{"id":32375,"date":"2023-04-17T06:30:48","date_gmt":"2023-04-17T10:30:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tellest.com\/?p=32375"},"modified":"2023-04-18T07:47:29","modified_gmt":"2023-04-18T11:47:29","slug":"interview_zoltan_nagy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tellest.com\/interview_zoltan_nagy\/","title":{"rendered":"Interview with A. D. Zoltan and Steven N. Nagy"},"content":{"rendered":"
Recently, Tellest promoted the great work of A. D. Zoltan and Steven N. Nagy on the brilliant story, Conjunction<\/em>, the first book in their Wise Society series.\u00a0 It\u2019s a sprawling space opera with a focus more on what could become of our future if we meet it with open minds and other virtues.\u00a0 We were afforded the opportunity to talk to the writers of the great story, to figure out how Conjunction<\/em> came to be, and to determine where we go from here.\u00a0 Read on to learn more!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Please note, we anticipate that Steven N. Nagy\u2019s responses will come a little later, and we will be adding them to the article accordingly.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Tellest:<\/strong> Greetings A. D. and Steven! \u00a0I wanted to thank you for taking the time to talk to me about your recently released work, the space opera Conjunction<\/em>, the first book in your Wise Society series.\u00a0 It seems that a lot of thought and passion went into the novel, and as such, I can imagine finding the time to talk about your project is a little more difficult to find than putting together all your research for the story and developing it into what it is today.\u00a0 I\u2019m excited to get to know more about you, and to show readers just why they should be diving into this wonderful book.<\/p>\n A. D. Zoltan: <\/strong>When I first raised the idea of writing a book to Steven years before we actually started brainstorming on it, he said \u201cAre you kidding? Why should we write a book?\u201d I don\u2019t remember my actual answer to that, but now I would be able to answer it. \u201cBecause we have important things to say.\u201d At the very beginning it was more like a common joke to write a book, but we both shared the passion of enjoying good sci-fi works, and that joke became more and more of a reality over time.<\/p>\n We spent months of brainstorming sessions (collecting characters, purposes, ideas, and world-building) between May and August 2018. We started to write the book only afterwards and we finished the Hungarian manuscript it in 2019.<\/p>\n Maybe one of our first thoughts when the outlines of the story were settled was that \u201cOk, but where is the drama in Conjunction<\/em>? Why will people actually want to read it?\u201d We both agreed that this philosophical and spiritual sci-fi will be more about giving faith to people, that there could be a better future for us. This future won\u2019t be about wars, climate crisis, or a battle between big corporations and governments. It will be about a society which is capable of making mutual decisions on a whole society level. In just one world: a utopia. But a clever one.<\/p>\n On the other hand, the story is about spirituality. What happens after we pass away? What does it feel like? To make this hard topic more understandable we invented a highly developed alien civilization, the F\u00fczenis, who could travel between dimensions or as we call \u201cspheres\u201d and are capable of introducing these spiritual ideas in a simple way to humans.<\/p>\n For me the most engaging part of the book is the very clever and enlightening discussions with the F\u00fczenis and other entities.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n T:<\/strong> I find that one of the greatest ways to introduce readers to their new favorite authors is to try and understand a fundamental place that served as an inspiration for their journey.\u00a0 It\u2019s interesting for me to find out what fostered a spark for you wherever you find your passion, and to understand the reasons you began writing.\u00a0 Did you have a favorite author, philosopher, or form of entertainment that you think helped to shape you into the people you are today?<\/p>\n ADZ: <\/strong>I do have many favorite authors and books like Asimov\u2019s Foundation series, Celestine Prophecy by James Redfield, Way of the Peaceful Warrior by Dan Millman, and Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes. But these books weren\u2019t the reason why I wanted to write fiction.<\/p>\n When I\u2019m speaking about spirituality and religion, I feel there are a lot of hurdles. In today\u2019s world, religion isn\u2019t about people, but more about power and greed. I really miss having honest conversations about beliefs, about feelings and why we are here.<\/p>\n I read a lot of spiritual works in my life, I learned to listen to my inner intuition which helped me find the true messages behind the stories. It worked as a kind of filter after a certain amount of time. Now I feel that my understanding of spirituality is worth sharing with others, and it feels very positive when I re-read these parts in Conjunction<\/em>. This was the basic motivation why I wanted to write this fictional spiritual story: to introduce the truth to people who listen.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n T:<\/strong> At the same time though, Conjunction<\/em> doesn\u2019t exactly feel preachy or proselytizing.\u00a0 You\u2019re not trying to convert anyone into feeling the way you do or pushing an agenda.\u00a0 At the end of the day, it feels more like personal spirituality\u2014almost like a personal vibe that people could tap into if they wanted to see things the way you do.<\/p>\n ADZ: <\/strong>I think this is one of the whole points of spirituality. There is no one, true religion or guru, but there are certainly things that are bigger than us. If we believe that death isn\u2019t the final destination, an evident question could be that \u201cBut what\u2019s exactly after it?\u201d. If we have a non-material soul, how and where it could exist if not in the 3D space? If the story is bigger than one lifespan, what could be the ultimate purpose? On the book\u2019s pages we tried to find answers for these simple questions.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n T:<\/strong> Knowing that religion and spirituality can be deeply personal, and at times even messy, how did you prepare to write a story about another interpretation about the metaphysical in a way that connected to spirituality without being overbearing?<\/p>\n ADZ: <\/strong>There is no way to really prepare. It is the same case as writing about deep philosophical things: it\u2019s an opinion, the opinion of the authors. But beyond the lines of the book, you could find true things and ideas, that you could take over into your own personal belief. If not, nothing happens. It\u2019s just a story, a fiction after all.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n T:<\/strong> What was it that inspired you to tell the story of Conjunction<\/em>?\u00a0 Was it something that was always sort of gnawing in the back of your mind\u2014a story that needed to be told\u2014or was it something that came about naturally amidst the work and research that you had done on other projects?<\/p>\n ADZ: <\/strong>In case of great stories, you always feel that basically the grounds aren\u2019t new. Like, in the case of Harry Potter: wizards and witchcraft schools existed even before the book, but J.K. Rowling managed to put everything together. We did the same when we tried to put spirituality and highly developed civilizations together. Maybe there is nothing new since the story elements already existed, but seeing everything together in one story is fascinating.<\/p>\n We discussed a lot about this with Steven, but we both feel that mainstream readers may find Conjunction\u2019s story too \u201cdrama free\u201d because of the philosophical nature of it. But we still felt strongly that this story should be out now, and here.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n T:<\/strong> If you think you had been able to tell a story that was a little less dependent on the general reading public\u2019s need for strife or conflict, do you think the book would have by nature been a bit more peaceful?\u00a0 Would there have been focuses in other areas in that case?<\/p>\n ADZ: <\/strong>Not necessarily. Honestly, in the days of Netflix and Tiktok influencers writing a book itself feels like a dumb thing. But still we needed to find a form to tell the story. In 10 to 20 years, these stories could be easily transformed into a movie like form with the descendant of ChatGPT. Maybe the story will still not be action packed on the screen, but at least suspenseful. You would never figure out what could happen in the next minute and that is something we both like in this story.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n