Torion is an SFWA member and has had short stories featured in Galaxy’s Edge Magazine, Cohesion Press, and NonBinary Review. He has further published several novels, the most recent being the YA sci-fi Boondoggle. He holds a B.A. in Creating Writing and Psychology and an M.S. in Psychology. Torion dedicates his free time toward writing and critiquing speculative fiction both personally and in separate writing groups, alongside playing volleyball and watching anime.If you were a character in a fantasy RPG, what character class and abilities would you have and how would you level up?
I’ve played World of Warcraft on and off since a bit before the time The Burning Crusade originally released, so I’ve certainly fantasized about this at least more than once if not obsessively. Safety and survivability are my main concerns, and no other class has given me the same safety and comfort as a mage. Being able to cast spells offensively, defensively, and for my own convenience mitigates my worries about combat and everyday needs like travel and food. I’d prefer to level up with less violent methods like taking on professions–particularly tailoring and enchanting–but if I ever found myself in combat, I wouldn’t take chances and go ahead and hurl immense fiery boulders at my enemies from a distance and use my polymorph and invisibility spells in a pinch.
If you could have any sci-fi gadget in real life, what would it be and what practical uses would you have for it?
Having “Mr. Fusion” from Back to the Future would be nice. More than providing my lifestyle with easy energy, I wouldn’t have to worry about owning trash bins and taking out the trash.
If you had to choose one of your books to be turned into a cheesy made-for-TV movie, which one would it be and who would you want to play the lead roles?
I’d absolutely choose my historical mystery Loco Motive, as the premise already has some absurd elements such as Caesar Cardini providing daily meals for the transcontinental railroad trip. The leading roles would of course go to Timothée Chalamet and Dick Van Dyke as the would-be sleuths Charles and Morley. I was debating throwing in Zendaya as Charles’s love interest because I figured she hasn’t been in enough films recently, but I think Lily James would fit with the role better.
If you could swap lives with any character from one of your books for a day, who would it be and what would you do?
I’d swap with any one of the protagonists in The Disgraced Mage. The setting mixes modern luxuries with fantasy, so I wouldn’t have to worry about the typical concerns medieval fantasies involve like famine, pillaging, or dragons. Living a day as a high school student might be torture for some, but living in a floating school with magic? No obligations, endless possibilities. I might start by playing volleyball with a leaded ball.
Mash together two of your favorite SF properties. What’s the new work about?
I don’t know about favorites, but two properties I enjoy are alternate dimensions and telepathy. Mashing them together could result in people communicating across dimensions, maybe with themselves. That’d be a fun concept… unless their lives had no correlation whatsoever and characters had disjointed thoughts that only confused each other.
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Boondoggle is my latest book, though I also published the fantasy The Disgraced Mage just last year which I’m pretty proud of. For information about either of these books, as well as my others, you can see my Amazon author page here. You can also visit my website where I provide semi-regular updates of what I’m doing, as well as where I write blog posts about random topics I find interesting (like which adaptation of A Series of Unfortunate Events is the best and what my favorite movies of the year are).
