Another author has stopped into the Hybrid Nation for an interview! He’s a novelist who is just starting out. We love to give new authors a chance. He’s an author that likes plenty of other things besides writing. He is a hard-working author willing to pay his dues and is trying to write the best book possible after all, isn’t that what we authors want to accomplish. Give this author credit, he’s doing something many people would dream of doing and we look forward to reading his book! Ashley Borodin, welcome to the Hybrid Nation and let’s get this interview started!

 

  

1. When did you decide to become an author?

 

I seemed to be able to write in school without trying very hard but never really enjoyed it. I think what I liked best was arguing a point, debating. I never really wrote for enjoyment, though.

The first time I wrote for myself was upon moving to the country after wandering around homeless for a while. I began to write poems. It was cathartic. And I noticed I had persistent themes coming out of my writing.

Over time those themes, along with my habit of being Contrarian lead to writing The Jealous Flock.

 

2. Why did you decide to become an author?

 

I was seeing all these emerging trends - in terrorism, in activism, in society and everyone seemed to be studiously ignoring these things to their own detriment.

I wanted to speak the truth, to be an advocate.

I also wanted to say I’d finished something for once. Which was the hardest part - letting it go.

 

3. What genres do you plan to write for the future or is Philosophical Fiction your main staple for the rest of your career?

 

I have no idea what genres mean. I’m sure they mean a lot to people in marketing and to some extent I defer to the American comedian Bill Hicks in this matter. He’s worth looking up on Youtube - the Marketing bit comes up during his London performance.

Briefly - I don’t feel like putting “a fucking dollar sign on everything”.

So, no I don’t really care what Marketers do with my book. Genres are part of a Social Reality which is something Ayn Rand was particularly concerned about. And what concerns me, as a sort of natural Liberal or perhaps Secular catholic, is the very cozy little relationship that exists between social media, Social Justice Warriors and the various self-appointed gatekeepers of our Expression.

If you write ‘YA’ or ‘SF’ or whatever, you must bow down and pray Obeisance to the gatekeeper. I serve enough masters as it is without adding another fricking overlord.

So you could say I am against the demagogy of the Public and its masters. I think we have a responsibility to each other as empathic apes, as part of the species, the community we are born into, but I’m no longer a complete altruist. Or a glove puppet. and I don’t expect or desire anyone else to be so for me. There’s nothing more unctuous, more repulsive than a sycophant, because they always betray you.

 

4. Besides writing what else do you like to do and what are your hobbies?

 

I like tinkering with my fretless bass, I meditate a bit and engage with social commentary on Youtube and twitter.

Soon we’ll be moving to the country and I hope to get back into more writing, music and a spot of exploring.

 

  

5. Who’s your biggest inspiration for your writing?

 

Inspiration  - relating to one person…. I don’t really have one. There are people who I have admired at the time of reading their books….

 

Screw it, I’m just gonna say Ayn Rand and bugger the consequences.

I would say goad, more than inspire. her writing is inspirational, that’s it’s goal and so I admire that ability to uplift people and engender such self-motivation. I admire her ability to inspire but not her tendency to divide. A lot of that comes down to her personality. If pretty much everyone who knew her is to be believed - she was a pretty divisive person.

George Orwell, though to be honest, I haven’t read him properly, it’s more a case of absorbing his views through the culture and films.

Ayn Rand is like the militant wing of Orwell.

And then on the other side of Orwell you have your JG Ballard & Co. I can quite easily envisage Rand and Ballard in a fist fight. And I’m not entirely sure who would win.

 

6. How much time do you dedicate to writing your books?

 

Well, I’ve only written the one and I worked on that all day, every day for about a year I think. I pretty much burned out from that and did nothing for 3 years. I’m just beginning to get back on said horse now.

 

  

7. How important do you think writing is to the young generation?

 

 

It’s as important as they want it to be. I can’t speak for them, I can barely speak about them. And I don’t really define people by age. You can in some respects but every individual is asymmetrical in some way. No one fits. You could have the mind of a 40 year old and the body of 12 or vice-versa.

