Lance Erlick is the author of several sci-fi thriller books including the Regina Shen series, the Rebel series, Xenogeneic and his latest series Android Chronicles.
On your website you describe your work as: “Action-packed, science fiction thrillers with strong female characters.” Why female protagonists?
I’ve been drawn to writing strong female characters because I grew up with strong, clearly defined women. My mother moved to Chicago when she was 18 to work in early radio. After the start of World War II, she volunteered for the navy. She put herself through college to get her BS, masters, and PhD, as a single mom. My paternal grandmother got her bachelor’s degree in math in 1917 because she was told women couldn’t major in chemistry, her primary interest. I found myself in the care of quite a few women, most of whom were highly motivated, with well-defined personalities. I began writing from the female POV when a character in one of my stories dared me to write her story.
Your latest series is called Android Chronicles. What is your fascination with androids – robots that look like humans?
During my lifetime, I’ve watched robots and computers evolve from clunky, difficult to use playthings to sophisticated machines and the beginnings of artificial intelligence. I became fascinated by the implications of making them more capable and refined. In some regards, an android that can physically and verbally pass for human presents one ultimate direction in refining robots. Certainly, not the only path, but if an android can pass for human in every measurable way, would it deserve human rights? That’s a question my stories wrestle with.
How did you come up with the idea for the Android stories?
I have been pondering android stories for quite some time but couldn’t quite create a framework until the idea came to me to write from the point of view of the android. Then the story practically wrote itself. I felt like I was typing dictation in creating it. Quite an inspiring experience.
What kind of research did you do to make the androids’ superpowers appear realistic?
I grew up reading Isaac Asimov and his various robot stories, which wrestled with artificial intelligent machines acquiring many human attributes. That stimulated my imagination to conjure up my own versions. In trying to come up with a viable storyline, I researched recent developments in both robotics and artificial intelligence and extrapolated. I wanted the intelligence to be entirely contained within the android so that it/she was not confined to being connected to outside computers. One book I enjoyed during this research was Artificial Intelligence by Melanie Mitchell.
You’ve written several series. Do you have a secret sauce for writing series?
I didn’t start out to write series. My first was Rebel. I couldn’t get Annabelle Scott out of my head until I gave voice to her story. My second series, Regina Shen, was envisioned as a series with five major stories. Android Chronicles: Reborn was written as a standalone, but as soon as I finished, much more of Synthia’s story welled up. As for secret sauce, all I do is write the stories that come to me.
What was your publishing experience like for the Android Chronicles?
Right after I finished the rough draft of Android Chronicles: Reborn, family health issues took me away from writing, publishing, and marketing at the pace I’d done previously. I contacted a number of agents I’d pitched in the past. One took on my new series and Kensington published it. This was a huge help since they did the final editing, the cover, and publishing. They took care of most of the marketing. I was very satisfied with how they handled my stories.
You sell your books through Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Google Play, and Apple iTunes. Are those last three venues audio books, eBooks?
Kensington placed the audiobooks for Android Chronicles such that they are up for sale at all of those outlets, as are the eBooks. The last three sites add to my overall sales, but Amazon is still the big player.
You attend a lot of author fairs, why?
Going to events is an opportunity to step away from the solitary writer role and meet with other authors and potential readers. The best event I went to was one that lasted a few hours. A half hour prior to closing, most of the writers left. I was the last one there, packing up my books when a woman walked in, wandered over and we began talking about her interests and my books. She ended up buying one of each, eleven books in total.
What role does social media play in promoting your books?
I got heavily involved with using social media to promote my books. However, social media requires constant involvement to keep up. With family health demands, I haven’t had the time to continue doing so. I’m hoping to move back out in 2024.
For more see this post for Lance’s thoughts on getting book reviews.
