Welcome to an Interview with:
Author of:
The Scriptlings, a tongue-in-cheek contemporary fantasy aimed at geeks and mortals alike.
A brief synopsis:
The Scriptlings is the unlikely, yet strangely charismatic lovechild you would expect if Magic and Science were to have one too many drinks during a stand-up comedy show in Vegas.
In short, it follows the story of Merkin and Buggeroff, two magician apprentices in a world where magicians are capitalists, computers are quasi-magical, and goats are sometimes invisible – all under the watchful eye of a wandering tribe of monosyllabic demigods.
David: With Such a Canadian sounding name share your bio?
Sorin: The Suciu’s were among the first European settlers to establish a community in Canada, around the late 15th century. They were led by my ancestor – Beaver Mapleleaf Suciu, a brave explorer and prolific patriarch. Alright, the last part might be a slight exaggeration.
I was born and raised in Bucharest, Romania; but I went and fixed this about three years ago, when I immigrated to Canada along with my wife and parrot. I bet Beaver Mapleleaf Suciu didn’t have a parrot. In your face, Beaver Mapleleaf!
David: What made you decide to write this book?
Sorin: Ever since I’ve learned English, I’ve devoured an inordinate, and quite possibly unhealthy, quantity of Humorous Fantasy. The fact that I started writing is merely a result of the old adage “what goes in, must come out.”
The Scriptlings was originally written for the second edition of the Terry Pratchett First Novel Award, which, and this here might come as a shock, it didn’t win. The winner hasn’t been announced yet, but I bet it’s going to be an awesome book, as were the two first prize winners of the first edition.
David:Where did the title come from?
Sorin: A Scriptling is a Magician apprentice, and also a completely made up word. It comes from the word “script” as used in computer jargon – meaning computer program, more or less. In this book universe, Magic and Computers have a lot in common, so the concept is not as farfetched as it might seem at a first sight.
David: I understand this is your first book in English, why this genre?
Sorin: Quite simply, I’m not sure I can write anything else. I’ve tried really hard to write something “serious,” but I kept swerving into humor alley at every possible turn. And if there wasn’t a turn, I would just make one. It’s not that I want to mock about, throwing jokes left and right. It is, most likely, a function of the fact that I’ve learned my English from Pratchett, Adams, Monty Python and Blackadder. Humor, just as grammar, seems to be a building block of the English language; and to me, English is a language to be witty in.
David: If you ruled the World what would be the first thing you’d banish? ( You’re not allowed to say nosy interviewers).
Sorin: The Imperial measuring system. But I wouldn’t banish it completely. I would keep it locked in a museum of horrors, for future generations to see and judge.
David: Boo, Hiss, keep Imperial and banish metric, the fact we have 10 fingers and ten toes ( nothing personal Anne Boleyn) is mere coincidence. I like my measurements in old money.
David:What was your destination to publishing? ie are you self published.
Sorin: I started by going the traditional way, which is to say, I went on a search for that elusive creature known as the Agent. I then learned the hard way that the Agent is a finicky critter, whose reaction to the words “I’m a new author” is to hit you with an unsavory template answer, or to ignore you completely. To this day, I’m not sure which is worse.
Luckily, someone mentioned AEC Stellar Publishing to me, and I can’t thank that someone enough for this. They are a relatively new and small publisher, with an author-oriented business model and a heart of gold. I love working with people, as opposed to working with corporations, and this is exactly what I got from them.
David : OK, What’s your fee for an introduction, grovel, grovel.
David:Share with the readers one little known fact about yourself. Not the one about being a retired pole dancer from Bratislava, we all know that.
Sorin: That Bratislava gig was just a phase, alright? But I did break some hearts when I left, if you really must know. I still get fan letters, and it is probably a mercy that I don’t speak Slovak.
What else… Well, before being a wannabe writer I used to be a wannabe musician. However, this plan was somewhat thwarted by the fact that I was tremendously unskilled with musical instruments. You might even say I swerved towards literature because a keyboard is much more forgiving than a piano.
