Neither of us found an agent, but we both found small independent publishers who liked our work. As of last week, we’re both published authors. And while we recognize we’re not going to kick Stephen King off his throne anytime soon, we’re still pretty stoked at our success. Lots of good, hardworking writers never even get this far.

So this week I thought I’d share her interview with me, just in case anyone’s interested. Hope you guys enjoy it, and please drop by Lilas’ blog.

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http://lilastaha.blogspot.com/

FROM LILAS’ BLOG:

Chatting with Author Chris Hernandez

Now that my book is published, and part of my dream came true, it’s time to bring down the jubilation and reflect on my writing journey.

For over two years, I have struggled with this task, fumbled with prose and did away with most adjectives, swallowed my pride in face of honest critique – brutal at times, and somewhat isolated myself professionally and socially to get to this point. I relied heavily on the unwavering support of my family and friends, and the genuine feedback from fellow writers. Among them, author Chris Hernandez, who allowed me to dig deeper into the mindset of an American veteran. Despite the fact that we don’t agree on many issues, and are actually at opposite ends on some, we shared a common ground when it came to writing.

Chris Hernandez’s books are military fiction, and although that’s not usually my cup-of-tea when it comes to choosing a book to read, I learned a lot from his first novel Proof of Our Resolve, and had the opportunity to read ahead of time his recently released novel Line in the Valley. Chris’s books shed a light on the world of war I am not familiar with, or let’s say the world across the isle to the side I know. I had the chance to chat with Chris about his new book release and his writing.

Please introduce us to Chris Hernandez, the author: Background and a little history.

I’m a husband, daddy, granddaddy, former Marine and U.S. Army combat veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan. I’m also an almost 20 year cop. I’ve got no degrees and no formal writing training. When I was in Afghanistan I got an idea for a story, and once I started writing it I was obsessed with finishing it. That story has now turned into three novels. Proof of Our Resolve was the first part, Line in the Valley is actually part 3, but has been published second.

Give us a short synopsis or a blurb about Line In The Valley.

Line In The Valley is about a battle on the Texas border. Unknown attackers take over eight small towns, infantry sergeant Jerry Nunez and his soldiers are ordered to take one of the towns back. And everything goes wrong. Nunez and his men find themselves in a worse situation than any of them ever imagined.

Line In The Valley is your second published novel. Why did you write this story? And in your heart, how does it compare to your first novel Proof Of Our Resolve?

I wrote this story to answer a question: what’s the worst thing a soldier can face in combat? And I came up with an idea. It was inspired by the no-win wars we’ve fought since 9/11, and the endless moral quagmires they generate. Proof is very close to my heart because it so closely mirrors my wartime experience, but Line In The Valley is a better book.

How would you describe your journey into the publishing world?

Oh, geez. In a word? Frustration, anger, determination, fury, resignation, compulsion, and finally, limited success. I pitched to many agents at conferences, sent queries, and kept looking into literary agencies. I had several close calls with success, but nothing worked out. Then one day I was watching Fox News with my wife, and Tactical16 CEO Erik Shaw was being interviewed about their search for veteran writers. I immediately looked them up and sent an email. Less than a month later I had a contract for Proof. I still tried to get LITV published through the mainstream literary world, but a conversation at my last writers conference convinced me it’s not even worth trying. A very honest agent talked to me about LITV, told me it sounded extremely interesting and that he’d love to read it, but he was sure his agency wouldn’t be interested. Because literary agencies are looking for stories that appeal to the average book buyer: a liberal, educated woman. My subject matter wasn’t right for the target audience.

At a conference I met an agent who expressed a lot of interest in my story and background, praised my writing sample, gave me their personal email addresses, asked for my full manuscript, promised they’d be in touch as soon as possible, and then I never heard from them again. I had another agent tell me the dialogue in LITV was wrong; cops and soldiers don’t talk like that. I’m a longtime street cop, a two-time war vet, and this agent tells me I don’t know how cop and soldiers talk. She also told me to remove the entire first third of the story. Another agent told me LITV was too unrealistic, and that I should make Jerry Nunez more like James Bond. Because James Bond is such a realistic character.

