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An Interview with Author Steve Brewer

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Author Steve Brewer brings decades of journalism experience to his fiction work. Twenty years and nearly thirty books after hanging up his journalist hat, he still writes tightly plotted, fast-paced mysteries and thrillers (as well as crime novels under the pen name Max Austin). Shotgun Boogie and Homesick Blues, both published in 2016, are the first two books in his Jackie Nolan thriller series. You’ll find Steve at SteveBrewer.blogspot and on his Amazon author page.

Here’s a peek at the series:

Jackie Nolan knows how to handle semi-trucks, shotguns, and the assortment of nasty characters who cross her path. She’s a good guy who doesn’t mind breaking a few laws to make life easier for family and friends, and herself—hijacking semis to pay off a truckload of debt (Shotgun Boogie) and stealing a dead woman’s identity to start a new life (Homesick Blues).

What inspired you to write Shotgun Boogie, the first book in the Jackie Nolan thriller series? How did Homesick Blues come about?
I’d been working with an editor at the Alibi imprint of Penguin Random House, and I knew he was about to ask me (over lunch) what I planned to write next. All I had in mind was a guy named Jack who boosted semis for a living. The editor asked if I could write a female protagonist. I said, “Funny you should ask! I’ve got this female character named Jackie who steals trucks.” He loved it. Unfortunately, his position got axed before we actually signed a contract. By then, I’d written TWO Jackie books. I decided to publish them myself. Apologies to those who already heard this story at SouthWest Writers’ 2016 Self-publishing Conference (watch the YouTube video here), but that’s exactly how it happened. Of course, then I had to come up with a woman named Jackie who knew how to boost trucks. She turned into a very capable woman.

You seem to enjoy writing from an antagonist’s point of view. Is that why Jackie has a bit of a dark side? Was there a learning curve involved in writing a woman protagonist?
Jackie definitely has a dark side, but she’s motivated by good (mostly financial) reasons. Her parents’ healthcare has put her deep in debt, and her boss is only too happy to make money on the side from stolen trucks. Jackie gives in to the pressure and starts stealing semis from local truck stops. By the time the novel opens, she’s actually begun to enjoy it. I’ve written female protagonists before (A Box of Pandoras, 2012), and lots of strong female characters, so the learning curve wasn’t huge. Once she started talking in my head, we were off and running.

Why did you choose Albuquerque as the setting for the series? How true did you stay to the city?
The nice answer: I love Albuquerque, and always get a kick out of sharing its features and foibles with readers. Also true: I’m lazy and I don’t like to travel. Most of my books are set wherever I’m living at the time. I stay true to the city, though I do change the names of some businesses, etc. We are a city with a big freeway interchange at its heart, and the truck stop there is a fascinating subculture.

Are there scenes from either book that you’d love to see play out in a movie?
All of them! These novels are written so tightly, they’re almost like movie scripts already.

What interesting facts did you discover while doing research for Shotgun Boogie and Homesick Blues?
1) Hookers who work the truck stop parking lots are called “lot lizards.” Lovely, eh? 2) Most semis these days have automatic transmissions. 3) Lots of truckers, particularly the young ones, are minorities. When I was growing up, truckers seemed to be universally white. They certainly were portrayed that way in the movies. Breaker, breaker, good buddy!

How has your 30+ year experience as a journalist benefited your fiction writing?
It taught me to write fast, and to do thorough rewriting.

You’re an instructor at the University of New Mexico’s Honors College. In what areas do you wish your students were better prepared for their writing journey?
Students in public schools aren’t forced to write as much. Now, more emphasis is placed on testing. So even Honors students, who are the cream of the crop, get to college needing to improve their writing. I teach them to write for a general audience, and to keep it clear. I also teach courses called Meet the Authors and American Crime Fiction. Lots of fun!

What are the hardest kinds of scenes for you to write, and what do you do to get over this hurdle?
Sex scenes are tough. I try to keep ’em brief.

Knowing what you know now, what would you do differently if you started your writing/ publishing career today?
Most everything. I’ve been through half a dozen publishers and five agents. I just keep writing.

What writing projects are you working on now?
I’m finishing up work on a novel called Side Eye (to be published in June 2017). It’s about an 18-year-old delinquent who gets hired to be the driver for an old mobster who’s losing his eyesight. Set in Albuquerque, with lots of action.

KLWagoner150_2KL Wagoner (writing as Cate Macabe) is the author of This New Mountain: a memoir of AJ Jackson, private investigator, repossessor, and grandmother. She has a new speculative fiction blog at klwagoner.com and writes about memoir at ThisNewMountain.com.



An Interview with Author Joanne Bodin

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Poetry is a driving force for author Joanne Bodin, but when a prose story calls, she follows. Heeding this call has resulted in two novels: the award-winning Walking Fish (2010), and her newest, Orchid of the Night (Mercury HeartLink, 2017), a psychological thriller. You’ll find Joanne on Facebook and her website JoanneBodin.com.

What is your elevator pitch for Orchid of the Night?
Trapped in a world of shadows, secrets and lies, Kyle O’Sullivan must flee for his life. Finding solace in the gay community of Ixtlan, even his new identity as Tom Tanner cannot protect him from his tragic fate.

What came first for you: a character, a scene, the story idea?
Orchid of the Night was inspired by true events that took place in Albuquerque with the New Mexico Orchid Guild about ten years ago when I was their vice president. Our then president died mysteriously, and we later discovered he was a pathological liar who was not who he said he was. No one ever found out his real name. He was a brilliant man who knew everything about orchids. We held a memorial service for him since there was no next of kin, but we also realized we had been dealing with an imposter. So the main character came first based on the Orchid Guild president.

Tell us about your main characters.
There are two protagonists. Part one of the novel is about Kyle O’Sullivan who grows up in Maui. He is teased by his classmates early on because of his red hair which stands out against the mostly black hair of the Hawaiian kids. Kyle befriends Danny Leavenworth, who is also a misfit. Both Kyle and Danny are highly intelligent and find ways to escape the doldrums of school by becoming best friends as well as sexual partners. As the story unfolds, (with no spoiler alerts) the two become entangled in a complex relationship which forces Kyle to flee for his life. He relocates to the mainland and ends up in Tempe, Arizona with a new identity as Tom Tanner. Part two of the novel deals with the second protagonist, Officer Andy Gomez, a Yaqui Indian sent to Tom’s home for a wellness check in Tempe after Tom doesn’t show up for work. What he finds when he arrives forever changes the officer’s life. The prologue of the novel is taken from the actual description given by the detective in Albuquerque who called me after he was sent on a wellness check regarding our guild president. The second half of the novel deals with how Officer Gomez becomes obsessed with the case as he sinks deeper into the life of Tom Tanner and finds connections to his own life.

