Can you tell readers a little bit about
yourself and what inspired to write in this particular genre?
The story itself
decided the genre. In general I am a
supernatural, paranormal lover, so it is natural for me to write things along
these lines. This story, however, is
more specifically suited for a younger audience, and that decision is based on
the character ages and the story line, which wasn’t a conscious decision. It’s just the way it worked out during the
writing of it.
What is it about the paranormal, in
particular vampires, that fascinates you so much?
Well this story
has no vampires, but what does lure me into vampire stories, are the ones that
focus on the lure that vampires have. I
think the reality of vampire stories is that they are not the ‘good guys’
(sorry Twilight fans), but are the ones who want to drink our blood, seeing us
as food, and forgetting that they were once as vulnerable as we are. I do, however, like vampire stories with a
romantic interest between the vampire and the victim.
What inspired you to write this
book?
The twins
themselves were the inspiration. I
wanted to write a story about a pair of twins who were originally born in
another dimension and were sent to ours, by being born here, forgetting their
mission, and having to rediscover their true path.
Please tell us about your latest
release.
As mentioned in
the previous question it is about a pair of twins (Whitney and Tommy Leighton)
who were originally born in another dimension and reborn in ours to complete a
mission. In the other world they are
both warriors, neither of them completely human, both of them having different
abilities, and each of them with varying personalities. They are sent to Earth to recover a fugitive
but, being reborn on our planet, have no idea of their past. Whitney can only see and hear when she is
piggybacking with Tommy, slipping her consciousness into his, is the only way
she can see or hear, and she lives her life in the passenger seat of Tommy’s
mind. (Their only clue of this other world
being the dreams of Tommy). In those
dreams he sees his sister differently than he knows her. In his dreams she is still blind and deaf,
but she is also an impressive warrior.
She has tattoos of the infinity symbol wrapped around her eyes, scars on
her face and neck and swings a pair of swords like nobody he’s ever seen
before, but in the end of his most recent dreams she is killed by one of her
enemies. Some of his dreams are set in
another world, but not all of them are.
Some of the alien creatures in his dreams end up in our world and he
knows that Whitney must learn to become more like the girl he sees in his
dreams, otherwise she is doomed to perish young. The only problem is that simply telling her
of his dreams will only prompt a scoffing laugh from her.
Do you have a special formula for
creating characters' names? Do you try to match a name with a certain meaning
to attributes of the character or do you search for names popular in certain
time periods or regions?
For me character’s
names usually end up coming by inspiration, much like the character themselves
do. I usually don’t manipulate character
names and try to allow one character to name the other.
Was one of your characters more
challenging to write than another?
Any antagonist
character is usually difficult for me. I
find it difficult to write scenes in which one character does something awful
to another.
Is there a character that you
enjoyed writing more than any of the others?
I truly enjoyed
exploring Whitney’s character. She is by
far the most unique character I have ever written.
Do you
have a formula for developing characters? Like do you create a character sketch
or list of attributes before you start writing or do you just let the character
develop as you write?
I try to get into my character’s head when I write. My best writing comes when I accomplish this
successfully. It’s not always easy, but
when I do get it right I don’t have to guess what the character would thing or
do, because I already know.
What is your favorite scene from the
book? Could you share a little bit of it, without spoilers of course?
[In this scene Tommy and Whitney
have arrived at Camp Tumbling Waters.
Not long before this Whitney has decided not to attend the camp with her
brother. Her argument being that, being
blind and deaf, she can’t really enjoy the camp the way that the other teens
can, and she will only serve to hinder Tommy from enjoying his week there. So she decided not to go. As this cut from the scene begins the rest of
the family is standing in front of the Camp Master, Mr. Margraves who is
thankful to receive the news. Their Aunt
and Uncle, Blake and Carol Anne, are speaking with him, and Tommy is with
them. Whitney has her consciousness
slipped into Tommy’s and she is also listening in.]
“I don’t see her out here so
I hope that this means that your daughter has changed her mind and isn’t
tagging along,” he said without returning the handshake that Blake was
offering. Blake retracted his offer. The camp-master had barely moved his lips as
he spoke, which gave the impression that he was a practicing ventriloquist, but
it also looked like he needed a lot more practice. His Hitler style mustache sat perched below
his nose and Tommy had to hold himself back from giggling.
Tagging along? Whitney thought to
Tommy. What a jerk!
“I think she may have changed
her mind,” Blake answered.
