Focus on Fantasy February - Christopher D. Schmitz

The chill air outside, the icy cement, the chapped lips - make no mistake, February is here. Here in Pittsburgh it's been consistently the harshest month every year, with temperatures often in the single digits and snow accumulation in feet. So there's no better time than now to lose yourself in another world, and if you're going to escape, than why not escape into something fantastic?

For these next few weeks, I'll be focusing on indie authors who are no strangers to fantasy. First up is novelist Christopher Schmitz, author of the Kakos Realm and Dekker’s Dozen series.

When did you first find that you wanted to be a writer?

I've wanted to write since I was a kid.  It really didn't take off as something I thought i could do, however, until college. I kind of realized it in retrospect, like, "Hey--I've always been a storyteller and have fun whenever I'm writing. I should look more into that." Once the door cracked open, it's one I keep walking through.

What is it about the Science Fiction and Fantasy genres that calls to you?

These have always been my favorites. I think the tropes call out to me, and I've got a deep love for the fantastic--there's also an element of chivalry in them that isn't as common in the real-world. Maybe above all it is because we already expect the readers to suspend disbelief, and once we have that, we can really go anywhere and do anything--we can press the boundaries more than with anything else and I love that freedom.

What are your books about?

I write many series, including a SF that draws a lot of comparison to Firefly and also my Wolves of the Tesseract series were, in a world underneath our own reality, magic & science are two sides of the same coin. Claire Jones does not normally jump to wild conclusions about the supernatural. Bigfoot, vampires, and the Loch Ness Monster all seemed to have rational reasons… but all of that changes when she is abducted by a shapeshifting hobo and whisked through a dimensional gate. Her captor claims nothing is what it seems, and that a powerful sorcerer believes she is the key to summoning his dark god. Will Claire run from her destiny forever, or can she claim a mythic weapon, and end the sorcerer's reign of terror? Failure means releasing Sh’logath’s cataclysmic power upon the universe.

What movie is it comparable to?

If Guillermo Del Toro directed a He-Man and the Masters of the Universe movie but had the option to insert a dose of HP Lovecraft, you might get a universe similar to Wolves of the Tesseract. I've always envisioned it as a trilogy—it currently includes 2 novels and a comic book and I have some ideas for the final book which I hope to plot this year. I write a few other, unrelated stories in this universe (a paranormal detective series and another 5-book arc not yet released about an underground paranormal defense society which starts with a book that is, in a nutshell, Robin Hood vs. Vampires.)

Where can readers go for more?

Readers should grab my free Starter Library which includes 5 books, including the prequel comic and Wolf of the Tesseract. Just pop an address in at this link: http://eepurl.com/c9AFkf and they will auto-deliver. They can also check out my website and blog. I’m all over the internet and stick to Facebook quite a bit—I do love chatting with readers, and anybody on that list will get an email from me, so shout back!

What do you like to do when you're not writing?

I am a musician on the side (guitar and bagpipes) and I enjoy playing games, mainly tabletop games including everything from RPGs to wargaming and strategy boardgames. I also fix up old houses on the side.

About today’s author:

Christopher D. Schmitz is an author of fiction and nonfiction books. Before throwing himself into book writing he had published short fiction in more than twenty outlets. In addition to a day-job working with teenagers, he also writes for a local newspaper, speaks/sells books at comic-cons and other festivals, runs a blog for authors, and makes an insanely tiny amount of money playing the bagpipes. He grew up as a product of the 1980s and thinks Stranger Things is "basically my biography." He lives in rural Minnesota where he drinks unsafe amounts of coffee with his family and three rambunctious dogs. The caffeine shakes keeps the cold from killing him.

You can find Christopher’s books on Amazon today:

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