Because There Is No Polite Way Of Asking a Handsome Gentleman If He Sent a Magical Wooden Man To Kill You: My Regency paranormal release, A Woman of Proper Accomplishments

Helena Preston, the eldest daughter of a Bedfordshire gentleman, would rather risk spinsterhood than marry a man unwilling to accept her for who she is, much to the consternation of her mother and sister. She feels marrying an ugly or poor husband would be a mere inconvenience; marrying an irritable fool would be a genuine tragedy. Intrigued more with books and scholarship than finding a husband, the young woman has yet to attract any interest from eligible bachelors.

Joseph Morgan is a scholar who studies spiritus, the rare ability to imbue life into objects. With his arrival, Helena finds herself in the delightful position of having the attention of a handsome, educated gentleman of status, but she begins to worry Mr. Morgan is more interested in seduction than marriage. Soon after meeting the scholar, an unfortunate encounter with a sinister highwayman ends in rescue by the stoic and handsome Captain Thomas Southward.

As bothersome as juggling the attention of two potential suitors can be, Helena is still the target of a criminal. When evidence suggests her assailant is a wooden man created by spiritus, Mr. Morgan falls under suspicion. Unfortunately, she can think of no polite way to accuse a gentleman of sending a pile of animated wood to kill her.

A Woman of Proper Accomplishments is currently available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Smashwords, iTunes/iBooks and Kobo.

The Next Big Thing: A Woman of Proper Accomplishments

EFHA associate Mary Thornell tagged me in a recent meme. Usually, I'm not all that into these sorts of things, but even I can cut loose now and again. So, here I go then:

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1. “What is the title of your work in progress?”

A Woman of Proper Accomplishments

2. “Where did the idea come from for the book?”

I've always had a long fascination with the English Regency period. At the same time, I'm a bit of a fantasy nerd. A few years back I entertained the idea of injecting a bit of magic into the Regency, but I was under the impression there wouldn't be much interest in such a book outside my own fevered imagination. I stumbled upon several, though, and that convinced me it wasn't such a bad idea after all.

I was heavily influenced by some of the more adventure-driven Georgette Heyer narratives. I want a bit of period romance, with a touch of adventure and magic.

3. “What genre does your book fall under?”

Depends on who you ask. I've been calling it Regency paranormal romance. Some might call it historical fantasy. There's a bit of an alternative history element because of the introduction of magic into the setting (by Benjamin Franklin, no less!), but it's not really about exploring historical divergences is as much as playing around with a romantic narrative that seems plausible in a Regency England that has a bit of magic (even if the people in the story insist, insist, and insist some more that they aren't doing magic).

The only reason I'm not totally set on calling it a paranormal romance is although the center-point is the growing romance between characters, and there is a happy romantic ending with smooching and all that (yes, this is a old-fashioned "sweet" romance; no bodices are ripped), certain elements aren't totally wrapped up by the end. So, arguably, it's not a true "Happily-Ever-After" as much as a "Happy Right Then." Mostly, that's because it's the first part of trilogy with a plot. I'll talk more about that in a bit.

4. “Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?”

Oh, I honestly don't know.

5. “What is the one sentence synopsis for your book?”

Helena Preston, rthe daughter of a rural gentleman of modest means, finds her romantic interest in a gentleman scholar of spiritus, the rare ability to imbue life into objects, complicated by his possible involvement with a criminal.

6. “Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?”

 I'm still exploring my options at this time.

7. “How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?”

It took about three months to write the first draft. That was...a while ago. I've gone through many drafts since then.
 
8. “What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?”

I think if people like books like The Magicians and Mrs. Quent, Sorcery and Cecelia or The Enchanted Chocolate Pot, or Shades and Milk and Honey, they would probably enjoy my book, though there's a bit more of an adventure element in my book than something like Shades. 

I was trying to be more "Heyer adventure with magic" and not so much "Austen with magic."

9. “Who or what inspired you to write this book?”

Oh, just my twin interests in Regency England and fantasy, and the various fine examples of the historical Georgian fantasy that I encountered several years back.

10. “What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?”

Despite the inclusion of magic and the alternative history elements (among other things, the Americans lost the Revolution), I've actually strived very hard to make this book accurate to the Regency period. That might seem absurd given the present of magic, but I thought it'd help with versimilitude. I've studied the period extensively, including primary source letters and materials, and try to capture period-appropriate social details, references, et cetera.

I even went so far as to check that almost every word I used in the book, both in the narrative and in the dialog existed at the time of the story (1811) and also did my best to use it appropriate to the context of the time. It's surprising what was around then that meant exactly the same as today and what common words and even greetings weren't around back then.

Initially, I even went so far as to try and closely model my dialog patterns after period dialog, but several beta readers found it more distracting than immersive, so I've admittedly modernized the syntax a bit. I sprinkle in Regency slang here and there, but not so much that it's distracting (I hope).

