Welcome, Tara Elizabeth!  Thank you for being a part of BOD’s author spotlight interview.  We’re so happy to have you and get to know you better.

Thank you so much for having me. I was very excited to receive an invitation to the group.

Let’s start off with a little introduction.  Can you tell us where you’re from, how and when you became a writer, and what interests you about dystopian writing?

I’m from south Louisiana – land of crawfish & southern hospitality. It’s been a wonderful place to grow up. Writing only came to me in the past five or so years. I’ve always loved reading, but I was so intimidated by the types of books I was reading. It wasn’t until I discovered YA that my imagination took off. The dystopian genre has endless possibilities – no boundaries. I love it!

What book(s) or writer(s) have most influenced your writing?

After reading Amanda Hocking’s Trylle Trilogy, I thought, I can do this. While her words are simple, she tells amazing stories. I love to read for entertainment, and Ms. Hocking’s works absolutely fit the bill for me. So, while I’m no wordsmith like Stephen King or Jane Austen, I hope that people love my stories.

My favorite YA author is Richelle Mead. I love the relationships she creates and her humor.

I’ve had the opportunity to read your book “Zoo.”  It’s a fascinating book.  I love the comparison you make between humans and animals in a zoo, whose lives are micromanaged by more intelligently advanced beings.  Can you tell us a little about the story and where you came up with the idea?

The story for Zoo came from visiting a local zoo with my then two-year-old son and husband. I’ve always struggled with my feelings about zoos. I know the benefits and enjoy going, but still can’t help feeling sorry for all the animals. The idea popped into my head while watching a cheetah pace its enclosure. I could feel its desire to run free on open land. It was heartbreaking.  I tried to put myself in his place. What emotions would I experience? Would I fight or accept my fate?

There are some definite religious overtones in “Zoo.”  Especially the concept that there is a god-like figure who is controlling our lives.  How do you think this concept most resonates with your readers?

That’s the first time I’ve heard that. Religious overtones weren’t intended, however, I think we all experience these types of controlling figures in our lives; whether they be religious figures, parents, bosses, etc… When faced with these people, we learn who we are.

“Zoo” isn’t the only book you’ve written.  Can you tell us about your Exalted series?  What’s it about?

After the fall of mankind, the Exalted became the protectors of the people. As an Exalted trainee, all Mena ever wanted was to be strong, to serve and to fearlessly protect the people of the United Republic of the Saved. All Exalted feel the same. In fact, that’s all they feel.

This trilogy follows Mena and her friends as they search for the truth of their world. There is fighting, love, friendships, loss… This series has everything dystopian lovers are looking for.

The third book in Exalted just came out.  What can you tell us about United without giving away what happens in book 1 and 2?

United has some great surprises regarding the characters. You’ll end up loving characters that you may have disliked and vice versa.

If any of your books were made into a movie which one would you like to see on the big screen, and who would you like to play as your main characters?

I love this question! Obviously, I’d love to see them all turned into movies, but I think Zoo has the most potential for the big screen. Claudia Lee from Hart of Dixie would be a great Emma. I love her sassy personality and soft look. I have yet to find my perfect Kale.

Are you working on any other writing projects, and if so can you tell us about them?

I am currently working on Rebel – Book 2 in the Enclosure Chronicles (Zoo). The book will follow Kansas’ story. We’ll get to see more of the future world.

What are some of your other talents and hobbies?  And when you’re not writing, how do you like to spend your time?

I have a degree in graphic design and work as a designer by day. I design all of my own book covers and some of my friend’s covers. Recently, I’ve really gotten into Crossfit. Mena really inspired me to improve my physical strength. I love feeling strong!

Time . . . When I’m not working, taking care of my kids, or going to the gym . . . Well, that pretty much takes up all of my time. So, when I have free time, I write.

Thank you so much, Tara, for sharing a little bit about yourself, and thank you for being a part of BOD!

Thank you as well! I feel so honored to be part of the group!

I hope you all enjoy my stories and look forward hearing from you. Make sure you follow my Facebook page for giveaways, updates, and fun posts.