After that, I quit wasting time with the publishing industry. If I have any success, it will come from independent publishers like Tactical16, and word of mouth.

What advice can you give a writer who wants to get his or her work published?

If they just want to get published, write about zombies, vampires, young adult fantasy or a combination of all three. Or self-publish. But if they have principles, if they have a story in their heart that they want to stay true to, then they need to dig in and prepare for a long, painful road. Give up any stupid fantasies about overnight success, go to critique circles, go to conferences, get as many test readers as possible, and dedicate years to getting it right. And even then, there’s no guarantee of success.

How do you handle negative criticism, feedback and peer critique?

I welcome all of it. For a short time after I started writing, I had the “my writing is great and if you don’t think so then you’re wrong” attitude, which I think most new writers have. Fortunately, I’m a pretty humble guy, so that attitude didn’t last long. Plenty of peer readers, volunteer test readers and critique circle members have torn my writing apart, and I’ve made lots of changes based on their (and your) feedback. I’ve had some criticism I didn’t agree with, but when I see four out of five readers saying the same thing, they’re right and I’m wrong. I’ve also had some great critique from my blog readers, and my stories are better because of everyone who has taken the time to help me become a better writer. Thanks to all of them, and to you.

Thank you, Chris for sharing your thoughts.

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Just as a side note, I was surprised to hear Lilas got some hate mail for posting her interview with me. Apparently, some people don’t like soldiers. :)

Guys, please check out Lilas’ book Shadows of Damascus. It’s a romance novel, but even an old soldier like me will enjoy it. I’ve read it twice.

http://www.amazon.com/Shadows-Damascus-Lilas-Taha-ebook/dp/B00HUZUG8Y/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1390330271&sr=1-1&keywords=shadows+of+damascus

One thing about us aspiring writers: we like to band together and complain incessantly about the misery inflicted on us by the publishing industry. Lilas Taha and I have suffered much misery and complained a LOT over the past couple of years. Despite the fact that Lilas and I are political and religious opposites, we’re bonded by our shared hatred of book agents and our passion for writing.

Just kidding about the book agents. Lilas doesn’t hate agents. I don’t…exactly…hate agents either. Really.

After years of trying and failing to catch an agent’s or publisher’s interest, I got lucky and found Tactical16 in 2012. I’ve finally (I hope) begun my climb out of the Frustrated Anonymous Aspiring Writer pit. And as of yesterday, Lilas is working her way out of the pit as well.

Lilas’ new novel, Shadows of Damascus, was just released yesterday. It’s technically a romance, but it’s also a rich, deep story that will appeal even to knuckle-dragging’ military guys like me.

Here’s the book summary:

“Bullet wounds, torture and oppression aren’t the only things that keep a man—or a woman—from being whole.

Debt. Honor. Pain. Solitude. These are things wounded war veteran Adam Wegener knows all about. Love—now, that he is not good at, not when love equals a closed fist, burns, and suicide attempts. But Adam is one who keeps his word. He owes the man who saved his life in Iraq. And he doesn’t question the measure of the debt, even when it is in the form of an emotionally distant, beautiful woman.

Yasmeen agreed to become the wife of an American veteran so she could flee persecution in war-torn Syria. She counted on being in the United States for a short stay until she could return home. There was one thing she did not count on: wanting more.

Is it too late for Adam and Yasmeen?”

You know why it appeals to me? Because the male protagonist, Adam, is a very believable Iraq veteran. And the Syrian Civil War is the backdrop for the story.

When it comes to Syria, Lilas knows whereof she speaks. Her book, which I’ve read a couple of times, is an eye-opening and humanizing look at a war that often looks inhuman on television. I recently talked with Lilas about her book (and her background, which is just as interesting).

Please tell us about your family background, roots and how you wound up living in Texas.

My roots spread deep in the Middle East. My father is from Palestine, my mother is from Syria, and I was born in Kuwait. I spent most of my schooling years in Kuwait, almost all of my summers in Syria, and some time in Europe. I graduated from Kuwait University with a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, and stepped into the working force with a job as a scientific researcher. How I ended up in Texas is a long story. But I will tell it anyway.

