Introducing talented sci-fi fantasy author, Deborah O'Neill Cordes!

I'm thrilled to have the wonderful Deborah at Cait's Place today, author of (amongst myriad other fabulous books) Dragon Dawn!! I very much enjoyed Dragon Dawn, writing a review here.  

Dragon Dawn's new UK Kindle Countdown Deal is live! 99 pence all week, from June 3-9.

But don't just listen to me, check out what Serena Clarke said 'Dragon Dawn is smart, complex, wondrous and absolutely fascinating – I loved it. Deborah O’Neill Cordes weaves an amazing tale that encompasses paleontology, space travel, history, paleobotany, time travel, zoology, romance and more. It’s rich in scientific detail, without for a moment weighing the story down. From the biggest of big picture stuff, to the intricacies of human (and dinosauroid) relationships, this magical, thought-provoking book carried me along effortlessly, leaving my head spinning in the best possible way'.

Two Universes, One Soul Divided...

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Time snakes between alternate universes.  Ever watchful, an alien intelligence survives on Mars, waiting to be found by spacefarers from Earth.  The alien’s ultimate goal is to send human astronauts back in time, where they will alter the past and thwart the extinction of the dinosaurs.  A race of intelligent dinosaurs, resembling the alien’s extinct species, subsequently evolves to rule the world.  But a human female astronaut, through a strange twist of fate, survives the change in the space-time continuum.  After finding herself in a dinosaurian body, she must race against time – and the formidable alien – to restore the universe to its rightful course. 

 

I knew when reading Dragon Dawn that I would have the pleasure of interviewing Deborah, so folks, grab yourselves a cup of coffee and enjoy! Welcome lovely Deborah.

The first thing I have to ask you is what drove you to write this book?

I felt compelled to write Dragon Dawn because of my interest in science and the wonderful notion of "what if?" I got my first spark of inspiration for this novel over thirty years ago, when the father and son scientific team of Luis and Walter Alvarez discovered evidence a massive comet or asteroid crashed into the Earth and killed over 80 percent of life, including the non-avian dinosaurs. It was dubbed the K/T Event, and recent discoveries pinpoint this mass extinction to 66 million years ago. I pondered what it would have been like had some dinosaur species survived and evolved to intelligence. And what if, through the twists and turns of time travel, the soul of a human female astronaut (Dawn) was placed in the body of a female dinosaurian (Dawann) in a parallel universe? Thirty years later (and with lots of rewrites) Dragon Dawn was born. 

How lovely, so this, in effect, could be termed a life's work :). No wonder it's so good!!  I was impressed by the depth of scientific knowledge contained within; biology, paleontology, archeology, paleoarcheology (to name a few, I jest you not!), the fact that it would take nineteen minutes for messages from Mars to reach Earth etc., how much did you know and how much was research?

When I first started Dragon Dawn, much of the scientific knowledge found in the novel was still unknown, or in the experimental stage. Over time, I kept adding to the story and updating the science, with the intention of publishing it "in a few years." It is fortunate I love doing research, and also that I was given a diverse education. You see, when I was young my father insisted I study to be a physician. For years, I tried to please my dad, even though I had an aversion to blood and gore. I was well on my way to a university degree in zoology, when I rebelled and told myself, "You must follow your heart." I've always loved science, particularly archeology, biology, paleontology, astronomy, and genetics, but the study of history beckoned and would not let go. It was too late for me to switch majors, however, as I was in the midst of my junior year. So I added extra history classes to my already full schedule, and I was just three credits shy of a double major in zoology and history when I graduated, with the goal of getting my master's degree in history (I got my MA after three more years of study). To make this long story a bit shorter and more to the point, my love of history outweighed my interest in science. But things have a way of working out. What I viewed as a mistake early on has turned out to be a most fortunate part of my life, in that I write historical fiction and time travel novels that take place in many different eras – and I also write time travel science fiction. The training I received at the university level in science and history gave me the foundation for writing in a variety of genres. Later on, my father told me he was proud of my decision to follow my own path. My one regret is that he didn't live long enough to celebrate with me when I first got published. 

