Character interviews - Part 2!

The authors of Dark Matter: Artificial continue their responses from last post as we get to learn a little more about the rest of their characters!

The Prompt: Choose one character from your story in the anthology and have them answer these interview questions: What do you hope to accomplish in your story? What is your biggest dream? And...do you have a favorite ice cream flavor?

Kim Mannix: 

I'm picking the character of Aunt Faye from my story to interview. Though she's not the main character, she's very interesting to me! 

What do you hope to accomplish in your story?  In this story, I am both a comfort and a hope to my niece, Lindy, after she's suffered some devastating losses. My goal is to open her up to the idea of something beyond our known world, and to teach her that she can and should take action to find happiness.

What is your biggest dream? My biggest dream is to have humans become more open-minded about life, not just the one we experience here, but perhaps after we die, or on other planes of existence. I feel that we would all be kinder to one another if we weren't so focused on narrow possibilities about ourselves and our place in the world.

Do you have a favorite ice cream flavor? Yes! I love rocky road because of all the sweet and salty surprises it contains. 

Mark Alpert: 

The main character of my short story "Vera's Last Voyage" is based on Vera Rubin, the late astronomer who discovered the best evidence for dark matter. The real-life Vera Rubin was very interested in science education, and part of the goal of my short story was to explain to readers what dark matter is and why it's important. What makes this goal a little tricky is that astronomers themselves still don't know what dark matter is; although the researchers can observe dark matter's gravitational effects, they can't detect the particles directly because they neither emit nor absorb light. But there are several intriguing theories about the true nature of dark matter, and in the near future a few upcoming experiments may be able to provide some clues to the answer.

You can find all these characters in their stories from Dark Matter: Artificial, available on Amazon, Kobo, and Barnes and Noble!

In our next exciting post on Wednesday, August 18 . . . who would our authors cast to play their characters on the big screen? Find out the actors and actresses they envision as perfect for each role!