About
About Extinction Event
A Brief Discusson With William Wittur, author or Extinction Event
Extinction Event is now live and available for purchase on Amazon.ca and Amazon.com. Get you copy now!
Extinction Event is now live and available for purchase on Amazon.ca and Amazon.com. Get you copy now!
What are the quantifiable details of the book?
Extinction Event is roughly 430 pages and about 89,000 words long.
The main character - known only as LP - tries to reinvent himself by going back to school. With some help from his recording instructor and his friends, he discovers a mystery surrounding different 'glitches' heard with analog versus digital recordings of popular songs. He investigates further to discover an important figure from his past who built an Artificial Intelligence (AI) platform called GAIA which is being used to spread false stories to the public but to also change the fate of the planet and its inhabitants.
Is the story based on yourself?
It is ... at least as far as a lot of the historical details and work experience go. There are references to some of the (failed) businesses that I started over the last few decades. These experiences created a familiarity with a strange array of industries so I wanted to make sure I showed that off.
Readers will want to know that I returned to school in 2023 to study music and recording and this was where I picked up a lot of inspiration for the novel.
Should readers be afraid to pick this up?
Extinction Event is a warning message, much like thousands of alarms raised by humans in the past. We're consuming this incredibly rare planet at a foolish and unsustainable pace.
What is it that will become 'extinct' in your book?
That's a spoiler question! What I will say is that the story brings the reader into a world of real and fake news, unbridled corporate greed and struggles associated with biodiversity loss.
Have your published other works?
I have a LOT of stuff on the go and I plan to have much more published within the next couple of years. That said, I've published a collection of poetry and lyrics called 'Bliss'. Buy it on Amazon.com or Amazon.ca.
I wrote most of the lyrics during the pandemic and many of the thoughts captured in these musical short stories are projected onto the canvas of Extinction Event.
The genesis of the collection was my fascination with Joseph Campbell's 'Hero's Journey' and the twelve steps taken to go from everyday life to a greater sense of purpose or legacy.
Will there be a sequel?
Absolutely! I don't want to provide any spoilers, but there's enough to work from to establish a really cool future for Earth.
Also, I'm putting more work into a prequel for Extinction Event. I spent a LOT of time developing interesting characters that have incredible back-stories, so I'd like to expand on that part of the history before releasing a sequel.
Absolutely! I don't want to provide any spoilers, but there's enough to work from to establish a really cool future for Earth.
Also, I'm putting more work into a prequel for Extinction Event. I spent a LOT of time developing interesting characters that have incredible back-stories, so I'd like to expand on that part of the history before releasing a sequel.
The prequel will most likely answer a LOT of questions that will arise from the current release of Extinction Event.
Is it correct to say that you're a fan of music but also mythology?
I'm a fan of many things, but myth and music rank highest.
Myth provided ample space for discovery, imagination and exploring ideas associated with so many things in our world.
For me, music and myth are entertwined, but they obviously follow their own streams as well. I am constantly on the prowl for musical inspiration that suits my tastes and find it almost anywhere I look. We constantly live in a 'golden age' for music because we can access anything we want for historical context, but the array of new stuff that's coming out keeps my attention.
Were any novels (e.g. American Gods) an influence?
Not in any major way. I enjoyed American Gods, and I’m grateful to Neil Gaiman for putting the public spotlight on the power of mythic figures. They really do surround us, usually unrecognized.
What are your other influences?
My wife and son are incredibly important to me.
Other influences for writing include historical and non-fiction research topics related to myth including people like Carl Jung, the folks with Pacifica in California, Chris Hughes, Noami Klein, Chris Vogler, books about the Matrix and so on ...
Fiction? Neil Gaiman, Alan Moore, Nick Hornby, Alex Garland, the 'classics' (Paradise Lost, the Odyssey). Recently, I've been reading a range of books from female authors that speak to what can only be called 'the new story' as it relates to recreating our relationship with Earth and its inhabitants. A great example of this is Madeline Miller's Circe. I wrote many poems as a result of her work.
Finally, there's a whole world related to animal and habitat recordings that I hope to explore in the near future. People like Bernie Krause and Karen Bakker have been leading the way for so long and there are organizations like Earth Species Project and Interspecies.io that will change how we see the world once we understand what it's telling us.