I was lucky to get an interview with Bea Waters, the author of Project Human.
Please, tell us a bit about yourself…
I was born and raised in on the east coast of Canada, where I now live with my husband and our teen daughter. I speak both English and French, and I can stumble through basic Spanish conversations. A master dowser has told me I’ve had six past lives on Earth. That means this life is lucky #7, so I better do something important with it!!
For most of my adult life (two decades), I’ve been writing what other people paid me to write. I got laid off during COVID, and having to pivot, I’ve dedicated myself to writing the stories that fuel my passion. This is a scary place, so to anyone who is mildly interested, please take a deeper look. I think I’ve created a truly unique adventure with Project Human and I appreciate your interest.
“When Olivia runs away, she doesn’t expect to be beamed up by telepathic aliens and transported halfway across the galaxy...”
Why should I buy your book?
Project Human is a YA Sci-Fi Fantasy Adventure that pulls you in and keeps you hooked.
Thirteen alien species are fighting to control planet Earth because WE are their science project. The fate of humanity, and its acceptance into the galactic community, rests on the shoulders of fourteen year old Olivia Carpenter.
Olivia hates her life. The kids at school bully her... even her dad treats her like a disease. When Olivia runs away, she doesn't expect to be beamed up by telepathic aliens and transported halfway across the galaxy, where she discovers a universe teeming with intelligent life - including twelve alien tribes who have engineered human DNA to suit their needs. Caught in the crosshairs of a galactic tug of war, she's sworn to secrecy about her "Terran" origins until an attempt on her life forces her to trust her new alien friends with her identity. Will Olivia be able to unravel the mystery of Project Human before she's permanently silenced?
If you like Young Adult books and you need an escape from the everyday grind, Project Human is an epic adventure that will take you 400 light years across the galaxy and back!
What got you into writing? And how long have you been doing it?
I started writing in elementary school as a way of escaping the bullies. I was picked on from day one of grade one, so I spent my lunches sitting alone, reading. I had a vivid imagination, and by grade three I was inventing my own stories. At eleven, I began writing my first novella. The bullies saw me at work and demanded that I read it to them. They were so compelled by my story, that they demanded a new chapter every day, and so my evenings became a flurry of writing to satisfy their demands, but it became addictive because my writing had stopped the bullying. That experience solidified my desire to write, but the entire experience made me apprehensive of sharing my inner self with the world. I’ve spent two decades being paid to write professionally for many employers with many different writing needs, including multiple years as a Communications Officer for the Government of Canada. Being laid off during covid was difficult, but I’ve decided to make like a caterpillar and become the butterfly I was always meant to be. With that, I’m unleashing my magnum opus, Project Human, to the world.
Just like me your influences include archaeology, history of ancient cultures, and role playing games. How does these influences color your writing, world building, characters, settings and so on?
History of ancient cultures has been crucial to my world building. I wanted every alien species to have specific connections to human cultures, and in order to do that effectively, I had to do a lot of research in order to find cultural elements that fit. My research into these subjects is ongoing because, well, this stuff is just so darn interesting!
Archaeology has played a significant role in my world building for Project Human, but a lot of that will remain behind the scenes until an ancient site becomes important to the story. In Project Human, Keelo makes a reference that they “disabled the star gates for a reason”. I have very specific monuments in mind for this line of dialogue, but the character would never go deeper into this explanation, and so I leave it to the reader to wonder what this means.
I had never thought of how role playing games have influenced my writing, but this question made me ponder, and yes! My main character starts her quest looking for community with other people, and once she finds them, she puts together a team to go on an adventure employing the unique abilities of each member of her team to help save the day. So her adventuring group very much resembles the motley crew of varied characters that one finds in a compelling role playing adventure!
Why did you choose to write sci-fi?
I’ve always been interested in the future, in the possibility of what humans could become or where we could go. I wrote my first sci-fi story on a dare in grade 12, a story about the next step in the evolutionary journey of humans.
Then over a decade ago, I stumbled upon the television series Ancient Aliens, which strangely enough, is about history. But the more I watched and the more corroborating research I did, a lot of things about this Ancient Astronaut Theory made sense to me. I began to wonder, if aliens visited us in the past, why did they vanish? Why aren’t they helping us to become a better species? Why aren’t they teaching us that war and violence are not long-term solutions to anything, and only speed up our demise? My imagination began firing on all cylinders, and Project Human was born.
