Tell us a little about yourself.
I’ve been married to my lovely wife for 28 years. We have two great daughters. I work for a large, global IT company as a senior training specialist—my role is to develop technical training content for consumption by a global audience. Many times I find my work challenging, keeping up with the latest industry technology trends, and yet rewarding. There is a great sense of accomplishment developing something people want…material that professionals use to help them in their jobs and further their careers.
I live in Massachusetts and have lived here for eleven years. Love it here. I think because we experience all four seasons, though winters can be a bit too long. I’ve lived in many different places both in country and abroad. I was born in Germany (West Germany back then), and have lived in Italy and South Korea when serving in the military. I’ve visited many other countries, Australia, India, Great Britain, Croatia, Greece, and others as well as living in Maryland, Kansas, Tennessee, Alabama, California, yada, yada, and yada. Massachusetts is where I plan to retire.
At what point did you decide to become a writer? Was there someone or something that specifically inspired you?
I don’t think I can pinpoint any defining thing or epiphany. Fantasy has been my genre of choice, but it seemed to me that the genre lacked creativity and imagination. I felt like I was reading stories with the same races of people and the same adventures in the same settings—it’s just too repetitive for me. I drifted more towards speculative fiction with books by Conni Willis, Jean Auel, Jose Farmer, Stephen Donaldson, and Octavia Butler. It seems the fantasy shelves crowd-out these types of speculative fiction stories.
I think the driving reason for me becoming a writer is that the publishing industry was not printing the kinds of stories I like.
How do you write: outline or seat of your pants, and why?
I say a combination of both. My first effort at writing was a story called “Awakenings”. It was awful in that it followed no path. My characters had no goals and I just let them run around having cool adventures that had no rhyme or reason. Now I form a plot outline. This helps me keep my characters focused and aiming toward a goal. When I write, the outline becomes fluid and dynamic (seat of my pants), but the goal for the characters and the story remain the same.
Where are you when you are writing, and what implements/addictions do you have with you when you’re writing?
I write just about anywhere. For editing it can be impromptu; on my lunch break at work, in the living room, or in the waiting room to see the dentist. I’m fairly regimented once I have an outline and begin the first draft. I typically spend an hour before I leave for work and an hour in the evening.
I love music and typically listen while I write. When editing, I like to smell a nectarine or I’ll grab a pepper from my garden and smell that. Sounds crazy, but for some reasons it tends to focus me for the details in a scene.
You’ve written two books, The Keepers and The Lylia, as part of The Bounds series. Can you tell us what inspired those books, how you came up with the idea for them?
While in the military, I was deployed fairly often. I wrote my wife hundreds of letters and poems, which were really little actions scenes. From my poetry I formed my characters and then the story that wrapped around them. I struggled with the plot, but I think once I got the story on paper (so to speak), I was able to work the plot in. It took me years before I actually sat down and wrote the story.
Your books take place in a different world. Can you give us an overview of that world, and tell us how hard was it to come up with all of the specifics for their world?
One of the important things I wanted to accomplish with the story was for the setting to be different. I wanted to remove as much as the Earth-isms as possible. A huge problem I have with the mainstream fantasy genre is the lack of imagination applied to setting. Writers have fantastic stories with fantastic characters having fantastic adventures, but many of their settings are boring and overused.
My society is not built upon feudalism or have the feudalistic overtones. My characters are not dwarfs, elves, ogres, etc. I wanted an infrastructure and people that doesn’t resemble Earth (or Middle Earth) and yet something readers can still envision. Though my world is Earth-like physically (i.e. a single sun that rises in the east, flora and fauna), the things that make up the world are different. Sometimes making up foods, plants, and animals came easy and other times not so much.
You are currently working on your third book in the series, The Untouched. Can you tell us about the book, and when it will be released?
I expect to be done with “The Untouched” by October and available mid-October*. My stories are melancholy and this doesn’t change in the last book of the series. The Bounds’ back story and their relationship with the Saarmoor and the Humans come to fruition. We understand how Robyn came to be and discover what happened to the fate of the Saarmoor and human races.
Following the death of Keeper Alcad, the heroes move to rid Midlen of Keeper Passer who remains a threat to the peoples of Midlen. Oaths are an important element in this story. Broken oaths are why the Bounds had abandoned the Saarmoor and why the Keepers are being killed. Shirking oaths is what nearly destroyed the Saarmoor. Entering an oath is what pulls Robyn away from Devon.
The premise of the book is the untouched Brin—those for whom the Keepers cannot siphon their dom (energy or life force). With an army of untouched, our heroes can assault Keeper Passer without being snared by Keeper Passer’s Bound. When Keeper Passer sees he cannot hope to increase his power in Midlen, he move his army to the fertile lands of Lolen. Can the untouched army prevent Keeper Passer from conquering the Lolen? Can they stop Keeper Passer although Robyn, Devon, and Jessa have broken apart from the party of heroes?
*Note: The Untouched is available now as an ebook. Links are listed below.
What is your next project?
My next story, Jericho Solus, is about a man’s struggle to keep his sanity. One of the concepts I’m going to explore is memory and how much we can retain. Jericho wakes in a foreign environment not knowing how he arrived or why he is imprisoned. He’s always been paranoid that people have been after him and always took precaution to keep hidden and inconspicuous. Now his paranoia is realized, but he doesn’t know what these strange people want.
Jericho is a Kamai, one of the blenders, and had been abandoned thousands of years ago on Earth. His assignment was simple: Live among the people as one of them; gather intelligence; assess the viability of the indigenous inhabitants for harvest. When his people return to retrieve Jericho, they find a man with no memory of who he is or what his mission was—they find a Kamai who had lost his identity and became human.
Why did you choose to self-publish over going with traditional publishing?
I tried traditional publishing, but gave up. It’s simply not worth the frustration. I took the self-publishing route because I felt I needed a sense of finality for my first novel. For me, I needed that first book to be “out there” before continuing with my story. I doubt I’ll ever attempt traditional publishing, but may go that route if approached, which, I believe, is a hugely remote possibility.
You’re marooned on an island. What three inanimate objects must you have with you for your survival and/or sanity?
Aside from the obvious—satellite phone, lighter, and duct tape—to stay sane, I’d need my iPod, pen and paper, and a solar powered light…oops, is that four? I suppose my iPod is useless without earphones and something to charge it with. That makes pen, paper, and light. But, I would need a magic pen that never runs out of ink and a massive supply of paper. Well, I suppose I would need a container to keep the paper dry. So I guess my choice would be a magic pen, endless paper, and a huge Tupperware container.
Anything else you wish to say, or tell us?
I can attribute to my continued passion for writing upon several reasons. First and foremost is my imagination and the desire to share my stories; second is my group of critique buddies for whom I get the motivation, encouragement, and assistance that challenges me to produce a better and clearer story; third is the ease at which the internet has made it possible to publish my stories.
I’m open to suggestions and constructive comments, and always looking to improve my writing skills.
The print version will soon be available. Check back here, or on Jeffery Moore's
website for updated information.
