Until the Rescue Ship Arrives follows a retired priest who discovers a washed-up alien on a beach and chooses to protect this visitor and not turn them over to the authorities. What are some things that you find interesting about the human condition that you think make for great fiction?

Regardless of genre, what I consider great fiction always reveals the strengths and weaknesses of the characters who are presented with a problem or crisis in which much or everything is at stake. Great fiction requires presenting characters with great challenges.

What was one scene in the novel that you felt captured the morals and message you were trying to deliver to readers?

There are numerous scenes in Until the Rescue Ship Arrives in which characters had to reach deep within themselves, especially in Chapter 22, but to avoid giving those surprises away, a scene I would mention is in Chapter 4 when the female alien, already physically depleted and functioning almost on force of will alone, battles fatigue and the elements in her struggle to reach the Oregon shoreline.

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

I am still exploring little fragments of stories that come into my head. Sooner or later, I’ll conjure a scene, a situation, or an exchange of dialogue that tells me there is a story here waiting to be discovered. I constructed the Until the Rescue Ship Arrives from the opening of Chapter 1 in which Father Hughes discovers the alien female on the beach. I saw everything pretty much as I wrote it up to the point when he kneels down and realizes he has discovered a person from another world. For some time thereafter I engaged in “what happens now?” until finally, I just began writing that scene. From then on, I was mostly just a reporter describing what I saw and what I heard the characters saying. The next book will probably follow that pattern.

Author Links: GoodReads | Amazon