David: You obviously haven’t duse mi kyebroad.
David:Do you have a website to share?
Sorin: Sure, it’s www.sorinsuciu.com and I advise you to enter at your own risk.
David:Any Link to the Book?
Sorin: The Scriptlings is available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Goodreads. You can also find plenty of news and updates on my website, and on www.facebook.com/TheScriptlings.
David:Please feel free to share an excerpt.
Sorin: Alright, here is the passage that might explain the mouse-shaped door knocker on the front cover:
“He climbed up the steps to the massive front door and reached for the knocker. He paused, regarding the thing with mild disbelief. It was, at least judging by its placement on the door, very much a knocker. It also had the familiar shape of a computer mouse decorated with an engraved motif resembling an eye. Wonderful craftsmanship, Simon decided with the expert eye of one who had played enough computer games to know art when he saw it.
Despite his best efforts, his attempt at using the knocker in the traditional way proved unsuccessful. The thing was stuck to the wood frame, and although a crowbar might have been useful in these circumstances, Simon had completely neglected to bring one to the interview.
But say what you will about Simon, he was, by no means, a man without problem-solving skills. In fact, Simon was one of those rare people who were naturally unhindered by their own lack of expertise and who also had an uncanny ability to find shortcuts where no shortcut ought to be. Simon did not solve problems, he just shamed them into going away. As he held his palm over the brass mouse, years of muscle memory kicked in, and he double-clicked. His brilliant efforts were rewarded with a ding-dong.”
David : Thank you Sorin for such an entertaining interview though we should impress on the readers that your book is entirely autobiographical but written by someone else about someone else completely.
lmao – so this is what you get when you put two Pratchett fans in the same [digital] room! I giggled my way through this interview and loved the excerpt. Bravo gentlemen. 🙂
Thank you, Meeka!
Your a. being thoroughly l.o. is what I live for 🙂
Dear oh Dear, you Canadians (??) are as rude as the Aussies. Not at all like us staid old Brits. roflmao.
🙂
Ah Merci Madame. At this point I would usually execute a little bow ( not like bow as in a girls hair mind) but we all know I’d topple over so my erstwhile colleague will do it for me. Step forward Sorin.
Take more water with it lad and that won’t happen.!
xxx Big Hugs for you Andrea xxx
lmao – you two could be the modern Abbott and Costello. 😉
Sorry, I’m not sure I’ve heard of them. Bud and Lou did you say? I must be far too young.
xxx Hugs Galore xxx
lol – you and me both. 😉
Sure thing, David. I execute bows for a living.
Please choose the preferred method:
a) Garrotte
b) Nuclear blast
c) Ten seconds of Justin Bieber’s latest hit
I can’t believe it takes TEN SECONDS !! If you go with the first option it sounds so much like the gavotte that you might end up dancing to the last one. Let’s be completely clear here, it can’t be option 2 as that seems rather indiscriminate and might upset the readers so how about that good old standby the poison pen? Writing a letter seems easy enough.
Tremendous! Sorin sounds like a whole lot of fun. I giggled when reading this post too. Sometimes I find reading author interviews a chore as they are humourless and rather dry. This however was lighthearted and entertaining. Way to go Sorin! and I wish you every success with your book. Thanks for sharing this with us, David 😀
Thanks, Lottie!
All credit goes to David for coming up with such crafty questions and for instructing me to better be fun, or else 🙂
My pleasure Lottie. I had real fun with this interview and as you’ll see from my last comment I don’t think Sorin was ‘dry’.
xxx Huge Hugs xxx
Thank you, David, for the wonderful questions and for the witty inserts! I didn’t know interviews could be so fun 😀
Thank you Sorin for giving me carte blanche and for allowing the interview to show the real person and not a dry old crock like me. I have to say ‘You Shine’ but only because you paid me handsomely to say that. I love your humour. The very best of luck.
