I had the pleasure of reading Michael Lorde’s, Tolomay’s World and the Pool of Light for review. It was such a wonderful book, I simply had to interview Michael Lorde for you. Author Michael Lorde was born and raised in upstate New York and lived in Virginia Beach for years before moving to snowy Michigan. He is a former investigator and is also, the author of psychological thriller, The Blind Veil.
Tell us more about Tolomay, the heroine in Tolomay’s World.
Tolomay grew up in the pod community (five hundred years in our future) at a time when mankind has destroyed most of the earth. The pod community is one of the few remaining communities that exist in the world at that time, while all life on the earth is dying off. Tolomay’s father, Tarron, is a head scientist in that modern pod community. He is responsible for having designed the machine (The Pool of Light) which can send candidates into the future of earth… a livable and clean world, one replenished by time. Tolomay has been trained since birth to travel as the first candidate to the clean world, and so she does… and it is paradise. The problem is that she ends up there alone. She has a delicate and youthful heart, a high IQ and is physically healthy. As it turns out, she’s pretty tough too, much tougher than she ever imagined she was. Her upbringing at the pod community is similar to that of the Native American Indian teachings, in that all life is connected and that the earth is ‘mother’ to all. Even with that mindset, because of the risk to all life at the time, there are numerous restraints on society in the pods. It becomes quite complicated for her to cling to her community’s ways, while attempting to find her own way in the clean world, once others arrive. Tolomay is a complex character. I won’t spoil the story by saying more.
Tolomay’s World and the Pool of Light is the first in the series. How many books are planned for the series?
The first three books in the Tolomay’s World series are completed, the forth is in progress, and three addition novels have been formatted. So far, there are seven books total. The first book is the softest read. While it would seem suitable for young YA readers to read, the books do get progressively harsher, so I would not recommend this series to young YA readers, because if they get hooked on the plot, like my daughter did, they will want to read each book. I wouldn’t want that for young YA readers. It is designed more for older YA readers, readers of New Adult, Fantasy Romance, and even sci-fi readers, though it is not a sci-fi book. It’s truly a fantasy romance series and has been compared, by several readers, to the Hunger Games, though the plot is not the same.
How exciting to experience the growth of the characters! In the new world, those that have ‘swum’ through are quite young. How does age affect their struggles, or does it?
Those who travel through time have to be young, since all pod citizens participate in mandatory sterilization at the age of twenty. At the time of the pods, physical birthings prove fatal to both women and infants, due to poor nutrition, pollution and a number of other factors, so children are ‘grown’ and ‘born’ in labs. Because of this, only the healthy teens, under the age of twenty can swim to the clean world because they are the only ones who can repopulate earth. The young age of these candidates definitely impacts how they will mold society in the clean world. To complicate things more, they have not experienced normal ‘hormone levels’ like a teenager in today’s world would have. The pod council requires that daily doses of hormone inhibitors be taken, in order to prevent temptations and fatal pregnancies and childbirths. Once these young candidates get to the clean world, they are faced with the shock of living in the ‘paradise’ of earth and all the work that’s required to sustain daily living. All of these elements combine to make quite an interesting adjustment for all candidates who travel. It has proven a very fun writing experience for me.
Wow! That is quite the futurist visual for Tolomay’s World. What are you currently working on?
I’m currently working on the forth Tolomay’s World book and also the second book of a psychological thriller series.
What was your inspiration to write Tolomay’s World?
The idea came to me and just wouldn’t let up. My kids, though, are always my inspiration. It also helps that I am concerned about what condition we are leaving the earth in, for our children’s children. Hopefully what happens to the earth in this series will never really happen to the earth, though a reader recently wrote me to say ‘Wow, this could really happen if things stay the way they’re going’.
Let’s hope we can prevent going down that path. How did you come to choose to write Action Futuristic Fantasy novels?
I have always enjoyed these types of stories, though I had not actually planned on writing a book like this. I usually write psychological thrillers, but when this story line popped into my head, I couldn’t hold it at bay. The characters were pretty adamant that it be penned down, so once I began typing there was no stopping it.
Do you have a favorite writer(s) that influences your writing style?
I really don’t have a favorite author. There are so many. I think I have my own writing style, though. For this particular book, even that changed. This book has a strange use of language, and it came that way, so that was fun to work with. The second book of the series explains why the language is the way it is. This style comes across much different than my other writing because of that language.
So readers can get to know you more, what is your favorite drink/snack food when writing?
Does intravenous coffee flow count? Seriously though, I drink at least a pot of coffee the first half of the day. My favorite is ‘Made in the Shade’, by Bongo Java. It’s nice and strong, like several of my characters in this series.
Where can readers connect with you online?
Michael, thanks for the privilege of interviewing you! Best of luck with the series you are working on. I look forward to reading the next book in Tolomay’s World. Following is the cover and link to Tolomay’s World and the Pool of Light, as well as, the covers for the upcoming releases for the next in the Tolomay’s World series.
casondrapoulsen 