The guest author for today on Interviews with Dante is Casey Lehman. He is a writer of Sci/Fi/Fantasy/Anthro Romance. His latest work A Second Chance, coauthored with Ronald Steven Lessiter, is the first book in the TalonFrye Chronicles.
Please tell us a little about yourself.
I am an avid dragon, anime romance fanfiction lover. I suffer from aspergers, tourettes, depression, bipolar disorder and have slight PTSD from certain incidents in my past. Although I am hesitant to spout the technicalities behind how this series began, I will say my co-author and I are still in the process of writing our series. I feel D&D (Dungeons and Dragons) is a large inspiration for my work nowadays.
Tell us about your latest book.
The actual world in which The TalonFyre Chronicles, Book 1: A Second Chance, was originally based on the Legend of Spyro world, but I desired to pull this kind of idea and base it on Dungeons and Dragons instead. In the the first book of the series, the odd and very dense 19-year old lava-blooded dragon mercenary known as TalonFyre meets a (seemingly)22-year old light dragon by the name of Flare. Flare promptly introduces him to his violence-loving, extremely tomboyish and exceptionally attractive 17-year old daughter, Hikari. She almost instantly falls for him, despite his unromantic attitude and extreme unintelligence. This book is about their struggles, the healing power of love, redemption, and the fact that you don’t have to be the same species to fall in love(see the two of the four side-characters, Ultimar and Mian).
What do you have coming out in the future?
The TalonFyre Chronicles, Books 2 and 3, The TalonFyre Epochs(a darker and more adult series taking place after the chronicles) and War of the Third Demon Parts 1, 2 and 3, the latter most being, the darker, complex-worded prequel to the series/history of the world in which The TalonFyre Chronicles takes place. It will have multiple D&D-like qualities, a semi-large cast, and may cause controversy due to the nature and traditions of said world.
Is your book a stand-alone or a series?
As stated before, both the Chronicles and the Epochs are part of the same series. War of the Third Demon is a spinoff/prequel.
Why romance and what makes your particular brand of romance special?
It’s something that hasn’t been done that much before in an actual book series. An anthro-romance novel about dragons. What makes it truly interesting is that my aunt actually sometimes forgot they were dragons, but instead humans due to the fact that they have almost no bestial qualities in their personality whatsoever. This, coupled with nearly zero instinct, causes it to be somewhat unique. I hate to give spoilers, but later books will delve deep into interspecies romances as well. Even with this, they are all still fully-sentient species.
Is romance the only genre that you write in or do you write in other genres? If so what other genres do you write in?
The TalonFyre Chronicles will mostly be romance, but will have multiple adventures qualities in later books. War of the Third Demon will most likely be as follows - Part 1: Romance/ HurtComfort/Drama. Part 2: Politics/Adventure/Romance/Drama/HurtComfort/War. Part 3: War/Drama/Adventure/Romance/HurtComfort/Politics.
I am an avid dragon, anime romance fanfiction lover. I suffer from aspergers, tourettes, depression, bipolar disorder and have slight PTSD from certain incidents in my past. Although I am hesitant to spout the technicalities behind how this series began, I will say my co-author and I are still in the process of writing our series. I feel D&D (Dungeons and Dragons) is a large inspiration for my work nowadays.
Tell us about your latest book.
The actual world in which The TalonFyre Chronicles, Book 1: A Second Chance, was originally based on the Legend of Spyro world, but I desired to pull this kind of idea and base it on Dungeons and Dragons instead. In the the first book of the series, the odd and very dense 19-year old lava-blooded dragon mercenary known as TalonFyre meets a (seemingly)22-year old light dragon by the name of Flare. Flare promptly introduces him to his violence-loving, extremely tomboyish and exceptionally attractive 17-year old daughter, Hikari. She almost instantly falls for him, despite his unromantic attitude and extreme unintelligence. This book is about their struggles, the healing power of love, redemption, and the fact that you don’t have to be the same species to fall in love(see the two of the four side-characters, Ultimar and Mian).
What do you have coming out in the future?
The TalonFyre Chronicles, Books 2 and 3, The TalonFyre Epochs(a darker and more adult series taking place after the chronicles) and War of the Third Demon Parts 1, 2 and 3, the latter most being, the darker, complex-worded prequel to the series/history of the world in which The TalonFyre Chronicles takes place. It will have multiple D&D-like qualities, a semi-large cast, and may cause controversy due to the nature and traditions of said world.
Is your book a stand-alone or a series?
