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The Love And Support Between Siblings
Posted by Literary Titan

Marco, Pablo, & Olivia Volume One follows the Costa sibling’s as they work together to help Marco complete tryouts and make it onto the team. What was the inspiration for the setup to your story?
When brainstorming the idea for Marco, Pablo, & Olivia, I took a lot of inspiration from my trips to Ecuador as a kid. Before we went into lockdown from COVID-19, I used to fly to Ecuador every other year to visit my grandparents and relatives from my dad’s side of the family. I once went to secondary school as a foreign exchange student for a month. Everything in Ecuador is different than what I grew up with in America, but I was fascinated by Ecuador’s beautiful culture. Being there made me realize, “how come no one has made a movie or written a book about Ecuador? There’s so much about Ecuador that’s worth sharing!” That’s when I knew I wanted to write a middle-grade graphic novel series set in Ecuador. Representation matters!
I enjoyed the vibrant art in this book. What was the art illustration process like in bringing this story to life?
After I finished writing the script in 2019, the first thing that came to mind was drawing the illustrations on my computer. I didn’t want to make the comic book using the traditional method of drawing and ink on physical paper. I wanted to make my comic pages on my Huion tablet because it would save me a lot of paper and art supplies, and I always loved digital art. I drew the rough sketches on the tablet, inked the pages, and hired a freelance artist to handle the coloring process. It was challenging to direct a person because I had never hired someone, and I was trying to figure out how I wanted the coloring to look. Plus, I was only 20 years old at that time. Despite the challenging process, I learned that making a comic book requires hard work, effort, and good teamwork. All the diligence was worth bringing my book to life!
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book series?
When writing the script for the first book, I didn’t think much about the story’s theme. I had so much fun writing it; I didn’t think about what was missing from my book. Once I learned about writing a theme from a creative writing course, I knew I had to think about the message for Futbol Tryouts, even if it’s only 41 pages long. I reread the script and couldn’t figure out the theme, so I gave the script to my dad and aunt for feedback. My aunt explained that the book already had a clear theme about perseverance and that I was overthinking it. Since Fútbol tryouts was the first book, I knew I had to write about universal themes in each book, but I also wanted the central theme for the entire series, which was the love and support between siblings.
What can readers expect in volume two of your children’s book series?
In Fútbol Tryouts, the readers learn that the Costa siblings moved to Guayaquil from Loja. The readers get to see the Costa’s new life on the coast, but they haven’t seen their previous life in the mountains of Ecuador. The next book for Marco, Pablo, & Olivia will feature the Costa siblings again, but the readers will look into their past life in Loja. It will also feature a new character, and I hope she will warm the reader’s hearts.
Author Links: Amazon | GoodReads
The Costa sibling’s lives turn into a wild ride when they make new friends, set off on adventures, celebrate traditions, deal with rivals, embark on journeys, and experience things they never thought they could have experienced before.
Marco, Pablo, & Olivia is a crafted book filled with nine stand-alone mini-stories that features the beautiful culture of Ecuador, morality, and magic!
Story One
The Costas: Marco, Pablo, Olivia, and their parents move into their new house in Guayaquil, Ecuador. As the three siblings explore their new neighborhood, Marco discovers there is a tryout for a soccer team. Marco is eager to try out, and Pablo and Olivia are there to cheer for him. But Marco will have to face a prejudiced teenager named, Víctor, who is also trying out for the team.
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Posted in Interviews
Tags: Ana Cortes, author, author interview, book, book recommendations, book review, book reviews, book shelf, bookblogger, books, books to read, childrens books, ebook, Fútbol Tryouts, goodreads, indie author, kids books, kindle, kobo, literature, middlegrade, nook, novel, picture books, read, reader, reading, story, writer, writing
I Just Love The Story
Posted by Literary Titan
Taken Away follows a space crew who has woken up early from their cryogenic sleep to encounter a vast array of unforeseen problems and challenges. What was the inspiration for the setup to your story?
I am a huge fan of Alien I just love the story a lot of inspiration.
