tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19055588041768950872024-03-05T22:29:18.937-08:00Cary CaffreyCary Caffreyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02497153478198948932noreply@blogger.comBlogger94125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1905558804176895087.post-12919054422408809192016-02-23T13:30:00.002-08:002016-02-23T13:30:28.338-08:00A New Site<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I supposed this is now officially the 'old' web site. I'm moving everything over <a href="https://carycaffreyblog.wordpress.com/">here</a> to the new <a href="http://carycaffrey.com/">carycaffrey.com</a>.</span>Cary Caffreyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02497153478198948932noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1905558804176895087.post-51673159843831077202015-12-01T10:52:00.000-08:002015-12-05T13:19:37.993-08:00NIGHT WITCH UPDATE:<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipMF7x_LboW7YO8e26PdOwvFtHtZNCj1XWeL0ZSPBHKmsukPqGO3u2RNS4kULItHdMBv9P3wgH5Nc7NQvDhwLyQqHwfhwdgL_smnnwxWIRVjdh2mvI7XOxKEzk7RXbjRrDBIlSubnB0Ko/s1600/NightWitchCover%2528Bright%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipMF7x_LboW7YO8e26PdOwvFtHtZNCj1XWeL0ZSPBHKmsukPqGO3u2RNS4kULItHdMBv9P3wgH5Nc7NQvDhwLyQqHwfhwdgL_smnnwxWIRVjdh2mvI7XOxKEzk7RXbjRrDBIlSubnB0Ko/s400/NightWitchCover%2528Bright%2529.jpg" width="257" /></a><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #141823;">I seriously need to thank everyone who picked up a copy of Codename: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Codename-Night-Witch-Girls-Alcyone-ebook/dp/B0187MJLE8/ref=pd_sim_351_2?ie=UTF8&dpID=51ad0PEj%2BZL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_UX300_PJku-sticker-v3%2CTopRight%2C0%2C-44_AC_UL160_SR103%2C160_&refRID=12CES3EP6W07M5ZNNZ2A" target="_blank">Night Witch</a> (thank you!). Two years was an awful long time to make you wait, so I couldn't be more grateful to you for (remembering Sigrid) and for taking the time to grab a copy - and for reading it. </span><br style="color: #141823;" /><br style="color: #141823;" /><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #141823;">And, thanks to all of you, Night Witch is now the fastest selling TGfA book yet. It's been an insane opening two weeks. The launch has gone</span></span><span class="text_exposed_show" style="color: #141823; display: inline;"> well beyond my hopes or expectations. Night Witch hit several of the top ten best seller lists across Amazon, not to mention <b>hitting No. 1 on charts</b> for "Hot New Releases" in SciFi/Dystopian.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="color: #141823; display: inline;">And it's all because of you!<br /><br />I'm especially grateful for those of you who posted reviews and ratings on <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Codename-Night-Witch-Girls-Alcyone-ebook/dp/B0187MJLE8/ref=pd_sim_351_2?ie=UTF8&dpID=51ad0PEj%2BZL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_UX300_PJku-sticker-v3%2CTopRight%2C0%2C-44_AC_UL160_SR103%2C160_&refRID=12CES3EP6W07M5ZNNZ2A" target="_blank">Amazon</a> and Goodreads. Those stars mean a whole hell of a lot to us Indie writers (they're pretty much our front line marketing tools).<br /><br />So cheers to you! You're the absolute best.</span></span><br />
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Cary Caffreyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02497153478198948932noreply@blogger.com19tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1905558804176895087.post-80363476781979297872015-11-20T06:11:00.001-08:002015-11-20T06:11:18.306-08:00Codename: Night Witch, The Girls from Alcyone Book 3<div style="text-align: justify;">
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The unthinkable has happened. Sigrid Novak<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">—the most dangerous and wanted person in the history of the Federation of Corporate Enterprises</span></span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">—</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">has b</span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">een captured. For her sisters of New Alcyone, the people who love her, this is a staggering loss. For the Independents, the rebels who captured her, this is a boon beyond measure.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; text-align: start;">Now, six years have passed since the events of Bellatrix, and for six years Sigrid Novak has been gone, vanished, with no sign, no word and no trace. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; text-align: start;">But all has not been quiet within the Federation. The Council for Trade and Finance has been murdered, assassinated, and the death toll among the Federation's ruling elite continues to rise.</span><br style="color: #333333; text-align: start;" /><br style="color: #333333; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; text-align: start;">With every corporate enclave that falls, the legend grows. They call her the Night Witch. A champion to some, a nightmare for others. Wherever she goes, death is soon to follow. </span><br style="color: #333333; text-align: start;" /><br style="color: #333333; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; text-align: start;">Then, in an abandoned CTF research facility—and after so many years lost—a woman awakens. Her name is Sigrid Novak. And she is very, very angry.</span></span></div>
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Cary Caffreyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02497153478198948932noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1905558804176895087.post-69810165290229191342015-09-13T07:32:00.003-07:002015-09-13T07:51:35.001-07:00TGfA 3 Gets A New Name<div style="text-align: justify;">
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<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If you've been to my web site before then you might notice a slight change. For the last year and a half I've been calling TGfA III Codename: White Princess. Well, that's all changed. Say </span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 19px;">hello to the Night Witch.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 19px;">I've been silent on this book for a while. Too long, according to many of you, and I get that. This silence hasn't had anything to do with me not working on it. In fact, it's been quite the opposite. But the deeper I got into this book, the more I wanted to keep the lid on it. For a couple of reasons.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 19px;">First, I decided to keep my mouth shut for fear of raising false expectations as to the release date. It seems every time I open my mouth, I say things like "It'll be done in two days!" or something equally nonsensical. These kinds of statements are always born out of my foolish excitement for wanting to finish and share it as soon as possible. I'm excited! I can't help it.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 19px;">The second reason for my silence has been the simple fact that anything I say about this book will only end up being a <i>HUGE </i>spoiler. If you read Bellatrix, then I'm sure you'll get that. I left Sigrid in quite the bind. Even writing the synopsis for Night Witch has been a challenge, because I don't want to give anything away.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19px;">But the good news is, I'm ready to end the silence and open my mouth. Codename: Night Witch isn't finished yet (I'm writing the penultimate chapter as we speak), but this latest draft is all but done (with inevitable rewrites, additions and editing still to come).</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19px;">But I have booked my editor for October. It's coming!</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19px;">And if you just can't wait, you can grab a sneak peak </span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 17px; text-align: center;"><a href="http://carycaffrey.blogspot.ca/p/coming-soon-codename-white-princess.html">here</a>, as I've posted the prologue chapter, complete with typos..</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 17px;"><i>Read a draft of the prologue <a href="http://carycaffrey.blogspot.ca/p/coming-soon-codename-white-princess.html">here</a>!</i></span></span></div>
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Cary Caffreyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02497153478198948932noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1905558804176895087.post-92069575135180171122015-02-18T12:20:00.000-08:002015-02-21T05:03:33.078-08:00THE GIRLS FROM ALCYONE III, Codename: White Princess<div style="margin: 8px 0px 0px; text-indent: 18px;">
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<b><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">THE GIRLS FROM ALCYONE III:</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Codename White Princess</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: #999999;"><br /></span><span style="color: #999999; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Girls From Alcyone is the continuing story of two very special young women who find themselves at the heart of a conflict spanning more than forty worlds.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #584d4d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It's been a long time since I've posted any snippets. The big problem with this book is finding snippets that don't act as complete spoilers. Many things have happened to Sigrid since we last saw her on Bellatrix. Here's a small sampling.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">They were dead. All of them. Yet she had survived.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Sigrid understood. She was designed to survive—at all costs. The Kimura Corporation had made her this way. Her other memories might have been stolen, but this singular knowledge they had left with her: she was a killer, she was a weapon, and that was something they would never let her forget. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Sigrid screamed, driving her fist into the ground. If they wanted killing, then she'd be more than happy to oblige. She would kill them all.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #584d4d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Don't forget to check out snippets from other SFFS authors here: </span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-indent: 0px;"><a href="http://scififansat.blogspot.ca/" target="_blank">scififansat.blogspot.ca</a>! </span><br />
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-indent: 0px;">SciFi Fantasy Saturday<span style="text-indent: 18px;"> is a</span></span><span style="color: #584d4d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> web-ring of fab SciFi & Fantasy writers and posters. All are welcome to join and participate. In fact, join and participate! Fifteen sentences every Saturday is all it takes.</span><br />
<span style="color: #584d4d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 19px;">Cheers, Cary!</span><br />
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Cary Caffreyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02497153478198948932noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1905558804176895087.post-80601318479538607502014-06-16T15:33:00.000-07:002014-06-16T15:33:13.691-07:00<br />
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<a href="http://www.bookblasttours.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Huntfortomorrow.png"><img alt="Huntfortomorrow" class="aligncenter wp-image-1836" src="http://www.bookblasttours.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Huntfortomorrow.png" height="199" width="540" /></a><br />
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<a href="http://huntfortomorrow.blogspot.com/"><strong>THE HUNT FOR TOMORROW</strong></a><br />
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<strong>22 AUTHORS. 3 DYSTOPIAN BOXED SETS. 1 MASSIVE EVENT.</strong><br />
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<strong>A virtual scavenger hunt through twenty-two fictional dystopias.</strong><br />
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<strong>Friday, July 18 at 6:00pm <sub>(EST)</sub> - Sunday, July 20 at 6:00pm <sub>(EST).</sub></strong><br />
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Join <a href="http://huntfortomorrow.blogspot.com/"><strong>THE HUNT FOR TOMORROW</strong></a><strong>,</strong> an on-line scavenger hunt, and embark on a virtual odyssey through twenty-two dystopian futures. Become an intrepid scavenger and solve clues at each of the dystopian author stops as you navigate your way to the finish line where you’ll be entered into a random draw for the Grand Prize. For each correct answer collected along the way you’ll get an additional chance to win. During The Hunt, the authors will offer up their own exclusive material, sneak peeks, contests, and giveaways at their individual stops on The Hunt, giving all scavengers multiple chances to win bonus prizes.<br />
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The twenty-two participating indie authors include best-selling, award-winning and emerging writers from the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom who all have books included in three dystopian boxed sets - - <a href="http://www.amazon.com/What-Tomorrow-May-Bring-Dystopian-ebook/dp/B00K1H0304?tag=blasttours-20"><em>What Tomorrow May Bring</em></a><em>,</em><em> </em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Taste-Tomorrow-Dystopian-Boxed-Collection-ebook/dp/B00HPM3PDA?tag=blasttours-20"><em>A Taste Of Tomorrow</em></a>, and <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Shattered-Worlds-Six-Dystopian-Novels-ebook/dp/B00IJYIFG0?tag=blasttours-20"><em>Shattered Worlds</em></a><em>.</em><br />
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In a unique collaboration of story-telling, nineteen of the authors will write a progressive short story over nineteen days following The Hunt. The Grand Prize Winner of <strong>The Hunt For Tomorrow</strong> will name characters and contribute the title for this dystopian world, and all participants in The Hunt will receive an advance copy of the story for an exclusive period before it is made available as a free download. The Grand Prize also includes a signed copy of books included in the boxed sets, an ebook of all the boxed sets, and the first copy of this one-of-a-kind progressive story.<br />
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<a href="http://huntfortomorrow.blogspot.com/"><strong>THE HUNT FOR TOMORROW</strong></a><strong> </strong>begins at <strong><a href="http://huntfortomorrow.blogspot.com/">http://huntfortomorrow.blogspot.com</a></strong> on Friday, July 18 at 6:00pm<sub> </sub><sub>(EST)</sub><sub> </sub>and ends on Sunday, July 20 at 6:00pm <sub>(EST).</sub><sub> </sub>The Hunt is on for one weekend only, although there is no time-limit for completing the course. The Hunt is open to scavengers around the world; there is no cost to enter and one grand prize winner will be selected at random from all eligible entries.<br />
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<strong>Go to</strong><strong> </strong><a href="http://huntfortomorrow.blogspot.com/"><strong>THE HUNT FOR TOMORROW</strong></a><strong> </strong><strong>for details and the full list of participating authors.</strong><br />
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<strong>JOIN THE HUNT.</strong><strong> JULY 18-20</strong><strong>.</strong><br />
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<strong><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" />Blast Giveaway</strong><br />
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$50 Amazon Gift Card or Paypal Cash<br />
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Ends 7/20/14<br />
