CODE: Revelation (The Emporion Chronicles Book 1) By Boris Sanders

8/3/2019

Multi-volume author, Boris Sanders, introduces us to his book “CODE: Revelation (The Emporion Chronicles Book 1)”:
Introverted computer scientist Maximilian Gutenberg had no intention of acquiring a crystal with a being trapped inside, especially not one with the power to save— or destroy—humanity.
Her name is Lucy, and she cannot escape her prison until her mission is complete. A mission she keeps secret from everyone, even Max.
But she needs his help.
To gain his trust, she offers to get rid of his abusive boss in one week, and get him that promotion he always wanted. She’ll make him the hero of his own life, a man worthy of recognition, in exchange for helping her complete her mission.
This could be the opportunity of Max’s life, but he can’t help but wonder if Lucy is as good as she seems… And exactly what mission she must complete to regain her freedom.
Set in a dystopian, futuristic city built miles into the sky, “CODE: Revelation” is a powerful, psychological thrill ride that calls into question the nature of good and evil, and the importance of taking control of your own destiny.

This book is so much fun! I loved following the adventures and misadventures of Maximilian, his trusty, rusty robot and Julia, his girlfriend; with some very special leverage provided by Lucy who is from a crystal.
Boris Sanders' writing is wonderful. He has a great sense of comedy, I found myself laughing and chuckling all the way through the book. The dialogue really sparkles! The characters have some good depth to them, the action is downright exciting at times!
I award 5 stars to “CODE: Revelation”. This ride is well worth taking!

You can buy this book:
https://smile.amazon.com/Code-Revelation-Emporion-Chronicles-Book-ebook
https://www.goodreads.com/book/-code-revelation
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Code-Revelation-Chronicles-Boris-Sanders

You can follow the author:
https://twitter.com/BorisSanders1
https://borissanders.com
https://www.facebook.com/BorisSandersAuthor

Tags: science fiction, sci-fi, technopunk thriller, cyberpunk, action, robot, romance, dystopian past, office work

Copyright © 2019 Mark L. Schultz except for the author’s introduction

36 Comments

Boris Sanders

8/4/2019 11:13:25 am

Thank you for the great review Mark. I'm glad you enjoyed the book!

Mark

8/4/2019 12:25:25 pm

you are very welcome Boris. I enjoyed your book a great deal. You made me laugh quite a bit.
I enjoyed your book a great deal. You made me laugh quite a bit.
First question.
Please tell me a little bit about yourself beyond what is in your biography.

8/4/2019 01:00:40 pm

Well, I started writing when I was around 12 years old, at the time I would ask my teachers to read the stories and give me feedback, but it was only a hobby. I later graduated in Business and started working on the field, some of my experiences certainly helped me to build some of the world and characters in Code Revelation, the original idea for Delio, for instance was based on a teacher I had during my bachelor's degree.

8/4/2019 01:48:02 pm

You had the writing bug at an early age. Very nice. Did you save your writing from those early years?
That college teacher must have made everyone’s life quite difficult. You translated that teacher into your book wonderfully.
New questions. What inspired you to write this book?

Why did you choose this genre, or do you feel the genre chose you?

8/4/2019 03:03:12 pm

I still have some of my early drafts, but I don't think I will be sharing them any time soon, haha.

I wanted to write an actual book and get it published, that was my only thought when I started this project. The world came alive before the story and the characters. I thought of all the sci-fi cities I had seen in movies or read in books, and at some point it struck me that none of them had the multi-level set up that Emporion has. After the world was done, then came the story and the characters were the last bit. Can you imagine that the first time I thought about this story, Lucy wasn't involved at all?

I would say this genre chose me. Basically all the movies, series and books that I consume are either sci-fi or fantasy. So it was only natural for me to write in these genres as well.

8/4/2019 03:29:12 pm

That’s an interesting way of writing your story. It seems most authors start with plot or characters. I always like hearing a new way of producing a book and I think this qualifies.
New questions.
Who designed the cover of your book? Feel free to drop a link if appropriate.

