T.M. Carter, author of "The Lion of the Cross"

Today I'd like to welcome T.M. Carter, author of  "The Lion of the Cross" to the Thursday interview. Before we get started, a quick intro!

T.M. Carter is an author and an avid historian, a member of the Historical Novel Society and a member of the California Writers Club of Long Beach. He lives in Southern California with his wife and two children.

OK - HERE WE GO !!  

No.1  Would you break the law to save a loved one? ..Why?

Yes, the law of man does not trump the law of love. The law of love conveys the highest happiness to every individual as well as to all mankind. In our society and in my opinion, the accelerated progression of mores into norms and norms into laws exert a form of social control. This control dehumanizes us.  We are human. Freewill is our choice. But we must exercise love for one another and perhaps the need for such laws that govern behavior could be obsolete.

No.2  What is the difference between being alive and truly living?

The answer is within Plato’s Allegory of the Cave. We choose to be the prisoner staring at wall and the shadows on it, painfully convincing ourselves that these blissful misshapen forms are reality, or we become the philosopher and look into the light and make our reality.

No.3  What motivates you to write?

Writing is expression. Writing is freedom. Writing is imagination. I am motivated by the pure essence of the language in its raw form—the written word.  These words create a new world and in that world, the characters live and die by the pen.

No.4  Why do humans want children?

Call it a precondition to humanity's survival. It is innate and biological for any life form to procreate. For humans, it is a legacy. Let’s hope we leave a good one.

No.5  What was the biggest challenge in creating your book "The Lion of the Cross: Tales of a Templar Knight" ?

The research was the most challenging. I wanted to create a fiction which was true and accurate to the times.

No.6  What is the most important thing you have learned in life so far? 

Being determined, never giving up or in. I learned by honing my willpower and having a strong sense of self that I can accomplish a lot.

No.7  How did you come up with the title “The Lion of the Cross Tales of a Templar Knight "?

By mistake really—the original title was “The Lion and the Cross: Tales of a Templar Knight” but when I sent it to the copyeditor, I typed and saved the document as “The Lion of the Cross: Tales of a Templar Knight”. I liked the title change so I stayed with it.

No.8  How do you handle personal criticism?

If you write for public consumption, then you have to be prepared for criticism. I enjoy constructive criticism. On my website, I encourage my readers to provide this form of criticism.

No.9  Why should people read your book?

People should be encouraged to read my book because it can transport them into a historically accurate period inhabited by richly well-developed and engrossing characters. The story promises to educate the reader about a forgotten time without lecturing to them. The story is a dramatic journey which takes place in misunderstood medieval time—the crusader sunset. When people read this book, the story will give them a unique perspective on Islam and Christianity and it will provide them an insight as to “why”. The book provides relevance into current events

No.10  Why is there something rather than nothing? 

Without sermonizing on metaphysics, I will attempt to answer this through science. Molecules; chemical bonds, weak and strong; atoms with protons, neutrons, and electrons, circling a mass; subatomic particles, the quark leptons, and the mystery of the Higgs boson—but I am not rambling, the answer is motion. Stay present, stay in motion, keep writing, keep reading, keep learning, and you will always be something rather nothing.

 Thank you Mr. Carter for taking the time to answer my questions & the best of luck with your new book! 

Check out  "The Lion of the Cross" on

GOODREADS & AMAZON

Through the eyes of a boy, The Lion of the Cross: Tales of a Templar Knight transports you through actual events of the 13th century, an age in peril, where a delicate peace between Christians and Muslims exists and hangs on a precipice, and holy war is sermonized from minarets and pulpits.

A fugitive orphaned by fate, William de Scotia must enter life’s crucible and become more than just a boy. But when one is young, the future is but a mirage in the desert—cruel and deceptive.

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