INTERVIEW WITH JUAN CARLOS CANTU
Hello bookworms! Today we have an author interview with Juan Carlos Cantu, who penned Age Warfare. To those who have checked out our review of the book, here's a little insight to the brain behind Age Warfare.
Hi Juan, thank you for agreeing to this interview. Tell us a
little about yourself and your background?
Thank
you for the opportunity to tell your audience a little bit about me and my
literary work. I’m originally from Mexico, and came to the U.S. as a student
some 10 years ago. My educational background is not a literary one -I’m an
economist by training- but I’ve always had a knack for writing. Ever since I
moved here I’ve always lived in Texas. After a couple of years in Austin (a
town I learned to love) I now live Houston. I really don’t write for a living
(I have a full-time job, which is not related to publishing in any way). I am
simply someone who likes to share and exchange ideas.
What inspired you to write your first novel?
I’ve always been concerned about the environment. The U.S. has
many great things, but I remember one of the surprises I experienced coming
here was how much waste is produced --how little recycling is done. Not that
where I come from everyone recycles, but my expectation was to find a very
well-developed recycling culture here. Another major shock for me was to learn
how a very big portion of the population don’t think climate change even
exists.
So, after a couple of months reading about finance, energy,
demographics and the environment, and with the encouragement of a friend, I
came up with the idea for Age Warfare. The goal was to create a story palatable
enough to be read as an action-style, fast-paced novel, but with the
underpinnings of all these environmental concepts that are currently afflicting
the planet and which many people around the world seem to disregard (or more
dishearteningly, ignore). The inspiration came from the realization that
something genuinely different could be written by combining youth activism,
social networks, political movements, energy economics, ecological depletion,
and demographic imbalances -all of this wrapped up in a nail-biter story that
stealthily lays out the importance of taking care of the planet. This, is what Age Warfare is.
Give us an insight into your main character in Age Warfare. How
did you come up with Ethan Maxwell’s character?
The story of Ethan Maxwell in Age Warfare is a story of personal
transformation. It’s the evolution from apathy into action. He starts off as a
very disengaged, disgruntled teenager, and throughout the novel you witness his
evolution into someone who is determined to change the world. At first, he is a
little bit misunderstood, and cares about stuff that not everyone is interested
in, but it comes a point in the story when his leadership skills blossom and he
becomes an instrumental figure in the struggle of his entire generation.
In creating Ethan, I needed someone who was inspiring; a leader
who was able to harness the power of social networks and defy the status quo to
improve the conditions of his generation. But I also did not want to create
this cliché-ridden main character who is invincible, the best at everything he
tries; the impossibly good-looking lad who gets all the girls he wants, or the
one who always kicks ass. I wanted to keep him real. With great strengths, but
with great flaws also, simply because that is how we all are. I wanted someone
reachable, relatable, and complex. His name came from from a friend’s
suggestion at the word “Maxwell” (as in Maxwell
House, but without the “House” part, since Ethan would grow
“homeless” if the status quo keeps its course).
What are you working on at the minute?
During my free time, I am currently working on Age Warfare’s
sequel. I have already laid out the structure of the story.
Do you ever get writer’s block? If so, how do you overcome it?
I really did not “suffer” from that during the time I wrote Age
Warfare. I wrote it in a span of 4 ½ month. The creation process of that story
was extremely intense. Every time I had free time I sat down and wrote 500 to
750 words, and that happened mostly every day. The emotional rush of that
creative period was extremely, extremely enjoyable. Now, I must say I don’t
feel the same way. Probably because it’s more about extending characters and
situations that have already been created in the first one, or simply because I
have allowed myself time write about other stuff.
