Berkeley Arcane, the fifth installment of the Braided Dimensions series, is an adult portal fantasy that blends alternate history, time travel, and near-future science fiction into a layered conflict involving medieval magic. What is the most challenging aspect of writing a series?

There are many reasons I particularly love writing a series. The challenging aspects are following through on promising threads begun in previous books, keeping timelines straight, and remembering names that emerge over the series. I tackle the latter by keeping a very long chart of place names, character names, and phrases from other languages. 

Berkeley itself feels like an important character in the story. Why did you choose it as a central setting?

The city of Berkeley is important to me. Both my children were born there and I have lived and worked on its streets and byways.

Do you see technology and magic as opposites, parallels, or something more complicated?

When I first delved into computers with an Ed Tech Masters at San Francisco state, I felt like a magician producing multimedia. I named my first PowerMac “Puissant” meaning powerful. I think there can be magic in anything. 

Can we look forward to a sixth installment in the Braided Dimensions series? Where will it take readers?

I have already started my “list” of beginning ideas for Book 6. As Book 5 came to a close, I could see many possible plot lines, some that readers might not be at all happy to be left incomplete. One is the idea that Rousseau feels something strong for Onyx. He’s been told that their memories of powers have been removed or destroyed. Yet we know from previous books in the series, that Ian’s memories were restored. The same goes for Thorgisl. Is he really out of the picture? Ylva punished him by taking his powers. Is Esch, the power stone of Arkoss, really safe from him? And of course, will Kay be able to settle into a professor’s life, focus on writing her books and teaching her classes while other worlds call? 

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