Terra Tamers: Alpha follows a teenager living in a city adrift at sea whose brother is kidnapped by a flock of Holo birds, and he will do whatever it takes to rescue him. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?

The inspiration for the setup of my story was the idea of two brothers surviving a post-apocalyptic world. At first I was thinking kind of a science fantasy direction and leaned more into possible future technology instead.

In many contemporary coming-of-age fiction novels, authors often add their own life experiences to the story. Are there any bits of you in this story?

I’d say the tone of the book, the themes of pursuing hope in a decaying world are the parts of me that bleed through the pages. That and my love of video games.

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

The most important theme to me in Terra Tamers: Alpha was hope. Without it, there’s no point in continuing to live. I see the death of hope as the greatest poison affecting our modern world. People feel so powerless, and the world is so obviously broken, that now we struggle to even address the obvious issues we see in our communities because people feel hopeless, like nothing they do matters. So why bother? More fun themes were what the future of artificial intelligence could look like, how video games might interact with reality, and friendship.

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

The story will follow Matt and Oakley into exile as they chase the evil AI Gaia. Expect new friends and foes, more creatures and game mechanics, and a greater exploration of a post-apocalyptic American landscape!

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