What do the elements on the cover represent?

8/4/2019 04:47:26 pm

It was a designer by the name of Julianne Campagnac, who I believe did an amazing job designing this cover. You can see some of her work, including my book cover, on the following link: https://www.artstation.com/jully_campagnac, while the original picture was taken by JC Gellidon. You can see his original picture here: https://unsplash.com/photos/E3NUmCScugo

The idea behind the cover was to convey the feeling of a thriller, while the hooded figure and the binary numbers represent hacking activity, which was part of the main focus at this point of the series.

8/4/2019 06:16:35 pm

The hooded figure is a great element, it adds a lot of mystery to the cover. Your people did a great job. That brings another thing to mind, while writing the first draft is a solitary adventure. After that, most authors benefit from having help in many different areas including the cover and back cover.
As a proofreader, I am one of the people an author can turn to for specialized help. I also have many lists of people who offer different services to authors including publishers, literary agents, graphic design, electronic formatting and more. All on my twitter profile page under the link called Lists.
New questions.
Was it hard to come up with the title? What was the process?
Were the character names difficult to develop? How did you choose them?

8/4/2019 06:32:24 pm

I have a number of people to thank for helping me during my writing process, but for sure my wife was the one that helped me the most. She was with me every step of the way.

The title was basically trial and error. I wanted it to convey the tech part of the story, but at the same time I wanted it to fit with all the titles from the upcoming books of the series. In this series, all the books will be a Code, the first one is Code Revelation, and the next one will be Code Ascension, for example.

The character names were tricky. For the main character, Max, I wanted a name that looked somewhat classic, but that could be shortened with a nickname. After a few tries came Maximilian. His surname came easier, it's in honor of Johannes Gutenberg, who introduced to Europe the printing press, which revolutionized the publishing business at the time. Lucy's name actually has some meaning behind it, but I can't share it with you yet, as it may or may not be featured in future books of the series.

8/4/2019 09:11:16 pm

My wife helps me quite a bit also, in certain aspects of my business. Even though she cannot explain why she feels strongly about something, she is almost always right. I have learned to trust her intuition.
Max's last name interested me quite a bit. It was an old and venerable name, my initial thought was how antiquated it was and didn't seem appropriate for a high-tech society. As the bringer of new technology to the world, the last name is very appropriate! The movable type printing press is almost as important as fire and the harnessing of electricity.
New questions.
I saw CODE: Ascension on Amazon already. Can you tell us a little bit about it beyond the blurb?
How many volumes do you envision for the series?

Boris Sanders link

8/5/2019 07:51:10 am

Well, I can't tell much to avoid the risk of spoiling it, but I can tell you that Code Ascension is going to give Max more challenges, and even Lucy will be in a difficult situation. It will put some light on her story as well, which I anticipate many people are looking forward to, as she has quite a mysterious aura around her.

It's not set in stone, but my initial idea was to have a total of 5 books, not counting the extras, such as Code Stasis, which is a collection of short stories that happen before the main focus of the series.

8/5/2019 11:35:59 am

Your fans will be happy to hear you are planning a big series. You have numbered CODE: Ascension as book 0. So, I am thinking it will be more about Lucy than Max. But I could be wrong quite easily as I have not read it.
New questions.
Have you entered any writing contests?
Have you won awards of any kind for your writing?

8/6/2019 04:19:46 am

You are completely right, Mark. Book 0 doesn't feature Max at all, instead it focuses on Lucy and others of her kind. It's a small book, so it's great for a quick read.

I have entered a few, but not extensively. I find that most book contests have fees that are too high for a normal indie author to afford. I have seen a few that were so expensive just to participate that I almost could finance an entire book with the fee alone.

