Hello everyone and welcome to my stop on the Escapist Book Tours virtual book tour for T.A. Bruno’s concluding volume in the Song of Kamaria Science Fiction Fantasy trilogy, At the Threshold of the Universe! Today, I am excited to kickoff the tour by sharing an interview with the author! This series has quickly became one of my favorite series of all time. Bruno’s worldbuilding is so imaginative and his eye for detail creates some of the most evocative imagery I have ever come across. I’ll be sharing my review of At the Threshold of the Universe ASAP, but for now you can check out my review of the first book in the series, In the Orbit of Sirens, over on FanFiAddict!
You can find our Q&A below, along with all of the info about the book, the author, links to purchase a copy of At the Threshold of the Universe for yourself, as well as an opportunity to win signed copies of the entire series!!! Also, be sure to take a look at the schedule at the bottom of the post and follow along to see the stops from our other awesome hosts!
Book Information:
At the Threshold of the Universe by T.A. Bruno
Series: The Song of Kamaria #3
Genre: Science Fiction Fantasy
Intended Age Group: General
Pages: 496
Published: May 31, 2022
Publisher: Feathersong, LLC (Self Published)
Blurb
THE EPIC CONCLUSION TO THE SONG OF KAMARIA TRILOGY.
ALL SONGS END.
War ravages Kamaria as an old enemy resurfaces from the depths of the ocean. Offering no support in the coming battles, the Auk’nai isolate themselves in their tightly guarded Nest. Outgunned and outmatched, humanity once again trembles on the edge of obliteration.
The Castus family is torn apart. Denton fights on the front lines, hoping to free Cade from a nightmarish foe. Meanwhile, Eliana and Nella set out on a path that will change everything they understand about the Sirens. The Song will end, but who will remain to hear its final verse?
See Also:
Intergalactic Planetary • Star Man • You Got a Friend in Me
Book Links:
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09TTRX349/
Amazon Series Page: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09B4YVKGT
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60484283-at-the-threshold-of-the-universe
Author Q&A
Thank you so much for joining us for this short Q&A! Before we get going, please tell us a bit about yourself.
Thanks for having me! I’m T. A. Bruno, author of the Song of Kamaria trilogy. I’m a father of two boys, and my day job has me working in the film industry as a layout/previz artist. It’s allowed me to learn many storytelling techniques and hone in on designing intense action sequences. It’s been great for my writing!
I want to start things off by asking: what is a great book that you’ve read recently and why should we give it a go?
Recently I’ve been reading Jonathan Nevair’s Wind Tide Trilogy. Although I haven’t completed No Song, But Silence (I’m knee-deep in it), I can still highly recommend Jati’s Wager. It’s an excellent, unique sci-fi action story built into a beautiful world by Jonathan. Readers should give it a go because it’s well-written and incredibly original. I think Jati is one of the most interesting characters I’ve read recently.
Do you have any hobbies or interests outside of reading/writing? Do you care to elaborate?
I mentioned I work in the film industry, and as such, I dabble in all sorts of art. Lately, I’ve been creating 3D sculpts of the various creatures from my books. I’m bouncing around an idea where I might make a zoological book with high-rez photos of each sculpt and information about the animal, with the potential to purchase a sculpt for yourself! We’ll see if I can make it work, but it’s been a fun exercise.
Tell us about your road to writing. What made you want to become an author?
I’ve always enjoyed telling stories. As a kid, I wrote a comic book called Space Explorers, which was a big hit among my classmates. For years, I chased that dopamine dump, off-shooting into visual storytelling through film and animation. Still, I always had this need to write a book in my head. After years of brainstorming and discovering I had something worth putting on paper, I finally buckled up and started writing. After years of refining, In the Orbit of Sirens was finally published, and I am so thrilled with the response it has received. All the hard work was worth it!
Writing is a hard and lonely affair in the best of circumstances. How do you achieve a good work/life/writing balance?
