Category Archives: Interviews
Obsessed with Mysteries
Nicole Asselin Author Interview
Murder at First Pitch follows Madeline and her pursuit to clear her brothers name after he’s accused of murder. What was the inspiration for the setup to this thrilling story?
As with most cozy mysteries, there is some sort of incident that directly affects the main character and their choices. I knew I wanted to make it a family connection since the ballpark and family business was the center of the book. I also think it gave Madeline a way to realize just how much the ballpark and the team were important to her.
Madeline is an intriguing and well developed character. What were some driving ideals behind her character?
Family is one of the most important things in Madeline’s life. Even after thinking she was going to make a career outside of the family baseball business and having to rethink things, she realizes that her place is with her family. The team had been such a large fixture in her life, and by returning, she becomes closer to her family and friends. Her career is still important to her, but she realizes that she needs both the career and her ballpark family in order to be happy.
Why did you want to write this story, and series, within the baseball culture?
I’m first and foremost a huge Boston Red Sox fan. I’m a baseball person through and through. When I was beginning my journey to be a mystery writer, I thought about all the things I enjoyed, and what I would be most interested in staging some. I hit on baseball (no pun intended) as the perfect location. There are so many sports fans who aren’t represented currently in the cozy mystery market, so I wanted to share my baseball love.
It’s a love letter to my Grandpa Asselin, who got me into baseball on the radio many summers and to my Grandma Asselin who was obsessed with mysteries.
This is the first book in your Ball Park Mystery series. What can readers expect in book two?
Book Two will continue to explore Madeline’s new job and the ballpark events. The readers will visit another fictional ballpark in Salem, MA and meet more people from the neighborhood. I hope to introduce more real-life Abington businesses and residents in honor of my hometown. Madeline and Davis will continue to grow closer, and of course, another set of crimes. Stay tuned!
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![Murder at First Pitch: Ball Park Mysteries: Book 1 by [Asselin, Nicole]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51mXK1Z784L.jpg)
32-year-old Madeline Boucher’s Grandfather instilled a love in the Boston Red Sox into her from an early age and increased that love by purchasing a local Independent League Baseball team, the Abington Armadillos.
After losing her corporate job in Boston, Madeline realizes her best option is to join the family baseball business. As the new “Social Media Director” for the team, Madeline attends her first business function and witnesses an argument between her brother Ben, and a strange man.
A few days later when walking the ballpark during her early morning hours, she finds the body of a man beaten to death with a baseball bat in the Visitor’s Dugout. It was the man her brother was arguing with at the party. Madeline is concerned that her brother would be considered a suspect. Through the local Detectives and Davis – the head of security for the ballpark she learns the victim is Christopher Dailey, a local baseball scout and prior felon.
When her brother is arrested and taken to the police station, she realizes she needs to figure out who the real culprit is, so her brother doesn’t take the fall for something she knows he didn’t do.
The War is Coming…
Hugo Negron Author Interview
Forging of a Knight: Knighthood’s End finds Qualtan on the run and his friends turned against him. What was the inspiration for the setup to this thrilling story?
This was a natural progression for Qualtan – an event that was brewing and would have been triggered if not by the situation he found himself in, then by someone or something else. This can be seen in the stories leading up to this one:
He had started out as a starry-eyed knight-to-be, hopeful to become a knight as his father had been before him. In Book One of the series (Forging of a Knight) – he travelled to Turinthia, the heart of the Alliance, to become a knight.
In Book Two (Forging of a Knight, Rise of the Slavekeepers), Qualtan fulfilled his dream, joining the Order of the Bearded Lion, the knights of Turinthia.
Book Three (Forging of a Knight, Prison Planet of the Mah-Lahkt), Qualtan transcended his role, from knight to hero, alongside the Arch-Mages and the heroes of the School against the forces of Shaz, leader of Those That Stand in Shadow, within a prison planet forged by angels.
Throughout these adventures, Qualtan was made fully aware how King Prelance, ruler of Turinthia, felt about his companion and friend, the half-orcne former thief Glaive. As his orcne Kind had followed the villains of the series (Those That Stand in Shadow), they were usually viewed with hostility and mistrust, leading to the same concerns being raised against him, despite his good intentions. Even Qualtan’s own uncle, a powerful Arch-Mage who had gifted him many of his powers and his magic sword, felt the same. At first Qualtan merely felt at odds with these opinions, but hadn’t thought it necessary to act against them, until Book Four (Forging of a Knight, The Stolen Thief).
