In a thrilling blend of historical fiction and steampunk adventure, Matthew Donald's "Teslanauts" (August 16, 2022, Lyra Publishing) introduces us to seventeen-year-old Raymond Calvert, whose life is forever changed when he embarks on a quest to uncover the truth about his missing father. Raymond's search leads him to a hidden base beneath the Hudson River in New York, where he discovers the Teslanauts, a secretive organization led by the brilliant Nikola Tesla. Armed with advanced electrical technology, the Teslanauts work behind the scenes to keep the world safe.
"Teslamancer" (August 27, 2024, Lyra Publishing) continues the saga two years later. Now an experienced agent, Raymond has completed missions across many countries, thwarting numerous underground factions using Tesla's cutting-edge volt-tech. In 1924, the world braces for the emergence of the Teslamancer, the ultimate wielder of Tesla's breakthrough science.
Here is a compelling Q&A with Mattew Donald
Q&A for Matthew Donald
Where do you come up with your ideas? A:
There’s a huge pool of wildly interloping wackiness in my brain at all times,
this pool being a stew mixed up of all the sci-fi and fantasy books I read when
I was younger, silly blockbuster movies chock-full of CGI, a lot of video games
either strategy or shooter, and whatever nonsense I’ve concocted myself. Often
I imagine the scenes in my head as movies while listening to instrumental music
and bouncing around my house, or often ideas come flooding to me in the shower.
You ever realize just how much showers stir creative juices? It’s crazy!
What drew you to writing about Tesla and Rasputin, an unlikely
historical pairing? A: I had always loved Nikola Tesla’s wild
ideas and inventions, and that was the basis of the series as a whole. When
exploring ideas for the second book I thought of going into the as-of-then
newly instated Soviet Union, and how Russia struggled with the ramifications of
its recent revolution. That’s when the idea of a somehow revived Rasputin came
into being, as Rasputin’s mysterious death has always been fascinating for many
years. For a while there were rumors about how difficult he was to kill, so it
made sense that in this steampunk-esque world of my books he would have still
escaped the clutches of mortality. While the real Rasputin was a complicated
man, fiction loves to portray him as a mad monster or necromancer type, and I
thought it’d be fun to take that but turn it into a steampunk sci-fi version
rather than fantastical. As I started planning to have Rasputin as the villain
of my series’ second book, the idea of having these two historical figures face
off in a WWE-style showdown became more and more appealing. The real Tesla and
Rasputin had no interactions in real history as far as we know, but they did
live around the same time and are both portrayed in fiction as equally crazy,
albeit in different ways. So I started thinking about how the two could meet,
interact, and eventually fight in ways that are fitting to their real
characters. I wanted them to have a personal reason for their conflict rather
than just have them face off because it’s cool, although it is obviously very
cool. So I looked into real history to find a potential real reason in real
life why these two real people who never interacted would have a connection,
which was a fun challenge. Eventually, a big lightbulb switched on in my brain
when I realized that while the two of them had no personal connections in
history, their home countries (Serbia and Russia respectively) certainly did,
so I worked from there. Plus, having the two of them fight is also just
awesome. It’s not like a brawl or anything, as neither of them are trained
fighters and that wouldn’t be fitting for their characters. Instead, it’s more
like a wizard duel. You should read the book and see if I did it justice. It
comes out in August.
Did you find it difficult shifting from
writing about prehistoric to modern historical eras? A: I
love prehistoric times, and my Megazoic books
certainly involved a lot of paleontological research of both the species and
its Late Cretaceous setting, but since it also involved a sci-fi style
civilization hidden to humanity, I could also invent a lot of stuff and make up
a culture from scratch. That was fun and allowed a ton of freedom, so switching
from that to a real historical setting was certainly a challenge. I had to do
more research than I’ve ever done before about the time period, the culture,
the styles of dress, the vernacular; everything, far beyond any research I did
for Megazoic. One tricky aspect in
particular I remember finding odd at first, and this is admittedly a bit silly,
is describing the clothes on the characters. My dinosaurs very rarely wore
anything but armor, so describing dresses, shirts, cufflinks, hats, skirts, belts,
or whatever other apparel a person might have was not fully in my nature as a
writer yet. It’s kind of funny, but that ended up being a finicky thing that I
remember finding difficult at first. But it was fun to overcome these
challenges, and I became a better writer because of it.
What sets you apart from other historical fiction writers? A:
Admittedly my historical fiction reading is a bit limited and mostly from my
earlier years, but one thing I recall from the specific books I read is that
they were a bit dry and humorless. Obviously this doesn’t apply to every
historical fiction book and may not actually apply to very many of them at all,
but I remember that these stories were rarely fun and were often about the
hardships of the time in order to educate us spoiled modern audiences and
remind us of how easy we have it now in comparison. While there’s definitely a
bit of that in both books in my Teslanauts
series, I also made sure the ton of them were a lot more fun and
adventurous, with a lot of banter and pulpy action.