Summer of 1990, I took my first 3-week vacation and traveled to Sweden to visit an uncle, my father’s brother, who I had not met before. It is important for me to connect with all my relatives as much as possible, specifically because they are scattered all over the world as refugees. At the time, my only older brother was studying for his doctorate degree in the United States, and I had not seen him in a year. While I was in Sweden, he called and encouraged me to get a tourist visa to go visit him for a week. I had crossed half the distance, he had said, and all was left was to cross the ocean. I was young and adventurous, loved to see new places, had another uncle in the States I could connect with, and I missed my brother. So I got a tourist visa stamped on my passport, packed a week-long carryon bag, leaving most of my clothes in my suitcase in Sweden to pick up on my way back, and traveled to Madison, Wisconsin where my brother lived.

A few days after I arrived in Madison, Saddam Husain invaded Kuwait. The world I knew fell apart. My brother and I had no news of my parents and other family members who were in Kuwait at the time. We had no idea what was happening, what to do and how to go about finding out. My brother was a working student living on a very tight budget, and I had very little vacation money left to spend. Several days passed in shock, trying to swallow panic, making expensive phone calls to try to locate my parents, until finally, they were able to flee Kuwait through Iraq, through Jordan, and into Syria. They were safe. This was the second time my father had to flee war, the first in 1948, when he was displaced by the establishment of the state of Israel.

The visa I had was about to expire, and my return date back to Sweden passed. I had none of my education or work documents, summer clothes in an increasingly cold place, no money to buy anything or another airplane ticket, and no place to go. My uncle went about asking for help from the U.S. government, which gave us the option to send me back to my place of residence, Kuwait, an active war zone. Buying a ticket to go to Syria meant borrowing money, no way I was going to put my brother or my uncle through a debt like that.

So I made the decision to try to secure a future. Try my hardest, and if I failed, then I would accept my fate. Every problem had a solution, I was taught. And I set on finding mine. During the remaining time before my tourist visa expired, I went everyday to the University, talked to professors, trying to convince at least one that I had a degree, and asking to give me a chance. My plan was to get accepted into the Master’s program and get a student visa that would allow me legal stay and a decent future. However, I couldn’t get any of my papers from Kuwait University, the whole country was locked in war.

Though not in my field of study, one professor in the Industrial Engineering department graciously listened to me and asked if I was willing to take exams to prove I had a degree in Engineering. I eagerly agreed, sat in his classes for a couple of weeks, and did well on every exam he gave me. Two days before my visa expired, as I was resigning myself to the fact that I had to leave the country to the unknown, the professor called me into the department head’s office and informed me I was accepted into the Human Factor’s Engineering Master’s program on the condition I would present my university degree documents from Kuwait when circumstances allowed it. I was also hired into a research position with another wonderful professor.

I was set. I had lost my past and security, but I gained an opportunity to make a future. My student visa granted me legal stay. I started regular classes, worked in the research lab and had money to live off. That wasn’t enough fortune bestowed on me. I fell in love and was loved back. Eighteen months later, I married my brother’s amazingly wonderful best friend, who became my best friend too, graduated, and moved with my husband to Texas to start a family.

The backdrop of your novel is the Syrian civil war. How has that war personally affected you?

Having roots in Syria from my mother’s side, I have deep ties to the country and its culture. Furthermore, my father’s family also lived in Syria as Palestinian refugees. Every chance my parents had, they took us to Syria to connect with family members on both sides. As an American, I culturally identify myself to have a mix of Syrian and Palestinian background.

Emotionally, I grew up in Damascus, even though I lived in Kuwait. My time in Syria was the backdrop for my social development into adulthood. When the uprising started in March of 2011, I understood the initial peaceful movement. I understood the driving force behind it, the desire to live free of oppression and with dignity. But when it quickly spiraled into full civil war, every thought and emotion left me, replaced by fear. Family, loved ones, friends and acquaintances are caught by the incomprehensible violence. And I know death does not discriminate when it sweeps in with bombs, bullets and destruction.

