James L Graetz answers #13Questions in OA's Debut Author Spotlight

13 Questions shine Operation Awesome's Spotlight
on this
2022 Debut Author

Heart Threaded: A Dystopian Cyberpunk Adventure by James L Graetz

1- How did you decide to put the theme of Romeo & Juliet into a dystopian cyberpunk world setting?

I love cyberpunk and I have been involved in the two Neo Cyberpunk Anthologies. I enjoyed writing the short stories in that genre. Cyberpunk to me covers the themes of rampant capitalism, and people trying to survive in a high tech world. I like to explore the places where new technology could take us and think about how much of our humanity might be lost along the way. The Romeo and Juliet aspect evolved out of the idea that two people from opposite sides of a class divide, the super wealthy, and the ones who slipped through the gaps. By placing them in this futuristic setting and letting the story evolve, the stakes and tension are high, but the human connection exists beyond the technology.

2- Would you please, in 160 characters or less, give a #WriteTip ?

Keep writing, consistency will get you a lot further than perceived talent.

3- What emotions do you hope your book will evoke for the reader?

Ultimately, I would love it if they feel some kind of hope a the end. That we can make the world work with technology by not forgetting our human connections. Enjoyment, I want it to be an absorbing and enjoyable ride. This is always my goal, and I want to continually get better at it.

4- I love your cover! How did you get it?

@LagoIvano is my cover designer. @anna_mocikat introduced me to him. He is fantastic, and patient. I talked through a bunch of design ideas with him, and he was able to transform my vague thoughts and themes into a beautiful cover.

5- Would you share a picture with us of your book with something cyberpunk?

Sorry, I'm a bit camera shy, and I don't have a picture I can send right now.



6- How do you support your fellow debut authors and have any of them supported you?

I was lucky enough to be involved with Neo Cyberpunk and Neo Cyberpunk Volume 2, and another anthology The Theater of Nok Mondu. Many of these authors are established, but some of them are new. We are lucky to have a community where we all support each other by sharing and celebrating releases and achievements. If I ever see a tweet with a debut author release I always try and retweet, give them a shout out and check out their book. You never know what gems you will find.



7- Time to double-down on social media! What's your Twitter handle, and do you have two or three writer friends on there to shout-out to for #WriterWednesday ?
Also, can you please recommend a favorite #bookstagram account profile?

@Jame5LG is my twitter handle, and I now have a bunch of friends due to the Anthologies. I highly reccommend new writers cutting their teeth with a short story in a genre based Anthology if they can. @anna_mocikat, @DaveneLG, @ct_moor, have been tremendous long term supporters of my writing amongst many others. I do have a page on FB, and instagram, I don't have a favourite #bookstagram but @jlennidorner I follow and I'm open to suggestions of who to follow. I'm learning how to get better at the social medias!
I'm flattered. Though I don't know that I'd count mine as a #bookstagram account. Very amature skill level.

8- What is your favorite creative non-writing activity to do?

My Twitter avatar is a drawing done by me of Robocop. When I get a chance I love to do pencil drawing. I really don't get time to do more of it, I wish there were more hours in the day.


9- diversebooks.org #WeNeedDiverseBooks What's your favorite book with a diverse main character?

Two books I love are the Alchemist, and The Life of Pi, both of them opened my eyes to the possibilities that ideas and lifestyles other cultures offer.


10- What's the biggest writing goal you hope to accomplish in your lifetime? #WriteGoal #BucketList #WriterBucketList

I have realized I care less about book sales rankings than I do about people enjoying the experience of reading the book. I am reading The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue at the moment, and I would love to one day be able to write a high concept, beautifully written, novel with interesting ideas like that. It's clever how it covers themes like, people, especially women sometimes feeling invisible to the world, how do you leave a mark, how can you be truly be free. The more I write the more I appreciate the skill of constructing a book like that. I may never get there but its good to have a lofty goal.

11- How did you come to the decision not to send a query letter?

I self published my debut. The reasons for this were that my past querying of other books yielded no results, so I figured why not skip the rejections and publish it myself this time. Having gotten involved in the nitty gritty of the Anthologies, I learned the process of self publishing. On one hand I get full control of all parts of the process, but on the other hand that is all very time consuming and expensive.

12- Would you please ask our audience an intriguing question to answer in the comments?

If I were to write a book just for you. What would the one or two sentence blurb be?

13- Anything else you would care to share about your book and yourself?

I also wrote a short story and published it with another short story from @DaveneLG Davene Le Grange, Neon Digital Darkness. It contains a back story to one of the characters in Heart Threaded.
HEART THREADED, carries the general themes of Romeo and Juliet into a high tech future run by huge corporations. Juliet's father runs a massive corp that provides upgrades in exchange for future heartbeats. Romeo is a heartbeat debt hacker, the enemy of the corps. When doing the right thing leads Juliet to Romeo, their lives will never be the same. Their adventure will change their world.
If you do have a read and want to let me know what you think, good or bad, feel free to reach out. There is nothing better than good feedback, or nice comments, mostly I just love knowing that someone took the time to read my book, and hopefully enjoyed it.
@Jame5LG


Heart Threaded: A Dystopian Cyberpunk Adventure by James L Graetz