Interview with Jeff Dennis, Author of Endangered Species (The Cretaceous Chronicles Book 3)

What's the story behind the story? What inspired you to write this book?

Endangered Species is the final book in my Cretaceous Chronicles sci-fi trilogy, following Book 1: Cretaceous Stones and Book 2: Dragons of the Great Divide. The novel wraps up three summers of dinosaurs wreaking havoc along the Continental Divide in modern-day Montana and Idaho.

The idea for the series began percolating in my mind after reading Michael Crichton’s Jurassic Park. For years I thought about Crichton’s inventive device for bringing dinos into our contemporary world—extracting ancient dinosaur blood from mosquitos frozen in amber, filling out the missing DNA sequence with frog DNA, and then inserting the reconstructed DNA into ostrich eggs to hatch out dinosaurs.

Far-fetched? Yes. Possible? Doubtful. Exciting dramatic science fiction? You bet.

With Endangered Species and this trilogy, I wanted to steer clear of the tired, worn-out dinosaur tropes that had gone before. I didn’t want to put the dinos on another planet—too easy and clichéd. I didn’t want to use traditional time travel schemes where humans go back in time to prehistory—too common. I wanted to come up with a fresh and innovative method of returning dinosaurs to modern-day Earth. Something completely outrageous. Something earth-shattering.

So I employed reverse time travel, bringing Late Cretaceous dinos from the distant past to Earth as eggs packed in large meteorites striking Montana and Idaho. The resulting hatch-out brings the dinosaurs full circle, returning them to the same geographic area from whence they vanished 66 million years ago.

I thought it would be a wonderful irony to have them return in meteorites, delivering them encased in the same physical objects that wiped them out. Yes, my idea is equally as far-fetched as Crichton’s. But we’re talking science fiction here, the key word being fiction—and speculative fiction at that.

Endangered Species, like the previous two books, follows ranchers Bryan and Loretta Gilliam and their three children, as well as helicopter pilot Peter Lacroix with his young family, and romantically involved paleontologists turned dinosaur trackers Hayden Fowler and Nora Lemoyne, all grappling with the invasive prehistoric species.

Endangered Species kicks off with a severed Tyrannosaurus Rex head being delivered to the Gilliam ranch. Recent photos of all five family members are spiked on the T-Rex’s deadly teeth. Who is behind the threat? What is their motive? Billings private investigator Mike Mathews is brought in to find the perpetrators.

With Endangered Species, I have incorporated all of my favorite fictional elements: action adventure thrills, hard science fiction, literary family saga, noirish forensic crime, romantic interrelationships, and classic rock music. There are also illegal exotic animal traffickers who are making exorbitant profits running dinosaurs to their wealthy clients, and dark fantasy with the Quetzal Whisperer, a falconer turned pterosaur trainer who commands his Aeroguild of Quetzalcoatlus (huge flying reptiles) to carry out some amazing but questionable deeds.

If you had to pick theme songs for the main characters of your book, what would they be?

I have many favorite scenes, but two stand out as the most fun to write.

Dinosaur-chasing paleontologists Hayden Fowler and Nora Lemoyne charter a boat to troll Tally Lake in Montana using a marine magnetometer to locate sunken meteorites and lure huge crocodilian dinosaurs known as Deinosuchus. Unfortunately, their charter comes to a disastrous conclusion.

Illegal exotic animal traffickers Mick and Claire Prescott visit the Quetzal Whisperer at his secluded mountaintop sanctuary, where the Whisperer trains his flock of Quetzalcoatlus to carry out some very troubling acts.

What's your favorite genre to read? Is it the same as your favorite genre to write?

My reading tastes are all over the literary map. While I do not have one favorite genre, I tend to lean toward thrillers (both mainstream and sci-fi), horror, urban fantasy, and literary novels that examine the human experience. I especially like dysfunctional family stories, because let’s face it, all families are dysfunctional in a million different shades of gray. And no matter what genre I’m reading, I enjoy romantic relationship subplots, though I don’t read straight-ahead romance or romantasy.

What books are on your TBR pile right now?

• East of Eden by John Steinbeck
• Hyperion by Dan Simmons
• The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides
• Razorblade Tears by S. A. Cosby
• Project NEMISYS by Greever Williams
• Perun’s Hammer by Ian Heller

What scene in your book was your favorite to write?

I have many favorite scenes, but two stand out as the most fun to write.
1) Dinosaur-chasing paleontologists Hayden Fowler and Nora Lemoyne charter a boat to troll Tally Lake in Montana using a marine magnetometer to locate sunken meteorites and lure huge crocodilian dinosaurs known as Deinosuchus. Unfortunately, their charter comes to a disastrous conclusion.

2) Illegal exotic animal traffickers Mick and Claire Prescott visit the Quetzal Whisperer at his secluded mountaintop sanctuary, where the Whisperer trains his flock of Quetzalcoatlus to carry out some very troubling acts.

Do you have any quirky writing habits? (lucky mugs, cats on laps, etc.)

I have written all eight of my published books in the comfort of my battered, ancient La-Z-Boy recliner, beginning with my first novel, The Wisdom of Loons in 2009. It has gotten to the point where I don’t think the creative magic would happen if I wrote anywhere else. And now I’m too superstitious to test that theory, Ha-ha!

Do you have a motto, quote or philosophy you live by?

Find something you are passionate about and pursue it relentlessly. That’s the key to personal fulfillment. Reading and writing fiction are my twin gateways to happiness. When I’m doing either, I am content in knowing there is nothing else I’d rather be doing.

If you could choose one thing for readers to remember after reading your book, what would it be?

Our world is infused with a host of fantastical mysteries and scientific anomalies. My hope is that Endangered Species, and all three books in the trilogy, open readers’ minds to the infinite possibilities of wonder we encounter regularly.