ABOUT TARA

Website  |  Facebook  |  Twitter  |  Goodreads  |  Amazon

I write Young Adult Fiction, mostly Dystopian/Sci-Fi novels with a splash of Romance and a hint of sarcasm. I’m also a graphic artist, wife, mother, and Red Vine lover. I grew up in the Deep South surrounded by bayous, magnolia trees, crawfish and great people. My culture is a huge part of my life, and you can see some of those details in my writing.

Our latest writing prompt winner was Brea Behn, author of YA Dystopian Romance, Wolves in the Woods.

You can view the original photo and prompt here on Facebook, and check out Brea’s winning story below!

Alex Tuoku was a slave, but brief moments like these — where he was able to give himself over completely to the music, even if for the entertainment of his captors — these were the moments he lived for. It was all he had. He’d always known he would never get off this planet, but today he was snatched up after his set and then everything changed.

“Who are you people?” Alex asked as the shuttle lifted into the air. The rescuer closest to him pulled a black helmet off revealing a tumble of blonde hair the same color as his own.

“Aliah! I thought I would never see you again.” Alex said pulling his twin sister into a hug.

They were both crying when they pulled away.

“How did you find me?”

His twin sister smiled. “We’re twins silly. I’ve always known where you were. Sorry it took me so long to get here. I had to get some quinar together to buy a crew. It took some time.”

They chatted for hours about his shows, his fame all over the galaxy and his life as a captor. The shuttle landed suddenly then and the bay door opened.

Aliah put a hand to Alex’s face. “Now it’s your turn to be free Alex.” “Aliah what did you do?” Alex was held back as his twin backed off the ship and into the waiting arms of a pion. The scum of the trading world. It was hard to read his reptilian face, but Alex was pretty sure he was smiling.

“I will come for you Aliah!” The doors slammed shut blocking his view as his sister was escorted away.

In his head he heard her words like when they were little: “I know you will Alex. I will be waiting.”

Check out this second win for Amber Butler! View the original prompt on Facebook here.

They’d come so far. Her tired head rested on his lap. She had started fat, strong, covered in white hair that shimmered in the ceaseless sunlight. Whether the sun had faded with her, or her with the sun, no one knew.

What they did know was that she was going to die.

He watched as the heartbeat that had pulsed beneath her translucent skin for a millennia slowed, as its light evaporated like the water and the food and the sun, as breath left her lungs.

He hadn’t meant to cry, not for her. He had one job. In thirty generations of masters and apprentices he, and only he, had one single, coveted job.

Dear god in heaven, he didn’t want it.

He wept, shocked at his ill preparedness considering all his preparation, and eased her beautiful, lifeless head into the snow. The sun was almost dark. He began to count.

He had ninety seconds.

He stuck the knife in below her rib cage and yanked upward, tearing apart this majestic beast who had fed humanity with her heartbeat for a thousand years. He drew it out, faintly glowing, barely beating, and flung it far out to the hungry sea. The waves rose to swallow her sacrifice and the light was lost to the water.

Twelve.

Eleven.

Ten.

The ocean brightened as her heart began to beat for the earth, and the sun rose and shone warm, and the ice began to melt, and he knew that hundreds of miles away, wheat and corn and apples were shooting up to feed the few starving millions who remained.

He was glad. She would have been glad.

But he couldn’t go to see it. Not yet. He just sat down beside her, put her ancient, cold head in his lap, and cried.

This week’s winner is Amber Butler. Check out her winning story below.

The original photo and prompt can be seen here: LINK.

The liquid was warm, almost imperceptible. He forced his eyes open and nearly gasped at the blinding light. He shut them again and was plunged into darkness.

His lungs felt big and sharp as he kicked, hard, downward. His chest seared with every slowing heartbeat. He struggled to maintain consciousness as one last, fleeting picture swam in his mind: Sam.

Sam’s yellow curls bouncing. Sam hitting me in the arm for a stupid joke. Sam throwing a dirt clod at my bike. Sam lying face down. Sam, bleeding. Sam, dead.

