Chrystalla Thoma's Blog, page 15
October 6, 2011
How to escape your body: a new anthology
Corpus Pretereo – I escape the body.
That's the name of a new anthology coming out on the 10th of October, featuring stories with this theme – including my story Dreamdancer. 
The races of fantasy as described by Tolkien and his followers – the elves, the dwarves, the orcs etc – have been overused and I tried to give a new twist with Dreamdancer. Dreamdancers are a race related to the elves, who can manipulate their dreams and invite others inside.
Here is what the story is about:
Dreamdancer Aivar has fled the devastation of his homeland and must whore his dreams out to humans to scrape by day to day. To save a sick friend from death, he pretends to posses a higher level of dream control. But when this deception causes a vicious customer to wound him, only an old love of his, a High Elite kinswoman, can save him. However, the price may be more than he is willing to pay.
The other stories in the anthology sound great too and I can't wait to get the book. It will come out in electronic format, and the cover is truly amazing:
October 3, 2011
Guest author Talia Jager
YA author Talia Jager is talking today about her novels, including her most recent release, vampire novel "Secret Bloodline".
Chrystalla: Hi and welcome to my blog! Why don't you tell us a few words about yourself first?
Talia: I'm a young adult author, wife, mother of five girls with another surprise on the way.
Chrystalla: What genre(s) do you write and why?
Talia: I've always read YA, maybe that's why I write it. The teen mind is awesome. I love that it's usually raw and passionate. One reason I enjoy writing YA is it's filled with 'firsts'. First love, first high school experience, first kiss, first experimentation with… (a number of different things).
Chrystalla: What can you tell us about your writing projects and recent releases?
Talia: I have five books for sale. Three are YA dramas that required a lot of research. After those three were released, I wanted to try something a little different and wrote two YA paranormals. I still consider them dramas, but with a paranormal aspect.
Chrystalla: Tell us about your latest release.
Talia: That would be my novel "Secret Bloodline". What sixteen-year-old Kairi doesn't know is that vampires do exist and she's one of them. She was left in foster care when she was very little and grew up away from her world. Then she began to change. Feeling out of place and confused, she ran away from her foster home. A coven takes her under their wings and trains her. When she is told her parents didn't just abandon her, but died protecting her, she sets off on a mission to find their killer.
And then she meets Aiden…a vampire hunter.
Chrystalla: What gave you the idea for this book?
Talia: My husband thought I should write a vampire book while they were still 'hot'. After thinking long and hard, I came up with my own take on vampires.
Chrystalla: What is special about this book – what sets it apart?
Talia: There are so many vampire and paranormal romance books out there, it's hard to write anything different. I tried and hope I succeeded. Secret Bloodline is about a girl who has no idea that she was born a vampire. She goes from being a nobody to being important. When she falls for a vampire hunter, her world gets turned upside down. But, I think it's the twists and turns that come after that set it apart even more.
Chrystalla: Do you have a favorite scene in the book?
Talia: I have many, but talking about them would give away too much of the book. I will tell you that I love when Kairi finds out she has a family who has been looking out for her and I also love the tension between Kairi and Aiden.
Chrystalla: What kind of research did you do for this story?
Talia: Unlike my first three books, I didn't do much research for Secret Bloodline. I just used my imagination and created the world I wanted my characters to live in.
Chrystalla: Where can people learn more about you and your writing?
Talia: I love hearing from fans. I can be reached at taliajager (at) att (dot) net
October 1, 2011
Six Sentence Sunday – The 'Where' question
Happy sunday to all blog hoppers out there.
Last week I missed the deadline for posting this. So here is another snippet from the opening pages of Rex Rising. Elei is on a boat at sea, trying to remember what happened to him and who shot him.
"We're almost there." The boatman's voice resonated with a hidden growl. When he raised the dakron lamp, its light revealed a leathery, deeply lined face and bright blue eyes. "Better get ready to jump, do you hear?"
"I heard you." Elei kept the gun leveled, his arm muscles straining. Where in the hells are we?
Thanks for stopping by, and I look forward to any comments you may have.
Do visit the six sentence sunday site for more links to great authors' blogs.
September 23, 2011
Guest Author: Andy Rane
Today my guest is author Andy Rane who agreed to answer the same six questions he has been asking his own guests for a while now… Enjoy!
Chrystalla: Welcome, Andy. Tell us a few things about yourself!
Andy: I live in NJ (yes, by choice) with my wife, young son, a couple cats, two chinchillas, some fish, and a salamander named Fred. When I'm not writing or promoting my book, I'm usually reading or playing games with my son. Until my books catch fire (figuratively, not literally), my day job consists of editing pharmaceutical advertising. So, now…about those six questions I'm always having others answer. 
Chrystalla: Have you published a book yet?
