Riftmaker Blog Tour: An Interview with Phoebe Darqueling

A Steampunk Portal Fantasy

Save his boy, uncover a conspiracy, and master opposable thumbs—a dog’s work is never done.

Buddy’s favorite thing is curling up for a nap at the foot of Ethan's bed. Then he stumbles through a portal to a clockwork city plagued by chimeras, and everything changes… Well, not everything. Sure, his new human body comes with magic powers, but he’d still rather nap than face the people of Excelsior, who harbor both desire and fear when it comes to “the other side.”

He discovers Ethan followed him through the portal and underwent his own transformation, and it becomes Buddy’s doggone duty to save him. Buddy finds unlikely allies in an aristocrat with everything on the line, a mechanic with something to hide, and a musician willing to do anything to protect her. Using a ramshackle flying machine, the group follows the chimeras deep into the forest and uncovers a plot that could reshape the worlds on both sides of the rift.

Alright, by now you (my readers) all know that I love doing interviews! The more I get involved in the indie author community, the more I love it. Today, I'm participating in a blog tour for the book Riftmaker by Phoebe Darqueling, I hope you're as excited to read her new book as I am!


Q: What first drew you to steampunk?
A: The Industrial Era was a time of immense upheaval, and much of that stemmed from the incredibly fast pace of technology. I see a lot of parallels between the 19th century and today, and I was intrigued by these connections. Plus, Steampunk as an aesthetic is GORGEOUS. The emphasis is on handmade goods of high quality, often in my favorite materials like leather, wood, and brass. I love the connection to the maker community and the way Steampunk can be applied like patina to so many things and make them even more beautiful and interesting.

Q: Shapeshifting a dog into a human is a truly unique twist. Were there any special challenges with
getting into a dog's head?

A: At the time I wrote Riftmaker, my dog, Gadget, was my closest companion. It was a dark time for me, but he never failed to bring me joy, just by being in the same room. I knew that if a dog suddenly found himself in a human body with a much more active brain, there would be struggles. I have some experience working with kids from my time writing curriculum and working at museums, so in many ways, writing Buddy was like writing a child eager to discover the world around him.

Q: Are you a planner, pantser, or plantser?
A: When I first started taking my writing seriously, the story of Riftmaker just poured out of my organically. The longer I do this, the more planning I am doing. I’ve studied the craft of writing more, and I feel like I can head off some of the editing challenges in advance rather than spending a lot of time rewriting later on.

Q: Do you have a writing ritual to get you into 'the zone?' What's the process?
A: About a year ago, I read about something called “alpha wave music.” It isn’t music exactly, but it is made up of tones that stimulate a specific kind of brain waves to put a person into a relaxed but focused state. I didn’t buy it at first, but I now I really like putting it on in the background while I write. Youtube has several 3-hour videos that play alpha waves, and I often get through the entire thing without even realizing it.

Q: Did you do any interesting research? Did it make it into the book?
A: The organizing principle in how the parallel universes interact in Riftmaker has to do with resonance. So, I definitely did some reading about crystals and other things that people believe can alter how you feel and how your energy aligns. It’s only somewhat related to Riftmaker and it was mostly a fun rabbit hole to go down.

Q: Tell my readers a secret?
A: It took me a long time to figure out how to answer this question, because I am more or less an open book myself! I am very very bad at lying and keeping things to myself, so I don’t really do it. I think is why I like to write characters who can lie and cheat. In Riftmaker, Adelaide has a huge secret she’s been keeping, and learns something new about herself in the course of the book that she hides. Olivia plays mind games with people. In No Rest for the Wicked, my main character is a retired grifter who used to hold false seances to prey on the grieving. So, there is definitely some part of me that admires criminals, liars, and cheats.

Q: So, I would assume that you're a dog person since your mc is a pooch, do you have a favorite breed? And what breed is Buddy? Do you have a dog?
A: My little dog is a toy poodle. That’s why he’s named “Gadget” <nudge nudge>. I grew up with poodles in my life, and I like how intelligent they are. Plus, they are hypoallergenic and don’t shed, so they are easier for other people to be around. They are more trainable than many breeds, which is why they were used in circuses for a long time. And no, they don’t have to have that dumb haircut! The only thing I wish I could change about Gadget is how very sharp and loud his bark is. But he’s always down for a good snuggle and a belly rub, so I’m quick to forgive the noise.

Buddy is a mutt from a shelter, but I always figured he had some poodle in him somewhere. He’s got whitish fur, which translates into his white-blond hair as a human in Excelsior.

Q: What is your favorite part of being a writer?
A: It’s really portable! I’ve moved once a year for the last 6 years, which has included hopping across the Atlantic twice. I had to leave most of my craft supplies behind, but as long as I have my laptop and my imagination, I can create. I would feel incomplete without some kind of creative outlet.

