Author Interview – Charles Franklin

My friend Charles Franklin is a YA author who is releasing his debut book, Children of the Forgotten. It’s an exciting story of a dystopian world where a city of survivors are looking for hope, and they’ll find it in unlikely places. I’m going to do a review tomorrow, but today here’s Charles telling me about his inspiration:

What inspired you to write this story?

Post-apocalyptic stories are some of my favorite, and I always enjoy how the characters fight against whatever foe has caused this end-of-the-world scenario. As a fan of these stories, though, I found myself wanting to tell my own tale and fill it with faith. Plenty of authors have done it, and done it well, but I hope I put a bit of a different twist on it!

What do you hope people are going to get out of your story?

I want them to know that, even when it seems like the world is ending, it’s not. Each of us is fighting a battle, and some days the enemy seems to be winning. But, this is not true. We serve an awesome, powerful God, Who only has good things in store for us. One of my favorite lines from the novel is, “All is lost. All is gone. But this one thing: hope.” I hope my readers remember that when things sometimes seem too much to bear.

What are some of your favorite authors?

I’ll start with the usual for a fantasy author, and say Tolkien and Lewis. In addition to them, though, I read a lot of Anne Rice and I’ve always given her credit for helping me fall in love with stories. There was just something about how she brought her characters to life in a way that made me fear, yet love them. Robert Ludlum introduced me to action thrillers, and is a big influence on a novel that I’ll talk a bit more about in a later question!

What’s a secret pleasure you use to motivate yourself as a writer to get through a tricky spot?

What’s a real world thing you’ve done that found its way into your book?

What are you working on next?