This is actually the first of a trilogy. Each book will involve a different main lead and be a romantic adventure continuing in the backdrop of an increasingly heating up Napoleonic Wars that are unfolding slightly different than they did in our history due to increasingly sophisticated use of weaponized spiritus.

The second book will focus on the Helena Preston's flightly francophile friend, Cassandra, and the third book will focus on Helena's more uptight younger sister, Sophia.

A SWAT Ninja Zealot in the Gritty Shadows of Dystopian New York: An interview with Christian Porter

Today I'm talking with Christian Porter about his thriller, Shadow Precinct.

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1) Please tell us about Shadow Precinct.

A: Shadow Precinct is the story of Everett Santeaux, a man who has been trained since a child to become a master in hand to hand combat techniques and applied technology called a zealot. His goal as such is to help in the recollection of firearms, which have been heavily restricted in this alternate reality United States. A mob boss is found murdered and he is asked to help investigate. In doing so, a whole bunch of stuff unfolds that push the story forward and hopefully keep the reader guessing.

2) How did you come with the idea of the zealots? Even though by the time your story starts your protagonist is an adult, were you influenced at all by the use of child soldiers in certain parts of the world?

A: That is a really good question. The idea for zealots came from just thinking about life in this type of world and how the hierarchy would shift in terms of the police force, or any organization tasked with protecting citizens for that matter. I knew that I wanted to inject martial arts into the action and story, and I wanted to incorporate that into a system that could seemingly naturally blossom from the events in Shadow Precinct’s story. I started to think, when police need that extra level of force or expertise, they call in the SWAT team, but what if that wasn’t enough? That’s where I kind of started to formulate where zealots would fit into that equation. I wanted an awesome, high tech, ninja SWAT team.

As far as the influence of child soldiers from around the world, I am happy you touched on that because, yes, that definitely helped me formulate ideas about the zealot system. I’m not going to front and say I did exhaustive research about the topic, but I am aware of places like Sierra Leone and Liberia where child soldiers were exploited and the stories are awful. You read or hear some of the first-hand accounts and it’s unbelievable that a child came through that. Conversely, it’s despicable that any human would put a child through that. I wanted to take some of those aspects that are uncomfortable and inject them into the story. The training that zealots are put through in the story is pretty intense, pretty brutal. I want the reader to feel somewhat uncomfortable about what they’re witnessing in hopes that it reflects the desperation of the situation to implement such a program in the first place.

3) Why did you choose to set your story in a dystopian New York City?

A: I wanted to set it in this alternate version of New York City for a couple of reasons. One, New York is one of the most iconic cities in the world, and probably the most instantly recognized American city, I’d think. Visually, it was just very intriguing for me to imagine that city mutating under the context of this alternate reality that I was trying to create. The second reason, and really the main reason, is because of the hip hop influence. The genre was born in New York and the main story takes place in the year 1997, which is during one of the golden eras of hip hop to me. There is a consistent hip hop heartbeat throughout the story whether it be lines that reference different albums, or excerpts from songs from that particular time period. I wanted my love for the music to shine through in a subtle way and give other fans of the genre some cool Easter eggs. I think every song that I reference in the book, a true hip hop fan will give me a slow nod of approval, at least that’s my hope. I was careful in selecting the songs that I reference because I wanted them to play into the story in different ways. I hope that is something else that people will catch on to as they’re reading it.

4) Well, the premise of this book promises both a lot of tense mystery and action. What kind of actions scenes can readers look forward to?

A: I think people should expect some intriguing detective mysteries connected with entertaining fight scenes throughout. I want people to get the feel of watching a intricately choreographed fight scene from a classic movie with a high tech spin on it. I tried to break up the seriousness a bit with some humor interspersed throughout as well.

5) Most novels don't have concept art, but yours does. Can you tell us a bit about your creative process in developing this book?

A: Well, after I graduated from college I got a job in the video game industry as a programmer. Doing that, I just saw the use of concept art pretty much through every phase of our design process. I always had a respect for artists because I can’t draw to save my life. I’m also a very visual person, so I wanted to go beyond my words and add a little bit more to jumpstart the reader’s imagination. I’m fortunate that Luther Berry, the artist that did the cover and the interior art, is a very talented. We were able to get a good vibe going and he was able to see my vision. It was very cool to see my ideas realized in that way. My love for comics and manga played a part in that as well.

6) Do you plan any sequels?

A: Yeah, for sure. My original outline was for a trilogy. I know that’s the cool thing to do now, unnecessarily stretch your material to fit into that context, but I want to reassure people that this was the original plan! I’m working on the follow up now and it’s going really well.

7) Do you have any other unrelated stories in the works?
A: I do have some ideas for some other things, but the main focus is Shadow Precinct right now and making sure that’s in a solid place. I just want to make sure each part of the Shadow Precinct saga is better than the last.

