Author Interview: Tito Martinez Barberi

This week's featured author is Tito Martinez Barberi

Tito Martínez Barberi was born in México City, where he spent many years doing copyright and translation work. His experience as a copyrighter and translator, added to what Tito himself calls his "hyper-imagination", inspired and allowed him to write the saga of the Keeper of the Balance. Tito is a lover of fantasy and sci-fi literature and movies. Although he currently lives in Puebla, México, Tito's mind spends most of its time in Akaladia, writing the next books in The Keeper of the Balance series. I recently had the opportunity to ask Tito a few questions. Question: What genre would you say the book falls into? Answer: The Keeper of the Balance series has been described as a dystopian fantasy/sci-fi mash-up, which I believe is a pretty accurate description of the series as a whole. Question: Are there any trigger warnings and/or explicit content readers should know about? Answer: Not that I can think of, to be honest. I wanted to make these books accessible to readers of all ages, though I believe a few scenes can be violent to young readers under the age of 13. Question: Do you have any upcoming events? Feel free to elaborate. Not at the moment. But people can always check out an interview I did for a new, exciting website called Bouncepen.com, here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMI4I... Question: What is next for you? Do you have anything in the works? I’m currently working on The Keeper of the Balance IV: The Last Bastion, which will be the final book in the series. Question: Are there any Easter eggs in your book(s)? Answer: Oh, yes! In book 2, the characters discuss the main character of a space opera, named “Vadkin Anadath” (an anagram on Anakin/Darth Vader). And there are a couple of characters in book 3 named Nedrick Krats and Robney Bratheon as a tip of the hat to Eddard “Ned” Stark and Robert Baratheon. These are references to Star Wars and A Song of Ice and Fire, my favorite film and book series, respectively. Question: What was your favourite book when you were growing up? Answer: J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. I still love the trilogy to this day, and I’m thoroughly convinced that fantasy literature wouldn’t be what it is today if it weren’t for Professor Tolkien’s masterpiece. Question: What piece of advice from other authors do you hear the most but choose to ignore? Answer: That I should make certain changes to my work so that my books can meet the current trends that readers prefer these days. I’ll never change my vision to sell more books. My approach to writing is that I write what I’d enjoy to read myself. And obviously there will be like-minded people out there who will hopefully love my books as much as me. Question: What's your favourite food? Have you ever mentioned it in your book(s)? Answer: Gorditas de chicharrón. This is a traditional Mexican dish that is quite popular in Mexico City, where I was born. You can find stands selling this greasy kind of fast food almost on every corner in the city. There’s a scene in book 2 where a couple of characters have some fat, greasy “pork pies” for breakfast. That was the best translation I could find for this dish (laughs). Question: If your life was a book, what would be the tag line? Answer:Uh, this is hard (laughs). I mean it. That would be the tagline. But hey, if life was easy it’d be too boring! Question: What advice would you give new writers? Answer:Well, I published the first book in my current series early in 2015, so I guess this makes me a new writer myself. That being said, I’ve been doing creative/artistic work all of my life, and if there’s one capital rule I’ve found on art & creativity is that there’s only one person you can aim to please with your work: yourself. It’s impossible to please everyone else. And again, if you love your work chances are many people out there will like it too! Question: What has been the worst mistake you have made in your writing career? Answer:Oh, this one’s easy (laughs)… I started writing the series way back in ’08, so by the time I released book one (in early ’15), I had already written the two sequels. A few beta-readers and fellow authors suggested that I release those sequels ASAP, because readers become leery when a new author takes too long in releasing the next book in a series, fearing that it may never be finished. As an indie author, however, releasing 3 of the 4 books in the series in this fashion has become a nightmare (laughs)! It’s hard enough to get your name out there and to promote one single book at a time. Three has proven to be almost impossible. Question: What is the best moment you have had with a fan? Answer:The best moment was when a couple of readers asked me when I would release book 3, almost immediately after reading book 2. This meant the world to me, because it is exactly what I set out to do when I started writing this series. I wanted readers to become so invested in The Keeper of the Balance that they would demand more and more! Question: If you could change the date to any year past or future, what date would you change it to and why? Answer:Well, the Buddha said that it’s better to live in the here and now, and I think that’s some great advice. So I’d rather live in the present and make the most of every moment! Thank you, Tito, for your time. You can find Tito Martinez Barberi using the following links" Website / Amazon / Author Facebook Page / Book Facebook Page / Bouncepen Author Profle / Goodreads / Google Plus