Did you create an outline for the characters in the story before you started writing or did the characters’ personalities grow organically as you were writing?
The ideas, come from people I know just friends and family just my surroundings.
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?
Betrayal Courage and perseverance love.
What is the next book that you are working on and when will it be available?
I have a part two to my 1st book reincarnated in an Alien body.
Author Links: Amazon | Writers Republic
nuclear weapons. Most of the humans that remain live underground, in the caverns
of Mars. A small band of specially chosen soldiers is given a mission to reclaim Earth,
to see if it’s fit for colonization. They’ve trained their whole lives for this mission.
Still, nothing in the cosmos could possibly prepare them for what they are about to
unearth.
The human brain can only fit so much stuff in it, so instead of learning a little bit
about a bunch of topics, they chose a bunch of soldiers and make them learn a
lot about a smaller number of topics. As a unit, this made them stronger… But if
someone died, that knowledge died with them.
People thought that meeting intelligent life would bring peace. They were wrong.
When the soldiers landed on the planet’s surface to investigate something that
should not be flourishing human settlements. The squad encounters very bad and
dangerous circumstances and suddenly survival became the most requested need.
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Posted in Interviews
Tags: adventure, author, author interview, book, book recommendations, book review, book reviews, book shelf, bookblogger, books, books to read, ebook, fantasy, fiction, goodreads, indie author, kindle, kobo, literature, London Knight, nook, novel, read, reader, reading, science fiction, scifi, space opera, story, Taken Away, writer, writing
How We Fill Those Vast Empty Spaces
Posted by Literary Titan

Late in the Day follows three people who find solace and companionship in one another’s company and together forge a path ahead. What was the inspiration for the setup to your story?
The inspiration was a slow-growth idea that incubated during my longstanding habit of dining out alone in hushed, dimly lit restaurants. I enjoy observing couples at other tables, especially couples who have clearly been together for a long time. I can feel their history at work in their gestures and in the snippets of conversation that I overhear, and it gives me enormous pleasure. At the same time, I wonder how deep the grief and sense of upheaval would be when such couples are separated—by betrayal, by death, or by a slow, gray dissolve. How does one learn to be alone? Is it possible to create another rich history with someone new? Is there enough time and energy? These considerations pressed on me as I grew older, and I wanted to write a story about how such circumstances could play out, how solitude and loneliness take on a different hue as we grow older. And then there is the flip side of loneliness: attachment. How we lose or give up (voluntarily or involuntarily) the people and the objects that gave us a sense of home for so many years, and how we fill those vast and empty spaces.
Your characters are compelling and well developed. What were some driving ideals behind your character’s development?
First of all, let me say how pleased I am that you found my characters to be compelling and well developed, especially since they couldn’t be more different from one another. My driving ideal was a difficult one: to let my characters have some say over who they are. We fiction writers like to think that we have total control over our novels, and in trying to exert that control we often do our characters a great disservice. We can easily flatten them—even suffocate them—with our own desires and needs, rather than letting them show us how they need to evolve. Like any relationship, the relationship between an author and a character is a give-and-take enterprise. As a writer, I need to give space for each character to chart a course. When my characters surprise me with an action or reaction that I hadn’t planned for in the novel, I know I’m on the right path. Another driving ideal for me is to focus on the small things: Will this character say “Yes” or “Yeah”? Will she brush a wisp of hair away from her face or let it hang there? Will he stroke his beard or let his hand rest quietly on the table? Will they walk hand in hand or simply let their arms brush up against each other from time to time? For me, the accrual of such details creates the real and lived-in character.
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?
I was most interested in exploring the possibility of connection, companionship and renewal at a stage in life when we realize that we don’t have all the time in the world to make our life work out the way we assumed it would. As I was putting the final touches on the book, I happened to read an article by Jennifer Senior in The Atlantic. One paragraph struck me in particular. She wrote, “Of course, all deep friendships generate something outside of themselves, some special and totally other third thing. Whether that thing can be sustained over time becomes the question. The more hours you’ve put into this chaotic business of living, the more you crave a quieter, more nurturing third thing, I think. This needn’t mean dull…There’s loads of open country between enervation and intoxicating. It’s just a matter of identifying where to pitch the tent. Finding that just-right patch of ground, you might even say, is half the trick to growing old.” After I read that paragraph, I felt as if she had been looking over my shoulder the entire time that I’d been working on the novel to see if my three characters—strangers to each other and with little in common except their advanced years and their measured solitude—could find that place to pitch their tent, quietly and together.
