Cyrus must run for his life, but can he run from love?

When dying alone on the hot sands of the Mohave Desert, Cyrus has no regrets. He loves a challenge. Being tasked with running from San Francisco to Boston in fifteen days, while the United States government and a host of bounty hunters hunt for him, sounds like fun. Being at death’s door only a day into his trip doesn’t faze him either. It’s when he’s joined by fellow runner Eve, bringing new emotions to the surface, his confidence cracks.

What genre is this novel?
It’s Young Adult/Sci-Fi/Dystopian (is that cross-genre enough for you? I can come up with some more. )

The Agora Files is an action-packed novel that just doesn’t stop.

That sounds right up our street.
The Agora Files has been compared to The Hunger Games on several occasions, possibly due to it’s orientation on action within a dystopian setting. I’ll go with it, although I’m not certain I should claim any similarity to the icon that series has become.

That’ll make Cyrus the male Katniss. Tell us about him. What’s he like?
A cocky 17 year-old smuggler with nothing but adventure on his mind. He’s willing to take on any job, no matter what the risks may be and not caring to plan too deeply on how he might be able to get through it.

Of course, he wouldn’t be able to do much without his brother, a 12-year old boy who goes by the name of The Geek. The consummate computer nerd, he’s Cyrus’s eye in the sky with all of the possible information and contacts Cyrus could ever need to get through any obstacle. He’s deeply devoted to his brother, while also being incredibly resourceful when the time requires it.

There’s a girl involved. Who’s she?
Eve, Cyrus’s rival. She’s just as cocky as Cyrus, but we soon find out that she’s also a lot smarter and a lot faster. And she’s been doing her job alone. Of course, there’s something about Eve’s past that just doesn’t add up. Unfortunately it wouldn’t be too much fun for you if I were to tell you all about that here.

You tease!
What has the reaction to the book been? Has it had much appeal outside its core demographic?
In fact, I received a note just a few weeks ago from a lovely group of ladies from a church book club who needed to know when the sequel was coming out.

Before we chat about future books let’s focus on your past novels.
Definitely. I’ve got The Legend of Buddy Hero, which was released last April. It’s a little super-hero story you guys have had in the spotlight on here in the past.

I’ve also got a whole bunch more coming out in the next year, including a little zombie novella that I’m planning on having out sometime in May. You can sign up to hear about these new releases on my website.

What’s its url?
www.fatmogul.com. It’s got a place where you can sign up to hear about new releases when they happen, as well as a blog where I rant and rave and review whatever might be on my mind on a given day.

I guess we can keep up with you on social media too?
I don’t have a Twitter account any longer, since I realized that I’m not a big fan of being limited to 140 characters. I also don’t have a Facebook fan page, as…well…it felt weird to ask people to be my fans.

However, I do have a Facebook profile of my very own that I’m pretty open to having folks come find me at: https://www.facebook.com/fatmogul.

Tell us about yourself.
Probably the easiest way to describe me is, I’m a nerd. But I’m a nerd about stories. I love reading, watching tv and movies, and playing video games because I can’t seem to ever get enough of stories. That’s one of the many reasons I began writing. Stories have been such an important part of my life for so long that I just couldn’t help but have my own to tell.

I live in Wisconsin with my wife and two kids and we love getting out and exploring and finding what stories there are in the world.

What’s next?
I’m actually working on three stories simultaneously…a task I may never try again.

The sequel to The Legend of Buddy Hero, called The Rise of the Fat Mogul. The aforementioned zombie novella, tentatively titled Daddy of the Dead, which revolves around a father trying to find his daughter at the dawn of the zombie apocalypse. And, The Long Chron, a story about a pair of time-traveling con men who come up against a medieval grifter who hold the power to get them back home.

How easily do new storylines come to you? If we give you four random words 
– Man, Woman, Mexico, Future – can you give us a brief storyline?
My immediate thought was involving some sort of time-traveling drug running…but that’s probably due to me finally watching the season finale of Breaking Bad yesterday, not due to me thinking that Mexico has nothing to offer but drugs.

So…male and female pair of archaeologists find an item whilst digging through the ruins of Teotihuacan that leads them on an adventure where they find that these ancient pyramids were actually created as a method for traveling to the future (for drugs?). Once they activate the pyramids, they are transported to the 24th century where they find a thriving Pre-Columbian Meso-American culture that has now taken over a world that was all but destroyed in the late 21st century.