In Book Four – the cracks began to tell – when Glaive goes missing on a mission for the King, Qualtan’s request to search for him is refused. Realizing the King’s denial is based solely on his prejudice against the former thief’s half-orcne heritage, Qualtan decides to go anyway against his King’s wishes. In doing so, he encounters the technology-using elves known as the Dokahlfar and their dwarf minions the Vartahlfar, as well as befriending and allying with a rag-tag group of orcnes, the hated foes of the Alliance. Imprisoned for his impertinence, Qualtan at last decides that there is no reason for him to feel obligated in following such a King, no matter his other merits.
This brings us to this tale, Book Five (Forging of a Knight, Knighthood’s End). This time, the assumed evil acts of a spiritual being known as a Kubare’ that Qualtan frees from captivity (and eventually falls in love with), brings upon the King’s hatred again, who imprisons the Kubare’ to banish her back to her nether realm. The enduring ill-will towards his friend Glaive, and Qualtan’s punishment for rescuing him, laid the groundwork for the knight’s final stand against his King. Qualtan again chooses to follow his own scruples to free the Kubare’ and go on the run, leaving his knightly Order, his King, and many of his friends behind, while being branded a traitor, to pursue his forbidden love As we know, sometimes taking a stand for what you believe in can be challenging, difficult, and result in quite a few sacrifices, especially when it goes against the status quo. This is what Qualtan experiences here.
There were so many well developed characters in this book. Who was your favorite character to write for?
There were many! Glaive with his cynical, sarcastic, suspicious of authority personality is of course a favorite, and balances nicely with Qualtan’s initial naivete about his role as a knight, as well as the knight’s maturity, going through experiences that show him sometimes there is evil in good and good and evil with the result being a nice, muddy mess that doesnt fit nicely into “good” and “evil” compartments. Discovering that growth was fun.
Another would be Jesepha, the knight. Although her role is limited here, she began as a male knight amongst others in the background. I felt they all sounded too much alike, too generic, so I switched one of them from male to female. In doing so it created her storyline along with her mentor Bartholomew’s, a senior knight, and took some of the tales into a completely different path than what I had originally intended. She basically created herself, and I had to modify the stories accordingly – its an amazing treat to see that happen!
I enjoyed the shifting of loyalties and friendships throughout the book. What were some themes you wanted to explore in this book?
Redemption is definitely an ongoing theme in the series – second chances. Bartholomew gets one in Book Two, Glaive you can say throughout, as he adjusts from being a street urchin, thief, to working for a smuggling gang lord, to working side by side with knights, Kings, and famous wizards!
Of course this applies to the Kurabe’ for this story, and perhaps even to the Queen of the Kurabe’ as shown by her decision at the end? Who knows?
This theme also revolves around simply not taking someone or something at face value, or assuming the worst without taking the time to dig a little deeper. Glaive’s unfair treatment by the King, same for the Kurabe’, are prime examples of this.
What is the next book in your series that readers should pickup after this book?
Book Six – Forging of a Knight, Darksiege Triumphant – the title says it all. A betrayal from the School leads Darksiege, last of Those That Stand in Shadow, with the means to achieve ultimate power at last. A mighty artifact, divided and cast into different realms, will spell doom if found. Qualtan, Glaive, Cassandra, and Bartholomew will travel to places dark and terrible, including present-day Earth, to prevent Darksiege from gaining the victory he craves, but all is not as it seems.
Are Darksiege and his opponents in a true quest, or have they been deceived into playing a much deeper game? Will Qualtan be forced into an unholy alliance with his mortal enemy to uncover the TRUE foe that menaces them all?
