Showing posts with label J Naomi Ay. Show all posts
Showing posts with label J Naomi Ay. Show all posts

Monday, September 10, 2012

Meet Thad Mattson




I’d like to welcome Thad Mattson, the President of SdK Corporation, to A Blue Million Books. Thad appears in J. Naomi Ay’s The Two Moons of Rehnor series in books 2 – 6.

Hello, Thad. May I call you Thad? Tell me, how did you first meet your writer? 
Who are you talking about? What are you talking about?  I thought this interview was going to be on our quarterly financials and the scheduled product releases for the remainder of the year. Unfortunately, I have to announce a delay in the neural-vascular guidewire release, as there has been a problem upgrading the software in the existing controller hardware. Everyone at SdK Corporation, including Dr. SdK himself, is committed to resolving this issue as quickly as possible. 

Guidewire? Neural-vascular? Let's talk English. Did you ever think that your life would end up being in a book? 
Oh! You want to talk about me?  Personally? That's cool I guess.  I'm in a book?  Is it a comic book? If it is, I want a green body suit and some kind of super power like heat vision. Yeah, I like that. I want to be able to point at something and make it heat like toast. You want toast, just show me some bread, and zowie, we've got toast. 

Tell us about your favorite scene in the book. 
My wife would want me to say that it would be the scene where we met, so that's my story, and I'm sticking to it, even though I don't think that scene's even in there, but I still have to live with her, so yeah. 

Smart man. What do you like to do when you are not being actively read somewhere or nagged by your wife? 
Well, the guys and I tend to go out for drinks and wings and that kind of s**t. Our favorite place to hang is the Cowboy Corral. You can get a whole pitcher for like 4 credits. The burgers aren't too bad either. The fries are way greasy though. Berk loves their hot wings with ranch sauce, so I always take him there whenever he's in town. Did I ever tell you about the time that we went there with Ron and Katie and Ron had one of those, you know, episodes? Oh. I better keep my mouth shut in case one of you guys out there wants to read it. 

Episodes? Hmmm…I’m going to need to look into that. If you could rewrite anything in your book, what would it be? 
I'd eliminate all references to my ex-wife.  

 Oooh, sounds interesting. Now I want to know more about your ex-wife. Maybe Naomi will dish later. Next question: What is your least favorite characteristic your writer has given you?
 None. I'm totally perfect in every way. 
  
Mmm hmmm. I’ll just bet you are. Do you have any secret aspirations that your author doesn’t know about? 
I wish I could do that finger thing that Ron does.
 
I thought anybody could do that. What's the worst thing that's happened in your life? Not being able to do the finger thing?
Marrying my first wife. 

And what did you learn from that?  
Be more careful choosing the second.

Sound advice. Tell us about your best friend—is it your wife? 
My best friend (outside of my lovely wife, of course) would have to be Ron, and I can't really tell you too much about him, because then you'd know everything, and there'd be no point in reading the book.

Well we can’t have that. One last question: what do you like best about Ron?
He's the coolest dude in the galaxy, but he also scares the s**t out of me. Now that I've learned to duck and cover and, if possible, clear the area when he gets mad, I'm okay with it.

Alrighty then, Thad. Thanks for stopping in. You’ve convinced me. I’m going to have to read your book. Good luck with your second wife and with learning that finger thing of Ron’s. By the way, I was just kidding you. I can’t do it either.

About Thad’s author, J Naomi Ay:
Naomi lives in the north Olympic Peninsula and is mom to three kids and a Pomeranian. Naomi has always been a fan of historical fiction, fantasy, and science fiction. When not dreaming of space adventures, Naomi works in the renewable energy business and spends time out on the water.
Find Naomi:
Facebook 
Goodreads 
Twitter
Website 
Blog


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Friday, September 7, 2012

J Naomi Ay Answers Eight Questions With Amy

">Escaping the nuclear destruction they had caused on the mother planet Rozari, the Mishnese and Karupatani both chose to resettle on the same planet and continue their fighting. Thus the planet Rehnor has been plagued by wars for more than 1,000 years. The two new young kings have decided enough is enough though and wed their children, the Karupta Crown Prince to the Mishnese Princess Royal, removing both from the throne and declaring their unborn son as the heir to the planet. Unfortunately, the Princess dies in childbirth and the boy is secreted away by the Mishnese, hidden from his father's family in a decrepit inner city orphanage. But, the boy is not a normal child, he has telekinetic and telepathic powers, strange silver eyes and an astonishing, other-worldly beauty. It is clear he is more than just a prince. He is in fact, the MaKennah, the savior whose birth was foretold in the writings of his ancestors. But will he save the planet from the wars or will he be killed before he even gets a chance?

