Many people have reportedly died in the Uinta Mountains over the years while trying to find the lost Rhoads mine. Their deaths led to legends of a lingering curse on the mine. Learning the story sparked a question in my mind: what could make a mine cursed?
John Coon – 26 November 2018
The Back Flap
Ron Olson is a reluctant newcomer to Deer Falls. Adjusting to this small Colorado town is tough for Ron, who has been torn away from his father, his friends, and his soccer team.
His situation takes a frightening turn when a mysterious woman in black is released from a chest that imprisoned her. This ancient and powerful evil descends upon Deer Falls and a series of unexplained deaths follow. No one is safe. Anyone in the town could be next.
Ron is soon targeted by the centuries-old malevolent witch as she reigns terror and death upon the town. Can Ron and his new friends find out the truth about the deaths that have plagued the town and stop the witch before more people die?
About the book
What is the book about?
Pandora Reborn centers on Ron Olson, a teenager who is a reluctant newcomer to Deer Falls. Ron is forced to move to the rural Colorado town following his parents’ divorce when his mother decides to relocate there. He’s the typical fish out of water, torn from his friends, his father and his club soccer team back in Denver.
Deer Falls soon turns out to be anything but a boring farm town where Ron is worried his budding soccer career will die. One of his classmates digs up a buried chest and foolishly frees an ancient and powerful witch who had been imprisoned inside for several decades. This malevolent witch orchestrates several deaths and unexplained disappearances and it soon grows apparent that no one in Deer Falls is safe from her wrath.
Ron and his new friends quickly become targeted by the witch. It falls on their shoulders to uncover a means to uncovering her true identity and stopping her before it grows too late.
When did you start writing the book?
The whole creative process behind Pandora Reborn actually spans many years. I came up with some backstory and characters for the book while I was a high school student. I sketched out a chapter outline and other backstory notes while taking creative writing classes in college. I didn’t begin writing a complete rough draft, however, until late 2017.
How long did it take you to write it?
It took me about six months to complete that first draft. I work as a sports reporter for a living, so I had to squeeze in time to write whenever my schedule permitted. Carving out time wasn’t a simple task. I cover NBA basketball and college basketball for the Associated Press and a couple of other media outlets from October to May. That keeps my schedule pretty full most days and it isn’t easy to drum up extra time and energy to also write fiction.
Where did you get the idea from?
A cool bit of folklore from my hometown of Kamas helped spark the initial story idea while I was still in high school 20 years ago.
Thomas Rhoads, a Mormon pioneer, was supposedly shown a sacred gold mine, located in the Uinta Mountains outside of Kamas, by Ute leader Chief Walkara. Rhoads was allowed to extract gold for the sole purpose of financing construction of the Salt Lake Temple. No one else was permitted to know the mine’s location and Rhoads was only shown the mine after promising to use the gold exclusively to help temple construction efforts.
Many people have reportedly died in the Uinta Mountains over the years while trying to find the lost Rhoads mine. Their deaths led to legends of a lingering curse on the mine. Learning the story sparked a question in my mind: what could make a mine cursed? At that point, an idea came to me of an ancient chest with an evil witch bound inside. What would she do if someone opened it and let her out? As the idea took shape, I also drew on elements of Pandora’s box in Greek mythology and the Jewish legend of the dybbuk box.
This formed the basic foundation for Pandora Reborn. I always had the woman in black, an evil witch, as the main antagonist. My protagonists from the beginning were teenagers. A large number of my main and secondary characters came to me in a rudimentary form at that time.
Were there any parts of the book where you struggled?
Crafting scenes featuring liberal amounts of dialogue were more challenging to write than other scenes within a story. Writing good dialogue is a balancing act. You need to make whatever the characters are saying have purpose and be relevant to the story. At the same time, good dialogue doesn’t veer off into endless exposition for the sake of spoon-feeding information to your audience. It also needs to feel believable within the context of the situation at hand. What your characters say, how they say it and when they say it can make or break your story.
What came easily?
I have two scenes in my book that incorporate sports. One is set at a high school football game and the other is set at a high school soccer game. I had fun writing those particular scenes because I incorporated knowledge and experience I gained over the years as a sports reporter. I was able to describe everything going on in the fictitious games with realistic accuracy. It felt fun to do some sports writing without a stringent deadline attached to it.
Are your characters entirely fictitious or have you borrowed from real world people you know?
Aspects of my characters’ personalities draw limited inspiration from people I’ve interacted with over the years as a sports reporter. For example, I used to cover high school sports in my day job and I modeled Ron’s personality after various players I interviewed and interacted with while on the high school soccer beat. Still, no single character is based on a real person living or dead that I know. They are entirely fictional.
We all know how important it is for writers to read. Are there any particular authors that have influenced how you write and, if so, how have they influenced you?
Stephen King, Dean Koontz, and Edgar Allan Poe all served as influences while I crafted Pandora Reborn. I looked at how they structured their respective stories, developed characters, described settings, and other pertinent details. Beyond the horror genre, I have drawn inspiration for my visual writing style from many authors. I enjoy reading fiction produced by John Grisham, Michael Crichton, Jack London, C.S. Lewis, Madeline L’ Engle, Phillip K. Dick, Ray Bradbury, and H.G. Wells.
Do you have a target reader?
My audience varies from book to book, depending upon the genre. For Pandora Reborn, I geared it toward audiences who like horror and young adult fiction. One thing readers will learn about me, as I publish more works, is that I enjoy writing stories in more than one genre.
