What made you decide to settle in Massachusetts?
Honestly? A job. lol! After retiring from the USAF, I got job offers from a few different places. My wife and I considered all of them and ended up deciding on the offer from Massachusetts. Easily one of the best decisions we've ever made. The job is fantastic, the people here are phenomenal, and its a beautiful state full of history and fun. Couldn't be happier here.
What is the best science fiction series of books that you have read? What gripped you about it?
The best Sci-Fi series I ever read I cant even remember the name of. The story was about a team of scientists that were experimenting with dimensional gateway technology. The idea was they could use the gateways to instantly travel anywhere in the universe. It would open a whole new way to explore the galaxy. The book starts off very upbeat, science fiction, and very similar to Star Trek. Then the scientists actually succeeded, but instead of finding a new world in our universe, they opened a portal to a high fantasy realm where fantastic creatures and all sorts of magic exist. The initial contact does not go well, and the designs on the Fantasy side of the portal use their magic to keep the gateway open and invade. The way the author combines all the spectacular action of a science fiction series, with the flavor of a fantasy realm, was incredible. Never read anything like it to this day and I wish I could remember the name of the book. Easily the best twist in a story, and example of science fiction I've read to this day.
Did you hone your writing skills through intensive reading and imitating The Economist articles?
I honed my writing skills through experience. I started by writing campaigns for D&D games I ran while in Korea (2000-2001). At first, they were only 6 pages long and were mostly outlines. By the time I was ready to write my first novel,(2009) the stories for my D&D games were dozens of pages long and had many details that could adapt to most situations my players put themselves in. I wrote 2 novels set in a fantasy world where I learned what worked, what failed, and what I liked and disliked about writing. Sadly, I lost the rights to that series to a vanity publisher that went out of business, but the number of lessons I learned from that experience is what made my ability to write my Sci-Fi series possible.
How did you begin writing The Blackshade Machine series?
After losing the rights to my fantasy series I quit writing for years. Then, in 2016-2017 I got the urge to write again and had a few ideas rolling around in my head. I ended up settling on The Blackshade Machine because I wanted to tell a story of what I believe would happen if aliens came to Earth. I set it in the near future so I could adapt the world to my needs, and to get laser guns (Shaped Molten Metal) into my story. Took a little over a year to complete and around the same amount of time to get it proof read, edited, and published. Very proud of my series so far and hope to get book 4 out by early 2023.
Does your story, Original Design have a childish innocence in the story or a serious tone to it?
Its got a lighter side to it sometimes, but for the most part, its very serious. With a strong military tone, and the stakes being the total extinction of the human race, I had to keep it "heavy" in order to keep the reader in the correct frame of mind. I did inject some military humor and lighter elements so it wasn't all so serious the entire time. Some times you need to give the reader moments of laughter so that when the hammer drops, they really fell it through the words.
As a writer, how do you explain the science or pseudoscience behind some of the crazy gadgets and phenomena in your story without using too much exposition?
Heh, I use exposition dumps. I know... I know... its not a great idea, but my book is heavy into made up military jargon, so the tone of the story prepares the reader for the explanations. I try to make these a rare occurrence, so that the reader doesn't feel they're reading a book on stereo instructions, so I approached it similarly to how "The Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy" approached their expositional dumps. Not nearly as sarcastic or light-hearted, but in such a way that the information sticks with the reader without annoying them. I think I have a 75% success rate with my approach. lol!
Who is your best friend? Have you ever modeled a character after him/her?
My wife is my best friend.
