Character Interview w/ Ithaca Davidson

Early on in the book, you are accused of always quoting the Bible. Can you tell us why?

I don’t think there is a more quotable source of information than the Holy Bible. Every word in it is the truth, so why not use it to emphasize my point? Even if you’ve never read a word of God’s Word, you can still acknowledge the truth contained within it. And I try to use that truth to illustrate the truth in what I’m trying to say.  Every word of God is pure. He is a shield unto them that put their trust in him.

Character Interview w/ Claudius Webster

Did you enjoy watching most of your employee’s dying?

Of course not. No sane person enjoys watching others suffer. Well, There’s Miss Tessmacher, but she’s an exception. If it were up to me, none of those people would have lost their lives. And let me state for the record that I had nothing to do with that tragic event. I have absolutely no idea how those creatures were unleashed, and I thoroughly regret not being able to save those people.

Character Interview w/ Zaith

As Jutaya’s best friend, what can you tell us about her that only a best friend would know?

Ah, ha! That’s a good one but I’ll have to watch what I say, she has a way of finding out what she doesn’t need to know. Oh, here’s a gross factoid; after flossing her teeth she leaves the string draped on the side of the sink to ‘dry’ until morning. Why dry? Apparently the acid in our saliva starts to break down the compound keeping the floss together and if left in the garbage can (even one with a lid) it festers and the smell gets into her clothes and the sheets and drapes and she can’t stand the smell of herself. Thank Zola I laser floss!

What’s it like to be a lead reporter for ‘National News Now’?

It’s my dream job but it’s no walk in the park… although I did tend to do that a lot – lol! The employee-boss relationships are strained at best since the supervising producer, Toufin, just happens to be a womanizer and has had a crush on me since I started working there. The man has potential but won’t grow up. Anyway, getting to stick my nose into other people’s business is what I do best and what could be better than getting paid to do what you love?

Character Interview w/ Dezmind Lisle

You specifically asked for Jutaya Fyce to be the contractor on your mission, ‘A Guide into the Deserts’. Why?

The incident at the Rally told me two things: one, this woman cares about people and two, this woman has to be a Contractor. So I looked her up on the database and checked out her job history – she was daring and cocky and not afraid to work in the Expanse near the Deserts. That said a lot. I don’t know. For moment as I stood there when everyone was cowering in fear between us and I got a feeling about her – it turned out to be a good one.

There were many personality clashes between you and Jutaya. How did the two of you manage to work together?

Necessity breeds familiarity. For the most part I’d say that knowing she was literally the only Xannian who could even attempt to take us out into the Deserts and home again made it easier to overlook the high-attitude and bitchiness – if I let myself rationalize it out I had to admit that if our positions were reversed I’d be just as sour and just as stressed. I knew she wasn’t there for the cause… it was something about risking innocent lives that kept her glued to us. In that way we started to understand one another, or so I’d like to think.

Character Interview w/ Elijah Turner

What was it like to wake up to darkness with no memory?

It’s terrifying. You don’t know if you’re really alive or if you’ve died and was in some sort of purgatory. It’s hard to describe. There’s a sinking feeling when you realize you can’t remember your own name. But I’ll say this, when your memory comes back in bits and pieces like that, it has a way of showing you a lot about yourself that you might not have noticed otherwise.

Did you expect to find any survivors?

Honestly, finding survivors was the last thing on my mind. I was more concerned with being a survivor than with finding one.

Character Interview w/ Jutaya Fyce

What were your feelings, when the mission first began, toward the people you traveled with through the deserts?

What a pack of idiots. I mean, we’re taught our whole lives to stay away from the Deserts – what in Zola’s name could have possibly been going though their heads to agree to such a fool-hardy mission – nothing, that’s what! To this day I firmly believe that they lost a grip on all their faculties. I honestly don’t know what Dezmind said to get them to set aside such culturally resonant fear, but he did it.

Why did you want your best friend, Zaith, to come along on the mission?

It’s not so much that I wanted her to come (okay maybe that was part of it) but more that I expected her to come. She was so caught up in this Spoken Truth crap that even she fell for Dezmind’s spell – then again, she never could let a lead go cold and this was one heck of a story. Besides, other than Merik the others in the Kahn-lea were blinded by Dezmind’s beliefs and even Merik was willing to set aside commonsense just to be able to write something ‘new’ poetically. He was his own kind of crazy… I just wanted familiar crazy – Zaith would have kept me sane.

Interview w/ Quan Williams

What were some of your earliest inspirations?

I was a big star wars fan. So to help encourage me to learn how to read, my mother subscribed me to Marvel’s Star Wars comic books. Also, while in 2^nd grade, the teacher would take an hour out of every day and read to us. She would read classic children’s books like Trumpet of the Swan, Charlotte’s Web, Watership Down, and this little, obscure book called “The Hobbit.” I loved Pooh, but The Hobbit really captivated me and was the catalyst for my love of stories.

Character Interview w/ Kado

Hi Kado, can you tell us a little bit about yourself and your background?

I am a shadow stalker who was chosen at birth to be trained by our Foramar to replace him upon his death. Auren believes I am a courier, but I have spent the last eighteen years acting as a liaison between the shadow stalkers and the Coalition, the current government of the northern territory of the Serpent Isles. It has been my cover for keeping Auren’s secret. Shadow stalkers do not live among the people of the Serpent Isles, and it was the only way to legitimize my reason for being here. I am very recognizable as a shadow stalker to those who have fought beside us in the war with the Galvadi Empire, which helped the Coalition win their independence. Auren’s presence with me is not unusual because many people who know of us know that we foster our children out to be raised by others.

Time's Tempest Book Review

SUMMARY

Embarking as a guide into the death zones that are the Deserts, Taya leads a group of civilians who blindly follow a prophet obsessed with preventing the planet Xannia from environmental self-destruction. Here, Fate and Destiny wage war propelling an epic search for truth amidst 2000 year old lies, in opposition to a government bent on burying ancient secrets and anyone who goes looking for them.

As Taya desperately attempts to keep the prophet and his followers alive, this journey forces her to grapple with the circumstances of her past which have aligned to hurdle her into her darkest memories; making choices she never wanted to consider; learning truths she was never meant to know.

GodMode Book Interview

What can you tell us about your latest novel, GodMode, without giving anything away?

Corporate workerdrone Elijah Turner awakens inside a cage, and can’t remember how he got there. He is trapped at the bottom sub-level of the corrupt pharmaceutical company he worked at, and must now fight his way out through scores of bizarre and deadly monsters. And the lives of his wife and daughter are at stake. While doing this, he learns startling truths about who he is and how he ended up in this situation. And he doesn’t like what he finds.

Time's Tempest Book Interview

Can you tell us a bit about your newest release, Time’s Tempest, and how The Chronicles of Xannia are different, and similar, to the Lost Chapter series?

First off, The Lost Chapters are a part of The Chronicles of Xannia. Effectively the Lost Chapters are a collection of short stories that take place before the action of the book Time’s Tempest. These lost chapters are stories that have been mentioned in passing that deal with a time in either Taya or Dezmind’s past that influence who they have become when we meet them in the main book. It’s not necessary to have read the Lost Chapters in order to understand Time’s Tempest, they are simply meant as added enjoyment to the tale.