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Open only to those who can legally enter, receive and use an Amazon.com Gift Code or Paypal Cash. Winning Entry will be verified prior to prize being awarded. No purchase necessary. You must be 18 or older to enter or have your parent enter for you. The winner will be chosen by rafflecopter and announced here as well as emailed and will have 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be chosen. This giveaway is in no way associated with Facebook, Twitter, Rafflecopter or any other entity unless otherwise specified. The number of eligible entries received determines the odds of winning. Giveaway was organized by Kathy from <a href="http://iamareader.com/" style="color: #a3b460;" target="_blank">I Am A Reader</a> and sponsored by the publisher. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED BY LAW.<br />
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<a class="rafl" href="http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/0a00961315/" id="rc-0a00961315" rel="nofollow">a Rafflecopter giveaway</a><br />
<script src="//widget.rafflecopter.com/load.js"></script>Cary Caffreyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02497153478198948932noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1905558804176895087.post-90841933091281863612014-05-28T06:17:00.001-07:002014-05-28T06:18:42.044-07:00WHAT TOMORROW MAY BRING BLOG SERIES: Q&A with Shelbi Wescott<h2>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Q&A Hot Seat</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">What Tomorrow May Bring</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The YA Dystopian Box Set</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/What-Tomorrow-May-Bring-Dystopian-ebook/dp/B00K1H0304/ref=la_B006GP52DS_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1399373392&sr=1-2" target="_blank">available now for Kindle</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For those following my blog, you might notice I've become involved with this anthology collection of dystopian science-fiction, What Tomorrow May Bring. Each week I'm featuring either a blog contribution or interview by each of the eleven authors from the anthology.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Today, author <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Virulent-Release-Shelbi-Wescott-ebook/dp/B00B9ZUZ64/ref=la_B00BA121NC_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1401282907&sr=1-1" target="_blank">Shelbi Wescott</a>, author of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Virulent-Release-Shelbi-Wescott-ebook/dp/B00B9ZUZ64/ref=la_B00BA121NC_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1401282907&sr=1-1" target="_blank">Virulent: The Release</a> takes the hot seat for this Q&A . <span style="letter-spacing: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14.199999809265137px;">The questions were provided by Deborah Rix, author of </span><span style="text-align: justify;"> </span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/External-Forces-Lex-Laws-Motion-ebook/dp/B00JNYO67W/ref=la_B00F736AFY_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1398697756&sr=1-1" style="text-align: justify;" target="_blank">External Forces</a><span style="text-align: justify;"> (and fellow contributor to What Tomorrow May Bring).</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="text-align: justify;">Enjoy!</span></span></div>
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<strong style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white; color: black;">WHAT IS THE FIRST SCIENCE FICTION BOOK YOU REMEMBER READING?</span></strong></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black;">I remember reading <em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Boy Who Reversed Himself</em> by William Sleator in 1989 during a cross-country road trip. We were driving from Oregon to Illinois and at the beginning of every driving day my mom gave me a new present to unwrap for that leg of the trip. While sitting in the parking lot of a hotel overrun with silverfish bugs in Keystone, South Dakota, I received Sleator’s book and devoured it by the time we arrived in Cedar Rapids.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black;">Fourth dimensions, scary monsters, and something to do with ketchup as the best thing ever? I grew up in science-fiction loving house, but this is the first time I remember thinking of all the possibilities the genre offered—and it was a genuine way to escape the monotony of a drive through the Plains States.</span></div>
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<strong style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white; color: black;">ANY MOVIE, ANY BOOK…WHO IS YOUR FAVORITE ANTAGONIST?</span></strong></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black;">This is such a fascinating question and I’m sorry, I’m so sorry…I can’t limit it to one. So, here are my favorite antagonists, plural:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black;">- Amon Goeth from Schindler’s List: Watching him on screen portrayed by Ralph Fiennes was the first time I had a visceral reaction to a person in a movie. He gave me a stomachache and I had to close my eyes; I was terrified of him, and even more sickened by the fact that he wasn’t an invention—this was a real man, a true monster.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black;">- Dolores Umbridge from Harry Potter: I’m big on justice and the INJUSTICE of her reign at Hogwarts sent me into a rage. I needed her to be a real person somewhere in the world, so I could travel there and punch here in the face.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black;">- Honorable mentions: Johnny from Karate Kid; John Doe from Se7en; Mr. Burns from The Simpsons; Scar from the Lion King; Hans Grubar from Die Hard; Mr. Potter from It’s a Wonderful Life; Annie Wilkes from Misery.</span></div>
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<strong style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white; color: black;">IS THERE AN AUTHOR THAT YOU WOULD REALLY LIKE TO MEET?</span></strong></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black;">I desperately want to have a lunch with Stephen King and Joe Hill. Actually, can it just be the whole family? I want to be invited to their Thanksgiving. Omg, can that happen? Can someone make that happen?</span></div>
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<strong style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white; color: black;">WHERE WERE YOU BORN AND WHERE DO YOU CALL HOME? WHERE WOULD YOU LIKE TO LIVE?</span></strong></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black;">I was born in Portland, Oregon, and that is also where I currently call home. I’ve always had dreams of taking my writing life and heading off to a small, noisy apartment in NYC, but that feels like I’m cheating on my first love. (But I am taking my whole family there this summer…to write…in a noisy apartment on the Upper West Side. Then I get to come home to Oregon. So, it’s the best of both worlds.)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black;">The reality is Portland is a creative town with such amazing talent and a thriving arts community. I’m immensely proud of my city.</span></div>
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<strong style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white; color: black;">DO YOU EVER WRITE IN YOUR PJ’S?</span></strong></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black;">There are people who don’t write in their PJS? Shameful.</span></div>
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<strong style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white; color: black;">WHAT TALENT WOULD YOU MOST LIKE TO HAVE?</span></strong></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black;">I’d always like to be a better writer—I read such talented stories and I’m insanely jealous of their wordsmithing abilities. But beyond that: I was fired by my piano teacher when I was eight or nine. She <em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">actually</em> fired me and sat me on the porch to wait for my mom. So, I wish I could play the piano.</span></div>
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<strong style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white; color: black;">WHAT ARE YOUR PET PEEVES?</span></strong></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black;">People who talk during movies; loud eaters; people who are rude to workers in service industries; bad tippers.</span></div>
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<strong style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white; color: black;">IF YOU HAD A SUPER POWER, WHAT WOULD IT BE? AND IF YOU HAD TO GIVE IT UP TO SAVE NEW JERSY, HOW WOULD YOU EXPLAIN TO NEW JERSEY THEY WERE GOING TO DIE?</span></strong></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black;">I want the super power from that TV show “Out of this World”: to stop time by touching my fingers. Just…pause! Unpause. Pause. Unpause. And, I would definitely avoid saying anything to anyone, and just slowly back away pretending like I didn’t understand. “What? New Jersey? Can’t hear you…”</span></div>
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<strong style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white; color: black;">WHY DIDN’T HURLEY LOSE ANY WEIGHT WHILE ON THE ISLAND?</span></strong></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black;">Can we just pretend that this is the only thing that doesn’t make sense about that show? Because I was a LOST devotee (I had a Dharma Initiative party and replaced all the labels on the food with Dharma labels) and it’s too soon to talk about. Too soon.</span></div>
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<strong style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white; color: black;">ABOUT THE BOOK</span></strong></div>
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<strong style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white; color: black;">HOW IMPORTANT ARE NAMES TO YOU IN THIS BOOK. DID YOU CHOOSE THEM BASED ON SOUND OR MEANING?</span></strong></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black;">My names are important because I name characters after my students as classroom management rewards. Is that strange? Like, “Hey. Stop talking during this quiz or I’m finding/replacing your character from this book. Don’t make me erase you.” Works like a charm.</span></div>
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<strong style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white; color: black;">WHERE DID YOUR <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_817001353" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">TOMORROW</span></span> SPRING FROM? IN OTHER WORDS, HOW DID YOU COME UP WITH THE CRAZY WORLD?</span></strong></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black;">There is a reservoir in Portland that is just open to the elements…recently a man peed in there and they had to drain the whole thing. (ADDENDUM: Last week’s Portland Must Boil Water fiasco because they found e-coli in the water? Same reservoir.) And it’s where a big chunk of Portland’s water comes from…so, this idea stemmed from a single thought, “How easy would it be…if a group was vast enough…to wipe out civilization by targeting water and air with bioterrorism?” From there, I had to invent and discuss the why. Why would someone want to do that? And then I thought of Noah and how the story there is that God wiped out the world to start over because people were awful. So, give someone a God complex, who wants to decide who is worthy to survive, and have him kill off the world? That is how <em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Virulent</em> took shape.</span></div>
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<strong style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white; color: black;">JUST HOW FAR IN THE FUTURE IS YOUR <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_817001354" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">TOMORROW</span></span>?</span></strong></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black;"><span class="aBn" data-term="goog_817001355" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Tomorrow</span></span>. Like…literally <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_817001356" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">tomorrow</span></span>. Today. Now. My book develops into a dystopian over the story arc. It starts as a post-apocalyptic tale that shows how our world could fall. I wanted it to feel realistic and scary.</span></div>
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<strong style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white; color: black;">DID YOU DO ANY SPECIFIC OR UNUSUAL RESEARCH FOR THIS BOOK?</span></strong></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black;">Over the course of the trilogy, I have had to do some crazy research (firearms, bombs, bioterrorism). I’m on NSA lists. They don’t know what to make of me based on my Internet searches. </span></div>
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<strong style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white; color: black;">QUOTE A CHARACTER, ANY CHARACTER.</span></strong></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black;">"Roads? Where we’re going, we don’t need roads."</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black;">Oh! You mean one of my characters?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black;">Ms. Johnston says, “Hasn’t anyone told you? It’s the assholes who inherit the earth.”</span></div>
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<strong style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white; color: black;">WHO SHOULD NOT READ YOUR BOOK?</span></strong></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black;">People who have rosy outlooks on human behavior in time of crisis. Seriously? You think everyone is going to band together and become instant do-gooders? I love people, but I don’t have a shred of faith in human nature when SHTF.</span></div>
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<strong style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white; color: black;">ARE ANY OF THE MAIN CHARACTERS FROM THE LGBT (LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENDER) COMMUNITY.</span></strong></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black;">Absolutely. Actually, I got a one-star review because a reviewer didn’t want her pre-teen daughter reading about a woman who had a wife. [Insert eye-roll here] I like to wear that review like a badge of honor. So…we could add that into the “people who shouldn’t read my book” answer, too. If reading about <em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">humans</em>bothers you…don’t read this book.</span></div>
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<strong style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white; color: black;">GIVE YOUR BOOK THE BECHDEL TEST</span></strong></div>
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<strong style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white; color: black;">1. IT HAS TO HAVE AT LEAST TWO (NAMED) WOMEN IN IT</span></strong></div>
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<strong style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white; color: black;">2. WHO TALK TO EACH OTHER</span></strong></div>
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<strong style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white; color: black;">3. ABOUT SOMETHING BESIDES A MAN</span></strong></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black;">My books (especially the trilogy as a whole) passes the Bechdel Test with flying colors. But I personally think the test should be harder to pass…let’s raise the bar!</span></div>