Ah that's a nice story and I reckon he's seen your publishing success, don't ya fret!!  He'd be very proud of this book, methinks.

Another thing I loved about Dragon Dawn was the multi cultured crew (although I missed the mad Irish person :) ), which fitted in so well with the theme of time travel and new worlds. It was a great touch. 

It made sense for the crew to be comprised of people from different nations and ethnicities. After all, it is a reality of space travel today, given the diversity of the personnel on the International Space Station. My fictional astronaut group on the first mission to Mars consists of a Canadian, a Russian, some Americans, and a Frenchman. That said, I also was inspired by my study of genealogy, and I used some of my family lineages for background information about my characters. For example, the surnames of my heroine and hero – Stroganoff and Granberg – come from my family tree. I have a varied lineage, and it might interest your readers to know I have deep ancestral roots in England, Scotland, and Ireland. Had I been researching those particular branches of my family at the time of my writing, it's possible my leading characters would have had surnames like Leslie, Tilden, Fitzhugh, Winslow, Hucksteppe, Dillon, or Worthington. On a lighter note, I happen to love the actor Keanu Reeves, who has a multi-ethnic ancestry. He is the inspiration for my Canadian astronaut-paleontologist, Harry Wong. If my wildest dreams ever come true, and Dragon Dawn gets a film deal, please, Keanu, please consider playing Harry.  :)

Oh, and thank you for the inspiration, as I'm going to add this in the next novel, Cait – Harry has a wee bit of Irish in him. Yes, he's got O'Neills, Dillons, and O'Sullivans on his mother's side.  :)

A-ha O'Sullivan? We get everywhere...including your home town of Arizona. Speaking of which, were the Sinagua people in Arizona a real people?

Yes, and they were the ancestors of the pueblos tribes living in Arizona today, like the Hopi and Zuni. We will never know what these ancient people called themselves, because they didn't have a written language and leave records. In Spanish "sin agua" means "without water," (ah yeah I see that now) and, in historical times, the name was given to them because they lived in an arid place. I grew up in Northern Arizona and spent many wonderful hours visiting the old Sinagua ruins located near my hometown of Flagstaff. My favorites are the Sunset Crater area and nearby Wupatki National Monument. They're gorgeous sites, with extinct lava fields and cinder cones, the northernmost ball court in the Americas, and a wind cave, like the one described in Dragon Dawn.

I very much wish I had known you when I visited Arizona, would loved to have visited these places. Next time, methinks :).

It struck a cord with me when you said 'their eyes held a bright, childlike sense of wonder, the true mark, in Dawann’s opinion, of all scientists.' I admit to not knowing many scientists, but can see what you mean here and think it's not limited to scientists. DH Lawrence said 'oh for the wonder that bubbles into my soul'  and wonder (!) is it to do with figuring life out, whether it be scientific or spiritual?

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Scientists are driven by the quest to discover the secrets of the universe. They must observe, test, and retest until the results of their experiments can be verified as fact. They must also have a sense of wonder and "what if?" in order to question the status quo and go beyond dogma and faith. We live in a remarkable age, in that science has provided us with the answers to many questions pondered by humans since ancient times. In the near future, we may even discover the answers to the remaining great mysteries, such as the origin of our universe, and the possibility of life beyond our planet. Of course, scientists aren't the only ones with a sense of wonder. How many people reading this have looked up at the stars and been filled with awe, or speculated about who is looking back? 

I think if we can retain a child-like wonder, rather than allowing ourselves to be overcome with adult cynicism then the world may be a happier place. (here endeth todays sermon :) ) 

 

I thoroughly admired the work you put in too for the quotes at the start of each chapter!! Which came first, the quotes or the chapter? 

