Q: What inspired you to write the Sexton Chronicles series?
A: I was a Reagan Scholar at Eureka College, and as part of the scholarship the college arranged individual mentorships (one-on-one job shadowing programs) with national figures. I met with authors Terry Brooks, Stephen R. Donaldson, and Clive Cussler. Clive invited me to stay with him and his wife Barbara at their home in Colorado and provided instant and sometimes brutal critique of the material I wrote. I spent several hours in his guest room banging out stories on my portable typewriter.
Inspiration came by accident. The stories I wrote at the time were set in a world called Sexton, but I had a bad habit of including images and thoughts for the characters that had a distinctly American tint. Clive pointed that out several times—usually by drawing a thick black line through the text I had just written.
Finally, in exasperation, I created characters who came from America to the world of Sexton. I liked the freedom it allowed me as a writer, and Clive enjoyed the storyline.
1 comment:
And with that, the series was born.
Good thing for us, Clive drew a black line through your text; you went back and created a wonderful and exciting world to share with us.
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