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<strong style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white; color: black;">WHAT SORT OF BODY COUNT ARE WE TALKING HERE?</span></strong></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black;">Oh, wow. Yeah. Um. Seven billion people…</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For more on the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/What-Tomorrow-May-Bring-Dystopian-ebook/dp/B00K1H0304/ref=la_B006GP52DS_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1399373392&sr=1-2" target="_blank">What Tomorrow May Bring box set</a>, please visit us on<a href="https://www.facebook.com/tomorrowboxset" target="_blank"> Facebook</a>, and (of course!) check us out on Amazon where you can download your free sample to get reading.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And please visit the talented <a href="http://www.deborahrix.com/" target="_blank">Deborah Rix</a> (a fellow Canadian to boot).</span></div>
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Cary Caffreyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02497153478198948932noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1905558804176895087.post-89750463117104279532014-05-16T09:57:00.002-07:002014-05-16T09:57:39.864-07:00Dystopia Blog Series: Susan Kaye Quinn<br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">On May 1st, we launched the new anthology box set, What Tomorrow May bring, a collection of ten YA dystopian novels and bonus chapters from eleven bestselling and up-and-coming Indy authors.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Today...</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Meet Susan <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Mindjack-Trilogy-Digital-Box-ebook/dp/B00AO00VBE/ref=la_B003TTJRXU_1_12?ie=UTF8&qid=1355497552&sr=1-12" target="_blank">Kaye Quinn</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">fellow contributor to</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">What Tomorrow May Bring</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The YA Dystopian Box Set</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/What-Tomorrow-May-Bring-Dytopian-ebook/dp/B00K1H0304/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1398886305&sr=1-1" target="_blank">available now for Kindle</a></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Dystopias - Forging Hope for Humanity</span></b><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"><u></u><u></u></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">by Susan Kaye Quinn</span></b><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"><u></u><u></u></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">I’ve always read dystopian novels, although I simply thought of them as “science fiction.” Stories like <i>I, Robot</i> and <i>Foundation</i> filled my spongy adolescent brain with concepts like the Three Laws of Robotics and how utopias couldn’t happen as long as the flawed nature of humanity still existed. This is where I first understood the term dystopia as what happened when humans tried to monkey with society to make it “better.” Not only did I enjoy the mental gymnastics that went with these (usually cautionary) tales, they seemed to be “equipment for living.” They influenced my young adult thoughts about the future—what it should be, and what it should not.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">My novel <i>Open Minds</i> is a mild dystopia, although, as I wrote it, I thought of it more as a classic SF story. I sought to change one thing—what if everyone really could read minds?—and play it out. That turned into an exploration of how, as much as the world may change, human beings fundamentally remain the same.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">I think this is the understructure of the current dystopian trend—classical science fiction retooled for our modern era and sensibilities. Dystopias are more than a simple reflection of our post-911 world, a mirror held up to our fears of environmental disasters, terrorism, and pandemic. Our modern world isn’t solely a bleak place—it also shines with aid flowing to natural disasters, soldiers building schools, and the rejection of hatred as an ideology. Most modern dystopias search through their dark fictional world for those threads of hope. They find someone who will rebel against the wrongness of the world and attempt to set it right, or a third way through two dire world-changing choices.<br /><br />The ever-more complicated world we live in needs more of the thought experiments found in dystopian stories, rather than less. Hope is a fundamental part of being human, and stories that forge hope out of the most difficult situations are always the most compelling.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">I write those stories, the ones with that persistent thread of hope, because those are the kind I want to read.<br /><br />And the future I want to live in.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">~*~<u></u><u></u></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Susan Kaye Quinn is the author of the bestselling <a href="http://bit.ly/MindjackBoxSetAmazon" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #6699cc; text-decoration: none;">Mindjack Trilogy</span></a>, which is young adult science fiction (and dystopian!). Her latest release is <i><a href="http://bit.ly/ThirdDAmaz" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #6699cc; text-decoration: none;">Third Daughter</span></a></i> (The Dharian Affairs #1) which is her excuse to dress up in corsets and fight with swords. She also has a dark-and-gritty SF serial called <a href="http://bit.ly/DCSeasonOneAmz" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #6699cc; text-decoration: none;">The Debt Collector </span></a>which has been optioned for Virtual Reality. That turns all her geeky gears! She always has more speculative fiction fun in the works. You can find out what she's up to by <a href="http://bit.ly/SubscribeToSusansNewsletter" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #6699cc; text-decoration: none;">subscribing to her newsletter</span></a> (hint: <b>new subscribers get a free short story!</b>). See all her books <a href="http://www.susankayequinn.com/p/my-books.html" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #6699cc; text-decoration: none;">here</span></a>.</span></div>
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Cary Caffreyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02497153478198948932noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1905558804176895087.post-83379921993870178292014-05-13T04:11:00.006-07:002014-05-13T04:11:56.746-07:00WHAT TOMORROW MAY BRING BLOG SERIES #3: Q&A with David J Normoyle<h2>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Q&A With <a href="http://www.amazon.com/External-Forces-Lex-Laws-Motion-ebook/dp/B00JNYO67W/ref=la_B00F736AFY_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1398697756&sr=1-1" target="_blank">Debora Rix</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">What Tomorrow May Bring</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The YA Dystopian Box Set</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/What-Tomorrow-May-Bring-Dystopian-ebook/dp/B00K1H0304/ref=la_B006GP52DS_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1399373392&sr=1-2" target="_blank">available now for Kindle</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For those following my blog, you might notice I've become involved with this anthology collection of dystopian science-fiction, What Tomorrow May Bring. Each week I'm featuring either a blog contribution or interview by each of the eleven authors from the anthology.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Last week, we kicked things off with an interview with me, of all things. Today, author David J Normoyle takes the hot seat for this Q&A . <span style="letter-spacing: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14.199999809265137px;">The questions were provided by Deborah Rix, author of </span><span style="text-align: justify;"> </span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/External-Forces-Lex-Laws-Motion-ebook/dp/B00JNYO67W/ref=la_B00F736AFY_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1398697756&sr=1-1" style="text-align: justify;" target="_blank">External Forces</a><span style="text-align: justify;"> (and fellow contributor to What Tomorrow May Bring).</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">WHAT IS THE FIRST SCIENCE FICTION BOOK YOU REMEMBER READING?</span></b></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Either the Foundation books by Issac Asimov, or Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card. Foundation is a really cool premise, where a giant inter galactic empire has formed and a mathematician is able to scientifically foresee its collapse, so he implements a plan to restrict the fallout. Ender’s Game is still one of my favorite books. Brilliant idea, perfectly executed.</span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">ANY MOVIE, ANY BOOK...WHO IS YOUR FAVORITE ANTAGONIST?</span></b></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I’m going to go with one of the oldest villains of all time. Loki, the Norse trickster god, who is currently being excellently brought to life by Tom Hiddleston in the Avengers universe. I wrote a book that combined Norse and Greek myths, called Myth Weaver, and he was my favorite character to write in that.</span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">WHEN YOU GO TO SEE A MOVIE, DO YOU TRY TO READ THE BOOK FIRST?</span></b></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Yes, generally. Only if I have no interest in reading the book, will I’ll watch a movie based on a book without having read the book first. My list of movies -better-than-the-book is small but includes Schindler’s List, The Godfather and Silence of the Lambs. In the rest of the cases where I’ve read the book and watched the movie, the book is better.</span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">DO YOU BUY A BOOK BY THE COVER?</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It’s certainly a factor. If I don’t have a recommendation and I’m browsing on Amazon, then it’s the cover that will make me click on it to check out the blurb. The cover indicates the book’s genre. Once I’ve clicked, then the blurb/sample/reviews will decide whether I actually buy.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">HOW IMPORTANT ARE NAMES TO YOU IN THIS BOOK. DID YOU CHOOSE THEM BASED ON SOUND OR MEANING?</span></b></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Not terribly important, but at the same time the name has to be the right one. Sometimes the first name I choose, will be the correct one, other times I have to keep trying until I find one that I’m happy with. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">DID YOU CHOOSE TO SELF-PUBLISH OR GO THE TRADITIONAL ROUTE? WHY?</span></b></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Selfpublishing is the best way to go right now, and that’s only going to become clearer as time goes by. With a novel, ninety percent of what the reader cares about in the product comes from the author. The other 10% can be contracted out. So what does the publishing company do that means that they take the majority of the profits? They used to be essential when they controlled the distribution, but now that ebooks are starting to dominate fiction sales, the landscape is rapidly changing. I feel that traditional publishing will have to radically change if they want to stay relevant.</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Of course that doesn’t mean the selfpublishing route is easy. Anything but.</span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">JUST HOW FAR IN THE FUTURE IS YOUR TOMORROW?</span></b></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hundreds of thousands of years. Earth has been destroyed and the remnants of humanity have travelled across thousands of light years looking for inhabitable planets. Although, it’s actually in the far future, in a way, it’s also set in the past. That’s because this world has eschewed technology in the hope that they can avoid previous mistakes. So the technology level is medieval.</span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">QUOTE A CHARACTER, ANY CHARACTER.</span></b></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"My killing hand is a bit tired." Bowe shook his arm. "All that slashing and beheading—nothing like a bit of shopping to take your mind off the blood and gore. So, you have anything in Bellanger azure?"</span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">GIVE US THE WEATHER FORECAST FOR YOUR TOMORROW.</span></b></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It'll be hot in the morning, get hotter in the afternoon, then still be hot at night. Before long, it'll be so hot that the only way to survive will be to seek refuge in underground caverns, cooled by the sea.</span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">WHO SHOULD NOT READ YOUR BOOK?</span></b></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Those who would prefer a nice book without much death and violence. Those who would like a story and world that isn't too complex. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">YOU CAST YOUR CHARACTERS FOR A MOVIE. WHO MAKES IT?</span></b></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">That’s an easy one. Josh Whedon. I love his storytelling ability. I’m a huge Firefly fan--each time I watch it I’m ever more amazed that such a great show could have been canceled after one season. In virtually everything Whedon has done, he weaves character and plot, action and humor into a superb story.</span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">WHO WOULD PLAY YOUR MAIN CHARACTER IN A MOVIE?</span></b></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is tougher. There are many great actors for older characters but not as many for teens. I would go with Asa Butterfield, who did a great job of showing Ender’s vulnerability in Ender’s Game. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">WHAT FIVE SONGS/ARTISTS WOULD FEATURE ON THE SOUNDTRACK OF YOUR TOMORROW?</span></b></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hurt, Johnny Cash<br />
One, U2<br />
The Whole of the Moon, Waterboys<br />
Blister in the Sun, Violent Femmes<br />
Rains of Castamere, The National</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For more on the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/What-Tomorrow-May-Bring-Dystopian-ebook/dp/B00K1H0304/ref=la_B006GP52DS_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1399373392&sr=1-2" target="_blank">What Tomorrow May Bring box set</a>, please visit us on<a href="https://www.facebook.com/tomorrowboxset" target="_blank"> Facebook</a>, and (of course!) check us out on Amazon where you can download your free sample to get reading.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And please visit the talented <a href="http://www.deborahrix.com/" target="_blank">Deborah Rix</a> (a fellow Canadian to boot).</span></div>
