Please tell us a little about yourself and your work.  

At the tender age of 71, I still go to work every day to shake my fist and yell at the workers in my industrial detergent business in Memphis, Tennessee. They smile politely and say, “Yes sir, Mr. Gregg,” and then completely ignore whatever I said. We have a system, and it’s working. In fact, it’s working so well that I can now devote most of my energies to writing. It only took 20 years.

How did you choose the genre of your book? 

When I was 8 years old, my dear Aunt Betsey gave me five Tom Swift Junior books for my birthday. They had titles like Tom Swift and His Ultrasonic Cycloplane and Tom Swift and the Caves of Nuclear Fire. I discovered worlds within those covers where great things might be done, and no one in a black-and-white habit would rap your knuckles or make you kneel on rice. It was a safe haven for a young boy tragically prone to taking on way more responsibilities than he could possibly handle, and I was well and truly hooked before the end of the first book. It changed my life. Thank you, Aunt Betsey! By the time I entered high school, I had read every science-fiction book in the local library. It would make no sense for me to write anything but science fiction.

How did you develop your subject?

One day I read an article in a science magazine about how humans are hunter-gatherers. The article pointed out that even though there are vast cultural differences between us, we humans all share certain universal traits because of our common evolutionary past. I remember walking out on the porch—not sure at this point if drugs were involved—and wondering, Well, what if we weren’t hunter-gatherers? What if we had evolved from, I don’t know…scavengers? And that was the genesis of the Koombar, an alien race with a penchant for genocidal self-protection. As luck would have it, you can read all about them in Blue Sunrise.

Was your storyline something that you envisioned from the beginning, or did you build/change it as you were writing your novel?

My method, such as it is, is to envision the arc of the story. I know the beginning, the middle, and the end before I start. Certain events need to occur to link these things together. My job is to shape those events into a seamless whole. At times, a piece simply presents itself, and it is one of the great joys of writing when this happens.

What are you working on now?

The sequel to Blue Sunrise was banging around in my head for years. It was making me crazy. When I finally sat down to write it, I rediscovered the sublime joy of writing. Blue Sun Rising is now in the editing and rewriting stage. As I wrote this sequel, the idea for a third novel barged in unannounced and uninvited. It seems I have more work to do in my office at home. It’s going to interfere with shaking my fist and screaming at workers, and I know they’ll miss me even if they’re too proud to admit it, but it can’t be helped. They’re the best.

Portions of this Q&A were edited for clarity.