Interview
with Christopher Slayton, Author of Chaos
Company
Chaos Company follows a team of genetically enhanced soldiers
hunting down a powerful mercenary who killed the team's leader. During their
hunt the team is forced to go AWOL and their abilities will be pushed to their
limits as they engage with a ruthless private military company before coming to
a final showdown on the Brooklyn Bridge.
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 realise 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 dialogue.
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
Happy Reading.
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