And after the overwhelming excitement of Book Six, there’s barely enough breath left to take on Book Seven, Against the Alliance – the finale to this current series of Forging of a Knight, which should be out later this year. Despite warnings from the Kings of the Alliance and the elves of Hermstingle, Qualtan moves forward with his own knightly Order, prompting war against his former allies. Only one thing can save them all: for Qualtan to reproduce the quest his uncle and father had undertaken to defeat Those That Stand in Shadow many years ago – to find the gemstone-eyed Master of the Great Beasts, the Dragon King, and bring him back in time to stop the war.
All the threads are tied, the sub-plots resolved. Whatever happened to Elizabetha, Arkonis, and Horga, the giant? What became of Romulax the evil druid? What of Darksiege’s servants, Bakal and Karash? How did Qualtan’s uncle and father uncover the Dragon King? What will happen to the School, the Alliance, and the Order Qualtan wishes to lead?
All the supporting cast are here – the knights, the Kings, the Arch-Mages, Prince Termenon, the Kubare’ Queen, Snowflake, faces from the past (some surprisingly forgotten about), Death himself, and very possibly…the Dragon King.
The war is coming…
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Book Five in the Forging of a Knight series! For the sake of a forbidden love, Qualtan will find himself on the run with a Mah-Zakim to free her from her curse, or be consumed by it. No longer a knight, his friends now turned against him, how great will the price be that must be paid? Can a Mah-Zakim truly love back, or has the curse that has followed the First Knight for so long come true at last?
A Path to New Friendships
Dr. Qooz Author Interview
Who Are You? follows Gerri as he handles the ups and downs of his first day of school. Why was this an important book for you to write?
Who Are You was written from a personal experience watching the chaos on day one of the 1st grade. The second most traumatic event in a child’s life is the first time the child is left alone without Mom or Dad. The most traumatic is birth. My parents gave me an insight to the first time alone and promised to come back and pick me up after work. What a life raft the information was to me. The disastrous events of the children not knowing what was happening was a vivid picture I still see today, 63 years later. I was motivated to share the “night before preview for new parents, hoping to diminish the trauma of the child’s 1st time alone.
The book explores difficult topics like bullying and teasing in school. What do you hope readers take away from this book?
My hopes are that new parents will prepare their child with a comforting story that previews the morrow, identifies differences in classmates, delivers a path to new friendships and assures the child that mom and dad will be there to pick them up after school. Teasing and bullying is everywhere. I hope to enlighten the child and parent that their classmates may be acting this way because they are uncomfortable too.
The art in this book is bright, cute and high quality. What was the art collaboration like on this project?
The art collaboration in this book started with my drawing of Gerrie the awkward, out of place feeling giraffe on the cover. My two daughters did a page each, ‘animals with long legs’ and the ‘animals all hugged’ up toward the end, then I employed an artist to fill in the other drawings.
This is book one in your Fargone series. What can readers expect in book two, Sight to See?
Book two of the Fargone series addresses the handicap that one out of 5 children have, a learning disability or behavioral problem because they cannot see. Tode’s classmate’s dad is an Optometrist and suggests a trip to have Tode’s eyes examined. The child is entertained and the parents are reminded to have their child’s eyes checked NOW. This book was also a number one best seller on Amazon.
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![Who Are You?: First Day Of School (Fargone Book 1) by [Qooz, Dr.]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51nO0FopPeL.jpg)
Who Are You, is a children’s book for young children ages 2-6. This kid’s book is an introductory story of Gerri, from Fargone. Gerri’s first day of school, alone, portrays a child that is unsure and awkwardly thrust into a crowd that he doesn’t know and how Gerri navigates through this environment of teasing, bullying and finally acceptance. This children’s picture book features vibrant colorful jungle animals that jump right off the page with dialog for a growing child.
Tragedy and Loss
Katharine E. Wibell Author Interview
In Crocotta’s Hackles we follow Lluava’s mission to uncover the truth about the Incarn and how that affects her future. What were some ideas you wanted to explore in this book that were different from the first two books?
Crocotta’s Hackles differs from the first two books in a number of ways. For example, both Issaura’s Claws and Ullr’s Fangs deal predominately with the Kingdom of Elysia’s human-oriented society who comprise the ruling class. The native Theriomorphs, a shapeshifting race, have been forced to assimilate into the human culture. Most Theriomorphs have altered their clothing, switched their religion, tweaked their names, and lost touch with the customs, social institutions, achievements, and arts of their own culture. In Crocotta’s Hackles, both readers as well as the main character, Lluava, discover what Theriomorph society was like before being conquered by humans. In a sense, I wanted to express the tragedy and loss of forcing a people to assimilate into another culture and lose their own in the process.
