What's the story behind your latest book?
"When the Impact destroyed civilization and re-sculpted the globe the only survivors were the hastily expanded crew of the ISS, who watched the devastation below with growing horror, while wondering if they would ever get to go home, a few Preppers, whose stores of food and other commodities made them irresistible targets and the desperate hordes who would do anything--eat anyone--to live."
That's the "jacket blurb" for The Dying Time: Impact and I hope it works as a hook for the book, but try this.
Imagine being a thousand miles from the actual impact site and being almost deafened by the sound and seeing buildings flattened by the shock wave. You are thrown off your feet by jolting earthquakes that peg the Richter scale, nearly burned to death by fire falls--think rain showers but with magma--and if you live along a coastline (or likely anywhere within several hours drive) you'll be swept away by tsunamis large as mountains. And those are just the immediate effects. Follow them with Impact Winter that lasts for years, plagues, starvation and having to defend your family against those who would murder, enslave, or eat them and you have an inkling of what Michael and Ellen Whitebear must endure to survive and begin rebuilding.
Meanwhile, aboard the International Space Station, the hastily expanded crew view the devastation below with growing horror and despair. Sent up to the ISS as our last hope at repopulating Earth should humanity become extinct there observing the cataclysm makes them wonder it they will ever get to go home. Besides, they have problems of their own.
How did you get interested in Apocalyptic Action Adventure fiction?
My fascination with Apocalyptic fiction began when, at the impressionable age of ten, I read "Star Man's Son" by Andre Norton and found myself having a series of exciting adventures in the post-apocalyptic landscape of 2250 A.D. I was hooked and later on, when I read Stephen King's "The Stand" and Robert McCammon's "Swan Song" I was addicted. I've thoroughly enjoyed reading the genre ever since. And when they started making movies like Mad Max, Armageddon, and Deep Impact, I was in heaven.
Read more of this interview.