The following was posted to Chrystal Price’s Marvelocity Style blog in February of 2013. Sadly, the blog is no more, so I’ve posted a copy of the interview here.
Prior to Christmas, I had the opportunity to sit down with new Chicago author Mark McClelland and discuss writing, the process involved in being a self-publishing author, and his newfound literary fame.
Mark’s book, Upload recently hit the shelves on both Barnes and Noble and Amazon in both e-book and paperback form. If you are a sci-fi fan, or if you enjoyed Gary Shteyngart’s dystopian Super Sad True Love Story but wanted more depth to the characters, then please take the time to download Upload.
The setting: the not-so-distant decade of 2060. The plot: semi-orphaned Raymond Quan has come of age in a series of chilly and loveless boys’ homes, and he has all the trappings of a young man on the streets of Chicago who has lived a life with little warmth. Given an opportunity to make something of himself, Raymond exploits the trust of his wealthy employer and develops his talents as a hacker, but the secrets of his specialist talents will cost him.
Raymond’s talents served him well in life as he finds himself working on the Human Upload Project, and inadvertently finding the one thing that has been perpetually missing in his life – human compassion, and one might even say, love. Raymond is soon torn between the opportunity to have total control and protect himself from his dishonest past, and what could be a very bright future with the one woman who means something to him.
Some excerpts from our chat:
Me: So let’s talk about the publishing process. I want to talk to you about that first. How is it with being a one-man show and taking on the writing, publishing, and promotion of the book?
Mark: It’s a lot of work! The print edition of the book is now on Lulu, Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Plus, in theory at least, it’s available anywhere that uses Ingram. The eBook is available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBookstore, Google Play, Kobo, and Lulu – and I did all the conversion and publishing myself. But the real time-suck is promotion. I’ve been doing some advertising on Goodreads, in combination with a promotional giveaway. Goodreads has been my primary focus – great community of readers. I’ve been sending the book out to contests, but that’s more of a longshot. In addition to web sales, I’ve been selling and promoting through some local stores: City Lit Books, Quimby’s, and Bucket o’ Blood, as well as Indy Reads Books in Indianapolis. Honestly, with a full-time job, I haven’t been able to do justice to the promotion side of self-publishing. I need a publicist.
Me: Who inspired the characters? Do you see yourself in Raymond, or any of the other characters for that matter? I find the characters’ personalities interesting considering the thirteen year timeline in writing the book.
Mark: The characters were drawn from my imagination, inspired in varying degrees by people I know. I do see some of myself in Raymond, especially in his reluctance to open up to others—although in his case it borders on pathological. I see myself in Anya, a bit, but Nancy [my wife] definitely inspired Anya. Nancy did a lot to bring me out of my shell in college, and there are a lot of parallels in Upload. Especially in the scenes in Anya’s apartment. Suma was the character most directly inspired by a real person. She was drawn from a friend named… Suma. And yes, she gave me permission to use her name. I was looking for someone clear-headed, supportive, and honest, and she seemed perfect.
In creating the characters, especially Raymond, I wanted to capture the isolation people often experience, superficially satisfied by virtual society but really more exacerbated by it.
Me: What are some of the core themes of the book?
Mark: I wanted to demonstrate that when a genuine concern for others declines, we risk losing our potential to give. I predict an increasing prevalence of artificial personalities — bots — trained to give us what we want. With the rise of bots and virtual reality, I see a continuing trend toward isolation, especially for introverts, Raymond being an extreme example of this. Even today I’ve noticed among my own peers that there is poor interaction with our parents. Often after spending a couple of days with them we want them to go away. We prefer to pick and choose who we spend our time with, and never develop basic social skills that I see in cultures where families spend more time together. We now have a culture that empowers a person to escape social tensions easily, and the further we go in that direction, the less likely we’ll be able to deal with them [social tensions].
I also wanted to demonstrate extremes – Raymond ends up being in control of everything and everyone in his v-world, Nurania. With digital cloning, he’s also able to look at himself from outside himself. He gets a tour of his past and present, and to some degree his future, from an outsider’s perspective. It’s a technologically feasible version of the experience Ebenezer Scrooge has in “A Christmas Carol”. That’s something that could profoundly change the human experience.
Me: So, the most extreme form of introspection.
Mark: Exactly.
Me: What is your ultimate goal with the book?
Mark: Well, ultimately, I want it to inspire thought-provoking discussion. Getting readership is secondary… but, chronologically, that has to come first. I’m slowly learning what has an impact – why people buy books. I’d like to learn how to break into the book club market. And maybe win some awards – that’s instant promotion.
Me: So what’s next? An Upload sequel?
Mark: Actually, it’s a children’s book, I think. I haven’t committed to anything. I never meant to write a sequel to Upload, but am starting to consider it. Maybe not a sequel exactly, but some of the characters may feature in a future book.
Me: Any advice to other writers or wisdom you’ve acquired?
Mark: I have been writing since I was nine and have kept a journal since I was eleven. Journaling helps me think clearly, organize my thoughts, and reach conclusions in my personal life. I’ve found it to be extremely helpful. I also joined a writing circle, which met in the basement of Myopic Books, and that was really helpful. We brought our material to the circle for each person to review and comment on, and I got a lot of valuable feedback from that. I learned to pay a lot more attention to pacing, and their feedback led me to restructure the early part of the book to make the backstory easier to digest. I’m hoping to find or form another writers group once I’ve gotten past the early promotion phase with Upload and have time to work on my next book.