ASMSG Scifi Fantasy Paranormal Emagazine August 2014 | Page 19

SFP Indie Issue 3
and lastly, several are author friends
who base their feedback more on the
crafting and plotting of my books. The
combination of all these different
perspectives really gives me a wide
range of feedback, which I can
synthesize to produce stories that (I
hope) are strong in all aspects.
Maer: What is a one-line synopsis for
your book? And is this a stand-alone or
part of a series?
Tammy: One-liner: In the aftermath
of a system-wide civil war, Corpsdeserter and ex-arms smuggler Aly
Erikson and her crew face threats of
chaos and disorder at every step as they
attempt to rebuild a life in the midst of
the devastation.
Contract of War is the final book in the
Spectras Arise Trilogy. Contract of
Defiance is the first book, and Contract
of Betrayal is the second. The first is
easily a stand-alone, but the trilogy is
best read in order.
Maer: Which character, other than Aly,
is one of your favorites to write and
why?
Tammy: In all three novels, my
favorites beside the protagonist, Aly,
have been the villains. Writing bad guys
is giving yourself permission, in a way,
to be bad yourself. It’s always given me
a vicarious thrill.
Maer: If you had to pick a color to
describe Aly what would that be and
why?
Tammy: Red, definitely—she’s very
volatile.
Maer: You gotta love a volatile
heroine! So, who are your favorite
authors to read?
Tammy: This is such a wonderful
question! But it always makes me pine
for some free time to go pick up one of
their books. The shortlist is: Stephen
King, Neil Gaiman, Neal Stephenson,
and lately, Ceri London. Her Rogue
Genesis novel is absolutely captivating.
A visionary work of science fiction.

Maer: Some of my own faves there.
And I have Ceri’s novel on my TBR list.
Can you share a bit about the project
you’re working on now?
Tammy: After I finished writing my
trilogy, I had every intention of shifting
to a new series that can only be
described with these words at the
moment: Vikings and galactic shifts.
But I guess my subconscious wasn’t
ready to let go of the Spectras universe
just yet, and I’m currently writing a
series prequel that will either be a
novella or a collection of novellas
featuring many of the different
characters involved throughout the
series.
Maer: I love prequels! What do you do
when you’re not writing?
Tammy: I am endlessly passionate
about the written word and make a
living as a freelance editor (here’s
my editing site). When I’m not writing
or taking time off to pursue my hobbies
of running and cycling, I’m eyeball deep
in others’ books. It’s a rough life, but
you know, someone’s gotta do it
Maer: LOL. What influenced you to
write in your genre? Do you write in
others?
Tammy: There are so many things
that inspired this series and in this
genre, but I’ll try to be brief-ish. First is
that I grew up loving science fiction
movies with strong female protagonists
(Aliens being my all-time favorite
movie), so there was never a question as
to who m