Now let’s grill, I mean chat with Naomi. 
1.          Naomi, welcome, and thank you for being here. How long have you been writing and how did you start? 

Since about second grade.  My first grade teacher asked me to write a story for the first grader's parent night.  Of course, I wasn't sure why at the time, but I wrote a lovely little story complete with illustrations about dogs and cats choosing not to chase each other.  This was during the height of the Vietnam War so I guess at seven years old, world peace was very much on my mind.  After that, I remember writing a short story in sixth grade about a white girl falling in love with a Native American guy and her parents going into convulsions about the impending inter-racial marriage.  I recall that my sixth grade teacher was very impressed and awarded me two red licorice whips for my efforts.

 Never underestimate the effect of a teacher’s encouragement. Or the incentive value of a red licorice whip. How did you come up with the title of your book?

Book 1 in my series, The Two Moons of Rehnor, is called The Boy who Lit up the Sky.  It's kind of a long name, and for the most part the rest of the books have shorter names but that one specifically is about the Boy, and he does light up the sky.  Well, actually, they are all about the boy, but that's the only one when he really is just a boy and he really does light up the sky in more ways than one.

Sounds intriguing. Do you outline or write by the seat of your
    pants? 

What's an outline?  Actually, since the original series was written just on the fly, whatever I dreamed up that day, there was no method to my madness.  Now, since it's actually published and set in stone, I do make notes and at least try to come up with a general theme of what's going to happen in this story.

That’s exactly what happened to me. I have imaginary friends who help me write. Do you have imaginary friends? When do they talk to you? Do they tell you what to write or do you tell them to shut up? 

I thought I did.  In fact, I thought everything was just peachy until one of them reported me to the state authorities for not paying overtime.  I have a hearing in two weeks where I'll try to convince the state labor board that none of these people really exist and therefore, I do not need to comply with OSHA regulations for workplace safety.  If you'd like to read more about this, I have a little piece on my blog right here: http://jnaomiay.wordpress.com/2012/08/06/im-in-trouble/

Wow. You must really be a taskmaster. How do you develop your characters? 

I don't.  They develop themselves.  Seriously, maybe I need medication.  In fact, when I find myself stuck, I sit back and kind of let them take over and strangely enough, the stories all go in directions I never would have thought of.

    I’ve had that happen too. Sometimes I have to put my foot down with them, though. When you start a new book, do you know what the entire cast will be? 

Not at all.  I'll have a general idea of where the story's going to go and who might need to be in it but then someone else will ring up and say "Hey, write me into that."

 That’s a good way to make new friends. What would your main character say about you? 

He would say I'm cruel.  He'd want to know why I keep making him do these things and keep hurting in the process.  He would ask me again to just leave him alone and let him go on with his life.  Then he would sue me.

Your characters certainly are litigious. I wish you luck with all of that legal stuff. What are you working on now?

I've got multiple projects on my proverbial plate right now.  I'm working on Book 2 in the Journey to Rehnor series, which is a prequel series set 1,000 years prior to The Two Moons of Rehnor series.  I'm also working on a series of 10k plus word novellas that fill in the gaps on the Two Moons series.  The ones that are out now are:
Lydia's Dance - which is all about Senya's mother
Cassia's Favor - which follows Katie as she joins the Allied Spaceforce
And next up will be Taner's Game - which gives us some history on Taner before he meets Senya.

The great thing about this Novella Collection is that each book is priced around $1, they are in KDP Select so occasionally will be free, and they give the reader a quick and fun introduction to not only my style but the series.

That sounds great. And so does your series. I’m looking forward to getting to know your characters better tomorrow when you bring them in for a chat. And thanks for stopping in today, Naomi.

About Naomi:

Naomi lives in the north Olympic Peninsula and is mom to three kids and a Pomeranian. Naomi has always been a fan of historical fiction, fantasy, and science fiction. When not dreaming of space adventures, Naomi works in the renewable energy business and spends time out on the water.

Find Naomi: 
Website  
Blog
Facebook page
Goodreads authorpage
Twitter
Book trailer
Amazon

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