I also wanted to showcase women-in-power in a world that is primarily patriarchal. By the third book, readers are already familiar with Lluava’s warrior-type personality. In Crocotta’s Hackles, I introduce other strong women whose strengths might not be physical, but their gifts and talents are no less impressive. Other aspects that I wanted to flesh out were the interrelated concepts of the Incarn, prophecy, fate versus free will, and the ever-present questions of whether Theriomorph gods exist, and if so, do they care about their people? Lastly, I wanted to make it very clear that no race is entirely good or evil. There will always be individuals and subgroups that defy stereotypes.
I liked how you handled the point of view in Lluava’s dual form. How did you plan this part of the novel?
As a Theriomorph, Lluava Kargen’s point-of-view is intrinsically different from a human’s simply because of her birthright. All Theriomorphs are born with the ability to transform into an animal form, their dual form as they call it. They not only think and act like humans but also have innate abilities including hyperactive senses and instincts that is indicative of their animal nature.
Lluava’s dual form is a white tigress. Unlike humans, she has keener night vision, better hearing and sense of smell, and a sixth sense for oncoming danger. In this book, she struggles with a darker side of herself, and it appears to be a losing battle. When this aspect of her personality is triggered, she experiences a telltale alteration of vision, and the world appears in tints of blue and green—the colors that felines can see. If she succumbs to that darker side, she risks blacking out. When she loses control, the white tigress takes over, leaving bloodshed and carnage in its wake. Her fear of losing herself creates a dichotomy within her, and she does not know if she can ever trust herself in her animal form.
Fear of the “Beast”, as well as the “monster within”, has existed for centuries. From werewolves and vampires to the terror of Jaws and serial killers, the phobia of bloodthirsty beasts and losing oneself to a darkness persists in many forms. I wanted to fuse these fears with Lluava’s more-than-human viewpoint previously established in the earlier books. This was an entertaining and unnerving concept to play with and explore.
There is an exceptional cast of characters in this book. Who did you enjoy writing the most?
Although I always enjoy writing Lluava, in this book, my favorite character to write was High Priestess Yena. She is very complex. Driven to do right by her people and the gods in which she believes, Yena is fierce, regal, mysterious and a dark beauty. She is a powerhouse; beware any human or Theriomorph who stands in her way. Her seeming ability to know what is to come gives her an exceptional advantage and her unshakable faith kindles her inner fire. I can still hear her sharp keel of laughter even though I have moved onto other projects. Yena will always be by my side for better or worse.
What can readers expect in book four, Giahem’s Talons?
The final book, Giahem’s Talons, chronicles the last stand for the Elysians as they struggle to fend off those that wish to destroy their kingdom. Readers will learn more about the mysterious Obsidian Guard, experience some of the power of the Incarn, discover the Raiders’ true leader, and mourn the loss of those that fall in the midst of battle. War is dark and dismal for all sides, and this book does not shy away from that hard truth.
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![Crocotta's Hackles (The Incarn Saga Book 3) by [Wibell, Katharine]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51HUZfLbzzL.jpg)
“According to legend, when the world was young, Crocotta, Queen of the Gods, discovered her mate’s faithlessness. She vowed to prevent future threats to all matrimonial pacts henceforward, but for her it was too late. The child born from the illicit coupling was a warrior goddess—one whom Crocotta would seek to destroy throughout eternity. Now that the Raiders’ elite army is threatening the kingdom of Elysia’s northern borders, seventeen-year-old Lluava must leave the familiarity and safety of her native land to venture into the wilderness. Her mission is to discover others like her who will come to Elysia’s aid; her hope is to unravel the secrets behind what it means to be Incarn. But what she finds could destroy everything.”
Chaos in the Aftermath
Greg Kater Author Interview
The Warramunga’s Aftermath of War is book two in your Warramunga Trilogy. What were some new ideas you wanted to explore in this book that were different from book one?
