Tirzah Darnell Interview Published on: 01, Aug 2024

I was born in Milwaukie, Oregon to a military family, so I spent much of my childhood moving from place to place. It was a challenge changing schools so often. As a child, I was interested in how things worked, so I was often taking things apart or trying to fix them. I was usually the one helping with home repairs. Another thing that intrigued me was how motion pictures were produced. That is one of the reasons I pursued a minor in Radio, Television, Film from the University of North Texas and directed the film Unscared. If The Planet of Darkness trilogy is ever made into a series of films, I would definitely want to be involved in the production.

As a child, I was interested in politics and even thought about one day being the president of the United States. When my head was turned by the fascination of filmmaking, I considered the possibility of going into film law. By the time I started applying to graduate schools, I had learned there was a demand for college professors who could teach both history and government, so I pursued a master’s in political science with a minor in history.

I attended Sam Houston State University, where they had a number of professors with expertise in Disaster Resilience. I had a fear of disasters and the dangers they presented and decided to face my fears. I figured if I knew more about disasters, I would be less afraid of them. And it worked. I now have a better knowledge of how states, counties, cities, and people can prepare themselves to face disasters and overcome them.

When I was a child, my mom had a hard time helping me find books that I liked. Eventually, she told me if I didn’t like the books I was reading, I should write one myself. So, she helped walk me through the book writing and illustrating process. I believe going through this process as a child instilled in my mind the importance of visualizing the final product as I write. This is an important skill for writers to have. I also believe children who involve themselves in creative activities grow up to be more intelligent and flexible adults. By flexible I mean able to learn new things and adapt to changes. The world is constantly changing, and if we are unable to change with it, we might be left behind. The world of book writing, publishing, and marketing is constantly changing, and my ability to be flexible has proven useful.

My mom encouraged me to go ahead and write when I was a child. I was frustrated that books did not turn out the way I wanted them to turn out. She told me if I did not like those books, I could write my own. So, I did. The book I wrote was called The Ant in Tennis Shoes. As a child I liked stories about small animals like mice. Even smaller was an ant. The story is about an ant that wants to run a race, but he can’t because none of the stores sell shoes his size. Finally, he finds a boy who searches far and wide, and at last finds shoes that are the teeny tiny size the ant needs, and the ant wins the race. When I was a student in college, I was privileged to meet a guest speaker visiting our college, Pepe Serna from the film The Godfather. He called me up on stage with him, and together we performed The Ant in Tennis Shoes. I told it in English, and he performed it in Spanish for the audience. It was a hit for the college. Everybody loved it. I would really like to meet up with him again and let him know how much that encouraged me to continue with my writing.

Directing and writing are not that much different. With both, you are telling a story. With writing you are telling the story with words. With directing, you are telling the story with visual images. The biggest challenge with directing a film is working with people. Being an introvert can help as a writer but can make directing difficult. Even so, with my mechanical and artistic background and the classes on film I was taking, I was able to put the film together. One big challenge was the cicadas in Texas. These bugs are really loud and messed up many of the audio tracks.

I love acting, which may be surprising coming from an introvert. Interestingly, many introverts enjoy acting because there is a certain safety in the spotlight, a chance to be separate but seen. I believe my experience with acting helps me understand the characters I write about. My novel The Planet of Darkness: Book 1: City of the Dark Tyrant is a sci-fi dystopian space opera. Space operas are character focused, and I think my love for building characters is enhanced by my love for acting. The audience really connected with the character I played, and I even received praise from the critics for my performance.

A fellow professor who teaches at the same college as me is from Colombia, and she remembered the disaster from when she was a child. This led me to conduct more research into the tragedy. It was not easy finding information on it. I had to do a lot of deep research into other books on other disasters and on the history of Colombia itself to piece everything together. I don’t think many people know how tragic this incident was and how hard it is to pinpoint when a volcanic disaster will take place. Also, this event was made worse by the fact that when the snow caps on the mountain melted, it created mud slides. More people died from the mudslides than the volcanic eruption itself.

I teach government and history, so the knowledge of political science and disaster resilience integrates well with my teaching. Government is basically a stage for political science to take place on. In my government class, I teach policy and being able to give examples of how government reacts to disasters gives the students some good examples of government at work. Also, history often focuses on governments and wars. Wars could be considered a disaster or maybe a series of disasters. You often need to take similar steps to heal after a war as you do after a disaster.

My students have been some of the biggest fans of my novel, and I like to encourage them to pursue their own dreams, whether it is in government, history, or into something more creative like writing, acting, or photography. I also encourage them to be resilient in their own lives, finding ways to meet challenges and not give up on pursuing their goals.

It is not easy finding time for everything. It is a matter of finding shortcuts for those things that take up time. I have found tools to speed up things like making meals, shopping, and cleaning to give me more time to work on my writing. I have told myself that I want to focus the most time on what makes me happy. Right now, that is my writing. As passionate as I am about teaching, I feel we are learning as a society that a day job should have boundaries, and people need to allow time to separate from that day job and focus on personal needs and creative pursuits. My current goal is to get the sequel to the Planet of Darkness: Book 1: City of the Dark Tyrant out soon. I am about halfway through.

There are two key factors to disaster resilience that many communities neglect. Those are methods of communication and supply chains. Many communities rely on media to relay warnings to their people, when there is no guarantee that media will be functional when the warning is needed. How will they get the word out then? Community governments need to work together to come up with an effective method of warning that everyone knows will be used when needed. It should be set in place with the police, fire departments, or other community agencies. Also, they need to know what languages are spoken throughout the community and whether community members are blind or deaf or have other disabilities. Non-English speakers and people with disabilities are often the ones who suffer the most during disasters because they are unable to receive the warnings.

Another key element to communities being resilient during disasters is for them to have alternatives in place during times when supply chains are cut off. It helps when communities form partnerships with nearby communities for aid during times of need. Also, communities should know hidden areas where they can access supplies when needed. For example, if a community runs out of food, are there any other sources of food they did not consider? Perhaps farms that could help out during an emergency or maybe there are warehouses that have food stored that could be used when the community is in need. The local government should ensure they have that information on hand and agreements in place so that during emergencies, they already have those back up options in place.

First, I have to say my biggest influence has been my family. My mom and my sisters have encouraged me to write and continue writing. Second, the writers that have inspired me most are classic authors. Works by Jules Verne and Alexander Dumas have influenced my writing. Verne focuses on details like facts and how things function creating a world of science fiction that readers can believe. Dumas is more action-oriented and focuses a lot on political intrigue. All these elements have been important to the development of my writing style. Some other inspirations come from the Star Wars and Lord of the Rings films. I have had a number of readers tell me that my novel reminded them of Dune, Hunger Games, and Lord of the Rings.

I have a number of works in progress. I would like to finish writing and release these works in my lifetime. I would especially like to get the entire trilogy of the Planet of Darkness completed, not only in e-book and paperback, but also in audiobook format. After that, I would like to see the trilogy made into a film series.

Well, another author and I are working on what we call “A Super-Secret Project.” I am not allowed to let you in on it, but I hope it comes out soon. Fingers-crossed I can get it out before Christmas.

I am also working with another author on a different sci-fi thriller book series that is going to explore the topic of artificial intelligence and is shaping into a cyberpunk YA style series. It is going to be quite intriguing.

I am also considering organizing some anthology books on historical disasters and wars.

I joined AllAuthor earlier this year, so I have been associated with this community about five or six months. I like the community and support I have received through AllAuthor and find it super helpful. I have received more support than I expected and am glad I found it.