7 Questions

Today’s 7 Questions is with SciFi author and hotdog aficionado, R James Stevens.  As with many of our recent interviewees, he found us on Facebook.  We are open to any social media approaches, if you want to answer 7 Questions, just say hello!

Here we go!

1. Do you like hotdogs?

    I don’t normally like to discuss.. no wait, I’ll do it. Sigh. This is a very dark memory for me. I actually love hot dogs, but there was that fateful Labor Day on Presque Isle on Lake Erie back in ‘82. It started like any other picnic-y day, we had just laid out our blankets and began to roast the dogs on the grill. Then they came. It was only one at first, so we didn’t think much of it. It took a hot dog for each hand. Then another came out of the water, then another. Then even more. Badgers. Hundreds of badgers, possibly thousands. They were everywhere! They took all of our hot dogs, and everyone’s around us. When it was finally over, we all looked around blankly, holding our ketchup and mustard containers in our quivering hands. The horror.

2. Your book started out as a comic?

    Yes! My son-in-law is a very talented artist, although he would be the first to argue against that point. He challenged me to come up with a character. Not only did I come up with the prototype for Brigadier Stroud (one of the main protag’s in Epsilon), but also the world that eventually because Epsilon. The comic book idea never got off the ground, but a few years later I decided Epsilon just had to come to life – and, well, the rest is history. Future history.

3. Would you describe the world you built as dystopian?

    I didn’t start out making Epsilon as a Dystopia, but when I had finished I realised that’s exactly what I had created. Our world about 70 years in the future, with a mysterious catastrophe that the first book (Clarity) only hints about. Dystopia at its finest.

4. Do you have a favourite badger?

    Well, there’s Ellington Q. Badger, inventor of the two-sided badger hairbrush. George Washington Badger, the first badger President. But, we all have that one favourite badger – you know who it is.

5. Imagine they were making a film of your book, who would you cast in the main roles?

    I’ve always thought of this, and it has helped in writing this series as I could sit and think “what would <actor> say in this scene?”. So, here’s the cast of Epsilon:
  •         Brigadier Stroud: Josh Holloway (LOST)
  •         Steele Fox: Kate Beckinsale
  •         Clive Underwood: Jeremy Renner

6. What are your thoughts on Pet Couture?

    Who am I to say that pets shouldn’t dress for success? If that sparkly scarf looks good on the cat, well, that’s it’s prerogative, right?

7. What’s next for you?

    I have so many ideas, and so little time it seems to get them done. I have 2 other (non-Epsilon) novels in the works. Much smaller, not epic like Epsilon, but still your standard novel length. One is horror/scifi, the other Post Apocalyptic. A couple of anthologies that I have mostly completed, will hopefully get those out in 2017. And then, of course, working hard on Epsilon Book 3, which will make this epic series even more… well, EPIC!
And R James (as we like to call him) has provided information on how to purchase his writings, should you feel so inclined:
Clarity (Epsilon Book 1)
Duality (Epsilon Book 2)
R. James Stevens / ‘The End is just the beginning’
Available on: Amazon / Smashwords
(or ask your retailer to order them through the Ingram catalogue!)
ISBN: 978-0-9896826-0-2 / 978-0-9896826-2-6
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