Why did you use the particular settings you chose?
I chose Maui because our guild president talked about having an aunt in Maui who raised him after his parents died. It turned out to be a lie, but at least I had a place to start. I chose Tempe because there is a Native American Yaqui population there, and I wanted the book to take place in the Southwest. The Yaqui connection is important to the story because I needed a place for Kyle/Tom to go for safety. He goes to Ixtlan, a gay sanctuary modeled on one in New Mexico, one of the first founded in the early 70s. During the time of the Gay Liberation Movement, gays were often sent for conversion therapy to “turn them straight,” or they were kicked out of their homes by their parents, or killed. Sanctuaries saved many lives and offered a safe place to be a gay person. Also, these early sanctuaries modeled themselves on Native American values like sustainable living and spirituality. They grew their own food and lived off the land. Over time, some of them were accepted by the locals, like the fictional sanctuary of Ixtlan.

How did the book came together?
Only a few Orchid Guild board members knew the details surrounding the death of our president. When I knew I wanted to write the novel, I held a meeting at my house and discussed this project with them to see how they felt. Once I began the story, it basically wrote itself. In my dreams I heard the characters tell me what they wanted. In fact, much of the backstory, which is represented in the book with italics, came from dreams. I used those vignettes throughout the book because the backstory is what drives the characters, and I used a different style of writing called poetic narrative. This book is considered a psychological thriller, but is written as a work of literary fiction. The book took about three years to write, most of it taken up with research. After hiring the professional editor who edited my first novel, Walking Fish, I sent query letters to agents and presses for over a year, and received about 25 rejections. In 2016, I got a contract with an Australian press that had relocated to northern California. They were bought out by a press in Madison, Wisconsin. All went smoothly until about five months ago. The book was ready to be published, but I hadn’t heard from the publisher. I decided to get the rights back to my book, which took some legal help, but in the end everyone was happy. I found a publisher in Silver City, and they did a fantastic job. It all turned out for the best.

What is the significance of the flower on the book cover?
The orchid on the cover is called a Dracula vampira. For those knowledgeable about orchids, it is in the Pleurothallid Alliance, and is called the orchid of the night, or the Dracula orchid because of its bat-like shape and because it hangs upside down from trees in the wild (and from moss-filled baskets in greenhouses). I decided to use this orchid as a metaphor for the self-loathing of the protagonist Kyle O’Sullivan because of the dark and seedy life that Kyle descends into when he lives on Maui. The orchid is also used as a writing convention that appears throughout the story as the plot unfolds.

Share some results of your research for Orchid of the Night.
I discovered there was a POW camp in Papago, Arizona near Tempe, used during World War II for German prisoners. I turned it into a gay sanctuary, Ixtlan. The Dracula vampira orchid that Kyle takes with him when he leaves Maui for Tempe cannot be grown in a desert climate, so I enlisted the help of an expert. Together we came up with the correct environment Tom Tanner could use to grow the orchids in the desert. The journal entries of Kyle/Tom’s uncle were actually written by my Dracula vampira expert from real expeditions to collect plants for his greenhouse in San Francisco. The founder of the Ixtlan gay sanctuary is based on research into the actual people who were involved in the early 70s in the San Francisco Gay Liberation Movement.

WalkingFishWhat do you want to be known for as a writer?
I have been writing poetry since I was seven. I prefer writing poetry, but when inspiration hits, I can’t ignore it. Both Walking Fish, my first novel, and now Orchid of the Night, wouldn’t leave me alone until I started to write them. Then I was hooked and couldn’t stop. I am glad I did tell their stories because both novels focus on flawed individuals who face almost insurmountable obstacles, and who must find ways to survive. I also like to write character-driven stories that are research-based and that deal with marginalized populations.

What has writing taught you about yourself?
Writing for me is like breathing. I need to write throughout the day. In some ways, writing is an extension of my emotional life. When I can’t write because of daily interruptions, or family problems, or illness, etc., I get anxious. Writing is the calm I need to maintain physical and emotional balance.

What do you love outside of writing and reading?
I find that taking watercolor painting classes at the New Mexico Art League gives me the perfect balance when I am working on writing projects. Writing uses a certain part of the brain that needs to rest, to take breaks before the muse emerges again. By painting in watercolor, my brain feels renewed, almost like meditation. I also play classical and jazz piano to relax and replenish.

After publishing three books, what have you learned about marketing?
The process of writing a novel is one thing, but once it is out in the world it becomes like your child. You need to nurture it, make sure you do it justice. I see myself as a conduit for telling stories. Both novels, Walking Fish and Orchid of the Night, began to have an energy of their own once they were finished. Marketing your work is like raising your child. You want to make sure you find the best situation so the story gets out there. With social media it is much easier than it used to be when authors had to appear in person at book signings. Now you can market from your desk if you want. But, marketing is a full-time job. I approach it as a real job, and each day I check off something on my marketing list so that over a few months I have actually accomplished quite a bit. Also, entering the book into contests is part of marketing. In New Mexico we are fortunate to have the New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards. There is also the IPPY (Independent Publisher Awards), and depending on your genre, many other award venues to enter. These contests do cost money, but nothing feels as good as placing as finalist, or winner, and receiving stickers to put on your book. Then your book becomes even more marketable, and it rises to a higher level of readership. So, if you are in the writing business and take the time to follow through with marketing your product, you will reap the benefits of what can be a lonely, labor-intensive, competitive, and frustrating profession. But, most writers have no choice. If they don’t write, they don’t thrive.

Your book of poetry, Piggybacked (Mercury Heartlink, 2011), was a finalist in the New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards, and you’re a past vice president of the New Mexico State Poetry Society. What can writers learn from studying poetry?
Writing poetry is very different from writing narrative. Poetry often relies on imagery and metaphor, whereas narrative is more linear and plot-driven. Poetry is something that came naturally for me when I was in grade school. It seemed to allow me to delve into my imagination as a child and to come up with images that expressed my inner feelings; things that I couldn’t put into sentences or conceptualize at that age. The study of poetry takes a certain kind of dedication. It either calls out to you or not. Poetry can be a bit esoteric and, frankly, I only have patience for certain types of poems that speak to me personally. However, poetry is the language of the people. Even today, the success of poetic forms such as the spoken word, slam poetry, and even hip-hop, aligns with the poetry of the early bards, who went from town to town reading or speaking about the politics of the day.

Any advice for beginning or discouraged writers?
Passion, Patience, and Perseverance. Without those three things an emerging writer will not have the stamina to pursue their dream of writing.

What are you working on now?
I am working on a type of hybrid memoir that includes poems, narrative, archival material, and research. It deals with my experiences growing up in post-war Burbank, California in the 50s; with my experiences during the 60s at UC Berkeley during the Free Speech Movement; and with my life in West Hollywood during the New Age Movement.

KLWagoner150_2KL Wagoner (writing as Cate Macabe) is the author of This New Mountain: a memoir of AJ Jackson, private investigator, repossessor, and grandmother. She has a new speculative fiction blog at klwagoner.com and writes about memoir at ThisNewMountain.com.



