Author Interview - Terri-Lynne Smiles @TLSmiles #Foreseen

Can you tell us about your main character?
Kinzie, the eighteen-year old nerdish protagonist, is smart if a touch arrogant, and until now, she’s been the best at anything important to her. In Foreseen, her world expands to include college students with very different backgrounds, an unexpected romantic interest, and a rival whose skills as an adept are stronger than hers. Kinzie has never faced these sorts of challenges and stumbles as she figures out who she is and what she believes.

Will you write others in this same genre?
Foreseen is the first of a four-book Rothston Series. I have played around with the concepts of novels that don’t have some sort of sciencey supernatural element to them and they don’t hold my interest long enough to write them. So, at this point, I’d say all my future novels will be at the intersection of science fiction, fantasy, and thrillers.
Is there a message in your novel that you want readers to grasp?
There are questions in the series as a whole that I hope readers will think about. I’d rather not be too explicit about them since it would detract from what the reader brings to them, but the obvious one is how we use our influence over others – when and for what purposes. We may not be as skilled as the adepts of the Rothston series, but are we using our powers for good or for our own convenience and egos?

How much of the book is realistic?
That’s a question each reader needs to answer for herself, but most of the phenomena in the book are extrapolations from thoughts, acts and sensations experienced by ordinary people.

Have you included a lot of your life experiences, even friends, in the plot?
I began Foreseen with two chapters that “set” the characters and how they relate to each other, using the odd events that led to my husband and I dating - involving an angry, public break up with my best friend and immediate turn around to ask me out. Those chapters were ultimately deleted and most characters veered away from the real people, but someone who knew me back then still might recognize Boomer and Pete (Greg’s friends in the book) as my husband’s fraternity brothers, Tiny and Eric.

What are your goals as a writer?
My goals change over time. My first one was simply to write a solid, entertaining novel. That goal was certainly accomplished when the Kirkus Review compared Foreseen to a Dean Koontz thriller. So my next goal is to reach more readers who will enjoy my books, and keep that number increasing.