I got into a rhythm where I’d be brainstorming all day, jotting ideas down, and adding them to my outline. Once the outline was in good shape, writing was a matter of just getting the broad ideas more refined. I give myself lots of edit passes, knowing I’ll refine along the way. This allows me to write quickly when my butt is in the chair, knowing I’ll give editing the full attention it deserves later. Through this, I managed to work my day job, keep my life intact, and enjoy the process of writing. It was also a passion project, so time spent writing felt great.
Do you usually write to background noise, music, etc. or do you prefer silence?
I usually go with orchestral music, but I’ve started doing some lo-fi beats. Typically it can’t have vocals in it. It distracts too much. A few times, I put one song on repeat until a scene is done if it puts me in the zone right.
What made you want to write in Sci-Fi Fantasy? Do you write (or plan to write) in any other genres?
I’ve always been drawn to space exploration. I had old NASA books my dad gave me that I ate up all the time. I understood as a kid that I entirely suck at math and can’t do it to save my life, so the odds of becoming an astronaut were probably pretty slim. But I could draw! And Star Wars was huge for me as a kid, so drawing aliens was common for me. Sci-Fi allows me to explore worlds far beyond our own and think about how life could adapt to certain environments. Adding a dash of fantasy always felt right to me as well. I like it when tech-based characters are forced to work with a situation they can barely understand. The blend of those two genres will never get old to me.
If I were to write in any other genre, it would be Horror. I’ve been tinkering with horror elements for a long time. Each book in the Song of Kamaria has its horror as well, and readers seemed to respond well to it. We’ll see if I can conjure up a good enough story to tell in horror!
What is one thing that you love about the current state of SFF and what is one thing that you wish you saw more of?
I love the amount of representation filling SFF lately. We’re in a golden age of unique stories written by people of diverse backgrounds, and each one reads brilliantly. Scifi is a great lens to view the world with, so having people with different backgrounds tell their stories through SFF is enlightening and amazing. If there’s anything I want to see more of, it’s more of this boon of great new voices.
What do you think characterizes your writing style?
My writing is quicker-paced and typically filled with action. I come from a film background, so I’ve had people describe my books as reading “like a movie.” Which makes total sense! I strive to bring big cinematic ideas onto the page.
For those who haven’t read the Song of Kamaria trilogy, give us the elevator pitch.
As the lights go out in the Sol System, humanity flees the grip of nightmarish machines and journies to a far-off world called Kamaria. It is a paradise, but not without its own dangers. Low in numbers and desperate to survive, humanity will be forced to adapt to this strange new world or face extinction.
They say to never judge a book by its cover and maybe that’s true in the philosophical sense, but it certainly happens with books. Can you tell us about the idea behind the cover of At the Threshold of the Universe?
Daniel Schmelling is the cover designer, and he always does an excellent job. For In the Orbit of Sirens, we wanted to plant people on Kamaria and keep it a little mysterious. You can only see the Colony and a few of the main characters, but the Siren is peering at them from the back cover. For On the Winds of Quasars, we went with the isolation Cade and Nella feel after being kidnapped and dragged off into the wilderness. A huge bird is looming over them, and this bird represents a few things in the book but nothing entirely specific. It’s both the phantom of the Daunoren and the Monster that pursues them. For At the Threshold of the Universe, we change the color pallet to jar the reader. People should be a little nervous picking this book up. The world of Kamaria is in danger, and all our characters are about to fight for their lives. The stakes keep rising, and the dread is high, and I think this cover accomplishes that perfectly.
Thank you so much for taking the time to answer a few questions for us! I always enjoy this little peek behind the curtain. Do you have any parting thoughts or comments you’d like to leave for our readers?
Thank you for having me! For the readers, I just want to thank them for spending time on Kamaria. This was a huge passion project, and seeing such a positive response has been heart-meltingly nice. I hope they enjoy At the Threshold of the Universe. Cheers!
About the Author
T. A. Bruno grew up in a suburb south of Chicago and moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in the film industry. Since then, he has brought stories to life for over a decade as a previsualization artist. At home, he is the proud father of two boys and a husband to a wonderful wife.
Author Website: TABruno.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/TABrunoAuthor/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TABrunoAuthor
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TABrunoAuthor
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