I won the Mythic March Short Story contest, from support for indie authors. If you are interested, you could take a look at it: https://www.supportindieauthors.org/featured-articles/2019/5/13/the-monsters-by-boris-sanders and also the interview https://www.supportindieauthors.org/featured-articles/2019/6/14/interview-with-boris-sanders

8/6/2019 09:48:17 am

Some contests seem to be rigged to provide revenue for the organization, more than anything else. I have started a new page on my websiteb, Highly Rated Blogs. One of the blogs is about bogus contests and lists reputable contests, it's by Anne Allen, one of my favorite bloggers.
I will check out your winning story and the interview.
New questions.
Did you go through the query process or did you go straight to self-publishing, and why?
There are many unethical practices in publishing, which one is the most unbearable in your mind?
Does writing have a spiritual or healing component for you, does it energize you or make you feel tired?

8/6/2019 10:19:59 am

I went directly to self-publishing. There are two reasons for this: I once worked in a publisher, and I could see first hand how first time authors are treated, they hardly have any chance, and there is zero marketing investment from the publisher's side. The other reason is my day time job. I already have to pour a lot of energy to be an author, a father, a husband and a employee at the same time, the time required to query agents and the stress of having to wait for an answer would just pile up.

I could think of a few unethical things in the publishing business. The first one that comes to mind is plagiarism, I find it awful that there are people that are willing to straight out steal the intellectual property of others for their own personal gain. Another unnerving thing are the publishers that try to hook inexperienced authors with promises only to have them pay a fee to get their own book published.

I write because I really like the story I came up with and I like the idea of telling it, but overall it depends of the specific scene that I'm writing. There are scenes that I really want to write, that I go back and forth with them in my mind and I get excited as a type the words. While there are scenes that are painful and drag themselves as I write, after I finish those I normally need some time off.

8/6/2019 11:05:39 am

I think you might be the first guest who has worked in the publishing industry.
Prior to Amazon bursting the publishers monopoly, I think authors were treated better for the most part. Publishers were a little more willing to take a chance on an unknown author. Now, the gorilla has upended the apple cart and the profit margins have dwindled severely. Many publishers of all sizes have disappeared. It's a whole new ball game.
There are many different types of publishers, now. Some describe themselves as hybrid publishers, they offer to help writers with as much help as they need. In my previous interview with MK Schultz, he used that type of publisher and spoke well of his experience. I know others have had poor experiences and have been scammed out of thousands of dollars.
New questions.
Why is it important for writers to tap into the emotions of the characters?
Are you an under-writer or an over-writer? When the first draft is done, do you need to add more to it to flesh it out or do you have to cut material because there is too much there?

8/6/2019 11:28:11 am

I believe that if you don't tap into the characters emotions, there's a high chance of them being flat. I'm aware that character building isn't my strongest point, so I try to flesh them out as much as possible after the first draft is done. There was even a part of the book that I literally lost control over the characters. There was some information that I had planned to withhold until book 2, but before I could help it, Lucy and Max were discussing it, and I just couldn't stop writing. That lead me to some change of plans.

When I finish the first draft normally I still have to add lots of things. The first draft is the entire story, but normally the characters are still not fleshed out enough, the world isn't as well described as I would like, and the dialogue is still a bit wooded.

8/6/2019 12:19:18 pm

I have heard from many authors about characters taking the story in a direction other than the author had planned. Most authors are usually happy with the results.
The sole purpose of a first draft is to exist as a POS. That is what the author turns into a gem after all the editing and rewriting.
New questions.
Have you ever used yourself or other acquaintances as a character for a starting point in a story? Would they recognize you or themselves in the story?
If you used a close friend or family member in a book would you tell them or make sure that they wouldn't recognize themselves in the story?

8/7/2019 04:45:22 am

I like to think that I put a little bit of me in each character I write. Some of them reflect parts of what I am, others sometimes might reflect what I would like to be. Lucy for instance is always fun to write, but difficult at the same time. That's because she is unlike me in so many ways, that she might do or say unpredictable things, but I would like to have her confidence, for example.

Other than that, I sometimes take names and physical appearances of people that I know, maybe they would be able to recognize themselves in those characters, but the similarities end there.

