From Great Heights follows a man using nanotechnology disguised as magic to aid struggling communities who battles against prejudice and fear from the people he is trying to save. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?

The original inspiration for the novel came from a short story I wrote for a college writing class. I’d read some of Jack Vance’s Dying Earth series and liked the idea of technology so advanced, it basically becomes a form of magic.

I also wanted to play with the idea that the main character of the story needed to periodically consume something from the people he intends to help in order to further his aims and accomplish his goals. To make the audience root for the monster.

I find the world you created in this novel brimming with possibilities. Where did the inspiration for the setting come from and how did it change as you were writing?

Other inspiration for the story, and the novel that grew from it, comes from Stephen King’s Dark Tower series, and the books Illium and Olympos by Dan Simmons. In both sets of books, the world is recognizable, but markedly different from the world we know. I attempted to create a similar setting in From Great Heights.

The story changed dramatically once I started adding the other main characters and exploring their situations. Initially, it was going to be a straightforward struggle between two factions. I made a choice midway through to separate the three storylines in time, (and arrange them out of order) but still make the repercussions of each felt in the others, linking all three through time. It was actually pretty fun coming up with ways to reference, and some cases foreshadow, the events of one storyline within the others.

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

Human history, and our inability to learn from it, has always fascinated me. As I was writing, I liked the idea that despite being united by lofty goals and aligned by a shared mission, personal disagreements, and ambition creep in and disrupt things. Another of my favorite themes, one I’ve explored in a few of my books, is the idea of technology run amok. Hard-charging technological progress without considering the ramifications for the future (or sometimes the present) is a very real and present worry in today’s world.

Is this the first book in the series? If so, when is the next book coming out, and what can your fans expect in the next story?

This is a standalone novel. At the moment, I have no plans to continue the story as a series. If a good enough idea for a story within this world occurs to me in the future, I will pursue it. But as of right now, it is done.

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