Interview with D.D. Chant, post-apocalyptic author

Today I have D.D. Chant here in the Midlist Trenches. D.D. has come out with a post-apocalyptic novel called Broken City, and that being my favorite genre at the moment, we sat down to chat.

What attracted you to the post-apocalyptic genre?
Broken City actually started out as a dream I had, so I guess you could say that the post-apocalyptic genre chose me!

There's an interesting contrast between the claustrophobic life of those characters not allowed outside and those who roam the ruins. How do you reflect this in your characters' development?

Deeta’s character is very naive and trusting because she’s lived such a sheltered life. She wants to believe that deep down everyone is good and that all the problems in the world could be fixed if everyone just worked together.
This belief makes her a good person and she tries to live by that belief, it’s one of the things Tom loves so much about her. Tom knows that the fight for survival has actually made the tribes selfish, they only care about getting through the day and they don’t care who they step on to survive. He’s seen the ugly side of the City and he’s had to toughen up against it. He’s a mysterious character, he feels it’s his duty to protect the weak, but at the same time he doesn’t flinch from making cynical decisions.

What's the strongest character in your story? Why?

I think it would have to be Deeta.  I know that Jan seems a more likely candidate, but everything Deeta thinks she knows falls apart in this book and yet at the end she’s still standing.

Do you think civilization is really going to fall?
I think that, left to themselves, humans would definitely self destruct in the end.

What can we expect from you in 2014 (assuming the apocalypse isn't coming)?
I have three books out this year! They are the sequels to all three of my series:  Broken Truce (Broken City, #2) The Vow (The Lady Quill Chronicles, #2) Severance (Chronicles of Discord, #2)

Sounds like you're busy just like me. Thanks for joining us D.D.!

In a Broken City, filled with warring tribes, lives:

A girl with no future
A man with no past
A little lost boy
And those who seek to find him....

....Welcome to Deeta's world.

Deeta Richards has never seen the outside world. Before she was born a banking crisis brought civilization to an end and now no one leaves the safety of the compounds unless they need to, but Deeta still dreams of seeing more than the building she was born in.
Tom is in the guard, this group are the only people that the tribal elders allow to leave the compound and Tom knows only too well that Deeta could never survive the harshness that exists outside. Then tragedy strikes and Deeta and her Sister Jan find themselves captured by a hostile tribe. Why does Tom know so much about these people? And why do they know so much about him? As this mystery draws to a climax, they discover that their friend Tom is not quite what he seems...

For sale now on Amazon.