Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I write YA sci-fi fantasy and I’m the author of The Lucidites Series (a three book series). I’ve been everything from a corporate manager to a hippie. My taste for adventure has taken me all over the world. If you can’t find me at the gym, then I’m probably at the frozen yogurt shop. If you can’t find me there then I probably don’t want to be found. I’m a hermit, with spontaneous urges to socialize during full moons and when Mercury is in retrograde. I live in Southern California with my family.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Awoken is the first book in The Lucidites series. It’s about a special race of people who can travel anywhere in their dreams.
I’ve always been fascinated by dreams and sleep. Not just sleeping, but dreaming, is vital to our survival. If we don’t dream then the human brain deteriorates. REM sleep deprivation in rats has shown to cause a loss of survival behaviors, decrease of pain threshold and depression. In humans sleep deprivation causes hallucinations because it is so crucial to brain function. All this kept me thinking about the power stored in dreams and dreaming abilities. I spun these ideas around in my head until I concocted a villain (Zhuang) who stole human’s abilities to achieve REM rendering them hallucinating zombies. And maybe also I was inspired by my own sleep deprivation at the time. My daughter was six months old and not sleeping through the night. I’m fairly certain I shouldn’t have been operating a motor vehicle.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I think everything I do while writing is unusual. I usually wake up at 3 or 4 am and not because I want to, but because the character won’t be quiet. I write on my phone while I’m walking for exercise and I’ve run into lot of stationary things. I’m also the queen of post-it notes. I’ve written entire chapters on a stack of notes, just because I didn’t want to stop the flow by moving to a computer.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
Philip Pullman is by far my biggest inspiration. I love how unpredictable and effortless his writing is.
What are you working on now?
I’m working on another series. This one is way more dystopian with less sci-fi elements. It’s also involving the race of Dream Travelers.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I’ve had luck with a few: Buck Books, Awesome Gang, ENT, Midlist, Riffle, Bookgoodies
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Write the story that you feel in your bones. Don’t write one you think people will like because then you’re not being true to you. At the end of the day you are telling something that is a part of you, and people want to read an authentically told story.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Write the story you want to read.
What are you reading now?
What’s next for you as a writer?
I’m working on this new series. Two books done and going to start third soon. I’d like to have it edited and covers created and the whole thing published by the fall. I probably won’t sleep to get that all done, but it will be worth it.
If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
The Great Gatsby. The box set of Harry Potter (is that cheating?). And Running with Scissors. That way I’d have something romantic, something magical and something hilarious.
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