Originally, Project Human was a television pilot that I pitched to Fox Studios. The VP of development loved my pitch but explained that because I had never run a TV series, if he funded my (big budget) project, someone else’s vision would decide the direction of the show. He loved my pitch and wanted to see it play out my way, so he suggested that I write a series of books, like Game of Thrones, or the Walking Dead. He said that once I had an audience behind my series, there would be a bidding war for the TV rights. It was the nicest rejection I have ever received, and so I set off on the task of adapting my TV series to books.
I prefer to read YA books, and I’ve had a difficult time finding a good supply of YA science fiction. Most YA that I find is full of romance side plots that to me, get in the way of the story. I wanted a to write a galactic adventure and I wanted to create a hero who learns about aliens as a teenager, when the world still seems full of possibility. This required an entirely new cast of characters, but because I had already done such lush world building, the characters developed organically as the story unfolded.
Which other author has had the biggest influence on your writing?
The biggest influence on my writing has to be Madeleine L’Engle’s, A Wrinkle In Time. It was this book that opened my mind to the idea of intelligent life existing elsewhere in the cosmos, but also that intelligence does not equal harmony and peace. I began wondering what intelligent life on another planet would look like, and that eventually transformed into wondering how intelligent life would view humanity and our current societies and interrelations.
What’s the best thing about being a writer?
The best thing about being a writer is that I get to live in worlds where the bullies DON’T win at the end of the day, where good actually CAN prevail over evil. I can write stories where humanity gets our collective crap in order and we actually become galactic citizens instead of being annihilated by aliens for being a danger to the galaxy (which in our current state, we absolutely are). I get to rewrite the wrongs, I get to work out the problems, and I get to do it all with imagination and words on the page. I get to write the stories I wish I could read. It’s the best job on the planet!
What’s the hardest thing about being a writer?
The hardest thing about being a writer is convincing people to take a chance on my book. I get it... when I pick up a book in the book store, I read a bit before deciding if I’ll buy it because I don’t like every author’s style of writing. Since my book isn’t in brick and mortar stores, I’ve set up my website to be able to give away free chapters to anyone who wants a try-before-you-buy option.
All of my ARC readers were unpaid strangers and so far, they have all loved Project Human. As of this interview, I have 6 ratings on Goodreads from ARC readers with a total of 4.83 stars of 5. I worked really hard on creating the best story I could, with compelling characters, no plot holes, and surprise twists. Now, I have to trust that my marketing plan will get my book in the hands of as many readers as possible!
I think the second hardest thing is learning patience. I poured my soul into this book and I want everyone to read it, YESTERDAY. I need to be realistic that it’s going to take time to spread the word about Project Human.
Do you have any tips or an author app, tool, or resource that you can really recommend we try?
The best tip I have to share is a technique I developed out of necessity when I had tennis elbow and I could not type without pain. Buy some voice recognition software, print out the current draft of your book, and read it into the computer. You will hear every place where the text is awkward, where the wrong word choice breaks the flow, etc. You will find all of the problems that you cannot find by reading quietly in your head. Using this as an editing technique has greatly improved my writing.
And now it's time to yank out your Palantir! Let’s talk about the future. What new projects are you working on?
I am currently working on a short story called Pray to the Sun, set in a future world where AI technology is on the brink of exterminating humanity. It feels like a relevant topic considering the recent rise in AI and I’m hoping that I can publish this story for a much needed bit of income.
I have also fully outlined book 2 of the Project Human series, called Atlantis Rising. I’m planning to start writing this book as soon as work on Pray to the Sun is complete.
Do you have any dreams you’d like to share?
I dream of selling 100,000 copies of Project Human. I feel like by the time 100,000 people have read this book, they will be hooked and telling all of their friends. To make this dream a reality, I have to keep talking about my book to everyone I meet, both in person and online. I have to keep doing interviews such as this lovely interview, and building community with other authors and readers, and some day, my dream will become reality.
Anything else you would like to say before we close?
I want to thank everyone who supports my book from the bottom of my heart, but an extra special thanks to those who support on this book on Kickstarter. Supporting my book in this way puts more of the money in my pocket than I get with online book sellers, and this helps me feed myself while I write the next installment of the Project Human series. I also want to thank everyone who takes the time to read Project Human. My goal is to entertain and give you a break from the daily grind. Thanks for taking a chance on me!
That was some interesting answers. I wish you the very best of luck finding readers for your book, and thanks for doing the interview.
