The Floating Lake of Dressa Moore follows two university professors who embark on a scientific expedition to a mysterious floating lake where they encounter pirates, cursed crew members, ancient magical sources, and an empire that doesn’t like being questioned. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?

I always loved the idea of science and magic blending together in a logical way. Jonathan’s drive to understand magic at the most basic level is fascinating to me. I always felt that science would have a place in the most magical of worlds.

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?

I wanted to write a magical fantasy novel, but have it border on the absurd, but still make some logical sense. What better way to start than a lake floating above the world? As I wrote the novel, I had to remind myself to ground every detail, no matter how nonsensical, in some way that made that detail believable.

In fantasy novels, it’s easy to get carried away with the magical powers characters have. How did you balance the use of supernatural powers?

That’s always difficult. Magical beings can do amazing and wonderful things. No one in Dressa Moore really understands magic. They just know how to cast a few spells here and there, and a lot of the time, they don’t cast them correctly. So, even though lots of characters can cast spells, no one is very good at it. Of course, that might change in future books.

Where does the story go in the next book, and where do you see it going in the future?

There are a lot of places to go for sure. There’s Marta’s story, and finding her way back home. Jonathan will continue to research magic, and who knows what he may find. William is on the brink of uncovering forgotten truths that could be both fantastic and cataclysmic, and there’s always Commodore Wilkes and the empire. Now that they are in Dressa Moore, I don’t think they are leaving.

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