Author FAQ's and Comments
Dusty Miller is the author of Lab Rats & Hens, and the science fiction series,
Hunters of the Cloud.
Email your questions to: Admin @ HuntersoftheCloud.com
(Take out the spaces)
Subject: "Question or Comment to Author"
Q: Have you considered making the Hunters books into a screenplay? If you have, what actors would you like to see as the main characters?
Miller: I haven't had any producers knocking down my door :-) but yes, I think the stories would make a great series. As far as actors - there are some that could do a good job, but animation would be my choice. In the hands of someone like Brad Bird (The Incredibles, The Iron Giant), the characters would be more real, and they'd never age. The artistry would be spectacular, and the content would be as designed - not subject to frail human interpretation.
Q: I read both, Hunters of the Cloud, and Lab Rats & Hens - it looks like there is a tie between them?
Miller: They were written by the same author? No, you are right. There is a timeline that spans the two. Careful readers will see the same surnames, and associate the genealogy. Hunters addresses a story in the time of the ancient Toltecs, and the Tol in the future. Lab Rats is in between (the present).
Note: The gap between Hunters of the Cloud and Lab Rats series narrows in Lab Rats II, and Hunters IV (Damaloa).
Q: Would you describe your series Hunters of the Cloud, as “hard” sci-fi?
Miller: The lines are a little blurred, but yes, I’d have to say hard sci-fi. If I removed the scientific and technological elements – there wouldn’t be much of a story.
(Hard science fiction is usually characterized by an emphasis on scientific or technical detail, disciplines such as physics, chemistry, and astronomy. The "soft" sciences are social sciences, such as sociology, anthropology, or psychology).
Q: What do you do when you're not writing?
Miller: Fiddle with computers, catch up on world events, leap tall buildings, pet the dogs.
Q: How did you get your ideas for the Hunter and the Cloud?
Miller: Some of the science concepts are described in this website. Good people I know are models for the characters. The environment comes from a collage of natural locations like the canyons, deserts, and Colorado river in the Southwest, the Adirondacks and Shenandoah river in the east, the swamps of the Everglades, the glaciers of the northwest, and the clear starry skies of the Great Lakes States.
Q: Have you ever visited those places?
Miller: I've lived in, or near every one of them.
Q: Compared to the benevolent ambience of your Hunters series, Lab Rats & Hens seems dark and very contrary - how did you arrive at such a different perspective?
Miller: One is science fiction - the other is reality.
Q: Who are your favorite two characters in the Hunter's series, and why?
Miller: Whichever one I happen to be writing into the story. All the good guys are models taken from real life people. As I think about what those people have said or done in the past, I try to project their essence into "my" characters. That exercise brings fond and sometimes funny memories to the surface, and I enjoy every moment again.
Q: I love the Tersaans, and I'll never think of gargoyles the same way again. Do you plan on keeping them in future books (please-please!)
Miller: I'm amazed at the number of fanmails and emails about the Tersaans. Their small place in the story started out as (yet again) one of the legends of Earth come to life. Somehow, the terrifying, ten-foot tall creatures have elicited as much fandom as the main characters. Yes - they'll stay in the stories.
Artwork depicting a Tersaan, and photo of a gargoyle statue in Spain