When predators crawl out from the ruins in the aftermath of war…
My second book, The Warramunga’s Aftermath of War, which takes place after the end of World War II in early 1946, deals with the trafficking of children from the war-torn Philippines. I lived in the Philippines for 11 years from 1969 as VP with one of the major mining companies there. I learned a great deal about the havoc and suffering during the Japanese occupation, as well as some of the terrible things that happened later as criminals took advantage of the chaos in the aftermath of war. I felt a need to write about this.
I enjoyed the diverse characters in this book. Who was your favorite character to write for?
I enjoyed writing about all the characters in the book but probably Jacko O’Brien is the most pivotal character of them all. His friendship with Jamie Munro is an essential part of the story, as is his innate ability, being part aborigine, in tracking and bushcraft. His half-sister, Sarah, plays a big part and almost all the other non-criminal characters are based on real characters I knew well or worked with, both Australian and Filipino.
I enjoyed the mystery that drove this story. Did you plan this before writing or did it develop organically while writing?
A bit of both. I knew what I wanted to write about, and I knew the locations well. Once started, however, it did develop organically as I progressed with the writing.
What can readers expect in book three of the Warramunga Trilogy?
Book 3, Skills of the Warramunga, also takes place soon after the end of the war and deals with the consequences following the war, this time on the Malayan peninsula where war criminals are plotting to overthrow the authorities and gain control over the population of Malaya. I have also worked in this region and know it well.
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![The Warramunga's Aftermath of War (Warramunga Trilogy Book 2) by [Kater, Greg]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51XVl0uhS9L.jpg)
The Warramunga’s Aftermath of War encapsulates the investigation into the post-war activities of a major criminal organisation with tentacles to the USA, Australia and South East Asia. When a fishing boat is discovered in distress in rough seas northwest of Darwin in late 1945, former army officer, Jamie Munro, and educated half-caste Warramunga aborigine, Jack “Jacko” O’Brien, who head the CIS in Darwin, are called on to investigate child smuggling operations financed by a shadowy ring of wealthy paedophiles.
This book is the second book of a trilogy. This follows The Warramunga’s War detailing the meeting of Jamie and Jacko on the battlefield during the Second World War and their activities working together with MI6 in intelligence during the remainder of the war.
The Ordeal of the Soviet People
Marina Osipova Author Interview
How Dare The Birds Sing is a dramatic love story set in WWII that tests the limits of the heart. What served as your inspiration while writing this story?
My belief is—and there are thousands of examples depicted in history—no unbearable life circumstances can prevent human hearts from loving another human being. Just to add one more tale about it served as inspiration to write Lyuba’s story.
Lyuba is an intriguing character that goes through a dramatic change. What were some driving ideals behind her character arc?
There were millions of Soviet girls and women who lived in the same circumstances as my main heroine, Lyuba Zalesskaya. Despite the life of constant fear under Stalin’s oppressive regime once Nazi Germany attacked the Soviet Union, the majority of the population stood up to defend their motherland against the aggressor. So did Lyuba. With her as the example, I wanted to show a few slices of that struggle, especially for readers not closely acquainted with Russian history.
This is a fantastic historical romance novel. What draws you to this genre?
The motivation comes from the realization that although there are hundreds, maybe even thousands of novels devoted to WWII, there are really not too many books that discuss the aspects of war on the Eastern Front and especially the ordeal of the Soviet people in the Wehrmacht occupied territories (at some periods about 70 million people). As with all my books, this one is my way of adding rarely covered details that illuminate an intimate part of the Russian war seldom seen in fiction available to Western readers.
What is the next novel that you are working on and when will it be available?
I just started working on another book in which the events evolve against the backdrop of WWII, but since it’s in the phase of research and has even no working title yet, I think it would be premature to talk about it. However, I just recently finished Too Many Wolves in the Local Woods, which goes into publication on May 5, 2020 as a part of a 10-book collection The Road to Liberation dedicated to the 75th anniversary of the end of WWII.
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![How Dare The Birds Sing (Book One in the Love and Fate Series 1) by [Osipova, Marina]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41e-h9l64eL._SY346_.jpg)
Are Lyuba and Günter star-crossed lovers? When they first meet in 1933 Soviet Russia, their young love is filled with hope and naiveté until Günter disappears. Her fleeting relationship with him has devastating consequences, forcing her to take a humiliating way out to save herself and her family. This choice unleashes a sequence of fatal events that shatter her life, affecting everyone involved.
