Today I’m interviewing author Colby R. Rice, who describes herself as a shameless nerd and bookworm. Thank you, Colby, for taking the time to chat to me. Please sit down, get comfortable and let’s begin.

Dystopian, Sci-fi Thriller, Urban Fantasy, and Crime Noir(e) Novelist. Screenwriter. Film Director. Game Writer & Narrative Designer. Globetrotter. Fable Hunter. Action Junkie. Rebel Ragdoll.

A shameless nerd and bookworm since the age of five, Colby R. Rice is the author of The Given and The Taken, the first two novels in The Books of Ezekiel, a dystopian sci-fi and urban fantasy decalogy.

She was an Air Force BRAT born in Bitburg Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany and came to the States at the age of one. Colby bounced around a lot but finally settled in Tucson, where she could at last deal with her addictions to writing, legends & mythology, filmmaking, creative entrepreneurship, motorcycles, and traveling.

Now, armed with a mound of animal crackers and gallons of Coca-Cola, Colby takes on the fiction writing trinity (novel writing, screenwriting, and game writing) in a fight to the death!

What’s the name of your new book?

The Given (The Books of Ezekiel #1)

Tell us a bit about your book

For over one hundred years the Civic Order and the Alchemic Order have held a shaky truce, peppered by violence and mistrust. But when Koa, a Civilian-born insurgency, bombs an Alchemist summit, the truce is shattered. Now, Koa is rising. War is coming. And all sixteen-year-old Zeika Anon can do is keep moving as she watches the lords of alchemy slowly overtake her home.

But when clashes between Koa and the Alchemic Order put a final, deadly squeeze on the remaining Civilian territories, Zeika finds herself in the crosshairs of fate. She must walk the line between survival and rebellion against the Alchemists. On one side of the line awaits death. On the other, the betrayal of her civilization, her loyalties, and herself.

How important are character names to you in your books? Is there a special meaning to any of the names?

Om-GOSH, names drive me insane because they are SO important to me. There’s always some deeper meaning to how or why I’ve named a character in a certain way. I feel like there’s a lot of essence, spirit, meaning, history, and nuance in a name. For example, in my Books of Ezekiel series, the brother of one of the main characters is Sairen, which (in spelling) is androgynous but also refers to his inner moral compass (like a siren’s call), which ultimately becomes his doom.

If you could choose ten words to describe your book, what would they be?

Dark. Gritty. Noir(e). Witty. High-octane. Unapologetic. Ass-kicking. Magical. Urban. Fantastical.

Where do your ideas come from?

So, before really jumping fully into my career as a novelist and filmmaker, I trained for nearly 7 years as a sociologist and social researcher. I was really invested in exploring social problems and posing statistically-informed, research-based solutions to these problems. Issues like poverty, disease, racism, sexism and sexuality, health, and more were always on my mind and still are. As a result, most of my novels are always, on some level, exploring social problems, asking questions, and posing social experiments and thought experiments through the lens of sci-fi and fantasy. I don’t think I sacrifice any of the fun, action, tropes, or escapism that’s expected from SFF/H novels, but I find it impossible to write any series that isn’t actually about anything significant or socially relevant.

Where do you see yourself in 10 years?

My dream is to build my company, Rebel Ragdoll, into the ultimate media f’empire. Currently, Rebel Ragdoll stands as a female-identified, multimedia brand dedicated to increasing the presence and impact of women, people of color, and other disenfranchised communities in publishing, filmmaking, and game design. I hope to empower artists to create, push change, and make a living with their art.

Specifically, Rebel Ragdoll is divided into four creative subsidiaries:

— Rebel Ragdoll Press (publishing),

— Rebel Ragdoll Productions (film & TV),

— ChickRogue Studios (games, software, and animation), and,

— The Bohemian Badass (creative education & training).

Personally, though, in addition to running Rebel Ragdoll, I myself want to publish an insanely large backlist of sci-fi, fantasy, thriller, crime noir(e), and survival horror novels. I also want to create and direct a bunch of action, horror, and sci-fi movies with all-female crews! I’d love to be one of the most prolific creators to ever have lived.