The King of Gems follows an astrophysicist and master King of Gems player who finds aliens trapped in the game. How did the idea for this novel come about?

I have always wanted to write a story that combined my two favorite genres so I’ve been playing around with this idea for a couple of years. A friend of mine is an actual astrophysicist who studies the interactions between galaxies. We were discussing his work one day and the topic of this idea for a new book came up. We tossed around a few ideas using some of the physics behind his work and that spurred me on. At the same time, several coworkers were discussing their latest adventures in a dungeons and dragons game they had played together. I’m not really sure how the two connected in my head, but they did. The result was The King of Gems.

What were some sources that informed the development of the Chandrans aliens?

If you have read any of my previous books, you can probably tell I have a fondness for telling stories with aliens. Part of my job at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science involves talking to guests about other worlds, both within and outside our solar system. In fact, one of the programs I do involves playing a real estate character attempting to sell exoplanet vacation properties to the guests as a way to describe what it is like on those worlds. I love thinking about what environments would support extraterrestrial life and how different cultures might evolve in those environments. My research for my work in this regard helps feed that interest and provides a basis for the different worlds and aliens I invent.

What scene in the book did you have the most fun writing?

I like the interaction between HAL and Dr, Kennan. HAL’s snarkiness toward Dr. Kennan was the best way I could devise to have the android show his concern for him, without igniting the professor’s irascible nature to the point of rewriting HAL’s programming. This allowed me to add a bit of humor from time to time that all good stories need. The other piece I had fun with was Dr. Kennan’s complete ignorance and frustrations when dealing with women. I have a personal affinity and sympathy for that due to my own fumbling around with it all during my much younger years.

What is the next book that you are working on and when will it be available?

At this point, I do not have another novel in mind. Instead, I would like to try my hand at several short stories. The goal of these would be to illustrate or explain some scientific concepts through the eyes of science fiction and fantasy tales. As a retired middle school science teacher, I know how dry and miserable reading textbooks can be. My hope is that teachers could use these stories to help preface a lesson on some scientific topic, or use them as summaries after the fact. If I come up with enough ideas for topics and stories I can put them into an anthology of sorts and try to get that published.

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