What is the next book that you are working on and when will it be available?
I am finishing up a solid first draft of another novel. This one is shorter—about 200 pages—and is quite different from my other two novels. The main differences are that it is written in the first person, and the time span of the novel covers about 60 years. My other novels were much longer, were written in the third person, and covered very short time periods. I’m not ready to disclose what the novel is about, but I will say that I believe it’s my best work to date. And my cohort of trustworthy beta readers feel the same way. I’m very excited about it and hope to have it finished and ready for publication in about a year. But who knows? Maybe one of the characters will surprise me with an unexpected path and it will take longer!
Author Links: Amazon | GoodReads
In their advanced years, Honey, Hank and Seth didn’t expect to find themselves unattached through divorce, separation and death. They have little else in common except their morning ritual of taking a solitary walk along the same stretch of Florida coastline to behold the sun breaking through the horizon line with equilibrium and serenity, day after day. Each morning draws them closer until they relinquish their solitude and seek one another out. At first, silence is broken by polite conversation, stillness by small gestures. The bond between them slowly sets roots that are deep enough to guide them toward a bold decision that both embraces and defies their solitary condition and their advanced years.
Late in the Day is a lucid and sober meditation on the possibility of connection, companionship and renewal in three lives that have narrowed with time. With a keen eye for detail, Shapiro chips away at the crust of aging. Something more complex and delicate emerges with a realism that is simultaneously stark, poetic and deeply felt as Honey, Hank and Seth chart a future that is neither straightforward in their hope nor liberated from their pain.
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Posted in Interviews
Tags: author, author interview, book, book recommendations, book review, book reviews, book shelf, bookblogger, books, books to read, Brett Shapiro, ebook, family saga, fiction, goodreads, grief, indie author, kindle, kobo, Late In the Day, literature, nook, novel, parenting, read, reader, reading, story, writer, writing
What Romance Isn’t Stormy
Posted by Literary Titan

Cause For Elimination follows a woman in the equestrian world who’s friend is found murdered. Things get complicated when she develops feelings for the detective investigating the case. What was the inspiration for the setup to your story?
Up until recently, I was very involved in the equestrian world and, after trying out a few disciplines, fell in love with eventing. Spending all that time in barns and around riders inspired me to want to write about a world that is very special to me. Many of the characters and incidents described in the book are compilations of real people or events (the bellowing voice damning someone to hell? yep, that happened) that set my imagination on fire. Thankfully no one was ever found murdered, however!
The inspiration for Justin was part real person and part information that fell in my lap. Weirdly I stumbled upon an article about a police detective who wrote his master’s thesis on feng shui and interrogations. That seemed like an interesting combination to explore. And what romance isn’t stormy when one person is keeping a secret?
Emily faces many challenges, from a riding accident to losing her friend to a mysterious murder. What were some driving ideals behind your character’s development?
I fell off my horse once. Well, to be fair I fell off a LOT but one accident in particular unnerved me when my horse stumbled over a very tiny jump and we both fell. We were both fine, but the next day I got on bareback just to hack around and got nervous just looking at jumps. I knew I had to at least pop over a cross rail (a small jump that looks like an “x”) or I’d never jump again. We made it and went on to jump (and fall off) for many more years but it always stuck in my head how would a professional handle it? Do they ever get “the yips” like Dani in “Ted Lasso” and suddenly can’t ride anymore?
Like a lot of trainers I’ve known at small barns, Emily is just a person who loved riding, starting working as an assistant tacking up horses and riding the ones who needed exercise. Riding horses wasn’t the career she’d planned but started looking possible and suddenly this terrible thing happened. The one thing she loved turned on her and she doesn’t know how to handle it. But you don’t have to ride horses to empathize with her confidence issue. Everyone at one point or another gets knocked down – in love, life, career, money, health, whatever that looks like for you – and you either take get back up again or you stay down.
