Yonis, Book 1: The Madness follows two young men whose friendship blossoms into love as they transform into members of an extraordinary new species and help build a community capable of confronting a mysterious force. What was the inspiration for your story?​

I always wanted to be able to fly. Even as a kid, I thought about ways to tie wings to my arms so that I could actually lift off. That gradually developed into Yonis. And with Yonis came some very practical questions:

What would happen if an ordinary young man suddenly grew wings? Not metaphorical wings — real ones. How would he sleep? (Only on his belly. Yonis hate having their feathers crumpled.) What would he eat? (If he can get it, fish. The Yonis were made with genes from seabirds, probably Arctic terns.) Could he learn to fly? (No. Aerodynamics prevent it. So I had to give them the ability to manipulate gravity. But even that isn’t enough. Even if you weigh nothing, you still have to overcome inertia. Hence, I developed the idea of doors: five-dimensional shortcuts through space that help the Yonis accelerate.)

And what would everyone else do when they discovered him? A lot of hatred, because they are “other,” and we fear “other.” But there are also some who accept them, and these few will be the reason the Yonis eventually save all of Earth.

How did Ian and Emile’s contrasting personalities shape their romance?

Ian and Emile are opposites in many ways. Ian is analytical, practical, and happiest when there is a problem he can solve. Emile is intuitive, emotional, musical, and deeply connected to nature. Ian wants to understand things. Emile tends to experience them.

I think that difference is why they work. Ian gives Emile stability when his world becomes incomprehensible, while Emile pulls Ian into a world that can’t always be understood with mathematics and logic. Their romance wasn’t something I wanted to rush. Their friendship had to come first.

What inspired you to create the Yonis and explore identity through physical transformation?

The Yonis look so much like angels that I began to think: If there were such a thing as angels, what would they be like? Would they bicker with each other? (Yes.) Would they get hungry? (Yes. Fish!) What would they think about humans? (They would love us and also fear us. We humans, can be terrible to other life forms.)

The other question was how much you could change a person physically without changing who they are. Emile may grow wings and a crest and acquire some very strange appetites, but underneath all that, he is still Emile.

How did you balance humor and everyday life with the novel’s apocalyptic events?

I don’t think people stop being funny just because terrible things are happening. They still need coffee. They argue about bicycles. They make mistakes. They fall in love. And if you’ve suddenly grown wings, somebody eventually has to figure out where you’re going to sleep.

The ordinary details also made the fantastic parts more believable to me. I didn’t want the Yonis to spend all their time discussing the fate of humanity. Sometimes they just need dinner.

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