Featured Interview With Dayne Edmondson
Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
I was born and raised in a relatively small town of Port Huron, Michigan. After I met my beautiful wife in 2010 we moved to an even smaller town of Richmond, Michigan. It’s technically a suburb of metro Detroit but straddles the line between country and city (go a mile or two north and you’re in fields, go 4 miles sound and you’re more suburban). Very quiet town but we like it.
I have two small children (4 1/2 and 15 months at the time of this interview) and they are a handful but so fun. I also have a dog, who is a handful as well, named Samson.
At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
I’ve always been an avid reader, ever since elementary school. I read above my grade level right from the start and read countless books outside of school as a child.
What really got me into the Science Fiction and Fantasy genre as a reader, however, was when my grandparents got me “Star Wars: Tales from the New Republic” as a Easter gift when I was 11. I devoured that book of short stories set in the Star Wars universe (now made non-canon and dubbed “Legacy”) and that opened the door to me reading countless Star Wars books that summer and during the years to come. I was heavily influenced by the New Jedi Order Series, the Thrawn Trilogy and other books in the Star Wars expanded universe.
On the fantasy side of things, my first real fantasy book that I remember was Elizabeth Hayden’s “Rhapsody” when I was probably 15. It was in a library bundle of books they were selling for $1 per bag of books. My step-father got it for me because he thought I would like it. He was right. I loved it, read it in record time and was then hungry for fantasy. That started me on the path to countless other authors similar to her and eventually I found the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan, the Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind and other series I can’t remember right now.
I started writing at the age of 15, after being influenced by all the books I was reading. My first short story, titled “The Windriders” is now lost to time but was an influence for one of my characters, Dawyn Darklance, years later. I also conceptualized the concept of teenagers from Earth being sent to another world where they harnessed elemental magic at that age. it later morphed into college students and became the story “Time of Shadows.”
But somewhere along the way I stopped writing (after a particularly harsh critique on said short story I mentioned above) and just outlined for about 5 years.
Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
My favorite authors are Brandon Sanderson, Robert Jordan, Terry Goodkind, L.E. Modessit Jr., Richard Fox, Elizabeth Hayden, Lindsay Buroker. My favorite genres to read are fantasy (epic or sword and sorcery) and science fiction (prefer space opera or military science fiction).
I draw a lot of inspiration for my space opera books from the Star Wars Expanded Universe. I draw inspiration for my fantasy books from Elizabeth Hayden’s fantasy series.
Tell us a little about your latest book?
My latest book, Ruin, is the third book in my Dark Tide Trilogy. The trilogy as a whole details the emergence of an ancient enemy of humanity, the Krai’kesh. They were first introduced in my fantasy trilogy, The Shadow Trilogy, and now it’s 2000 years later and some of the characters from my fantasy series are still alive (called Eternals). Many of said Eternals are also from Earth originally and were sent through time specifically to fight the Krai’kesh.
Ruin is the third chapter in this leg of the over-arching war. I am modeling my books off the Star Wars model they used with their New Jedi Order series. They had duologies and trilogies set within the greater New Jedi Order series that recounted the war against the Krai’kesh. For example, there was Dark Tide 1: Onslaught and Dark Tide 2: Ruin as a duology and then Agents of Chaos I-III as a separate trilogy but both were under the New Jedi Order series umbrella. I am doing similar with my Dark Tide Trilogy. It is the first trilogy as part of the larger conflict, though the book does wrap up the current crisis. As the saying goes, they’ve won the battle but the war is far from over.
I started the Dark Tide Trilogy in October 2016 and wrapped it up in May 2017. I did take a little hiatus in January/February 2017 or I would have been done sooner. With Ruin, in particular, I got into a cadence and was writing at least 10k words a week.
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