Interview With Team Nerds

***Here's part of my AMAZING interview with Team Nerd's Annabell.

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Annabell: Tell us a bit about yourself.

Raphyel Jordan: I'm just a guy who likes to let his inner dorkism show through the story he writes. :P

Annabell: What are some attributes that would qualify you as a nerd?

Raphyel Jordan: Hmm, lemme see. Video games? Check. Comics? Check. Anime? Check. Why, I even played old school RPGs here and there! You know, the one where you have a notebook and a dice? Yep. That serious. :P

Annabell: Describe the plot behind Prossia.

Raphyel Jordan: Prossia is the tale of a young alien girl named Aly. There's a danger lurking among the friends she's sworn to protect when she gets drafted into a galactic war with them. This danger is worse than any enemy weaponry, any being known in the galaxy, and it has the potential of crumbling both hostile and allied forces. The worst part is this: That danger is Aly, herself, and she doesn't even know it. I'd like to think of Prossia as being that classic coming-of-age story we can all relate to since many of us had our perspective of the world turned completely upside down when we left the "bird's nest."

Annabell: You essentially went to school for your first passion, Graphic Design then jumped into the world of writing. How did Graphic Design inspire you into writing your debut novel, Prossia?

Raphyel Jordan: Actually, I wanted to be an animator for the majority of my life, but that never came to fruition. I've been drawing since I was three years old, if not younger. Since the animation thing didn't work out, I figured graphic design was the next best thing since I could implement my life-long passion of drawing with it. When I was a kid, I used to do "graphic novels." So, in a sense, what I did with Prossia really wasn't anything new to me. It just involved a lot more words and thought! :P

Annabell: Prossia is centered around aliens without any human characters. Why did you decide to create a story absent of humans?

Raphyel Jordan: For starters, I knew the things I wanted these characters be capable of doing was going to be impossible by human standards unless I went the way of the genetically enhanced super human soldier, or something like that. Those stories have been done countless of times, and done so well that I needed to do something different. I also thought it would be cool to see how advanced sentient life would conduct itself. Oddly enough, the way they govern one another is very human-like in my story, but a lot of their customs are different due to their natural habitats and biochemistry. On top of that, it was just a blast being able to do all of this world building from scratch.

 

Annabell: The cover to Prossiais pretty cool! How did you approach creating it?

Raphyel Jordan: Uh oh. You just asked me a good art question! LOL! Thank you so much for the compliment, btw! The cover is actually inspired by an older illustration I did of Aly, called "A Soldier's Burden." In the original pic, I wanted to show Aly being weighed down by putting on the heavy toil of war. Soldiers give up so much of their, well, humanity, so the rest of us can keep ours.

So, with the cover, I wanted to convey a similar message, but put more emphasis on what Aly's protecting. . . and absolutely how terrified she is. She's only a seventeen-year old whose only main concern was making it pass high school. She didn't volunteer for the war, but was drafted! Who wouldn't be scared?! In the image, she almost has a "What am I doing here?" expression on her face. I also "cheated" with her armor a little bit for the same purpose, making it seem slightly bulkier than her form can manage. And, I hate to break it to ya, but I have plans on the cover's getting revised in the future. Sorry. :P But I promise, it's gonna be for the better.

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***Thanks so much, Annabell. To read the rest of the interview, just click on over to Team Nerd Reviews