Interview with R.J. Parker, Author of Requiem, Changing Times

What can you tell us about your new release, Requiem, Changing Times?

If you ever wanted to escape reality from your living room couch, then this book is for you. Requiem, Changing Times is a novel where fantasy meets reality. This wondrous event is mindboggling and sought after, but only few find it. Clint Holden wasn’t looking for anything except how to go unnoticed in class, talk to girls, get his mother to dump his new stepfather, and play the best practical joke on his sister.

Fantastic creatures from another world, both good and evil, search him out to discover the Requiem. His life, and the lives of all those around him, are changed forever as the fate of both worlds tip on the edge of a knife.

What or who inspired you to become an author?

Oh, my family all the way. I would read the stories from Terry Brooks, Tolkien, Rowlings, C.S. Lewis, Robert Jordan and George Lucas. As I did, I thought there was just something special about them that was missing. I learned there was. They kept at it. Each of these writers wrote and told stories that brought me to different worlds that I wanted to visit.

What’s on your top 5 list for the best books you’ve ever read?

These are not in order, but I liked Catch-22 by Joseph Heller, The Lord of the Rings by J.R. Tolkien, Ulysses by James Joyce, the Star Wars trilogy by George Lucas, the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling.

Say you’re the host of a literary talk show. Who would be your first guest? What would you want to ask?

I would like to talk with George Lucas. I would ask him how he was able to make his stories come to life despite the challenges he faced.

What’s your favorite thing about writing?

Writing is wonderful. The experience of making a new world and changing the rules, placing new characters in a situation where the only boundary is your imagination.

What is a typical day like for you?

Because of my health, I get up and read what is most important to me. I do what I can to help my family and then study for school. I write when everything else is taken care of and spend as much time with the best people in the world that I live with. Then I hit the repeat button.

What scene in Requiem, Changing Times was your favorite to write?

It was when both worlds collided. When magic met reality. When a fifteen-foot tree was discovered growing in a house, an orc smashing through downtown shopping centers, or a dwarf sang a modern song at a school dance. I had the best time when the story would create itself and I couldn’t write fast enough. The characters seemed to tell me the story.

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

I believe in God, wife, family, friends, and the Utah Jazz; in the order of their importance. Happy wife, happy life.

R.J. Parker is the author of the new book Requiem, Changing Times.

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