You did a great job David:)
Thanks so much Bee. xxx Huge Hugs xxx You next maybe??
yeeSSSS
XXXXXXXXX
“The Scriptlings” is very much worth the attention, indeed :). I happen to have read it recently – and, as I told Sorin, I fell in love with that book :). I am glad to see him reveal some of himself here, and I want to wish him, again, all the success that he deserves! And he does deserve it, parole d’honeur :).
Thank you Liliana. I too think Sorin’s sense of humour will carry him far. The further the better for me as I can’t stand the competition. He’s a very funny, and very nice man.
xxx Huge Hugs xxx
Liliana, thank you for sharing your “joie the livre” with us 🙂
I’m with Meeks, the excerpt is great, and I’m also with Sorin, humour is obligatory, it’s like a great coat, once you slip it on, you feel naked without it, especially when you’re pole dancing…
I tried pole dancing too in my younger days but no-one told me it was a fireman’s pole and there was a hole in the floor.I fell so hard I suffered ambrosia or milk of amnesia or something like that. Never walked the same since. I should have put my great coat on.
xxx Hugs for you xxx
Thank you, EllaDee!
This just gave me an idea that Vegas casinos are sure to follow: pole dance stand up comedy. Someone please tell Gabriel Iglesias this might not be for him.
Such is my sense of humour, that would work for me 🙂
This sounds like such a fun book and I love the idea of Magic and Science having one too many drinks during a stand-up comedy show in Vegas! Thank you for letting me know about this one.
Thank you, Sheila! Do let me know if you’d be interested in the free eBook in exchange for a review.
And that, kids, is really how you shouldn’t $ell a book 🙂
Of course! Thank you and thanks for setting a bad example because really, everything is much more fun that way.
Very interesting interview and review, David. And how could readers not be fascinated by an author who immigrated to Canada with his wife…and parrot?
I know, right?
People bring their parrots to Canada all the time, and it is usually the poor wives who are left behind. I’m a romantic that way 🙂
Confess Sorin, the parrot won the tickets to Canada on a quiz show and couldn’t find two other parrots to take.He only picked you because you rattled a bag of sunflower seeds in front of him.
That’s exactly how it happened. Those quiz shows for parrots are insanely popular in Romania. All we had to do to enter the country was answer the riddle “Who’s a pretty boy, then?” 🙂
Erm, and what was the answer please Sorin in case I ever try to get in?
It’s the same as the answer to the question “Who wants a cracker?” 🙂
By the way. I read the passage about you losing Joey to my wife (who feels about parrots the way Her Ladyship feels about horses) and she melted completely.
Heavens, I hope that didn’t make a mess on the carpet. I wonder what would happen to the parrot if you read about me losing Julia to it. I’ve never had the courage to tell the horses. I try my very best to forget it and hope senility comes soon, but not before winning the lottery and having had chance to spend it.
ps Tell your wife she obviously has good taste and I send her Hugs.
It’s worse than that – she actually wants to read your book now. Poor thing…
Er I’m not responsible for illnesses contracted in the Dominions. A cold shower usually works in these circumstances but I’ve already had one this morning.
David, I need to thank both you and Sorin. I got to the part of the blog where he mentions AEC Stellar and went directly to their website and queried my novel, “The Obsidian Mirror.” The day after, they contacted me for the first chapter, and the day after that, asked for the entire Ms! I am so excited I can’t see straight! Thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou!!!
That’s wonderful news, K.D.!
Best of luck to you and your novel!
Sorin
That’s fantastic news. Congratulations. I’m now officially green with envy but I hope all goes well for you. x
Great Post, you had me sold on the synopsis, enjoyed the excerpt so guess I have a look at some of those links, cheers, love the weird and wonderful.
Maggie@expatbrazil
Glad you liked it, Maggie. Sorry for not seeing this earlier.
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Poor lad myst be so tormented to have a brain like that.
xxxx Cwtch xxxx
I’m sure you’re not talking about me, Ewythr 🙂
‘Fraid so. Such an imagination you have boyo, can’t be good for you. Too many late nights with cheese.
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