Daniel and I met through social media.
Author Bio
Daniel enjoys writers’ conventions as well as genre conventions. Connecting with avid readers is a joy that he never passes up. He has been invited multiple times to speak at local schools about writing and his work. He has been a featured author for several radio and blogtalk programs, and is a returning guest and sometime substitute co-host for the Brian and Sherri radio program, where he helps interview other authors. Outside of writing and promoting his work, Daniel enjoys reading, dancing, music, drawing, cooking, and embroidery. He is a long time member of the Embroiderers Guild of America where he has taught classes in stitching. He plays four different instruments and has sung with the Oklahoma State Universities Presidents Masterworks. He has years of stage work behind him in tap, jazz, and ballet as well as Okinawan traditional and modern dance and music. Each week you can find him teaching classes at his church in Sunday school as well as the Life Development Institute of First Baptist Church of Morristown, Tennessee.
Tell us about yourself.
My name is Daniel Peyton. I am an author, professional dancer, musician, artist, teacher and researcher. I was born and raised in Oklahoma, spent the past 18 years living in the beautiful mountains of East Tennessee and recently relocated to Michigan.
When did you know you wanted to be an author?
I first caught the bug of authoring in the fourth grade. My teacher, Mrs. Rogers, gave us the assignment to just write. I fell in love with telling fantastic stories. In the nineth grade I wrote my first full novel and impressed the mother of my English teacher. Her mother was a professor of English and creative writing at the local university. She accidentally graded my book like it was one of her university students. When she discovered that it was from a ninth grader, she sent it back with a note encouraging me to keep going, for she found my story more well written than anything handed in by all of her students. That kind of encouragement is rare and sure to produce results.
What genres do you like to read? Are these the same genres you write in?
Read and write in fantasy and science fiction. I also love to read classic literature like Dickens.
Is your book for adults, young adults or children?
The book that is coming out soon of my work is for adults, young adults might enjoy it, but it is targeted to an adult audience. My other books that have been published are mostly for young adult audience. The exception being Earths Last Starship, it is a bit more grown up than my other works.
What is your current release or project?
My newest release, which releases today, is called Remnant. It is a Christian Sci-Fi novel. This book weaves Biblical narratives into a thick futuristic dystopian novel. It centers around faith and the fight between politics, science, and religion.
Tell us about the key characters:
The two main characters you will follow throughout the whole book are Anna and Z. Anna is an astro-geologist, basically she studies rocks in space. She has an adventurous side, but lives with constant fear of being discovered by the anti-religious patrols. Z is a android/robot. He is a Z-550 unit, one of many that work for the sciences, government and military. Very human-like in appearance, Z is loyal, funny, and everything you’d expect an android to be. His understands humans, except for the concept of love, it violates all logic to him.
What is your blurb or synopsis of the book?
The year is 2522. Anna is a Remnant—a secret Christian in a world that has banned any form of religion.
She is also an astro-geologist working with her Robot, named Z, for the Planetary Science Commission.
The PSC has worked for 200 years to find alien life on another planet, and finally, after two centuries, a primitive lifeform has been discovered. Faced with the reality of evolved primitives on a forested moon, Anna begins to question all she has ever believed.
Anna and Z travel to the newly-discovered moon in search of answers, but a terrible accident leaves them stranded. Faced with dangerous natives and unfamiliar surroundings, Anna and Z stumble upon a conspiracy that has universal implications.
Will Anna discover the truth about the moon and its inhabitants?
Can God still move within a culture that has abandoned Him?
Share an excerpt
Anna’s palms were sweating. Her heart raced so fast, she worried that it would jump out of her chest. Quickly, she hid around a corner of a building on campus and pressed her back up against the cold, rough bricks. Only now did she force herself to breathe, but it came out in a trembling whimper.
In her mind she repeated, I’m just a short, blonde girl. Nothing special. They won’t notice me. They can’t notice me. Oh no, what if they find it?
Anna clutched her bookbag to her side, tightly pinching it closed.
“Hey! You!”
Anna tensed up as she heard the yell of the security guard. A girl dashed into Anna’s sight and was grabbed by a man in military garb.
“I swear I’m not one of them! Please, don’t take me! Please, stop!” The girl screamed and struggled as she was unceremoniously dragged across the open quad, along with three others.
The brute of a soldier reared back and slapped her across the face, sprinkling the ground with blood from her nose. “Shut up!”
“We will not be silenced!” A new voice screamed; this time it was a young man. “The Word will live forever! Even if you kill all of the Remnants you find. God will find a way!”
Anna knew this voice well. She carefully looked around the corner and prayed she was mistaken. He was her best friend. She looked through the dark at the crowd and gasped. Yes, it was he. There, in the clutches of a well-armed man, was Gideon.
The word came out without her meaning to say it.
“No.”
Gideon looked up and then quickly looked away, not wanting to incriminate her. The soldier noticed this and scanned the crowd to see if he could spot any accomplices. Anna, who was now surrounded by a dozen confused and scared students, watched this in horror. They weren’t part of the Underground, but that didn’t make this scene any less frightening to them. The guard gave off a grunt and then dragged Gideon back to the military landing craft along with the other captured students.
As the shuttle lifted into the air, Anna realized how tightly she had held her bookbag. Her hand hurt; the impression of the weave was embedded into her palm. Finally realizing it was over, she leaned up against the wall and bawled like a child, letting out the fear and sorrow that had welled up inside her.
She was inconsolable. Several other students came over and tried to get her to stop crying, but she couldn’t help herself.
“Stand back; let me through. Get to classes. I’ll help her.” A nicely dressed woman broke up the girls around Anna and then knelt down. “Anna, are you okay?”
Anna was finally able to speak through the tears, “It’s just not right. He was my friend.”
The professor pulled out a small handkerchief and wiped Anna’s face. “It always hurts when you find out anyone is part of that Underground. Stupid fools. They should know that they will be discovered. Don’t feel betrayed; he was never really your friend. Those types are only here to try and convert people to their backward ways and ideas.”
Anna paused and then slowly nodded, while saying, “Sure.”
The professor stood up as she said, “Good thing you’re one of our brightest students. Best Astro-Geologist major I’ve had the privilege of teaching in years. You would never have been brainwashed by them.”
“Of course not,” Anna said quietly.
“Okay, dry your eyes and dust yourself off. We have to get the class ready for the trip to the moon tomorrow. Being the teacher’s assistant, you’ll be leading the team on their mineral survey. I can’t wait to see you in action again.”
Anna didn’t stand up just yet, “I’ll be in class; just give me a moment.”
“I understand.” A buzzer sounded over the intercom. “Oops, I’m going to be late. Okay, see you in a few minutes.” The professor left in a hurry.
Anna waited until she was alone in the quad again. Opening her bag, she shuffled several books out of the way and found the one on the bottom. If they knew she had this, she would be right next to Gideon, facing whatever terrible fate all the Remnants endured. Was it worth it?
Do you have a favorite scene?
That would be hard to say. I have many that stick with me. I think one of the best scenes comes late in the book after the evil Dr. Skye thinks he has the upper hand with Z and commands him to betray Anna, but Z has left a nasty little surprise in all of Dr. Skye’s computers on the starship in orbit. Not only is it a great surprise for the readers, it is a hilarious scene to read. I did a lot of research into old comedy routines and sketchs to write that one.
What advice would you give a beginner?
Write. You can plan everything about your book for years, you can look at all the success of others with stars in your eyes. You can study all the ins and outs of publishing, but without a finished book you have nothing to truly give the publishing world.
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Purchasing links https://www.amazon.com/Daniel-Peyton/e/B006C986D6/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0
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