Description:
Born an outcast, raised a soldier, and chosen as a savior. Rafian VCA is humanity's only hope against a vicious new race of predators aimed at taking over the galaxy of Anstractor. In Anstractor: Vestalia, the first book by author Greg Dragon, the planet of Vestalia has been completely taken over by the Geralos. After losing their home and being forced into space, the revengeful Marines of Vestalia decide to take the fight back to the Geralos and win their planet back.
Really liked this book, the characters and story line were well thought out and written. - Chris
I see many gun-shy authors posting blurbs of their unfinished books to ask strangers to judge their characters. While this is a great idea to get an honest and general opinion, I wonder how much of that character’s design could you explain (or defend) when asked later on why you chose to make them do the things that they’ve done? You cannot let people’s opinion sway you one way or another if you are firm in who you’re presenting. Rafian VCA being the debonair, galaxy-hopping, good guy would have probably bored me to tears had I written him that way, but the one that I created makes people throw the book at the wall in rage. I absolutely love that!
GUEST POST
The Importance of Being A Fan of Your Own Book
If I was to give advice to anyone that is considering authorship it would be that they should believe in their book. A simple suggestion but an important one. You cannot sell what you yourself don’t believe in, so become a fan of your own work.
My book Anstractor: Vestalia seems to bring out a lot of emotion in some readers. I know this because I have been pulled to the side and yelled at, my own girlfriend flung the book across the room, and someone wrote me an email to suggest a bit of conspiracy theory within the story. I didn’t think that the book would touch people as it has, but the story being so much about relationships makes perfect sense when I think about it. All of this to say that the feedback has pressure within it to change my protagonist. There doesn’t seem to be a grey area with him in terms of likability; I have people that love him and understand him and others (like my girlfriend) that hate everything about him.
When I wrote the character of Rafian VCA, I didn’t write him to be likable, I wrote him to be who he is. Many people dislike him and the things that he does, but that’s alright with me. Like a living, breathing person, he isn’t perfect and I am happy with that because it makes him a real character.
I see many gun-shy authors posting blurbs of their unfinished books to ask strangers to judge their characters. While this is a great idea to get an honest and general opinion, I wonder how much of that character’s design could you explain (or defend) when asked later on why you chose to make them do the things that they’ve done? You cannot let people’s opinion sway you one way or another if you are firm in who you’re presenting. Rafian VCA being the debonair, galaxy-hopping, good guy would have probably bored me to tears had I written him that way, but the one that I created makes people throw the book at the wall in rage. I absolutely love that!
Ask me why my character does what he does and I can answer it without hesitation. I can answer because he came from an idea that I believed in and not one that was “popular”, or “perfect” for people to digest. This makes it easy to sell and market Anstractor because as the author, I am its biggest fan.
What I have experienced in my short time since releasing Anstractor is a flood of feedback that is based more on the reader’s personal feelings than any one flaw that could be fixed in the writing. If I was not firm in what I believed my character’s personality to be, or his motivations, I would feel obligated to change him into what I assume others want him to be. We all want to be perfect, best-selling authors, but at the end of the day it is our book to mold in a way that will make us proud.
Many of the characters in the books that I love are not characters that I can identify with or want to have a drink with in real life. I respect their authors for presenting them to me as they were meant to be and this is why you should stay firm in what you believe in for your book.
EXCERPT
“Let me guess Marine, you’re probably thinking of that pretty girlfriend of yours.”
Rafian had to smile at the accusation.
“Is it that obvious?” he asked, but Val didn’t return the smile like Rafian assumed he would.
“Well, I know you haven’t been thinking of her while fighting these things, but check your thoughts when you do. The lizards have consumed enough pureblood Vestalian women to where some have been gifted with the ability to read us and put thoughts into our heads. I had it happen to me once when I sat on my gun thinking of Chelle, and some recon spucha bastard gave me visions of her being tortured and killed. I wondered where the hell that level of thought came from, and thought it was the war y’know screwing with me.”
Rafian was intrigued and horrified at the same time.
“So these guys have us outmanned, outgunned, and can put thoughts into our heads now?” he asked Val, but not in a way that Val could answer. “How exactly are we even winning on this moon with those odds?” Rafian mused.
Val gave a mocking laugh, injected a ration bar into his mask, and sat back chewing for a while, as if the question was worth considering.
“Who knows Raf, maybe they’re letting us win for some greater strategy. But remember what I told you, in case you’re ever alone with one of them. You should keep Vani and her memory off of the battlefield where she’s safe.”
Rafian nodded and thanked his friend. Val then went on to make fun of him for having a thing for bad girls, a joke that apparently had made its rounds to Missio-tral from all the friends who knew him.
“Vani’s not a bad girl Val. What has she done to anyone besides being annoying?”
Val looked genuinely surprised.
“What!? Do you not know why they made her a button-pushing navigator instead of the admiral path that she was pursuing?”
Rafian shook his head, sadly awaiting what he assumed would be disappointing news.
“Well, your woman punched out the Cadet Commander after they had words one night and the woman was carted out to receive multiple zaps to her face to keep her pretty. I’m surprised you didn’t hear about this. Look at you, thinking that you had a gentle wildflower all this time. It got bad man, you must’ve been on a mission or something, but princess had to call mommy and daddy to bail her out, as the Commander was a step away from shooting her out of an airlock for assaulting an officer. Her parents are powerful people so she got away with it, but you need to watch your back with Vani Narcila, that girl has a temper on her!”
Rafian chuckled.
“She didn’t tell me about any of this when I got back with Aurora.”
“See…, you and bad girls man! First with Kim the Terrible, and now with Violent Vani. Hell if you and Vani don’t work out, you can holler at Rueche SYN, the girl who tried to blow up the ship after she failed out of Special Operations.”
“Ha!” Rafian looked at Val and smiled.
“What about Vestalia? Is she a bad girl?” he asked, still thinking of her beautiful face grimacing from the stasis. Val got serious and made to get to his feet as he answered.
“You’re not her type Raf. Trust me, Vani would get her before you would. Either way I’m gonna go take advantage of this chance to sleep buddy. If I were you, I would do the same.”
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About the author:
Greg Dragon hails from sunny South Florida and has worked in the creative field for several years. He has written extensively on the web with articles on gaming and lifestyle improvement and continues to do so on several websites today.
With a background in martial arts, military history, and computer programming, Greg's varied and unique background has aided his imagination in developing wonderful worlds in the realm of gaming and short stories. Being a reader himself, Greg's influence comes from many authors not limited to Frank Herbert, George Orwell, and Stephen King. Greg believes that Science Fiction should do as much teaching as it does entertaining and that the best books leave a mark on it's reader.
Greg writes daily for a series of blogs (or on his books), and does monthly interviews on various podcasts and radio stations where his expertise on relationships and being a modern Gentleman are utilized.
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