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Band of Dystopian - Championing dystopian, apocalyptic, and post-apocalyptic fiction.
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Contact
  • About
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Interviews

BOD Spotlight with Bridget Nash

Interview by Carrie Avery Moriarty

Welcome, Bridget Nash, to BOD’s author spotlight. I have to say I am thrilled to be interviewing you for your debut book, Players.

Thank you! This is so exciting for me. I found BOD while I was writing Players and it’s just really cool to be here as an author now.

In reading your bio on Amazon I see you’ve always loved writing, and that you worked in journalism. Do you prefer writing fiction or non-fiction more?

I definitely prefer writing fiction. I like making up the things that happen and taking things in the direction I choose. Even when it seems to me that my characters take over and write the story for me, I made those characters. They are mine. I might have a complex…ha ha! But, that’s not to say journalism isn’t interesting. Writing about events as they happen, being the person that tells thousands of people what went down, that can be pretty cool too. In journalism, though, I have to quote people verbatim, and in fiction I can tweak what’s in quotation marks until I feel that what the character said precisely conveys what needed to be said. I like that.

I was intrigued by the concept of your story. Can you tell me where the idea came from?

Players came from several different places in my head. I think the first ideas came from my love of the stage. Stage acting is such a specific talent. Screen actors can’t always do stage acting, but stage actors can almost always do screen acting. Even more than stage acting, I love the world of traveling players and that’s something that is basically extinct. Sure there are theatre groups, like Missoula Children’s Theatre from Montana, that travel and put on plays. But it’s not the same things as traveling players from Shakespeare’s era. Those Elizabethan traveling players lived their craft, and the idea of them traveling down dusty roads in wagons filled with props, rehearsing wherever they stopped, that creates this air of mystery around them that I love. So, Players started from a little idea of wanting to write a story about traveling players.

You’ve created an interesting utopian society within your book. Why did you choose to put your story right in the middle of this perfect world?

Like I said, I wanted to write a story about traveling players. Every time I tried to put my dark little group of actors in a setting, I wasn’t happy with it. The most obvious route would have been to write a period piece, but I scratched that idea right away because I wanted to bring the magic of traveling performers out of the dust-covered past. I played around the idea of having them in a huge, modern city, like New York City but I couldn’t seem to make that work out in my mind. So, I created a future society that mimics what we know today, where traveling players are no longer a thing of the past. I created a society where entertainers are outcasts but entertainment itself is an important distraction. And I use the theme of the stage to parallel the careful stage that is a utopian society. Things aren’t always what they seem. All the world’s a stage.

Your story follows a group of actors and writers who travel through the country putting on plays for small communities. Do you have any training in theatre? I only ask because you nailed several superstitions and ideas only those within the theatre world would understand.

I’m chuckling a little because my theatre training is limited to my involvement in Speech and Drama in high school. That is where I realized how peculiar a talent stage acting is. For those who were never involved in competitive speech, I’ll tell you that it’s not about standing up and giving speeches, although you do learn about that in Speech class. Competitive speech is acting. It’s very dramatic. You perform monologues or duets and I was really good at it. Well, except for the times I decided on my pieces on the way to the speech meet. Those times I was laughable. But when I applied myself, I was good at competitive speech and I loved it. I won awards. However, when it came to the drama part of Speech and Drama, it seemed like a completely different planet. Put me on a stage to do a monologue and I nail it. Ask me to act in an entire play? Choke. My motions were awkward, my dialogue unbelievable. I couldn’t do it. Because stage acting is a magic I don’t possess, but I love it nonetheless. So, to actually answer your question, my knowledge of the theatre comes from limited experience, appreciation, and research.

When the story ended, I was left wanting more. Do you have an expected release date for any follow up book?

When the story ended, I was left wanting more, too! I fully expected to write a standalone novel with a slightly ambiguous ending. I had planned to end with closure but one slight question. That question is, “Are all players liars?” However, when I got near the end, the story had already kept going beyond that in my mind. By the time I wrote the end, I already knew what was going to happen next. I have started the sequel. I’d love to finish it this year. I think if more people express that they want to know what happens next, the more I’ll be motivated to get it finished. But it is in progress.

Do you identify with a particular character in your story? If so, who and why.

The protagonist, Ryan, and I share one particular quality and that is second guessing decisions. It’s not an admirable quality in the least. But I tend to mull things over until I’ve driven myself half mad and still have no answer. Actually, I’m way worse than Ryan. But he lacks confidence in his own decisions and so do I.