8/7/2019 09:43:25 am

There is no doubt that parts of you are in each character. I think I like Lucy a great deal for the reasons you mentioned. She is very creative and has very few limits.
What is one thing you hate about your protagonist and one thing you love about the antagonist?
Which is more fun to write, the protagonist or the antagonist, and why?
Now that your book is published, is there anything about it you would like to change?
How do you think your book relates to the world we live in today?

8/8/2019 11:19:31 am

Sorry for taking long to answer Mark.

I think Max complains too much. He basically finds a reason to complain about just about anything. The antagonist on the other hand is someone that is willing to take action to accomplish what he wants, so I like his "can do" attitude.

That's a tough question, haha. I would be lying if I said there wasn't anything I would have changed, but I have the opinion that if an author were to wait until he had the perfect book to publish, there would be a serious chance of never publishing, as it is difficult to feel completely satisfied about anything.

I think that although the book is futuristic, it's relatable. My intention was that we could see parallels between the story and our world, such as the problems with climate, the corporate environment, and questioning of morals.

8/8/2019 11:37:18 am

Real life is more important.
Max is rather timid and whines a great deal. He needed Lucy and her shenanigans to move out of his rut.
I think every author has that thought in the back of their mind. Some use it as an excuse to never publish. If you don't publish then you don't have to deal with poor reviews.
New questions.
What is your writing routine when you sit down to write?
Do you write in a straight line or do you write whatever the muse provides for you at a given moment?
What is the one thing you hope readers will remember from your book?
What else are you writing these days?

8/8/2019 12:03:57 pm

I'm very methodical. I normally set targets for myself, and try to exceed them in a daily basis. I prefer to write linearly, so I start the first draft by writing chapter one and I finish in the last chapter. I find that it makes it easier to keep the characters consistent if the story is written in a linear fashion. That also means that I don't get to postpone the scenes that are particularly difficult to write, as I have to get past them to go on with the story.

I hope they remember the moral debate that happens within the story. Morals are created by our society, but it also changes constantly, as we evolve. What is socially accepted now, could be unthinkable a few years ago, and so on. By adding an outsider to the mix I was aiming at disrupting the system a bit.

I write a few shorts stories some times, such as the one that I mentioned earlier, other than that I'm also working on the sequel of the Emporion Chronicles, but I have to admit I haven't been writing as much as I would like.

8/8/2019 12:45:42 pm

One of my guest bloggers wrote an interesting piece about non-linear writing. You might find it interesting.
I enjoyed that short story you mentioned above. The end surprised me.
New questions.
Do you have a classics author you admire?
What popular modern authors have influenced you?
What software do you use to write and publish your books, and why do you use those?
How do you keep track of all the characters and events in your books?

8/9/2019 05:28:23 am

If I had to choose one, it would be Agatha Christie. I just love her work.

Well, not so much as influenced, but more of inspired. I can think of 3: Patrick Rothfuss, George R. R. Martin and Neal Shusterman. Although the first two are fantasy writers, I fell in love with their writing, and it motivated me to try to write on my own, one way or another. And Neal Shusterman depicts very creative societies in his books.

I use Microsoft Word for the first draft, mainly because it's easy to use and it has more functions than a gdoc. However, after I finish each edit, I upload it to my onedrive, so I can do changed anywhere. I later use grammarly to pick the more grotesque grammar mistakes and typos.

I now have an excel sheet with each characters traits, in the beginning I trusted on memory alone, but after a while I was second guessing myself with thoughts like "What was this characters eye color again?" or "In which level of the city did I say he lived?", that was when I created the sheet. For events, whenever I start a new book I build a skeleton of the story, with the main events I have to pass through.

I also had to do some extra tools, like what I like to call the "VT calculator", which I'm quite proud off. As you know, the VT is the train that travels vertically between the levels of the city, but after the first draft was ready, I noticed I had a problem with its consistency. That's because as I wrote, I just picked a kind of randomly how much each journey would take, but that made some journeys take too long and others be way too fast. So I sit down and defined what would be the average speed of the VT, how long it stays in each station, and what's the difference between the VT and the Express. With this data I created in excel the VT calculator. All I have to do is input the level of departure and destination, and it gives me exactly how long the trip will be.

