We had the pleasure of interviewing William “Bill” Latoria, Author of The Blackshade Machine. Here are the excerpts from the interview.
Hi, Great to have you with us today! Please share with our readers about yourself.
Hello, I’m a self-published author. Currently, I’m writing book 4 of my SCI-FI series, The Blackshade Machine, and I have a partially written thriller, along with plans to write a Game Master guidebook in the future.
Please tell us about your book, The Blackshade Machine.
The Blackshade Machine is a story about first contact at its core. Aliens arrive on Earth in the year 2072 and reveal our origins and truths about us as a species that some people can accept and that some outright reject. Needless to say, having humanity broken into two factions tends to get a bit chaotic pretty quickly, and that’s the story my series explores. The main character is a lifelong military man, Blackshade, and his second in command, Zahera. Together they have to figure out a way to keep the aliens happy and keep humanity from ripping itself apart as these revelations are made public. Its been a lot of fun to write, and so far, its been received by readers very positively (4/5 stars and multiple awards since its debut in 2019).
Please share more about your journey.
I started writing in 2009 while deployed with the USAF. When not deployed, I would regularly run D&D sessions for local friends, which I used as my creative outlet. While deployed, I didn’t have that outlet, so my wife suggested I write a book. Six months later, I had written two books for a fantasy series. Unfortunately, I published that series with a vanity publisher and lost the rights to it completely. The books are still on Amazon, and there is a class action lawsuit against the defunct company, but so far, nothing has helped. This discouraged me, and I took a break from writing for many years. In 2016, I got the urge to write again and came up with The Blackshade Machine. I learned a lot from my foray with my fantasy series, and because of that, The Blackshade Machine is much better (IMO). I’m enjoying the writing a lot more, and I look forward to completing the first part of the series before moving on to my next projects.
What are the strategies that helped you become successful in your journey?
Not allowing myself to put undue pressure to complete my next book, “Just to get it out there.” I don’t want to put out a product that isn’t 100%. Each book in my series is as flawless as I can get it before it’s published. I take a lot of pride in the stories I put out there. Also, surrounding myself with a solid support group of self-published authors through Dale L. Roberts’ YT, Discord, and FB groups help. Having a group of artists I can bounce ideas off of and learn from has been an invaluable resource for my work.
Any message for our readers?
If you enjoy science fiction that makes you think and possibly question (for fun) why things are the way they are (Why do we sleep? Why do we feel the need to collect stuff? Are we unique?), then I believe you’ll really enjoy this series.
Fantastic! So tell us, how can people find out more about you?
You can visit my website and I have an Instagram @theblackshademachine. Also, if you want to reach out to me directly, my email is blackshademachine@outlook.com.
Thank you so much for giving us your precious time! We wish you all the best for your journey ahead!
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