Thursday, March 13, 2014

Nate Kenyon

Nate Kenyon is the author of Bloodstone, a Bram Stoker Award finalist and winner of the P&E Horror Novel of the Year, The Reach, also a Stoker Award Finalist, The Bone Factory, Sparrow Rock, StarCraft: Ghost Spectres, Diablo: The Order, and Day One.

Kenyon's latest book is Diablo III: Storm of Light.

From his Q & A with George Ebey at The Big Thrill:

For those who aren’t familiar with the DIABLO games, can you give us a little background about its mythology?

DIABLO takes place in the world of Sanctuary, similar to earth in the Middle Ages. Sanctuary is a battleground for the forces of light and dark—angels, who live in the High Heavens, and demons, who populate the Burning Hells. Humans were created through a union of angel and demon, and Sanctuary became a place where they were protected and allowed to grow and thrive—until that protection is threatened by the rulers of the Hells. Angels don’t particularly like humans either, believing they are abominations and threats to the existence of the Heavens. Although most humans aren’t all that aware of the demons lurking in the darkness, Sanctuary is a place filled with magic, and special humans, called nephalem, have tremendous abilities that may be even greater than angel or demon—and they must use these gifts to strike back against the demonic forces that invade their lands.

How did you first get involved in writing for the world of DIABLO? Were you a fan of the games prior to working on the books?

I was contacted by Blizzard Entertainment’s creative team and asked if I was interested in working with them. They had read an earlier sci fi novel I’d written called PRIME and thought I might be a good fit for a project they wanted to do called STARCRAFT GHOST: SPECTRES. We were all pleased with how the book turned out, and so they asked me to write the next DIABLO novel, which was called THE ORDER. That was released in 2012, followed by the new one, STORM OF LIGHT, released this month.

I’m not a huge gamer, but I was familiar with DIABLO from when I was younger, and of course I knew about their other game franchise, WORLD OF WARCRAFT. I had some concerns going into that first project whether I could pull it off without knowing the games inside and out, and so I spent six...[read on]
Visit Nate Kenyon's website, Facebook page, and Twitter perch.

My Book, The Movie: Day One.

The Page 69 Test: Day One.

Writers Read: Nate Kenyon.

--Marshal Zeringue