Author Interview: Thomas Gondolfi

Today I am interviewing Thomas Gondolfi, author of the science fiction novel, Toy Wars and the CorpGov Chronicles.

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DJ: Hey Thomas Thanks for stopping by to do this interview!

For readers who aren’t familiar with you, could you tell us a little about yourself?

Thomas Gondol: Wow, way to put a person on the spot. I’m a father of three grown children, loving husband and I think a Renaissance man. My wife calls me a certified flirt (who would be the organization that would control that?). I’ve been a board and role play gamer for pretty much all of my life.

DJ: What is Toy Wars about?

Thomas: Toy Wars is a story where a 2m-tall, purple, robotic teddy bear is the only sentient being on a distant planet. He was created as a desperate experiment as his “mother” is losing a war against other killer toys.

DJ: What were some of your influences for Toy Wars?

Thomas: I used to play a board game called “Panzer Leader.” It has cardboard chits to represent platoon level groups in WWII. One day I was pulling a destroyed unit off the board wondering what that paper chit or imaginary platoon thought of the made-up war they fought. In the background a Looney Toon was playing. It didn’t take my twisted mind long to combine the two. Toys fighting wars. Toy Wars.

DJ: Could you briefly tell us a little your main characters? Do they have any cool quirks or habits, or any reason why readers with sympathize with them?

Thomas: The purple teddy bear is alone with no one to teach him about being alive. None of the other toys at the beginning of the book are sentient. He begins life being very dogmatic like the robot that he is but he is feeling things his user’s manual says can’t happen. He must learn about the emotions we take for granted while he is trying to save his way of life. He eventually names himself Don Quixote as he thinks he might be just a bit insane and feels his quest is perhaps impossible.

Guest Post: Sweet Secrets Big Idea by Stephanie L. Weippert

Stephanie is bibliophile — full stop. Leave her alone for ten minutes and she will be reading or writing.

Stephanie is married and claims she and her husband are naturally insane in a fun an harmless way. Together they do filking and other musical hobbies. Their teen boys often drive them toward the not-fun insanity (Nature or Nurture? – you decide).

With former careers as a legal assistant and a licensed massage therapist, Stephanie now gets to make writing a full time endeavor thanks to her awesome husband.

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Sweet Secrets Big Idea

by Stephanie L. Weippert

At a cloth covered table in a ballroom filled with authors eager to sign their books, I smile as a burly man with his kid in tow make a bee line for me. He drops a copy of my book in front of me on the table with a bang. “Hey,” he asks. “What’s the big idea?”

I look up from the copy of my book Sweet Secrets he’d dropped, my pen in my hand to sign it and my eyes twinkled with delight.

“Food is magic,” I say, then sign with flourish and hand it back to him with a grin.

Author Spotlight: An Eighty Percent Solution (CorpGov Chronicles #1) by Thomas Gondolfi

About the Book:

CEO Nanogate works closely with other mega-corporate magnates to control everything in their path. Together they suborn governments, police, and anything else barring their way to greater profits.

As the cool, enigmatic leader of the Green action Militia, Sonya drives the organization’s agenda through murder and destruction among the corporate elite. The higher the body count the more their cause earns credibility.

Tony Sammis, mid-level functionary, sinks further and further into the apathy of his own dreary existence as a cog in the great commercial machine. Without a say in the matter, his life will form the intersection of a grand conflict that could change or destroy the life of every sentient being in the Sol system. As flotsam in a flood, Tony must deal with greed, terrorism, corrupt police, pathological killers, and biological warfare in his attempt to save himself and his society.