Featured Interview With Stephen Andrew Salamon
Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
I was raised on the Southside of Chicago and presently live on the Northside… of Chicago. I live with my soulmate and we have one perfect dog. My blood thrives with Chicago passion, and though I was asked to move to a place like LA, or for some reason, a farm, my feet are so deep in the Chicago soil, that I don’t think I can ever leave. “Frequent flyer miles.”
At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
My fascination with books began when I was probably 8 or 9 years old. I was in a Walden Books store with my Mom and I saw a thick novel called “Swan Song”. I opened it and saw all these words and just thought how amazing and impossible it was to create such a thick book with only words. Then I closed it and saw the book cover; it painted a picture for me. Then I opened it again. Closed and opened, closed and opened; it was mind-boggling to think that all these words came out of one person. To me, it was impossible. We left the store and I forgot about it; it was just a passing thought. Then when I was around 12, we were given an assignment in school to write a short story. And I LOVED IT. It didn’t seem like homework to me, and my teacher gave me an A. I still have that book. But… even though I didn’t connect the dots that the Universe was trying to point me in the ‘writers’ direction, at about 13 I had my first seizure. After that, I had 20 seizures a day till it was controlled by medicine. It… opened up something in me. A floodgate. I turned 14, and I just started writing, writing and writing. I kept it a secret though. This, to me, was just a passion, a hobby, a way of pleasing my mind. 100 pages later I wrote my first short story at 14. I wrote another book after that, right away, till each story’s page number grew larger and larger to the point where a thousand pages seemed like nothing to me, because I loved it! It’s funny, because I was taught, subliminally of course, to never speak about my seizures. But through it all, even though they are horrible, paralyzed my life in so many ways, it was a gift.
Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
I enjoy reading spiritual non-fiction, new age, anything that has curious writers with the bravery to express their brilliant ideas on life. I really have no favorite author. It’s amazing, even though I enjoy reading, I fear sometimes that when I read a fiction story, it will somehow interfere with my writing style, get infused with it.
Tell us a little about your latest book?
The Wrath of Jeremy, a religious conspiracy, is about ‘hope’ and ‘forgiveness’. It reaches into the depth of the human and spiritual realm and begs to answer the question, “Can God forgive just anyone?” I was inspired to write this book, actually, when I questioned my childhood priest about a subject matter that was bothering me back in grade school. “Will God forgive a killer?” All he said was if the person deeply wants forgiveness, then ‘yes.’ So I took the worst of the worst and tapped into this question; the Devil. And, tied it into just exactly ‘What the heck happened before Lucifer fell?’ What did he do? All we were told was he defied Him, and used his powers against him. But how? And why? What triggered it? Where did this evil suddenly come from? So, my subconscious answered it. And what a wild ride that was.
The most difficult part of writing this book, after months of research, was actually writing down the name ‘Lucifer’. It is a name that I never say, and never write down. But I got through it.
Forgiveness is always in the air, but what I’ve learned from writing this, is no matter how much you want forgiveness, your feet must be cleaned for heaven. Insane as it may sound, if you truly seek forgiveness, it is a start, but in order to clean your feet, you must make things right.
Connect with the Author on their Websites and Social media profiles
Stephen Andrew Salamon’s Website