8/9/2019 09:47:35 am

A lot of authors use Word for writing their stories. Some also use Excel to track various aspects of their plots and characters. Have you heard of Scrivener? Some authors swear by it for the ease of use and manifold features. I have heard that it has a steep learning curve, that a few have found insurmountable.
Rick Hall, a client and guest blogger, has created a character creation tool, it's quite impressive. It helps an author choose a type or archetype of character and keep the character psychologically congruent. He has written a blog about it and it's available to use free of charge on his website.
New questions.
Have you ever had the experience of the story swerving in a different direction than planned, as if a character was driving it?
Do you have defined space for writing at home, or are you a coffee-shop writer?
Do you listen to music or have the TV on when writing, or do you need quiet?

8/9/2019 10:21:50 am

Yes, that happens sometimes. Normally it's either in Max and Lucy's dynamic or Max and X. The first because Lucy can be quite an unpredictable character during dialog, and X and Max have a very particular chemistry, that sometimes gets the best of me.

It depends. Sometimes I have an urge to write, if that's the case, anywhere will do. But normally I prefer to be either in silence at home, or alone in a silent room. I find that I work better in silence, as I lose my concentration quite easily. That actually has been proving itself a problem lately, since I have an infant at home, and a 6 month old can't really be reasoned with, I ended up getting a little behind in my writing.

8/10/2019 09:10:26 pm

Many authors have told me about the unexpected swerves in the story. They usually report it's a good thing.
Good description of babies. They know only one thing, what they want. Real life has a way of resetting our priorities.
New questions.
Action, dialogue, or narration; which is easiest to write?
Of the five senses which is the easiest to write and which is the hardest?
Have you ever done any theater, written a play or any screenwriting?

Boris Sandes

8/12/2019 09:41:43 am

Each of them has different levels of difficulty, but I believe for me the easiest one is narration, as it's the one that requires the least amount of rewrites and polishing in my case. As I mentioned before, my first drafts normally come out with wooded dialogue, and I change the action key words quite often during edits as well.

I think the easier one is sight, due to movies and series I think it's quite easy to imagine how a sci-fi city would look like, given enough description. On the other hand, I find the smell something difficult to describe, one of the scenes I had to describe how was the smell of the sea and it took me a while to write it. I would say touch is somewhere in the middle.

I have some theater experience, but not what you would expect. I acted during high school, and even got a few awards. I was Ulysses in Troy, I was Tristan in Tristan and Iseult, I was also Antonio, the antagonist, in The Tempest by Shakespeare, and I was Jack the Cricket in A Dog's Will, a play by Ariano Suassuna. The last two awarded me the "Best Actor" award.

8/12/2019 10:37:22 am

Most authors report similar experiences with writing the different types of prose.
You did well in high school theater. You must have enjoyed it a great deal. Congratulations on those awards.
New questions.
Do you think your experience in theater helps you as a writer?
What kind of marketing are you doing or planning on doing for your book?
What kind of marketing has worked the best and the least for you?
Why did you pick me as part of your marketing plan?

8/12/2019 12:05:08 pm

I never really thought about it before, Mark. Maybe it did, in a way. I had to understand the character, including its feelings and motivations, in order to act, and maybe that helps in some level. I really enjoyed my time acting.

So, I'm planning to do a book tour by the end of the year, but nothing is set in stone yet. I will also start my own newsletter, and all that sign it up will receive Code Stasis for free. Other than that I have some "always on" campaigns running on Goodreads and Amazon, and my twitter, of course.