As stated before, both the Chronicles and the Epochs are part of the same series. War of the Third Demon is a spinoff/prequel.
Why romance and what makes your particular brand of romance special?
It’s something that hasn’t been done that much before in an actual book series. An anthro-romance novel about dragons. What makes it truly interesting is that my aunt actually sometimes forgot they were dragons, but instead humans due to the fact that they have almost no bestial qualities in their personality whatsoever. This, coupled with nearly zero instinct, causes it to be somewhat unique. I hate to give spoilers, but later books will delve deep into interspecies romances as well. Even with this, they are all still fully-sentient species.
Is romance the only genre that you write in or do you write in other genres? If so what other genres do you write in?
The TalonFyre Chronicles will mostly be romance, but will have multiple adventures qualities in later books. War of the Third Demon will most likely be as follows - Part 1: Romance/ HurtComfort/Drama. Part 2: Politics/Adventure/Romance/Drama/HurtComfort/War. Part 3: War/Drama/Adventure/Romance/HurtComfort/Politics.
TalonFyre, a 19-year old former mercenary of war, is thrust into a life he never imagined he would live when he is awoken from an dormant state by a light dragon named Flare. This light dragon introduces him to his 17-year old daughter by the name of Hikari. This dragoness might just make his life complete, but will he be able to cope? Will his insecurity and past experience allow him to consider being with her? Even more so, will mercenary history even allow him to keep this life? Only time will tell.
From where do you draw your inspiration?
Originally Legend of Spyro/Animes. Now it’s D&D/Animes/Dr. Who and multiple other series as well as my own imagination to be more original.
Do you ever base your characters on real people in your life?
Some characters are based on myself/others as well as their situations, albeit sometimes mixed and/or exaggerated.
What authors inspire your writing?
Piers Anthony, J.R.R. Tolken, Emily Roddda, Clare Keating and multiple fanfiction writers
What do you like to do when you are not writing?
Play video games, read fanfictions and watch anime
What was your road to publishing like? Tell us about it.
It was… interesting. I was originally a fanfiction writer, but retired when I realized that it wasn’t something that could make money or a real impact on lives. The TalonFyre Chronicles, although originally Spyro fanfiction, the world was completely revamped into a D&D-style with a multitude of species. The Golems in War of the Third Demons will be basted of the personifications of different emotions/situations, etc. from mythology (I.E. Thanatos, Eros, Styx, Hypnos, Aergia and others)
How did you come up with the title of your book?
The TalonFyre Chronicles seemed to the a basic yet efficient name for the series. The subtitle “A Second Chance” is due to TalonFyre having the decision to either give up his mercenary past or continue on the road to the destruction of his body, mind, heart and soul.
What is your absolute favorite book or books and why is it special to you?
Romance above all. I really don’t know why. Maybe it’s because I was always more feminine than masculine.
What celebrity would you chose to play the main character(s) in the movie rendition of your book?
TalonFyre: J.S. Gilbert’s Sweet Tooth Voice from Twisted Metal without the distortion as per the desire of my co-author.
Hikari: Anna Kingsley
Flare: Chris Niosi
Angel: Rachael Lillis
Ultimar: Vic Mignogna
Mian: Imogen Fox
Have you joined any writer’s groups?
GoodReads and a few DeviantArt Groups
Have you won any awards for your writing?
No, and I don’t expect to yet.
What is the hardest part of the writing process for you?
From a writer’s perspective, The TalonFyre Chronices would be translating the dialogue into a book format and coming up with the emotions behind the characters. As for War of the Third Demon, that would be researching the effects of the characters’ traumas and mental problems. From a mental perspective, any childbirth scenes.
What is the easiest part of the writing process for you?
The TalonFyre Chronicles: Taking the dialogue into the story. War of the Third Demon: Coming up with ideas for species.
Which of your characters is your favorite and why?
Ultimar, because of his job, soft, kind heart, selflessness, and redemption story.
Who or what are your inspirations/influences?
Ronald Steven Lessiter, my co-author, Shalone Howard A.K.A. ShaloneSK on DeviantArt for the original designs of the dragon characters, Clare Keating A.K.A. echodusk on DeviantArt, Montecristo709 on fanfiction.net for his religious influences and ideas, animes/movies (mainly Shonen Jump, Monster Rancher and Studio Ghibli), multiple video games, Gary Gygax/Dave Arneson, Dragon City and other games like it, Dragon Heart, Legend of Spyro, Lord of The Rings and some histoical events
What is your preferred writing environment?
