Q&A Session With Author Charles Anthony
Q: Who are your top 10 favourite authors or books?
A: That’s so hard to choose! but here’s a list that stands out for me:
1. The Lord of the Rings
2. Gilead
3. Cry, the Beloved Country
4. The Brothers Karamazov
5. The Power and the Glory
6. The Mayor of Casterbridge
7. I, Robot
8. All of Harry Potter
9. A Fortunate Life by A.B. Facey (a lesser-known Australian work)
Q: What books should everyone read?
A: My friend Michael Cook wrote a list on a website called 101 Books That Generation Y Should Read Before They Die. I’ve read all of those and I’m working through his second list now. It’s a great guide.
Q: When do characters come to you in the writing process?
A: They come at different times. Sometimes they’re the starting point of an idea. In The Mars Man, the central character was necessary as the author of the “Testament” within the book. Other times, characters emerge to serve a specific narrative purpose or to voice a particular perspective. Some surprise you and become essential. Others are born into the plot or fade out of it as needed.
Q: How much research do you do before writing?
A: A lot! For The Mars Man, I did extensive research on Mars—its geography, like Olympus Mons (27 km high!), and the science behind methane production, solar panels, and carbon types, etc. For my historical novel (which I hope to finish by the end of 2025), I’ve been diving into both primary and secondary sources, including art and language. Capturing the right tone and phrasing from another era is one of the hardest parts, but if you can find a thesaurus from that era, or better yet, read books from those times/cultures, you can write authentic dialogue.
Q: Why do you think reading is important?
A: Reading is essential for forming character and culture. In Shadowlands, there’s a line: “We read to know we’re not alone.”
He clarifies that you might say we love to know that we’re not alone. And that starts a really interesting line of thought for C.S. Lewis. Following Shakespeare, art holds the mirror up to nature, and books are the carriers of culture, of our human experience, of difficulties and ecstasies and things that are overcome, recording historical events, and they need good people to write them so that we don’t repeat the mistakes of the past, but also we nourish them and we’re enriched by them in our present.
Title: The Mars Man
Author: Charles Anthony
Genre: Dystopian Science Fiction
Book Links
Amazon: https://amzn.to/4oVxjTC
Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/books/the-mars-man-by-charles-anthony
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/241014929-the-mars-man
Charles Anthony was born in the Hunter Valley, Australia, in 1990. He moved to New Zealand in 2017, obtained a Master of Laws degree from the University of Auckland and then moved to the Waikato where he works as a lawyer and is actively involved in his community.
In the summer of 2021 he began writing. Working in the evenings and on the weekends, he produces short stories, poems and novels. In 2025 he launched his first novel, the Mars Man, on Amazon.
Charles Anthony lives in Hamilton, New Zealand.
Author Links
Website: https://www.charlesanthonyauthor.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61552555907178
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/charlesanthonycreator/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@CharlesAnthony-creator
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Charles-Anthony/author/B0CV2JYYD3
$10 Amazon or Paypal
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Direct link for the Contest: https://gleam.io/gf0rU/the-mars-man
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