Heather’s Bookshelf: Author Interview with Mark Wakely

What inspired you to write “An Audience for Einstein”?

Wakely: I wanted to write a novel that questions our rapidly growing ability to alter human life through genetic engineering. While there are clear benefits to eliminating cancer and other inherited diseases, where exactly do we stop trying to "improve" human life, and what might we lose in the process? Could we inadvertently create a "master race" of humans that claim to being superior to those considered eccentric or imperfect somehow? Who gets to decide which genetic changes are for the greater good, and which changes infringe on our individuality, our diversity and personal identity? Where's the line in the sand we shouldn't cross with our genetic manipulation? We run the risk of losing those very things that make us each unique, each of us an individual, separate and distinct from each other. We tend to do things just because we've discovered how to do them, but that doesn't always mean that we should. The memory transfer experiment in my novel raises all these concerns by showing how we might come to favor those we consider superior somehow over those considered undesirable or unworthy, perhaps even expendable if taken to the extreme. Those concerns were my inspiration.

How did you come up with the names of your main characters?

Wakely: My novel is loosely based on "A Christmas Carol" by Dickens. Percival Marlowe is Scrooge. I took the name Percival from Percival Lowell, a famous astronomer, and the name Marlowe from Christopher Marlowe, a British writer who wrote the play Doctor Faustus. That play is about a man who sells his soul to the devil for power and knowledge, just as Percival "buys" his memory transfer from Doctor Dorning. Like Scrooge, Percival gets to revisit his past and present, but instead of accompanied by ghosts, he finally learns the truth about his reputation while anonymously inhabiting the body of Miguel. Doctor Dorning is a German name that hews close to Goering, one of Hitler's horrible henchmen who aided Hitler in his quest for that "master race" I mentioned earlier. And Miguel Sanchez is about as common a Hispanic name that you'll find; Miguel is an "Everyman", my novel's Tiny Tim who only "ailments" are poverty and prejudice.

Is there anything that you want readers to know about you, your writing process or your book?

Wakely: Only that my novel is- ultimately- an allegorical tale of pride and redemption, as in "pride goes before a fall." It has a bittersweet ending, but the final brave choice Percival makes is the only one he could make, one that finally helps him achieve the greatness that had eluded him in his first go-around in life.

When you encounter writer’s block, what do you do to break yourself out of it?

Wakely: This might come across as flippant, but I've found the best way to overcome writer's block is to only write stories that are so compelling to you that there's no way you're not going to finish them. No way. The more lukewarm you are to a story idea, the harder it's going to be to write it, and the resulting manuscript won't be nearly as good as a story to just have to write.

What is your favorite genre, book, and/or author?

Wakely: I'm partial to science fiction, and think Ray Bradbury is still an underrated writer. He should be right up there with Faulkner and Hemingway, or nearly so.

What are you working on next?

Wakely: I just published my second young adult novel, A Friend Like Filby. Not science fiction exactly, although a classic 1960 science fiction movie plays an important part.

Learn More About the Author and An Audience for Einstein here:

http://www.anaudienceforeinstein.com/

Interested in checking out the book for yourself?

Find it for purchase here

Interested in submitting your book for review? Visit my review page for guidelines and submission requirements.

review