About Writing
Do you have a writing process? If so can you please describe it?
One thing I like to do before I begin a story is to sketch out all my main and secondary characters. I write down their names, personality traits, personal history, and any other relevant information that will help me craft a story. Then I move onto jotting down my settings that frame the story and key plot details. Finally, I’ll sketch out key scenes and bits of dialogue I intend to insert in my story at some point. Not all the information I produce in this process gets used, but it does help frame how to approach a character or setting within my story, once I start writing the rough draft.
Do you outline? If so, do you do so extensively or just chapter headings and a couple of sentences?
I always do a chapter by chapter outline for my novels. Usually a chapter number and a brief 2-3 sentence summary of key plot points within the chapter. It offers a nice little template I can use to stave off writer’s block. I don’t always stick to it. The original chapter outline I used when writing Pandora Reborn, for example, varies substantially from the final version of the novel I published. Still, outlining is a useful tool to help keep plot and characters, organized, consistent, and fully developed.
Do you edit as you go or wait until you’ve finished?
I always try to get a complete rough draft on paper or on my laptop screen before I set to work editing it. If you self-edit while writing a rough draft, you can get bogged down worrying about little details while ignoring the bigger picture. It’s more important to focus on producing a complete story in that first draft and save major edits for subsequent drafts.
Did you hire a professional editor?
I hired beta readers to do story content editing. I did the bulk of the editing myself, since I have worked as a professional reporter and editor for 15 years. I didn’t think it made sense to hire a third party to do a specific task when I had tons of professional experience doing that same task.
Do you listen to music while you write? If yes, what gets the fingers tapping?
Not really. I try to just focus on writing. If I listen to music, I’ll start thinking about things other than the story that I’m creating.
About Publishing
Did you submit your work to Agents?
No. I decided to pass on doing that with my first novel, since I chose the self-publishing route. Submitting to an agent will be a consideration for future works, if I use a traditional publisher.
What made you decide to go Indie, whether self-publishing or with an indie publisher? Was it a particular event or a gradual process?
I made the decision over time. One thing that steered me toward the indie self-publishing route was seeing what happened to a friend of mine who published their first novel through a small traditional publisher. They received basically no advance and got cheated out of royalties. The publisher also did a poor job of editing and proofreading the story before sending it off to be published. My friend since spent considerable time trying to secure the rights again, so they can publish a second edition. I decided self-publishing made more sense as a first-time writer. I kept control of all rights and I didn’t have to worry about not getting royalties I was owed from book sales.
Did you get your book cover professionally done or did you do it yourself?
I designed the cover myself when I initially released Pandora Reborn. After I hired a marketing service to help promote my book, they suggested I redesign the cover to attract more readers and more sales. I followed the suggestion and they did the redesign for me as part of my marketing package with them. The new design has drawn a ton of praise from readers across social media.
Do you have a marketing plan for the book or are you just winging it?
When it comes to marketing Pandora Reborn, I’ve tried to cast a wide net to reach my target audience. I’ve promoted it on social media channels like Facebook and Twitter. I’ve bought ad space and run ads in places like Amazon, Facebook, Bing, Goodreads and Bookbub. I’m still working on getting reviews from various places. Of course, I’ve also relied on old-fashioned word-of-mouth promotion as well.
I’ve tried to think creatively in my marketing. In July, I ran a Friday the 13th sale during the week of Friday the 13th. What better time to watch a scary movie or read a scary book? I’ve got promotions in the works for Halloween and other holidays to reach people who may be looking for a gift to give or something new to read for themselves.
When you’re marketing as an independent author, the biggest challenge is just getting your name out there in front of enough people and getting enough of those same people to care about your book. I’m learning that you have to be creative and also be tenacious to stand out from the crowd.
Any advice that you would like to give to other newbies considering becoming Indie authors?
Being an indie author brings to mind the old line about a tree falling in the forest. If no one is around to hear that tree fall, does it make a sound? The most persistent challenge for any indie author is getting noticed amid a swarm of self-published books. You have to work hard and work smart to make yourself be seen and heard. You need to give people a reason to care.
With that in mind, indie authors should always put their best foot forward with their work. Make an effort to invest time, money, and resources into how you create your book and how you market it once it is released. I see so many so-called indie authors who throw together slapdash stories one after the other with the hope that they’ll make a quick buck. Quantity does not equal quality. Readers will appreciate a well-written novel and embrace it much quicker than something an author threw together on the fly in a transparent effort to boost their Amazon sales ranking.
About You
Where did you grow up?
I grew up in Kamas, a rural Utah town near Park City. Whenever I tell people my hometown is near Park City, they always assume I’m into skiing and snowboarding. I’m not. I prefer the summer weather and hiking.
Where do you live now?
I still live in Utah. I lived in Texas and Louisiana for a short time before returning to my home state. My day job as a sports reporter, along with helping to care for my father who will turn 80 this year, keeps me in Utah for now.
What would you like readers to know about you?
Honestly, I am someone who strives to be a good person in all that I do. I always look for ways to help other people. I’m always looking for ways to better myself and also improve the world around me.
What are you working on now?
My work in progress is a science fiction story (with some horror elements) that follows four college students from Louisiana who become trapped in an isolated Texas town where the residents are being subject to extraterrestrial genetic experimentation. My goal is to finish the rough draft before the end of 2018 and release it early 2019.
End of Interview:
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Get your copy of Pandora Reborn from Amazon US and Amazon UK.
