Interview with Paul Yoder, author of The Covenant

Here is an interview with author Paul Yoder for his new book The Covenant.  I normally read romance and murder mysteries, but it never hurts to get out of our comfort zone and read something different.  This will be placed on my to read list.

The Covenant by Paul Yoder

What can you tell us about your book Paul?

Dr. Carver, who is the head of the English department at Stanford University, would not be the most likely of men to embark on a mission to save a group of kidnapped kids from devil-worshiping zealots in an underground facility, but after trailing a suspected colleague, and witnessing a kidnapping first hand, his pursuit quickly lands him in an underground bomb shelter, renovated as a secret monastery for a cult that calls themselves "The Bracken Covenant."

Dr. Carver and the group of kidnapped kids struggle to survive the horrors of the elaborate underground cultist den. Outnumbered and vulnerable, with the kids being easy targets for not just the demonic zealots, but the wretched, feral animal experiments that the zealots keep underground, Dr. Carver has to lead the kids through trial after trial of both man and beast to escape before the covenant can cave in the underground passages, trapping them inside a den of evil—doomed to share the same fate as the hundreds of tortured spirits that reside there.

Genre: occult/suspense fiction

On Amazon for $2.99

Where did the idea for the story came from?

The idea for the story came from a dream I had, as with most of my books. I actually wrote a short story from this dream (the foundation story for what would later become Tome of Victims) for a grad school application. The program only accepted 10 students per year, and I didn't get in, so I had this pretty good short story on my hands. I worked it into a novella length story and saw potential in perhaps making it the beginnings of a series. After publishing Tome of Victims earlier this year, I made a goal to publish the first novel-length book in the series before the year was through. I wrote it in half that time (a little less than three months to be exact). I really got taken up with the story I guess.

What made writing this book different than writing your last book(novella)?

Novellas are interesting forms of writing. I guess I view them as a hybrid of a short story and novels. Open endings that make your reader think are acceptable in short stories, not so much in novels, and so with my novella, I left the ending quite open, mainly to set the stage for the following books. I didn't leave curtains open with the ending of this book though. The actors take a bow and the curtains shut, giving the reader a sense of completion. That’s hard to do—making a coherent and satisfying ending I mean. Even though there will be another book in the series after The Covenant, I feel that a reader could read this book without touching the other books in the series and still be satisfied with the read, not feeling like they’re missing something.

Is there anything else you would like readers to know about The Covenant?

I discuss religion moderately throughout the book (due to the setting being mostly in a devil-worshiping cultist hideout), and there are some violent set pieces—but I don’t think that should scare anyone off. I treat both subjects respectably. I don’t feel the violence is overdone, and as far as discussing religion goes, I understand that everyone looks at religion in a different light, and I worked very hard to make sure I don’t offend anyone’s sensibilities on the subject.

The story, in the end, is really about two people dealing with the world around them, and figuring it out for themselves—each coming to their own conclusions about life.

What can you tell me about you the author, Paul Yoder?

As a teenager, I knew what I wanted to be: a writer. I was dissuaded a bit by adults who told me that writing wouldn't get me anywhere in life though, and it took me quite a few years to really start writing seriously. I’m finally getting some books out into the world, and though it’s been tough, financially, emotionally, testing my dedication and ego, I’m slowly building up a penned library of books, from “City of Town” to “Tome of Victims” to “The Covenant,” and I already have another book done (unpublished currently) in a new series that I’ll be writing.

I hope to reach a lot of people out there with my writing. Growing up, reading shaped who I am today. It helped me to become a better person: more understanding, patient, and thoughtful. What precious gifts books can bestow us with. If I can provide that to others, my goal will have been achieved.