In June 1941, World War II comes to Russian soil, hurling Lyuba, along with millions of others, into the inhuman grinder, testing the limits of her strength and resilience of her heart. Will it be strong enough years later to allow her to reveal the ugly secret she has buried from the only person the war has left for her to love?
The Aftermath of War
Greg Kater Author Interview
Skills of the Warramunga follows our well-known team on a mission to rescue an MI6 operative from bandits on the Malayan peninsula. How did the idea for this novel start and change as you wrote?
My third book, Skills of the Warramunga, takes place in Malaya, where I have worked during my career throughout the country. After my first book, The Warramunga’s War, where most of the action takes place during the Second World War, my novels have dealt with the consequences in the aftermath of war. After of World War II, in Malaya many different groups, including communists, bandits, Nazis and others, were trying to gain control of all or part of the Malayan Peninsular from the British. The novel deals with the period when the British created the Malayan Union in April 1946. It showcases the extraordinary tracking skills of the Warramunga aborigines, which I witnessed first-hand during my time at Tennant Creek.
This is the last novel in your Warramunga Trilogy. Did you accomplish everything you set out to do with this set of novels?
Yes, I did. Firstly, I intended to show the effects of war in countries where I had worked and am familiar with. Secondly, I planned to include some of the weird and wonderful people whom I worked with over the years as characters in the novels (with changed names, of course) and to use them to entertain the readers. Thirdly, I wanted to show case the incredible skills of the Warramunga aborigines as I knew them years ago. I think I have achieved all that.
What draws you to the military suspense genre?
I was drawn to the military suspense genre, largely as I had a lot of research and data about the Second World War. My father and his brothers fought in that war, so I have quite a lot of information from them. The war was a violent but intensely interesting time.
What is the next novel that you are working on and when will it be available?
After completing the original trilogy, I decided that I couldn’t let the principal characters just fade away, so I set their next adventure in China in which I have worked extensively over the years.
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![Skills of the Warramunga (Warramunga Trilogy Book 3) by [Kater, Greg]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51wNrr%2BTotL.jpg)
Early in 1946, former army officer, Jamie Munro, and his half-Aboriginal friend and colleague, Jack ‘Jacko’ O’Brien, who head the Commonwealth Investigation Service in Darwin, are called on to assist in the rescue of Colonel John Cook, a senior operative of MI6, who has been kidnapped by bandits and taken into the jungles of Malaya.
Jamie and Jacko had worked in intelligence operations with Colonel Cook during the desert campaign in North Africa in the Second World War, as the Afrika Corps threatened Egypt.
With Jacko’s half-sister, Sarah, a full-blood Aborigine from Tennant Creek, they arrive in Kuala Lumpur to find that they not only have to contend with the impenetrable jungle of the Malay peninsula, but also with a murderous and subversive organisation of Fascist criminals whose aim is to disrupt the creation of the Malayan Union by the British Military Authority, set to take place on 1st of April 1946, foment an uprising and take over control of the country.
All the inherent bushcraft skills of the Warramunga are needed to rescue Colonel Cook as well as prevent catastrophic mayhem on the Malayan peninsula.
The Last Plane of Existence
Braxton Cosby Author Interview
Steel Reign follows a super-soldier turned bounty hunter who must rescue his sister from pirates before a deadly virus consumes him. What was the inspiration for the setup to this thrilling novel?
Steel Reign represents a segue novel that will connect the two worlds of my Scifi Universe of THE RED GEMINI CHRONICLES. It takes place in a nearby galaxy called Proxima Centauri, where two twin Red Dwarf stars have gone Supernova and merged with one another. This happened in the previous series called THE STAR-CROSSED SAGA, which won multiple awards for science fiction, including Readers’ Favorite, CLS International Book Awards, and Literary Titan Book of the month. This was a trilogy that spanned both Proxima Centauri and our galaxy, The Milky Way. Once it was completed, the main characters of the story, William and Sydney, relocated back to Proxima Centauri on William’s homeworld of Fabricius. That’s where William now reigns as the king and faces challenges from the neighboring five Houses and mercenary factions spread across ten Inner and Outer Colony planets. They would all love to conquer Fabricius since it has the most optimal living conditions and, therefore, prime resources.