There is a major puzzle within the story that Ryan, the main protagonist, has to figure out. Do you enjoy puzzles?

In theory, yes. In reality, I give up too easily. I always think I find hidden messages and meanings in things but when it comes to actually figuring out if I’m right…I’ll do it later.

Your other book, The Cabin, appears to be quite a different type of story, a mystery/thriller. Which type of story was more difficult to write?

Players was definitely more difficult to write. Players was also a lot more brainstorming than writing. The world of Players is much bigger in my mind than it is in the book. I know a ridiculous amount more about the society of UniState than is portrayed in the book. That’s a definite positive about getting to write a sequel. I’ll get to introduce more of what’s going on backstage in that society. For The Cabin, all I had to do was create a unique way to put someone in a survival situation. I didn’t have to build an entire world.

Thank you so much for allowing me to interview you. I can’t wait for all of our BOD family to read your fantastic book, Players.

ABOUT BRIDGET

Bridget Nash lives in northwest Oklahoma where she was a newspaper journalist who received several Associated Press/Oklahoma Press Association awards for both writing and photography. She has a small portrait photography business and now stays home with her daughter, contributing to the news world on a freelance basis.
​
Players is Bridget’s first completed novel since she was in eighth grade, but she swears if she ever finds that eighth-grade manuscript, she’ll burn it. Ever since she could hold a pencil, she has enjoyed writing as a recreational activity. As a child and a teen she could often be found outdoors with a notebook and pen, listening to the birds and the wind while making up her own worlds on paper.

When she isn’t writing or taking photographs, Bridget enjoys reading and watching sitcoms simultaneously. Her favorite sitcoms are Frasier, Friends and I Love Lucy. Her favorite books are Frankenstein, Jane Eyre and A Ring of Endless Light. She hates putting away laundry and doesn’t know much about cooking, but she likes to make her own kombucha and experiment with growing edible things like tomatoes, strawberries, and pumpkins.  She much prefers cold weather over warm and loves rain and snow, even though she prefers going barefoot over wearing shoes.
​
Bridget lives in a very small Oklahoma town with a population of about 400, along with her husband; a daughter; two dogs, Trevor and Penny; a border collie who doesn’t think dog rules apply to him, Taban; a cat named Taylor Swift; and a fancy rat named Sheldon. There are also black widows by the water meter but she doesn’t name them and prefers not to think about them.

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February 28, 2016by Band of Dystopian
Interviews

BOD Spotlight with Tamara Jones

Interview by Angie Taylor

Welcome, Tamara Jones, I’m so excited to feature you on the BOD blog and share with all our Bod members a little bit about yourself and your awesome writing.

I’m excited to be here. Thanks for having me!

For starters, will you please tell us a little bit about yourself? ​

The short answer is I’m a wife, mom, writer, and quilter from small town Iowa. The more complicated answer is I’m a delightfully married insomniac night owl who’s compelled to create, either by throwing bright fabric at a quilt project or slaughtering people on paper.

When did you join BOD, and what do you most like about it?

About a year ago, I think. I like that everyone’s crazy helpful and friendly, and we all like different types of stories. Whether it’s zombies, plagues, murderers, government collapses, or anything else, BOD’s there to help you get your book or movie fix!

From what I understand, you have a diverse artistic background. You studied art, so how did you become a writer? Have you always written or was it something that kind of just happened?

I’ve been writing fiction since I was about seven years old and wrote my first full-length novel when I was fourteen. So, yeah, it’s been a constant in my life, other than the ebbs and flows that seem to come with it. I’ll write like crazy for a while, then won’t write at all for a while, then write like crazy… I wish I was more consistently productive, but my brain works how it works.

As for Art, I’ve also been ‘artistic’ and ‘crafty’ for my whole life as well. People are often surprised that I actually can draw. I don’t draw much these days, I tend to dump my visual art expression into quilting, but I still sketch out characters, maps, and locations from time to time. When I went back to college after our daughter was born, I took some drawing classes for fun. Drawing class led to me getting a BA in graphic design with an emphasis in illustration. I worked as a graphic designer for about a decade before my first novel, Ghosts in the Snow, sold to Bantam.

How has your artistic background translated into your many writings?

I’m a very visual person, and I think that quality, more than the art, translates into being able to not only create visual things—like drawings, paintings, and quilts—but being able to set setting and character efficiently. I can identify the ‘telling details’ without spending a great deal of word count and can, hopefully, leave enough room for the reader to fill in the rest with their minds.

I have so enjoyed reading Spore. What a fun, freaky concept. Can you give us an overview of what Spore is about?

