A sorcerer? Alright, that’s standard fare for speculative fiction, right? Well, this one happens to be a possum. Yes, that’s right. In Flight of Blue, a novel by A.E. Howard, there’s a possum sorcerer looking for revenge. What more do you need to know?
Q: WHAT WERE YOUR GOALS WRITING FLIGHT OF BLUE?
I wanted to write a world where friendship, loyalty, compassion and courage could stand in the face of great evil and overcome. I love fantasy stories because I feel that more than any other kind of fiction, fantasy takes us completely out of our world where we can have a rip-roaring adventure and come back to see ourselves and our world differently.
Q: HOW DO YOU CHOOSE WHICH STORY TO WRITE?
I just write whichever one has the loudest characters screaming at me to write them. Or, whichever one has come most to life in my head since I usually have two to three worlds up there at any given time.
Q: WHAT ARE SOME EXAMPLES FROM THE STORY WHERE YOU DREW ELEMENTS FROM REAL LIFE?
Well, it’s pretty much set right where I live. Kai’s house is my house almost exactly, and the cursed light is a new traffic light close to my house, where, just after it was installed, I was nearly t-boned, not once but twice by cars running the red light as if it wasn’t there. “Hmmm,” I thought to myself, “it’s almost like that light is cursed to indicate green on both sides…” And then I started wondering who would have cursed it, and it led me to an Opossum sorcerer with some serious attitude.
Q: IN YOUR NEW NOVEL, WHO IS THE CHARACTER IN THIS STORY WHO SURPRISED YOU MOST?
Reginald, the aforementioned Opossum sorcerer, turned out to be the supporting character that stole every scene he was in, so much so, that he’s got his own novella coming out in a few months (He wasn’t thrilled with my human-centered story, thinking it betrayed my bias for bipeds, seeing as how I am one myself, so he decided to write his own story…).
Also, when I started Flight of Blue, I didn’t realize Ellie had a gift, but then she didn’t either, so how could she have told me? (Oops, slight spoiler).
Q: WHAT DO YOU HOPE READERS GET OUT OF YOUR WORK?
Fun, adventure, and the knowledge that no matter how dark it seems, sometimes all it takes is one person to decide to stand against it, and things can be changed.