In terms of the craft itself, my favorite part is making people feel something when they read my writing. If someone laughs, cries, cringes, or has some other reaction, then I feel like I’ve won a gold medal.  

Q: What are your ultimate goals as a writer?
A: For Neil Gaiman to read something I wrote and not hate it. ;)

Ok, but seriously, I’d like to get to the point that between writing curriculum, writing fiction, and editing other people that I can get to a full-time equivalent salary. I have health issues that make many types of work impossible for me, but I want to be an equal contributor to my family and writing is a way to achieve that. I know, it’s not as sexy as saying I want a movie deal or to hit the top of the charts, but I’m also a very practical person who likes concrete goals.

Q: Do you have a preferred writing beverage?
A: I know it’s a bit of a cliche, but I am definitely a coffee drinker. Once I run out of coffee, I switch to sparkling water. I can no longer drink regular soda because it’s so sweet, but I still like bubbles so there’s lots of “mineralwasser” in my house at all times. In the region of Germany where I live, it’s common to drink “schorle,” which means cutting things like juice and wine with sparkling water, so that’s a pretty common drink for me, too.

Q: Will there be more books in the Riftmaker world?
A: Originally, I conceived of at least three books in the series, plus a possible spin-off about how the rifts interact with our world. (This like X-files but fantasy) I actually started the sequel, Tideturner, years ago, but I had a rather traumatic first experience with trying to get Riftmaker published. To help me get past it, I started a new series and the first book, No Rest for the Wicked, is coming out March 28.
When I edited Riftmaker for publication, I made sure that I created a complete arc and standalone book, but there’s lots of possibilities for expanding the world and sending the characters on adventures. If I do keep the series going, there will be a distinct split where some characters leave Excelsior while the others have to deal with the fallout of the events of Riftmaker. So they will occur somewhat in parallel with the characters not knowing what is happening to the others.

Q: Who is your favorite supporting character in Riftmaker & why?
A: Riftmaker has a really big cast. I think it’s because I was reading a lot of Terry Pratchett at the time. I have a soft spot in my heart for Olivia, because even though she’s kind of a brat, there’s a lot of me at the age of 16 in her. That’s the age when young women are getting to know themselves, their bodies, and the effect they can have on other people. I love the way my mom puts it. She says that teenage girls are like throwing a ball against a wall. The ball is what they say and do, and the wall is the rest of us. The fling the ball at different parts of the wall, at different speeds, etc. and see what comes back. This process doesn’t always lead to good decisions or behavior, so there is something that felt very authentic about Olivia during the process of creating her. She wants to be an adult, but she still has so much to learn about herself and the wider world.

Bonus: Any other little tidbits you think readers would love to know!

A: I can point to two distinct influences behind this story. First, it was reading The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman. He builds an amazing and nuanced world with the goal of drawing parallels to our own, and I hope that Riftmaker has carried on that tradition.
The other important influence for me was the “brown eye, blue eye” exercise in elementary school. If you’re not familiar, it’s a method developed decades ago to get kids talking about racism and intolerance. The teacher announces to the class that there’s been a new study that shows that either blue-eyed or brown-eye people are superior. When this happened in my class, the teacher said it was light-eyed people who here inherently better. I have pale green eyes, but my best friend at the time had very dark brown eyes. She was devastated by the exercise and I refused to take the special treatment the teacher was offering because of how much pain it was causing my friend. The experience, and the absurdity of intolerance, really stuck with me as I grew up. I ended up majoring in Anthropology in order to better understand the differences and similarities between people.

Thank you so much for having me!

About the Author
Phoebe Darqueling is the pen name of a globe trotting vagabond who currently hangs her hat in Freiburg, Germany. In her “real life” she writes curriculum for a creativity competition for kids in MN and edits academic texts for non-native English speakers. She loves all things Steampunk and writes about her obsession on SteampunkJournal.org. During 2017, she coordinated a Steampunk novel through the Collaborative Writing Challenge called Army of Brass, and also loves working with authors as an editor. You can also find her short stories in the Chasing Magic and The Queen of Clocks and Other Steampunk Tales anthologies so far, and her next novel, No Rest for the Wicked is coming Spring 2019. She's an equal opportunity Star Trek, Star Wars, and Firefly fan, but her favorite pastime is riffing on terrible old movies a la Mystery Science Theater 3000.


Riftmaker is available for $3.99 from Amazon and a variety of other e-book retailers. Print price is $18.99 from Amazon and the Our Write Side store.

Find more character spotlights, book reviews, guest posts, and interviews with Phoebe Darqueling during the Riftmaker blog tour, Jan 24 - Mar 6. If you want to find out more about my next release, No Rest for the Wicked, there will be a blog tour happening Mar 8 - Apr 18.

Do you like free books? Sure you do! Sign up for Phoebe’s newsletter and get a FREE COPY of The Steampunk Handbook right now.

You can find more of Phoebe’s antics on her website, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

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