Interview with Nicholas Sansbury Smith, author of the Hell Divers series

We have talked to Nicholas Sansbury Smith as his second book in the Hell Divers series, Ghosts is about to be published.

First of all for those not familiar with your Hell Divers series can you tell us a bit about it? What do you feel makes it unique?”

The series follows characters called Hell Divers; men and women that risk their life to dive through electrical storms back to the poisoned surface of the world where they scavenge for supplies to keep their airships in the sky. Battling mutants or fighting for survival on a post-apocalyptic wasteland may not be unique to the genre, but the setting of the airship and the sky diving through the electrical storms is unique from what I’ve seen from reviewers. When I decided to write this story I wanted to do something different. There were a lot of stories about survivors in bunkers underground, with humanity unable to return to the surface. There were also quite a few of survivors living on the surface after a post-apocalyptic event. But rare are the stories focusing on life in stations orbiting earth or on airships in the sky. Thus the idea for Hell Divers was born, and the actual Hell Divers themselves. I’ve seen a few spinoff type stories since Hell Divers was published, so to me, those books are validation I was onto something new and cool.

The second book in the series, Hell Divers: Ghosts is set 10 years after the end of Hell Divers and follows many of the same characters. What new goals did you set for yourself for the second book?

In book two I wanted to up the ante, so to speak, and take things to an entirely new level. With the loss of the Hive’s sister airship Ares, humanity is already teetering on the edge of destruction. A single storm or accident could bring down the Hive and wipe out the final survivors. The characters know how fragile their existence is and many of them have become adults since the events of book 1. My goal was to show how they matured and accepted or perhaps didn’t accept the burden of their responsibility as Hell Divers. Another character, that shall go unnamed for sake of spoiling anything, has also changed considerably since book 1. Each of these characters has to endure a lot of threats as the second book unfolds, and those that make it to the end will continue to evolve and change in book 3, Deliverance.

Skydiving, helium balloons and electrical storms, did you do much research into these topics as part of the project?

Yes, this was probably the most difficult book I’ve written so far because of the research involved. My editor, who happens to be an expert skydiver, helped add authenticity to the skydiving scenes. The helium balloons, airships, and electrical storms were all pieces I spent quite a bit of time researching. I noticed a small percentage of reviewers found the airship unrealistic, but the military is doing some pretty remarkable things right now with airships in real life. I think a ship like the Hive might be possible in twenty or thirty years, hence my decision to set Hell Divers in the time period I did.

If I’m not mistaken this is going to be a trilogy, do you have the third book already mapped out? Anything you can reveal?

I have much of the third book mapped out and I’ve already started writing the story. I can reveal a few things… there will be new mutants and apocalyptic wastelands in the final installment—things that haven’t been in the first two books. The Hell Divers will be exploring some interesting new places and might meet some terrifying new creatures.

The setting is the end of the world and I read somewhere that you’re daydreaming about the apocalypse. Why do you find this topic so fascinating?

I’m fascinated with the apocalypse because I’m also horrified by the thought of life reverting back to the stone ages, or worse, extinction. I love life, I truly do. I’m the type of person that tries to live life to the fullest every day, knowing that each one could be my last. Part of that comes from a brush with death I had back in 2007, but part of it’s just because I really love my life! The idea that this could all end in the flash of a nuclear bomb, or by a CME, or a virus, or… There are just so many ways humanity could face extinction, and each one terrifies me. I think people are fascinated and horrified at the same time because it’s hard to picture what life might be like after such an event. Most of us, including me, live in pretty sheltered bubbles. Can you imagine not having clean water, or not being able to go to the grocery store, or trying to scrounge out a living in a radioactive wasteland? Yeah, that would suck!

Man made apocalypse, is it just a good setting for a story or do you also have a deeper message to you readers?

This kind of dovetails off the last question. I have a pinned tweet about why I write post-apocalyptic fiction. It boils down to two things. One is for entertainment. I like to read and write in this genre because it’s entertaining. Two is to warn people what could happen. In my former career I was a Homeland Security and Emergency Management project officer working in the field of disaster mitigation (both manmade and natural disasters). My job was to try and mitigate disasters before they happen, which gave me a pretty good idea of how bad things could get if the worst case scenario happened. My newest series, Trackers, is a story about how North Korea could take down the grid with an EMP attack. I think it’s my best work yet because it’s so realistic. No monsters, no aliens, no zombies. The lack of power is what brings on the apocalypse in this series, and it’s really scary, I think, because it could really happen…

For the audiobooks you’ve got R.C. Bray, who also narrated The Martian by Andy Weir to narrate. How has your experience with audiobooks been? Do you get to work together and give some input or is it all handled by the publisher?

Most of the work is handled by the publisher. I have exchanged emails with narrators on some of my books, but usually it’s pretty limited and focused on how to pronounce names or acronyms, etc. I did have the pleasure of doing an event with R.C. Bray last month in NYC for BookExpo. He read Hell Divers 2: Ghosts, and I got to sit and listen to his amazing voice. R.C. Bray really knows how to bring a story to life!  I hope I get to work with him again.

How do you go about the marketing aspect and especially related to your online presence? Anything you’ve seen work better than other things?

This could be an hour plus conversation, so I’ll keep it simple and focused on branding. Publishing no longer works the way it used to. Amazon has changed the ball game. Most authors are forced to marketing their books, especially those that are the publisher through self-publishing. My strategy is to spend at least twenty five percent of my time marketing my work and engaging my readers. I keep my brand positive, and I try to always focus on why I write—for my readers.

What’s next, do you have more new and exciting projects you are working on at the moment?

I’m working on finishing four series right now: The Extinction Cycle, Hell Divers, Orbs, and Trackers. Those should be pretty much wrapped by the middle of 2018 and after that I plan to move onto a stand-alone post-apocalyptic book and a new series set in space. I’m also in negotiations with a few co-authors for a pretty amazing project that I can’t talk about yet.

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Interview by Dag Rambraut – SFFWorld.com © 2017

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