Waltzing Matilda follows Captain Delahaye and her crew as they race against time to save their missing crew member from becoming a source of destruction while navigating the dangerous and revolutionary-filled asteroid Scrapheap. Were you able to accomplish everything you set out to with this series?

The Matilda Series was as much an adventure for me as it was for the characters!  Its universe grew much larger than I had initially expected, and far stranger things were afoot than I could have dreamed at the beginning.  Writing these characters and their story exceeded everything I thought I was capable of as a writer.  Did I accomplish everything I set out to do?  I didn’t even know how much there was to tell until it was all said and done!

If you could have dinner with any character from the Matilda series, who would it be and why?​

Oh my, what a fun question!  Just for the sheer food journey alone, it would have to be Anton Roane!  His knowledge of foods is astounding and his excitement in sharing what he knows would be worth the price of admission.  After that, it would have to be Luli Qing as she is a food lover, bar none!  And any time spent with Luli will always be a blast.

What was the most challenging aspect of writing the final book in the Matilda series, and how did you overcome it?​

Waltzing Matilda was easily the toughest book in the series for me to write.  I think I restarted it from zero at least five times.  Never mind that the middle was ‘Frankensteined’ together at one point before being entirely replaced.  But each time there was always something missing or that didn’t flow the way I wanted it to.

How did I get through it?  Perseverance, blood, sweat, and tears.  And a whole lot of editing!  To be honest, it finally came together through the first set of editing as I could finally see those bits that were missing or didn’t fit or were just plain wrong.

The funniest part (to me) is I knew the ending before I even really knew the beginning of the whole series!  And the ending I wrote doesn’t even really resemble what I started with.  By the way, this ending is hundreds of times better and I am way more pleased with the how characters and the story progressed from that initial kernel.

Do you have any plans to write more sci-fi novels in the future, and if so, can you give us a sneak peek into what we can expect?​

After the long journey on the Matilda, I plan to step back from sci-fi for a bit. I have this crazy old wizard that loves grits and beer who desperately wants to go on an adventure, and I’ve put him off long enough.

But even before I hop into that fantastical world, I’ll be saddling up for another Western novella or two with the Nun with a Gun!

But I will come back to sci-fi.  There are more stories to tell in Consortium space.  I can already hear Mr. Leon and the genorgs knocking at my door with something to say.

Author Links: GoodReads | Twitter | Facebook | Website