Spore’s about people who used to be dead, and the comic artist who tries to save them.
It’s also a story told from three distinct perspectives. First, we have Sean, the tortured comic artist who tries to help the spores despite his own crippling nightmares and family issues. Next, we have Mindy, one of the spores who just wants her life back, but her ex isn’t willing to let her have it without a fight. Last, we have Todd, a deputy trying to get to the truth of what happened to Mindy as well as why Sean’s nightmares are matching a murderer who’s snatching and killing children. All the while, the three stories interconnect and twirl together while the fungus spreads, causing more and more panic, fear, death… and more spores.

ABOUT SPORE: The dead are coming back. Ten naked people walk from a cemetery into artist Sean Casey’s backyard: ten Spore People who used to be dead. One, Mindy, stays with Sean while trying to reclaim her life, but her ex would rather she return to her grave. Sean struggles to protect Mindy and other Spores while battling his recurring-and worsening-nightmares. Meanwhile, the media feeds a panicked frenzy that leads both the hopeful and hateful to Sean’s front door. As the Spore fungus spreads, so does the fear. When mutilated children match Sean’s nightmares, he realizes his own worst terror may be closer than he thinks.

I have read a lot of zombie type books, and most of the time the zombie characters are so unbelievable. But that wasn’t the case at all in Spore. In fact you’ve created zombie characters with whom I sympathized and felt sorry for. Can you tell us a little about what inspired you to create your specific reanimated zombie-like characters in Spore?

I’m a bit of a science geek and I read a LOT. Several years ago, I read about a fungus that can spread for miles underground like a mesh. It sat in my head, stewing like those things tend to do, and one day I got an image in my head of a bunch of naked people walking into some guy’s back yard. I knew his name was Sean and he was an artist, but I didn’t know who the people were, only they were lost and he wanted to help them. As I twirled the idea around in my head a while, the fungal-mesh factoid in the recesses of my brain bubbled up and I decided the people used to be dead but weren’t anymore because the fungus replicated them. After that, I just followed along while Sean’s life went to hell and Mindy tried to get hers back.

Sean is such a fantastic focal character. I loved how he didn’t hesitate at all to help the naked people that just showed up on his lawn. He’s the kind of character that a reader wants to cheer along. Was Sean based off of a real person? And can you tell us about Sean’s role in Spore?

Thank you! No, Sean isn’t based on anyone, he’s just who he is. He’s complicated and troubled in some ways, a bright shining light of principle and justice in others, but mostly he’s his own flawed self. A good, if kind of screwed up, guy. He’s the main protagonist in the story, and I tried to have him face the things anyone would when a miracle (or plague) like the spores walk into their life. He was a great mirror (and window) to show both the good and bad in people, the hope and the fear, the desperation, the elation… I literally dumped it all on his doorstep.

I love strong female characters, so Mare and Mindy are two of my favorite characters in Spore. Do you feel a strong female character can influence readers, and if so how? 

I think any strong character, regardless of gender, can influence readers, but it’s especially fun to write strong women who are vastly different, yet still rounded and relatable. There’s a definite movement to give female characters agency in stories instead of making them little more than window dressing or arm candy for the men. While it’s very important for storytellers to do, in all honesty I didn’t really think about it until readers started pointing it out. Both Mare (Sean’s live-in girlfriend) and Mindy (one of the Spores) stepped onto the page as themselves – fully actualized people. While SPORE’s definitely Sean’s story at its core, he couldn’t have told it without the support (and no-bullshit-tolerance) of Mare. He, alone, isn’t strong enough.

Mindy, however, has the most growth, I think, as she moves from victim to independence. She, too, couldn’t have done it without Mare, so maybe Mare’s the glue that holds each of the two main protagonists together?

Spore is just one of many books you have written, which makes me excited to discover your other works. But from what I was able to research you have a special love for writing horror. Can you tell us about your other books and what draws you to writing horror stories? Do you have a favorite author that has influenced your love for horror?

I read a lot of mass-market-paperback horror as a teenager, from VC Andrews’ Flowers in the Attic to The Amityville Horror, to pretty much everything by Stephen King. I read it all, the good stuff and utter crap, but I suppose King is my favorite, especially The Stand. Carrie was the first horror novel I’d read, back in 1975 or so, so maybe that’s why I’m such a fan of Stephen King.

