Author Interview – Lindsey Fairleigh & Lindsey Pogue

Lindsey Fairleigh

Lindsey Pogue

Who designed the cover?

LP: We came up with the concept together, wanting to have a cover that was different, simple and that left people curious as to what the book was about. Once we agreed on the images and the overall concept, LF did the formatting and made an amazing cover that I am so very proud of.

LF: It was a lot of work–a lot of learning–but I’m really happy with the end product. That being said, I make no claims of being a cover designer, and I have immense respect for the truly talented cover designers out there.

Who is your publisher?

LP: Wanting to retain as much creative licensing as possible, we started our own publishing company, L2 Books, that we run out of my house. So, not only am I a new homeowner, but we’re new business owners as well. I think it’s safe to say we’re grown-ups now.

LF: I don’t know if I’d go that far, LP. Grown-ups is quite a claim…

Will you write others in this same genre?

LP: We plan to write four books in this series and who knows what we will tackle together after that. I have some Sci-fi story ideas I’d like to work on personally, but typically Sci-fi isn’t my preferred reading genre–it’s not my comfort zone–so it will be interesting to see where my next, individual project takes me. Probably somewhere in the contemporary romance genre.

LF: Yes, absolutely. The science fiction and fantasy genres are a part of me. For me, writing in another genre would be like writing in a foreign language.

How much of the book is realistic?

LP: Although our book is fiction, we tried to make it as realistic as possible. We did as much research as we could before taking our own creative licenses and adding things into our post-apocalyptic world that might not have been there otherwise. Overall, we did try to keep the reader engaged and constantly thinking “what if?”.

LF: There were a few “real world” things that we tweaked for the sake of the storyline, possibly the most obvious being that the internet stays up for several weeks after almost everyone is dead, but we stuck with it because of the way the project originated. In the beginning, the entire thing was epistolary–it was all written in the form of emails between Dani and Zoe. We changed that, thankfully, but felt the need to retain the email communications because they were the original heart of the story–everything else formed around them.

How important do you think villains are in a story?

LP: They are very important. Without the villains, my characters would remain static. The villains definitely help drive the story.

LF: Beyond that, I think it’s important that some of the villains are hard to distinguish…and that some of the good guys might really be villains in disguise. It’s the gray characters who make things really interesting.

What are your goals as a writer?

LP: I would love nothing more than to be able to write for a living, but only if I could write something I’m passionate about, that I feel connected to, and something that brings me joy.

LF: I want to write science fiction and fantasy novels that transport people to another world, or another version of our world. I want people to feel like they’ve been to my worlds, met my characters, and been touched by their struggles and successes. If I can do that with my writing, I’ll be happy.