Sandy Nathan & Tecolote

Today, we embark on a literary journey bringing writers of my favorite genres––fantasy, visionary fiction, and sci-fi––into contact with readers of those genres.The participating authors on this hop have been given a series of questions to answer. As you read our answers, you will get a deeper look at our writing/personal processes and personalities. You’ll come to know us better.

If you comment on our posts, we can get to know you better.

To start things off, a big SHOUT  OUT to ELENI PAPANOU, who invited me to participate in this Blog Hop. (Click to go to her her blog hop page.) Eleni is a wonderful writer of Visionary and Science Fiction. You can read an excerpt of Eleni’s Unison here. You can purchase her book Unison (The Spheral) by clicking here.

Another shout out to my friends and fellow members of the Visionary Fiction Alliance. If you go to the blog you can find all sorts of information about Visionary Fiction, including definitions of the genre by different people, articles, excerpts from books. Lots. Go Visionaries!

LINKS TO BLOGS OF PARTICIPATING AUTHORS FOLLOW.  Clicking on the links below will introduce you to them, giving you access to new  literary and personal adventures. You may fall in love. I’ll add links as the authors report in.

1. TUI ALLEN,  author of Ripple.Tui’s website. Tui’s blog

ALEX SUMNER, author of  How To Cast A Love Spell, a novella in the series The Demon Detective, and other stories. Alex’s Blog Post

I’ll plunge in with my story. I’m Sandy Nathan. I’ve got six books in print. Between them, they’ve won twenty-four national awards, and have garnered 55 or so five star reviews on Amazon. Here are my answers to the questions:

1. What is the working title of your book or project?

Here we run into our first problem with standardized questions. Or maybe my first problem with standardization. I don’t fit in a box and neither does my work. It is quirky and I am quirky. OK. The working title of WHICH book or project? 

At the moment, I’m working on five or so projects. Top priority is the editing of the sequel to my multi-award winning novel, Numenon: A Tale of Mysticism & Money. Numenonis the story of the richest man in the world meeting a great Native American shaman. Numenon is the first book of the Bloodsong Series, Bloodsong 1.

Its sequel, Mogollon: A Tale of Mysticism & Mayhem, has been written in draft form since 1995. Eighteen years of pounding the keyboard. Mogollon has been the hardest project of my life, and it’s coming to a very satisfactory conclusion. Which will allow me to finish the next book in the series, which will probably be titled  Phenomenon: A Tale of Mysticism & Miracles. (The series is about mysticism  and its juxtaposition with life in the material world. Numenon was the top ranked book in mysticism on Amazon for about a year.)

My other works in progress include Assassin for the Dark Lord and Forsaken for the Witch’s Love. I just finished the draft manuscripts for these sci-fi adventure/love stories. The are ready to go to my editor. These rolled out of my brain as easily as Mogollon tore up my guts. They mark a new level of freedom of expression and incorporate characters that would make my literature-professor mentor croak. In other words, they are really fun. These books are unfortunately Bloodsong 5 & 6, so it will be a while before I spring them on you. (I’ve got to get Bloodsong 2 through 4 in print.)

My other work in progress has been working with a designer to retitle and put new covers on the three books of my sci-fi series, Earth’s End. I’ll post the new covers. They’re linked to the current books. (Interiors are the same between editions.)  Pretty cool transformation, huh? I’m working on a splashy release for the retitled books.

2. Where did the idea come from for the book or project(s)?

From really rotten things happening to me.  I’ve gotten almost 100% of my inspiration from dealing with pain and loss. My brother dying tragically brought me The Angel & the Brown-Eyed Boy and the other two books of Earth’s End. My life melting down and dealing with trauma brought me the Bloodsong series.

I did write a cute kids’ book about a premature horse born on our ranch that wasn’t the fruit of disaster. Tecolote: The Little Horse That Could is adorable and won a bunch of prizes. Even this cute entrant had a heart-breaking element. The real horse, Tecolote, died of heart failure days after his book began winning awards. It was incredibly painful for all involved.  Tecolote was my personal horse.I don’t know that I’ll ever love a horse as much.

Writing is my way of holding and dealing with tragedy. It’s not all tragic and heavy, but I don’t write like a girl. My stuff is gritty. I’d give everything but Tecolote and Stepping Off the Edge, my self-help/spirituality title, an R rating if they were movies.

3. What genre does it fall under, if any?

I write everything from juvenile non-fiction, to new age, to memoir, to a kind of visionary/psychological/fantasy/sci-fi. I have a very broad range of subjects. For instance, even though I am a straight old lady, my two latest manuscripts are gay-themed.

4. If applicable, who would you choose to play your characters in a movie?

I’ll cast Numenon, since it’s the first of a series and the characters go on to the following books. The characters are about equally divided between Native Americans and corporate whiz kids. Ed Harris could play Will Duane, CEO and founder of Numenon and the richest man in the world. Will is super-intelligent, driven, uber intense, and gorgeous. He’s 63. If Ed Harris were about a foot taller, he’d be perfect for Will. The ultra-gorgeous Native American brothers Wesley and Benny Silverhorse could only be played by Rick Mora. He can play both of them. Johnny Depp could also play one of the Silverhorses. Hillary Swank could play Melissa Weir, the  first-in-her-class Harvard MBA who is Will Duane’s protege. Hillary is smart, intense, and a super actress. Plus after playing in Million Dollar Baby, she could knock the bad buys into the next county, just like Melissa. Wes Studi could play a few parts. Dr. Tyler Brand, the very cool Native American professor and spirit warrior. Or Paul Running Bird, Mr. Sleaze. Tantoo Cardinal could play Leona Brand, Tyler Brand’s politician wife.  Russell Crowe would do well as Doug Saunders, Will’s hatchet man and the corporate bad boy. The rest? There’s a cast of thousands. Those are the main characters.

The hardest character to cast is Grandfather, the shaman who is the heart of Numenon and the whole Bloodsong Series. Grandfather explodes with spiritual energy and wisdom. I’ve not found an actor that can reach his wattage.

5. What is the one-sentence synopsis of your manuscript or project? Tomorrow morning, a nuclear holocaust will destroy the planet; only a 16-year-old tech genius and an exquisite visitor from another world can save it. That’s for The Angel & the Brown-Eyed Boy.

6. Will your book or story be self-published or represented by an agency? Internationally, my work is represented by an agent. Domestically, we own our own small press.

7. How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript? Varies. I’ve been working on Mogollon since 1995. I wrote the first draft of The Angel & the Brown-Eyed Boy in five weeks.

8. What other book or stories would you compare this story to within the genre?My work has been compared to that of many authors. A reviewer said that Numenon was “Bill Gates meets Don Juan.” The Earth’s End series has been compared to Stephen King’s The Stand by several reviewers. It’s also been compared to 1984. Reviewers have compared me to Orson Scott Card and Aldous Huxley. The number 26 Amazon reviewer said Lady Grace reminded him of Ray Bradbury, combined with the whimsicalness of Douglas Adams. Those are great writers. If people want to compare my work to theirs, great!

9. Who or what inspired you to write this book or story? As noted above: terrible things  inspire my writing. My work is not all tragedy. Some of it is very funny.

10. What else about the book or story might pique the reader’s interest? I love magic. I love enchantment. I like to write characters that you’ll never forget and create worlds that you don’t want to leave.  I am a sorceress with words. And I love my readers, and my characters.