As for my other books, I have three forensic fantasy novels (serial killer in a castle stories, sort of, but they’re actually post-apocalyptic dystopian) titled Ghosts in the Snow, Threads of Malice, and Valley of the Soul. In each, the main character, Castellan Dubric Byerly, is faced with a string of murders and is plagued by the ghosts of the victims until he avenges their deaths. They’re all violent and gory, especially Threads of Malice. I also have three short stories available as ebooks – Fire, Endorphins, and Sid – all violent as well.

I’m not precisely sure why I enjoy ‘slaughtering people on paper’, but it is fascinating to research why people do such awful things to each other, and what turns a regular person into a psychopath, as well as what turns a regular person into a hero. With horror and similar fiction, I get to explore both extremes and it can be really fun.

Your bio says that you like to quilt. I’m a sewer myself and have made several quilts. How long have you been quilting/sewing, and what do you like most about making quilts/creating a work of art?

I started sewing when our daughter – now 26 – was about 6 months old. We were flat out broke and it was much cheaper to buy fabric at the dime store and make her clothes than it was to purchase them already made, so I taught myself how to sew. I made a lot of her clothes until she was about ten or so because I grew to love sewing, but it didn’t take long, maybe three or four months, before the leftover scraps started to become a problem. She was less than a year old when I made my first quilt from those scraps, a small Bargello wall hanging which she still has. The quilts rapidly became larger and more complicated, and I don’t sew clothes anymore, only quilts.

As for what I like best about it, I think it’s a combination of the high I get from creative expression as well as my favorite part of the process: the planning and cutting. It’s embarrassing how many quilts I have cut up and ready to go but haven’t sewn yet. I enjoy piecing quite a lot, but don’t really enjoy quilting the layers together. I can do it – and do it – but I generally send out larger quilts. I will quilt smaller ones myself, though. Also, I sew almost 100% by machine. I’ll do some embellishments by hand, and I hand finish binding, but that’s it. If my sewing machine won’t do it, I won’t do it.

Are there any last crazy or fun facts you’d like all of us at BOD to know about?

I was a role playing finalist in the 90’s at the RPGA invitational at GenCon, but I don’t game any more. My husband does, though, and we regularly have gamers in the basement playing Pathfinder or AD&D.

Oh, how fun. I’ve never really been in to gaming, but I know people who love it. 
Well, thank you, Tamara, for spending time with us at BOD and for sharing your time and talents with us.

Thank you, Angie, for having me! {{hugs}}

ABOUT TAMARA

Tamara started her academic career as a science geek, earned a degree in art, and, when she’s not making quilts or herding cats, writes tense thrillers as Tamara Jones and the award-winning Dubric Byerly Mysteries series (Bantam Spectra), as Tamara Siler Jones. Despite the violent nature of her work, Tam’s easygoing and friendly. Not sick or twisted at all. Honest.
​
Tamara is represented by Laura Bradford at Bradford Literary Agency.

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February 13, 2016by Band of Dystopian
Interviews

BOD Spotlight with Caroline A Gill

Welcome, Caroline Gill. I’m so excited to interview you and feature you on the BOD blog so that all of us can get to know you better. Thank you for joining us.

Really, I am so lucky to be a part of a group as loyal and strong as BOD. I want to thank you, Angie, for going out of your way to reschedule this interview three times as my editors realized I would have to cut the first 40 pages of the novel. There was a great deal of crying and rewrites as I tried to figure out how to follow their counsel. And my editing team was absolutely right. The book is better for the missing pages.

I always love hearing about authors’ writing journeys. Can you tell us how becoming an author came about for you?

When I was in high school, I read everything, as much as I could. I was raised on National Geographic, seeing the wonders of the wide world. Mostly, I wrote for school or I wrote in my journal. It wasn’t until my ten year HS reunion that it really hit me. My high school English teacher was there, asked me what I was doing, how many books I had published. When I said none, he got terribly upset. To see someone feel so passionately about something made me take a step back and wonder what I had misplaced. After all those years, he still had faith in my writing. So at first, I got out my keyboard and wrote for him.

I have so enjoyed reading Flying Away. Never have I read such a magical, fantastical dystopian story. Where did the idea come from?

I think writing a book is the same as drawing a picture, it begins with one stroke across a blank page. I had a dream of a little girl, staring out of a high window, perched almost like a sparrow up in a tree. Her big eyes staring intently down to the street corner, waiting for her father to come home. She was ferocious in her determination to be there when he came back home. And I could see, that within hours of her taking up that look out, the flies would ignore her intrusion as they danced on the windowsill.

I love Lani’s physical/spiritual connection with flies, other winged insects, and nature in general. I’d really love to know, why choose flies to be Lani’s helpers?

