Interview with Ashanti Luke

Some men kick ass and take names, as the saying goes (forgive my language, but that is the saying). Other men take to the spinner racks at the local 7-11 and grab up every paperback dream they can find, scuttling back home to read one sci-fi novel after another. Ashanti Luke embodies the soul of both men, training his body in martial arts and turning his pen to chronicling otherworldly migrations into life, philosophy, and the epitome of the human heart under heavy strain.

Ashanti Luke was one of my English professors while at community college; he taught me basic creative writing as well as a survey course on Contemporary American Science Fiction. The author of three books—Dusk, Nightfall and Kindred Spirits—Ashanti brilliantly melds the differing craftsmanship capabilities of Octavia Butler, Orson Scott Card, and Isaac Asimov. Currently working on the world-building for more books in the Dusk universe, the Ultimate Warrior-turned Nerd Philosopher now takes a few moments to talk with me.

First and foremost: would you care to introduce yourself for the audience? Do you consider yourself an admirer of the great artist and ‘Don Juan’ that is James Moore?

I don’t know if I would call you Don Juan. You are a specimen of virile masculinity, but Libertarian and Libertine aren’t even close to synonyms—that said, I am an admirer of James Moore. I don’t really know what else to say that hasn’t already been said. I like like video games isn’t really in there, but I think you did me a solid on the rest.

You are quite the fan of various bits of pop culture, from modern science fiction to Japanese monster films. What was it about the farthest reaches of genre fiction that interests you, and at what point did you realize you wanted to contribute to those areas of pop culture?

I am honestly interested in anything that is interesting. That may sound flippant, but I can find interest even in things that annoy me. I try to find something to enjoy in whatever is in front of me—if it is going to be in front of me anyways. Life is full of enough misery without me carrying the standard for it. That said, I try to see or suss out the wonder in anything, and I can appreciate someone who is good at what they do (and in the case of genre writers knows his or her audience well). My wife also listens to a lot of audiobooks, and so I have heard quite a few through proxy. Probably the ones that have stood out the most there are the Twilight Series, Eric Jerome Dickey Gideon novels (whose work did not appeal to me on the surface) Niffenegger’s Time Traveler’s Wife, and a host of J.D. Robb (Nora Roberts) novels. As far as my part in it all is concerned, I simply like to tell stories, and I like to philosophize, but I prefer dialects to didactics, so I am fond of the ‘conversation’ writers have with their audience when things are working well.

Would you say that you are a genuine nerd (much like Toby of Harvey Pekar’s American Splendor)? Or is there more that’s under the skin, like Peter Parker and his alter ego Spiderman?

I am definitely a genuine nerd, but I would say more like a Tony Stark, with a bit of Peter Parker’s social awkwardness. I feel less like the superpowered dude in pajamas, and more like the regular, squishy dude in the suit that actually built the suit. Honestly, in that way, I think I might identify the most with some of the more modern incarnations of Lex Luther on most days, and Tony Stark on the really good ones. I guess what that all means is that I can put on a decent show, but I am a set of battling contradictions—I’m Tennessee Williams character shy, and yet I get paid to stand in front of people and talk for a living. I love to debate and spar, but hate confrontation. I like attention and crowd-pleasing, but don’t like to be watched while I work. I think, in the end, it does make for some pretty good perspectives on characters and worldbuilding though.

Tell us more about your novel Dusk and the fictional universe behind it. You have other books planned in a series, right?

Well, Dusk begins at a pivotal point in the future of Earth where it becomes overpopulated. It is not a bleak future in a Harlan Ellison or Orwellian sense, but even with the cool tech, many of humanity’s issues are magnified even though others are ‘fixed.’ An expedition is sent to colonize a new planet, but when the team sent to colonize arrives, thanks to an unfortunate mix of Moore’s Law and relativity, they find the planet is not only already colonized, but the ‘colony’ has been there for hundreds of years and, in the process, has had a war with Earth and defeated it.  The main character also finds that he is directly related to the events that led to the war in a way that he feels responsible, and that the events may have had more to do with humanity’s past than contemporary event. Without telling too much of the story, the actual world built around the events of the story are revealed gradually to the central characters as they act on what is in front of them, but the causality literally spans all of human experience and ultimately how the universe began (literally). There are aliens, secret societies, pivotal and catalytic events that lead to the story in the first book that the characters at the denouement are barely aware of, if at all. There are many standalone stories that can be told within the mythos that will eventually culminate into the Dusk trilogy. All said, there are three main books, two short story collections, at least two (possibly 4 or 5) novellas, and a history textbook (yes, a history textbook) that would be written at the conclusion of the entire story.

Your fiction fits within a certain sub-category of science fiction. Do you plan on digging deeper into the genre and writing in other types and using other tropes?

