*Blog Tour+ Guest Post* Apocalypta: A Novel of the Future by Rob Matchett

Accepted Readers,

Welcome to my second tour stop for Apocalypta: A Novel of the Future by Rob Matchett! Today I will be featuring a guest post from Rob himself.  If you're interested in reading my review you can find it by clicking here. This is for all you sci-fi fans out there! Enjoy <3

Apocalypta: 
A Novel of the Future
By: Rob Matchett

Released: June 30th, 2014
Genre: science fiction/post-apocalyptic
Number of Pages: 613

Blurb:   

Apocalypta is a novel about a post-apocalyptic world at the cusp of the 25th century. With the discovery of a synaptic memory chip holding the memories of individuals in the past, there is an attempt to avert a return to the terrible conflagrations of the past. This chip - 'the eyes of god' - holds salvation through the truth. The main character, implanted with the chip, bids the reader to follow history back to our present time in order to understand the future. Moreover, humanity has a chance to become members of a galactic confederation, which through various species have been instrumental in our emergence from earliest times. Many unusual characters color this story, which is ultimately about the struggle for humanity to rise to a higher place in its long quest for survival.

Book Links:
Amazon US | Amazon UK | Chapters.Indigo | B&N| Kobo

AUTHOR GUEST POST: 
The Challenges of Writing

I think the artist and his or her work are as inseparable as a blue sea and sky, both reflect each other. One writes what one knows. And if one pretends, well, provenance be damned. The commercial success of any literary enterprise precludes its essential value in a world rife with entertainment that clammers for approval. That is the rub. I subscribe to a populist notion of what touches the common chord, the quality of which makes for the best read – to be enriched by language, action, setting and character. Any great story must have a fundamentally human element that people can identify with both emphatically or otherwise. Personally, I have undertaken to emulate in my own true sense the best I have known in the literary tradition. I am who I am and must express myself accordingly. Yet I want to present something new. There is little ‘new’ in human affairs unless we discover something perhaps supernatural, and even there how can we relate to something beyond our experience. For example, in my book Apocalypta, we meet alien people, some millions of years beyond our present level of evolution. What kind of compassion, or other, would they possess to see us as relative equals in the universal scheme of things if we behave in an open and considerate manner. Would they fear us, as we would fear cave dwellers hundreds of thousands of years ago here on earth? Likely we would presume the worst because that’s who we are and project our fear of them because we fear each other. And they would understand that and protect themselves, or remove themselves from our general view until we were emotionally adjusted, in spite of our technical advances and relative enlightenment. There are just too many considerations. So, is a literary project as such doomed to fail? I think not if the human element is given its due, and I leave the answers to the reader when presented with the reality of such a human dilemma in regard to actual aliens. Some of these alien people live for hundreds, even thousands of years – how about a little human genetic modification? We would turn it into a commercial venture! Think of the medical potential – the technical. We could develop anti-matter electro-gravitic machines that bend space and travel the galaxy…it’s real.

 I think the writer must be wired to believe in themselves as messengers. If not, have we devolved to something akin to McWriters? And stories become as generic as the next? I hope not. Or perhaps writing is being displaced by multimedia venues – tabs, video and such – youtube, facebook and satellite technology. Instant communication changes society in ways we have not been prepared for – it just happens that way. Will the need to curl up with a book end? Consider a highly evolved species of humanoid: from what I gather novels and like outputs have gone the way of the dodo. They are mere expressions of an emerging species attempting to make sense out of cruel and unforgiving nature – survival of the fittest – striving for immortality and self-worth. Taking writing to the next level becomes an existential transformation where perhaps telepathy suffices to inspire and entertain. It is a long way from Queen Enheduanna the first person to put their name to their work in ancient Sumer over five thousand years ago. So five thousand years into the future, or a hundred thousand, indeed a million – what will become of the novel or poem? Would I still want to curl up with a book? Yes. The mind needs to be fed, indulged.

As a discipline, writing is my barometer for self-esteem, or rather feeling something necessary. When low pressure in my life happens it forces the writing process by a painful guilt or depressive insistence that writing will relieve. When high pressure is released, the atmosphere is open and diffuse where writing takes on a more benign whimsical devil-may-care approach. I am the host and I will make my mark! There is a higher spirit that can be tapped into. Character and plot take on lives of their own. Play God! It’s out of my hands; I’m just the messenger. This is where discipline must steady the hand. I must stay the course and weave a thread or two even when none seems to be had. To each their own. Some write mad parables on a roll of toilet paper. Others use their script stylus quill on parchment with a bottle of ink. Most with a decent word processor. Here one can edit and rewrite with a voracious turn over. The tools of the trade now make it accessible to the multitudes. As a result, millions of writers dot the constellations, immortalized. Many called, few chosen.

Rob (Robin) Matchett was born in Paris, France, in 1956 of Canadian parents, and moved to Canada at four years old. Apparently on the way, he spent hours in a porthole watching the sea, pondering existence. Now his life continues through a porthole – a regret being he didn’t remain in France a few more years. Though, embracing Canada he went native, steeped in the elements from where land-locked on the crest of a giant windblown hill, he commands from the bridge of a ship, foundered on springs, fields and forests. Still unreleased from the yoke of his servitude, he dabbles in the stars, unlocking secrets from history and the future. Many transfigurations have occurred, of which he has faithfully transcribed into various literary forms, including novels, poems and film scripts, and continues to do so. Among other eclectic interests, he is known to be well-read; enjoy wholesome kitchen garden culinary pursuits; calvados; has musical inclinations, and often known to be wired into the Grateful Dead. He is of a retiring nature, addicted to movies and documentaries, considered a professional obligation rather than lesser appraisals.

Rob’s Links: 

 Twitter | Facebook | Website | Goodreads |

1st Prize: $50 Amazon.com gift certificate and autographed copy of Apocalypta 

2nd Prize: $25 Amazon.com gift certificate and autographed copy of Apocalypta 

3rd Prize: Autographed copy of Apocalypta

a Rafflecopter giveaway