Scroll down for Darryl Salach's (The Toronto Quarterly) interview with Richard Todd.

Richard Todd, author of Raincloud: A Novel and the upcoming The Orphans of the Creek, both part of the Scanlon Creek Chronicles.

Is he simply a man who has a written an engaging novel about the Jimmy Raincloud murder?

A magazine writer and pop composer living near Toronto, Canada, Richard S. Todd is a fervent champion for those fighting to overcome personal struggles and make choices to resist the perpetuation of racial isolation. Raincloud is his debut novel and opens the Scanlon Creek Chronicles. 

His next novel, The Orphans of the Creek, is currently in the final drafting stages. Description: A small-town DJ suffers a devastating emotional trauma and begins to see the world in a whole new light. He then embarks on a destructive path towards redemption, destroying all that made him what he was in an effort to be reborn. Click on the Books tab for a preview!

Also being developed is Tillman, the back story that gave birth to the horrifying serial killings in Raincloud.

Richard is also the founder of Sky Lake Entertainment, an organization dedicated to promoting literacy to the Greater Toronto Area.

DS: I've seen over the past 20 years, that Aboriginals here in Canada are still treated with a great deal of disrespect by both the government and ordinary citizens...do you see a light at the the end of the tunnel where Aboriginals will one day be treated with more dignity and be treated more fairly.

RT: I believe that tunnel is so long that the light is a mere speck. There's so much anger and mistrust out there, pent up and passed down over generations that needs to be addressed before we can make any real progress. Did you see the protests in Caledonia? There couldn't be a resolution because there was so much anger on both sides. Even the politicians lost their composure.

Band-aid solutions like government reparations make great photo-ops but money can't heal pain or save souls. We're going around in circles. It's funny how the people we have the longest relationship with in North America are also the ones we have the worst relationship with.

But there's hope. The attitudes of the young people are changing. There's more openness, understanding. That's something we need to pass down. So the light might just be a speck, but at least there is that speck.

DS: Why did you write the book?

RT: There are a lot of challenges to living in a rural area, and there have been a lot of recent cultural shifts too. One of the biggest challenges seems to be our relationship with our First Nations folk. It's not like you have to look hard in the news to see examples of tension between First Nations and the rest of society. And I wondered why it has to be this way. What are we all afraid of?

The more I looked, the more I saw it's not us against them as it us against us. We're fighting our own fears. The characters in Raincloud are all unsure about their feelings on a lot of things: love, hate, sadness, anger, forgiveness, sex, death, renewal. And they reflect it in their actions. As do we in real life.

I wanted to write a book where the characters drove the story, not the author. No predetermined path. Here's a stimuli; how will you respond? I wanted the characters to jump off the page at the reader. And the study into our racial, social, and political relationships with First Nations people made the perfect backdrop to this character interplay, while telling a story from their perspective as well.

DS: Is music a big part of your life? I noticed on the back cover of the book that it says you're a pop composer...tell me more about that.

RT: Music was my first real public outlet of whatever it is that makes us create. Music speaks directly to our souls; you don't have to read or write or even see to have it move you. Singing provides great massage for your central nervous system. So I wrote and recorded some songs and a few got some airplay.

Since then I've found that I express myself best when writing prose. I had always written little stories. Even as a youngster I wrote these little Hardy Boy-esque detective novels. I came back to my roots. I still love music though.

Read Darryl's full interview with Richard and his review of Raincloud in The Toronto Quarterly 2. Visit www.lulu.com for your free e-copy!