Well, my first novel, Kindred Spirits, was technically a Suspense Thriller with Sci-Fi elements. Before being introduced to Octavia Butler and Orson Scott Card, two of my biggest influences were Dean Koontz and Michael Crichton with some Douglas Adams on the side. Many of the short pieces I wrote in grad school were Creative Non-fiction or thriller-type pieces. I didn’t realize my sci-fi ‘calling’ fully until I wrote Dusk, actually. So, the short answer is, yes. Aiwass, my first novella, and some of the pieces within Nightfall actually cross into other genres. There are hard-boiled detective, western, and horror elements in Aiwass. Corcovado in Nightfall is a love story. Sarsippius in Nightfall is an ensemble piece and a kind of modern Bildungsroman that is about the coming-of-age of each of the individuals in the society rather than society reflected through one individual’s growth. OskarWyld in Nightfall is a thriller set in a sci-fi world and is kind of like what if J.G. Ballard rewrote Hemingway’s Cross Country Snow. (Not that I’m likening myself to Ballard or Hemingway)

Who are some of your influences, both in the genre of thriller novels and in the real world of religion, politics, and family life?

Well, I already mentioned a few of the literary influences. I studied a lot of Eastern Religion and philosophy in undergrad, but I also had a minor in film, and so I got a good background in a lot of old school film like Hitchcock, Brando movies. I also had a fellowship where I worked with a renowned play critic, so there’s some Eugene O’Neil, Tennessee Williams, August Wilson, Lorraine Hansbury. I was a big fan of Hong Kong cinema before Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon (at the risk of sounding like a hipster), so I was also greatly influenced by pre-American film John Woo, Tsui Hark, Zhang Yimou, and Wang Kar Wai. One of the biggest influences on Dusk that may not be obvious is my love for Luo Guanzhong’s Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

Do you find that your education influenced your writing and reading tastes (not just in your stories but in the real world)?

I think some of the answer to this is implied in the last answer, but I think it is a two-way road. I think I made some of my choices in education because of interests, but that education, in turn, also changed what I was exposed to and, therefore, colored my experience afterward. Causality is funny that way.

How do religion, philosophy and politics enter into your world building? Do you think that novelists and short story writers should be socially conscious when they pen their stories, or does that sort of thing get in the way of the process?

I usually have several layers beneath those in the story. They shape my world building very strongly because my worlds are built on the actions of the characters, whether they are featured in the stories or not. Choices create the present that we see in front of us, and those choices are made by people—people who are driven by culture, history, fears, desires, beliefs, and I feel all of these things are important to making a world feel real—whether it is invented or not. Honestly, history and sci-fi aren’t that different. The biggest difference is the narrative historians create is based on empirical evidence. At the end of the day, it is still a world built around what we understand of human experience, whether we can verify details or not. The most important details to verify is what a person would or wouldn’t do. When those don’t add up, we don’t believe it—fiction or not. In Aiwass, all of the fires, many of the people and places, and many of even the small events (Lovecraft’s favorite cat disappeared that week), are actual details that can be looked up—the reports on the warehouse fire at the end of the story corroborate many of the details.  All of this is to say that historians and anthropologists work together to devise narratives of the past, and I try to create my stories using some of the same ideas—this makes religion, culture, and political notions vitally important to creating veritas and making the imagined world feel real.

You taught me at John Tyler Community College, where you led several creative writing students. What is one main thing you want for aspiring writers to know and understand from this point on?

The worst thing you can do in writing is to not write. I think most beginning writers don’t realize you will spend at least 60% of your time revising or even rewriting when you ‘write.’ Honestly, we should call it something else. I mean, you can Facetime from your iPad, but you don’t call it a cellphone.

Do you see yourself writing novels outside of the Dusk universe? You already have one novel that is standalone, entitled Kindred Spirits—would you care to discuss this book?

I do. Once I get the Dusk series in a good place, I have two ideas I might work on. One deals with a fancy cruise ship with a unique power supply that goes through the Bermuda Triangle and winds up on the Cherokee ancestral plain. The other is called Sleepwalk, and is likely next on the list and deals with simulation theory and tech made by a society that understands human consciousness more than they understand jet propulsion. Kindred Spirits, is the first novel I wrote and was my thesis for my MPW (USC’s fancy name for their writing MFA). It is (now) a period piece that takes place in 1991 in Richmond. Michelle Long is almost run down by a car but is saved by a mysterious young man who claims he is from a future where the world is about to be destroyed. He explains that he believes that not only does Michelle need to live to save the future, but Maximillian Powers, a seemingly harmless religious leader, needs to die—and Michelle needs to kill him. The book itself has a bit of a different audience base than my other work, but it is a lot of fun. I particularly like the energy created by the circumstances I had to write it under (there was a very strict time constraint, and my tech kept breaking), and the fact that I was the age of the main characters when I wrote it.  There’s also some pretty cool RVA and 90’s nostalgia.

We’re about to wrap up, so last question: Any recent books or websites that you wish to plug?

I just released Aiwass and Nightfall in paperback and Aiwass is currently available on Kindle. The second edition of Nightfall on Kindle (to match the paperback) should release by the time or not too long after this is posted. Dusk and Kindred Spirits are also being revised for paperback release by the end of April, and revamped digital versions of both of those will also be released shortly thereafter. Currently, my website at www.AshantiLuke.com is under construction, but the temp site has information and links. I have accounts at Facebook: www.facebook.com/ashantilukeauthor, Twitter: @Ashanti_Luke, and Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ashanti_luke

Thank you for talking with me today Ashanti.

 

Thank you for having me 😊