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Cary Caffreyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02497153478198948932noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1905558804176895087.post-4144376661813918712014-05-09T03:30:00.000-07:002014-05-09T03:30:00.741-07:00WHAT TOMORROW MAY BRING BLOG SERIES #2: Author Jenni Merritt<br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">On May 1st, we launched the new anthology box set, What Tomorrow May bring, a collection of ten YA dystopian novels and bonus chapters from eleven bestselling and up-and-coming Indy authors.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Today...</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Meet <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Prison-Nation-Jenni-Merritt-ebook/dp/B006H4LPZW/ref=la_B006H44018_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1399631236&sr=1-1" target="_blank">Jenni Merritt</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">fellow contributor to</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">What Tomorrow May Bring</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The YA Dystopian Box Set</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/What-Tomorrow-May-Bring-Dytopian-ebook/dp/B00K1H0304/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1398886305&sr=1-1" target="_blank">available now for Kindle</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">What ‘dystopia’ means to me by <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Prison-Nation-Jenni-Merritt-ebook/dp/B006H4LPZW/ref=la_B006H44018_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1399631236&sr=1-1" target="_blank">Jenni Merrit</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We, as such beautifully imperfect creatures, crave perfection. We long for that perfect existence where everything is ideal and fair and safe. So we try. We create laws. We enforce rules. We embrace change, fight change, dream of change. Then, when the bad things still happen, we question everything. Can we make utopia? Who knows if the answer will ever be found. That is why we create dystopian stories. To read, work out, understand and even enjoy the idea of society gone wrong. Perfection would be too boring. We need imperfection to fight, to live, to learn and grow. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Dystopians are not only about society gone wrong. They are about the people living in that society who choose to stand up and do something about their existence. They are beautiful. And imperfect. Some fight and fail. Others rise to the top and succeed. And in the end, we all learn that even at its worse, life is worth living. That is a dystopian. And I love it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">PRISON NATION was inspired from one little moment that grew into an entire world. Many say this story is frightening in the sense that so much of it is already happening. Laws are intense and getting more strict every day. Prisons are overfilled and growing. We fear we have all lost control. In PRISON NATION, that is the world. Prisons and control and laws, all the way to the point that children are raised behind bars and freedom is just a dream. So what would you do? How would you survive in a world where near everything is illegal? From an inspiration to a project to a debut novel, PRISON NATION is a journey I fell in love with every word of the way. I hope you do too.</span><br />
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Cary Caffreyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02497153478198948932noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1905558804176895087.post-42550358802641880262014-05-02T07:06:00.002-07:002014-05-06T13:13:00.605-07:00WHAT TOMORROW MAY BRING BLOG SERIES<div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">On May 1st, we launched the new anthology box set, What Tomorrow May bring, a collection of ten YA dystopian novels and bonus chapters from eleven bestselling and up-and-coming Indy authors.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Today...</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Meet David Estes</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">fellow contributor to</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">What Tomorrow May Bring</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The YA Dystopian Box Set</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/What-Tomorrow-May-Bring-Dytopian-ebook/dp/B00K1H0304/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1398886305&sr=1-1" target="_blank">available now for Kindle</a></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRZhHvFF5B9Puxk4Un1S0rIKuOwJtXfeFoxHia-_Pl0UMx10NQgduwEzvzCVQw4jJI_i-vndQRlRQXNRgyzWpH8FWIsTLP0Pjwy0i8J0BQ0nlzEaRaYHebkYiyCBfJGEC3ut1oErK2rcc/s1600/my+thoughts+on+tomorrow.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRZhHvFF5B9Puxk4Un1S0rIKuOwJtXfeFoxHia-_Pl0UMx10NQgduwEzvzCVQw4jJI_i-vndQRlRQXNRgyzWpH8FWIsTLP0Pjwy0i8J0BQ0nlzEaRaYHebkYiyCBfJGEC3ut1oErK2rcc/s1600/my+thoughts+on+tomorrow.jpg" height="236" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">What ‘dystopia’ means to me by David Estes</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /><br />I love dystopian novels. And I don’t just mean The Hunger Games, although I love that one, too. I’ve read dozens of dystopian novels and I never seem to get tired of them. For me, dystopian novels capture so much of what makes reading awesome. They explore real social issues and imaginative futures that may be only decades, or even years, from coming to pass. They are dark and suspenseful and funny and interesting, and, most of the time, scary.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But what I love the most is that they almost always contain an element of hope. The characters, who are many times thrust into terrible situations, endure and persevere and usually accomplish what they set out to do, against challenging odds. Hope.<br /><br />Do I think any of the themes in dystopian novels will actually come to pass? Absolutely. Hopefully not in my lifetime, or my children’s lifetimes, but bad things will happen and new heroes will have to rise to the forefront and meet the challenges of their day.<br /><br /><br />But for now, I’ll imagine my own futures and the heroes that live them, and do my best to entertain my readers with stories of hope. Starting with my first dystopian novel, The Moon Dwellers. For this series, I’ve created two different societies, one living underground (three books: The Moon Dwellers, The Star Dwellers, The Sun Dwellers), one living aboveground (three books: Fire Country, Ice Country, Water & Storm Country), which then come together in a final epic 7th Dwellers, where the characters and plot lines smash into one story. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I hope you enjoy the dystopian world I’ve created!</span><br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/What-Tomorrow-May-Bring-Dystopian-ebook/dp/B00K1H0304/ref=la_B006GP52DS_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1399394814&sr=1-2" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIqHq1D4T3v_sp0k48Qn3IW1xFG9uDG59VSKfnojWKsjHNfmmSmY68W_dxKC-bfNN494CSKPi5muzPA7WNXZP8kBX3RBQqIP8cydRD-EN1xFjljbSpXlIK1ilTbXSdIKlWuv5DlSEvDOU/s1600/What+Tomorrow+May+Bring+-+Final+banner.jpg" height="278" width="640" /></a></div>
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Cary Caffreyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02497153478198948932noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1905558804176895087.post-18798877577610351412014-04-28T08:20:00.003-07:002014-05-06T13:15:41.644-07:00Dystopian Q&A With Deborah Rix, Author of External Forces<h2>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Q&A With <a href="http://www.amazon.com/External-Forces-Lex-Laws-Motion-ebook/dp/B00JNYO67W/ref=la_B00F736AFY_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1398697756&sr=1-1" target="_blank">Debora Rix</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">What Tomorrow May Bring</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The YA Dystopian Box Set</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/What-Tomorrow-May-Bring-Dystopian-ebook/dp/B00K1H0304/ref=la_B006GP52DS_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1399373392&sr=1-2" target="_blank">available now for Kindle</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Deborah Rix, awesome author of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/External-Forces-Lex-Laws-Motion-ebook/dp/B00JNYO67W/ref=la_B00F736AFY_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1398697756&sr=1-1" target="_blank">External Forces</a> (and fellow contributor to WTMB), was kind enough to bombard me with this really fun Q&A. Here's the result (her questions are in blue, my answers are in black). Enjoy!</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmK-xUqnewMkqF-eBqPSewf2ThuvyGmK7MZTWlvZTapEsRpxaX1mzaxwhEuX3DMaphZ63e2Qh_WkYUy2tA9omhA7FqUsi8IEvGR4p4wxBS9SJwCKeWdtK3laXrTPWpVTKMbqCtPGDOLwE/s1600/voight-kampff.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmK-xUqnewMkqF-eBqPSewf2ThuvyGmK7MZTWlvZTapEsRpxaX1mzaxwhEuX3DMaphZ63e2Qh_WkYUy2tA9omhA7FqUsi8IEvGR4p4wxBS9SJwCKeWdtK3laXrTPWpVTKMbqCtPGDOLwE/s1600/voight-kampff.jpg" height="236" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #64b3df; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0px; text-indent: 14.2px;">DID YOU CHOOSE TO SELF-PUBLISH OR GO THE TRADITIONAL ROUTE? WHY?</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Indy-publishing all the way! Going Indy is the best (and I believe the smartest) route for any new writer in today’s market.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I’ve been very lucky in that I’ve worked in and around the entertainment industry nearly all my life. I’ve worked for publishers, and I’ve had publishers working for me. Both experiences made me want to go the independent route. It’s wonderful time to be an independently published writer.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">HOW DO YOU OVERCOME WRITER'S BLOCK?</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When I figure it out I’ll let you know!</span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Seriously though, the key for me is to never let myself get bogged down, and to make sure I keep slogging along. I wage a daily war with my confidence (or lack thereof). I’m not sure if that’s writer’s block or anxiety. What came as a surprise to me is that this anxiety got worse, not better, after the success of my first novel. Perhaps that’s the pressure of added expectations (expectations I put on myself, not from readers). My readers have been great. Super-supportive. They’re my main source of inspiration to keep moving forward. Readers are my cure for writer’s block.</span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">WHAT BOOKS HAVE INFLUENCED YOUR WRITING?</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Anything by Harry Harrison! I can’t tell you how many times I’ve read Deathworld, Homeworld or the Stainless Steel Rat.</span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">ANY MOVIE, ANY BOOK...WHO IS YOUR FAVORITE ANTAGONIST?</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Do comics count? It’s a toss-up between Mr. Freeze or Clayface. Two of the most tragic villains in the history of literature!</span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">DO YOU BUY A BOOK BY THE COVER?</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Absolutely. I freely admit I’m attracted to shiny things. I’m a very visual person. I love visual arts. Painting, photography, graphic-design, I love it all. I’m constantly drawn to great cover art, and I have a particular weakness for bold covers featuring powerful, swashbuckling heroines.</span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">HAVE YOU EVER WRITTEN ABOUT YOUR OWN BAD HABITS?</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Always! I wouldn’t trust a writer who wasn’t willing to put the worst of themselves on the page. Someone asked me once (about writing): aren’t you worried that people will think it’s you? My answer was: if you’re not worried about that—if you’re trying to hide, or disguise yourself—you’re not doing your job.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">WHICH WORDS OR PHRASES DO YOU TEND TO OVERUSE?</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Apparently in the first edit of TGfA I used the word ‘managed’ nine-thousand, four-hundred and fifty-seven times.</span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">DO YOU HAVE ANOTHER JOB BESIDES AUTHOR?</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When I saw the Indy-eBook explosion I decided it was time to take the plunge and do this full time. I don’t know how people write and hold down a day-job. If I had a job I’d be a terrible employee. Or worse, a terrible writer!</span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">WHAT IS YOUR MOTTO?</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Risk everything (they can’t say “yes” if you don’t ask).</span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">WHAT TALENT WOULD YOU MOST LIKE TO HAVE?</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I always wished I was a better guitar player. I never got beyond ‘passable-hack,’ but I know in my heart I wanted to be a guitar hero.</span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">WHAT’S THE BIGGEST LIE YOU’VE EVER TOLD?</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">That I’m really a woman. I can’t help it. I have clothes envy. Dresses, high heels… I would have made an awesome drag queen (if only I were taller!).</span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">HAVE YOU EVER BEEN IN TROUBLE WITH THE AUTHORITIES?</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Let’s just say, spending a night in the “slammer” was a life-altering experience. It definitely made me stop and take a hard look at myself—who I was, what I was doing and where I was going.</span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I almost think everyone should go to jail at least once. Nothing makes you appreciate freedom more than having it taken away.</span></span><br />
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</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">DO YOU THINK THE UNITED STATES IS SECRETLY A MIRROR UNIVERSE OF CANADA, LIKE THE STAR TREK EPISODE, WHERE THE UNITED STATES IS THE EVIL DIMENSION?</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Full disclosure: I’m Canadian. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There may have been a time when the US was the evil counter-verse of Canada, but unfortunately Canada’s conservatives appear extremely eager to adopt all of the worst traits of American Tea-Party/Republicanisms. Our conservative government is currently under fire for trying to adopt such popular Republican policies, as voter suppression, for-profit prisons, and they’re doing everything in their power to dismantle our public health-care system and de-fund education.</span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And let’s not forget oil (Keystone pipeline). The Cons want to pump as much oil as they can, as fast as they can, through the United States, even though the pipes are leaking all over the place.</span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If anything, it appears a giant wormhole has opened up in the space-time continuum and plunked Canada right alongside the US in that mirror universe.</span></span><br />
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</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">HAVE YOU SEEN MY SHOES?</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">No, but would love to! I should imagine they are quite lovely. I’m picturing a pair of shiny black pumps, perhaps with those fancy red soles you see everywhere these days.</span></span><br />
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</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">WHY DIDN'T HURLEY LOSE ANY WEIGHT WHILE ON THE ISLAND?</span><span style="color: black; letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What! Oh, my goodness, this is <i>too</i> easy. Because the dead don’t lose weight! In fact, it was Hurley’s bulk that gave away the whole ending back in season two. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">BONUS QUESTION: WHY DO VILLIANS PREFER LONG HAIR CATS INSTEAD OF<br />
HAIRLESS CATS? HAIRLESS CATS ARE MUCH MORE EVIL LOOKING. SEEMS LIKE A<br />