And here’s where my oddball personality comes out - FIND THE COMPUTER ROOM!!!
How would you describe your writing style?
The TalonFyre Chronicles is more common and laid back, while War of the Third Demon is complex-worded, semi-scientific, and makes elaborate comparatives. Both have a very feminine style of writing, but the femininity is much more prominent War of the Third Demon.
Do you have a careful plan when plotting your stories or do you just go with the flow?
The dialogue for The TalonFyre Chronicles is pre-written, but for War of the Third Demon I have very few things pre-planned. In short, for the latter I “go with the flow” more than a stereotypical laid-back surfer in a 90’s movie.
With many publishing routes available today, which felt the most reliable to you when it came to the many choices?
Amazon. Echodusk told me it would be the best route to self-publish, and since she had published novella on there, I trusted her judgement.
When did you know you truly wanted to give writing a shot?
That’s a hard question. In honesty I was always a good writer, but I stopped in high-school. I think writing TalonFyre: Portrait of a Merc (the original fanficion.net version of The TalonFyre Chronicles) was actually something that got me back into writing. It’s a passion now.
What is your favorite quote?
“Ultimate power ultimately corrupts”
Do you have any advice for other writers and what is it?
If you want to write, I suggest you look at the more professionally-written books. If you have no interest in original stories, go to fanfiction.net or DeviantArt and read some of the few well-written stories of your preffered fandom. If you truly want original ideas, you may want to find a D&D group, as the games you play will give you an extreme amount of inspiration, especially if your DM(Dungeon Master) is creative enough to make his own storyline and possibly even classes/abilities. In fact, you and your friends can actually make a book out of your game if this is the case - just give credit where credit is due.
Wild Card Question.
As an author, what is the one question that you wish people would ask you, but no one ever has and what would your answer be to that question?
Do you think interspecies romances are wrong?
I am going to give an answer and then propose a series of questions - For my answer, I feel it depends if the species are both fully-sentient and the conditions of the romance. Technically speaking, depending on the species it can be somewhat creepy. However for my question we must ask ourselves this - what is the measure of man? Do we consider “sentient” to be only applied to humans? If so, is it because of ignorance, or is it because we have never met a specie with our reasoning and intelligence? If we do, will be see it as “human” or “sentient” or will said ignorance blind us to the friendship or possibly loves that could come of accepting them into our fold? If this world were to be populated with other sentient species, would it be for better or worse? Would it cause humans to see that race is nothing but an illusion of physical traits? I, for one, would welcome new sentient species into our world, providing they did not come to kill us, but rather live with us. If they saw us as beneath them due to their power or technology, yet restrained themselves from doing horrible things due to it, I would see that as amazing restraint. If even one saw that we are, in the end, equal, I would see that as amazing strength. Who’s to say that any sentient species is better than another? It would be the same as saying one race of humans is better, which is untrue, despite those who think otherwise. In the end, are we not all mere “humans” of the same cosmos?
Originally Legend of Spyro/Animes. Now it’s D&D/Animes/Dr. Who and multiple other series as well as my own imagination to be more original.
Do you ever base your characters on real people in your life?
Some characters are based on myself/others as well as their situations, albeit sometimes mixed and/or exaggerated.
What authors inspire your writing?
Piers Anthony, J.R.R. Tolken, Emily Roddda, Clare Keating and multiple fanfiction writers
What do you like to do when you are not writing?
Play video games, read fanfictions and watch anime
What was your road to publishing like? Tell us about it.
It was… interesting. I was originally a fanfiction writer, but retired when I realized that it wasn’t something that could make money or a real impact on lives. The TalonFyre Chronicles, although originally Spyro fanfiction, the world was completely revamped into a D&D-style with a multitude of species. The Golems in War of the Third Demons will be basted of the personifications of different emotions/situations, etc. from mythology (I.E. Thanatos, Eros, Styx, Hypnos, Aergia and others)
How did you come up with the title of your book?
The TalonFyre Chronicles seemed to the a basic yet efficient name for the series. The subtitle “A Second Chance” is due to TalonFyre having the decision to either give up his mercenary past or continue on the road to the destruction of his body, mind, heart and soul.
What is your absolute favorite book or books and why is it special to you?
Romance above all. I really don’t know why. Maybe it’s because I was always more feminine than masculine.
What celebrity would you chose to play the main character(s) in the movie rendition of your book?
TalonFyre: J.S. Gilbert’s Sweet Tooth Voice from Twisted Metal without the distortion as per the desire of my co-author.