“Well that’s the best news
I’ve heard all day, to be quite honest with you. I have been a little more than worried about
this whole situation. I’ll have you know
that I fought tooth and nail against this preposterous notion of having a girl
that is both blind and deaf attending this camp, but it seems that your
generous contribution to the camp carried more weight than my opinion,” he
said. “I mean to think … a blind and
deaf girl … here! Silliest thing I’ve
ever heard of … no offense, but I’m very relieved.”
Silly? Whitney repeated in Tommy’s head.
Tommy looked over to
Blake. Blake’s nostrils were flaring and
he was taking in deep and even breaths.
Carol Anne’s hand went to his shoulder and began to gently stroke
him. She was trying to prevent him from
blowing his lid right then and there.
“You don’t think she could
handle it?” Blake asked through gritted teeth.
“Tah!” he spat. “What would she really be able to accomplish
here? How would she spend her days? Sitting in the cabin? Walking the trails with her brother holding
her hand? Nope! She would accomplish nothing but keeping her
brother from enjoying himself. Better to
just let him enjoy what the camp has to offer and leave her at home where she
is safe and can be attended to properly, to be totally honest with you.”
HOLDING MY FRIGGING HAND?! She questioned to Tommy. Who
does this guy think he is? I don’t need
to be ‘attended to properly!’
What Whit! Tommy thought back to her. He’s
essentially just saying what you said earlier.
Oh, shut up!
It was almost as if the man
thought that saying things like “to be honest with you” or “quite frankly”
softened the blow of his harsh words.
Did he not realize that the things he was saying were not being taken
very kindly?
“She is a very capable young
lady you know,” Carol inputted.
“Oh I’m sure she is,” he
returned quickly. “I’m sure she is very
capable under the circumstances, but this camp is for exceptional … I’m afraid
we don’t have much room for capable here.”
That’s it.
I’ve had it!
The door to the S.U.V.
opened. It drew the attention of
everyone standing at the gate and they all watched as one of Whitney’s legs
dropped down below the door of the truck.
It was quickly followed by the other which was then followed by the
sound of the door being slammed shut.
She had her “seeing” cane in her hand and she pushed the button on the
side of it. The end of it shot out and
she began hopping it from side to side in front of her as she walked toward the
group.
“I have a feeling that
someone may have just changed their mind again,” Blake said. Pride was swelling in his voice as he said
it. “I’ll go get her bags.” He left the group and headed to the back of
the vehicle.
Tommy couldn’t help but
notice that the camp-master’s right eye twitch every time Whitney’s cane tapped
against the ground as she approached. It
really didn’t look like the guy was enjoying the sight of her walking up to
them.
Glad you could join us! Tommy thought to her.
I’m not happy about this, but NO WAY am I gonna
let this prick tell me what I can and can’t do!
The camp-master stood before
them, dumbfounded by the recent change of events, and not sure what to do about
it. A moment before he was getting his way
and suddenly he wasn’t. His entire face
went from tan to turnip red. His eyes
danced in his head, and he kept looking back and forth from Carol Anne to
Blake, who was at the back of the truck pulling out Whitney’s luggage, as if he
expected them to suddenly take his side and demand that Whitney just go ahead
and change her mind back to not going.
Blake came back, sat
Whitney’s things down next to Tommy’s, and took up residence next to
Whitney. He put one proud arm around her
and grinned at the camp-master who was still desperately thinking of a way to
change the tides back to his favor.
Did you find anything really
interesting while researching this or another book?
In order to get
the ‘Cherokee Indian’ parts correct I had to do research on that. During that research I discovered the ‘Trail
of Tears’ and was fascinated by it.
Parts of that, along with some of their language and beliefs, made it
into the novel.
Can you tell readers a little bit
about the world building in the book/series? How does this world differ from
our normal world?
Volume 1 is set in
modern day Missouri, but Volume 2 will go from there to Messolina and the Black
City. That world is much different. Everything surrounding Messolina is different
and there are many dangerous beings living in that world. If you are not a warrior, trained to fight
from birth, you will not survive long.
With the book being part of a
series, are there any character or story arcs, that readers jumping in somewhere
other than the first book, need to be aware of? Can these books be read as
stand alones?
So far I’ve only
written the first book. I am just now
beginning work on the second. I do have
short stories along the same story line, and many readers have jumped in at
different places within the shorts without complaint.
Do any of your characters have
similar characteristics of yourself in them and what are they?
Tommy and I both
have a love for sci-fi movies, books and the like.
Do you ever suffer from writer’s
block? How do you deal with it?
When I get
something wrong in a story. When that
happens the ideas just quit coming and I have to go back and figure out where I
went off track. Once have that figured
out I can usually pick it back up.
Do you have any weird writing quirks
or rituals?
The weirdest thing
that I do that may be different from other writers is to write the antagonist
scenes dead last.