I tried a bit of everything. Other than what I already mentioned, I also tried some e-mail marketing, some display adds on facebook, and being featured in blog promotions. I even have a book trailer. Out of all of them, I have to say that e-mail marketing worked best for me, but it's not yet at the point that it's financially viable. The always on ads on Amazon and Goodreads result in a sale every once in a while and are reasonably cheap, so they are the most profitable ones, but the amount of sales itself is quite low. Something that I found to help is to contact reviewer and offer my book in exchange of a honest review, as books with more reviews tend to fare better.

I chose your marketing services after I read your "Acclaim from Authors" page and saw many people saying they were satisfied. Also, you have quite a big presence in twitter, and I assumed the people that go to your site and twitter tend to be more open to read self-published books. Even if the campaign doesn't result in sales it's good for awareness.

8/12/2019 12:15:27 pm

You are doing a lot of the right things for marketing. You are probably realizing that it's a marathon rather than a sprint. There are a couple of good guest blog on my website, "Grab your first 1000 readers" is one, and there are several articles on my "Highly Rated Blogs" page that might be useful to you also.
Thank you for checking me out and choosing my book promotion service.
New questions.
Have you ever thought of adding music to your books, like what the characters listen to or they went to a concert as a plot point?
I have seen some authors use music to flesh out the characters, they create a playlist for them. They publish the playlist in the back of the book.
Going back in time, did you do any kind of creative writing, even back in grade school?
How early was it that you realized how powerful words can be?

8/12/2019 12:53:18 pm

I was asked about music once, but I never really thought about it in detail. There is some music that when I listen reminds me of the story, but not to the point of each character having their own musical taste. I guess that's because I don't listen that much music myself. I always preferred books, movies and games over music. In a every day scenario, I rarely ever listen to any music. That has given my wife some stress, as she loves music to the core, haha.

I did my first creative piece when I was around 11. I even got one of my teachers to read it and give me his opinion. My mom would also read it, of course. But I don't think it was ever about writing by itself, the idea was always to tell a story. My first creative works were basically me writing about stories that I would make up while playing with my toys, most of the time Legos. Me starting to write these stories was basically me trying to keep them alive.

But I suppose I started to really understand the power of words when I started to read more. I really liked Harry Potter, and fell in love with reading because of it. Maybe that was when I first notice that the pen can be mightier than the sword.

8/12/2019 03:22:21 pm

Many authors started writing at an early age, you are no exception. Stories about your Lego toys is pretty neat. It sounds like your illustrations were in true 3-D, no funny glasses needed.
Rowling has inspired a lot of kids to read and even to write, in your case, that is really cool! Did you ever get to meet her or get her autograph?
Last questions.
What is one of the biggest things about publishing that authors don't know? How can an author spot a scam publisher before giving them thousands of dollars?
Do you have alpha-readers and/or beta-readers to help you smooth out a lot of wrinkles before publishing? Why or why not?

8/13/2019 05:00:33 am

Unfortunately I never got to meet her or get her autograph, but maybe some day, haha.

I believe many authors start expecting too much. Everyone hopes their book is going to be a best-seller, but realistically speaking, that's unlikely. Before I published I did some research, and found out that most books sell up to 50 units an year, and most of those sell up to 200 units for its lifetime. So I think it's important to align expectations. In turn, I also think it's a clear red light for any author's if a publisher or advertising service promises sales. Nobody can promise real sales.

Yes, and I find them invaluable. My wife is my alpha reader, she reads each character as I write it and gives me her honest opinion. Some times we disagree, but I always value her feedback, and it steers the story more often than not. I also have beta readers and I use their services in different steps. First round is after the first draft is done, after that I do some changes they pointed out. Then, I send it over to the second round of beta readers, and the same process follows. That helps me find inconsistencies, increase the quality of dialogue and detecting possible plot holes. In short, I'm extremely grateful to all my beta readers.

8/13/2019 09:24:05 am

Thank you, Boris. I have really enjoyed our time together. I appreciate you sharing your writing and publishing experience. I look forward to your next book.
I have another promotion to start today.

CODE: Revelation (The Emporion Chronicles Book 1) By Boris Sanders

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