MISSED OPPORTUNITY.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Ah! But you see, you’re approaching the question from the wrong angle. Villains (oh, sorry—<i>villians</i>) are almost always misunderstood. After all, the best <i>villians</i> are really heroes trapped in the wrong story. And they don’t see themselves as evil at all, so, when you think about it, the fact that they prefer fluffy kittens only makes good sense.<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px; text-decoration: underline;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">ABOUT THE BOOK</span></b></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">IF YOU GAVE ONE OF YOUR CHARACTERS AN OPPORTUNITY TO SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES, WHAT WOULD THEY SAY?</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“Sorry about your face!” </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Actually, that’s a line from Borderlands (something Paige says), but I really wish I’d written it for Suko. It’s definitely something she’d say, probably after laying the smack down on some unsuspecting thug.</span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">WHERE DID YOUR TOMORROW SPRING FROM? IN OTHER WORDS, HOW DID YOU COME UP WITH THE CRAZY WORLD?</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">That one’s easy too. I feel as though we’re <i>already</i> living in a crazy dystopian future. A study came out recently showing how Americans are actually already living in an oligarchy and <i>not</i> a democracy (<a href="https://www.commondreams.org/view/2014/04/14"><span style="color: #0433ff; letter-spacing: 0px;">https://www.commondreams.org/view/2014/04/14</span></a>). The study showed extremely specific examples of how public policy in the US is dictated, <i>not</i> by overwhelming public opinion, but by the whims of a very small minority of wealthy and elite corporatists. Take gun control, for instance. 88% of Americans want stricter gun laws, but even with that overwhelming support nothing’s been done. If anything, we keep moving toward more liberal gun-laws, as evidenced by what just happened in Georgia (guns in schools and bars! Yay! What could go wrong?). And how about what happened last week with the FCC? They actually <i>killed</i> net neutrality, paving the way for internet monopolies (say goodbye to freedom of the online press as we know it). These are just two examples of a globally unpopular policies that are turned into a laws to service a <i>very</i> small number of people in the upper-fringes of society.</span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Call it a corporatocracy, an oligarchy or plutocracy, this is not how democracy is supposed to work.</span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Oh, and before you label me a conspiracy theorist, remember what Noam Chomsky said (and I’m paraphrasing): It’s not a conspiracy theory. It’s just good observation.</span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">HOW DID YOU COME UP WITH THE IDEA FOR THIS STORY?</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">See above! </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Actually, the idea came about completely by accident. The original draft was quite different. Sigrid Novak (the main character), was supposed to be a secondary character, but the moment she hit the page (in the original, she doesn’t appear until page 56!) I fell in love with her. I knew I had to learn absolutely everything about her. Who was this incredible woman, what drove her, and how the heck did she get the way she was? I immediately I tossed the draft I was working on and started writing Sigrid’s story.</span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">DID YOU DO ANY SPECIFIC OR UNUSUAL RESEARCH FOR THIS BOOK<b>? </b></span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I had to do<i> a lot</i> of research into martial arts. I spent a great deal of time reading about jujitsu and watching lots of videos. It was very important that the more physical acts of combat be real. I was fortunate that one of my early alpha-readers was experienced in Jujitsu, as well. She came to my rescue on a number of occasions.</span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">DID YOU HAVE TO CONDUCT ANY EXPERIMENTS FOR THIS BOOK?</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Only for the naughtier parts.</span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">IS THERE ANY SUPER-COOL FUTURISTIC TECHNOLOGY/WEAPONRY IN YOUR TOMORROW?</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What’s scifi without cool tech! TGfA features some <i>seriously</i> overpowered ballistic weapons. Who doesn’t want a hulking 18 mm recoilless sidearm strapped to their thigh! I mean, that is <i>hot</i>.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Who should not read your book?</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Bigoted, intolerant, ideological, hateful people. These people would best be served by avoiding my book at all costs. Judging from some of the <i>angrier</i> responses I’ve received since publication, there are still certain people in this world who do<i> not</i> like to think about 'non-traditional' relationships. Apparently, even 350 years into the future, such things are still 'ew, icky gross!’</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">ARE ANY OF THE MAIN CHARACTERS FROM THE LGBT (LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENDER) COMMUNITY.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I think that falls under the category of ‘yes,’ though one of my favorite things about the book is that, at no time ever, does the subject of sexuality or gender come up. No one is ever labeled gay or lesbian, and you’ll never find any of the characters questioning or struggling with their sexuality. No one’s ever worried about what *gasp* their friends or family might think. Gender, sexuality, it’s a non-issue. And I’m just so tired of books or movies that play coy with a character’s sexuality, making readers guess “are they? aren’t they? Will they? Won’t they?” It’s just silly. Let them be out and about. And for goodness sake, let them be happy!</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">GIVE YOUR BOOK THE BECHDEL TEST</span></span></div>
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<li style="color: #64b3df; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;"></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">IT HAS TO HAVE AT LEAST TWO (NAMED) WOMEN IN IT:</span><span style="color: black; letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> Check.</span></span></li>
<li style="color: #64b3df; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;"></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">WHO TALK TO EACH OTHER:</span><span style="color: black; letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> Definitely!</span></span></li>
<li style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #64b3df; letter-spacing: 0.0px;">ABOUT SOMETHING BESIDES A MAN:</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> Who are these ‘men’ of which you speak? This is The Girls from Alcyone.</span></span></li>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">PICK ONE OF YOUR CHARACTERS AND APPLY THE <i>SIX DEGREES OF KEVIN BACON</i>. GO!</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I don’t know how to connect those dots, but I know that <i>I</i> have a six degree connection with Mr. Bacon (but doesn’t everyone). My connection is thanks to a song I wrote and a TV show featuring Rick(y) Schroder. It’s a crazy six-degree world.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">WHO WOULD PLAY YOUR MAIN CHARACTER IN A MOVIE?</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Easiest question on the planet! Elle Fanning (<a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1102577/?ref_=tt_cl_i4"><span style="color: #0433ff; letter-spacing: 0px;">http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1102577/?ref_=tt_cl_i4</span></a>). She absolutely is (young) Sigrid Novak. If we start preproduction on the movie now, Elle will be the perfect age to start filming in two or three years.</span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">YOUR MAIN CHARACTER VS BATMAN, WHO WOULD WIN?</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">No contest. Sigrid Novak would kick Batman’s butt. It’s not Batman’s fault. After all, Sigrid Novak has all the genetic and bionic advantages, as well as the kind of years of training that would leave Bruce Wayne envious. I believe Batman would literally never see her coming.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On a scale of 1-5 what would your book get for these actual MPAA rating descriptions</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Violence: </b>Five!</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Language: </b>I’d give it a two, but apparently TGfA is full of cussing. Let’s go with three. </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Drug Use: </b>While TGfA gets a <b>one</b> for recreational use, it definitely scores an <b>eleven</b> when it comes to pharmaceuticals. Hey, we’re talking full-on genetic recombinants here!</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Sexual Content: </b>Yes, please — I mean, five!</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Non-stop Ninja action: </b>Ooh! Definitely a five. Yes. Five.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">MILD PERIL</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Salty language and innuendos: </b>Check</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Jungle adventure terror: </b>Does a forest count? How about concrete jungle?</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Brutal and bloody Viking combat:</b> Sadly, no vikings. *sighs*</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Comic horror, violence and grossness: </b>What’s an adventure without a stomach churning moment or two?</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Swashbuckling action: </b>Check!</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Sexy dancing: </b>I’m happy to say, yes!</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Intense sequences of bat attacks: </b>Ooh… No. No bats.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Demented mayhem:</b> Um, hell ya.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Scenes of dental torture:</b> Thank goodness, no!</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If your book were rated like a romance novel, the heat level would be</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1) None<br />
2) Sweet<br />
3) Mild<br />
4) Hot<br />
5) Wild Ride</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">6) Blood Thirsty </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I would very much like to think (hope) that it is both sweet & hot.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For more on the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/What-Tomorrow-May-Bring-Dystopian-ebook/dp/B00K1H0304/ref=la_B006GP52DS_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1399373392&sr=1-2" target="_blank">What Tomorrow May Bring box set</a>, please visit us on<a href="https://www.facebook.com/tomorrowboxset" target="_blank"> Facebook</a>, and (of course!) check us out on Amazon where you can download your free sample to get reading.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And please visit the talented <a href="http://www.deborahrix.com/" target="_blank">Deborah Rix</a> (a fellow Canadian to boot).</span></div>
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Cary Caffreyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02497153478198948932noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1905558804176895087.post-83265701688823865492014-04-28T07:38:00.003-07:002014-06-12T16:30:54.654-07:00What My Tomorrow May Bring<h2>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Introducing</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">What Tomorrow May Bring</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The YA Dystopian Box Set</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/What-Tomorrow-May-Bring-Dytopian-ebook/dp/B00K1H0304/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1398886305&sr=1-1" target="_blank">available now for Kindle</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Follow 11 authors into 11 dystopian tomorrows, where the dark portions of our humanity have taken hold of today, where the fabric of society is torn and greed consumes us all. Follow us down a dark path.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />And find out what <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_41284408" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">tomorrow</span></span> may bring.</span></div>
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<a href="http://Follow 11 authors into 11 dystopian tomorrows, where the dark portions of our humanity have taken hold of today, where the fabric of society is torn and greed consumes us all. Follow us down a dark path. And find out what tomorrow may bring." target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieT0wzQRyLnxQEaIC66Y9iyJ3miuzhdU_FWtiv5UkTmEGi15x8r3XcZZvz-QYrfpAHebnJGE_JchH6JT6wpIQtbz6BsoT0xvEwdDseOaFVE3D3uY3xuZ5kB_cPDSmkk8QJMF3eNrKGnO0/s1600/What+Tomorrow+May+Bring+-+Final.jpg" height="640" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Science-Fiction presents a terrific opportunity for any writer. At its most basic it’s a chance for us to wonder about what could be, what might be, or warn of dangers that might come to pass. But when it’s at its best (possibly most subversive), great science-fiction is really all about “what is.” It’s about the here and now. It’s about us.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I could have set The Girls from Alcyone in the present (I almost did). After all, the story takes place in a world where the corporatocracy has finally supplanted all democratic forms of government, where indentured servitude and bonded laborers are the norm, and where the world’s populations have been neatly divided into the haves and have-nots. Kind of like today!</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But I knew if I did (set the story in present day) it would have radically changed the tone and turned the novel into something I didn’t intend. Politics might be very near and dear to me, but I didn’t want TGfA to become a treatise on the rise of the new industrial imperialism. That wasn’t the novel I wanted to write. I wanted to write an adventure.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">More than that, I wanted to write a story about the endurance of friendship, unwavering loyalty and love (yes, I am that much of a sap). I wanted to show a possible future where inclusiveness and acceptance were the norm, not the exception—even in a world where 99% of the population lives in abject poverty. I wanted to give my characters a chance to live without the burdens of prejudice, where no one cares about your nationality, your sexuality, or gives a second thought to who you date or who you love. All with no questions asked. Because they have bigger things to worry about. Like survival.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And, goddammit, I wanted the story to be fun!</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Setting a story like this in the present day would be impossible. Who would believe it? But, that’s the beauty of science-fiction, and that’s why I love it so much. When we look to the future—in the case of The Girls from Alcyone, three hundred and fifty years into the future—absolutely anything is possible.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">It's been a pleasure and a </span>privilege<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> to be included in this box-set of terrific dystopian science-fiction (by an amazing group of writers!). I hope you enjoy it as much as me.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Cary Caffrey.</span></span><br />
