Nephilim follows a PhD student who invents a machine that when it merges with a human, gives them incredible powers. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?

As a neurosurgeon, I’ve inserted augmentative technology into the brains and spines of patients. So, what if…

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

I often wonder whether the choices we make are based on free will or external factors (natural or supernatural) which force our hand.

Secondly, it strikes me that there’s no such thing as a free lunch. Are the greatest gifts, such as awesome power, worth the costs?

Perhaps, most importantly, I often wonder what makes us human. As a corollary, how much of a person can be replaced or augmented by a machine and have that person still remain human?

I felt that the science inserted in the fiction was well-balanced. How did you manage to keep it grounded while still providing the fantastic edge science fiction stories usually provide?

The first few drafts weren’t so well balanced. It took intense effort not to ‘show off’ my new world. Ultimately, it came down to trusting the reader to ‘get it.’ I cut and cut and cut, until the story wasn’t bogged down by the sci-fi.

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

I’ve been writing a series of medical murder mysteries, the main character being a neurosurgeon, Felix Hoenniker, who has a penchant for sticking his nose where it doesn’t belong. Felix’s third adventure, which I’m finishing up now, is called Muñeca. It’s a novella, around ninety pages, and should drop over the summer. Here’s the blurb:

Felix wakes up in slime-dripping catacombs with a busted jaw, only to be confronted by an insufferable blowhard, a little girl in a frilly princess dress who comes bearing gifts, and a sadistic entrepreneur with a penchant for dumping automobiles in the Gowanus Canal. Cracking his most other-worldly case yet takes Felix on a whirlwind ride; from the bowels of New York City’s outer boroughs to the depraved heights of Manhattan society…and even has him dodging a possessed horde of scorpions in the Hamptons.

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