An Interview with Author Larada Horner-Miller

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Author and poet Larada Horner-Miller spent 27 years as a middle grade teacher before getting serious about writing. Whether through poems or prose (or three volumes of her grandmother’s recipes), she celebrates family and the small ranching community where she grew up. The historical novel When Will Papa Get Home? (2015) is her sixth published book. You can find Larada at LaradaBlog and Larada.wix, and on Facebook and Twitter.

What is your elevator pitch for When Will Papa Get Home?
Having come from Mexico to a homestead on the high plains of southeastern Colorado with her family, Maria is determined to rise above prejudice and other obstacles in this engaging historical novel.

When readers turn the last page, what do you hope they will take away from it?
I hope the reader takes away a respect for Maria’s struggle and how she worked through a horrible injustice to her family. I also want people to want more about Maria, her family, and what happened next.

What sparked the initial story idea for the book?
The spark for this story was a routine visit to my favorite homestead on our family ranch, the Philly Place. I had heard the tales about Philly my whole life from my Dad and Granddad. Philly was accused of being a cow thief and was in jail when my granddad bought his homestead. I found a blue marble between the front door and the outside step and wondered who the marble belonged to. This story came from that familiar tale and that blue marble.

Tell us about your main character in When Will Papa Get Home?
The story unfolds through the eyes of Maria, the daughter of Philadelphia Gonzales. We meet her initially as a grown, successful woman in Denver, Colorado. In a flashback, Maria tells the story of her family’s immigration from Mexico to southeastern Colorado and her life on the plains living in a homestead. The story focuses on her struggles and finally her maturation through the false accusation of her father being a thief, his imprisonment, and her life with her mother without Papa.

Explain the importance of the book’s setting.
The setting for most of the story is a homestead on our family ranch in southeastern Colorado, and then the move to Trinidad, Colorado. Maria loved the life on the open plains with its freedom and abundant wildlife. Her horse, the land, and working beside her Papa nurtured her soul. The abrupt thrust into the city life of Trinidad jolted her. She yearned for bygone days that were less stressful roaming the mesas she loved. The contrast between the two settings illuminates the two lives Maria lived as a child: from carefree and open on the plains to the confined regiment of city life with schoolwork consuming her. Her major goal in Trinidad was to learn English and better herself so she didn’t end up like her Papa—defenseless because he didn’t speak English. She also focused on becoming literate in Spanish, to be truly bilingual at a time when being bilingual had little merit.

How did the book come together?
I started the book in 1983 while attending Colorado State University as an English major. I revisited the story periodically and edited the 10,000-word manuscript several times over thirty years, but stalled out in the editing cycle. When I retired in 2013, I finally got serious about my writing. In 2014, I self-published This Tumbleweed Landed, a memoir collection of poetry and prose about the same ranching community in my novel. After that successful self-publishing experience, I worked for a year to beef up When Will Papa Get Home? I added references to historical figures, and the complete immigration from Mexico to Mora, New Mexico, and then to Branson, Colorado. I also added the details of building an adobe-and-rock homestead house and outhouse. I researched these keys points, made several road trips, and took photographs for historical accuracy. A photo album was included at the end of the book to provide visuals. Finally, When Will Papa Get Home? was released in November 2015.

Your publication Let Me Tell You a Story is a booklet written from your father’s perspective recounting the facts of how your grandfather put a family ranch together during the Great Depression. What was your goal in publishing this booklet?
My mother and I put Let Me Tell You a Story together for my Dad’s 75th birthday in 1993. My Mom wrote out the story as my Dad told it to her. Then I typed the manuscript on the computer, and Dad and I edited it. He selected the pictures included in the booklet, and initially we printed just enough copies for our family and close friends. After selling 25 extra copies, I republished it on CreateSpace. My Dad was so proud of his father’s accomplishment of putting together a ranch during the Depression when others were losing theirs. This booklet was a celebration of that success story.

What authors have had a strong influence on you or your writing?
Tony Hillerman’s celebration of the Southwest and the Native American world deeply touched me and encouraged me to write about an area of the Southwest I know and love. As an English major, I took extra classes to study Shakespeare and loved his playfulness with language. Mary Oliver focuses on nature in her poetry—growing up in southeastern Colorado gave me every opportunity to enjoy nature at its best, and I’ve enjoyed adding nature scenes to my books.

How has your work as a poet influenced your fiction writing?
I am a poet first and that influences my word selection. I have adopted the slogan, “Words matter” as my blog slogan and that says succinctly what counts in writing whether it is poetry or fiction. Also, I have been told the imagery in my historical fiction reminds the reader of poetry.

What advice do you have for discouraged writers?
I wrote two books and waited 30+ years to publish them. Don’t wait! I stashed those manuscripts away in a desk drawer for years, but they were not silent. They whispered to my spirit, but I ignored them. I married. I divorced. I walked away, turning my back on my creations. I sent out a query letter on This Tumbleweed Landed and received a request for the full manuscript. Then came the rejection—that put an end to my writing career for several years. I filled my life with other activities, but my books kept up their vigil. They haunted me, wanting to be released from that dark prison. Finally I couldn’t stand their noise anymore. Their endless clamor ended because I listened.

What writing project are you working on now?
My new book, I Grew Up to Be the Woman I Always Wanted to Be, will be released May 2017. It is a grief memoir of poetry and prose about the loss of my parents and how I handled it. It offers ideas on how to handle being an adult orphan and coming through to the other side.

KLWagoner150_2KL Wagoner (writing as Cate Macabe) is the author of This New Mountain: a memoir of AJ Jackson, private investigator, repossessor, and grandmother. She has a new speculative fiction blog at klwagoner.com and writes about memoir at ThisNewMountain.com.



An Interview with Author Yvonne Williams Casaus

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For over a decade, counselor and play therapist Yvonne Williams Casaus has helped children, adolescents, adults, and families in her private practice. Now with her first book, A Drop of Water: A Spiritual Journey (2016), she continues her outreach as she shares about healing, grief, and personal growth. You can find Yvonne at LaughingAtMyself.lol and on Facebook and Twitter.

What is your elevator pitch for A Drop of Water: A Spiritual Journey?
A Drop of Water: A Spiritual Journey is a tangible way out of depression, trauma, and loss. I was spiritually inspired to share from my knowledge as a therapist and suicide loss survivor. I lost my first husband, the father of my children, to suicide. It is my own personal story that I share to help others. My love of water transforms it into a lighthearted, uninhibited, and fun poetic journey.

When readers turn the last page, what do you hope they’ll take away from it?
I hope they will learn that we can all overcome profound tragedy, grief, and depression because we are all connected. We all feel loss; we all have dark nights of the soul. It will remind you that no matter how lonely you feel, you are never alone. Of the 8 billion species on earth, there are 7.24 billion people of different cultures, ages, and genders. What is the universal link that connects us all? Water. A drop of water, an ocean of water, we are all connected.