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Cary Caffreyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02497153478198948932noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1905558804176895087.post-32158268075152904532014-03-07T07:48:00.001-08:002014-03-13T05:29:48.269-07:00THOUGHTS ON INDY PUBLISHING: Part One: It's Time To Step Up!<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I thought I'd share some thoughts on marketing/publishing this morning.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If you don't have a goal, you're probably not going to reach it. If you don't have a plan, you're probably not going to realize it.</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sounds obvious, right? It is. But the strange truth is, most of the artists I meet don't have much of a plan beyond creating their art (writing, painting, photography, whatever).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I can't say I blame them either. As artists, we typically shrug our shoulders at the idea of treating our art as a business rather than just a creative outlet. I can't tell you how often I hear writers say (when I talk to them about publishing) "wow, that sounds like a lot of work." Well, it is. But so is writing a novel. No one said this was going to be easy.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I also get this a lot: "Oh, I just want to write." And why not? After all, we do what we do. We write. And we figure the business side will be taken care of by others once we're 'discovered.' Publishers, agents, managers -- they'll handle the business for us.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I've always found this an unfortunate mistake to make. The way I see it, why would anyone want to put in the time and effort to make you successful if you're not willing to do it yourself? Maybe this is where I got lucky -- and I don't mean by getting discovered. I'm far too cynical to think that anyone would publish me, especially in this day and age where the mid-list writer has all but vanished from traditional publishing. Or maybe I suffer from such low self-esteem that it never occurred to me that anyone would want represent me or take me on as a partner. Either way, I knew it was up to me to step up and get things done.</span><br />
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It's still a struggle, and it's a lot of hard work, but the rewards definitely make it worth it. I think that's why I'm always urging other writers to step up, take more risks, and set their sights WAY higher than where they are now. You're allowed to want success, and there's no reason why you can't have it. So have a goal. Set the bar higher.</span><br />
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The first step to success is realizing that you <i>can</i> be successful.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Next Week, Part Two: Okay, I'm ready to work. Now what? </b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>Cary Caffreyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02497153478198948932noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1905558804176895087.post-48775456683793521432014-02-28T04:50:00.002-08:002014-02-28T04:51:09.045-08:00SFR BRIGADE PRESENTS: TGFA II: CODENAME WHITE PRINCESS (Flora, part II)<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-KjCKb9oUbLKpnoE30zwPalmWIVtOC6z5Drd2uLcgubpctXnNpznm4wnx06GyhVvBs5cbs1v6yjlaYvzg_Qhq6ApVb4p0peZcdgAM66c6hA_-p-I6Pxt-6hFlRHX1zgJwgaYMd4eFFkQ/s1600/TGfA3-preview.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-KjCKb9oUbLKpnoE30zwPalmWIVtOC6z5Drd2uLcgubpctXnNpznm4wnx06GyhVvBs5cbs1v6yjlaYvzg_Qhq6ApVb4p0peZcdgAM66c6hA_-p-I6Pxt-6hFlRHX1zgJwgaYMd4eFFkQ/s1600/TGfA3-preview.jpg" height="320" width="206" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIw9e67qQRWSHxjgIEJBoEP7VvdhS3Qvs1IaHGwnSF4BA0Io2jszCZBVeAQ84colK6J8Vs_Eueq-3Vioo-qIJcv9EmNOlJrPwFL3FB-wKoy40yrA_Y4kYeK8UzmtmiG4v-EeQlaQDcD4g/s1600/Suko.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></a><b style="text-indent: 18px;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Posting from my WiP</span></b><br />
<b style="text-indent: 18px;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">TGfA III: Codename: White Princess (working title)</span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #999999;"><br /></span><span style="color: #999999; text-indent: 18px;">The Girls From Alcyone is the continuing story of two very special young women who find themselves at the heart of a conflict spanning more than forty worlds.</span></span><br />
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<span style="text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #584d4d;"><span style="color: #444444;">LAST WEEK: we met Flora who was waking from a terrible nightmare.</span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #584d4d;"><span style="color: #444444;">THIS WEEK: Flora tries to come to grips with what's happening to her.</span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><a href="http://www.carycaffrey.blogspot.ca/2014/02/sfr-brigade-presents-codename-white.html">Flora, Part I</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Flora, Part II</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The dreams were more graphic now, vivid. And they no longer faded away when she awoke. Not immediately. Like an oily residue, they clung to her, filthy and sticky. The metallic scent of gore and blood—even imagined—stung her noes. She could no longer shake the memory of things she'd done. Horrible, unspeakable things; violent and brutal. She'd killed. Countless times. Cold blooded and merciless. Man or machine, it mattered not. All fell before her. But there was pleasure in those dreams, as well. Once again, the woman had come for her, and when Flora closed her eyes she could still see her face, stark and beautiful. But this time—this time the woman spoke to her.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Flora shivered at the memory, fading now in the dim light of early morning. In all those nights, in all those dreams, the woman had never spoken to her, ever.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Not until last night.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">She'd called to her. By name. No, not by name—not hers. It was another. But it <i>was</i> her. It was…</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Flora pounded at her temples, trying to remember. What had she called her?</span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Sigrid.</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #584d4d;">Oh, and don't forget to check out snippets from other SFR Brigade authors here: </span></span><a href="http://sfrcontests.blogspot.ca/p/sfr-brigade-presents.html?spref=fb" target="_blank">http://sfrcontests.blogspot.ca/p/sfr-brigade-presents.html?spref=fb</a><span style="color: #444444; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-indent: 0px;">!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #584d4d;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; line-height: 19px;">Cheers, Cary!</span></span><br />
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Cary Caffreyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02497153478198948932noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1905558804176895087.post-61676151576252674832014-02-21T12:48:00.004-08:002014-02-21T12:53:32.600-08:00SFR BRIGADE PRESENTS: CODENAME: WHITE PRINCESS<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-KjCKb9oUbLKpnoE30zwPalmWIVtOC6z5Drd2uLcgubpctXnNpznm4wnx06GyhVvBs5cbs1v6yjlaYvzg_Qhq6ApVb4p0peZcdgAM66c6hA_-p-I6Pxt-6hFlRHX1zgJwgaYMd4eFFkQ/s1600/TGfA3-preview.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-KjCKb9oUbLKpnoE30zwPalmWIVtOC6z5Drd2uLcgubpctXnNpznm4wnx06GyhVvBs5cbs1v6yjlaYvzg_Qhq6ApVb4p0peZcdgAM66c6hA_-p-I6Pxt-6hFlRHX1zgJwgaYMd4eFFkQ/s1600/TGfA3-preview.jpg" height="320" width="206" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIw9e67qQRWSHxjgIEJBoEP7VvdhS3Qvs1IaHGwnSF4BA0Io2jszCZBVeAQ84colK6J8Vs_Eueq-3Vioo-qIJcv9EmNOlJrPwFL3FB-wKoy40yrA_Y4kYeK8UzmtmiG4v-EeQlaQDcD4g/s1600/Suko.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></a><b style="text-indent: 18px;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Posting from my WiP</span></b><br />
<b style="text-indent: 18px;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">TGfA III: Codename: White Princess (working title)</span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #999999;"><br /></span><span style="color: #999999; text-indent: 18px;">The Girls From Alcyone is the continuing story of two very special young women who find themselves at the heart of a conflict spanning more than forty worlds.</span></span><br />
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<span style="text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #584d4d;"><span style="color: #444444;">THIS WEEK: A small taste of things to come! This snippet is for people who may have read the last chapter of the last book.</span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #584d4d;"><span style="color: #444444;">Waking from a horrible nightmare.</span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">She awoke suddenly, sitting up in bed, gasping for air. Her sheets and night clothes were soaked, damp and clinging. She shivered uncontrollably, hugging herself with her arms. But it wasn't the damp pajamas that chilled her, it was the memory, the dream, still fresh in her head.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">She looked quickly around the bedroom, her head on a swivel, not daring to believe she was home and safe in her bed, when only moments ago she'd been in that—that place. And it wasn't for the first time. No matter the dream, it always ended the same, always ending in that place. She shuddered at the memory. Those men—nameless faces, floating above her, hands touching her, voices laughing. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Hugging her knees, she did her best to slow her breathing, calm the pounding in her chest. There, yes, her clothes were still heaped in a pile on the floor where she'd left them, her wristwatch on the nightstand next to the half-drunk glass of water</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">—i</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">t was a dream, that was all. Just a dream. It wasn't real.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">She was back. She was home. It was over. And her name was Flora.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #584d4d;">Oh, and don't forget to check out snippets from other SFR Brigade authors here: </span></span><a href="http://sfrcontests.blogspot.ca/p/sfr-brigade-presents.html?spref=fb" target="_blank">http://sfrcontests.blogspot.ca/p/sfr-brigade-presents.html?spref=fb</a><span style="color: #444444; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-indent: 0px;">!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #584d4d;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; line-height: 19px;">Cheers, Cary!</span></span><br />
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Cary Caffreyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02497153478198948932noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1905558804176895087.post-78133952132468891692014-02-07T09:37:00.001-08:002014-02-08T04:46:04.052-08:00SFR Presents: TGfA III: Codename: White Princess (working title)<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhulHdH59fBYbuuYAbsEq1Zn46TaZNQVly2i9cOZ3_Sm8wfgApqjmajFmlu3uy3eHvPFre56m8cNkAURFBHsoTHtPGwbf3VjTyhh3HMOzFqG2L6ZOYLwKXWrTC77fO8ocNOr3cMlBQz9Oc/s1600/Sigrid-Intro.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhulHdH59fBYbuuYAbsEq1Zn46TaZNQVly2i9cOZ3_Sm8wfgApqjmajFmlu3uy3eHvPFre56m8cNkAURFBHsoTHtPGwbf3VjTyhh3HMOzFqG2L6ZOYLwKXWrTC77fO8ocNOr3cMlBQz9Oc/s320/Sigrid-Intro.jpg" height="320" width="251" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIw9e67qQRWSHxjgIEJBoEP7VvdhS3Qvs1IaHGwnSF4BA0Io2jszCZBVeAQ84colK6J8Vs_Eueq-3Vioo-qIJcv9EmNOlJrPwFL3FB-wKoy40yrA_Y4kYeK8UzmtmiG4v-EeQlaQDcD4g/s1600/Suko.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></a><b style="text-indent: 18px;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Posting from my WiP</span></b><br />
<b style="text-indent: 18px;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">TGfA III: Codename: White Princess (working title)</span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #999999;"><br /></span><span style="color: #999999; text-indent: 18px;">The Girls From Alcyone is the continuing story of two very special young women who find themselves at the heart of a conflict spanning more than forty worlds.</span></span><br />
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<span style="text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #584d4d;"><span style="color: #444444;">THIS WEEK: Just to keep things simple, I'm continuing on from <a href="http://www.carycaffrey.blogspot.ca/2014/01/tgfa-iii-codename-white-princess.html" target="_blank">last week's </a></span></span></span></span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.carycaffrey.blogspot.ca/2014/01/tgfa-iii-codename-white-princess.html" target="_blank">instalment</a>. Markus Emerson continues to monitor the deteriorating situation outside the Kimuran Enclave on Aquarii II.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And, once again, I can't say when or where this scene takes place in the book (no spoilers), or if it will even make the final cut. Who knows!</span><br />
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<a href="http://www.carycaffrey.blogspot.ca/2014/01/tgfa-iii-codename-white-princess.html" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Part One (Feb 2)</span></a><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Markus heard the soft footfalls behind him, though he didn't turn. His wife placed an arm around his waist as she came to rest at his side. He caught the scent of her perfume, bergamot and spice. It was subtle; she only ever wore enough that it would be noticed by someone standing very close to her, as she was to him now.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">"It's getting worse, isn't it," she said, staring out at the destruction beyond the walls.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Markus smiled. If anyone else had said that, he might assume they were looking for reassurance. But Markus knew his wife well. She might be married to him, but she was no bureaucrat, and she could care less about the business of mercenaries or federated corporations. She was a marine. A Kimuran Marine. Destruction, violence—this was her area of expertise. Her comfort zone.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">"General Porter says he can take care of them," she said; Markus caught the chill in her voice. "All you have to do is give the word."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">This time, Markus did turn to her. "Genocide? Has it really come to that?"</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">"Self defense," she answered back, and there was no emotion in her voice or on her face.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #584d4d;">Oh, and don't forget to check out snippets from other SFR Brigade authors here: </span></span><a href="http://sfrcontests.blogspot.ca/p/sfr-brigade-presents.html?spref=fb" target="_blank">http://sfrcontests.blogspot.ca/p/sfr-brigade-presents.html?spref=fb</a><span style="color: #444444; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-indent: 0px;">!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #584d4d;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; line-height: 19px;">Cheers, Cary!</span></span><br />
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Cary Caffreyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02497153478198948932noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1905558804176895087.post-60394179746489522592014-01-31T08:00:00.003-08:002014-01-31T08:25:35.378-08:00Science-Fiction Romance Brigade Presents...<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhulHdH59fBYbuuYAbsEq1Zn46TaZNQVly2i9cOZ3_Sm8wfgApqjmajFmlu3uy3eHvPFre56m8cNkAURFBHsoTHtPGwbf3VjTyhh3HMOzFqG2L6ZOYLwKXWrTC77fO8ocNOr3cMlBQz9Oc/s1600/Sigrid-Intro.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhulHdH59fBYbuuYAbsEq1Zn46TaZNQVly2i9cOZ3_Sm8wfgApqjmajFmlu3uy3eHvPFre56m8cNkAURFBHsoTHtPGwbf3VjTyhh3HMOzFqG2L6ZOYLwKXWrTC77fO8ocNOr3cMlBQz9Oc/s320/Sigrid-Intro.jpg" height="320" width="251" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIw9e67qQRWSHxjgIEJBoEP7VvdhS3Qvs1IaHGwnSF4BA0Io2jszCZBVeAQ84colK6J8Vs_Eueq-3Vioo-qIJcv9EmNOlJrPwFL3FB-wKoy40yrA_Y4kYeK8UzmtmiG4v-EeQlaQDcD4g/s1600/Suko.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></a><b style="text-indent: 18px;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Posting from my WiP</span></b><br />
