Featured Interview With Thaddeus Yeiser
Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
I’ve grown up all over Pennsylvania as an outdoorsman and avid lover of nature. I lived in Pittsburgh, Erie, York, Harrisburg and then finally Delaware. No pets just a nice collection of plants.
At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
I read children’s books, but it wasn’t until I read Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book (8 years old) that I realized how deep a book can take someone. I started writing at nine when I, embarrassingly, started creating Star Wars fan fiction. I quickly transitioned to building my own narratives and grew from there.
Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
I love Agatha Christie. Her ability to craft a puzzle within her plots was astounding. And then there were none has to be one of the five greatest books written in the 20th century. It’s a nearly unsolvable mystery were it not for the epilogue. Her style influenced generations of writers. Stephen King is another favorite of mine. His world building is so rich, and he sucks you into every page. That said he is not a one trick pony. He can weave the dramatic and heartwarming just as easily as the terrifying. I would also recommend Robert Jordan. He is one of the titans of modern fantasy, and if you ever get the chance to check out Wheel of Time it is well worth the journey.
Tell us a little about your latest book?
The project actually started as a screenplay in 2013 and I realized the world was compelling but the story was boring. I switched my approach and slowly built a better story around a distant post apocalypse (Roughly 700 years from now), and explored an unrecognizable medieval America that is in the throes of a civil war. The project took about five years from its earliest screenplay draft to its completion in 2018. Along the way I threw out about a thousand pages of material that just did not capture the world properly.