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?
I’m really drawn to exploring second chances in some way or another in all my books. Which either makes me very deep or not very imaginative LOL! Emily faces the choice of stepping up to fill Pamela’s shoes or staying in her comfort zone in the shadow of some other trainer. Both choices are appealing to her for different reasons. Dennis also struggles at a crossroad. He’s given a chance to start his life over in L.A. but he’s torn between the pain of what he lost and knowing starting over is the only option if he wants a life worth living.
Friendship is another important theme in this book. Being a real friend to Emily drives Lottie to have to make some hard calls. Would I be that good of a friend in the same situation? I hope so but… Dennis and Justin’s share a bond as co-workers and friends but is tested on an almost daily basis when ego and tempers are involved. What’s the breaking point for a friendship beyond which there’s no going back?
What is the next book that you are working on and when will it be available?
My second Cookie Book for the Wild Rose Press, “Bloodstains and Candy Canes” comes out November 30th.
I’m also working on the sequel to last year’s Cookie Book, “The Starlight Mint Surprise Murder” that I’ll finished by November (finger’s crossed!) and hope to have it out early 2023.
Author Links: Amazon | GoodReads
Detective Justin Butler always gets his killer, but this victim has a stampede of enemies and few leads to go on. Stonewalled by the tight-knit equestrian world, he looks to Emily for help, but she’s strangely reluctant. Is she hiding something, or is she afraid of their growing attraction?
As the search for the murderer heats up, their hearts become entangled and their lives at risk, forcing Emily and Justin to work together to find the killer before they strike again.
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Posted in Interviews
Tags: author, author interview, book, book recommendations, book review, book reviews, book shelf, bookblogger, books, books to read, Cause For Elimination, crime fiction, ebook, fiction, goodreads, indie author, kindle, kobo, literature, Marla A. White, murder mystery, mystery, nook, novel, read, reader, reading, romance, story, womens fiction, writer, writing
Creativity As A Kind Of Spirituality
Posted by Literary Titan
The Maenad’s God follows an FBI agent who, in the course of a drug bust, spirals into a complex conspiracy making him question what is real or not. What was the inspiration for the setup to your story?
Probably a combination of too much rock music, coffee, and solitude. Which is a fine way to start questioning whether reality has limits.
Pete likes to help people and plays by his own rules. What were some driving ideals behind your character’s development?
Pete is primarily driven by his longing for something beautiful and honorable in the cesspool of a world he inhabits. As an FBI agent, he only gets to experience the cesspool. So Pete’s in this horrible job, he’s living a life of utter disillusionment, to the point where when he nearly gets killed through another agent’s hijinks and his boss’s incompetence, he’s really not that angry about it. Then he meets Jade, a mysterious bass player who offers him a private world of fantasy and poetry and music and everything he wants and needs to feel joy and recover his true self again. Until everything goes horribly wrong.
Toxic cultures thrive by making that kind of inner life cruelly inaccessible. You see and know yourself one way, and society slaps you down hard into becoming something else – maybe a kind of twisted stunted version of yourself, maybe something worse.
So the strongest ideal that emerged from that was the healing power of art, or creativity as a kind of spirituality, maybe even as a forbidden form of love put out in the universe.
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?
Art as a healing force, reality v. fantasy and the degree to which they inform each other, creating a private world as a subversive act against a toxic culture, the nature of divinity, creativity as way into some kind of higher reality, imagination as a sacred space.
Also envy. Pete is a super sleuth who draws envy from his colleagues; Jade is a brilliant musician who draws envy from his equally brilliant bandmates. Envy is endemic in toxic cultures – and it’s something nobody likes to discuss because it’s associated with a sense of shame. But envy is always fueled by the battering of your true self. Like all pain, it’s an internal barometer that indicates something is wrong and needs to be paid attention to. And in the book it’s a handy weapon the toxic culture uses to divide people from themselves and from each other.
