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Tell us something really interesting that’s happened to you!

I used to play tenor drum in a bagpipe and drum band, and we performed on the Minnesota state capital’s steps during a memorial the Saturday after 9/11. Besides having my kids, I have never done anything more meaningful. On a lighter note, during college I worked in a 50s-meets-the-80s restaurant where I roller skated and danced on tables (but not both at the same time). 

What are some of your pet peeves?

A few of my pet peeves: 1) grammatical and spelling errors on signs. 2) multiple opened containers of the same thing in the fridge or cupboard.

Who is your hero and why?

My dad. I didn’t get to grow up near him because my parents divorced when I was young, and we were 2000 miles apart. As an adult, I learned how much he cares for his family, my grandmother and grandfather, especially. He is the best storyteller, too. In fact, one of Dan’s stories in Skyclyffe is based on one of my dad’s.

When did you first consider yourself a writer?

Not until Skyclyffe  was nearly complete, and only after I forced myself to tell someone outside of my family.

Which of your novels can you imagine made into a movie? / If your book was made into a film, who would you like to play the lead?

I suspect all authors nowadays write with soundtracks and leading actors in the back of their brains. How can you not hear music crescendoing in the background as your main characters run away from or toward danger? Not to mention a moody tune to break people’s hearts along with the protagonist’s. Music lives within us, gives us cues that I admit words can’t always get across, and goosebumps or tears when we’re lucky.  

While writing Skyclyffe, I bounced between 90s alternative and soaring orchestral soundtracks, real John Williams kind of stuff. Ultimately, I faced facts. As much as I’d love to hear grunge kings and queens featured in a Skyclyffe movie, it didn’t fit with thirteen-year-old Rex finding himself abducted by and then living in a flying city. Besides, I’d kill for a theme song as iconic as the ones for Harry Potter or Indiana Jones.

In regards to who’d play leading roles, I chose photos to represent most of the characters during the writing phase to help me round them out, but I’m not going to tell you who are pictured in those images.

As long as Skyclyffe is just a novel, I want any kid to be able to imagine themselves as Rex or Amelia or any other character they connect with. That is why the Rex on the cover is shown from behind and almost silhouetted. Although a few suggested that I describe what Rex looks like in the story, I resisted as much as possible, and all that I defined is that he has dark, wavy hair. I treated all of the characters this way except for when something was important to the character, like Tulla’s red hair, or something caught Rex’s eye.

 Okay, I’ll give you one. If Skyclyffe were ever made into movie, Uncle Dan, a.k.a. Old Fart, has to be played by Bruce Willis.

What literary pilgrimages have you gone on?

None—but once during a family trip we slept in a covered wagon on land Laura Ingalls Wilder lived on as a kid.

As a writer, what would you choose as your mascot/avatar/spirit animal?

When my son was young, he had this soft, round toy, each quadrant a different animal’s face and matching sounds to boot. We called it Piggy Cat Cow Dog. I imagine my spirit animal would have to be something like that, but an amalgamation of dog, elephant, and turtle. A dogphantle? Eleturtdog? That is awful. Let’s just go with dog. Besides, I do have a German Shepherd puppy avatar/logo in use just about everywhere.

What inspired you to write this book?

A lone, puffy cloud zigzagging in the sky. I joked to myself, “Who’s in that cloud?” and then a little voice in my head said, “Could be anyone.”

What can we expect from you in the future?

The next book in the Skyclyffe series. 

Where did you come up with the names in the story?

The characters who grew up on the Earth’s surface have average names, except Rex’s. You learn about how his name came to be in chapter two. 

Since the characters on Skyclyffe were born on the ship or alighted in 1936 (apart from a few we can’t talk about here), their names tend to be more typical of that era. I scrolled through Most Popular Baby Names lists by year.

Advice they would give new authors?

Write because you want to, and let the book be what it wants to be.

Describe your writing style.

Positively a Plotter with a capital P, but I’m not afraid to allow new ideas in.

Do you try more to be original or to deliver to readers what they want?

Be original. I kind of like that when I was querying and agents asked for comps, I couldn’t find another book to compare mine to. Harder to sell in this publishing market, but I’d rather be a Hunger Games, Harry Potter, or Twilight than one of the scores of books that came after.

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