Author Interview – Aubrie Dionne

Aubrie is an author and flutist in New England. Her stories have appeared in Mindflights, Niteblade, Silver Blade, A Fly in Amber, and several print anthologies including Skulls and Crossbones by Minddancer Press, Rise of the Necromancers, by Pill Hill Press, Nightbird Singing in the Dead of Night by Nightbird Publishing, Dragontales and Mertales by Wyvern Publications, A Yuletide Wish by Nightwolf Publications, and Aurora Rising by Aurora Wolf Publications. Her epic fantasy is published with Wyvern Publications, and several of her ebooks are published with Lyrical Press and Gypsy Shadow Publishing. When she’s not writing, she plays in orchestras and teaches flute at Plymouth State University and a community music school.

As part of her blog tour for the New Dawn series, Aubrie answered some questions that I had for her.

YABR: What inspires you when you write? 

AD: I'm inspired by watching awesome movies. I think of a book as a movie in my head. It's the best kind, because I can imagine everything how I'd want it to be, and how I'd want the characters to look. Some of my favorite movies are the original Star Wars trilogy, the Lord of the Rings movies, Star Trek Generations, all of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, and the recent Jane Eyre movie.

YABR: Do you base your characters off of real people?  Do you have a process for coming up with characters?

AD: Every one of my characters has a little bit of me in them. It's kinda scary when I look at them and recognize it myself! I don't base them off real people because I don't think my family or friends would like that! *wink wink*

YABR: Do you ever experience writer’s block and how do you get over it? 

AD: All of the time. If I sit at the computer for too long, I get blocked. That's when I take a walk with my dogs, do laundry, practice my flute, then it frees up the ideas. 

YABR: What type/genre of books do you like to read? 

AD: I read all genres, but science fiction and fantasy are my favorites! 

YABR: Who is your favorite character in the New Dawn series and why? 

AD: Actually, it's the bad guy, Tiff, Striker's ex girlfriend. She's the character with the most flaws, and the one that grows the most over the entire book. I loved her so much, I brought her back as a  grandmother in my YA tie in (currently being shopped around to publishers!)

YABR: The New Dawn series is something that is not mainstream Sci-Fi, where did you get the ideas for the series? 

AD: I worry about the end of the world all the time. I wonder what people are going to do when Earth becomes uninhabitable or overrun with people. What if people could live their whole lives on colony ships and pass down their DNA to future generations able to colonize other planets? 

YABR: How would you describe the New Dawn series to someone who has never read it before?

AD: It's a space opera, complete with space ships, laser battles, mysterious aliens, monstrous creatures, space pirates, desert planets, ince worlds, jungles, everything you'd expect. 

YABR: Favorite color 

AD: Blue. My eyes are blue, so when I wear blue, it brings them out. Also, my room from my childhood was blue. 

YABR: Favorite holiday/season 

AD: Summer!!! Beach bum all the way. I'd burn my snow boots if I could. 

YABR: Word that best describes you and why

AD: Creative. I chose two careers that require a lot of creative energy: flute and writing. 

YABR: Optimist or pessimist

AD: Optimist! Every one of my books ends happily for most of the characters involved.

YABR: Favorite author/book/series

AD: Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte   

YABR: Favorite food/drink

AD: Pizza and coffee, but not together!  

YABR: Favorite place to read/write

AD: The computer!

YABR: Favorite pizza topping

AD: Vegetables! I'm a vegetarian and I LOVE vegetables!  

Title: A Hero Rising (A New Dawn, #3)
Author: Aubrie Dionne
Genre: Sci-Fi Romance
Length: novella
Release Date: February 2012

Prequel to A New Dawn - Book Three

After watching his love leave on a colony ship, James Wilfred must save those left behind from a planetary apocalypse. Their salvation lies in an unfinished ship tucked away in a secret government base, and only James can break in and pilot him and his people to freedom on a nearby space station.

Skye O’Connor’s boyfriend never returns after his gang attempts an assassination of the Governor, and the State Building is destroyed. Worse, crazed moonshiners addicted to the chemical Morpheus have stormed the city, and she must find a safe place for her and her boyfriend’s daughter. When a heroic man saves her, Skye asks to accompany him on his quest to find the last colony ship left on Earth.

As the city falls around them, James and Skye must work together to build a new future, all the while rediscovering their ability to love, before the apocalypse claims them both.

Title: Tundra 37 (A New Dawn, #2)
Author: Aubrie Dionne
Genre: Sci-Fi Romance
Length: 288 pages
Release Date: February 7, 2012

Gemme is a hi-tech matchmaker who pairs the next generation of Lifers aboard the Expedition, a deep space transport vessel destined for Paradise 18. When the identity of her lifemate pops up on her screen, she’s shocked that he’s the achingly gorgeous and highly sought after Lieutenant Miles Brentwood—a man oblivious to her existence. Believing everyone will think she contrived the match, she erases it from the computer’s memory.

Just as comets pummel the ship and destroy the pairing system forever.

With the Expedition disabled, the colonists must crash land on the barren ice world of Tundra 37 where Gemme is reassigned to an exploratory mission, led by Lieutenant Brentwood. Only in the frozen tundra does she understand the shape of his heart and why the computer has entwined their destinies.

Title: Paradise 21 (A New Dawn, #1)
Author: Aubrie Dionne
Genre: Sci-Fi Romance
Length: 248 pages
Release Date: August 2011

Aries has lived her entire life aboard mankind’s last hope, the New Dawn, a spaceship traveling toward a planet where humanity can begin anew—a planet that won’t be reached in Aries’ lifetime. As one of the last genetically desirable women in the universe, she must marry her designated genetic match and produce the next generation for this centuries-long voyage.


But Aries has other plans.

When her desperate escape from the New Dawn strands her on a desert planet, Aries discovers the rumors about pirates—humans who escaped Earth before its demise—are true. Handsome, genetically imperfect Striker possesses the freedom Aries envies, and the two connect on a level she never thought possible. But pursued by her match from above and hunted by the planet’s native inhabitants, Aries quickly learns her freedom will come at a hefty price.

The life of the man she loves.