Captain Shelby by Jesse Giles Christiansen: Author Interview

Today, I am hosting a stop on the book tour for Captain Shelby by Jesse Giles Christiansen. Isn’t the cover awesome looking? I hope that you enjoy the author interview.

Captain Shelby
(The Captain Shelby Trilogy Book 2)
Publisher: Imajin Books (September 6, 2014)
E-Book File Size: 4730 KB
Print Length: 211 pages
ASIN: B00MYDITT0′

Trade Paperback (September 14, 2014)
ISBN: 978-1-77223-004-8

Synopsis

There are places even the sea cannot go…

captain shelby new cover In coastal Denmark, a young man named Nereus builds a longship and leaves at age eighteen to discover a new, enigmatic land. Faced with unimaginable obstacles, he crosses the North Atlantic, only to be captured by the Skraelings, the Inuit indigenous people who seek revenge on all settlers because of a “Great Red Man” who murdered many of their family members.

Many years later, Nereus is hired by a group of Irish settlers who are fleeing the tyranny of King Henry VIII, and he takes them across the North Atlantic to the Newfound Land. A fierce battle ensues against the sea, the Little Ice Age, and the vicious Skraelings.

When Nereus falls in love with Laura Hodges, fiancée to the group’s leader, William Brockelby, he becomes embroiled in a dangerous love triangle…until the formidable mystery surrounding Captain Nereus H. Shelby is finally revealed.

Author Interview

How much of a story did you have in mind before you started writing?

Sometimes a series just falls into place and requires little planning. I think this happens with well-researched first novels. The history of PELICAN BAY was so well laid out by the time the novel had undergone several re-writes, that the prequel was simply a logical extension of the questions and details from the first book. However, though the outline came naturally, the research for CAPTAIN SHELBY was labor-intensive because of the early historical period. Still, it was worth all the work!

What about your characters surprised you while writing Captain Shelby?

I didn’t think that Laura Hodges was going to be such a strong character, especially given the era in which she lived. I enjoyed writing and developing Laura. But now that I think about it, it takes a pretty strong woman to love a man like Captain Shelby. I hope all my readers see that.

What is your favorite scene in Captain Shelby?

Great question. I think the scene when they meet Captain Shelby in Belfast for the very first time. There’s a lot of dissonance and oddness to the scene, and it was a challenge to make it plausible. However, I believe I achieved this through the characters’ reactions to the strange fisherman—mainly the immediate and enigmatic connection between the fisherman and Laura. What I love about the scene the most is the haunting mystery behind the fisherman, yet the incomprehensible willingness for us to love him anyway. It reminds me that real attraction for others is not in appearances at all.

Who would you cast in the role of your main characters if Captain Shelby were to be optioned for a movie?

Johnny Depp for Captain Shelby, Kate Blanchet for Laura Hodges, and Liam Neeson for William Brockelby.

Who designed the cover?

Ryan Doan. He is one of the best, if not the best, in the business. He is one of my treasure finds over the last year, and a huge asset to my publisher, Imajin Books. Every one of my book covers to date was designed by him. His art can be viewed at www.ryandoan.com.

What’s your biggest challenge as a writer? How did you overcome it, or how are you working to overcome it?

Rejection. I don’t think an artist ever gets used to it. He’s just able to thicken his skin a little more each time. It helps to remind myself that intense rejection is still a strong reaction to my art, and that’s good. What would be far worse is a neutral reaction to one’s art. It also helps to realize that, as the UK author Matt Haig said, “Most of a writer’s career is out of his control.”

How did you celebrate the sale of your first book?

A small bottle of champagne (still have the bottle)!

What is something people would be surprised to know about you?

My second favorite canvas as an artist is songwriting (my music can be found at www.jessegileschristiansen.com). I’ve been writing songs since I was twelve; I’ve been writing lyrics longer than stories. I’m trying to level books and songs, but it is an arduous journey. It feels like my readers have trouble seeing me as another kind of artist besides a novelist (don’t worry, dear readers, novels will always come first for me!).

If you could travel in a time machine, would you go back to the past or into the future?

Love your questions! Hmm … I’m really worried about the future (who isn’t, right?). In fact, I’m leaning heavily towards writing the final book in the CAPTAIN SHELBY TRILOGY as set about 40-50 years in the future, with Ethan Hodges as an old man, dealing with a world of environmental upheaval. I think I would travel back to late the 19th century United Kingdom and live the life of an impoverished poet and novelist. I love the romanticism and the magic in the writing of that period, and I feel that it would be easier to make real friends with some of the great writers we all love. Oh, how I long for the times when writers wrote letters and paid visits to each other. Who knows, I might likely be an avant-garde self-publisher of the period!

Thanks so much for having me! In addition to CAPTAIN SHELBY, I also have a Christmas story releasing November 6th entitled, GOTH TOWN. I hope you’ll check it out!

See you in the Land Between the Lines,

Jesse Giles Christiansen.

www.jessegileschristiansen.com

About This Author

Jesse Giles Christiansen is an American author who writes compelling literary fiction that weaves the real with the surreal. He attended Florida State University where he received his B.A. in English literature, and holds an M.A. in philosophy from Georgia State University. He is the author of Pelican Bay (book one in the Captain Shelby Series), an Amazon #1 list bestseller, outselling Old Man and the Sea by Hemingway. One of Christiansen’s literary goals is to write at least fifty novels, and he always reminds himself of something that Ray Bradbury once said: “You fail only if you stop writing.”