In fiction, I feel like magic is seen as this rare force, found in only the most special of objects, or to the most powerful characters, by birth or talent. Iolani waits. She listens and watches for her father with the stubbornness only a child can muster. And because of that, she sees the ordinary outside her window and there, on the windowsill. And because of her confidence and stillness, the flies see her. Magic for me is found in the ordinary. Anything can become magical if it is loved.

The cover art on and in Flying Away is so beautiful. Please share with us all about how you became an artist and what it means for you to be able to draw such beautiful images.

You are so kind. I have always drawn, with just as much skill as every other kid in my grade I think. I really pursued drawing in college, trying to show the beauty in every detail of a wrinkled face, or the feathers of an eagle’s wing. I did not myself know what Lani looked like, until she bloomed into being under my hand. I started the drawing, but she formed herself. It means so much to me to be able to share the images in my imagination. I am constantly surprised by what emerges.

As a new indie author, what has your journey been like getting Flying Away ready for publication? Who helped you along the journey?

I wrote Flying Away as a Nanowrimo novel in November of 2014. After my chapter was accepted for Prep for Doom, I began working with Your Elemental Solutions to make the book shine. They, along with Cheer, helped over and over to refine my odd story. I had initially had time jumps and chaos, they managed to smooth that out. Myra Lang, Casey Bond, and Amy Bartelloni were incredibly helpful as well, reading and cheering me on, even when the list of things to do overwhelmed me.

From what I understand you are a woman who wears many different hats. Can you tell us all of the awesome responsibilities you’re a part of? What’s your day job when you’re not writing or drawing?

I am at home right now, trying to make a dream come true of writing novels. I have also taught figure drawing and art classes at college. Most of my days are spent at the beck and call of my five children, who are all writing novels themselves. Their illustrations mark my walls. lol.

What has your experience been like being a part of BOD?

BOD is family. And the wonderful thing is, it keeps growing. We all rise to the occasion, supporting one another, cheering each other on. I think Rick Grimes would be proud.

What can you tell us about participating in creating Prep for Doom?

From the very beginning, the brainstorming was so exciting. And then the work on the disease details. It was so much fun seeing other people’s minds spinning new ideas. We had a post where we claimed certain viewpoints. They all went pretty fast. I was slow to write and so many viewpoints had been taken, I realized I would have to tell a story outside the main world view. One of the stories shared with authors was the CDC interview with the reporter, outlining the symptoms and stages of the virus. The scientist stated adamantly that there had been no sign of this virus in Ghana. So of course, I had to have it start on the very edge of Ghana, because life is snarky like that. ER Arroyo was such a gracious and organized collaborator throughout the submission and revision process. I feel like ER’s team spent so much time on that collection of stories. It is their work that makes the book flow.

Besides writing and drawing, do you have any other areas of artistic expertise you’re involved in?
​

Honestly, there are so many fields I wish I knew. I cannot sing, not really, nor dance and I love music. Can’t play any instruments at all. I can whistle, does that count? I really appreciate other’s skills in fields related to mine: design, interior design, formatting, book covers, gardening, pottery, wood working. The list goes on as long as there are individuals trying to express their imaginations. I am only one small voice in a much bigger chorus.

What about your education? I’ve been told you have quite a few degrees. Can you tell us how that came to be?

I was always told a university education was the key to opening doors, the key to the good life. And in some ways, I am sure that is true. It’s harder to see in the creative fields because so many people give up and take a job just to make a living. I paid my way through my last two years at UCLA and discovered employers weren’t impressed with the fine arts bachelor degree. I attended NIU and received an MFA in printmaking and metalsmithing only to realize art is all opinion. So many people I went to school with were great artists but many were not great teachers. So I thought I would get a sister degree, a Masters in Art History which has allowed me to teach in several community colleges in California. At the end of it all, I realized art is individual. It really is. And the ability to teach is a gift. I am pleased to teach others some of the things I have learned.

Is there anything else you’d like to share with us?

I am very excited and grateful for the response so far to Flying Away. I try to tell the story that has not yet been spoken, the journey not yet taken. And yes, I believe in Happily Every Afters, I really do. I have the battle scars to prove it. I hope you will trust me enough to come Fly Away…

ABOUT CAROLINE

Caroline A. Gill went to school at UCLA and NIU. She married the love of her life. Facing the world with children made her aware of how vulnerable they are. Weaving tales of courage, she tries to find hope. Living near the great California Redwoods, she finds a sense of the finite and infinite touching. The creative world is like that, especially when authors feel inspired. ​

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February 1, 2016by Band of Dystopian

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