I was inspired to write Steel Reign’s story because once I finished with THE STAR-CROSSED SAGAS TRILOGY of books, PROTOSTAR, SUPERNOVA, and SOLSTICE, I wanted to build out this fabricated universe of mine and I needed to have a fulcrum on which to work from. Steel’s character was so impressive that I chose to build an exposition narrative through him to smoothly transition readers into the next phase of my storytelling. Steel Reign is a Bounty Hunter that was introduced in THE STAR-CROSSED SAGA and had a growing character story arc in book three SOLSTICE. The story, in particular, STEEL REIGN: FLIGHT OF THE STARSHIP CONCORD, builds on his character development and provide more history of Proxima Centauri and sets up the more extensive series that I am working on called THE RED GEMINI CHRONICLES, which I compare to a Game of Thrones in Space.
Steel Reign is a character that was fun to follow. Where did the idea for his character come from and how did that change as you wrote?
Who doesn’t love a bad guy, turned good, right? It’s the original prose of writing where you try to force the reader into believing the unthinkable and fall in love with either the character or the story. Reign gave me a chance to do both since I had already built out THE STAR-CROSSED SAGA and was looking to glue things together in a separate transition novel. Reign had been introduced as a badass character, hat you weren’t sure you could trust when he is introduced in SOLSTICE, but then you soon realize he’s the real deal and you quickly cling to him. A lot of readers of THE STAR-CROSSED SAGA expressed that they wanted to know more about him, so it seemed very obvious of the direction in which I would go to fuse more of the story of Proxima Centauri along.
I love science fiction adventure stories like this. What draws you to this genre?
Science fiction to me is the last plane of existence (in a fictional world) where race, creed, and color really don’t matter. Because you’re dealing with alines, right? So who cares if you’re different. All that ever really matters is the journey of the characters and the story at hand. What’s important to them? What makes them tick? The challenge in scripting Steel Reign’s story was finding the right amount of conflict to continually move the story along while trusting that the readers love both the Sci-Fi world I was building out and remaining attached to Reign and not getting lost in the details. But since I, fell in love with the world on my own, the transition began to develop with increased ease over time. The duality between Reign and the galaxy of Proxima Centauri – a complex world, ever-changing, while containing equal parts volatility and predictability – was quite remarkable in the end.
Will there be more stories to come following Steel Reign?
Well, that is absolutely a truth! but not just Reign himself, but the entire cast of THE STARCROSSED SAGA. Once THE RED GEMINI CHRONICLES is created, you will read about all of them coming together in an epic, long story that will have a lot to offer readers of all genres.
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A Thief turned Spy, turned Bounty Hunter, turned Hero!After surviving an all-out implosion of catastrophic proportions following the failed fusion of twin stars Mira A and B in a class B Supernova, the people of galaxy Proxima Centauri have pressed forward with dreams and hopes of finally living in peace. But for Bounty Hunter Steel Reign, the clock of destiny is speeding ahead at a steadfast pace as he desires to hunt down a group of rogue super-soldiers before they can plot against King William Derry and his kingdom on planet Fabricius. Consistent work as a Hunter in Proxima Centauri has always been a feast or famine occupation, and when the flow of credits slow to a snail’s pace, Reign must find a secondary means of funding to finance his seek and destroy assignment by way of scalping a precious artifact on the open Black Market. That is, until his supplier comes up short, forcing him to pump the brakes and fall back to Plan B: finding his long lost sister Olia who was captured by the space pirate Forge, and forced to compete in a deadly game of chance aboard the Eclipse. And if that wasn’t bad enough, the stakes have just been raised when he discovers that she is the only source of an antibody that can offer a cure for the deadly, venomous DX virus lurking in his blood, just waiting to consume him. To survive, Reign will have to test not only his skills as a legendary assassin, but also his patience, as he takes on a rogue band of misfits to steal and crew the prototype starship Concord to thwart Forge’s plans once and for all.