Do you write in different genres? Yes. This is an urban fantasy, but the next story
I plan to write will have fangs in it, and I think that there are definitely
sci-fi stories tucked away somewhere in my brain.
Do you find it
difficult to write in multiple genres?
Sometimes. I usually only try to
write the stories that I’m feeling inspiration for. That inspiration helps a lot.
When did you consider yourself a
writer?
I knew that I
wanted to write from a very young age but, unfortunately, I went about it the
wrong way in the beginning. My first
attempt at writing came at about the age of thirteen and it was horrible. I was trying to, and expecting to, write like
a pro. When I read what I had written
and saw that it wasn’t that great, I thought that I didn’t have what it took
and I didn’t write another word until I was an adult. But the desire to write never died. That flame continued to burn within me. I made more attempts at different times in my
life and each time I went back to it, my writing seemed a little better to
me. I didn’t consider myself to be a
writer, however, until about four or five years ago. By that time I was occasionally letting
someone else see what I had written, watching their facial expressions with my
breath buried deep in my lungs, and relieved when I would catch a glimpse of a
smile, or a nodding of their head as they read along. That’s when I knew that I might just be able
to pull it off.
What are your guilty pleasures in
life?
Craft beers. I don’t drink often, but when I do I like
something quality. I like different
tastes, something strong, heavy and bold.
I’ve been known to spend as much as twenty dollars on one single bottle
of beer.
What was the last amazing book you
read?
I just finally got
to reading Hunger Games. I had avoided
reading it because I had read a very unfavorable critique of it. Then I read another critique that tore it to
shreds and I got to thinking, if it’s that bad, then why is it selling so
good. I read it myself to find out,
finished all three novels in three days, and realized that critiques aren’t
always what they are cut out to be. I
loved all three novels.
Where is your favorite place to
read? Do you have a cozy corner or special reading spot?
Anywhere
quiet. It doesn’t matter where because,
as long as it’s quiet, I end up somewhere else entirely anyway.
What can readers expect next from
you?
Volume 2 of the
Twinfinity series.
Twinfinity: Nethermore
Volume 1
Chris Podhola
Genre: Young Adult, Paranormal,Urban Fantasy
Date of Publication: May 26, 2014
ISBN: 978-1499625035
ASIN: B00KGZ41CM
Number of pages: 411
Word Count: 107,000
Cover Artist: Llpix.com
Book Description:
Whitney Leighton has a secret. She is both blind and deaf but that’s not what she’s trying to keep hidden. Her secret is that she can both see and hear through her twin brother Tommy. They call it piggybacking because she can shift her consciousness into her brother’s mind.
Whitney’s not the only one with a secret; Tommy has one too and it’s Whitney that he’s keeping it from. His secret is that Whitney isn’t who she’s supposed to be. He has dreams of her, but in his dreams she has tattoos, battle-scars on her face, and a formidable look of determination. If Tommy’s dreams come true then Whitney is in serious trouble and so is everyone else. The simple Whitney that is, doesn’t stand a chance against the evil that exists in his sleep, and the world will be thrust into chaos.
The teen twins end up at Camp Tumbling Waters and Lake Amicolola where something is waiting for them. Something as dark as Whitney’s vision and as insane as Tommy’s dreams and IT needs Whitney to escape the prison that IT calls … Nethermore.
Book Trailer: http://youtu.be/nfmpW8Kn4wM
Available at Amazon
Excerpt:
This excerpt is from Chapter 10 of Twinfinity:
Nethermore. In it the main character,
the blind and deaf Whitney Leighton, is preparing to make a physical statement
to her summer camp peers. They are all
gathered at the obstacle course located in Camp Tumbling Waters and the group
is divided. Half of the campers blame
her for the recent troubles in the camp, and the other half believe that she is
the solution to those problems. Whitney
knows that she needs to prove a point to all of them in order to unite them.
Whitney had been
a little surprised by how clearly her course could be directed through her
imagination and memory. Every step, and
every move had been based on what she remembered from when she was piggy-backed
with Kat, but she had been able to lay everything out in her mind with near
perfect clarity.
She had been
sitting on the bench brooding over her conversation with Kat. She was mad all right, but little Mike had
changed her mood. She couldn’t see the
fear in his face, and she couldn’t hear if he had said anything, but she had
seen his shadow approach the wall and she had waited with anticipation for his
shadow to ascend into the air. She might
not be able to see it with her eyes, but she would have still felt pride for
him as he succeeded. She could see that
climbing it was important to him, and Kat had insinuated that it was so
important that he had spent a year trying to get himself ready for it. His body appeared to be weak and frail and
Whitney had searched Kat’s mind for an explanation for that.
