We welcome you to
My Bookish Pleasures! Can you tell us how you got started writing fiction?
I
guess it’s a good thing you said answers can be as long as needed because it’s a
rather convoluted story. I think I’ve always had the desire to write a book and
be published. Yet, there was never any real follow-through as it seemed like
such a dauting task. Plus, I never felt I had the time for such an endeavor as
I was so focused on my career: first pharmacy school, then graduate school, and
then working with the Food and Drug Administration and then transitioning into
pharmaceutical industry. Yet, several years later, I decided to go back to
school for biblical studies. I at first just wanted to learn to better
understand the Bible, but then when I was asked if I wanted to audit or take
the courses for credit, I decided that if I was going to do the work, I might
as well get the credit. Again, no real plans there, just a desire to learn.
Yet, one thing led to another, and I found myself with another doctorate. This
time in biblical prophecy. I found the subject so fascinating. That’s when I
had to decide what was I going to now do with all that new-found knowledge.
Once,
for my pharmaceutical job, I had to take a round-the-world tour stopping in
India and Japan for several meetings. So, while in flight, the idea of writing
a book came back to me and I began to write out what later became a nonfiction
book about how the entire world is tied to a Jewish timeline, the topic which
stemmed from my dissertation about Gentiles in the Bible. Yet, I never got any
real traction from agents on that concept, so I began to think about taking my
biblical learning and putting that into fictional stories. I took my
understanding of science and of end-time prophecy and wrote a story about a
character living in the coming Messiah’s promised kingdom and what his life could
possibly look like in that environment. Most people I asked about their
understanding of this time in future history as discussed in the Bible stated
they really didn’t understand what the Bible taught about such a kingdom, so I
thought readers could learn something and be entertained at the same time.
When
I talked to a publisher at a writer’s conference about my idea, he stated that
while my idea was possibly a good story, that may not be the best idea for a
debut novel. So, I had to think more about a story more general and relatable.
Driving home from work one day, my mind thought about the current world view
and how God seemed to be less and less in our culture. I then thought about
what would happen if the knowledge of God was completely taken away or banned.
What would that look like? That’s when I started on The Coded Message
Trilogy. This story is about an astrophysicist who works on a Mars mission
and finds certain discrepancies at his work that then leads him down a road
discovering how the masses are being controlled by mind manipulation. He then
begins to search for the truth certain elites are trying to hide from everyone.
It became a dystopian mystery trilogy and the first series that became
published: T-H-B, F-S-H-S, and T-U-L-E. The book titles
are the clues the characters in the books must solve to understand the truth
for which they are seeking. The books allow readers to go on the same discovery
mission along with the characters.
Describe your
writing process. Do you plot or write by the seat of your pants? When and where
do you write?
I
have to say I’m a pantser. I have tried plotting everything out beforehand but
found that, for me, such a process seems to inhibit my creativity. I have a
concept in mind and a general idea of where I want to start and where I want to
end, but no idea how to get there. I just start, put myself in the moment and
see what develops. I know that would likely drive some authors bonkers, but
that’s sort of how I roll. It makes it exciting for me because I feel like I’m
on a constant adventure and discovering where the story goes each time I sit
down to write. I think it makes the whole process more exciting.
Many
times, I will go out to a restaurant franchise (like Saladworks or Dairy Queen)
and get something to eat and then write, edit, or proofread. For some reason
being at different venues helps me more than sitting at home and writing from the
same place all the time. Most of the time I am at home at the dining table or
in my comfy chair, but I do find the change in venues helpful to keep ideas
flowing in my mind.
Can you tell us
about your most recent release?
The
series that just completed is called Erabon Prophecy Trilogy. In this
series, the main character, Nuke, finds himself on worlds totally different
from anything he has ever experienced, yet he finds certain things so familiar
to him. This makes him question the reality of what he is experiencing. Also,
when back with his friends in his solar system he always felt different because
his skin has an electrical conductance which causes the medical equipment to go
haywire during his physical exam when he first enters the Academy for training
in the International Exploration Federation. His best friend, Michael, laughs
it off and calls him “nuclear” which leads to his nickname Nuke which all his
friends begin to call him. Although he brushes it off, this always made him a
little self-conscious and feel different from others. Yet, he finds this human
uniqueness to be a benefit on these alien worlds as it allows him to fulfill
certain alien prophecies.
Nuke
finds that he is supposed to help unite six different alien clans, each on a
different planet, to help prepare them for the return of Erabon, their deity.
Yet, he finds each clan to be bias in the way they worship as they feel their
way superior to the way the other clans worship. This fact and the imposed
moratorium on space travel become big obstacles to overcome to achieve his
prophetic objective. It seems a miracle is expected each step along the way to
allow these clans to listen to him and accept him as the prophesied prophet to
lead them back to Erabon. Each book portrays his work on two of their worlds: Myeem
tells of his work on Myeem, the water planet, and Eremia, the desert planet. Sharab
tells of his work on Sharab, the fire planet, and Ramah, the mountainous
planet. Qerach tells of his work on Qerach, the ice planet, and Aphia,
the air planet.
How did you get
the idea for the book?
Interestingly,
the genesis of the idea for Erabon Prophecy Trilogy happened over a
dinner conversation. My wife and I met with some friends of ours one evening at
a local restaurant. The conversation went far and wide and even verged on the
ridiculous. We started talking about aliens, and our conversation at first posed
the general types of questions most think about: What would aliens think of us
humans? How different would they look from us? How advanced would their
technology be from ours? Those thoughts then led to deeper questions. What
would be their core beliefs? Would they serve a different type of God than we
do? As we talked, we came to the realization that if truth is truth, then our
God would also be their God. The way they look, the customs they follow, and
the way they worship may be different, but the essence of who God really is to
them should be the same as he is to us, if God is really God of the universe. These
questions got my brain into thinking more about them, and the story was born.
