DARLINGTON - Imagine a world where disease has wiped out most of the human race. Everyone you loved, every perk of your prior existence has disappeared virtually overnight. In your struggle to adapt, the challenges of a typical day range from maintaining your sanity to avoiding a slew of cunning, bloodthirsty mutants who hunt you by night.
This is the post-apocalyptic scenario of "Fallen is Babylon," a science fiction novel crafted by Darlington writer Michael Wentela. His debut novel, released Aug. 1 by Texas-based publisher Grey Gecko Press, features an ordinary protagonist caught in extraordinary circumstances - a component to the novel that Wentela says was important to him from the very beginning of the writing process.
"I think most of us are the everyday Joe. We're middle-class Americans, and that's what he was," Wentela said of his protagonist, Vann Arnett. Arnett is a former college professor who at the start of the novel is totally isolated nine months after the pandemic began. "He wasn't a multimillionaire; he's not a superhero. He's just a guy. I think people can identify with that."
Wentela said Arnett's internal struggles are at the heart of his novel, providing a sort of realism that sometimes gets lost in mainstream post-apocalyptic fiction. "In the story he has to do things that a year-and-a-half, two years earlier he would have never even thought about, let alone actually do, and now he has to do them just to survive.
"So one of the things I really concentrated on was creating a believable environment ... I tried to use my imagination to create this (using) everything from the buildings deteriorating (to) weeds growing up in the streets - just so there's that sense of realism in description.
"I tried to make it much more character-driven," he said. "Every storyteller, every writer wants characters to be believable and for people to identify with them. And so that was the whole point, to try to make believable characters - your average, everyday character, not your superheroes, not the Rambos. Just your average, everyday people."
Wentela said it was also important to him that his novel's villains - humans who mutated as a result of a pandemic and prey on the living - didn't become one-dimensional. He said he wanted to avoid the idea that vampires could be "nice people," as depicted in the Twilight series, and he also sought to make his villains more interesting than the stiff, witless zombies featured in many other works of fiction.
"Some of them are animals, (but) some have maintained their cunning, and are still intelligent creatures," Wentela said.
Wentela said he spent about two years writing the novel, working many late nights and weekends. He said it took even longer to secure a contract to publish the manuscript once the novel was completed.
Wentela said he was caught off guard when he received a phone call from Jason Aydelotte, executive director of Grey Gecko. At the time he received the call from Aydelotte, Wentela was debating options in self-publishing. Aydelotte's proposal made Wentela's decision an easy one.
"They have a very unique approach," Wentela said of his experience with Grey Gecko. "Once I signed a contract with them, I was involved in the process every step of the way. And in the publishing industry, that's very unusual. (It was) to the point where I had final say on the edits, the cover art and was involved every step of the way."
Wentela is originally from Michigan's Upper Peninsula and has lived in southwest Wisconsin for about 28 years. He worked for The Monroe Times as a reporter-photographer from 1995 to 1999 and served as the Times' Lafayette County bureau chief.
He said he has two other manuscripts underway, including a sequel to "Fallen is Babylon."
"Fallen is Babylon" is available in hardcover, paperback and e-reader formats from Grey Gecko's online book store at greygeckopress.com, as well as from Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
For more information about the author, visit michaelwentela.com.
This is the post-apocalyptic scenario of "Fallen is Babylon," a science fiction novel crafted by Darlington writer Michael Wentela. His debut novel, released Aug. 1 by Texas-based publisher Grey Gecko Press, features an ordinary protagonist caught in extraordinary circumstances - a component to the novel that Wentela says was important to him from the very beginning of the writing process.
"I think most of us are the everyday Joe. We're middle-class Americans, and that's what he was," Wentela said of his protagonist, Vann Arnett. Arnett is a former college professor who at the start of the novel is totally isolated nine months after the pandemic began. "He wasn't a multimillionaire; he's not a superhero. He's just a guy. I think people can identify with that."
Wentela said Arnett's internal struggles are at the heart of his novel, providing a sort of realism that sometimes gets lost in mainstream post-apocalyptic fiction. "In the story he has to do things that a year-and-a-half, two years earlier he would have never even thought about, let alone actually do, and now he has to do them just to survive.
"So one of the things I really concentrated on was creating a believable environment ... I tried to use my imagination to create this (using) everything from the buildings deteriorating (to) weeds growing up in the streets - just so there's that sense of realism in description.
"I tried to make it much more character-driven," he said. "Every storyteller, every writer wants characters to be believable and for people to identify with them. And so that was the whole point, to try to make believable characters - your average, everyday character, not your superheroes, not the Rambos. Just your average, everyday people."
Wentela said it was also important to him that his novel's villains - humans who mutated as a result of a pandemic and prey on the living - didn't become one-dimensional. He said he wanted to avoid the idea that vampires could be "nice people," as depicted in the Twilight series, and he also sought to make his villains more interesting than the stiff, witless zombies featured in many other works of fiction.
"Some of them are animals, (but) some have maintained their cunning, and are still intelligent creatures," Wentela said.
Wentela said he spent about two years writing the novel, working many late nights and weekends. He said it took even longer to secure a contract to publish the manuscript once the novel was completed.
Wentela said he was caught off guard when he received a phone call from Jason Aydelotte, executive director of Grey Gecko. At the time he received the call from Aydelotte, Wentela was debating options in self-publishing. Aydelotte's proposal made Wentela's decision an easy one.
"They have a very unique approach," Wentela said of his experience with Grey Gecko. "Once I signed a contract with them, I was involved in the process every step of the way. And in the publishing industry, that's very unusual. (It was) to the point where I had final say on the edits, the cover art and was involved every step of the way."
Wentela is originally from Michigan's Upper Peninsula and has lived in southwest Wisconsin for about 28 years. He worked for The Monroe Times as a reporter-photographer from 1995 to 1999 and served as the Times' Lafayette County bureau chief.
He said he has two other manuscripts underway, including a sequel to "Fallen is Babylon."
"Fallen is Babylon" is available in hardcover, paperback and e-reader formats from Grey Gecko's online book store at greygeckopress.com, as well as from Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
For more information about the author, visit michaelwentela.com.