Eric B

Tell us a little bit about yourself, your hobbies and interests.

I’m quite a mellow fellow, an easygoing individual who is just trying to enjoy life as best he can, and gain as much success as possible. Currently I work a day job in a local hospital. My greatest hobby is writing, as evidenced by my five (and counting) published books. Also, I love public transit riding as well as taking walks around the city. Although I have my routines, I’m not afraid to shake things up a bit by exploring something new and trying new things. I used to raft and kayak a lot, though not as much lately. Yet I still enjoy boats and generally hanging out around the water. I travel to other cities and states to visit friends and family several times a year. And although I never travel to exotic destinations, I do make sure I get far away from home during my vacations. I karaoke every now and then to satiate my desire to perform, like I did in theatre during my high school and college years. Someday I’d like to learn how to write a screenplay.

When and why did you start writing books?

Actually, I did not start off aspiring to become a published author. I originally just wanted to make sure I had a pen and paper on my person at all times so that if I ever had a great idea that came to me at an inconvenient time, I would be able to jot it down immediately before it departed from my mind. But there is only so long you can have constant, convenient access to a pen and paper before you start CREATING opportunities for yourself. For example, I ride public transportation a lot. Always have. And when you are a regular public transit rider, you see and experience the big city in ways many people maybe don’t when they are zooming through the city at 25 to 75 miles and hour in their own private vehicles. Therefore, I started using the pen and paper that I had on my person at all times to write down my thoughts and feelings and reactions to everyday life in the big city. On top of that, I have always —even before I ever thought about writing — liked to create my own stories. Years went by, and I started to realize I had several notebooks and compilations of pieces of paper filled to the brim with my writings. As I observed this, I thought about how with little to no effort, I could turn some of these writing into a fully published book. However, when I actually set out to do this, I quickly learned that even if you have a raw material prepared in advance, that does not mean you will not still have plenty of work to do when it comes to actually turning those scattered bits of writing into an organized, marketable piece of literature. THAT is when the process of my conversion from writer to published author began.

What made you decide to tackle writing as a career?

In July of 2009, when I first laid my eyes — and my hands — on the very first fully-published, marketable book actually authored by me, that’s when I caught the bug. The book was called “Why Volunteers Get All The Breaks”, and it was self-help book about using volunteering as a technique to help you find and secure a paid job. In the 2000s, I often joked with my friends at social gatherings about how one day I was going to be a published author. But in late 2008, when I saw how much I had written in notebooks and individual pieces of paper about my thoughts a feeling and reactions on certain subjects, I knew it was time to take the next step. So I took something that was personal to me — finding a job through volunteering — and chose to make a book out of it. The reason this topic was so personal to me is because that is exactly how I found my first full time job after college. In late 2008 and early 2009, I spent many off days from my hospital day job at an internet café (I did not own my own computer at the time). I can’t tell you how many of those days I would rather have been hanging out with friends or at the karaoke bar. But I had a mission in life now, and this was no time to be playing around. I spent so many off days, over the course of six or seven months, transforming a bunch of crap I scribbled down in notebooks and individual pieces of paper into a structured piece of writing that I could publish and sell to the masses. When my publisher informed me in later June of 2009 that the publishing process of this first book was complete, and a week later in early July of 2009 I received my the hard copies in the mail, and I touched and flipped through that book for the first time, realizing that I was the one who created the content for that book, I knew being a published author is what I always wanted to do.

Which one of your books or characters is your favourite?

Honestly, Realm of the Invader (Night Crusaders Series Episode 2: History of Draegahn Part 1) is likely my favorite of my own published books. And my favorite character is Siris. Siris is one of the aliens imprisoned by Lord Draegahn, and he is of the same alien race as Lord Draegahn, and we eventually find out he grew up with Lord Draegahn. Siris befriends four Earthlings, who are wrongly-convicted like he himself is, who are destined to rise from the ashes of the alien invasion to become Earth’s newest superheroes: the Night Crusaders. While I don’t agree with Siris on everything, I think he definitely has great wisdom, a big heart and he is a hardworking, determined individual. And he always puts others before himself. Realm of the Invader is my favorite of my books because it was the biggest challenge for me to write (and to date, it is the longest book I ever published), and I learned a lot of lessons as an author during my years of hard work in developing this storyline. Not to mention my development of this story helped me set the stage for the creation and development of all the stories of the Night Crusaders series. And Siris was my first challenge in the development of a multidimensional character.

Which one of your books was the hardest to write and stretched you the most as a writer?

