Hive, Book One in the Madders of Time series: Received a 4+ star review, making it an IndieReader Approved title.
Hive, Book One in the Madders of Time series: Received a 4+ star review, making it an IndieReader Approved title.Following find an interview with author D. L. Orton:
1. What is the name of the book and when was it published?
Hive, Book One in the Madders of Time series, was published on May 6, 2025.
Book Two in the series, JUMP, came out November 6th (2025), and book three, DOME, is due out May 5, 2026.)
2. What’s the book’s first line?
“The sodden earth makes a wretched sucking sound each time Diego’s shovel cuts into it.”
3. What’s the book about? Give us the pitch.
Three lives. Two timelines. One last chance to save the world.
As Earth collapses under drone swarms and rising seas, a dying scientist, a disillusioned idealist, and a rogue AI gamble everything on a risky plan to rewrite the past. Isabel must let go of the man she loves. Diego must convince her younger self to help stop the future. And Madders—an AI built from a dead man’s memories—must break his own code to make it happen. Hive is a time-twisting sci-fi epic about second chances, impossible choices, and the hope that even in the darkest times, we can still find the light.
4. What inspired you to write the book?
Writing Hive was an act of resistance. In a world unraveling from division, destruction, and despair, this story became a way to imagine something better. Like its characters, I refuse to accept that all is lost.
5. What’s the main reason someone should really read this book?
Because Hive dares to ask if we can still fix what’s broken. It’s smart, thrilling, and emotionally raw—a gripping ride through timelines where love and survival hang by a thread.
6. What’s the most distinctive thing about the main character?
Isabel Sanborn is a brilliant software engineer who builds pollination microdrones and doesn’t care if she’s liked—just that she’s right. She’s equal parts sharp, vulnerable, and fiercely defiant. Think Clarisse Starling meets Sarah Connor with a soldering iron.
7. When did you first decide to become an author?
When I realized the best way to escape the end of the world was to write my way out of it.
8. Is this the first book you’ve written?
Nope. Hive is the latest, but not the first. Each one is a stepping stone on a collapsing bridge I insist on rebuilding.
9. What do you do for work when you’re not writing?
Fix broken things. Sometimes that’s software. Sometimes it’s a character’s soul.
10. How much time do you generally spend on your writing?
As much as it takes to get it right. Some days that’s six hours. Others, it’s ten.
11. What’s the best and hardest part of being an indie?
Best: Creative freedom.
Hardest: Doing all the things—publisher, marketer, publicist, and occasionally, therapist.
12. What’s a great piece of advice you can share with fellow indie authors?
Sometimes you do have to kill your darlings—but first, ask them what they want. The best plot twist can be the one your character whispers.
13. Would you go traditional if a publisher came calling? If so, why?
If it meant more readers, more reach, and more time to write? Hell yes. But they’d better bring good chocolate.
14. Is there something in particular that motivates you?
Not fame. Not fortune. Just the audacity to believe that stories still matter—and might even save us.
15. Which writer, living or dead, do you most admire?
Madeleine L’Engle. She taught me that time can wrinkle, love can bend it, and children can change the world.
16. Which book do you wish you could have written?
Hyperion by Dan Simmons. It’s bold, brilliant, and structurally fearless—a masterclass in weaving character, mystery, and big ideas into a sci-fi epic that lingers long after the last page.