What is the next book that you are working on and when will it be available?
I’m working on the early stages of two potential next books. One is set in the ancient world; one isn’t. But I don’t want to divulge too many details yet because it’s so early in the process that a lot is liable to change.
Author Links: GoodReads | Twitter | Facebook | Website
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Posted in Interviews
Tags: author, author interview, book, book recommendations, book review, book reviews, book shelf, bookblogger, books, books to read, crime fiction, crime thriller, ebook, fiction, goodreads, indie author, Karen Michalson, kindle, kobo, literature, mystery, nook, novel, read, reader, reading, story, suspense, thriller, writer, writing
Other Magical Dreams…
Posted by Literary Titan

The Warlock’s Curse follows teenage twin sisters who end up in a mysterious realm where they experience adventures and discover a world they didn’t know existed. What was the inspiration for the setup to your story?
My debut novel all began as a dream… I sailed a white ship on a pristine sea of whispering turquoise waves. The inhabitants of this alien watery world, mystical whales, surrounded my vessel, their eerie voices lifted in song. In my book, this became the magical whales that can open interdimensional portals…to their very birthplace, the realm of Oceana.
That and just experiencing life. I never would have guessed that walking around the beautiful New England seacoast, seeing all those old houses on their flower-lined streets, would inspire me to write about the fictional New England town of Coldport…and Seacrest, the creepy Victorian mansion in my book.
Then, there were other magical dreams…
Angelica and Clara Grace may be twins but have different personalities and approaches to the situations they encounter. What were some driving ideals behind your characters’ development?
I am fascinated by twins and the fact that they may have differing temperaments and personalities. I thought this could add a lot of tension to the story. The Warlock’s Curse began with a dream in which I sailed a white ship on a pristine sea full of singing whales. In the dream, one of my best girl friends was on the ship with me. Although we are not twins, we are surely sisters of different mothers. I can be strong and brave, she is fearful of the unknown, yet smart. The twin sisters were molded from our personalities.
I love the heroine’s journey. I wanted both girls to grow and change from their experiences to the point that there would be no going back to their old selves. I especially wanted Clara, the timid and fearful twin, to come into her own in the end.
Finally, I wanted the characters to be likeable, even loveable…to the point that the reader would feel themselves in the story, walking the twins’ entire journey alongside them.
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?
I really love the theme of the hero/heroine’s courageous journey. Facing adversaries such as the evil warlock, enables the twin sisters to mature into confident leaders and changes them, forever.
I also wanted to explore themes of good verses evil, which culminates in an epic battle near the end of the book.
I delved into themes of love as well: love of family, sisterly love, love between friends, and love of nature. One of my favorite characters in The Warlock’s Curse, is a golden creature of light, joy, and love. This magical being, known as The Bliss, takes only what he needs and always gives back. His message about loving and living in harmony with the natural world is very relevant, considering the perils that our planet’s numerous lifeforms presently face. I hope readers, both young and old, will heed his call.
Finally, I looked at themes of revenge. A great wrong has been committed against the Grace family. Though the twins don’t know where the road leads, helped by their distant grandfather and other friends, they will not stop until things are set right.
There are many themes in my story…expect a lot of conflict.
What is the next book that you are working on and when will it be available?
I am currently writing a book about a woman who is deeply spiritual. She seeks enlightenment and meditates a lot. This may sound boring, but she has a troublesome, yet beloved friend, a Scottie dog named Jetsun: a dog who knows himself and what he wants, a dog who is way above mundane human consciousness, a dog who is enlightened. The book will be about the lessons of love she learns with this troublesome dog. Hopefully, it will be available in two years. Like a tortoise… I am slow. So, perhaps make it three…
After that, there may be a sequel to The Warlock’s Curse. One of my last words in The Warlock’s Curse is “Perhaps,” so I could, perhaps, let myself off the hook.
Author Links: GoodReads | Twitter | Facebook | Website
Everything turns topsy-turvy all of a sudden when discovery of an ancestor’s hidden journal with an odd key to an unknown door leads them into an entirely different realm.
