Today we talk about Out of Nowhere, a book by Andrew Price published with our publishing house Europe Books.
Europe Books had the pleasure of interviewing the author Andrew Price to get to know him better, what was the moment that prompted him to the writing of his book Out of Nowhere, as well as the authors of the present and/or the past he takes as a model.
Below you can find our interview. Take a seat and enjoy your reading!!!
- What is the moment that brought you to the writing of your book?
Well, great question! I actually wrote this book about 5 years ago very spontaneously over the course of 2 weeks. In fact, I wrote one long book but then broke it into two, so the second one is more or less ready to go. As far as planning goes, there wasn’t any really, I just sat down one day and started writing each evening after work and two weeks later, there it was, at least in rough draft anyway. I then put it away for about 2 years and didn’t think of it again. Then during Covid, I was going through my computer tidying up some files and came across the writing and after reading a bit of it, decided to go through and clean it up. That process probably took me another 6 or 8 weeks, after which I looked up a few publishing firms and sent an extract through to the editors, and then waited to see what happened, and here we are.
- What are the crucial themes of your book?
I think the crucial theme of the book is that there is more to the world then what we generally perceive and that we are in fact in an active relationship with reality at large even if we are not directly aware of it. I think that another important aspect that the book is attempting to convey is that while many of us seem to sense there is more going on than meets the eye, the experience of discovering that can be quite disruptive to our normal day to day experience, especially the socially accepted reality we generally share with one another. And finally, while much of what I have described seems to represent what is often termed some sort of spiritual experience, a desire to seek it out certainly doesn’t seem to be a pre requisite, nor do you have to be “spiritual” as such, in fact, I suspect the more “normal” you are the more authentic such an experience is likely to be.
- What is the message you want to communicate to your readers?….
Well, to begin with, i think its important to reinforce that I have tried my best to share the experiences I had as I experienced them at that time, and that I have deliberately limited sharing the subjective conclusions I drew from those experiences. While conclusions do exist and they subtly come through in my writing style, in these first few books, I am really trying to share with the reader what and how I experienced this journey as it happened. I also think that it is important for the readers to understand that while I acknowledge that this book fits into the category or “spirituality”, I don’t really see my experiences as spiritual, I just see them as becoming more cognisant of the reality that we are all part of. When I say reality, I am more referring to the reality that exists in spite of, or regardless of our subjective reality.
- Which authors of the present and/or the past do you take as a model?….
Gee, thats a hard one as I am not consciously aware of modelling myself against any author. I am not an avid reader by any means and didn’t read books at all before the events described in this book. Since then I have read a few books, however tend to read books that are lean more toward non fiction rather than fiction. In saying that though, some of my favourite reads include, The Prophet by Kahill Gibran, The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho and Spiritual Warfare by Jed McKenna, which I consider as fun books alluding to deeper meaning. In the last 10 years, I enjoyed reading The Ministry for The Future, The Weather Makers by Tim Flannery and Sapiens; A brief history of humanity by Yuval Noah Harari, which I thought was a really great set of books. However, out of everything I have read, the book that I related to the most was Collision With the Infinite by Suzanne Segal.
- Are you working on a new writing project you can tell us about?…
Well yes. Currently I am working on getting my second book, which is really the second half of Out of Nowhere that I wrote 5 years ago, ready for proof reading and editing, assuming Out of Nowhere is successful that is. Book one is set over 2 years, however the two books together will collectively cover the first 10 years of life after the initial events on the side of the road described in book one. Why 10 years? 10 years is affectively how long it took me to integrate and reconcile my experiences into everyday life, as in learn to function in what I describe as the common socialised reality we all share while still holding the view of the expanded reality I now carry. I am not saying that I do a great job of that mind you, but at least for all intense purposes, I seem to function in a manner similar in appearance to most people around me. Depending on the response to the first two books, I have also started on 2 other spin off books that isolate certain parts of my life during that period that deserve more detailed focus than I could give them in book one and two. In total, I can potentially see 5 books, maybe 6 that all tie together in describing my journey from “shared normal” everyday reality to my now normal but less shared and more expansive reality. I can also see me writing a couple of books that are more based on the subjective conclusions I have come to over the time since this all began, but I guess that all depends on how the readers respond book one and two and to me as an author in general.
Europe Books thanks the author Andrew Price once again for taking the time and answering our questions. We are really pleased to have walked alongside him on the editorial path that led to the publication of his book Out of Nowhere. We wish him the best of luck for his book and for his future works.
To you, my dear reader, may the experiences the author wrote about captures, excites and inspire you, providing you with interesting food for thought to apply in your everyday and future life!
So, my dear reader, all I have to say is to enjoy your reading!
Your Editor