One day, back in 2018, it occurred to me that there was a really cool story to be told wherein an ancient culture came in contact with aliens. And then, of course, I began considering what that would even entail. 

c.b. strul – 11 October 2023

The Back Flap

The Ancient Ones is a Science Fiction adventure that takes place on Earth 100,000 years ago. It is the survival tale of a teenage girl named Blue Flower who escapes into the wilderness as her tribe is captured by an opposing clan. Out in the far reaches of the desert landscape, she is rescued by a being from another world and the two of them form a bond through music.

About the book

When did you start writing the book?

I began writing my novel The Ancient Ones in earnest at about the three month marker into the Covid-19 pandemic. Prior to that, I had been busy working on an Ancient Ones screenplay that basically became my starting outline.

How long did it take you to write it?

The first draft of the novel took me about six months to write. I worked on it every day during the early months of the pandemic. Then I transcribed it from my handwritten pages over to my laptop where I made corrections and built up substantial second draft changes. After that, I reached out to a developmental editor named Alyssa Matesic using the website Reedsy.com. That whole process took another six months. All told, I got to my final manuscript at about the year and a half marker.

Where did you get the idea from?

Let’s see. When I was a child, my family used to go on extremely long car rides over the summer. We visited every drivable state during those trips. On one particularly exciting vacation, we made our way out to Mesa Verde… which if you’ve never been is just one of the most spectacular things you’ll ever experience. Ancient monolithic structures built into the side of a great mesa. I always wondered about those people and others like them; the folks who built Petra; Stonehenge; the Pyramids. You get where I’m going with this. As I grew older, I’m 35 now, I gained a love and admiration for sci-fi/fantasy. One day, back in 2018, it occurred to me that there was a really cool story to be told wherein an ancient culture came in contact with aliens. And then, of course, I began considering what that would even entail. There are a number of reasons why people don’t often tell stories about so long ago. Some of them are political in nature and others are just about how little we really know about our past as a species and what the world was like back then. So I came to the decision to book it all the way back to something like 98,000 BCE. Some studies were coming out as I sat down to write The Ancient Ones that were really exciting. A team of Archeologists and Paleontologists had uncovered ancient human remains on the continent of North America that seemed to imply our species had been here much much longer ago than we had previously imagined. This opened me up to the realization that I need not fear the kind of backlash that might come from basing my story on any one nationality or people. So I got to writing.

Were there any parts of the book where you struggled?

Of course! There was a point wherein I decided to expand pretty deep into the realm of sci-fi by showcasing the backstory of the primary alien species. I had a great deal of new information to impart in not a lot of time. I obviously didn’t want my audience to get bored while reading my novel, so I really had to keep the excitement level up. There’s so much action to be enjoyed in the first and third portions of The Ancient Ones… so the build up that occurs in the middle still had to maintain some of that punch. I think, ultimately, that section will prove as exciting as the rest of the novel. I definitely hope my readers agree.

What came easily?

The process. If I’m being completely honest, I hadn’t sat down to write on pen and paper before this novel in almost ten years. I had spent all of that time working bartending jobs and writing screenplays on Final Draft. So coming back to pen and paper after so long felt incredibly joyous. Even though I was stuck at home unable to go out and enjoy the world in the way I was used to in my pre-Covid life, I was able to really get back to my roots and explore the ways my mind worked when I no longer had a delete key or auto correct. I could doodle if I needed inspiration without having to pick up or open a different device. Just the process of writing like that again… it came easily because it felt like a celebration every time I’d sit down to do it.

Are your characters entirely fictitious or have you borrowed from real world people you know?

They are entirely fictitious. Obviously, I’ll pull character traits and abnormal emotional reactions from the world that I’ve experienced around me… I don’t know how someone can write anything well without at least inheriting a little real life perspective… but The Ancient Ones takes place 100,000 years ago. History books are definitely lacking in genuine historical figures from all the way back then.

We all know how important it is for writers to read. Are there any particular authors that have influenced how you write and, if so, how have they influenced you?