People who make broad pronouncements on youth often turn out to be wrong. The more popular they are the more their fans tend to ignore their wrongness, and over time these misstatements become a kind of social fact. Then kids who don’t conform are seen as aberrant. Then abberrence becomes somebody’s cause célèbre and that’s the new norm. It bores me.

But one thing I can say - writing is perhaps less important than being read. Which would go against Ayn Rand’s ideas. What I mean is if you’re young you need to exploit the resources of those around you - you’re more dependent. This is a nice way of saying you don’t know everything, you can’t, and that’s ok. But you’ll find there are readers who do. Not individually of course. You can write and write endlessly and, due to social media and such, get an inflated idea of your own importance, or unimportance, as you scream into the void. This is where readers come in handy - people who have less vested interest in maintaining your illusions than they do in enjoying your work.

Therefore I’m saying that being read is much more important to young writers than writing itself. It’s a shortcut to being understood.

 

 

8. How excited were you when you finally published your first book?

 

I was overwrought, hysterical almost. Exhausted, elated and felt like I never wanted to do it again.

 

  

9. What is the easiest part of writing in your opinion?

 

Thinking about how good you are. That’s very easy. Almost as easy as thinking what you have to say is important and that anyone wants to hear it. The truth is there’s an inverse rule with importance and the Public in general.

 

 

10. What is the hardest part of writing in your opinion?

 

Writing is the hardest part of writing. that’s where you craft and hone and doubt everything you have. where grandiosity meets self-denial. you stay up too late, you don’t eat well. If you drink, you usually drink more. It’s scary. well, it is for me anyway.

 

 

11. What is your favorite and least favorite part of writing?

 

Writing and writing.

My favorite part this time was using speech-to-text and Method Acting the book live. My least favorite was being told I couldn’t write in first-person-present-tense and had to do it all again.

 

 

12. What can we expect from you next?

 

I’m publishing a poem per day on my twitter and I’d like to get a camera when we move back to the country and put together a beautiful coffee table book of my best poems, with perhaps a little history about the poems and the corresponding photos.

 

I expect to sell at least 5 copies.

 

I may do other things as my health improves. I’m on an Autism diet of all things. If you had told me such a thing existed 6 months ago I would have laughed. But here I am, steadily improving. I hope to be more resilient over the next few years to enable me to write proper books, longer books, better ones.

 

Or actually, finish that video game I was working on.

 

 

13. How do you deal with writer's block?

 

I take 3 years off and try to make video games, I fail miserably and end up on an Autism diet.

 

I’m not experienced enough yet to give people advice about things like that, suffice to say that there’s always underlying issues that lead to writer's block and stage fright. You can deal with the symptoms or you can deal with the cause. In my case dealing with the cause has lead me to eventually deal with the physiological, if that’s the right word, goings on in my body. The neurochemistry. That’s what you find me in the middle of right now.

 

  

14. How much more do you prefer writing short horror books over an actual novel?

 

 

I hate horror. And I hate it for a reason. I don’t think I could ever write it. If anyone wants to understand some of the reasons they can grab a copy of Alice Miller’s the Drama of the Gifted Child and read the section on fetishes.

 

 

15. If you’d like to say anything else such as advice, shoutouts, or just whatever’s in your mind say it now. The stage is yours!

 

Thanks for the opportunity to talk about my book and my motivations for writing it. I hope your site continues to do well.

 

 

Well, that’s a wrap ladies and gentleman. It was nice talking to this brilliant and kind-hearted man. Ashley, it was an honor talking to you and once again congrats on your book, that is certainly an honor to be proud of! I wish you the best on your future endeavors and may your success continue for years to come.

 

By the way please check out this man’s website http://ashleyborodin.weebly.com/  it’s a really cool website and he’s an overall a cool person to be friends with.

 

If you enjoyed this interview leave a comment on our Facebook page “The Hybrid Nation” or drop us an email on our Contact Us page.

 

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Hybrid Nation Website: http://www.hybridnationrevolution.com/contact-us

 

 

If you’re interested in getting Ashley Borodin’s book, head over to the books Amazon page and grab yourself a copy of his book, you’ll enjoy it!

 

Link to his book: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01NAPZWB8

 

Social Links:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/0rWouldUrather

Website: http://ashleyborodin.weebly.com/