<b style="text-indent: 18px;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">TGfA III: Codename: White Princess (working title)</span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #999999;"><br /></span><span style="color: #999999; text-indent: 18px;">The Girls From Alcyone is the continuing story of two very special young women who find themselves at the heart of a conflict spanning more than forty worlds.</span></span><br />
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<span style="text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #584d4d;"><span style="color: #444444;">THIS WEEK: There's so much I want to post, but everything feels like a massive spoiler. So, instead I'll leave you with this, a hint of things that </span>occurred<span style="color: #444444;"> after then end of the Machines. A taste of things to come? Perhaps.</span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Markus Emerson stood on the balcony of the manor house overlooking his estate. Smoke rose in the distance, thick and black, covering the city in choking darkness. He could just make out the charred remains of the tenement structures beyond the walls of the Kimuran enclave. Flames licked upward, flares of orange and yellow, stark against the blackened sky. There were more fires this night. Many more. Tonight, the city would burn.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">They were fools, torching their own homes, their places of business, their own livelihoods. Didn't they realize? No, of course they didn't. This wasn't the work of rational men and women. They were beyond thought, beyond reason. The mob had taken over now, and there was little to do but let the scene play out.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">No, that wasn't even true. This was beyond rioting, and Markus knew it. This was revolution. And like a wildfire raging, it came, swift and fierce, just as he predicted.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">He had seen it. He had warned them. Of course, they hadn't listened. And now this.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Hitomi's words echoed in his head, the warning spoken so many years ago.</span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">All empires must fall.</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #584d4d;">Oh, and don't forget to check out snippets from other SFR Brigade authors here: </span></span><a href="http://sfrcontests.blogspot.ca/p/sfr-brigade-presents.html?spref=fb" target="_blank">http://sfrcontests.blogspot.ca/p/sfr-brigade-presents.html?spref=fb</a><span style="color: #444444; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-indent: 0px;">!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #584d4d;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; line-height: 19px;">Cheers, Cary!</span></span><br />
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Cary Caffreyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02497153478198948932noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1905558804176895087.post-83279096071747088542014-01-28T11:52:00.005-08:002014-01-28T11:52:53.668-08:00Meet Tara Maya and "The Unfinished Song" fantasy series.<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I've just been introduced to the amazing Tara Maya and her 'Unfinished Song' fantasy series. Here's everything you need to know about the book (excerpt included!). Best of all, Initiate (book one) is <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Unfinished-Song-Initiate-Young-Fantasy-ebook/dp/B004H4XE5I/ref=la_B004HAI038_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1390938477&sr=1-1" target="_blank">free on Amazon</a> right now, I think, so check it out!</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPTEDgjuhAqSs-j9E-odAxKKpv5dFyS2o5e7_bUW3zprp2Tl8_6RcjaPpMmtEJJsWsscM5UDTkOfznZMwSxPOb5rZH191gIc0eAKIqErtEsNGq4ncUTu7cD6ixn2PQb9z7600pymGt_zg/s1600/Initiate_cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPTEDgjuhAqSs-j9E-odAxKKpv5dFyS2o5e7_bUW3zprp2Tl8_6RcjaPpMmtEJJsWsscM5UDTkOfznZMwSxPOb5rZH191gIc0eAKIqErtEsNGq4ncUTu7cD6ixn2PQb9z7600pymGt_zg/s1600/Initiate_cover.jpg" height="400" width="263" /></a><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Unfinished Song (Book 1): Initiate by Tara Maya</span></b></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">BLURB</span></b></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">DEADLY INITIATION</span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A DETERMINED GIRL...</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Dindi can't do anything right, maybe because she spends more time dancing with pixies than doing her chores. Her clan hopes to marry her off and settle her down, but she dreams of becoming a Tavaedi, one of the powerful warrior-dancers whose secret magics are revealed only to those who pass a mysterious Test during the Initiation ceremony. The problem? No-one in Dindi's clan has ever passed the Test. Her grandmother died trying. But Dindi has a plan.</span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">AN EXILED WARRIOR...</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Kavio is the most powerful warrior-dancer in Faearth, but when he is exiled from the tribehold for a crime he didn't commit, he decides to shed his old life. If roving cannibals and hexers don't kill him first, this is his chance to escape the shadow of his father's wars and his mother's curse. But when he rescues a young Initiate girl, he finds himself drawn into as deadly a plot as any he left behind. He must decide whether to walk away or fight for her... assuming she would even accept the help of an exile.</span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Blue-skinned rusalki grappled Dindi under the churning surface of the river. She could feel their claws dig into her arms. Their riverweed-like hair entangled her legs when she tried to kick back to the surface. She only managed to gulp a few breaths of air before they pulled her under again. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">She hadn't appreciated how fast and deep the river was. On her second gasp for air, she saw that the current was already dragging her out of sight of the screaming girls on the bank. A whirlpool of froth and fae roiled between two large rocks in the middle of the river. The rusalka and her sisters tugged Dindi toward it. Other water fae joined the rusalki. Long snouted pookas, turtle-like kappas and hairy-armed gwyllions all swam around her, leading her to the whirlpool, where even more fae swirled in the whitewater. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"Join our circle, Dindi!" the fae voices gurgled under the water. "Dance with us forever!" </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"No!" She kicked and swam and stole another gasp for air before they snagged her again. There were so many of them now, all pulling her down, all singing to the tune of the rushing river. She tried to shout, "Dispel!" but swallowed water instead. Her head hit a rock, disorienting her. She sank, this time sure she wouldn't be coming up again. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"Dispel!" It was a man's voice. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Strong arms encircled her and lifted her until her arms and head broke the surface. Her rescuer swam with her toward the shore. He overpowered the current, he shrugged aside the hands of the water faeries stroking his hair and arms. When he reached the shallows, he scooped Dindi into his arms and carried her the rest of the way to the grassy bank. He set her down gently. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">She coughed out some water while he supported her back. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">She nodded. He was young--only a few years older than she. The aura of confidence and competence he radiated made him seem older. Without knowing quite why, she was certain he was a Tavaedi. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"Good." He had a gorgeous smile. A wisp of his dark bangs dangled over one eye. He brushed his dripping hair back over his head. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Dindi's hand touched skin--he was not wearing any shirt. Both of them were sopping wet. On him, that meant trickles of water coursed over a bedrock of muscle. As for her, the thin white wrap clung transparently to her body like a wet leaf. She blushed. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"It might have been easier to swim if you had let go of that," he teased. He touched her hand, which was closed around something. "What were you holding onto so tightly that it mattered more than drowning?"</span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">LINKS</span></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: black; letter-spacing: 0px;">Tara’s blog </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; text-decoration: underline;">http://bit.ly/12dFdNy</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Tara’s Twitter <a href="http://bit.ly/162sCtE"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">http://bit.ly/162sCtE</span></a></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">The Unfinished Song on Facebook </span><span style="color: #1255cc; letter-spacing: 0px; text-decoration: underline;">http://on.fb.me/1400mMq</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: black; letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Amazon <a href="http://amzn.to/15ciwYc"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">http://amzn.to/15ciwYc</span></a></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Barnes and Noble <a href="http://bit.ly/13yM5Dr"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">http://bit.ly/13yM5Dr</span></a></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Kobo <a href="http://bit.ly/1aFhg1P"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">http://bit.ly/1aFhg1P</span></a></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">iTunes <a href="http://bit.ly/1baddhN"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">http://bit.ly/1baddhN</span></a></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Smashwords <a href="http://bit.ly/17zK8Xn"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">http://bit.ly/17zK8Xn</span></a></span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Initiate is free everywhere except on Barnes and Noble (where it’s $0.99). You can download a free .epub version via Smashwords.</span></i></span>Cary Caffreyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02497153478198948932noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1905558804176895087.post-16420843821179518942013-12-04T08:58:00.000-08:002013-12-05T04:00:20.214-08:00SFR BRIGADE PRESENTS - Codename: White Princess, The Girls from Alcyone III<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhulHdH59fBYbuuYAbsEq1Zn46TaZNQVly2i9cOZ3_Sm8wfgApqjmajFmlu3uy3eHvPFre56m8cNkAURFBHsoTHtPGwbf3VjTyhh3HMOzFqG2L6ZOYLwKXWrTC77fO8ocNOr3cMlBQz9Oc/s1600/Sigrid-Intro.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhulHdH59fBYbuuYAbsEq1Zn46TaZNQVly2i9cOZ3_Sm8wfgApqjmajFmlu3uy3eHvPFre56m8cNkAURFBHsoTHtPGwbf3VjTyhh3HMOzFqG2L6ZOYLwKXWrTC77fO8ocNOr3cMlBQz9Oc/s320/Sigrid-Intro.jpg" width="251" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIw9e67qQRWSHxjgIEJBoEP7VvdhS3Qvs1IaHGwnSF4BA0Io2jszCZBVeAQ84colK6J8Vs_Eueq-3Vioo-qIJcv9EmNOlJrPwFL3FB-wKoy40yrA_Y4kYeK8UzmtmiG4v-EeQlaQDcD4g/s1600/Suko.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></a><b style="text-indent: 18px;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Posting from my WiP</span></b><br />
<b style="text-indent: 18px;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">TGfA III: Codename: White Princess (working title)</span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #999999;"><br /></span><span style="color: #999999; text-indent: 18px;">The Girls From Alcyone is the continuing story of two very special young women who find themselves at the heart of a conflict spanning more than forty worlds.</span></span><br />
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<span style="text-indent: 18px;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #584d4d;">THIS WEEK: I'm very excited. This is my first posting ever for SFR Brigade Presents. And</span>…<span style="color: #584d4d;">it's my first posting from my new WiP TGfA III</span></span></span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-indent: 18px;">. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-indent: 18px;">This scene is from the very beginning of White Princess -- though that might change. But then that's why we call it a work in progress.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">The gamblers den lay down a narrow flight of stone steps. Water dripped down the length of the stone wall making the stairs slick and treacherous. Suko took care as she made her way down, keeping one hand against the crumbling mortar of the wall. The noise grew louder ahead: the sounds of music, many voices raised, each person trying to make themselves heard above the din.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">She counted at least seventy-five persons inside, most of them male, most of them sitting around tables, and engaged in various games of chance. Smoke hung thick in the air, as did the sharp stench of unwashed bodies and spilled ale. And blood.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Pulling back the hood, she shook the rain from her short cloak. Water beaded on the fine black material of her one-piece outfit, dripping down and pooling at her feet. Three men standing by the bar looked up, taking note of her entrance. Suko was in no mood. Casually, she lifted the cloak back over her shoulder to better reveal the large-caliber recoilless holstered to her thigh. The men turned back to their ale, wisely choosing drink over any foolhardy attempts at flirtation.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #584d4d;">Oh, and don't forget to check out snippets from other SFR Brigade authors here: </span></span><a href="http://sfrcontests.blogspot.ca/p/sfr-brigade-presents.html?spref=fb" target="_blank">http://sfrcontests.blogspot.ca/p/sfr-brigade-presents.html?spref=fb</a><span style="color: #444444; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-indent: 0px;">!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #584d4d;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; line-height: 19px;">Cheers, Cary!</span></span><br />
