Interview with Charles Breakfield and Rox Burkey, Authors of "The Enigma Book Series"

Reading and Writing Addiction was able to catch up with Charles Breakfield and Rox Burkey, Authors of "The Enigma Book Series".  We are excited to share this insightful interview today with our readers.

When did you first discover that you enjoy writing and wanted to become a published author?

A great question. It is the enjoy portion that makes us smile. When we found the fictional storytelling avenue as the way to reach audiences with our mixture of technology, romance, humor, travel, and intrigue set in relevant dilemmas for today’s audiences, writing became a lot of fun and we had to get our series in front of as many readers as possible.

What is your favorite and the most challenging aspect of writing? 

For us, the most challenging portion is to put our own thoughts and ideas into a story while having the end product sound like a single voice. We have a great time discussing the ideas and concepts we each want to include in a specific story. We are technologists by profession with our own view of the companies and customers we support, so we each bring strong viewpoints to the series. It is usually complimentary and allows for lively conversation during the story construction.

Tell us about your latest release. How did you come up with the title of your book?

The newest release in the series is, The Enigma Dragon – A CATS Tale. The primary good

guy team featured in this volume are members of the Cyber Assassin Technology Services Team. These members have diverse cultural, language, military, and social experiences which allow them to be a grittier feet-on-the-street group of good guys.  They think out of the box and use reasoning and their experience to determine the next steps before invoking their technology experiences. The flavor of this spinoff is a bit different than the original core series. This the second A CATS Tale, The Enigma Gamers was first. All the stories in the series are intertwined and the moral high-ground of good guys versus bad guys across the cyber background of the world today. Let us qualify, you don’t need to read the whole series to enjoy each book, but if you do it is a richer storytelling experience.

What do you hope readers are able to get from reading your story? 

This is a great question with different applicable answers. First and foremost we want them to be entertained. Along that path we want to provide characters they can get attached to or dislike or even hope that they turn the corner and change their behavior. Don’t worry, with over 150 characters in the Enigma Series universe there is plenty to like as well as despise.  The emotions of the characters who have become couples is intense and hopefully where some of our readers can relate. We also want them to think about the technology they use and how they might protect themselves.

In the first story, The Enigma Factor, the focus on identity theft was an underlying lesson we wanted to share. Today that issue is still very prevalent in our global society. Technology uses and evolution provides a rich ground for our storytelling which we hope readers will want to return to with every subsequent volume in the series. Toward the end of being mindful of reader’s preferences our stories are available in paperback, e books, and audible with 1, 2, and 3 completed.

Who are some of your favorite authors? 

We like all sorts of authors including Clive Custer, Tom Clancy, James Patterson, Dan Brown, and Kevin J. Anderson.

Do you have any advice for writers looking to get published? 

Getting published isn’t easy, never has been. Our first story was a sobering lesson of first writing, assembling, editing (grammar & genre), cover design, interior design, generating hard and soft copy format, distribution, packaging for the channels, international markets, beta book readers, reviews, gobs of marketing…well it is a very daunting task for each book.

We chose the self-published path, with ICABOD Press, based on what we learned and because taking our story from publishing house to publishing house to get a nibble was not the avenue our time permitted. Get reviews of your work along the way from unbiased folks (translated: non-family or dear friends) that want to help you make a better story; get into groups with other authors who want to share their experiences in the craft; and know that not everyone will like or dislike your work, but try to do the very best you can with each book you write. We are members of an author’s association which helps provide differing ideas for our consideration. Keep practicing and do not give up if you want to be a published author. In Texas we always say, do it big, do it right, or just go home.  Understand, you will be remembered for a polished, professional product or a cheesy one so don’t scrimp on doing your best and continually improving.

Breakfield, a 25+ year technology expert in security, networking, voice and anything with bits and bytes. He enjoys writing, studying World War II history, travel, and cultural exchanges. He’s also a fan of wine tastings, wine-making, Harley riding, cooking extravaganzas, and woodworking.

Burkey, a 25+ years applied technology professional excels at optimizing technology and business investments for customers all over the world. She writes technology white papers and documents, but has a marked preference for fiction. Currently she is focused on learning humor.

Together they create compelling stories that resonate with males and females, young and experience adults, and bring a fresh new view to the possibilities of technology today www.EnigmaBookSeries.com. They are available for speaking on technology, their stories, or a combination of small to large groups. Their contact information is on Facebook.

"The Enigma Book Series" is available at Amazon.com.