What are some key points you hope readers take away from the series? A:
There are some key themes from each book as well as the series as a whole that
I would really like readers to take away from when reading my books. For the
first book Teslanauts, I’d like
readers to learn the lesson through what Raymond and his friends and fellow
cohorts experience throughout the plot: we are not defined by where we come
from, but by what we do. Several characters are from countries while going
against what their country stands for, either in good ways or bad, and some of
them have parents that they’ve either stepped away from or learned to not pin
everything about themselves on their legacy. Raymond believes for a long time
that he’s only good enough through his father’s actions, and what he wants to
do isn’t important, but as his arc continues he learns that he can indeed be
his own person and can take what his father has left for him and build upon
that legacy rather than merely repeating it or living in its shadow. The second
book, Teslamancer, has a theme about
finding one’s purpose, either individuals, factions, or whole nations, and the
struggle of how feeling a lack of purpose can weigh down on you. But both
books, as well as the whole series, have the wider theme of how technological
advancement, while good overall, can be used nefariously and must be regulated
before being normalized, and to have hope that eventually, one day, we will be
ready for it. The Teslanauts are a secret organization and their technology being
used to advance and aid humanity rather than hurt it is strictly enforced, and
their whole purpose is to stop other factions using this technology for ill
will. While the majority of people of the time might not be able to handle the
power of Tesla’s technology, a few of them did, biding time for civilization to
eventually benefit from its positive advancements. There’s hope for us. There’s
hope for humanity. It might take a bit, but we will make it. I truly believe
that, and I hope people who read this book come away with that feeling too.
Why do you like to write? What got you started in writing? A: I
love writing because I love being creative. I love coming up with wacky ideas
and putting them down, either in written form or some other venue. When I was
younger I made stop-motion LEGO movies, my favorite of which involving my
cockatiel at the time stomping around a LEGO city like a giant monster with thunderous stomping
sound effects added with each step of her claws. In my college years I often
made games, usually simple ones but occasionally ones more complex like
strategy games based on the world of my books. And lately I’ve been seriously
thinking about making an animated movie based on my Megazoic books using computer-animation software both 2D and 3D and
a little bit of AI to aid with some of the busywork. Book-writing just came
about for me as another outlet for my creativity, and I really started getting
into it in high school. I remember writing a fantasy trilogy with books bigger
than any of my current ones before I went to college, and no one else other
than a few online friends at the time has ever or will ever read it due to how
amateurish it is compared to my writing now. I’ve grown so much more as a
writer since then, but I’m glad I wrote that story and I am proud of it to a degree.
What books from your childhood really influenced your writing? A: I
really enjoyed the fantasy works of Michael A. Stackpole, T.A. Barron,
Christopher Paolini, and Terry Brooks when I was in high school, and as a
millennial I also quite enjoyed the tie-in LEGO Bionicle chapter books by Greg
Farshtey and C.A. Hapka that came out throughout that toyline’s run. I read
those until I was way too old for them, but boy did I enjoy them and I still
have them all on my bookshelf at home. I also liked reading the sci-fi
thrillers by Michael Crichton, particularly Jurassic Park and Timeline. The
former is actually quite different from the movie adaptation, and it’s very
interesting to compare the two. I also enjoyed the Anonymous Rex books by Eric
Garcia, and in contrast to the Bionicle books I read those at way too young of
an age than I should have. I’ll never forget telling my parents at the dinner
table about a scene with this T. rex
character throwing out F-bombs left and right, and my dad humorously stated “If
a T. rex could talk, I imagine it
would throw out F-bombs all the time.” Just imagining the T. rex roaring in Jurassic Park, but rather than an animalistic
bellow it’s shouting “F**** YOUUUUUUU!!!”
is very funny and oddly kind of fitting.
Can readers expect more from the
Teslanaut series? A: Of course! I have five books planned
total, so after Teslamancer there are
three more to go. It will continue to go on throughout the decades, with the
plan being to eventually go into World War 2 and deal with the consequences of
this technology in that kind of setting. While Raymond Calvert is the main
character of both books one and two and will also be in the upcoming third
installment as well, the plan is for a new character to take the reins in books
four and five, as by that point Raymond might be getting a little old for young
adult audiences to relate to at a degree I’d like. You’ll have to see who that
is, but it’ll be fun! Just stick around and be preparing for an electrifying
experience! Yay, Tesla puns!
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