He had an
accident when he was younger--a tragic accident that had broken many bones and
left him in a wheel chair for years. He
was just getting to the point that he could walk again. And, according to Kat’s memories on the
subject, climbing that wall was his motivation—his driving force. It was the thing that he talked about last
year that inspired him to work so hard in his recovery. He wanted to do it, but he was afraid.
Like she was
afraid.
He backed off
and someone else was approaching the wall in his place. She didn’t want to sense someone else
climbing the wall. She wanted to sense
him doing it, and she didn’t think it was right for everyone else to just shrug
it off.
When she first
got up from the bench and started walking toward the group her intention was to
find a way to convince Mike to make his climb.
She was only vaguely aware of the clarity with which she could visualize
her course. She could see every clump of
dirt, every stone that could make her stumble, and she could even remember
seeing a Twix candy bar wrapper as she walked by it.
Her mind was
more focused on how to convince Mike to make his climb. By the time she got there she had figured it
out. She would lead by example.
It was after Kam
had put the safety harness onto her and attached the safety line onto the clip
on the back when she knew she had to take it off. It was doing its job. It was making her feel safe. There was no danger. The spotters were trained to make sure that
she wouldn’t be injured if she slipped.
It was crazy, but she didn’t want to feel safe. She wanted every handhold and every foothold
to be risky and she wanted to feel the danger of it.
Most of all she
wanted to rely on others to catch her if she did fall.
She had been
playing it safe all of her life and for once she wanted to leave safety behind
her. She had never let herself rely on
anyone but Tommy—who she depended on vigorously for help in almost everything
and she was done with that too.
She had chosen
the members of her net the way she did because she wanted to show everyone that
she trusted them even if they didn’t really trust her. She didn’t just want to convince Mike to make
the climb. She also wanted to find a way
to bring the group back together again.
She had divided everyone, and so she’d have to be the one to link them
back together again.
She was a couple
of levels off of the ground when the idea of the teambuilding element began to
form in her mind. The concept was simple
enough. You had to trust in the members
of the team to catch you if you fell backward into them. That teambuilding element was about a three
foot drop into the arms of your team.
What if someone did it from the top of the climbing wall? It was a scary idea, but if that didn’t make
an impact on the crowd than nothing would.
Whitney ascended
the wall. Despite her nearly perfect
memory of every hand and foothold her fear was a very tangible and real
thing. Slipping off and falling was
still extremely dangerous even with the group below her because she might not
be able to control how she landed and a broken leg or arm or even both was a
probability.
She reached up
and grabbed the next handhold, brought her leg up, and hauled herself up
another level. She had made it halfway
up and she could feel her nervousness increase with her height. She was about fifteen feet off of the ground,
and her limbs began to betray her. She
was getting tired and her muscles were beginning to tremble despite her desire
to remain steady and calm. She was no
athlete and it was beginning to show.
This was stupid
she thought to herself.
If she fell from
that distance and they didn’t catch her she may or may not break a limb.
Just do it now
her mind begged.
And she knew she
could. She could steady herself, lean
back, and fall into the arms of her safety net.
She could do that safely and no harm would come to her. Her point would even be made pretty clearly.
But wasn’t
Erik’s speech, as corny and predictable as it was, about just that? Wasn’t it about pushing past your fears even
though they sometimes seemed like an impenetrable wall?
She could make
her leap from that point but if she did wasn’t she still relatively safe? If so then was she really making her
point? Wasn’t her point to go beyond
safety and to leap when the outcome wasn’t predictable?
She reached up
for the next grip-hold and brought herself up to it. Her nerves began to betray her even
more. She had never been this tired
before in her life. She had already
exerted herself beyond exhaustion and she knew, from that very moment, that she
needed to start training her body for more endurance. She was never again going to let herself tire
out this easily. So much for being lazy,
because she knew that those days had to be over.
She was three
quarters of the way up but her muscles were aching and she was losing her
breath. On top of that she wasn’t sure
if making it to the top was even going to be possible. No matter how bad she wanted to get there.
She sucked in a
deep breath, gathered her determination, and made two more handholds in quick
succession. Her fingers began to throb
and go numb. Her leg muscles were
screaming at her to stop and her arms felt like rubber bands stretched out to
their maximum.
The only good thing
was that she only had three levels to go.
About the Author:
The author is a 43 year-old United States Air Force veteran of the first Iraq War. This is his debut novel in the Twinfinity urban fantasy series. He was born and raised in south-eastern Michigan and served his country in California, Germany, and Turkey.
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