His hand had found an empty place where there was no more concrete and he pulled himself down through the bottom of the water. He fell to solid ground, gasping, choking, coughing, and opened his eyes. The world was dim once again. He looked up and the black water floated above his head. The moonlight shimmered through it and cast a barely perceptible glow on the vast concrete slab.

In the corner was a shape. He knew it, even with half its head missing. He knew those curls, still clinging to the remaining pieces of skull. He knew that back, hunched, arms wrapped around knees, feet bare.

He stood up. He could no longer feel the pain in his chest. There was only one thing he could think:

Sam.

He walked and sat down next to the figure. He put his arm around him, and the boy turned. Even with the hole where his eye used to be, the eye the bullet had ripped out, Sam looked like Sam.

“Alex?” The boy’s voice was familiar, though odd and distant. “Is that you?”

Alex let his lips touch the boy’s cheek. “Yes,” he whispered.

“Can I go home now?”

“No,” Alex said. “But I can stay here.”

Check out last week’s Writing Prompt winner, David McIntyre! The original post and photo can be found here (LINK). Great job, David!

Here’s David’s story.

I felt the bullet snap past my ear and crashed down the embankment. I scrambled back to the culvert intent to crawl through and pulled a rotting pallet from the pipe.

“Won’t do you no good,” a man’s voice spoke. “I already tried.”

He sat up from the weeds and pushed his hood back to get a better look at me. Whatever color his clothes had been originally, they now matched his weathered skin.

“You got a name, old man?” I asked.

“You ain’t from around here,” he said.

“Just passing through.”

“Now that’s the truth,” he said. “If you was from around here, you’d know my name. This ain’t the kind of place you pass through, Son. It’s the kind you pass by.”

“Why is he shooting at us?”

“Cause he’s ignorant. He don’t know who you are.”

“Why’d he shoot at you?”

“Cause he’s ignorant, and he does.”

The man pulled a half-smoked cigarette from behind his ear and twisted its contents into a fresh paper, added some tobacco, and rolled a smoke. He then rolled another, and from the way he scraped the pouch, it was his last. He held it out to me.

“It’ll calm your nerves,” he said.

I don’t smoke but took it anyway to honor the gift. “Calm my nerves for what?”

He reached over is pack and passed me a Winchester .30-30. “You see the top of that Cherry tree from there? The one where my wife is buried?”

“I see it.”

“He’s under it.”

I edged forward to the road and slowly poked the rifle between the weeds. The man by the cherry tree jumped to his feet and aimed. We fired at the same time. The old man had stood to draw fire. I buried him with his wife.

It’s such an awesome opportunity to introduce to all of our BOD members the incredible authors among us! So, thank you, Drew Avera, for taking part in the BOD author spotlight interview. I’m excited for everyone to get to know you.

Thank you. I’m excited to be here and love being part of the group!

I love learning about when authors discovered they wanted to be writers. So, tell us, how or when did you know that writing was for you? What are your aspirations as a writer?

Growing up I didn’t enjoy reading, since my mother usually made it part of punishment for something. When my parents split I started getting into comic books. I watched Batman the Animated Series and the X-Men cartoon. My dad bought the comic books, provided I’d read them. He probably spent hundreds of dollars on my comic addiction. Eventually I got into reading real books. Ever since I was sixteen and read “The Incredible Hulk: What Savage Beast” by Peter David, I’ve wanted to write a book. It was a novelized version of a comic book. It took fifteen years later for me to write a book. But we can get to that later.

You’ve mentioned on BOD that you serve in the military. Can you tell us what you do, (without having to kill us) and how your current job has influenced your writing?

Absolutely, I’m an Aviation Electricians Mate First Class. Most of my career was spent working on electrical systems on the F18. It’s two parts awesome and one part anguish with deployment. I’ve seen some really cool stuff, but I’d prefer to be home with my family. My job is different now that I’m not working on Hornets any more. I don’t know how my job influences my writing, but I definitely use the personalities I’ve met in my books. But usually not in a good way. I encounter unpleasant people lol.

I love sci-fi, and I’ve noticed that your stories definitely have that feel to them. What are some of your favorite sci-fi mediums, whether books or movies, that have influenced your stories?