What unique challenges did this work pose for you? 
Writing the book definitely took me out of my comfort zone. I never thought I would share my personal story of loss. It was so painful I never imagined I would put it on paper. However, it has been very healing. I have now met so many people who have been affected by suicide. It is considered a taboo subject, but it is so important to start talking about it and end the stigma of mental illness. It was also challenging because I wrote it while working full time as a mom, wife, counselor and play therapist, so I really had to learn to manage my time.

How did the book come together?
I had a calling for many years to write a book. I did not know what I would write about, but I felt there was a book inside me that needed to come out. I truly believe it was spiritually inspired. I attempted to write it many times. Finally, during a weekend writing retreat the words came out so quickly I started typing with my eyes closed. The first draft was written in a weekend. The editing process took much longer. It took a year to create a cover, edit, and self-publish the book. I learned a lot in the process.

Do you have a favorite quote from your book that you’d like to share?
From the Chapter “Dancing”: “Feel the vibration, the connection, the knowing. We are all souls, connected and growing.”

Was there anything surprising you discovered while doing research for this book?
The entire process of writing this book has been a surprise. One of the most delightful things I discovered was that I could write in rhyme. I have never rhymed, so I was literally laughing out loud and laughing at myself while writing this book. That is why my website is LaughingAtMyself.lol. I discovered that my ability to laugh at myself has been a huge part of what has helped me heal and grow. I found it extraordinary that the joy I felt was in direct proportion to the pain I experienced during my grieving process. I was also completely taken aback by the statistics—nearly 800,000 people die from suicide each year. When you’re dealing with a loved one’s suicide, you think you are the only one.

What was the most rewarding aspect of writing A Drop of Water?
The most rewarding aspect is knowing my words are helping people. So many people have reached out since I opened up about my loss. I have gotten amazing feedback about how my book has helped others struggling with depression. I am proud to be fighting the stigma of mental illness. I hope these words will give people courage to talk about how they are feeling and ask for help if they are struggling. I was honored to be asked to run a writing workshop for Long Term Survivors of Suicide at the Grief Resource Center. I have also been featured in many blogs, television, and radio programs to discuss suicide, depression, anxiety, and grief.

Do you write other than nonfiction?
Yes, I am halfway through my next project which is a fantasy novel dealing with spirituality. It is a young adult book. I work with many adolescents so I was drawn to this genre. I have really enjoyed writing paranormal fiction and creating my own fantasy world. So far there is a lot of suspense, romance, betrayal, and vampires. All of which I love to read.

What has writing taught you about yourself?
Writing has helped me heal more than I thought I could. Sharing my deepest, darkest moments with the world has to be the most terrifying thing I have ever done. I have gone skydiving, and I have snorkeled with sharks. I am pretty adventurous. I don’t mind heights, and I love big, scary roller coasters. However, I tend to be a very private person, so sharing the loss of my husband to suicide was not easy for me. It has given me more courage and confidence in myself. I learned that I am much stronger than I ever imagined.

What advice do you have for discouraged writers?
Just write. Editing can come later. Write from the heart and let the words flow quickly. I found that if I stopped to correct my mistakes, it would take me in a different direction. We all have stories to tell. I say, “Do it!” Courage is not the absence of fear; courage is doing what you are called to do in spite of your fear.

What writing projects are you working on now?
Besides my young adult fantasy novel, I have been working on blog posts for my website. And I was recently awarded an Honorable Mention in a SouthWest Sage short story writing contest. My story “Awakening” is featured in the February 2017 edition of the Sage (page 8).

KLWagoner150_2KL Wagoner (writing as Cate Macabe) is the author of This New Mountain: a memoir of AJ Jackson, private investigator, repossessor, and grandmother. She has a new speculative fiction blog at klwagoner.com and writes about memoir at ThisNewMountain.com.



An Interview with Author Zachry Wheeler, Part 1

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Science fiction novelist Zachry Wheeler is a web applications developer and self-professed nerd who also writes nonfiction articles for BrewChief.com and HerringtonPost.com. You’ll find him on his website ZachryWheeler.com and at SFF conferences throughout the Southwestern United States (see his website’s Events page). Transient, published in 2016, is his debut novel.

What is your elevator pitch for Transient?
I got a lot of pitch practice at the Albuquerque Comic Con this year. It sold a lot of books, so I guess I’m doing something right:

“You can think of Transient as a re-imagination of vampire lore through the lens of science fiction. Now here’s the fun part. I took the widely abused trope of a young adult vampire romance … and shoved it face-first through the meat grinder of post-apocalyptic science fiction. The story is dark, sinister, and morally ambiguous. Consider it the anti-Twilight.”

Tell us about your main character in the book.
From the rear cover blurb: “Jonas is a young transient deep undercover in downtown Seattle. He lives underground, works at night, and drinks his daily blood rations, just like any normal eternal. He is a model spy, but also an apostate among extremists, torn between ideologies (as well as lovers) from either side.” That sums him up quite well and foreshadows his struggles as the protagonist. You can think of him as a young idealist trying to navigate a world of extreme moralities. He’s an easy character to connect with because, at a baseline, we all just want to get along.

How did Transient come together?
Transient took 10 years to publish. When I wrote the first draft, I wasn’t a writer at all. I was barely a reader. I just had an interesting idea that I put down on paper. And boy was it terrible. It was a study in how not to write. I used every crutch and cliché you could imagine, but I didn’t know any better. Once I learned how bad it was, I set it aside and went on to other things with the assumption I sucked at writing.

I credit beer for teaching me how to write (totally serious). I started a craft beer review site (BrewChief.com) shortly after I wrote the first draft of Transient. I had no intentions of becoming a writer at that point; I just wanted to talk about the wonders of the craft beer movement. A thousand articles later, I realized my writing had improved dramatically. I decided to revisit the Transient manuscript and was surprised by how much I had learned. Not only could I see what was wrong, I knew how to fix it.

What is your writing process like?
Stephen King said, “Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work.” That’s me in a nutshell. I’m a very motivated person, a task master who is uncomfortable with idle time. I write every day, and I never have trouble getting started. The only x-factor is topic. Writer’s block is not something I experience. I’ll get hung up on an idea from time to time, but instead of faltering, I just shift focus onto another writing avenue while it simmers. I own and operate several online writing ventures, including BrewChief.com and HerringtonPost.com. So if I get stuck on something in a novel, I’ll go write an article or blog post to reset my brain.

What comes first for you before you write: a character, a scene, a story idea?
Definitely the story idea. Every novel I write can be boiled down to a “what if” question. I refuse to outline my stories, so the characters and plot emerge organically.

Do you have a message or a theme that recurs in your work?
I don’t construct messages or themes because I never want to come across as preachy. I let the settings and the characters do that for me, no matter how ambiguous (I downright loathe some of my characters). However, I do employ some recurring elements. I enjoy taking jabs at religion, both critically and comically. I also like to explore misanthropic personalities.

