I would love to introduce everyone to an amazing author. Ann has done everything from answering 911 Emergency calls, and scheduling commercials in a rock-n-roll radio station to teaching reading in elementary school. Talk about a bunch of diverse skills! Perfect skill set for all her novels! So let’s dive into her newest book launch, Remainders, the third book in her Apocolypse in Eden Trilogy.
The trilogy, (Takers, Seekers, Remainders) tells the story of a teenaged boy named Jack who sees his entire town of Eden, Texas decimated by creatures who fall through holes in the sky.
Elyse: Tell us about these books!
Ann: The books are an homage to speculative fiction readers and the original manuscript for Remainders was almost six hundred pages long. It took me forever to whittle it down to a manageable word count. Perhaps I just wasn’t ready to be finished with Jack and Snake and the remains of the crew. I’ve always enjoyed reading this type of fiction, because in my heart, I believe anything is possible. To me, that’s the basis of this entire genre. As you can tell from my writing, I also believe in God, yet I feel certain He is much, much larger than our brains can comprehend. Maybe someday we will be truly enlightened. Until then, I will keep on thinking about, and writing about, Heaven and Hell and everything in between. Science and religion will intersect one day, I’m certain of it.
Elyse: Did I hear there was a specific experience that inspired the trilogy?
Ann: Yes! It occurred one day when we were driving through the small town of Eden, Texas on the way to somewhere else. You see, there is a prison there. And because of this prison, there are signs along the highway, quite regularly spaced, cautioning drivers to keep their vehicle doors locked and to never pick up hitchhikers. Those signs nearly set my brain on fire. I couldn’t help but wonder what had happened to precede such dire warnings. I envisioned monsters with their thumbs out. Of course, the fact that this was all centered around the small town of Eden seemed quite Biblical. The perfect place to begin an apocalypse.
I jotted some notes in my phone, and when we got home, I wrote the short story that became Faith’s backstory.
Elyse: Can you tell us about the character, Jack?
Ann: Jack, well, he’s just my inner boy-child, kind of goofy, kind of goody-two-shoes, but with a giant heart and lots of faults. His best friend and companion, Snake, is a deaf version of my own childhood sidekick, a pit bull mix named Simon (whom my dad nicknamed Snake, but whom our neighbor insisted on calling Solomon). Seriously, if I believed in reincarnation, which I haven’t absolutely ruled out, Snake would be a prime example. He was simply one of a kind.
Although this is the end of The Apocalypse in Eden trilogy, I can’t absolutely rule out another Jack and Snake tale. After all, Faith did say they could always explore life as nomads who follow the seasons.
Elyse: Are you working on anything else?
Ann: Yes, at the moment I’m working on a few other writing projects. One is a novel of suspense which is almost complete, another is a women’s novel—what some might call a family drama—and the other is a collection of short stories that span decades. I’ve been digging them out and dusting them off little by little.
Ann lives in Texas with her husband, Dude, and when she’s not writing, she’s an avid reader. Her to-be-read list has grown so large it has taken on a life of its own and it’s so big, she actually calls it, “Herman.” (Have I told you she’s funny, too?) If you’d like to read any of Ann’s books, feel free to check her out here! or here: https://www.wordcrafts.net/ann-swann/
Elyse Salpeter 
