Q & A
Q: Why do you write?
A: I’ve always had a rich fantasy world in my head and felt the need to scribble down my thoughts; sometimes this happens in the wee hours of the morning or in some solitary place during a hike. A few years ago I had a serious illness and thought I might die. When I didn’t die, my life somehow changed. I re-dedicated my life to listening harder for God and all that spiritual growth made me re-think my path in life. Part of my new plan was to return in a serious way to fiction writing.
Q: How did you go about breaking into fiction writing?
A: I was already a successful biologist and I guess you could say I approached it systematically the way I’d approach any problem in science. I gathered information (observation is the first step in the scientific method) from others both on what kinds of books young adults are reading today and the steps to getting published. Since some of the characters had been in my head for a long time, I organized my ideas according to the recommended novel structure and then the fun began.
Q: Who are your favorite writers?
A: My favorite writers are a mixed group. I love supernatural-fantasy with battles between good and evil. My favorite fantasy writers are C.S. Lewis, George MacDonald and J.R.R. Tolkien. For supernatural romance, I’d have to say that Stephanie Meyer is my favorite writer. I also love Anya Seton’s romances and am a serious Jane Austin and Bronte sisters fan.
Q: What inspired you to write The Stones of Bothynus Trilogy?
A: Probably C.S. Lewis was the greatest influence for the fantasy part. He is my favorite author and in at least two instances he suggested that he wanted to see more new writers write fiction that openly treats the supernatural as reality. (He inspired me to) add a supernatural dimension to this trilogy. As for the story itself, I built the characters and the situation and then the story just came.
Q: Are the main characters in The Stones of Bothynus Trilogy real?
A: No. No character is based on a real person—they all came from my head. That being said, characteristics of people in real life definitely inspire the characters in my books. The Red Sonja reference came about because I love strong females and I borrowed her image from the comics. And though the characters of Red and Annie are purely fiction, I did often ask myself how one of my daughters or their friends would likely act in a given circumstance and I think it helped them to be realistic. And the religious leaders had some characteristics borrowed from real people; for example, there really is a female bishop in Washington, D.C. who organizes bicycling events—a lovely person. I built Uncle Alistair, Erik and Aaan came out of characteristics I found appealing—especially Aaan. I love angels! And I wanted to add something creepy like the demon in C.S. Lewis’ Perelandra – it made my blood run cold with its child-like excitement over cruelty. Of course, most of the historical people mentioned in the books are real.
Q: Is the science real that is behind how the stones change sub-atomic structures?
A: I’d like to say it’s all real but the actual action of the stones is made up—or at least hasn’t been discovered yet. A lot of the science behind the theory of how they work is certainly real, though. Quarks are real and science now knows that matter can act like a wave as well as a particle. So, since matter and energy are no longer thought to be distinct, it was really fun to ask “what if?” The story took off from there.
Q: There’s a lot about religion, angels and afterlife in The Stones of Bothynus Trilogy. Are you religious?
A: I am Christian and lean toward Christian Mysticism—I’m interested in the writings of Christian mystics from the Middle Ages. I also like some of the New Age focus on spiritualism and learning to quiet oneself and listen for God’s voice. I try to live my life with hope and joy. Actually, the spiritual journey for me in writing this series of books was beautiful. It allowed me to play with ideas of our existence. And being a huge C. S. Lewis fan, I love the way he wrote so eloquently of spiritual longing and the answering joy—this is a major driver of this work.
Q: How did you reconcile spiritual themes with the sensual scenes in the books?
A: Teen romance and sexual desires are a normal and good part of life. The coming of age theme in the series is also heavily influenced by Lewis from his The Four Loves, and touches on each type of love, from the erotic kind (eros) to the friendship kind (phileo). This being intended for a young adult audience, I tried not to go too far in the sensual scenes.
Q: There seems to be a theme of animal rights in your books. Is that one of your interests?
A: Yes, I believe that all sentient beings deserve respect and that since we are the alpha species on the planet we have a responsibility to make sure we deal humanely with others in our care. While I wrote the crow scenes, I often heard crows in my yard and knowing that their rousting sites were being threatened I couldn’t help bringing this into the story.
Q: What gave you the idea to minimize Annie?
A: As a child running wild on the family farm, my brothers and I would make up fantasies in our play and one favorite was ‘what if.’ I think that is where the idea originated of ‘what if you could shrink or grow at will?’—kind of like Alice in Wonderland, but without needing to drink or eat anything. This idea really stuck with me and produced many hours of daydreaming pleasure. A favorite was to gaze at a small pool in the crystal clear mountain stream running beside our yard and envision myself diving in and exploring—playing with tadpoles and salamanders. And then I would imagine that I could just grow big again and I wouldn’t even be wet because the small amount of water on my smaller self would not increase as I grew. This was a major driver for the whole transformation idea—making subatomic particles change their size by snapping to a different scale on a grid—which seemed logical to me since the precedent was already set by electrons in their ability to pop into different orbitals, or energy levels. I know that I’m not the first person to wonder if this whole universe is just subatomic particles of matter on a much larger scale and our sub-atomic particles are whole universes—kind of like fractals. I played with the idea in several ways and had a blast! I hope you have as much fun reading The Stones of Bothynus as I had writing it.
Q: What advice do you have for young writers?
A: Allow yourself some time each week to do what you love, even if you can’t do it full time. Then develop a plan for eventually being able to do it full-time.