What are the hardest kinds of scenes for you to write, and what do you do to get over this hurdle?
Sex scenes are quite vexing, mostly because everyone’s sexuality is so different. The things I enjoy will turn off someone else, and vice versa. To get around it, I just set up the foreplay and kill the scene, leaving the reader to their own imagination.

Who are your favorite authors, and what do you admire most about their writing?
My favorite author by far is Douglas Adams. I adore his entire catalogue. When writing humor, there are a few ways to do it right and a million ways to do it wrong. Adams had an unapologetic wit and a storytelling voice that hooked you from the first sentence. I dedicated my latest work to his memory (a science fiction comedy entitled Max and the Multiverse).

When did you first consider yourself a writer?
To be honest, I still don’t. I consider myself a compulsive dabbler.

What writing project are you working on now?
I just released my latest, a young adult science fiction novel titled Max and the Multiverse. It was so much fun to write that I immediately launched into the sequel. From the back cover of Max and the Multiverse: “Max is a teenage gamer with an exceptionally dull life. That is, until a bizarre accident leaves him with the ability to shift between parallel universes, but only when he falls asleep… Determined to escape his mundane existence, Max and his cyborg cat venture into the black, only to entangle themselves in an intergalactic conflict. A ruthless criminal overlord, a corrupt planetary system, an ornery walrus, a secret society of super nerds, and a pair of plucky orange lesbians round out this crazy, clumsy adventure.”

To learn more about Zack and his writing, go to Part 2 of this interview.

KLWagoner150_2KL Wagoner (writing as Cate Macabe) is the author of This New Mountain: a memoir of AJ Jackson, private investigator, repossessor, and grandmother. She has a new speculative fiction blog at klwagoner.com and writes about memoir at ThisNewMountain.com.



An Interview with Author Lucille Friedland, M.S.

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Author Lucille Friedland, M.S. believes the purpose of her life, her marketing consulting firm, and her writing is to “help create prosperity, health, and well-being for all.” Her first book YOU CAN PROSPER: How to Do More with Less was published in 2016 by RainbowExchange.NET Books. You can find her at Friedland Marketing and on LinkedIn.

What is your elevator pitch for YOU CAN PROSPER?
“Live long and prosper,” alien Spock famously said on Star Trek as he held up his signature hand sign. Today, many people here on Earth want to live better with what they have as well. Some may even find they have less money than they thought they would. In this book you can discover many ways of enjoying life and living longer. It explains how to do so in a way that you can save money, save time, prepare and follow a budget, plus live spiritually. Often based on recent research studies, I share ideas new and classic. In almost all cases, I have tried and/or regularly do these items myself.

What challenges did this work pose for you?
After I wrote the book, I sent it to a group of friends and relatives who critiqued it. Their input and insights were excellent. The most profound came from my sister Jenny Friedland Tender, M.D. She said a large number of my ideas are actually supported by scientific research. Then she asked me to go through the entire book and look up the related research. It took me over a month to do so, thereby adding greater merit to my book. Now readers can read YOU CAN PROSPER quickly or take their time reading dozens of related articles and see the details behind the studies.

What is the most rewarding aspect of having the book in the hands of readers?
When it relates to their lives, people who read my book love it. My greatest reward is hearing that they want to implement my ideas to improve their own lives. I also enjoy their excitement about the book. To my surprise, I have started to take my own advice even more seriously than when I earnestly wrote the book. For instance, I de-cluttered almost my entire home. I donated 30 bags of clothing (and other items) that no longer fit me or I no longer use. And I established a new company called LucilleRuffleScarves. Today I see my life becoming better every day by following the advice from the book.

Tell us how the book came together.
While bedridden and recovering from car crashes (gratefully, I’ve since mostly recovered), I needed to figure out how to live my life and prosper. I wrote and revised the book over a span of about 10 months, taking a break for a few months total during that time. However, I collected content for over 10 years. Ideas in the book arrived as a result of necessity—“necessity is the mother of invention,” as the saying goes.

What makes your book unique in the self-help market?
The book explains how to live well on a budget, then goes into how to increase income, live spiritually, and even shares my personal bookkeeping system. Because it is based on research, it turns out (to my surprise) that many of my ideas and recommendations for living well on a budget also help people live much longer. I wrote complex concepts in a simple way, so it’s a quick read—enjoyable for many in one sitting from cover to cover.

Anything else you’d like readers to know?
When researching and writing YOU CAN PROSPER: How to Do More with Less, I discovered many products that are extremely useful and in some cases fun. It turns out I could create dozens of online stores that offer these products and other ones that are fun, eco-friendly, useful, and unusual. This is how I developed EcoFunShop.com that dovetails with my book. As a Business/Personal Coach, Marketing Trouble-Shooter, and Consultant with Friedland Marketing, I am also able to help readers, business owners, and others to prosper. Please see my website for information about my marketing and coaching services. For paperback and ebook options for YOU CAN PROSPER, go to Where to Buy at RainbowExchange.net Books. And contact me by phone with any questions (including about speaking engagements) at 505-504-3404.

KLWagoner150_2KL Wagoner (writing as Cate Macabe) is the author of This New Mountain: a memoir of AJ Jackson, private investigator, repossessor, and grandmother. She has a new speculative fiction blog at klwagoner.com and writes about memoir at ThisNewMountain.com.



An Interview with Author Bilal Khan

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Author Bilal Khan is a Muslim American physician (writing as Hubshey D. Rogers) who lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico. His first book, Caterpillar, was published in 2016. You can find him on his website Hubshey.com and on Twitter: @bilmkhan and @Hubshey.

caterpillar150_3What is your elevator pitch for Caterpillar?
Caterpillar is a philosophical journey of the protagonist Zarathustra through various periods in time. Using similar methods as used by Nietzsche, I have tried to bring out in this fictional work my own objective of revisiting the causes of antagonism seen between the Muslim world (a post-colonial world) and the rest (which includes the more developed nations and the former colonists). I have tried to bring out some universal concepts and ethos that I believe are important in bringing people together as we move forward to a better and a more dependent future together. We are moving towards a more global society. The sooner we realize this and see beyond the divisiveness, the better service we would be doing to humanity in general.

What makes this work unique in the metaphysical market?
In a very non-controversial way I have pointed to reformation in Islamic thought; and also a reinterpretation of the way western democracies see the post colonial Islamic world. This work helps to understand the other side and also helps each party to look at itself better. For this reason I have also made this work more into a bilingual work so that if zealots want to exploit any aims at reformation of thought in Islam they would be handicapped as a portion of this book is written in Urdu. The aim was that the message should not be lost in translation. A problem reformist writers, writing in English, face.

How did the story idea come about?
The idea of the book started with my loving devotion towards my Beloved Blessed Prophet Mohammad. For some time I have wanted to show his evolution. He was born an orphan in a tribal society, broke traditions by marrying an older widow. Let her continue with her business, in fact assisted her. As someone with some experience growing up in a society where tribal affiliations are a big deal, I was always in awe of his breaking away from traditions, and yet he remained famous and well respected because of his character. He was a truly liberated mind. We would not have known him had he not received divine revelation. I find my life richer for it.