Hikari: Anna Kingsley
Flare: Chris Niosi
Angel: Rachael Lillis
Ultimar: Vic Mignogna
Mian: Imogen Fox
Have you joined any writer’s groups?
GoodReads and a few DeviantArt Groups
Have you won any awards for your writing?
No, and I don’t expect to yet.
What is the hardest part of the writing process for you?
From a writer’s perspective, The TalonFyre Chronices would be translating the dialogue into a book format and coming up with the emotions behind the characters. As for War of the Third Demon, that would be researching the effects of the characters’ traumas and mental problems. From a mental perspective, any childbirth scenes.
What is the easiest part of the writing process for you?
The TalonFyre Chronicles: Taking the dialogue into the story. War of the Third Demon: Coming up with ideas for species.
Which of your characters is your favorite and why?
Ultimar, because of his job, soft, kind heart, selflessness, and redemption story.
Who or what are your inspirations/influences?
Ronald Steven Lessiter, my co-author, Shalone Howard A.K.A. ShaloneSK on DeviantArt for the original designs of the dragon characters, Clare Keating A.K.A. echodusk on DeviantArt, Montecristo709 on fanfiction.net for his religious influences and ideas, animes/movies (mainly Shonen Jump, Monster Rancher and Studio Ghibli), multiple video games, Gary Gygax/Dave Arneson, Dragon City and other games like it, Dragon Heart, Legend of Spyro, Lord of The Rings and some histoical events
What is your preferred writing environment?
And here’s where my oddball personality comes out - FIND THE COMPUTER ROOM!!!
How would you describe your writing style?
The TalonFyre Chronicles is more common and laid back, while War of the Third Demon is complex-worded, semi-scientific, and makes elaborate comparatives. Both have a very feminine style of writing, but the femininity is much more prominent War of the Third Demon.
Do you have a careful plan when plotting your stories or do you just go with the flow?
The dialogue for The TalonFyre Chronicles is pre-written, but for War of the Third Demon I have very few things pre-planned. In short, for the latter I “go with the flow” more than a stereotypical laid-back surfer in a 90’s movie.
With many publishing routes available today, which felt the most reliable to you when it came to the many choices?
Amazon. Echodusk told me it would be the best route to self-publish, and since she had published novella on there, I trusted her judgement.
When did you know you truly wanted to give writing a shot?
That’s a hard question. In honesty I was always a good writer, but I stopped in high-school. I think writing TalonFyre: Portrait of a Merc (the original fanficion.net version of The TalonFyre Chronicles) was actually something that got me back into writing. It’s a passion now.
What is your favorite quote?
“Ultimate power ultimately corrupts”
Do you have any advice for other writers and what is it?
If you want to write, I suggest you look at the more professionally-written books. If you have no interest in original stories, go to fanfiction.net or DeviantArt and read some of the few well-written stories of your preffered fandom. If you truly want original ideas, you may want to find a D&D group, as the games you play will give you an extreme amount of inspiration, especially if your DM(Dungeon Master) is creative enough to make his own storyline and possibly even classes/abilities. In fact, you and your friends can actually make a book out of your game if this is the case - just give credit where credit is due.
Wild Card Question.
As an author, what is the one question that you wish people would ask you, but no one ever has and what would your answer be to that question?
Do you think interspecies romances are wrong?
I am going to give an answer and then propose a series of questions - For my answer, I feel it depends if the species are both fully-sentient and the conditions of the romance. Technically speaking, depending on the species it can be somewhat creepy. However for my question we must ask ourselves this - what is the measure of man? Do we consider “sentient” to be only applied to humans? If so, is it because of ignorance, or is it because we have never met a specie with our reasoning and intelligence? If we do, will be see it as “human” or “sentient” or will said ignorance blind us to the friendship or possibly loves that could come of accepting them into our fold? If this world were to be populated with other sentient species, would it be for better or worse? Would it cause humans to see that race is nothing but an illusion of physical traits? I, for one, would welcome new sentient species into our world, providing they did not come to kill us, but rather live with us. If they saw us as beneath them due to their power or technology, yet restrained themselves from doing horrible things due to it, I would see that as amazing restraint. If even one saw that we are, in the end, equal, I would see that as amazing strength. Who’s to say that any sentient species is better than another? It would be the same as saying one race of humans is better, which is untrue, despite those who think otherwise. In the end, are we not all mere “humans” of the same cosmos?
RSS Feed
