An Interview With Bryan M. Kuderna
Thank you so much for sharing your book with me and agreeing to do a Q&A for my readers.
Give us a quick summary of Anoroc!
Anoroc is a coming-of-age fantasy novel combining real-world themes with hints of ancient philosophy. Beeker is trying to find his way in life, no longer a kid, but not yet an adult, when his single mother decides it is time for a change. He and his little brother, Dak, leave the comfort of their home in the Plains to go and live in the Mountains with their beloved Uncle Dobo, a founder of the Militia and renowned war hero. The rapidly growing population of Anoroc leaves their species, Chigidies, scrambling for sparse resources, particularly the most valuable commodity of all-- Painite. As tensions rise between White robes and Red robes, Beeker, Dak, and their generation are forced to the forefront to have any chance at peace. But, at what cost will it come?
While this is your first fiction book, you previously wrote non-fiction. How did you make the transition over to fiction?
My first book, Millennial Millionaire, was a tell-all about my experiences in the financial services industry. It was definitely easier to construct an outline based off of personal observation. However, over the past several years I became much more intrigued by reading fiction and enjoying the escape of stretching my imagination, certainly amidst this pandemic. While Anoroc is a fantasy novel, each character, sub-plot, and location comes naturally from my own world, just painted with an entirely different brush. Writing fiction after having done non-fiction is almost like speaking another language, but it’s still me speaking.
This book was created and written during the 2020 quarantine. Did your real-life events inspire your story?
Yes and no. If you look closely at the title, you’ll quickly notice some real-world inspiration. Much of the story in this book involves current events and sociopolitical ideas, but the general themes came about pre-pandemic. So, I can’t say that COVID-19 directly relates to the book, other than affording me the time to write the novel and perhaps subconsciously affecting the tone as I wrote each day in quarantine.
Did you have any major hurdles in getting this book out into the world?
I wouldn’t say any major hurdles, other than the normal struggles each author goes through. I worked with a great team of beta readers and editors to complete my manuscript and had a great illustrator for my cover and map. I spoke with a number of literary agents and was offered two deals by commercial publishers, but after some reflection, I was averse to having to change my story to fit their template and target markets. KDP made the process relatively seamless from there.
How long did it take you to finish your book, from first draft to publication?
I first started writing Anoroc in November of 2018. I had a few characters developed and some very rough chapters on paper. It was enough to feel like I was onto something, but not enough to prevent business, family obligations, etc. to take over as I entered the new year of 2019. I pretty much put the book down for all of 2019, even though it was constantly on my mind. We closed our offices during the national shutdown in March of 2020 and I immediately got to writing. My book was published on October 1, 2020. So, I guess you’d say about two years start to finish.
You describe the main character, Beeker, as “no longer a kid, but not yet an adult”. Why was it important to you for your main character to be in this age group?
I have three teenagers. I wanted the audience to be similar coming-of-age readers, think middle-school to high-school. I did my best to make Beeker resemble this exact demographic.
Your book is self-published. Can you share with us why you chose this route and what about it has worked well for you?
I touched on this briefly above, but ultimately it was to keep control of my story and tell it in a way that I was proud of. I know it was a bit harder to have to build a team of contributors to finish the book, and then be completely responsible for marketing and PR, but it’s worked out fine so far.
Your story is set in a completely new world. How did you come up with all the intricate details and rules of this new place?
It’s personal observation, just like non-fiction, but without any boundaries. In what I’ve studied in creative writing and journalism, great authors are really sharing their own unique thoughts with the world. Everything from scenes to characters can be related to the people I’ve known and places I’ve been. My honeymoon in Hawaii helped create some of the topography and beauty of the different places on Anoroc. I also used some history, Latin roots, and ancient philosophy to create some of the items in the novel. There are hidden eggs throughout.
One of the big challenges your characters face is shrinking resources and generational disparity. Was this at all inspired by trends we’re seeing in our own world?
One hundred percent. As a student of economics, the rapidly growing population on our planet has always been fascinating to me. It took an estimated 2 million years for the Earth’s population to reach one billion. Now we’re almost at eight billion people just a couple hundred of years later. The Earth hasn’t gotten any bigger over that time. Coexistence is critical, but in a lot of ways it’s getting harder.
Anoroc is available now. What are you working on next?
It’s a new year and I’m pretty much taking things in stride at this point. 2020 was an insane year, needless to say, but personally I was able to have my best year yet for my company, complete my Master’s degree, greatly expand my podcast (The Kuderna Podcast), and publish Anoroc. So, I’m taking a quick breather, reorganizing life, and seeing what piques my interest next. But I can promise there is room for sequels, both in my non-fiction and fiction world.