Tell us about your main character.
The main character is Zarathustra. In Nietzsche’s writings he is the harbinger of the new age and brings the news of the death of God. I used the same name and to some extent the same personality of character. The protagonist now travels in different historic times to bring about the important universal principle of universal thought. My protagonist faces great problems in the sense that he has to deal with different ages, while dealing with my insistence of bringing out universal principles. The need to reform and reinterpret.

I have a great respect for liberated minds and wanted to bring about an emphasis on the importance of such minds. Walter Kaufman in the opening of his book Without Guilt and Justice: From Decidophobia to Autonomy explains the importance of liberated minds. Those are the sort of characters I want to create. It is these strong characters that move the society forward and make (the way) for a brighter future.

What was the most rewarding aspect of writing the book?
The most enjoyable aspect during the writing of Caterpillar was bringing forward the Central Asian bureaucrat, Otuk. Creating this autonomous man was fun. The other fun part for me personally was writing the dialogue of Malik Taus, the peacock. He is the character of the fallen angel in the Middle Eastern Yazidi religion. I knew little about his historic fall in the Yazidi tradition and how he was forgiven by the mercy of the creator of the universe. Writing dialogue from a fallen angel perspective, adding a tone of humbleness along with the experience of ages to his persona, and showing it in dialogue was especially challenging. I loved it!

Was there anything surprising you discovered while doing research?
When I found out about some of the earlier reformers in the Islamic tradition, I realized those Muslims had much more freedom of thought and expression than we do in this day and age.

Do you have a favorite quote from the book that you’d like to share?
 One I really enjoyed coming up with is found in the opening: “It was then as it is now. Or may be not.”

What else would you like readers to know about Caterpillar?
The opening scene is a dialogue between Malik Taus (the fallen angel) and Zarathustra. The reason I chose this for the beginning was that this book is a quest, even a personal quest, to find a new subrogate for the times that lie ahead. Free from fear and societal domination of the individual. Towards a new autonomy of the individual person where expectations are set by the individual. Where religion or way of life is simply a means to finding inner harmony, to help build a personal palace or temple of the mind. The opening scene had to start from the beginning. So I started by bringing about an early character from human history as much as I could dare. It is a heavy beginning. The scenes which come later are much easier to digest. Another scene has Zarathustra conversing with Ariel. He is the wise young brother of a societal reformer. I will leave it at that. I have treaded very carefully here so as not to offend anyone. It is this part of the book that necessitated an explanation in a language spoken in a Muslim country (in this case Urdu). So my reader understands, this endeavor in no means intends any disrespect. Far from it.

Why did you decide to use a pen name?
I like to keep my privacy in everyday life. My livelihood is such I do not want the people I interact with at work to recognize me and be uncomfortable as if I am keenly observing them or anything. Something I do not do, especially in the role of a physician. Besides, for the English speaker, I think it is easier to pronounce Hubshey (pronounced almost like Hershey) than my name Bilal.

What books have had a strong influence on you or your writing?
Thus Spoke Zarathustra (Friedrich Nietzsche), The Glass Bead Game (Herman Hesse), The Brothers Karamazov (Fyodor Dostoevsky), and Without Guilt and Justice from Decidophobia to Autonomy (Walter Kaufmann).

What is your writing routine like? Is there a place and time of day when you feel most inspired?
The most inspirational time for me is around dusk. The time for Maghreb Prayer. I can only write at night.

What has writing taught you about yourself?
I am an idealist waiting for the best of times.

What is the best advice you’ve received on your writing journey?
Writing is a lonely journey. I avoid all advice. I would suggest others do the same.

What writing projects are you working on now?
I have started working on my second book, Dreams in American. I think it should have some form by April 2018.

KLWagoner150_2KL Wagoner (writing as Cate Macabe) is the author of This New Mountain: a memoir of AJ Jackson, private investigator, repossessor, and grandmother. She has a new speculative fiction blog at klwagoner.com and writes about memoir at ThisNewMountain.com.



An Interview with Author Patricia Walkow

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Author Patricia Walkow thinks of a blank page as a canvas that can become anything she imagines. She has written magazine articles and newspaper columns, and currently writes memoir, essays, short stories, and longer fiction. Her debut novel, The War Within, The Story of Josef (2016), is historical fiction based on the life of her Polish father-in-law. You can find Patricia on Facebook and her website, as well as her SWW author page.

thewarwithin200What is your elevator pitch for The War Within, The Story of Josef?
A teenage boy is a slave laborer in Nazi Germany. Young German man saves his life.

When readers turn the last page in the book, what do you hope they will take away from it?
Heart to heart, there are no enemies.

What unique challenges did this work pose for you?
This story is a fictionalized account of real events that happened to specific people in Nazi Germany during WWII and the post-war years. Some of the people in the story are still living, and their remembrances of an event are not always identical. I had to determine which one to incorporate into the story and let the people know which I was using and why.

Furthermore, I interviewed family and friends in both Germany and Poland, and there was a language barrier. Interviews took place in the form of a list of questions, as well as face-to-face via Skype in some instances. I was able to use software to convert my questions into either Polish or German, and then convert the interviewee’s responses into English. Software also read my questions aloud in German or Polish. I learned to keep my questions simple! I never completely trusted the software to properly translate complex sentences into another language.

How did the book come together?
I first thought of writing Josef’s story a long time ago. Josef was my Polish father-in-law. In 1969, on a hot summer day in New Jersey, my boyfriend (now my husband, Walter) and I were visiting his parents at their weekend cottage. I asked Walter why his father wore long pants on such a sweltering day, and he said it was because his dad had an artificial leg. He had lost his left leg during the war, not because he’d been in the Polish military, but as a result of an accident in the factory where he worked as a slave laborer in southern Germany. Josef was Catholic, captured from Poland at about age fifteen, and sent to work throughout Germany and its conquered lands. It was the first time I knew people other than those of the Jewish faith were targeted for slave labor and that all Poles (regardless of religion) were considered sub-human.

I tucked Josef’s story away for a long time. Over the years, Josef and his wife, Ella, revealed snippets about their lives during and after the war, and I squirreled those away, too. They never dwelled on the past and always looked to the future. The war was a topic I thought they preferred to forget. Once I retired, after Josef had died and Ella had descended into dementia, I thought earnestly about writing their story.

When I joined the Corrales Writing Group in 2012, I wrote a very short story about the subject, and it blossomed into The War Within, The Story of Josef, which I started writing in 2013 and published in 2016. Members of the group were instrumental in making the book both readable and real. I could not have done it without their insights, critiques, and encouragement. Thank you, Don Reightley, Leon Wiskup,  Sandi Hoover, Tom Neiman, Chris Allen, Jim Tritten, and Maureen Cooke.

