Welcome, intrepid scavenger hunters! Glad you’ve made it this far. (I told Brock we should try to weed out the less committed ones by putting up obstacles–a game, three tricky riddles, maybe a boring YouTube video about the migratory patterns of cranes–but he didn’t think that was a good idea.)

The clue for this stop is hidden (not really) at the end of this post, so then you can go on to the next stop. If you’ve missed a stop or if you are a victorious hunter and want to enter the full phrase for your chance to win an iPad Mini and 32 books, head on over HERE.

Today, I’m excited to be hosting Christopher Miller of the Miller brothers for some questions-and-answers.

Christopher is the one with the sunglasses.

Let’s start with some fun questions.

Why not? I like fun.

If we came to your house for dinner, what would you prepare for us?

I make a mean mac and cheese. But I like to eat my mac and cheese with mustard in it. Seriously, you should try it. It gives a little kick to the Kraft cheese powder.

What is your go-to beverage of choice?

Pepsi Throwback for cold beverages, Salted Caramel Mocha for hot. I MUST have coffee in some form in the morning to survive. Anything with caffeine will keep me alive. It doesn’t have to taste good.

Pick two celebrities to be your parents.

Mary & Joseph. I mean, how awesome would it be to be Jesus’ brother? Although, now that I think about it, that might be a rough place to be. Hard to blame something on him. All he has to do is pull the “I’m the Son of God card” on you and you’re toast.

Yeah, in retrospect, that would be a bad choice. I guess I would go with Ronald Reagan and Paula Dean. Ronald because his ability to lead was pretty darn awesome, and Paula Dean because…well, who wouldn’t want to grow up on her cooking?

Jeff Bezos walks into your office and says you can have a million dollars to launch your best entrepreneurial idea. What is it?

Already working on it. BookJolt.com, it’s like Youtube for Books – a free-to-read, shareable and embeddable book reader. Ads would support paying for the books so the books are free and the author still gets paid on a per page read instead of per book sold. If you want to donate to the idea I’ll be launching a kickstarter for it soon. LOL.

What kind of animal would you be and why?

A bald eagle.

Why?

Have you seen my head?

You guys grew up in Alaska, what was that like?

Cold and dark. But seriously, Alaska was a pretty magical place to grow up. We lived in a few houses in the eleven years I was up there. One of them was on a campground called Camp Liwa which served as inspiration for a couple of scenes in our books. The thing I liked most about Alaska was the independence we had as kids to explore big spaces and have adventures. I also loved seeing the Northern Lights. If you’ve never seen them in real life, you have no idea how amazing the night can be.

Another thing Allan (my brother) and I liked about growing up in Alaska was the time we spent in our parents bookstore. I loved stocking the shelves with new product and seeing the newest books that were coming out.

Speaking of brothers, what is it like writing with your brother? I mean, don’t you guys fight a lot about your writing decisions?

I get asked this a bunch. Truth is, we’ve always worked really well together. We think a lot alike. That’s not to say we don’t have our differences, but I truly believe that we are better writing together than we are apart. Proverbs says “As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.” I’ve found that to be true in our relationship as well.

But you’re brothers, surely you must have disagreed about something. What was the most epic argument you had about?

I gave my brother’s chips away. I’m not sure why or how they ended up in my lunch bag but I gave them away to somebody else at school and he found out. He wanted to tackle me and ended up with a pencil jabbed into his head. I don’t think I meant it to happen, but I do remember he was pretty upset about it. He still has a grey mark in the side of his head where the pencil lead punctured his skin. The moral of the story is don’t touch my brother’s chips. LOL. I think the pencil lead gave him magical writing powers, so it’s all good.

You can watch a video interview about our creative differences here.

Maybe so. The two of you have managed to write very well together. Tell us a little about your books.

We’ve written and illustrated two picture books, four novels and have one in the works that refuses to let us finish it. :-) I’m probably most proud of the Codebearers trilogy (published by Warner Press).

The first book Hunter Brown and the Secret of the Shadow was a major accomplishment for us. It was the first novel we had ever attempted to write and was pursued for publication by two publishers even before it was finished. We were so blessed to have a great publisher like Warner Press who believed in us enough to make our books a hit in the CBA bookstore marketplace. Each Codebearer book is written in the first person by a teenage boy named Hunter Brown who discovers an ancient book that allows him to see beyond the words, into the story it tells. After reading the book, he learns there are creatures known as the Shadow who have entered his world in search of something they believe he has that belongs to them. With the help of a new friend he enters the story of the ancient book and the stakes are raised…

Rather than explain it all here, why don’t you check out this awesome teaser trailer we produced for the book series.

Tell me about a project or accomplishment that you consider to be the most significant in your career?

It has to be our third book in the Codebearers series, Hunter Brown and the Eye of Ends. It was probably one of the most difficult books I’ve ever written to date. I’m really proud of it.  Although I’ve also helped to write a storyline for a Stargate video game that just came out on the iPad which was pretty fun too.

What can you tell us about the new book you are writing?

It’s called Codebearers Continuum, and it’s the launch of a new spin off series from our Codebearers trilogy. We’re working slowly on it. We want this book to be really great, and we just haven’t had enough time to really make it the story we want it to be yet. The story takes place long after the first trilogy and currently follows an episodic interweaving storyline of several characters including a deaf boy who can hear things others can’t, a blind orphan who is more than what she seems, and a brilliant young physicist who believes he is on the verge of opening a wormhole to distant worlds.

We’ve recently posted a sneak peek at an opening chapter from the book for those fans who haven’t found it on our website yet. For those familiar with the series it will certainly be an intriguing addition to the previous stories, but it is the perfect entry point for new fans as well. Check it out here: http://www.codebearers.com/forum/topics/sneak-peek-a-special-gift-to-our-patient-fans

Where can readers get a copy of your books?

We’ve listed them all on our blog at TheMillerBrothers.com, but you can get them from Barnes and Noble, Books A Million, your local Christian bookstore and pretty much anywhere books are sold.

That’s great! Thanks for sharing, Christopher. I’ll have to check out that sneak peek myself. But first, a reward for our loyal scavenger hunters. Here’s the next part of the clue: of your.

For the next stop, you’ll be heading over to Christopher’s blog for stop 15!

But, while you’re here, I just couldn’t get enough of giving away free things. Enter this giveaway, and you could win all four books in the Amarias Adventure series. I’ll even autograph them for you. Thanks for stopping by, everyone!

Enter the Amarias Adventures Giveaway