8) Are there any authors who have inspired or influenced you?

A: Yeah, definitely. The first one I always say is Phillip K. Dick. Between Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep and Ubiq, those two stories just inspired me so much to write science fiction. The Blade Runner film that was based on Electric Sheep gave me a lot of visual inspiration as well. Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse 5 was another one that inspired me with his unorthodox storytelling and use of humor in dire situations. Junot Diaz’ The Brief and Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao is another one of my favorites. I just really love the way that book is written and it helped me build confidence in letting myself show through my writing. The Watchmen graphic novel is essential for me. George R. R. Martin (A Song of Ice and Fire), Hiroshi Sakurazaka (All You Need Is Kill), and Masashi Kishimoto (Naruto manga), are all authors I highly respect and their works are definitely inspirational to me as well.

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Thanks, Christian.

You can find more about Christian and Shadow Precinct at  http://www.shadowprecinct.com/ and at the publisher (http://www.azizapublishing.com/).
   

An Alchemist Challenges A Conspiracy: An interview with science fiction/fantasy author Jeffrey Zweig II

Today I'm talking with Jeffrey Zweig II about his science fiction fantasy book The End Begins: The Nine.

Warning: There are some minor spoilers in Mr. Zweig's answers.

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1) Please tell us about your book.

My Book is called The End Begins: The Nine. It follows an alchemist, Cassarah Telmar, after she discovered her academy was subject to scientific experiments by the military group called the Coalition. She vows to bring them down with the help of a resistance group called White Rose and fights to survive in a world she doesn't know. Cass will find, however, she will have to make a choice between continuing to live for them or destroy everything she has known to gain freedom. It's an epic science fiction/urban fantasy book - the first in a trilogy dubbed The Trinity Trilogy.

2) What was your inspiration for this book?

It originally started as a writing club adventure series I was part of in high school for three years. That was much more craziness going on but was fueled by the raw emotion high schoolers have in those days. For a long time I wanted to turn what we had into a screenplay or a book but never got much farther than concept and rough drafts for many reasons. But in 2009 I got laid off and moved back to Indianapolis. Without a job and a lot of time on my hands, I reignited this project finally as a novel inspired by reading Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein. I borrowed the skeleton and a couple characters of the journey from the club's story, but a lot of the sub plots and back story were inspired by video games like Final Fantasy 7 or the Metal Gear Solid series.

3) Your book has a bit of alternative history element. Why did you choose to go that route?

I decided on alternate history because people can draw from original history and, while finding the deviations, won't have to construct a whole new world in their mind. There's so much going on in the plot that I wanted to make conceptualizing the setting as easy as possible. Secondly, I could pull from existing history, such as the group White Rose which was an actual resistance group during WW II (See here and also here), and put my own twist on it. I do this kind of thing with the whole USA, the outcome of the Native American relocation situation, even down to having motorcars still puttering around.

4) Your book involves both wizardry and alchemy. Can you tell us a bit about the underpinnings of the magic system in your world?

The world itself is not really magic driven as it's based on the real world more or less. There are byproducts of the alien systems around them that get dumped into this world and change it so it's a melting pot, for lack of a better analogy.

The Mylon crystal technology uses the raw power source to replace Nuclear energy and ammunition for weaponry, is derived from the Nine - harvested from the students’ bodies. But someone with certain training can do more with them. These gems have the ability to access magic power. Caleb uses the crystals this way to power a small pistol that in turn gives him something like unlimited ammunition.

The Nine is a race naturally gifted with magic power (the alchemy part of them). They were natural architects able to construct vast cities out of the Earth. But they need to be augmented by technology to further their abilities (the wizardry portion). From using technology they gain a much wider set of abilities, like focusing that energy through a filter kind of like a materia system (see final fantasy reference here). Of you could also think of it, as Cass goes through her journey, as a hierarchical system of gaining more complex abilities the more you use a certain ability. I could go into more detail in the specifics trees on where powers start and end but for a novel I didn't really get into the super technical stuff as it wasn't essential. It wouldn't be unless you're making a video game (which would be super cool).

The third type of outside magical system that appears I'll touch on briefly. It's James Kesumare and his Gate Keeper abilities. He's like a Green Lantern but able to learn how something works and adapt it to his own powers. Being a dimensional traveler, learning certain abilities could save his life. You'll get to learn more about that in the next book.

5) Your books also involves some science fiction elements. Did you find it difficult to combine the fantasy and science elements?

There's definitely a balance you have to strike when creating a world that has both. I wanted to try to modernize the concept of wizards/alchemists like you see in current anime like Full Metal Alchemist. And again, having been a really big fan of games like FF7, Xenogears, and those kinds of franchises - I have a lot of exposure to that and have a sense of what's working and what's not.

