Primary Contact:    Brian Rantala / brantala@intermountainca.com / (303)534-5409

1. How did you come to conceive this story?
   
   Soundings is based on real life experiences I had as a career columnist and advisor during the boom and bust years of the telecom business sector in Denver. Although fictional, the story is written with real life elements mined from my personal experience, with a complex love story playing out against a backdrop of mysterious corporate forces at work in the book.
   
   
2. Was there any connection to the upheaval at Qwest and the trial of ex-Qwest CEO Joe Nacchio?
   
   Not directly, but the themes of corruption and greed as related to the fictional communications giant Telwest are a key concept for the plot of Soundings and relate to the headlines we are reading today in the real world of big business in general, not just with Qwest specifically.
   
   
3. Is this just a story about Denver?
   
   Soundings uses Denver to tell a vivid story that will resonate with readers familiar with its landmarks and local institutions. But Denver is also a backdrop for a corporate drama that is taking place in many parts of the nation and, indeed, throughout the world, as workers find themselves caught up in a mad race to take the lead in constantly changing technology.
   
   
4. How did you develop an interest in multi-racial groups?
   
   I grew up as a young adult in the civil rights movement and have spent many years working in predominantly black and Hispanic universities. Along the way, I have been fascinated by the situation of people caught between ethnic groups. Some have told me about making a conscious decision to identify themselves as a member of a minority group, when they might have passed for white instead. One of these individuals was Maynard Jackson, the late Mayor of Atlanta.
   
   
5. What was it like to write your first novel?
   
   This story came to me when my wife and I were living in Guadalajara, Mexico. I was down there teaching in a university just after leaving Denver. In a new culture, I found myself looking back on the high-tech hey days of Denver, and trying to understand what I had experienced there. To me, the City had been caught up in a kind of mania during the telecom boom, which was followed by the sort of bust that is so traditional in the West. I’ve seen the traumatic transition reflected in the emotions surrounding the trial of Joe Nacchio, a person whose career represents the kinds of ambitions that many people were harboring in Denver at one time. At some level, I believe we're all Joe Nacchio.
   
   
6. Your book is billed as “a spiritual adventure.” What does that mean?
   
   I believe the spirits that motivate us, individually and as a culture, are vitally important. But it’s easy to lose sight of them. I centered my story in a Nanticoke character because of the spiritual awareness found in Native American cultures. As my story suggests, living open to the spirits is always an adventure.