The Temple of the Golden Serpent, looks like a great fantasy book. Any plans to make this into a series?
This 48 page novella is part of www.forsakenisles.com, a complete high fantasy world (with a dark underbelly) and other books already out there. The shorter books focus on an aspect of the FI and presents them through conflict. This particular story pits the primary religion of Heaven’s priests and paladins against a Hell Lord’s faithful. I have plans to begin interjecting more and more of this particular addiction-based worship into the Forsaken Isles in coming years. I don’t think the concept of “devils” is very well treated in most fantasy.
What do you think makes a great story?
The best stories are those where the narrative voice is a bit untrustworthy and things unfold either through a sympathetic character (to the reader) or through the narrator who experiences things as the reader does. Humor, darkness, and challenge make for great visions. Add in a dash of the fantastical and some things the reader can learn or think of in a new way and viola.
What inspired you when writing The Temple of the Golden Serpent?
The main books of FI follow the Cult of Tiamat and is therefore sympathetic to the evil dragon goddess. They view themselves as righteous heroes by virtue of the evil they defeat. They often clash with the more heavenly religions and heroes. While it would be fun to tell a story set purely in Heaven, it’s not my style. My work is too dark for that! So, I wanted to give a Hell Lord proper treatment.
What are your ambitions for your writing career? Full time? Part time?
I currently write part-time, but recent ELIT awards and a growing fan base give me hope that readers love FI as much as I do.
When did you decide to become a writer?
I have always loved writing! I love the art of story-telling. A few years ago, I realized I had not just one but so many stories to share with the world. I had always had them. I just had not connected those stories with actually writing and putting them out there. I hope you are captured into FI just as I and my many readers are.
When writing The Temple of the Golden Serpent did anything stand out as particularly challenging?
Yes! The decay introduced into a mighty civilization when its entire population and resources are co-opted by drug addiction, was quite hard to portray as encountered by the heroes of the story. When I first conceived of a hellish religion, I realized that no Hell Lord would show themselves to mortals as “devils.” It would be far more subtle than that. That’s how it is in our world. And then suddenly, I found myself looking around at the world through different eyes.
How did you come up with the story of The Temple of the Golden Serpent?
High fantasy is about magic, where anything can happen. It’s about the clash of big ideas in even bigger settings. I wanted to show this hellish religion through the eyes of its people, and the heroes as they realize what they’re dealing with.
What do you like to do when not writing?
I hike, and think about writing. I watch anime with my daughters – vrepit sa! – all you Voltron fans. I dream of getting outdoors and the next time I get a few hours to write.
Check me out at www.forsakenisles.com and drop your email in the Contact section. I’ll add you to my newsletter where you can get books like for free, and sneak peaks into next projects. I’m also on www.facebook.com/forsakenisles Hope to see you all there!