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  • Amy's Bookshelf Reviews

Featured Author: Anders Rauff-Nielsen


Q: In one sentence, tell me something that describes you as a person?

A: Well, to get a – hopefully – more objective answer, I asked my wife to describe me and here's what she said: A playful lover of science & logic with strong moral principles, who is still a child

at heart.

Q: How many books have you written? How many of those are published?

A: Two so far, both of them published. The first was a “how to” on role-playing games and storytelling published by a leading Danish publishing house almost 10 years ago. The second one “Shades – The Demise of Blake Beck” is my debut novel, with which I've dived head first into the deep waters of self-publishing.

Q: Do you have an upcoming release? If yes, tell me the title and impending release date.

A: I have. It's a rather different book compared to “Shades”, but hopefully I'll soon release my first illustrated children's book “Max & Mia – Poor Max”, which is written to help young kids learn to read. I wrote it for my own daughter and thought that I might as well share it with the world – maybe it can help other children as well. It's about Max who accidentally falls into a hole and Mia who stitches him back up and brings him back to life – loosely inspired by Frankenstein, but for young kids (who are not afraid to learn slightly inappropriate words like “butt”). Hopefully, it will be released soon, but I haven't set a final release date yet.

Q: If you could “create” your own genre of what you write, what would you call your books?

A: Hmm... I guess “Shades” might be “European Urban Factionsy” (Fact, Fiction, Fantasy)

Q: Without quoting your back cover synopsis, tell me about the last book you published.

A: Shades is an urban fantasy thriller, where CAC agent/vampire hunter Blake Beck suddenly finds himself tasked with keeping an ancient, powerful ritual from falling into the hands of Mr. Ferre – the first undead – as this would overthrow the power balance in the afterlife and leave the undead free to conquer the realms of both life and death. However, Blake's struggle to save the worlds is made even harder by both his love-life and his sense of right and wrong, as he finds himself a mere pawn in the chess game of gods. In its form and its use of real world elements in a fictional setting, “Shades” is inspired by authors like Dan Brown, whereas its quirky take on urban fantasy is inspired by years of reading the works of Neil Gaiman.

Originally, Shades was first conceived as a graphic novel, but (thankfully) I ended up going down a different road, which suited my skills much better.

Q: Tell me something about yourself that is separate from writing.

A: Well, I haven't quit my day-job, so to speak. So, I spend a lot of time designing digital games, as I work full time as a “Game and Universe Designer” at the Danish game studio Funday Factory. In my spare time, besides writing, I design (even more) games (both digital games and physical board games, which I love) to be released in my small writing/game studio Widowgrove.

Q: Who is your favorite Author?

A: I... really, just one? Well, measured on quality of writing, Milan Kundera springs to mind. If I look at authors I have read the most/followed the longest, the answer is probably Neil Gaiman (who's writing I also love and admire). However, I often end up reading “classics” as I truly believe that there is a reason why they become just that – so in my bookshelves can be found numerous books by writers like Bram Stoker, Arthur Conan Doyle, Hemmingway, Primo Levi and Milan Kundera, to name a few. Likewise there is a great number of classical works of philosophy from when I took my masters degree in philosophy and history.

Q: What is the last book that you read? (Not counting anything you wrote)

A: I think it was Primo Levi's “If this is a man” (I think the US title might be “Survival in Auschwitz”, which is an account of his experiences as a prisoner in the KZ-camp Auschwitz during WWII. This together with Chil Rajchman's “The last Jew of Treblinka: a memoir” are two books that will be forever etched into my mind as important – even necessary – testimonies of a mistake mankind cannot afford to repeat – and the only way to avoid this repetition is to make sure that ours and coming generations do not forget.

Q: When writing, do you have a system or something you plan, or do you just write?

A: Usually I design a framework and a narrative universe to begin with, which have been my natural approach when designing narratives for games for years and which works really well (to me atleast) in writing books.

For Shades, I started out designing the world (my version of purgatory) and character gallery. Then I found my “mystery” in the shape of the Voynich manuscript and the works of Bernt Notke (a famous medieval artist, whom I learned about when studying medieval history at Aarhus University some 12 years ago). Using this foundation, I outlined the novel in chapters (using something as boring as an excel sheet – I'm that artsy), with each chapter having a defined cast and location, a primary event and a reason for why that chapter should be in the book. Then to start writing, I consulted my excel sheet and found the next chapter to be written. I checked which characters were present and where the scene took place. Then I put on some good music (you can figure put what music I listened to for inspiration by checking out the chapter names) and started writing – having made the deal with myself that I would never stop and read, rewrite or correct anything until the chapters was done. This was a new way of writing for me, but one which worked wonders – on the best of days it actually felt more like I was the first reader, than the writer of the novel. My characters were allowed to do what came naturally to them (so to speak) and this actually helped me solve some plot-holes that I hadn't been able to think my way out off. I guess this approach – for me – originates from 25 years of improvised storytelling in tabletop roleplaying (in Scandinavia, roleplaying games are often focused much more on the narrative than the rules/game aspect – that is more roles than rules). And then... (a very important note, which you should keep in mind before starting a novel)... then you re-write. Then you re-write again... and again... each time remembering to have your worked read by test readers for feedback, because you will “go blind” - somewhat at least.

(And just a heads up: if you need just one source of input on how to write, you should check out Stephen King's “On writing”. It is awesome!)

Q: Why do you write?

A: The short answer, because I don't know how not to. I've been telling stories as a hobby since I got my first Dungeons & Dragons RPG boxed set for my 11th birthday and I love it. Since then I've been dreaming of writing a novel and now – almost 25 years later – I finally did it.

Q: Any final thoughts that you want to give to your fans or even future authors?

A: Well, if I have fans – I am so very happy that you like my work and thank you for being there! - and please don't stay silent if you like my work. Waking up to a positive mail, tweet or new review honestly makes my day better – for instance it just happened today that someone, somewhere wrote a short, positive review on Amazon and made a great day even better. And to future authors/those who dream – Do it, but do it for your own sake and the sake of writing. Storytelling should not be a means to an end. Other than that, be aware that it is a long, slow climb. But when it is done, it's worth it.

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