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Cary Caffreyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02497153478198948932noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1905558804176895087.post-31908941948512289712013-12-03T05:25:00.000-08:002013-12-03T05:27:52.918-08:00Thank You!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Machines of Bellatrix went live on Amazon this November (2013). We had an amazing opening month, and sales far exceeded my hopes and expectations. Even The Girls From Alcyone had one of its best sales months ever. So, to everyone who picked up a copy…</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Thank you!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I promised myself I would never ask this, but here I am, about to break that promise: If you did read Machines, and if you enjoyed it, I would love it if you could take a moment and stop by <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Machines-Bellatrix-Girls-From-Alcyone-ebook/dp/B00GFSR48C/ref=pd_sim_kstore_1" target="_blank">Amazon</a> and post a short <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Machines-Bellatrix-Girls-From-Alcyone-ebook/dp/B00GFSR48C/ref=pd_sim_kstore_1" target="_blank">review</a> (or even a long one!). Good reviews are the lifeblood of books, and we Indy Writers can use all the plugs we can get. So, if you have read Machines, or The Girls, please, please <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Machines-Bellatrix-Girls-From-Alcyone-ebook/dp/B00GFSR48C/ref=pd_sim_kstore_1" target="_blank">post a review</a>. I'll be forever in your debt - if I'm not already.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now, back to writing TGfA III.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>Cary Caffreyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02497153478198948932noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1905558804176895087.post-59501197536235335272013-11-01T06:32:00.001-07:002013-11-01T06:32:13.610-07:00Cover Reveal: Wasteland Blues, by Scott Christian Carr & Andrew Conry-Murray<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrY6AL-0HFfzeWJjYga0Dw7MM_VXVZ3ZRvQQUjVe9Cho5-Fq7C_hcyq-1ObwP6y80BJZedmGdO-2bpT7rzUoqmwdq2GAnzAS4GVVKHcjXrfO67KYbmLVBv5eup4eoey5gjxDTYZHNysQk/s1600/Wasteland-Blues+SEPT13.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrY6AL-0HFfzeWJjYga0Dw7MM_VXVZ3ZRvQQUjVe9Cho5-Fq7C_hcyq-1ObwP6y80BJZedmGdO-2bpT7rzUoqmwdq2GAnzAS4GVVKHcjXrfO67KYbmLVBv5eup4eoey5gjxDTYZHNysQk/s640/Wasteland-Blues+SEPT13.jpg" width="451" /> </a></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><i>Of Mice and Men</i> Meets <i>The Odyssey</i> in a Post-Apocalyptic Future</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Having only ever known the uncivilized wake of nuclear and biological apocalypse, three friends and their wheelchair-bound hostage set out on a perilous fool’s mission--to cross from one side of the devastated United States to the other, in the desperate, half-believed hope of finding a rumored haven. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="text-indent: 0in;">Spurred by a dark vision and the murder of their father, rageaholic Derek Cane and his over-sized, simple-minded brother, Teddy, flee the only home they've ever known, a struggling shantytown on the edge of the vast Wasteland. Heading ever eastward, they are accompanied by their friend, John, an orphan brought up by a fanatical religious order, and Leggy, a crippled old drunk who brags that, in his youth, he once traversed the Wasteland as a scavenger.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="text-indent: 0in;"><b><a href="http://rawdogscreaming.com/books/wasteland-blues" target="_blank">Wasteland Blues</a></b> by <b><a href="http://scottchristiancarr.weebly.com/" target="_blank">Scott Christian Carr</a></b> and <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/pub/andrew-conry-murray/2/759/908" target="_blank"><b>Andrew Conry-Murray</b></a> </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="text-indent: 0in;">Cover Art by <b><a href="http://www.bradsharp.co.uk/">Bradley Sharp</a></b><br />
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Post-Apocalyptic novel coming from <b><a href="http://dogstarbooks.blogspot.com/">Dog Star Books</a></b> in March 201<span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">4</span></span></span></span></div>
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Cary Caffreyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02497153478198948932noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1905558804176895087.post-77531923605457733702013-10-28T12:48:00.002-07:002013-10-28T12:50:52.069-07:00Cover Reveal for S. Craig Zahler Book<b><big><i><br /></i></big></b>
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<b><big><i>Today I'm sharing the cover reveal for S. Craig Zahler's new book: </i></big></b></div>
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<b><big><i>CORPUS CHROME INC.</i></big></b></div>
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<b><big><i>from Dog Star Books</i></big></b></div>
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<b>Who should be given a second chance at life? </b></div>
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Decades in the future Corpus Chrome, Inc. develops a robotic body, dubbed a “mannequin,” that can revive, sustain and interface with a cryonically-preserved human brain. Like all new technology, it is copyrighted.</div>
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Hidden behind lawyers and a chrome facade, the inscrutable organization resurrects a variety of notable minds, pulling the deceased back from oblivion into a world of animated sculpture, foam rubber cars, dissolving waste and strange terrorism. Nobody knows how Corpus Chrome, Inc. determines which individuals should be given a second life, yet myriad people are affected. Among them are Lisanne Breutschen, the composer who invented sequentialism with her twin sister, and Champ Sappline, a garbage man who is entangled in a war between the third, fourth and fifth floors of a New York City apartment building.</div>
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In the Spring of 2058, Corpus Chrome, Inc. announces that they will revive Derek W.R. Dulande—a serial rapist and murderer who was executed thirty years ago for his crimes. The public is horrified by the decision, and before long, the company’s right to control the lone revolving door between life and death will be violently challenged….</div>
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<a href="http://rawdogscreaming.com/books/corpus-chrome-inc/" target="_blank"><b>Corpus Chrome, Inc</b></a> by <b><a href="http://scraigzahler.com/portfolio.html">S. Craig Zahler</a></b></div>
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Cover Art by <b><a href="http://www.bradsharp.co.uk/">Bradley Sharp</a></b><br />
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Cyberpunk/Transhumanism novel coming from <b><a href="http://dogstarbooks.blogspot.com/">Dog Star Books</a></b> in January 2014</div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><strong>What They’re Saying About S. Craig Zahler</strong></span></div>
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“Zahler’s a fabulous story teller whose style catapults his reader into the turn of the century West with a ferocious sense of authenticity.”<br />
—Kurt Russell, star of <i>Tombstone, Escape from New York, Dark Blue,</i> and <i>Death Proof</i><br />
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“If you’re looking for something similar to what you’ve read before, this ain’t it. If you want something comforting and predictable, this damn sure ain’t it. But if you want something with storytelling guts and a weird point of view, an unforgettable voice, then you want what I want, and that is this.”<br />
—Joe R. Lansdale author of <em>Edge of Dark Water</em><br />
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Cary Caffreyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02497153478198948932noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1905558804176895087.post-84679891993643596152013-09-27T10:04:00.001-07:002013-09-27T10:04:51.198-07:00GEAR UP! It's another edition of SciFi Fantasy Saturday.<br />
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<b style="text-indent: 18px;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">TGfA II: The Machines of Bellatrix</span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #999999;"><br /></span><span style="color: #999999; text-indent: 18px;">The Girls From Alcyone is the continuing story of two very special young women who find themselves at the heart of a conflict spanning more than forty worlds.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #584d4d; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">THIS WEEK: I haven't posted in a while - I wanted to finish this last draft of Freelancer (now TMoB), but now that that's all done (except for the polishing and the editing, and the...well, you know), I'm back.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #584d4d; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I don't think this scene needs a setup. You'll figure it out.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: large;">"I think you're rather enjoying this," Suko said. She stood with her arms held out while Sigrid </span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;">coiled the last of the thermite strips around her midriff. Sigrid then began the meticulous task of stitching the hundreds of tiny pinhead grenades into the seam of her bra, more into the waistband of Suko's pants; a trick Chesna had taught her so long ago. "You sure it wouldn't be easier if I took this all off?"</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Sigrid slapped her hand away; though she couldn't help but smile. "Hush! Now do keep your arms out. There, like that. This will go a lot faster if you stop moving."</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">"But not nearly as much fun."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #584d4d;">Oh, and don't forget to check out snippets from other SFFS authors here: </span><span style="color: #444444; text-indent: 0px;"><a href="http://scififansat.blogspot.ca/" target="_blank">scififansat.blogspot.ca</a>! </span><span style="color: #444444; text-indent: 0px;">SciFi Fantasy Saturday<span style="text-indent: 18px;"> is a</span></span><span style="color: #584d4d;"> web-ring of fab SciFi & Fantasy writers and posters. All are welcome to join and participate. In fact, join and participate! Ten sentences every Saturday is all it takes.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #584d4d;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; line-height: 19px;">Cheers, Cary!</span></span><br />
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Cary Caffreyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02497153478198948932noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1905558804176895087.post-40541981919106951542013-09-13T04:16:00.000-07:002013-09-13T04:16:33.976-07:00STRANGER SKIES: Cover Reveal & Contest Giveaway<br />
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Cover Reveal & Contest Giveaway!</div>
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<span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>STRANGER SKIES</b></span></div>
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Book One of The Borderlands Saga, by Katje Van Loon<br />
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<span style="font-size: 13px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">Available </span><span class="aBn" data-term="goog_794190035" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; font-size: 13px; position: relative; text-align: -webkit-auto; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">October 4th. P</span></span><span style="font-size: 13px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">re-orders </span><span class="aBn" data-term="goog_794190036" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; font-size: 13px; position: relative; text-align: -webkit-auto; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">September 20, 2013</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 18px;">A goddess' fall from grace leaves her on an alien world, devoid of her followers, trapped in a mortal body. Should she strive to regain her godhood or accept her mortality and find love?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 18px;">Silva, Queen of Wolves, Lady of the True Woods, seeks her only friend Etan, who, along with other deities of the Council of Divinity, has gone missing for reasons unknown. Her search traps her on a world where the wolves have lost faith in her; she becomes a mortal woman whose remaining powers could brand her as a witch.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 18px;">Through the chaos of war and the turmoil in her own heart, Silva can't escape a persistent feeling: that her fall was not an accident.</span><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span><br />
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Heart’s Blood Tavern had indoor plumbing which, according to Scoas, made it a rare building in the town. The toilets were composting toilets, however, and so the scent of human waste combined with peat overwhelmed Silva’s sensitive nose. She entered the stall and did her business quickly, trying to ignore the pong of the room. There was one sink and a small mirror of that same polished stone — while she washed her hands, she noticed she was more fleshed out than she had been the day before. Minae food worked quickly.<br />
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She turned to leave, and then stopped dead, horror making her veins run ice cold. Above the door was another animal head as ‘decor’.<br />
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Its muzzle was posed open in a silent snarl, its ears were flat back on its head, and it was made to look vicious around the eye’s epicanthic folds — but this was all a lie. She reached her hand up to touch the soft fur, but it was too high up, and she couldn’t reach.<br />
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She’d found her first Minae wolf.<br />
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The scent of fear and death hit her then; it had been masked before, but now that she gazed upon the source it was so clear she reeled. She ran back into the stall and vomited what was left of that morning’s breakfast.<br />
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This wolf had died in fear and pain, and she hadn’t been here to help.<br />
<br />
She hadn’t been able to help so many of her children on Terra, too. The mortal humans had shot them from planes, poisoned them, hunted them near to extinction. The only thing that had saved them from that fate had been constant fighting — from Silva herself, and her one or two human followers. Mortals who lived with wolf-hybrids and knew about her existence, and who wanted to help save her children. Silva had petitioned the Twins to save her cubs, and they had finally listened and moved all the wolves off-planet. She didn’t think they would have had it not been for the strengthening arguments of a few other gods who had a soft spot for wolves — the Morrigan, Hecate, and Odin were the big three who had argued on Silva’s side. She wasn’t sure if she’d ever properly expressed her gratitude to those deities.<br />
<br />
On Tau Ceti, the wolves had been placed far enough away from human settlements so as to be relatively safe. But when humans expanded outwards, as they invariably did?<br />
<br />
If she never got home, the Cetian wolves might meet the same fate. And this time she wouldn’t be around to stop them from going extinct completely.<br />
<br />
She shook with helplessness and fear. There was nothing she could do. She was trapped here in mortal form, and her children might all die. The thought made her sick again.<br />
<br />
When finally she exited the bathroom, after having rinsed her mouth thoroughly, she felt scrubbed out, hollowed, empty. A gourd left in the rain after All Hallows Eve; burned on the inside, destined for the compost heap to rot away in ignominy.<br />
<br />
She tried to hide her distress when she got back to the table. Their food had arrived by that point, and a man she’d never seen before stood beside the table and chatted with Scoas and Natai, and occasionally giving Brinna a predatory smile. Brinna seemed less than pleased with the man’s attentions, but she was unfailingly polite.<br />
<br />
Silva instantly disliked the man. He smelled <i>wrong</i>, and his bearing positively screamed his arrogance.<br />
<br />
Scoas noticed Silva’s return, then, and made introductions before Silva could escape.<br />
<br />
The man’s name was Kaz, and he gave Silva an exceptionally oily smile. He was a hunter — the best in Heartpin, apparently. “You must have seen my prize trophy,” he said to her, folding his arms over his chest. Silva politely raised her eyebrows even as her stomach churned with dread. “The wolf’s head hanging in the privy. Got that bastard over a year ago. Scoas bought the pelt.”<br />
<br />
Silva felt like fainting. She barely heard what Scoas said: “It’s a very nice pelt, too; we simply love it.”<br />
<br />
“There’s a secret to get the best pelts, Scoas my man,” Kaz said, winking at Scoas. “Would you like to know it?”<br />
<br />
“Excuse me,” Silva said, brushing past Kaz and heading for the door. She knew the secret for the best pelts, and if she heard Kaz tell them exactly how he’d tortured the young wolf whose head hung in the bathroom, she might kill him right there in the tavern.</div>
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<br />Cary Caffreyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02497153478198948932noreply@blogger.com0