Randy Kovicak and his new release, “Genisova”

iU’s Randy Kovicak talks about his first book, Genisova, as well as his inspirations and message.

Genisova is set in both the near and far future.  The sun is determined by scientists to be unexpectedly growing warmer and emitting more harmful ultraviolet rays.  Some people heed this warning, most do not.  Landau, a wealthy entrepreneur has a profound vision of what to do in order to try and save humanity.  He gathers around him many influential friends and together they form Genisova.  It has many goals, but its main two goals are to help people see their true potential and to help humans survive the sun’s deadly rays.  These two goals go hand in hand as humans, in their current state, cannot solve the problems in front of them.  There needs to be a leap in intelligence, problem solving, and ultimately consciousness.  Anyone may join Genisova and they are free to leave whenever they want.  The book follows the lives of Landau, Lucina — a past love interest — and six newcomers as they enter Genisova and begin a journey to help save mankind.

I have always love to read and write, but have never actually attempted to write a novel.  I am a dentist and have always thought I would write in my spare time, but as life continued to roll on, it never seemed to happen.  After practicing for over 19 years, I reached a point when I realized that if I didn’t actually start writing it would never happen.  So, instead of talking about doing it, I actually did it.  People have always told me that I was “deep,” but I was never sure if it was a compliment or criticism.  I have just always loved to ponder the greater questions in life and this book reflects some of that.  I love to read about our mysterious universe as science searches for answers to the unknown.  They say we are made of stardust and I find that fascinating, and wonder how anyone could not think the same thing.

I am actually not sure how I wrote a novel, because as anyone with children knows, it is super time-consuming and it is a crazy world out there. I spend a ton of time with my family and that is what I love to do most.   I also like most all sports, playing guitar, collecting baseball cards, good beer and dark roast coffee.  I wrestled in college and did a fair share of coaching before I got married and had children.  After dental school I moved around a little bit and ended up in near Lake Michigan, one of the most beautiful areas of our country.  Our family recently moved to the Raleigh-Durham area (near my brother and family) and are enjoying exploring a new part of the country.

Some of my favorite books are The Alchemist by Paulo Coehlo, Siddhartha by Herman Hesse,  The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran, The Way of the Wizard by Deepak Chopra, Breakfast with Buddha by Roland Merullo and others by similar authors.  I also love to read non-fiction by Neil Degrasse Tyson, Michio Kaku, Brian Greene, and other science guys, as I call them.  I have read many books on the various religions in an attempt to understand them better, as I sense there is much wisdom there.   I feel as though life is a journey to find the secrets the universe is hiding from us, but if you don’t try to look you will never begin to have a chance in finding them.  Some books, to me, seem to help point you in the right direction.

I believe there are many messages in my book, but the main one is that we, as humans, are capable of so much more, and we have only begun to scratch to surface of that potential.

The publishing experience takes lots of time and patience.  I wouldn’t necessarily say it is a fun process, but you have to persevere or it will never happen.  So far, my experience has had its ups and downs, but I am finally at the finish line and am excited to see where it leads.

I would tell aspiring authors to keep at it.   Writing a book is not something that happens overnight.  I think the process took me about a year and a half.  Although I realize I have much to learn and that I am not the world’s greatest writer, if you don’t keep working at it, you will never learn or improve from your experience.

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