When the story behind a book is as interesting as reading the book itself, you gotta talk to the author. This is how I felt when I spoke with author Joel Horn, whose novel “Hatching the Phoenix Egg” recently appeared on the Crumble Bulletin when I reviewed it not long ago.

This was the sequel to a story known as “Lost Coast Rocket”, which Joel tells me he actually first began writing while deployed in Iraq. As a first-time fiction writer (Joel had previously written a non-fiction work known as “Impossible Beyond This Point”), I was curious to know more.

This is Joel’s inspiration, his experience as a novelist, and what’s next for him!

Check out Joel Horn’s Amazon page!

Joel’s inspiration for writing about Ken, rockets and more

For those of you who haven’t read either Lost Coast or Hatching, the stories follow the life of a boy named Ken, who is intelligent beyond his years and loves rocket science (the term “it’s not rocket science” will never apply to these books). It’s a fascinating read through the life of this boy, from his early childhood right through to his years as an adult, creating rockets in his backyard, forming his own company and even gallivanting about space (oh, and there’s also the end of the world thrown in there. Post-apocalyptic stories, gotta love ’em!).

But where did it all come from?

“Besides being inspired by the Apollo program in the 1960s,” Joel wrote to me, “and the fact that I have always been intrigued by prodigies, I was deployed with a reserve battalion in the mid-90s and it was there I took in a lot of the human interaction.”

Joel explained that he met people of all ages and occupations during this time, due to the eclectic makeup of reserve battalions (people as young as 18 up to over 50!). These diverse interactions, mixed with the technical and mechanical aviation fields he worked in, “inspired a lot of the human elements of Lost Coast Rocket”.

“On top of this, my brothers and I were homeschooled, centring heavily on building technical projects – which to this day I still find fascinating,” Joel continued, explaining where a lot of the hands-on DIY elements to the series came from.

So why write a book, especially on deployment to Iraq?

Writing a novel is no mean feat for most people (tell me abouddit), but to begin this creation whilst on deployment is another thing entirely. Well, the story here takes us back to the 1960s…

“I read long ago that a book is a time capsule that will travel into the future long after the writer has perished, and I found it a very compelling thought,” Joel said.

“I read long ago that a book is a time capsule that will travel into the future long after the writer has perished, and I found it a very compelling thought.”

“I have always wanted to write, inspired in part by my parents’ long desire to be authors.”

Indeed, in 1967, Joel told me, his parents moved their family from Los Angeles to a “very remote gold mine beyond the end of the road.” His father wrote of this significant shift in ’72, but couldn’t find a publisher at the time. Unfortunately, he died in 1990 having never managing to find one.

Then, in the mid-90s, his mother decided to write her version of their off-grid lifestyle, this time going with a print-on-demand publishing service. Sales were poor, Joel says, and about 10 years later, his mother turned to Joel and “begged me to rewrite her book with my viewpoint added in” – she knew he was an aspiring writer. Joel seized the opportunity, and also incorporated his dad’s manuscript into his.

It was on this journey that Joel (via the help of his wife, Crystal) discovered Kindle Direct Publishing and its twin, CreateSpace. You could say this was exactly what he needed to finish his father’s legacy and publish their combined adventure into the world, the culmination of which was “Impossible Beyond This Point”. Indeed, it was finishing this story that delayed the completion of “Lost Coast Rocket”, which had already begun by this point.

Skip to the modern day, and the days ahead

Now it’s 2017. “Impossible Beyond This Point” has received 89 Amazon reviews, with a current rating of four-and-a-half stars. “Lost Coast Rocket” and “Hatching the Phoenix Egg” are also available on Amazon, both with the same rating. Joel’s father’s legacy is alive and selling, and Joel himself his creating quite a name for himself along the way.

I was curious about what Joel had learned during this process, and what lay ahead for his future career.

“Writing makes a person think and evaluate the world and its inhabitants.”

“Writing makes a person think and evaluate the world and its inhabitants,” he told me. “If a scene [I’m writing] is coming up lacking, I have to rethink or place more attention on the objects I am writing about. When coming up short, [I learned to] get out and observe and research.”

“The world is flooded with content, and that is a great thing, but it makes the ocean wider and deeper for authors to rise up in. My approach is to write the best content I can and then really listen to reader feedback.”

And coming up next?

Joel says he has had his hands in many projects over the last year, but writing has taken centre stage. He intends to continue on this path, and even produce a sequel to “Impossible Beyond This Point”.

If you’re interested in Joel’s work, you can find him on Amazon, linked at the top of this article!

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