SkyWorld Saga Foundation follows the founder of Sky City as he embarks on a mission across Earth and space to save his crowning achievement. What was the inspiration for the setup to your story?

I love adventure stories. Having read Clive Cussler and Tom Clancy growing up, I recently began reading the original adventure authors, Jules Verne, and H. Rider Haggard. Journey to the Center of the Earth and King Solomon’s Mines were the inspiration for the epic adventure theme I tried to create. And because I am a huge Isaac Asimov fan, his original Foundation series was what drove me to the space theme. My hope was to create a story that kept moving and also connected future technology to today.

Ben Dawson is an intriguing and well developed character. What were some driving ideals behind his character’s development?

Ben is a combination of many people I worked with in Silicon Valley. I’ve seen many incredibly talented people not succeed through no fault of their own except a lack of aggressiveness. It was important to show Ben’s path to success was different than most, but still, incredible in the results. Also, he realized family is more important than success and with the help of his wife, Paige, kept that his number one priority. It’s an idealized personality, but that’s the joy in creating characters, they can be an ideal to strive for.

What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?

This book revolves around the relationships between family and friends when they are put in stressful situations. While I wanted to write an adventure story about the near future, it felt hollow if the characters didn’t have strong bonds between them. Also, I wanted to explore how technology could allow for a floating city and what it could look like besides a large hunk of metal in the sky. Finally, I did feel a need to present the problems with government bureaucracies that lose sight of working for their citizens and instead focus on their own careers and power struggles.

What is the next book that you are working on and when will it be available?

While I will be returning to the SkyWorld Saga, I’m currently working on a story about time travel with an extended family. This will place husbands, wives, and their children, in various places in the past. They will have adventures experiencing the past but have to learn how to put their family issues behind them and rely on each other’s strengths. if they want to get back to their present. My goal is to have it available July 2023.

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