Yeah, I’ve got a pretty big list. Ursula K Le Guin is at the top for this particular novel. My fiancee Madison and I were reading basically her entire catalogue around the time I was working on The Ancient Ones, so it was pretty natural for me to pull some inspiration from her writing style and world building. In fact, my early intention with this piece was to build up a whole cultural catalogue like Le Guin did in Always Coming Home. Ultimately, I had to scrap the idea when I realized how much action I had put into the final story. It didn’t lend itself to that kind of thought experiment in quite the same way and including that kind of appendix-like material throughout would have really broken up the flow. Though I would certainly like to revisit The Ancient Ones one day in the future and maybe give my audience a little more insight into Tetset, Hen’Bon’On, and the Eakress.

Likewise, I pull a great deal of inspiration from Isaac Asimov in everything I do. I love the scope of his work and aim to build a universe that spans the millennia like his did.

Do you have a target reader?

I go back and forth on this one a lot because I do really feel like The Ancient Ones has a very broad opportunity for an audience. I’ve basically been saying the same thing whenever I’ve been asked this question up to this point… YA to Adult. Anyone interested in ancient cultures. Anyone interested in the concept of ancient aliens and ancestral monolithic structures. Sci-fi and adventure fans.

About Writing

Do you have a writing process? If so can you please describe it?

Yeah, for sure. As I mentioned before, I had spent the last ten years prior to Covid exclusively writing screenplays. So when I began working in prose again at the start of the pandemic, it made sense to me to pull from that catalogue at least a little bit from the outset. I was just completing The Ancient Ones screenplay. So here I am with a typed… outline of sorts. I also had a very large, blank, mantra journal that I had been looking to use for something big. I would sit outside in my fiancee’s parents’ backyard where we were sheltering and review the screenplay beat for beat for an hour trying to fill my mind with the moment I was about to explore in prose. Then I’d write in the journal for at least another hour. There were a lot of available days for me at that time, so I definitely didn’t feel the need to rush myself. So long as I kept myself honest and sat down with the work every day, so long as I at least got one paragraph down on paper during a sitting, I would eventually get through the whole book… something I had never done before. Of course, some days would be more prolific than others, but that’s the ebb and flow of writing in general. You take the good days with the bad. Once I had completed that portion of the process, I allowed myself about a week of celebrating with Madison and her folks. We drank Chartreuse VEP and danced and watched movies and all that. Then I got to cranking away again. I still had to type the thing and I allowed myself to make a lot of important changes during that typing process. By the time I finished typing… always fearing that I’d lose the handwritten work to a water spill or a fire or something… I had a completed second draft. That moment was an absolute load off, believe me. Since then I have made more of an effort to type the prior day’s written material before embarking on the next handwritten section, but for this first novel I sat on it and waited to make this second draft in this pretty dangerous way. Then, I hired Alyssa Matesic to help me with the next draft. I had a little bit of savings from before Covid, and she fit into my limited budget at that time. She’s great! And I definitely recommend going to a professional like her with your work to get a second opinion before releasing your book… especially if you’re releasing it independently. I think you’ll find that your piece will grow exponentially.

Do you outline? If so, do you do so extensively or just chapter headings and a couple of sentences?

I do. But I don’t use note cards or anything like that. I write a screenplay. The way the ideas come out at that stage are pretty raw. And the details don’t have to be quite as pronounced because, if the concept was ever being turned into a film based on that screenplay, it would fall to the director and artistic team to fill in the gaps. But once the screenplay/outline has to become prose, then I get to do that fun, additional detailing for myself. The Ancient Ones really gained a new life during that stage of the process.

Do you edit as you go or wait until you’ve finished?

I try not to over-edit myself on the initial draft. The only time I really do anything like that is if I have a eureka moment about something else that’s coming up and realize the previous section is no longer justified in the work. The second draft gets a lot more focus on insuring everything still makes sense together… that the prose makes sense… all of that. Then, yeah, I hire an editor and make necessary changes based on that second pair of eyes.

Additionally, I’ve taken to reading my work out loud to my fiancee after I’ve finished a chapter. This does give me a little opportunity to make adjustments on things that might not be working as intended. She’s an excellent listener and I’m lucky to have her.

Did you hire a professional editor? (May skip if being published by a small press rather than self-publishing)

Yep. Alyssa Matesic. I found her on Reedsy.com. She’s great!

Do you listen to music while you write? If yes, what gets the fingers tapping?