Of all your
characters, which one is your favorite? Why?
Well, it’s hard to pick a
favorite, but Nuke is one of my favorites. I think many can identify with him. Being
in stressful environments makes him vulnerable. I think most people can
identify with that. He wants to do the right thing, but often doesn’t. He wants
to say the right thing, but often doesn’t. He must learn to cope and adapt on
the fly—something he learns to do better over time. Yet it is never easy. He is
in an alien world where he must come to terms with the fact that it is he who
is the alien.
What was the most
challenging aspect of writing your book?
It took quite some time
to come up with the different aliens to make them different but believable. For
example, each clan of alien has a different color of blood, so I looked at
other creatures on earth which have different colors of blood, and why, to use
as a basis for something that is different but based on reality. I wanted the
story to be very much in the realm of true science fiction but make the science
realistic based upon what we know or what things could possibly work so they
can appear realistic and not just fantasy. For example, Myeem is a planet
composed entirely of water. Is that possible? I did a lot of reading to see if it
was. It seems it is possible if the planet is not too large. Therefore, the
reason I compared it to the size of our moon. It would need to be somewhere
between the size of our moon and the size of earth for such a thing to be
possible. The core pressure would need to not be too great that it would cause
atoms to fuse together to form other elements.
What projects are
you currently working on?
I
have already started a new series, The Adversary Chronicles. The books of
this series are uniquely told Bible stories. While the stories themselves may
be familiar to many readers, I don’t think anyone will have ever heard the
stories told as I have told them. One will read how the spiritual and physical
worlds are tied together to achieve our historical outcomes as they are told
from an angelic perspective. The archangel Mikael and his compatriots are
battling their enemy Lucifer, the Adversary. A lot of poetic license is
utilized in my stories, but I don’t think such an endeavor takes anything away
from what is portrayed in the Bible, but actually enhances that, makes it even more
profound, and helps one to understand something about God they may not have
considered.
The
first book of this series, Rebellion in the Stones of Fire, was
published in February of this year. This first book is about the fall of Lucifer
and the worldwide flood. I want readers to better understand and appreciate
biblical scripture and perhaps gain a perspective about God they may have not
considered before. For example, in this first book, it demonstrates the flood
was more about God’s love than it was about God’s vengeance.
The
next book, The Holy Grail of Babylon, tells the story of the tower of
Babel found in Genesis of the Bible, but puts it into a very science fiction
scenario. The novel should come out in early July of this year. The next book, The
Defining Curse, is under proofreading by my editor. It tells of a curse on
a Jewish king proclaimed by the prophet Jeremiah and how Daniel uses his
influence in Babylon to change the fate of this king and the whole nation of
Israel. Then, I’m in the process of finishing up The Luciferian Plague
which is about a nefarious group trying to depopulate the earth using
nanotechnology to alter one’s genetic makeup.
What advice would
you offer to new or aspiring fiction authors?
The
best advice I can tell someone is to not give up. Even successful authors had a
starting point, and their start oftentimes was not pretty. So, don't get
discouraged. Learn from every feedback no matter how positive or negative it
is. Don’t focus on the tone of the feedback but the content of the feedback.
Learn
and study the craft of writing. Good grammar and correct spelling are really
very important. Granted, one does not have to use correct grammar all the time
in one’s writing because as an author you are writing to convey not only
information but feelings. Yet, everything you write and the way you write it
needs to be deliberate. In other words, you may not follow good grammar, but
you need to know you did not follow good grammar and it was intentional. Every
sentence, every word, and every punctuation should be purposeful.
An exciting trilogy where an astronaut, nicknamed Nuke and working on an interstellar gate, is accidentally thrown so deep into the universe there is no way for him to get home. He does, however, find life on a nearby planet, one in which the citizens look very different from him.
Although tense at first, he finds these aliens think he is the forerunner to the return of their deity and has been charged with reuniting the clans living on six different planets. What is stranger to him still is that while everything seems so foreign from anything he has ever experienced, there is an element that also feels extremely familiar.
He has to gain the trust from each alien clan and demonstrate through various acts that he is the one they have been waiting for so each culture can fully accept him and follow him. But for the aliens to accept him as the prophet to their deity, Erabon, he has to first accept it and believe it himself.
Book Information
Release Dates: Book One: Myeem: 23-Dec-2020
Book Two: Sharab: 06-Apr-2021
Book Three: Qerach: 01-Oct-2021
Publisher: Carpenter’s Son Publishing
Number of pages: Myeem/271; Sharab/249; Qerach/347
Link to books on Amazon:
Book One: Myeem: Amazon.com: Myeem: Book One of the Erabon Prophecy Trilogy (Erabon Prophecy Trilogy, 1): 9781952025129: Randy C Dockens: Books
Book Two: Sharab: Sharab: Book Two of the Erabon Prophecy Trilogy (Erabon Prophecy Trilogy, 2): Dockens, Randy C: 9781952025136: Amazon.com: Books
Book Three: Qerach: Qerach: Book Three of the Erabon Prophecy Trilogy (Erabon Prophecy Trilogy, 3): Dockens, Randy C: 9781952025143: Amazon.com: Books
