January 2021

Q&A with Author Eleftherios Keramidas

Hi, it's really great to get to talk to you about your story. Can you tell us a little about what "Toxic," is about?

Imagine an infamous grimoire that brings death to all who try to unlock its secrets. Can its riddle be solved by a modern-day occultist who uses cutting-edge technology to overcome human imperfection and to detect the things that no eye can see?

How did you come up with the idea? Why did you pick the story setting?

All too often, speculative fiction describes magic and technology as antithetical forces. I have grown tired of Luddite wizards who jot things down on paper and witches who have enough spare time to visit Tibet just to read a single page from an old tome. Why not use a tablet? Why not send an underling to e-mail back a photo of the page? Wouldn't people devoted to a very demanding discipline (as magic is always portrayed) snap up every chance to make their lives easier, save time and get more things done with less effort? I tried to present readers with the modus operandi and achievements of such a person.

What is your inspiration for writing as a whole?

As long as I can remember, I have been insatiable for stories. And the more I consume, the more I want to tell my own. The more I get to know about the world--I’m a History buff and also try to keep up with developments in science--the more I feel I have to say.

Could you tell us a bit about yourself?

I'm from Greece. There are no full-time genre writers here, so thankfully I've studied Computer Engineering (with an MSc in AI), and I have a dayjob as a software analyst in the public sector. My wife is a published speculative fiction author too, and although we probably own ten times the number of books we will be able to read during our lifetimes, we keep buying.

Where can listeners find more of your work?

In English, I've also had a short story included in the Zombies Need Brains anthology, Apocalyptic.

In Greek, I'm best known for a fantasy trilogy with Byzantium-flavored worldbuilding, "Sons of Ash." Here you can find samples of my work you probably can't read, along with pretty pictures:
https://sonsofash.blogspot.com/
https://www.facebook.com/gioitisstaxtis

Any new work we should keep an eye out for?

This will also be inaccessible to anyone who can't read Greek, but I'm very proud of it. With all their strength, a benefit anthology on the theme of struggle will come out by the end of the year. Besides work from luminaries of the local scene (and yours truly), it will contain an exclusive short story by Graham Masterton and Dawn Harris. All proceedings will go to an association of parents to children with neoplasms (cancer).

Even if it will all be Greek to you, check out the magnificent cover by digital artist Nick Deligaris on Facebook.

(And just for Juli's curiosity: What are you reading now?)

Michel Kaplan’s Why Byzantium? An empire of eleven centuries (not available in English, as far as I know). Next on my schedule is Local Haunts: A HorrorTube Anthology.

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Editor's Note: If you enjoyed this story, you might be interested in reading the whole anthology, Brain Games: Stories to Astonish, with many more great stories. It's available on Amazon

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