Andy: I self-published my first novel, Multiples of Six, on July 18, 2011 under my pen name, Andy Rane (you can visit my Web site to find out my real name). Written over the course of 5 years, I did quite a bit of research before finally deciding to self-publish. Here's a little synopsis: James Masterson is simply taking a moment to reflect on his back porch, when a metal barrel is pressed against his head. His assailant is frightened by what he sees and when James turns around, he begins to understand why. He's staring at his identical twin…a brother he never knew he had. Brought together by a mysterious doctor neither young man has met, James sets out to find out the truth about a past that unravels more and more at every turn. He can trust no one and must risk everything to discover the family he never knew he had. Multiples of Six is ~70,000 words and is the first book in a trilogy. It's available for Kindle, Nook, iPad and more for just $2.99. The paperback is also available through Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Keep an eye out for the sequel, Divisible by Six, in early 2012. For a sample chapter, check out my blog (https://bitly.com/rpSzH1).
Chrystalla: When did you know you wanted to be a writer?
Andy: When I was 19, I had some trouble with college. Let's just say I was never cut out to be a Chemistry major. My mother actually recognized my talent for putting words on the page and suggested that I turn my energies to writing. So, I did. I started with poetry and eventually returned to college, making my way to The Richard Stockton College of NJ as a Literature major. There, I had the great pleasure of studying under the future Pulitzer-Prize winning poet, Stephen Dunn. Though I wrote prolific amounts of poetry, I eventually found that prose was my true love.
Chrystalla: What was your first lengthy piece of fiction (say, >1000 words)? What was it about? When did you write it? Do you still have it?
Andy: When I was a freshman in high school I started writing a "book." It was essentially "Red Dawn (the movie) Comes to My Home Town and I Escape to Find This Really Cool Helicopter at the Local Army Base and Teach Myself How to Fly It." Yeah, it was pretty bad. I think it's still floating around somewhere. Handwritten of course, in an old school notebook. I miss scratching out prose on paper…sometimes.
Chrystalla: When was your first indication, "I can do this (write)"?
Andy: I took many creative writing courses during my college years. I had several people tell me that they thought I was talented, but there's one instance that stands out. In 2005, I spent an ill-fated semester in a nontraditional MFA program (yeah, me and college have had a bit of a love/hate relationship). Anyway, during the residency, I had one of the professors (a published author himself) introduce himself to me by saying, "So, the others (other professors) tell me you might actually make some money from this someday." Yeah, that was cool and it was my first true indication that I might be on the right track.
Chrystalla: If you could meet one of your characters in real life, which would it be?
Andy: The character of Uncle Ted doesn't play a very large role in Multiples, but he's a larger than life character. He's a no-nonsense hulk of a man who knows a thing or two about the realities of life, but won't blow smoke up your rear when he tells you about it. He knows how respect is earned and he knows it takes more than brawn to make a man.
Chrystalla: It's a dark and stormy night…you're alone in the house…there's a knock at the door…you open it, look out, and proceed to scream like a little girl. What's on the doorstep?
Andy: Darkness and nothing…and then the soft bodyless whisper of my name. Eeeeee!
Stop by and visit Andy's blog or Andy's Website
He hosts a new indie author twice a week and subjects them to the tortures of answering The Same Six Questions. He also occasionally posts about his experiences in the world of self-pubbing.
You can also hunt him down on Facebook and Twitter.
Here's where you can find his book!
September 20, 2011
Guest Author Kim Jewell
Today my guest is Kim Jewell, published author of Young Adult fiction including Invisible Justice, Brute Justice and Misery's Fire.
Chrystalla: Hi dear Kim and welcome to my blog! Why don't you tell us a few words about yourself first?
Kim: Hello, and thanks for having me! My name is Kim Jewell and I'm a wife, mother, step-mother, marketing executive, animal lover (three dogs and one very naughty cat!), and if that's not enough to make me crazy… I'm also a new author!
Chrystalla: Why do you write?
Kim: I've always written in my career – I'm in marketing and public relations, so my writing was pretty much ad copy, press releases, newsletters, website copy… It was always a dream of mine to turn to fiction writing, but I just never knew how or where to start. And I was waiting for the right storyline to inspire me.
I took a break from marketing several years ago, went to work for my best friend to help her manage her dental practice. I stayed with her for three years before the law firm I'm working at now called and requested an interview with me. Once I started working here, I got back into the swing of writing again, and my creative juices started flowing. I had forgotten how much I missed it! I dreamt the storyline for Invisible Justice shortly after I got back into marketing (apparently my creativity doesn't stop even when I'm sleeping!) and started writing pretty much the next day. It was completed in less than three months.
Chrystalla: What inspires you?
