9. the cats...why go looking for maude?
The original plan for All the Growing Things was to have Maude battling a "monster of the week" sort of thing, with little skirmishes with cats in between bigger monsters. As the story progressed (and completely changed) I realized I could use the cats as a sort of "Greek Chorus" in the story, giving the audience a sort of "voice," to ask questions of the story, and as a way to help explain what was going on.
10. did your garden attack you?
My garden always attacks me! The monsters that Maude fights the most, the "grub things" are based on my first experiences with tomato worms. I'd never seen anything like one of those worms! I didn't know what it was, so I let it alone and came out the next day, and it had torn through an entire plant, and had tripled in weight! I also have a tendency (not bug related) to harvest things without using gloves, and I find that my skin is easily irritated by everything from squash leaves to cucumber plants!
round 2
1. what is the back story on texy?
Ah, the backstory on Texy! Book two is all about him, and you find out that Texy has been alive for centuries, all the way through the Iron Age. Not to spoil TOO much, but I was watching a documentary on the bodies that have been found in peat bogs, and how they think some of the bodies were royalty, and some were criminals. I'm probably going to borrow to heavily from "Jitterbug Perfume," but Texy is someone who was supposed to have been thrown into a bog as a sacrafice, and instead ran, and never stopped running. He is convinced that everything that is happening in All the Growing Things is his fault, but it's not: Texy has to learn to deal with the fact he's NOT the center of the universe.
2. texy...it seems maude cares more about him than him being just a guy who helped her...why does she go after him?
Maude goes after Texy because it's easier to save him than it is to save herself. Her overarching plot is that she's continuously trying to save him, or George, or Andy, or the garden, or anything other than facing her own demons.
3. who started the underground production area?
The underground production area: that's going to be touched on a little in book two, and mostly in book three. There are cultists who've been looking for a book (in All the Growing Things, when Texy helps blow up the bank the other robbers are excited about the money, but Texy finds a scrap of parchment from a magical book.) All throughout the centuries, this book has been coveted and fought over, and the people you see at the beginning of All the Growing Things are simply the latest group trying to find the book!
4. it seems like some sort of caste system...the guys closer to the surface being more bright-eyed and lucid while the others were gaunt and semi-dead. what is the reasoning behind that?
It's definitely a caste system: the workers are all kidnapped people from the surface. Most of the people aren't there by choice, and so the cultists have them in a state of mindless drudgery. I'm not sure if it's magical or drug related, I've not really thought too hard on which it'll be. A few of the workers (such as Danny) aren't there by choice, but they're also not making an effort to leave, and so are afforded a little more leyway in consciousness. I hope to bring Danny back later, as a leader in a rebellious faction of the cultists.
5. why were there all those dead bodies in the deep tunnel?
The deep tunnels are pretty dangerous. The plants that are growing everywhere are poisonous (to a certain extent) and lure people into complacency. There are also wild grub-things roaming the deeper tunnels, which are also dangerous.
6. is it the job of the giant grub thing to create a sort of karma?
The grub things (not to spoil too much, I hope) are sort of like guardians of the mysterious book. They're connected to the book (even though it's been blown up) and they exist only to serve it, and the words written in it.