What’s the story behind the story? What inspired you to write Starship’s Mage, 10th Anniversary Edition (Book 1)?
Starship’s Mage was originally written as a short story, based on the trope of “A Wizard Did It” – IE, that when technology became so advanced as to be handwaved anyway, it might as well be magic. So in Starship’s Mage, it was magic. Then my partner convinced me to try the self-publishing thing as an experiment and I expanded the short into a novella and plotted a few follow-on novellas. A year later, there were five of those novellas and they became a novel. That novel started my entire career, ten years ago. Now, I’ve come back to the book, edited it throughout for clarity, and commissioned new covers for it and the first four sequels, and we’re releasing a Tenth Anniversary Edition to commemorate the first decade of Starship’s Mage
What’s your favorite genre to read? Is it the same as your favorite genre to write?
I read a lot of space opera and general SF adventure, along with a great deal of military history, but I’m known to read just about everything. Mostly, though, it is in the same space I write in.
What books are on your TBR pile right now?
Working through Norman Friedman’s “Naval Weapons of World War One,” with the new D&D Player’s Handbook, Megan O’Keefe’s Catalyst Gate, Ada Hoffman’s The Outside and the latest Warhammer Fantasy RolePlay core rulebook.
What scene in your book was your favorite to write?
The confrontation between crime lords early in the fifth act. “You have eight hundred years of history at being thugs. That’s cute. I have a battlecruiser—and I’m coming for you.”
Do you have any quirky writing habits? (lucky mugs, cats on laps, etc.)
My writing is very regimented as a defense against my ADHD. The downside of this is that if I get distracted and don’t start on the hour, I often can’t get myself to start work for that hour at all!
Do you have a motto, quote, or philosophy you live by?
Nothing can be right for everyone. You have to find what’s right for you and stick to it.
If you could choose one thing for readers to remember after reading your book, what would it be?
That integrity and honesty can often overcome where trickery and cynicism will fail.
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