When I started writing Dragon Dawn, the character of the Keeper literally spoke up and convinced me to put his quotes before the opening scenes, so it seemed natural to continue with sayings and poems in the rest of the chapter headings. The Keeper is a forceful being, isn't he? (chalk it down. I was rather envious of Shanash when she met him, wondering instantly what would I ask him?...another blog post methinks!) Regarding whether the chapter or quote came first, I had no set way of doing things: at times I found a quote that provided inspiration for the next scene; at other times I scoured my books or the Internet for a saying that might fit a section I'd just written. Of course, I also had to make certain the poems and quotes were in the public domain, so I could use them in my novel without trampling the rights of my fellow authors.

Phew…it’s something I want to emulate but don’t feel erudite enough to come up with a fresh quote for each of my twenty-seven chapters J

How hard was it to envisage the K/T Event? What research did you do for it?

Hmm, I'll have to think a bit, because I wrote those particular scenes over ten years ago!  I don't recall having a difficult time visualizing the K/T Event. I had the fortune of visiting Washington state in the summer of 1980, right after Mt. St. Helens erupted. I was able to see some of the destruction firsthand, such as the massive amount of ash still visible on the side of the highway. I also looked at films of the flooding in the rivers nearby. This gave me a starting point as I began to write about the appearance of the landscape surrounding my crew's spaceship. As for my descriptions of the comet strike and its aftermath, I used a variety of written sources and also my imagination. 

It worked so very well, I felt I was there. 

I liked that Dawann felt encouraged to look within her for answers and trusted her instinct well enough to follow through. Do you think this is something we are learning not to do in this age of technology?

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A lot of Dawann's traits come from my own experiences. I felt comfortable writing about her this way, even though she was descended from dinosaurs and I am descended from mammals. I have had many moments in my life where my instincts have overridden the most obvious or easiest paths. I've learned to trust myself and go with my gut. I believe that trait is fundamental to humans, and would be apparent in other beings. An example of one of these instincts, the so-called sixth sense, now seems to be something genetically passed down to us from our ancient forebears. In the Stone Age, if you could sense something or someone watching you, you might survive predation. However the sixth sense works, the ones with the ability to "feel" the eyes upon them, and who listened, went with their guts, and weren't caught by surprise, were able to fight or run for their lives. Those people survived and passed their genes down to us. Try a little experiment the next time you are a passenger in an automobile. Look at the drivers around you, stare at them hard, and see how many glance your way. It's surprising how many people sense your gaze. I believe there are many instincts that influence our lives. Dawann may have been a dinosauroid, with a completely different and non-mammalian inheritance, but the instincts to discover, adapt, and survive would have been developed in her species as well. And, to answer your last question, I believe technology has changed the way we live, but not the way we think, and certainly not our ancient cravings (i.e. the urge to eat sweets and fat, something that helped our distant ancestors survive the vagaries of a hunter-gatherer existence, yet plagues us because we do not walk vast distances every day, like they did).  And on that note, I'm off to have a cup of tea and some nice, sweet chocolate. :)

Cait, thanks so much for a series of interesting and thought-provoking questions. It was a great mental exercise, and I enjoyed being on Cait's Place. To everyone out there... thank you for your time and consideration. And happy reading! ~ Deborah.

Great mental exercise—just what I like to hear when an author pops in to Cait’s Place :). Totally a pleasure having you here, Deborah, and the very best of wishes to Dragon Dawn. 

I'm sure there will be other questions as this book is multi-faceted, so please, feel free to comment below to ask Deborah anything you like!

Deborah’s bio and website links:

Deborah O’Neill Cordes is an award-winning screenwriter and novelist of historical and speculative fiction. She is the author of the sci-fi time travel novel, Dragon Dawn, Book One of the Dinosaurian Time Travel Series, which blends fields of study she loves in equal measure; Deborah holds a bachelor’s degree in zoology and a master’s degree in history. She is also the co-author of the Morgan O’Neill time travel novels. Deborah resides in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and two West Highland White Terriers, who, alas, are precocious terriers and therefore never white.

Deborah’s website:  http://deborahoneillcordes.com/

Morgan O’Neill website: http://www.morganoneill.com/