The Dreamer follows a teenager traveling through space with her parents, who experiences terrifying visions and must cope with the aftermath of a vicious attack that forces her to make important life decisions. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story? 

I’ve always been highly interested in dreams, past lives, and parallel universes. I like to believe it’s all connected. Dreams play a big part in most of my stories. I’m currently working on a new series that is centered on the dream world. When I was little, I had a very lucid dream where I was an older woman who was running through a battlefield and got shot in the leg. I told my father (who is also a historian) about my dream the next morning, and after hearing all the details, he was convinced I had been dreaming of the Revolutionary War. I was too young to know about it! I wanted to write a series with a vast, complex timeline, exploring how one person and their choices could impact an entire reality, because we actually do that every day. I have been working on this series for 17 years, so it’s pretty planned out!

What was your approach to writing the interactions between characters? 

I wanted my teen and young adult characters to feel real, with their emotions and dialogue feeling natural. I spent a very long time crafting each character’s background so that I could drop them into any situation and have their interactions flow without me having to think too hard. Sometimes they would say or do things, and I would be surprised as I was writing it! I love that feeling when your book starts writing itself! There are characters in the second book that popped up as I wrote, and I would think, “Who’s this guy?”

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

Honestly, I tried my hardest not to turn this into a super “sciencey” book. I wanted to write a sci-fi saga that was easy to read and accessible to a broad audience. It makes me sad that so many people are intimidated by science fiction. It can get too heady or science-based, taking away from the emotional journeys. I wanted to write about teens who happened to be in space. I wanted to be inclusive and normalize the marginalized. I wanted the fate of the galaxy to fall on a group of misfits who end up saving it, but I also wanted them to be stressed out about their first kiss, engulfed by jealousy, and annoyed with each other. I was a teenager who grew up overseas, performed in theater, and was also trying to learn Klingon… if that tells you anything!

Can you give us a glimpse inside Book 2 of the The Black Stone Cycle series? Where will it take readers? 

We open with two brand-new characters, one of whom is the one I mentioned above, who appeared without me planning him at all. He turned out to be one of my favorites! It will explore the galaxy and society further. It’s already written, and I’m always interested in ARC readers, so please contact me if you’re seriously interested!

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