Some family members and friends were able to flee to neighboring countries; Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey. So many are still trapped in Syria. Some I have mourned already.

Your story definitely added a human face to the conflict in Syria for me. Was that one of your goals, or is it just a byproduct of the story?

Absolutely my goal. I didn’t just set out to write a story. I had a deep desire to catch part of the struggles survivors go through by no means, giving their agony its due rights. Although my characters are completely fictional, I drew on my own experiences to express the jumble of emotions involved.

My aim was not to describe a political climate that was, and still is, too volatile and complicated to explain without delving in history lessons. I wanted to write about emotions, about the people who have to endure the rest of their lives with unusually heavy loads on their backs. I wanted to write about life, rather than death and destruction. But how could I do that when the premise of the plot is set in two still active wars?

I am constantly aware of the heavy price any meaningful success requires of people. When I worked with domestic abuse victims, I saw a different kind of survival; people escaping the wars they carry within. I also became aware of an alternate burden carried by some American soldiers who were involved in Iraq. I wanted to bring the two worlds together. The hopeful dreamer that I am, I wanted my hero and heroine, two destroyed souls by completely different wars, to have a chance in life. And so the story of Yasmeen and Adam began.

Readers of my blog are going to be very interested in your depiction of Adam, the Iraq War veteran and male protagonist. What was your inspiration for the way you wrote him?

I had a very specific vision of Adam’s character from the start. I didn’t want to invent a hero who was too far from reality. No one is perfect, no one is invincible, and no one is courageous, charming and wonderful all the time. I wanted my hero to be real, to have issues, to be close and reachable to readers. I don’t know if I managed to do that, but I wrote the character with the idea that he could be the guy sitting next to a reader on a bench in a park, bus, or airplane. I read a lot of books, and saw many movies depicting soldiers. I always felt something was missing with the way most characters were designed, lacking steadiness and credibility.

Through my work as a domestic abuse victims advocate, I mainly dealt with women and children. Very rarely did I have contact with abusers. I saw the devastating effect of abuse on children, and how it destroys their lives in adulthood. On occasion, I saw a glimpse of how strong human spirits triumphed in the face of such cruelty. I admired that struggle and wanted to write about it. And so Adam’s character became clearer in my head.

I’ve mentioned several times on my blog how infuriating the process of getting a book published is. How difficult was it for you to get this book published?

Knowing nothing about the writing world, and the publishing field in general, I had no idea what to do. It was my first attempt at writing a novel in English, so my confidence and self-esteem didn’t match my ambition to get published, didn’t even come close.

Like every problem I faced in my life, I set on finding a solution – you see a trend here, don’t you? I joined a writers critique group, took in valuable feedback, and learned about the craft from fellow writers like yourself – thank you so much by the way. I knew I had a good story that was bound to catch the eye of an agent or a publisher’s acquirer, but I really didn’t register the magnitude of the difficult process of actually finding one. Ignorance is bliss, they say. I plunged forward, sending query letters, fumbling with synopsis, going to conferences, and meeting agents – some I’d rather never have come across, and some I respected and appreciated.

I consider myself one of the lucky ones. After setting on my writing journey by just two years, my book was acquired by a magnificently accomplished editor at Soul Mate Publishing, who guided me through the maze until the book is released. Listening to struggles of fellow authors and writers, I would have to say my journey into publication was not that difficult, though highly frustrating at times. My ultimate dream is for this story to catch the attention of a movie producer.

What’s next for you as an author?

I’m working on my second novel, tentative title is “Voices from Jerusalem”. The plot is set mostly in the Middle East, and it involves a different war – so many to choose from, unfortunately. It follows the life of a young man who is raised in unusual and unconventional circumstances. Again, I draw on my background to create the events, though it is fiction. This time, I am using my father’s background to set the plot. My aim is to shed new light on human relations under a different conflict. A love story blossoms in a volatile environment. I hope it would appeal to readers who enjoyed Shadows of Damascus.

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Guys, I hope you enjoyed the interview. And I hope you check out Shadows of Damascus, and do Lilas the honor of leaving a review. Thanks,

Chris