Tell us about your main characters.
Josef’s ability to face any situation with dignity and ingenuity inspired me. Ella’s steely persistence blossomed in the story, helping the family survive in the post-war years. Willie was the young German man who saved Josef’s life. He took a big gamble helping a slave laborer, breaking every rule a German citizen could break to help the teenager.

What was the most rewarding aspect of writing the book?
I enjoyed the research. It greatly expanded my knowledge of World War II. Besides, it was a good excuse to buy books. I can deduct them on my taxes, too.

Any surprises while doing research for The War Within, The Story of Josef?
Yes, there were surprises. 1) There were relatively “few” casualties for the Americans (about 500,000) compared to the Russians, Germans, and Poles, each of whom endured enormous losses of both military and civilians—tens of millions of deaths for each country. The US experienced fewer than 2,000 civilian losses. In other countries, the civilian losses far exceeded the military losses. 2) Many Polish slave laborers were reluctant to be repatriated to Poland after the war. Their country had turned Communist, and they did not want to live under Communist rule. 3) I had thought the Marshall Plan served a primarily humanitarian purpose, but during my research I realized its primary objective was to prohibit a starving, decimated West Germany from turning to the east—the Soviet Union—for food and assistance in rebuilding, turning Communist in the process. The Marshall Plan did offer direct aid in terms of food, but also worked with the West Germans to rebuild the defeated country’s agricultural, industrial, and commercial infrastructure, and thus sowed the seeds for a robust economy.

If you suffer from writer’s block, how do you break through?
Regarding the writing process itself, sometimes I just need a break…a few weeks off, for example, to let things gestate in the background.

What are you most happy with in your writing?
In The War Within, The Story of Josef, I am most happy with offering the reader insight into a little known aspect of WWII: slave labor. I have learned many people do not know there was another holocaust—against all Slavic people. In addition to the 6,000,000 Jews killed by Hitler, there were over 5,000,000 non-Jews who were also killed, often through work-to-death programs.

What is the most difficult aspect of writing historical fiction?
One difficult aspect was the many revolting things I had to read about from this particular period in history. I often wound up with an upset stomach. Another difficulty came in writing dialogue. Much of The War Within, The Story of Josef tells the story through dialogue. It’s really the fictional part of the book. What would Josef say, and how would he say it? Same with the other characters.

Why do you think people like reading historical fiction?
Historical fiction roots the reader to the past. It lets us understand how people lived in a specific era, or how they dealt with very real events in human history.

What typically comes first for you: a character, an era, a story idea?
It depends. For The War Within, The Story of Josef the story came first, with Josef in the lead. For my novel in progress, The Far Moist End of the Earth, a writing prompt started the story. I wondered where the story could go with the prompt. Well, it took me to the early 20th century in Southeast Asia…who knew?

What’s on your to-read pile?
I have some books I’m using for research for The Far Moist End of the Earth about making paper, the history of various countries in the region, Buddhism, and the challenges of missionary work. I recently enjoyed Corran Harrington’s Follow the River Home. The two books I am currently reading are Mark Steyn’s After America and JJ Amaworo Wilson’s Damnificados.

What writing projects are you working on now?
The Far Moist End of the Earth is my novel-in-progress. It’s set in a Protestant mission in Southeast Asia during the early 1900s. Do you think people are missionaries just to spread their religion? Think again. The first chapter of the novel won third place in the 2016 William Faulkner Literary Competition (short story entry). The novel is about sixty percent written. Projected publication is 2018.

KLWagoner150_2KL Wagoner (writing as Cate Macabe) is the author of This New Mountain: a memoir of AJ Jackson, private investigator, repossessor, and grandmother. She has a new speculative fiction blog at klwagoner.com and writes about memoir at ThisNewMountain.com.



An Interview with Author Loretta Hall

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Space enthusiast, former math teacher, and award-winning nonfiction author Loretta Hall received the Communicator of Achievement Award from the National Federation of Press Women (NFPW) in 2016. Her newest book The Complete Space Buff’s Bucket List: 100 Space Things to Do Before You Die (Rio Grande Books) was awarded the New Mexico-Arizona Book Award in the travel book category (2016). You can find Loretta at her websites SpaceBucketList.com, NMSpaceHistory.com, SpacePioneerWords.com, and AuthorHall.com.

thecompletespacebuffsbucketlist200What is your elevator pitch for The Complete Space Buff’s Bucket List?
Space buffs want to do more than revel in someone else’s achievements. We want to be involved. We want to participate. This book has a hundred ways to experience space exploration without being an international astronaut or an unmanned space probe.

What unique challenges did this work pose for you?
I found it challenging to search out 100 space activities that weren’t all visiting museums, reading books, and watching TV shows or movies.

Tell us how the book came together.
My publishers at Rio Grande Books decided to produce a series of bucket list books on many different topics. Since they know how spacey I am, they asked me to write a bucket list about space exploration. It’s a short book, only about 12,000 words. The research, writing, and finding photographs took about two months.

Any “Oh, wow!” moments when doing research for this book?
Searching online, I discovered some really cool activities I had never heard of or imagined. For example, I didn’t know you could buy jewelry that contains bits of meteorites or that there are several resources for helping you learn to speak Klingon. And I discovered citizen science projects for furthering knowledge about things like planetary formation, formation of galaxies, and searching for impact sites of several artifacts on the Moon that haven’t been located yet.

How many things on the bucket list can you cross off? What thing on the list do you wish more than anything you could do?
So far, I’ve done 59 of the 100 items on my list. I’d love to spend three or four days at the US Space and Rocket Center’s adult space camp.

What was your favorite part of putting this project together?
I enjoyed discovering space activities I didn’t know existed. And I particularly liked cutting loose and writing text that would be fun to read.

outofthisworld150You have two other nonfiction books dedicated to the topic of space—Out of This World: New Mexico’s Contributions to Space Travel (2011) and Space Pioneers: in their own words (2014). What was the most rewarding aspect of writing these books?
I wanted to make space exploration and its history interesting to people who didn’t think they wanted to know about it. Instead of focusing on the technologies, I wrote about the experiences of the people who developed them. I tried to humanize the topic. When I give talks based on my books, I’m really gratified by the comments that indicate I’m accomplishing that.

What marketing techniques have been most helpful to you?
Giving talks related to the topics of my books works well for me. That way, I’m sharing fascinating information with people rather than just asking them to buy my books. Here’s an example I enjoy sharing: In a half-hour social period before a presentation to a small audience, three people bought copies of Out of This World; after my talk based on Space Pioneers, five people bought that book, which costs twice as much.

What is the most important part of a nonfiction book proposal that a writer needs to get right?
All of it! But seriously, I think it’s being realistic about what readers want. Authors can get enthused about a topic, do the research, and write a great summary; but if the author is the only one who’s interested in it, a publisher won’t buy it. For the proposal, we have to understand and explain why a significant number of people will be interested in our topic. Then we have to keep that in mind as we write the sample chapters and, ultimately, the book. If we think we’re providing worthwhile information, it’s up to us to write it in a way that will attract and hold interest.

