Bonnie S. Calhoun’s new series takes a stab at predicting
the future of this world and what that means for its inhabitants. The three-part series titled the Stone Braide Chronicles begins
with her prequel
Tremors (Revell), which you
can download for FREE right now! Bonnie sat down to talk with us about Thunder, the first full-length novel in
the speculative young adult series.
Why did you write
this series?
I wrote this series because one of my favorite all time
loves have always been dystopian books and movies like Running Man, Lord of the
Flies, Soylent Green (they’re people!),
and with the new resurgent of the genre with Wool, Hunger Games, and the
Divergent series it felt like a great time to get back to what’s really fun.
Where did you get
your inspiration?
Inspiration? There’s at least a dozen people in my head
fighting to be heard at any given time! It’s sort of like releasing the flying
monkeys. And I’m a great movie aficionado so films are always giving me ideas
and “what-if’s” to challenge my way of thinking. I love the three B’s … blood,
body count, and blowing things up! And then as a back-up, there’s always the
news of the day. Most days I’m shaking my head in disbelief … you can’t make
that stuff up!
Inspiration came from several current events, but I can’t
tell you which ones because it’s the secret to the series. In the first book, Thunder, you will get the set-up and
flavor of this society, and the mystery will start to unwind. You meet the main
players and a few of the despicable characters that send the story forward
opening up a Pandora’s box of questions and causes.
By getting right into the action of the story I had to skip
over the actual reason for the first scene of Thunder, but I offer that to you
as the FREE prequel called Tremors.
It’s available at most online retailers and if you read carefully, it will give
you the background to help understand secrets you will find in books one, two
and three.
What were the
challenging aspects of writing this series?
The challenging aspects of writing futuristic … is the
future. You’re basically second-guessing time. How will things look? How will
people act, or speak? What technological advances or retreats? Society as a
whole … what will it be like? And when you add into that several natural
disasters to change the ecological landscape … well it winds up being a lot
of what if’s. An interesting way to start is go back to the 40’s or 50’s and
look at the stuff that they predicted would happen or the modern conveniences
that they touted as the wave of the future.
Imagination is the key necessary aspect and challenge to
writing something futuristic and in this case I started the background of the
story with original “can happen” events … three nuclear suitcase bombs blow
up Washington DC causing an earthquake in the Canary Islands, causing the left
flank of LaPalma Island (a dormant volcano) to slip into the ocean, causing a
tsunami that wipes out the East Coast of the United States, causing another
earthquake that finally slides California into the ocean, causing the Super Volcano
in Yellowstone to blow and take out four states.
Thus we have The Sorrows … and now the stage is set for
the world of Stone Braide Chronicles.
What can readers expect?
What readers can expect is a story of action, adventure, a little romance, and a lot of angst from a whole society of people fighting to survive in a new time, with new priorities, no central government, and a day to day battle for life, love, and happiness. There will be lots of twists, turns, and action … but all is not as it seems.
With evocative descriptions of a strange new world that combines elements of disturbing scientific advances, devious political conspiracy, and survival in a hostile world I try to weave a captivating tale of a society more like our own than we may want to admit. From the tension-laced first page to the captivating last page, Thunder is an epic journey into the heart of humankind that explores how far we are willing to go when we’re pushed to the limits.