An Interview with H.S. Gilchrist: Author of The End of the World: Rise of the After Lord

H.S. Gilchrist is the debut author of The End of the World (first book in The Primordial Engine series), former Anthropology major turned data analyst. Nurturing a young nerd. Writing the adventures she dreams of.

Tell us about your book.

Broken Earth, dystopian future, an alien god bent on world destruction, and two badass chicks just trying to survive.

Why did you want to write a book?

It’s less a choice and more of a compulsion. I wake up and go to sleep with all these stories in my head and if I don’t write them down my head’s likely to explode.

Why did you choose to self-publish?

I wasn’t interested in long waits and fighting slush piles, only to still be largely responsible for my least favorite aspect of writing – marketing myself!

What tools or companies did you use, and what experience did you have?

Distributors: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, IngramSpark. ARC Review Sites: Netgalley, BookSirens, Voracious Readers. Writing Software: Microsoft Word for drafts, Atticus for formatting. Book Cover: G&S Cover Design Studio.

Would you self-publish again?

Book 2 (Separate Worlds) should be launching next February. Pre-order is already up.

What do you think are the main pitfalls for indie writers?

Time and money. It’s a little jarring, as a debut author, to realize that success relies less on how good your story is versus how much time/money you invest in creating content that draws an audience to your book (social media, blogs, website, whatever) and making sure your product is ‘marketable’ (cover, promotions, advertising) – all this before someone even cracks the cover.

What tips can you give other authors looking to self-publish?

Nothing about this is easy, if you want to do it right. Expect to spend a lot of time doing research and marketing yourself. Schedule your launch date with lots of room to fix the mistakes you will definitely make. You may or may not see a return on the money you’re investing until you have multiple books published.

What was your steepest learning curve during the publishing process?

It’s all a blur now, haha. Social media, I guess. Up until I decided to go indie, I only used Facebook (to keep in touch with family and high school friends), so entering the world of social media and putting myself ‘out there’ was like landing on an alien world. I haven’t ventured into the realm of TikTok yet. That’s an adventure for another day (also, my daughter will make fun of me if I do! I can’t handle a teenager’s scorn, haha!).

As a writer, what is your schedule? How do you get the job done?

I wake up around 4-5 am and write until I go to work at 7:30 am. If I don’t have other responsibilities I pretty much write (or deal with book business) every waking hour of my day at this point.

How do you deal with writer’s block?

Just write garbage until it’s not garbage. Eventually, the mental ink flows again.

Tell us about the genre you wrote in, and why you chose to write this sort of book.

My book is a mixed bag: It’s primarily dystopian science-fiction, but set on a post-apocalyptic Earth about a thousand years into our future. It also has huge dark fantasy elements in it. Some of my ARC readers have commented on the horror aspects aspects of it too. Why did I write in these genres? Well, I didn’t think about it. I just wrote the story and it became what it became, and then I was stuck squeezing it into predefined categories for marketing purposes.

Who are your biggest writing inspirations and why?

Robin Hobb for her world-building talent.

How do your friends and family get involved with your writing? What do they think of your book?

I’ve got a lively Facebook author page that has about 70 interested friends/family on it, and they’ve given me a lot of encouragement. None of them have read the book yet (launch is February 5th), so I’m curious to see how it goes. I have warned them it’s pretty dark, so…

What are your plans now your book is published?

Getting Book 2 (Separate Worlds) launched, of course! I’m about halfway through the good draft.

Why did you write about this particular subject?

What can I say? I’m a big nerd? I love weird tech and fantastical worlds. With my background in anthropology, I have a lot of interest in creating the various cultures/societies of my universe. Some of my societies are based on real societies – Animkii’s people, for instance, are descendants of Ojibwe people who currently reside in Canada.

What did you learn on your journey as an author?

How to grow a thicker skin. Some people will give you 5 stars. Some people will give you 1 star. Get over it.

What’s next for you as an author?

I have five books outlined for this Primordial Engine series, so I’ll be picking away at that.