Cage fighter Mathew Stemp is known as a hero to some, a criminal to others, and a legend to all who live in northern Utah. As a cannibal virus spreads internationally, the world is torn between Exterminationists and Curists, and Mathew leaves his prostitution business to repair his relationship with his brother and his God. But his journey becomes even more difficult when he meets Shaylee, the victim of both the virus and his brother’s bullying. While battling his ongoing depression, Matt fights to protect his friends from his past in SemiViral.
Guest Post:
Several
pieces of SemiViral were inspired by different events scattered
throughout my life. I initially began the story after having a very spontaneous
dream about a team of vampires and a depressed teenage girl stalking a young
man from her school. Although that has nothing to do with the story I wrote,
that dream put me in front of my keyboard to begin typing SemiViral.
At
the time of that dream, I had just moved my brother in with me after he was
hospitalized for heavy drug use. My relationship with my siblings was not where
I’d have liked it to be and I used this opportunity to try and help my brother.
After he moved in, I was inspired to write my story around the relationship of
two brothers, Matt and Garret, the fictional story of where I wished I could
take the relationship with my own brother. On the flip-side, I added another
brother pair of Charlie and Blake, who represented what I feared our
relationship would be if I had not turned my life around in high school, and
finally Kel and JW, who represented the fear I had if I had chosen not to work
on our relationship whatsoever.
Almost
each of the fight scenes throughout the story was inspired by actual violent
events I had experienced in my life. I used a lot of the faults that I
struggled with throughout my high school and young adult life to format the
stories of the characters. For example, Kel’s inspiration came from my
experience being bullied as a kid. I was institutionalized for most of two
years during high school. Like him, I always wanted to just fit in, but because
of who I chose to hang out with and how I acted, I was a target of a lot of
bullying. During early high school, I spent class time hiding in the restroom
in embarrassment and tears because of the physical and emotional abuse I took.
I feared all through school that I would never feel like I belonged with anyone
else in my age group.
Much of SemiViral is the struggle of several
outcasts trying to find their place in the world together. However, it wouldn’t
be as fun without adding a challenging environment. After lots of thought, I
remembered the 2012 article about the man who smoked bath salts and attacked another
man. Many referred to this as a real zombie attack, which caused me to imagine
a world with zombies who were not dead—in other words, a cannibalistic virus.
My hope when writing this novel was to create relatable characters who
struggled with the same issues that many modern teens and young adults face with
in a fictional story that was fun and exciting. With the help of many of my
friends and their vastly different and distinct personalities, I accomplished
the novel with the impact I had hoped for.
Although I had a lot of inspiration, writing SemiViral
was difficult for me to accomplish. While working full-time, attending college,
and battling depression, I struggled to stay motivated while writing. I brought
back coping skills and techniques I had learned while in rehabilitation as a
kid and was able to regain focus and motivation. I told myself after an episode
of writer’s block to just dedicate thirty minutes each day to either writing or
reading the manuscript. By reading what I had written so far, I would remember
ideas I may had forgotten, or even find a piece of the story that originally
didn’t mean anything but inspired a useful direction from where I was currently
in the story.
My
advice to any writer is to dedicate the time to their story. Writers write,
it’s what we do and if we aren’t writing, then we aren’t writers. Second,
experience the world and your environment. A creative writer does not simply
imagine their stories, they write from experience and without it, there are no
tools for your imagination to use when creating the story.
About Jax Anderson:
Jax Anderson got his start in writing when he
began keeping a journal as a kid. After finding his life was pretty
embarrassing, he switched to fiction. SemiViral
began when he discovered many individuals in his personal life were
intolerant people. Without calling them out individually, he wrote a book with
cannibal style living flesh eaters, prostitution, drugs, and Mormons to address
what he had been seeing his whole life in a neutrally opinionated manner. Anderson
resides in Colorado with his wife and young daughter.
SemiViral is
available for purchase on Amazon, Barnes
& Noble and Green
Ivy Books.
"Continue to follow the SemiViral blog tour tomorrow at Mallory Hearts Reviews!"
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