In Chaos Ascending: A Feast of Betrayal, a man is forced on a quest and must evade assassins all the while journeying with a man he feels he cannot trust. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?

As both a writer and a landscape photographer, there is the experience of relying on one’s self, one’s own talents, to create something. However, I’ve also experienced many years working in a corporate environment where the motivations of other team members you depend on to succeed aren’t always in sync or even honorable. Many coworkers are wonderful teammates and work well with others, but not all. I guess the setup comes from life’s experiences, both the good ones and the bad ones. Others gunning for your job become assassins on your trail, whereas leaders with their own hidden agendas become Mera.

Did you plan the tone and direction of this second book in the trilogy before writing, or did it come out organically as you were writing?

The tone for Chaos Ascending: A Feast of Betrayal, was set even before I started writing the 1st book in the series. As a landscape photographer, I delight in finding the beauty in nature, creatively capturing it, and sharing my love of Nature with others. But there is a duality lurking somewhere in my soul that comes out when I write. Photography provides an outlet for expressing joy and wonder while my writing allows me to explore the darker side of people.

It is said there are two types of writers, plotters and pantsers. I write outlines for each book but never seem to follow them. As I get into each character’s head while writing, they sometimes take me in new directions the plot outline didn’t envision. The short answer to your question is that it all comes out organically.

What were some of your inspirations as a writer?

Back in the day, while still in high school, I pulled a book from my father’s bookshelf, Lord Foul’s Bane by Stephen R. Donaldson. It’s a dark and compelling fantasy. At the time, it seemed out of sync with the fantasy genre. I loved the entire series. Years later, I happened upon Mark Lawrence’s, The Prince of Thorns, and Joe Abercrombie’s First Law trilogy. These three authors showed me that the hero isn’t always noble, doesn’t always have to win, and the bad guy may have a valid point…based on how they see things. The traditional “Hero’s Journey” could be turned on its head, and readers wouldn’t reject the character arc. Donaldson, Lawrence, and Abercrombie opened my eyes to the world of dark (grimdark) fantasy.

I was also inspired by the state of our world today in creating the worlds of Tartica and Evidar. With so many people these days taking fervent positions on one issue or the other, unwilling to co-exist with someone who sees things differently, I wrote the Utopia Falling Saga as a reflection of that dynamic expressed in a dark, epic fantasy. I’ve left it open for the reader—from either opposing point of view—to see themselves as the hero fighting to save the world. Even the Devil’s Blacksmith, as bad as he is, is fighting to secure Evidar’s salvation from its ever-present darkness.

Can you give fans a peek inside the follow-up to Chaos Ascending?

In the 3rd book, Convergence Waking: Forge of the Soul Stone, we get to see a glimpse of the origins of The Great Destruction, and it isn’t what the utopian civilization of the Third Age presumed. One character’s discovery of that secret has a major impact on the climax.

Using multiple points of view to tell the story of the Utopia Falling Saga—the 3rd and final book in the series—delivers a fast-paced, overarching plot that weaves each storyline into a cohesive conclusion. Each character arc requires a satisfying ending as a payoff to those readers who’ve stuck with me through three books. Yet, it shouldn’t come as a surprise to dark fantasy enthusiasts that a satisfying conclusion doesn’t mean every beloved character makes it to the end. Characters we love to hate, such as Neladith, Derr, and even Jerithan, will have something to say in driving the interwoven POV plotlines to a compelling climax. And of course, the question hanging out there through three books, does Reyne ever get back to Mithany, will be resolved. And, if they do, are either the same people they were when it all began? Well, that’s an altogether different issue.

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