KLWagoner150_2KL Wagoner (writing as Cate Macabe) is the author of This New Mountain: a memoir of AJ Jackson, private investigator, repossessor, and grandmother. She has a new speculative fiction blog at klwagoner.com and writes about memoir at ThisNewMountain.com.



An Interview with Author Victor Acquista

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After a long career in the medical field, Dr. Victor Acquista has turned his focus of helping and healing to writing fiction that raises awareness of social issues. The science fiction story Sentient (Mirror Matter Press, 2016) is his debut novel. You can find Dr. Acquista at his website VictorAcquista.com.

sentient200What is your elevator pitch for Sentient?
Two highly evolved, telepathic species clash. One is driven by the desire to be the supreme sentient race in the galaxy—highly competitive and determined to dominate. The other is highly cooperative, united in collective consciousness, peaceful—this is our progenitor race and we are nearly annihilated. The genocide of our parent species by the Mind Warriors of T’rox leads us to establish a colony on earth, where telepathy is genetically blocked to avoid detection by T’rox. There are unintended consequences to this survival strategy.

What unique challenges did this work pose for you?
While I had published a nonfiction book and have written several short stories, a full-length novel represented a new endeavor for me. There is a gap between having a good story idea and telling that story in a compelling way. I was uncertain whether or not I could bridge that gap. Upon completion of the novel, I then had to get a publisher. This is more of a left-brain task as opposed to the creative engagement of the right brain required to spin the tale. I also chose to do this by leaving my normal work life/career in the rearview mirror. This posed some economic issues and some writing discipline challenges to say the least.

Tell us about your main characters. Will those who know you recognize you in your characters?
The protagonist, Anyeuros, is a musician who escaped the genocide of his home world and arrives on earth in current times. He is rather distraught by the war, violence, poverty, etc. he observes. He connects with Professor Jeremy Strickland, a brilliant, but troubled physicist who struggles with mental illness. This character has a sense of humor and is rather incorrigible. He is enrolled in an experimental drug program run by Dr. Rebecca Flores. She is a bit of a conflicted anti-heroine.

The story unfolds across three settings. Modern earth (the colony) is only one. The alien world of T’rox is stagnating and their leader Ka ‘Stan recognizes the social decay. He has plans to resurrect their society with new achievements beyond conquering other species. His champion is a ruthless clan leader determined to bring glory to his outcast clan. The third setting involves the early colonists of whom there are only four women and two men. Each has a unique personality and they all struggle with separation from the collective while trying to survive on a harsh new world.

There are bits and pieces of me in almost all of the characters. I am particularly fond of Nathan, Professor Strickland’s teenage neighbor. I like to think he embodies something I aspire toward.

Describe the societies you created for Sentient.
T’rox is an alien civilization strongly acculturated to compete as individuals, as clans, and as an entire planet. Always, they strive to be the best. In spite of having telepathic consciousness which allows sharing, they closely guard secrets and strategies in order to gain advantage over competitors. They are conquerors and kill or enslave other species. A problem occurs when you run out of new species to conquer. This hyper competitiveness turned inward, causing social stagnation and strife.

Adden, the home world of our species, also has evolved to telepathic consciousness, but they share collective knowledge and feel each individual has something valuable to contribute to the collective. As a result, their society is peaceful and without social problems such as poverty, discrimination, injustice.

When these societies meet, an event occurs resulting in our species intentionally blocking telepathy and shared consciousness. How this develops and is resolved over the arc of humanity’s history is the predominant plot element.

What was the most difficult aspect of world building for this novel?
This story had been percolating in my mind for quite a few years, so when it came down to actual writing, the world and society were essentially already built. The challenge for me came more with using examples via plot/character details that illustrate the world and social structures. In many ways, Sentient mirrors our own world and the things we struggle with.

How did the book come together?
I have a background in medicine, but I have been quite intrigued with neurobiology and behavior, social and cultural aspects to development and evolution. I believe we have latent human capacities such as telepathy. I imagined what it might be like to have an entire world linked in collective consciousness, and then asked myself, “Why are we not that way?” The answer I came up with—we intentionally blocked telepathy through genetic engineering as a way to hide from destruction. What problems would likely occur and how might that play out over the course of human history? Since individuals suffering with schizophrenia may experience auditory hallucinations, I posited this represented an incomplete genetic block of telepathy (mischaracterized as mental illness). I thought it would be interesting to cast a character with schizophrenia as one of the protagonists.

I had penned a couple of chapters over the years and many notes, but I really did not sit down to write the book until March, 2015. I finished a first draft by September, edited it umpteen times, and tried without success to get an agent. A small press requested the manuscript in December and we eventually moved to a signed contract. Sentient was released October 15, 2016.

Do you have a favorite quote from Sentient?
“When you rise to power on the wings of fear you must depend on fear to remain aloft.” ~Ka ‘Stan, Ghal of T’rox, 5th Epoch

pathwaystohealth150In your past life you were a physician for many years—and you published the self-help book Pathways to Health: An Integral Guidebook. How did your experience writing nonfiction affect/benefit your fiction writing? Now that you’ve written both fiction and nonfiction, do you have a preference?
I think writing nonfiction requires a different sort of creativity, specifically, weaving thoughts, ideas and information about some aspect of reality and communicating this to readers. For me, writing fiction enables me to play in the vast playscape of imagination without restriction. I enjoy writing and communicating through language. I do feel fiction gives me more expressive latitude and therefore it is my current preference.

What do you want to be known for as an author?
“Writing to Raise Consciousness”—whether fiction or nonfiction. I want to raise awareness of social issues and somehow help to make our lives better, both individually and collectively.

Looking back to the beginning of your writing career, what do you know now that you wish you’d known then?
Writing something to completion is just the first of three mountains I now appreciate as necessary to climb. The second is getting a publisher, which may or may not include getting an agent. The third involves aspects of marketing and promotion such that people actually purchase what you have written. Each of these requires different skills and energy. Looking back, I was particularly naïve about steps two and three. There is a learning curve to writing as a career. I feel as though I have transitioned from newbie to novice, but still have a lot to learn.

Do you have other creative outlets besides writing?
I enjoy gardening, cooking, and contemplation.

What writing projects are you working on now?
I have completed Serpent Rising, the first of a two-book adventure series, Saga of Venom and Flame, and am currently pitching this. I am half done with a satire, The Nihilist’s Pocket Survival Guide to Modern Society. I also am slowly gestating a fantasy novel, but do not have a working title yet. Although many genres are represented here, the common thread of incorporating social themes and issues into the characters and plots links all.

KLWagoner150_2KL Wagoner (writing as Cate Macabe) is the author of This New Mountain: a memoir of AJ Jackson, private investigator, repossessor, and grandmother. She has a new speculative fiction blog at klwagoner.com and writes about memoir at ThisNewMountain.com.



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