from the original question quite a bit, but I had good reasons for doing so. However, I think it’s best to explore that in another question!
It sounds stupid, but it took me a long time to realize that I’d actually need to write books in order to make that phrase true. It was easy to say that I could do it, but it finally sank in that I needed to put my money where my mouth was and write a damn book! However, it had been a long time since I’d written anything, so I began by journaling.
By now, you’re probably wondering what the question was that gave me the idea for Every Body Dies, but I wanted to give you enough background to understand why I asked the question in the first place and why I was willing to spend the next four years answering it. Are you ready to find out what the question was? I think you are, but don’t think that you’re going to avoid a fluffy intro, because you’re not.
Though I didn’t know it at the time, September 29th of 2015 was a fateful day. My mind was swimming in the unexplored space between the sci-novels I’d consumed and the murky waters of unrealized ambitions, when I began a new journal entry with the question: “What would happen if aliens showed up today?” That question immediately spawned many others, such as: “How did they show up? Where are they from? Similar home planet to our own? If so, is bi-pedalism an inevitable evolutionary result for ruling intelligent species? Did they arrive in a craft capable of light speed or did they take the long route?” Like, really... those questions immediately followed in my journal. There was a lot more. In fact, I filled up 4 or 5 more journals and wrote Every Body Dies, 4 times from scratch, before I’d answered the question to my satisfaction. Of course, Every Body Dies wound up being set nearly 100 years in the future, so I veered from the original question quite a bit, but I had good reasons for doing so. However, I think it’s best to explore that in another question!
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