Kip asked Bridget Tyler:

Looking forward to THE PIONEER! I'm curious to hear more about Tau Ceti E. Does the planet exist, or is it based on other known planets? What kinds of things did you make up and what did you base on research?

Bridget Tyler It's real! Or at least it's really a shadow passing in front of a real star called Tau Ceti that the Kepler telescope has captured. Tau Ceti is a G-type star, like ours. It's one of the closest ones with planets in its habitable zone. For that reason, you'll see it pop up in a lot of science fiction. We don't know anything about it's planets, but I've estimated Tau's rotation based on it's size and distance from the star. Most of the actual attributes of the planet are made up, but based on places on Earth that I've been and love. The Diamond Range, which features heavily in the first book, is inspired by a trip to Zion National Park. And the second book has a lot of action in a wetlands zone inspired by the Florida Everglades. I wanted Tau to feel like a real planet with many ecosystems, just like Earth, unlike a lot of planets in Star Wars inspired sci fi that are single ecosystem planets.

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