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What inspired you to become an author?
I started trying my hand at writing as soon as I could read. I always loved singing and reading poetry, so at first I only wrote song lyrics and poetry. Before long, other types of books caught my fancy. . .mainly fantasy. I’ve also always had an affinity for researching and categorizing information. These are the things that ultimately led to my first book about a metal horn unicorn tribe in which each character had a magical power based on the metal of their horns. This was long before computers so all of my research was done by hand from dictionaries and encyclopedias.
Do you have a specific writing style?
I’d say my specific writing style is educational fantasy. The work I did on my unicorn fantasy story is what led to the idea of writing the first in my series of illustrated periodic table books. I already had the beginnings with 12 unicorns ready to present 12 elements of the periodic table. I had previously decided that this book would be laid out in alphabetical order so I only needed to come up with 14 more unique unicorns and elements to complete the alphabet. How hard could it be, I thought… Turns out it was quite a bit more difficult than I anticipated because not all letters of the alphabet are represented by an element. I had to get quite creative to account for all of the letters.
Do you write in different genres?
I do write in other genres but this book series has turned into a several year project so everything I’ve written in the past few years, including about 100 articles, have been about elements of the periodic table. As I mentioned, the first book in this series had Metal Horn Unicorns presenting 26 elements. Next, came Elemental Dragons presenting 26 elements, also in alphabetical order. This current book features Alchemical wizards discussing more elements. In fact, there were so many elements to be covered by the wizards that I had to split them into 2 books. Book 2 will be out later this year. After that, Actinide Knights and Radioactive Goblins will finish up the series.
If yes which is your favorite genre to write?
I love to write books that are illustrated because you can use the pictures in a thousand ways (like the previously mentioned articles) for marketing and promotion. For the Magical Elements of the Periodic Table series of books, I have used the graphics for creating memes for social media, the video shorts, activity pages to help with learning and remembering about each element, trading cards for sharing with friends, a bingo game, and even t-shirts. All of these can be found at https://www.magicalptelements.com . I’ve also utilized the pictures to put together special pages on the website where I’ve placed links to my research so that readers can check my facts and learn more themselves.
Do you have a song or playlist (book soundtrack) that you think represents this book?
The theme song for all of the Magical Elements of the Periodic Table books is called “No Metal – No Magic”. The lyrics for it feature the metal horn unicorns but it’s still applicable for all of the elementals. Their motto, after all, is No Metal – No Magic. . . and No Technology. Think about that for a second. There literally would be no modern life without the amazing gifts the elements have provided mankind over the years. The instrumental music for the song is the background music for all of the video shorts that I’ve, so far, created for the magical elementals. One day, I hope to have a video for each of the 118 elementals and the elements they represent. Check them out at https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLybqF-7D4W3EuoE2dzd9xbt4gleDECHga
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