I sure do! Deuter, Ludovico Einaudi… ambient instrumentals… some days I’ll listen to Pink Floyd or David Bowie or Gorrilaz or Red Hot Chili Peppers or Moby or Andrew Bird, but that’s not usually while I’m working on the initial prose.

About Publishing

Did you submit your work to Agents?

I did. I found the process pretty mind numbing and painful. Apparently the big publishing houses are going through all sorts of changes right now and the opportunities for new writers aren’t exactly available in the way they once were. I’m not going to pretend like I would have received an immediate book deal or anything in the past. But eventually I realized that I was waiting for people who weren’t responsive. The primary vibe I was getting at that time was that I needed people to see something from me… I needed to gain some semblance of an audience in order for an agent to actually be willing to give me the time of day.

What made you decide to go Indie, whether self-publishing or with an indie publisher? Was it a particular event or a gradual process?

So since Covid began, I’ve written complete drafts for four science fiction novels. I recognize that they are strong concepts that I’ve been able to tell in a way I haven’t seen before in other works. When it became apparent to me that the agents weren’t available, which is the primary thing I think I noticed during my time sending out queries… they probably receive more queries now than ever before in history and the nature of the book market looks like its been squeezed pretty thin… I decided I couldn’t keep sitting around wondering what if…? I was fortunate to find a publicist, Catherine Kennedy, who understood what I was trying to accomplish and my fiancee backed me up knowing that this was who I wanted to be. Basically, I realized I had a good support system and it gave me the strength to say to myself, “I’m ready to level up.”

Did you get your book cover professionally done or did you do it yourself?

I had been working with an artist that my fiancee introduced me to named Aurelia Lozano. This was just after I had completed The Ancient Ones screenplay. Aurelia and I got to talking about making a look book and maybe a graphic novel. She was really excited about the piece which made me really happy. It’s not often that you find an artist as present and immediate with their communication and work as Aurelia was with me at that stage. I was really fortunate to get to collaborate with her and, ultimately, she painted around a dozen different pieces for me based on The Ancient Ones. The cover for the novel came directly from this early work and she and I are both very proud of the final piece. Then, when I was trying to decide on how the cover should look, I found coverjig.com where they really make it easy for and independent author to fit everything into the correct parameters for the self-publishing sites.

Do you have a marketing plan for the book or are you just winging it?

I have a publicist, Catherine Kennedy. Her company is CKP and she’s great!

Any advice that you would like to give to other newbies considering becoming Indie authors?

Finish your book. Share it with your loved ones. Believe in yourself and your dream. And don’t be afraid to spend a little bit of money to get what you want. Obviously, you shouldn’t create more debt than you can feasibly pay back in the event the first book doesn’t make you rich, but if this really is your dream, you have to be sure you believe in yourself. You prove that you do this by investing in yourself. Give yourself the gift of a completed work that has received whatever attention you have the capacity to give it whether that be paying for KDP’s inexpensive ad program or working with a full scale publicist like Catherine Kennedy of CKP.

About You

Where did you grow up?

I was born in Marin County, CA. When I was six, I moved to Coral Springs, FL where I lived until I graduated high school. I went to college at the New York Conservatory for Dramatic Arts where I realized I was really a writer not an actor.

Where do you live now?

I live in Los Angeles, CA with my fiancee Madison, her family, and two… actually as of just this week three pugs.

What would you like readers to know about you?

I am a huge cinephile. I love film and am always open to seeing new ideas presented on a big screen. I wouldn’t have any books written at all if I couldn’t imagine them one day being adapted. I imagine so much of what I write visually… art, actors, music and all as if it’s a movie playing in my head.

What are you working on now?

So I’ve got three additional science fiction novels already through their first drafts. The next one is farther along. It’s a pseudo post-apocalyptic piece about a single mother living in a corpocracy and trying to climb the ranks of the business. At the same time, she is struggling to communicate with her son and she discovers an app that’s supposed to help her to do this… with mixed results.

I’ll save more info about the other books until after The Ancient Ones has already come out.

End of Interview:

For more from c.b. strul visit his website and follow him on Instagram.

Get your copy of The Ancient Ones from Amazon US or Amazon UK.