Hands-down, it was Realm of the Invader (Night Crusaders Series Episode 2: History of Draegahn Part 1). In the summer of 2011, when I first decided to write my own superhero series, I had no idea that I actually had a novella in me. My first two published books — the ones on volunteering and public transportation — were only a couple of dozen pages long in manuscript form, and less than 100 pages long in published book form. My second published book — The Great American Adventures of Modern Big City Railroading — was my first book to have characters in it. In February of 2014, when I read this book for the first time in fully published form (as opposed to the dozens of times I read and edited and read and edited it in manuscript form), I was pleased with the characters I created. Yet I was not fully satisfied. There was one element from the characters of this story that was missing: the human dimension. What I discovered was that there are two types of characters in a story: 1) story-centric and 2) complex. A story-centric character is one who only exists withing the story. This character was created for a specific role, and really doesn’t have a life outside of the story in which he or she takes center stage. A complex character is one that has a life outside of the story, who has more going on with him or her than the role he or she plays in your story. I took the lesson I learned from The Great American Adventures of Modern Big City Railroading and applied it to Realm of the Invader (and ultimately the entire Night Crusaders series), in order to create characters who had a life of their own. I did not simply ask myself, “What would this person do in this particular storyline scenario?” I expanded my thinking, and started asking myself, “What does this character do for leisure?” “How does this character spend his/her days? Nights?” “What kinds of places could this character be found hanging out when he or she is not playing this role in my story?” I wanted to go beyond creating characters, and create human beings. People with their own thoughts, feelings, beliefs, motivations, eccentricities…and whatnot. And Realm of the Invader was my testing ground for this new ambition I had gained as an author. There was a period of about three of four years in the mid-2010s when Realm of the Invader was my obsession…to the point where my own characters from this story were appearing in my dreams!

Who is your favourite author and book?

I don’t have one particular favorite author, and certainly no one particular favorite book. I enjoy the works of authors who are not afraid to broach controversial topics and challenge me to look at things from a different perspective than I am used to seeing them in. Also, I love authors who are not afraid to tell me that I am the architect of my own destruction, and how I can turn it around and start using that exact same potential to make amazingly great things happen in my life. Honestly the closest I have ever come to having a favorite book and author is the Tao Te Ching, by Lao Tzu. I was first turned on by Taoism in the mid-2000s. But the real difference in my life occurred one days in the early 2010s when I was sucked into my reading of Tao Te Ching, and discovered how powerful the human mind really is. I truly believe what I learned about the human mind in my study of Taoism played a huge role in how I wrote Sanctuary of the DarkLight (Night Crusader Series Episode 3: History of Draegahn Part 2).

What book are you reading right now?

A book containing a collection of works by Elbert Hubbard. I was first introduced to Hubbard via a Dan Kennedy book titled “The Ultimate Success Secret”. (This is a marvelous book that I highly recommend!) During one chapter of this book, Kennedy inserted an excerpt of “A Message To Garcia” by Elbert Hubbard. As soon as I read that, I immediately started wondering why this is not required reading in every school in America.

Where do you get your inspiration for your books?

The same place every artist gets inspiration for their preferring medium of artistic expression: the world around me. If you open your mind’s eyes, you can see a whole other world within the world you are living in. And, just for the record, I DO NOT recommend mind-altering substances such as drugs and alcohol to achieve this. You do not need to damage your mind nor body to gain a view of the world beyond your world. There are hundreds of healthy ways of doing this. Such as taking a walk through the woods. Or riding the bus or train through the city, and taking a gander out the window at the amazing sights of the city. Or going to the beach, and spending some time in front of the water. Or flying in an airplane, and enjoying the view of the clouds in front of your or the city or sea or country below you. Also great for inspiration is to get away from where you live a couple of times a year. Spend somewhere between a few days and a couple of weeks exploring someplace, and immersing yourself in an environment, a few hundred or thousand miles away from that old, raggedy neighborhood you live in. Obviously, an artist can find inspiration looking and observing and exploring, but every now and then, you can’t just be some guy in the corner looking at life around you. An artist also needs to participate in activity around them every now and then. Mingle with the people. Get involved in the local goings-on.

What do you enjoy doing in your spare time?

During the warm seasons in the daytime, I love going out to walk under the sun. Typically, I go to beaches, lakefronts and general walks around the city. During the cold seasons I stay in a lot more, but I do go out as often as possible during the holidays seasons to enjoys the varieties of decorations. I also enjoy the night life, particularly karaoke bars and barcades. I also play video games at home. And I love riding the Greyhound and Amtrak as well as flying the friendly skies. I’m a believer that when on vacation, you rally should try to get away from home and explore someplace new and exciting. Oh, and I should not fail to mention that I love window shopping. I’m always looking for new and exciting places to walk to and hang out at.

Do you have any new books in the works?

I have always been of the opinion that a true artist is ALWAYS in the middle of SEVERAL projects. But that’s not merely a thought nor belief nor even philosophy of mine. It is a credo that I live by. At this moment, I am working simultaneously on eight future episodes (books) of my superhero series. And that doesn’t include two more possible future books, and any number of potential future short stories. I am an artist, which means if I’m not creating, I’m not living.