Bookworm Buzz

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.