Like I said, I’m a huge comic book fan and I think that has influenced me most of all. If you notice, most of my books are short and there’s always some kind of action or drama happening in some way. Most comic books follow that kind of rhythm. I also love sci-fi influenced art, especially landscapes. Most are very beautifully done and I can imagine what those worlds would be like. But let’s not forget all the awesome movies coming out. It’s like a sci-fi buffet!

I totally agree. Some of the dystopian/apocalyptic sci-fi movies that are out or coming soon are incredible. Kind of along those lines, tell us a little bit about Exodus and how this story came to be.

When I turned thirty I looked at what I had accomplished on my dream list. Rock star? No. Comic book artist? Nope. Self-made millionaire? Lololololol…no. Wrote a book? Not even close.

So, with that list of potential things to accomplish I decided to focus on one. I eventually decided to write a book and began the painstaking task of writing one with pencil and paper. That was a travesty and I was ready to quit, but then I found a little something called National Novel Writing Month. I decided to give it a go as a last ditch effort. Twenty six days and fifty some odd thousand words later I was an author. What I didn’t realize was it would become an addiction. At least it’s not cocaine or heroin though, right?

As far as Exodus goes I’m not real sure where the idea came from. I was watching Falling Skies and based my character, Serus, off of the actor, Drew Roy. I guess I wanted a flawed superhero with a tortured past. Exodus is what I eventually created, lol.

I have read a couple of books lately that deal with law enforcement and government using their positions in an imbalanced way in order to achieve personal goals. Have any of the recent supposed imbalance between law enforcement and everyday civilians had an impact on the creative process of writing Exodus or any of your other books?

Truthfully I don’t like watching the news. I come up with bad enough ideas of what the future will be like without it. But I don’t live in a void and I hear about things. I think growing up in the Bible Belt and knowing about what Revelations said the future is supposed to be like, coupled with my own personal views, gives me enough to roll out about a hundred different futures without happy endings. It’s easy to see how people come to those conclusions when you look at how corrupt government is worldwide. It’s actually scary to think about.

Tell us a little bit about the other books you’ve written. Are they strictly dystopian/apocalyptic? What other projects are you working on?

Most of my books are dystopian science fiction. But I am also part of a multi-author urban fantasy series called The Twin Cities Series. We are doing a big push in February to bring in readers and recruit more authors into the series.

I’m also trying to wrap up The Dead Planet Series this year. It’s been a long road completing the series so I’m excited to have the trilogy done. After that I want to write a Batman fanfic and finish other projects.

Now tell us some fun facts about yourself. If you could write yourself as a character into any book series or movie, who would you want to be and why?

You know that meme that says to be Batman? Yeah…

That’s a pretty hard question because I’ve seen a bunch of movies with awesome characters. I think the only prerequisite is that I not die…that would suck lol.

Give us a list of things on your bucket list. What have you done already, and what do you still want to do?

I want to see the world and retire from the navy, live in the country, and be a full-time author. I’ve only seen parts of the world at this point 😉

Again Drew, thank you so much, for being a part of BOD and for sharing a little bit about yourself and your awesome stories with all of us!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Website  |  Facebook  |  Twitter  |  Amazon

Drew Avera is an active duty navy veteran and science fiction author. After growing up in rural Mississippi, Drew joined the US Navy at the ripe old age of seventeen. It required parental consent and only ten days after high school Drew was in boot camp. It wasn’t fun, but it was a necessary obstacle that taught him how to commit and achieve something so challenging. After graduating in the summer of 2000 his career started as an aviation electrician working on F18s. Since then he has met his wife and had two awesome daughters, he’s seen the world, and he’s achieved one of the dreams he had as a kid; to be a published author.

If you’re into fast-paced, action-packed, science fiction thrillers; then look no further. Drew creates dystopian fiction for those who love post-apocalyptic worlds ruled by corrupt governments. Get your fill with science fiction thrillers with The Dead Planet Series. You can also find urban fantasy thrillers in the multi-author created titles called The Twin Cities Series. There’s a little something for everyone who enjoys speculative fiction, so have a look at Drew’s author page and pick up a few free dystopian short stories.