Had a fun weberview with fellow author Daniel L Carter that just got posted up on his site. Fun times!
Here's a bit of it - - go check out his site for the full enchilada!
DLC: I want to thank you Ren for stopping by and doing this interview with me. Before we get into your cool looking series please share a little bit about yourself.
Ren: My name is Ren Cummins, up here in the delightfully and mostly cloudy greenery of the Pacific Northwest. A stone's throw (okay, a very hefty throw, like, with the wind at your back or something) from Seattle; I live up here with my wife and daughter, a pair of cerebrally-interchanged dogs and a cat who is very in touch with his Egyptian mythology. I gave up the rock-and-roll ambitions I'd carried over from my youth once my daughter was born, and fell back in love with telling stories as she started to be interested in hearing them. Been writing professionally now for several years, and am using all the wonders of this interweb contraption (I kid. I'm a kidder) to get my books out on the market.
DLC: I think just about every author is still trying to figure out this interweb thingy. =) So, speaking of books, tell us about your series.
Ren: The series I'm working on right now is a Young Adult Steampunk Fantasy series called the Chronicles of Aesirium. It revolves around a "sort-of-Earth" planet called Aerthos where technology has evolved from a focus on steam-engine-driven tech, but this has been made feasible by the addition of magical skills called simply "Art." By using Science and Art, the civilization - in spite of a few growing pain setbacks - has made great advances, but, as so many societies do, fell into a civil unrest dwelling on the differences between those who prefer science and those who prefer magic. This civil war left them irrevocably divided, with the artists losing and being exiled beyond an enormous wall originally built for the defense of the city. The story begins about 200 years after this exile, with the citizens of the city, Aesirium, becoming more like mythological figures to the people of Oldtown-Against-the-Wall, the descendants of their exiled forefathers.
If generations of exile weren't bad enough, there are monsters in the wild lands to the west; great, corrupted and undead beasts that find their way into the nighttime streets of Oldtown. And this, on top of the bedtime stories of the Reapers, powerful and mysterious beings believed to cart off the rebellious souls of the unsuspecting.
The story itself focuses on a trio of children growing up in this challenging but still fantastical environment, each with a specific role to play in the history and future of Oldtown and Aesirium - a future which will change the greatest city on the face of Aerthos.
Okay, that probably sounds a lot more epic than I intended. But you'll have to read for yourself and see if I'm lying.
DLC: Epic is exactly what I'd call it. Which character would you most identify with?
Ren: Oooh, that's a tough one. There's something of myself in all the characters, of course, but the one I just get the most is Ian, an old wizard with an odd sense of humor and an even more odd sense of fashion. His role isn't large in terms of the story's entire narrative, but he does give the children a sense of direction and focus that they need at crucial times. I most enjoyed writing his odd sense of comic timing, how he'd dance between sober wisdom and quirky silliness.
(continued at site)
Thanks for the interview, Daniel! The rest of you - go check out his blog and his books - - -go! Go now!
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