About: Human Instincts

I was writing the Making Of for my story included in "Cele 1001 de scorneli ale Moshului SF" a few days ago and I realized I never wrote one for Human Instincts. I said a few words at the end of the book, but I didn't get into too many details. It's time to rectify that.

As I said before, the text was meant for an apocalyptic anthology planned by Nemira publishing house. The project never came to life and I can't say I regret it much since I ended up with a story twice as long as it should have been so it probably wouldn't have been included in the book anyway.

I started writing it in December 2009 and finished it in January 2010, with a break in the middle because of the winter holiday. It was the first time I was implementing my 1,000 words daily quota except for weekends system, which I've been using ever since. It works well for me.

Now the thing is I don't care much for apocalyptic stories, I find them to be way too depressing. So to write this I had to find a different angle to make the process more enjoyable for me. I decided not to focus on the entire apocalyptic setting or the causes and effects, although those were of course explained as well. My goal was to focus on the characters and their internal drama.

How can you fix the world after you broke it? Is it even possible to fix it? How far would you go to achieve that? Where do you draw the line? How long can you live fueled only by hope and not give up? These are all questions Deanna is facing every day and somehow she still finds the strength to go on.

On the opposite side, we find Tom who is literally fighting for his life every single day inside that maximum security prison. His options are limited, but very clear: he can continue to run the mad house, or he can escape and try his luck in the outside world, or he can turn tables and join Deanna in her quest to save the world. What will he decide?

And let’s not forget General Mackenzie who is the evil mastermind behind this whole plot and cannot be ignored.

What will these people trapped in these impossible circumstances do and how will they react to the other's decisions? It was an interesting character study. Add to this the secret each of them carry, a secret heavy enough to alter the entire course of events. Tricky enough for you?

One last thing I feel is worth mentioning is that while I wrote Human Instincts I was listening to all of the Muse albums on repeat (yes, I discovered them late, I must have been living under a rock all this time) until they gave me a headache. I think it reflects in the writing and the created atmosphere. There are dark parts, desperate parts, gritty parts, down right scary parts, but there is also hope, a sense of achievement and, why not, wonder. At least I hope you can find all these in there.

Human Instincts is available on Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, iTunes, Sony, Smashwords. 

If you read it, please take the time to review it on Amazon and rate it on Goodreads. Thanks!

Update: Almost a year later, Millennium Books is publishing the Romanian edition of Human Instincts at the end of May, yay!