Salvation Day was the winner in the Paranormal category of the 2018 IndieReader Discovery Awards, where undiscovered talent meets people with the power to make a difference.
Following find an interview with author RD Meyer.
What is the name of the book and when was it published?
I published Salvation Day at the end of October of 2017.
What’s the book’s first line?
“Rain fell steadily as tears streamed down his cheeks.”
What’s the book about? Give us the “pitch”.
Mike Faulkner wants to kill God. No, he doesn’t want to convince less people to believe; he wants to confront the deity Himself and watch Him die.
After he lost his baby girl to a childhood illness, his wife, consumed by grief, committed suicide. Through a series of (seemingly) random events, he comes to know that his wife’s soul has been sent to Hell for this violation. However, Mike is a theoretical mathematician whose equations show the potential for a new form of energy that can affect the bonds of reality. In the midst of this discovery, he’s approached by a demon from Hell’s ruling council with an offer of immortality in exchange for creating a new weapon to storm the gates of Heaven and confront the Almighty. The demons promise to free his wife and give him absolute power for his efforts. And all it will take is destruction on an unimaginable scale, as well as the discarding of conscience in order to satiate anger. After all, what’s the harm in annihilating Heaven if that means the cruel will of God can be overcome and real justice established?
What inspired you to write the book? A particular person? An event?
The birth of my first child wasn’t as smooth as my wife and I might’ve liked. She was born ten weeks early, and she had a lot of problems at first. After she got better and came home(healthy, thankfully), my mind started to wander. As a writer, I naturally went into a story about how I might’ve reacted in that grief had things not gone as smoothly for her afterwards. Salvation Day is the result.
What’s the most distinctive thing about the main character? Who-real or fictional-would you say the character reminds you of?
The main character is a mess of contradiction. He is compassionate and ruthless, brilliant and reactive, and loving and angry, all at the same time. He’s kind of a mix of Bobby Dollar from Tad Williams’ The Dirty Streets Of Heaven and Will Dulac from A Call To Arms by Alan Dean Foster…assuming you strip the hope from both characters for most of the novel.
What’s the main reason someone should really read this book?
To allow themselves to explore questions about life we’ve all had but were not bold enough to ask out loud. This story can be a vehicle for people to channel their own struggle into a larger world where the main character can seek answers we normally can’t or won’t.
If they made your book into a movie, who would you like to see play the main character(s)?
I really like Chris Evans, but he might be a bit too clean-cut to be believable with some of the darker things the main character has to do. Michael Fassbender can pull off dark and vulnerable at the same time, so he might be a good choice. For the entire demonic council of Satan…I actually had specific folks in mind when I wrote each character, but I think it best to let the reader picture them without my bias.
When did you first decide to become an author?
When I was nine. We wrote short stories in my 4th grade class, and being able to create my own worlds hooked me immediately.
Is this the first you’ve written?
No. I’ve also published a paranormal novel about a vampire hunter that works for the Catholic Church called Akeldama, and I’m about to publish my third novel entitled Wrongful Death – it’s about a teenager that is killed in a car wreck and can’t move on until he avenges himself against the person responsible for the accident.
What’s the best and the hardest part of being an indie?
The best part is unquestionably the freedom. Everything from the story to the edits you accept to the cover is entirely at your discretion. The hardest part is getting noticed by a larger audience. Hopefully this award will help that part. 🙂
What’s a great piece of advice that you can share with fellow indie authors?
Keep writing and ignore critics – and they will be legion – who think you can’t do it. After you have, you’ll be amazed by the number of people who claim they also have a book they’re ready to write.
Which writer, living or dead, do you most admire?
There are so many, from Stephen King to Timothy Zahn to Harry Turtledove, but if I had to pick just one, it would probably be Richard Matheson. He was an original, and he knew how to tell a story that could make you think.