When creating a world like this you have to ask yourself questions like "Is what I'm doing making sense given the expectations I've set forth in the foundation I've created?" As I said before the world the journey really takes place in is a melting pot because of the external influences that have pressed upon it. It's about establishing expectations from the get go. For example the beginning of the book establishes The Nine with the Coalition, then James and his ties to them, then to Caleb and his ties and each facet twists them together so when they come together all in one place - it's not such a jarring shift.

6) Dystopian books have grown in popularity a lot in recent years. Why do you think people like reading stories in depressing settings? 

I'm going to get a little dark in my speculation here. I feel we as human beings have a primal urge to see/read/hear things like that can be worse than their current state "Hey I may have it bad but these people have it much worse!" Example: Mira Grant's Newsflesh Trilogy (Feed-Deadline-Blackout) is a good example of a society locked under several hard and fast rules so that anyone can spontaneously-combust into zombies and start eating people. They have to undergo constant blood tests and decontamination just to get around. They are constricted by nature to live very sheltered/oppressed lives thanks to the regulations the CDC and the government put in place.

A variety of factors play into the rise and fall of genre popularity and I try not to follow the tide, just write what I like and know that things do come in waves. Things like the Mayan calendar, recent political/governmental climate the world has going on, you can name a number of things but I think there's an allure to that kind of thing because in a perverted way we want to see the suffering - it's part of human nature. But - of course - we want to see a hero rise up and beat the system and obtain glory.

7) You deal with both religion and existential issues in this book. Are there particular major themes you were trying to explore?

Not at first, although the degree of religious implication has varied from draft to draft. The "His Plan" train of thought didn't start coming in until the drafts I had in early 2008. The original Mac Guffin from the club story was an ambiguous scroll that could manipulate the multi-verse. So regardless it was going to be something epic - a game changer for all sides involved. When you start getting into big things like traversing parallel worlds, religious and existential questions are going to come up.
At this point I hadn't wanted to get too deep into that kind of thing because 1. I don't want to come off as preachy because as far as religion goes I'm not that at all. 2. I have no idea, no one really does, as to what is on the other side if there is another side. I know I've tread into dangerous water in some ways but at the time I'm not trying to bring that kind of stuff too heavy into it because that's not what this story is about. What we do know coming at the end of the story is that messing with the workings of the universe is a dangerous game. Maybe exciting. But dangerous. I think I'll be exploring it more, but indirectly, as the series progresses. I think the biggest theme, on a personal/relatable level, is Cass finding her sense of worth in in the grand scope of the universe, that right now she could change things, take control of her life - fighting for what she believes in matters.

8) You have a background in screenwriting. How did that influence the writing in your book? 

I wouldn't say screenwriting itself influences my writing - but that training was great when I shifted from script to novel because the essential stuff still applies. How to execute a story. Act structures. Dos and don'ts, etc. That base experience translates into novel writing easier than you might think. What you have to realize is that with a novel you have a lot more room to explore the intricacies of your world and its people. A screenplay is more like a guideline for what will become a visual product, so you need only what's important/essential to each scene to make that script. With a book you will not, so, like radio, you have to rely on the theater of the mind to create the world of the book.

9) Do you have any plans for a sequel?

Yes. The Nine is the first book in what I have dubbed the Trinity Trilogy. The second book is called The End Begins: The Rise of the Gate Keepers. Taking place six months after The Nine, James will have to rediscover his heritage as a Gate Keeper to protect the world while Eden's Gate recovers from the damaged it sustained in The Nine. Everyone is dealing with the aftermath of the Coalition's occupation and the little spurts of rebellion that keep cropping up and the unexpected surprises the Eden's Gate is going to bring to their doorstep. I've slated it for an early 2013 release date but I'll be posting more about it toward the end of this year.

10) Please tell us a bit about your other future projects.

Right now I am working on two short stories that fall between The Nine and The Rise. They focus on some of the supporting characters you'll meet in the Rise. They're more of an appetizer for those waiting for the sequel. Outside of my self-publishing endeavors I'm working on a couple more shorts and splitting my time revising two novelette works I hope to start shopping those around to agents/publishers by the fall. I'd like to get some screenwriting projects sent out too but we'll see about that. My plate is already full with extra stuff, haha.

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Thank, Jeff.

Finding Jeff on the Web:

His Blog: Stories of the Sleepless Mind (www.storiesofthesleeplessmind.blogspot.com)
His Wiki: Zweig Independent Publications (http://zweigpublications.wikispaces.com/)
Twitter: http://twitter.com/jzweigii
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/jzweigii
Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/jzwegii
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5440125.Jeff_Zweig_II

To purchase his book, please visit one of the following links:

Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005V2H1YA)

Smashwords (https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/92522)

Createspace (https://www.createspace.com/3641897)