A: I’ve always had a rich fantasy world in my head and felt the need to scribble down my thoughts; sometimes this happens in the wee hours of the morning or in some solitary place during a hike. A few years ago I had a serious illness and thought I might die. When I didn’t die, my life somehow changed. I re-dedicated my life to listening harder for God and all that spiritual growth made me re-think my path in life. Part of my new plan was to return in a serious way to fiction writing.
Q: How did you go about breaking into fiction writing?
A: I was already a successful biologist and I guess you could say I approached it systematically the way I’d approach any problem in science. I gathered information (observation is the first step in the scientific method) from others both on what kinds of books young adults are reading today and the steps to getting published. Since some of the characters had been in my head for a long time, I organized my ideas according to the recommended novel structure and then the fun began.
Q: Who are your favorite writers?
A: My favorite writers are a mixed group. I love supernatural-fantasy with battles between good and evil. My favorite fantasy writers are C.S. Lewis, George MacDonald and J.R.R. Tolkien. For supernatural romance, I’d have to say that Stephanie Meyer is my favorite writer. I also love Anya Seton’s romances and am a serious Jane Austin and Bronte sisters fan.
Q: What inspired you to write The Stones of Bothynus Trilogy?
A: Probably C.S. Lewis was the greatest influence for the fantasy part. He is my favorite author and in at least two instances he suggested that he wanted to see more new writers write fiction that openly treats the supernatural as reality. (He inspired me to) add a supernatural dimension to this trilogy. As for the story itself, I built the characters and the situation and then the story just came.
Q: Are the main characters in The Stones of Bothynus Trilogy real?
A: No. No character is based on a real person—they all came from my head. That being said, characteristics of people in real life definitely inspire the characters in my books. The Red Sonja reference came about because I love strong females and I borrowed her image from the comics. And though the characters of Red and Annie are purely fiction, I did often ask myself how one of my daughters or their friends would likely act in a given circumstance and I think it helped them to be realistic. And the religious leaders had some characteristics borrowed from real people; for example, there really is a female bishop in Washington, D.C. who organizes bicycling events—a lovely person. I built Uncle Alistair, Erik and Aaan came out of characteristics I found appealing—especially Aaan. I love angels! And I wanted to add something creepy like the demon in C.S. Lewis’ Perelandra – it made my blood run cold with its child-like excitement over cruelty. Of course, most of the historical people mentioned in the books are real.
Q: Is the science real that is behind how the stones change sub-atomic structures?
A: I’d like to say it’s all real but the actual action of the stones is made up—or at least hasn’t been discovered yet. A lot of the science behind the theory of how they work is certainly real, though. Quarks are real and science now knows that matter can act like a wave as well as a particle. So, since matter and energy are no longer thought to be distinct, it was really fun to ask “what if?” The story took off from there.
Q: There’s a lot about religion, angels and afterlife in The Stones of Bothynus Trilogy. Are you religious?
A: I am Christian and lean toward Christian Mysticism—I’m interested in the writings of Christian mystics from the Middle Ages. I also like some of the New Age focus on spiritualism and learning to quiet oneself and listen for God’s voice. I try to live my life with hope and joy. Actually, the spiritual journey for me in writing this series of books was beautiful. It allowed me to play with ideas of our existence. And being a huge C. S. Lewis fan, I love the way he wrote so eloquently of spiritual longing and the answering joy—this is a major driver of this work.
Q: How did you reconcile spiritual themes with the sensual scenes in the books?
A: Teen romance and sexual desires are a normal and good part of life. The coming of age theme in the series is also heavily influenced by Lewis from his The Four Loves, and touches on each type of love, from the erotic kind (eros) to the friendship kind (phileo). This being intended for a young adult audience, I tried not to go too far in the sensual scenes.
Q: There seems to be a theme of animal rights in your books. Is that one of your interests?
A: Yes, I believe that all sentient beings deserve respect and that since we are the alpha species on the planet we have a responsibility to make sure we deal humanely with others in our care. While I wrote the crow scenes, I often heard crows in my yard and knowing that their rousting sites were being threatened I couldn’t help bringing this into the story.
Q: What gave you the idea to minimize Annie?
A: As a child running wild on the family farm, my brothers and I would make up fantasies in our play and one favorite was ‘what if.’ I think that is where the idea originated of ‘what if you could shrink or grow at will?’—kind of like Alice in Wonderland, but without needing to drink or eat anything. This idea really stuck with me and produced many hours of daydreaming pleasure. A favorite was to gaze at a small pool in the crystal clear mountain stream running beside our yard and envision myself diving in and exploring—playing with tadpoles and salamanders. And then I would imagine that I could just grow big again and I wouldn’t even be wet because the small amount of water on my smaller self would not increase as I grew. This was a major driver for the whole transformation idea—making subatomic particles change their size by snapping to a different scale on a grid—which seemed logical to me since the precedent was already set by electrons in their ability to pop into different orbitals, or energy levels. I know that I’m not the first person to wonder if this whole universe is just subatomic particles of matter on a much larger scale and our sub-atomic particles are whole universes—kind of like fractals. I played with the idea in several ways and had a blast! I hope you have as much fun reading The Stones of Bothynus as I had writing it.
Q: What advice do you have for young writers?
A: Allow yourself some time each week to do what you love, even if you can’t do it full time. Then develop a plan for eventually being able to do it full-time.