The girls go on a thrilling oceanic voyage to search for mysterious whales, train with a seasoned warrior, and are befriended by a wise Master. But all is not a bouquet of lovely lilies…they are hunted by a cunning warlock and must rid themselves of The Warlock’s Curse.
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Posted in Interviews
Tags: author, author interview, book, book recommendations, book review, book reviews, book shelf, bookblogger, books, books to read, C.B. Oresky, ebook, fantasy, fiction, goodreads, indie author, kindle, kobo, literature, nook, novel, occult, paranormal, read, reader, reading, story, supernatural, The Warlock's Curse, urban fantasy, writer, writing, ya books, young adult
Good people are imperfect. Bad people aren’t.
Posted by Literary Titan

The Smallest War follows a group of military operatives who go up against Russian operatives in a battle to control a new oil source. What was the inspiration for the setup to your story?
I was a Cold War kid so thought it would be fun to pitch the old enemies into a battle. During research for The Smallest War, I came across the USA/USSR Maritime Boundary Agreement and realised I’d found the catalyst for the confrontation. The first draft of The Smallest War was a heavyweight, weighing in at a little over 140K words. It detailed the backstory of the United States buying Alaska from Russia and how the error in the alignment of the boundary across the Bering Sea came to be. Sadly, there was a “Kill your darlings” year during which I slimmed the novel down. That said, it is a better book for the cuts.
Did you create an outline for the characters in the story before you started writing or did the characters’ personalities grow organically as you were writing?
A bit of both. I wrote outlines for the characters detailing their looks, speech patterns, habits, heritages and dreams. I also wrote a plot which was around 17K words. As The Smallest War developed, so did the characters, but the more refined development came with the assistance of an editor. There was no particular guidance given, more just observations about the characters themselves. In the draft the editor read, the main characters were verging on superhuman, and the editor thought they could do with taking a toilet break (i.e. do those things that people do as a matter of course each day, such as being injured if they were involved in a car crash).
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?
I sweated over the epigraph “Good people are imperfect. Bad people aren’t.” It’s the main theme of The Smallest War, and I hope I’ve crafted the characters to fit the premise. We are all flawed, but overwhelmingly we are good. There are only a few of us that are perfectly malevolent, like Major Regina Volkov.
What is the next book that you are working on and when will it be available?
In light of what I learnt writing The Smallest War, I’m re-writing the first novel I wrote. The first novel did the rounds with the agents in Australia and was put in the drawer while I wrote The Smallest War. It’s not a sequel or prequal, just another book I’d like to read. It will be published in 2023.
Author Links: GoodReads | Twitter
Small War is the United Nations’ best kept secret: the end of conventional warfare. Acting in self-interest, the United States’ military buries it.
Oil—enough to build a superpower—is discovered by the United States, only for Russia to lay claim. The United States threatens war, but a resurgent Russia ruthlessly executes a play years in the making. Dominos fall: a fire the size of England, a bloody naval skirmish, breath-taking political manipulation. Small War will decide who exploits the oil.
Unprepared, the United States exhumes its Small War capability and staggers into a contest of hunter and prey: five relentless rounds of pursuit by any means necessary, winner takes all.
Press-ganged into the fray, Danny “The Beef” Wellington joins his two teammates, Kimimela Thunderhawk and Matt Balthazar, planning to do just enough to stay alive, but there’s a hitch. A traitor lurks, and only Danny can tip the balance to give the United States a fighting chance.
Full of unrelenting cat-and-mouse, rapid-fire action and characters pushed to their limits, this book is perfect for fans of I am Pilgrim by Terry Hayes, Ice Station by Matthew Reilly and Inferno by Dan Brown.
If you can catch a breath, you’re not reading The Smallest War. Get it now!
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Posted in Interviews
Tags: author, author interview, book, book recommendations, book review, book reviews, book shelf, bookblogger, books, books to read, crime fiction, crime thriller, ebook, fiction, goodreads, indie author, kindle, kobo, literature, Mark Sheehan, military, military fiction, nook, novel, read, reader, reading, story, suspense, The Smallest War, thriller, war, writer, writing
The Ultimate In Enquiring Minds
Posted by Literary Titan

Alien Whispers: Conflict and Communion follows a woman and her son who return to Earth to find it taken over by an authoritarian regime, and they must work with their Martian alliance to save humanity. What was the inspiration for the setup to your story?
