Q&A with R.T. Lowe!

Hey everyone! I'm super excited to be hosting R.T. Lowe today, who is here to answer some questions for us. He is the author of The Felix Chronicles: Freshmen, which I read and really enjoyed. The second book in the series, Five Days in January is out now and I personally can't wait to read it!

Hello, and thank you for joining us today in this Q&A session! So, the first question that comes to mind is: did you find anything particularly challenging about writing the second installment in the series?

I'm not sure if other authors have similar experiences with sequels, but for me anyway, the second book in the series really seemed to flow and take shape almost effortlessly. In Freshmen, I spent a good amount of time establishing the background of the story and building Felix's world (Portland College and his relationships with his hometown friend Allison, his reality star roommate Lucas, their friends Harper and Caitlin, and of course Bill the groundskeeper), so in Five Days in January, I was able to rely on the first book's foundation, and the result is a story that starts off with a very harrowing encounter with some unsavory creatures in the woods and then it just picks up steam from there. As you can probably tell, I'm very excited and happy with how the book turned out, and I hope everyone enjoys reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

When do you find time to write?

I'm a lawyer with unfortunately typical lawyerly hours and I have three boys under the age of five, so finding time to write is a bit of a challenge. When I began writing the first installment of The Felix Chronicles, I realized I'd either have to sacrifice sleep or sacrifice my dream of writing a book. So for the past three years, I've been writing between the hours of four and six in the morning. It isn't easy, but I honestly love writing, and after finishing Freshmen and then Five Days in January, I can't really imagine giving up on Felix and Allison until their story has run its course.

Is there anything else you'd like people to know about you or your books?

Other than my wife, no one knows I wrote it. Not family. Not friends. Not the people I work with. At first I kept it to myself because I didn't want well-intentioned supporters flooding my Amazon page with ridiculously glowing reviews. But now that Five Days in January is available and it's been a year since Freshmen was published, I've decided to keep it under wraps because I'm curious about whether anyone I know will ever realize I wrote The Felix Chronicles. I think the question of how 'successful' a book must be before family and friends find out you wrote it is an interesting one, and I'll be sure to let you know if someone uncovers my secret.

Definitely let us know! Thanks for being with us today. I personally look forward to reading Five Days in January soon!

The Felix Chronicles: Five Days in January Synopsis

Felix and Allison return from winter break with hopes of settling into the comfortable rhythms of college life only to find Portland College hasn't escaped the wave of senseless violence sweeping across the land, from the malls of Minnesota to a small town in northern Maine. Amidst the chaos, a political movement rises, fueled by the turmoil threatening to tear the country apart. As the public's discontent reaches a final tipping point, a new hope emerges from an unexpected figure, a man offering the promise of peace and security - the prospect of 'freedom from fear'. When the line that separates allies from enemies blurs and good and evil becomes a matter of perspective, Felix must make a choice. But as the gears of a 2,000-year-old prophecy grind inexorably to the future, can Felix choose his own path, or is free will as illusory as the salvation promised by a man destined to set the world aflame?

Find it on Amazon.

About the author:

R.T. Lowe is the author of The Felix Chronicles: Freshmen (Book 1) and Five Days in January (Book 2). R.T. Lowe is a graduate of Willamette University and Columbia Law School. Originally from Oregon, he now lives in Newtown, Connecticut with his wife and three kids.