The inspiration is derived, of course, from the flow of the first two novels in the series, where the alien characters and their modus operandi were introduced. Beyond that, a prime plot source was the current day behaviour of our own species with a stretch to imagined post-conflict world orders.
Mix that with the presence of the Rbuzen aliens and the developed hybrid beings working with Laura on Mars, plus other aliens who bear ill will to Earth, and the inspiration for the plot directions became almost self-creative.
Another prime inspiration was the distinct possibility of other dimensions. To quote a Terran translation of an Rbuzen saying, before the aliens’ discovery of extradimensional space: Like the worm in the soil, or the spider in the web, we know nothing of creation, save that of our immediate surrounds, for that is all we need to know in order to survive.
What character did you enjoy writing for? Was there one that was more challenging to write for?
Laura Sinclair is a wonderful person to work with. Her love for her son, Jason, is unbound, even if they drift apart somewhat after the events of Milijun. She endeavours to be a strong character, a scenario improved a little by nanobotic enhancements, but still possesses the mental and physical frailties that haunt us all.
In Alien Whispers: Conflict and Communion two other characters spring to mind in terms of a writing challenge: Damien Dayananda, the autocratic leader of the Tellurians, and Belle Aubertin, a Tellurian operative. Of the two, Belle was probably the most challenging to write into the story. After all, there are plenty of despots in the world to use as models.
Belle, though, was different. For one thing, she is French, and for another, she has the ultimate in enquiring minds. In the novel, she is torn between two worlds, eventually becoming a lead character—but for which side is not always clear.
And then there are the hybrids…but that is another story.
What was your process in writing the characters’ interactions to develop the bond they have?
I give the characters a background, sometimes exotic, sometimes not, and then I put myself in their shoes. And then I let them talk. Nothing complex, just natural conversation, depending on the situation they are in—and what part of the universe they come from! That is, I let them react pursuant to their inner thoughts, and the influence of their surroundings and who happens to be with them.
The bonds between humans are sometimes fraught with uncertainty. The bonds between hybrids and humans, however, carry no such qualms. The entire history of humankind is given to the hybrids in their birth chamber. They know us even better than we know ourselves.
After all, their alien half-parents have been surveying Earth for a very long time!
Will there be book 4 in the Milijun series, and if so, when will it be available?
There is likely to be a sequel to the trilogy. However, I am toying with the idea of a collection of short stories based on the Milijun concept and the future of the characters within the books. There are a diverse series of events to be built upon, and an anthology would be a good way to tackle those events, and the destiny of several leading players.
As time is just a permanent spiral of events, it could be available tomorrow or two years from now—whenever now is.
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A hundred years after her abduction to the alien planet Glieze, Laura Sinclair returns to Earth on a mission to find out what happened to her long-lost husband. But she finds the planet in turmoil under the oppressive regime of the authoritarian Tellurians. Humans are confined to the surface of their world and all extraterrestrial activity is forbidden.
Laura is a member of an ancient organization, now led by her son, Jason, which pioneered alien collaboration. From their secretive Martian base, they must find a way to free mankind from brutal tyranny. But one dangerous man stands in their way, a man who’ll stop at nothing to achieve his domination of Earth.
Weapons of mass destruction have been forbidden on the planet for a century, but something strange is happening on the moon—and alien insurgents stand ready to take advantage of the chaos. The future of humankind hangs in the balance. With her alien allies and members of Earth’s Underground, Laura must find a way to defeat both the renegade aliens and the overwhelming might of the Tellurian Empire.
The stage is set for an electrifying showdown that will decide the future of the Earth and that of the entire universe.
Alien Whispers: Conflict and Communion is the standalone third book in the Milijun series. Join the battle to save Earth from a fate that is crushing the planet’s will to survive.
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Posted in Interviews
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