Kim: I was told once by a fellow writer/friend that my "voice" was very similar to Alice Sebold (The Lovely Bones, The Almost Moon). Did she influence me? No, I read her work after I started writing, but I did pick up both of those books just to study her voice and delivery. She's incredible, very powerful writing.
I'd say I'm probably more inspired by the stories and authors of YA writing – I love the creative plotlines and the sheer entertainment of being swept into a story so imaginative and beyond anything our every day mundane reality could provide. I adore both the Harry Potter and Hunger Games series, and our bookshelves are lined with all kinds of YA books and series – Percy Jackson, Eragon, Lord of the Rings, Twilight, Artemis Fowl, and more. I had a reviewer compare my work to James Patterson's Maximum Ride series, so I guess the reading I've been doing in this genre is paying off!
Chrystalla: What genre(s) do you write and why?
Kim: So far all I've completed is in the young adult arena – it's a genre that our entire family has always enjoyed, both in literature and in movies. When the boys were young, I read the Harry Potter novels to them before bedtime, and I remember standing in line waiting to see the first movie with them. True story – the first HP movie came out the same day we closed on our house. We told the title company to hurry up the process because we had movie tickets that were more important! Our entire family has always been fascinated by the creativity in YA literature, so this feels the most natural for me and my voice.
Chrystalla: What can you tell us about your writing projects and recent releases?
Kim: Invisible Justice is told from the perspective of Sam Dixon, a fairly typical 16-year old, at least until he starts to experience random bouts of burning fire sensation that spreads throughout his entire body. The flashes don't last long, but they're excruciating. They also leave him with heightened senses – he can see farther (and in the dark!), hear things blocks away, smell the faintest of chemicals in the water… The powers come and go just as the flashes of pain do, but each time they last a little longer, and eventually strengthen and manifest into other abilities. When the flashes are done, the powers stay for good.
A random meeting connects him with Leesha Conway, another teenager who has already gone through the flashes, and is left with the power of telekinesis. She can lift and move pretty much anything, people included, with just the power of her mind. They team up to find out what is happening to them and who is responsible. Along the way, they find two more teenagers who have been affected and the team works desperately to track down the doctor responsible for the genetic manipulation. He's not entirely honorable, though, and will stop at nothing to control the teens once they've started realizing their powers.
Brute Justice picks up where IJ left off, the evil doctor is still in hiding, and they finally find him and start tracking him like he's been watching them. The four teens start gathering intel on him, waiting for the right opportunity to approach him for questioning. They track down another teen named Jade, but the mystery about her is that she has been through the flashes, but hasn't realized a power of any kind. They also find yet another teen toward the end, and without giving up too many details, this character adds a very interesting dynamic to this book and for the other books to come.
Chrystalla: Tell us about your latest release (could include blurb, small excerpt like 200 words).
Kim: Misery's Fire is a story about a nineteen-year-old (Grant) who gets killed when he tries to avenge his sister's (Misery is her name) murder. He wakes up in hell with a caseworker named Angelo whose only purpose is to make Grant as miserable as possible. When he can't break his spirit, he hastily resorts to a punishment from a flip comment Grant makes about nothing being worse than high school. So he sends him back to the fiery pits of cliques, chicks and acne.
Grant gets plopped down in this fancy private school (polar opposite of his former impoverished life) with nothing but the clothes on his back and a bag full of freshman books. New body, new face, no one to turn to for help. So he is forced to learn how to survive, and make choices based on his new sense of right and wrong. Angelo plays his part, throwing evil temptations at him, and Misery has some divine intervention as well.
Chrystalla: What gave you the idea for this book?
Kim: Misery's Fire was a dream my husband had. He was so excited to tell me the idea for my next book, and then couldn't find the right words to explain it to me. He ended up sitting down at his laptop, and 750 words later had written the outline for me. His piece was so compelling, I first told him he should write the book. He declined, and nudged it back my way. "You're the writer, not me," he said. Then I tried to use his words as a prologue to set the story up. After a lot of reader feedback, I finally conceded to taking out the prologue, but his ideas, and much of his writing is woven throughout the story.
Chrystalla: What is special about this book – what sets it apart?
Kim: This one's a lot darker, edgier – still YA, but it definitely skews to the older teens. It covers some heavy topics like gangs, crime, drugs, bullying, and also family loyalty, redemption and faith. My initial goal when I first started writing was to create entertaining stories that would appeal to teenagers, but would also appeal to their parents as well. I wanted to cover some heavy topics that are affecting teens today, and really open up lines of communication between parents and their kids. This one's the one to read with your teen if you struggle getting them to open up about tough issues.
Chrystalla: Do you have a favorite scene in the book?
Kim: The scenes between the main character (Grant) and his sister (Misery) are my favorites – at least the happy ones. The last scene, where they say goodbye, made me cry when I wrote it. (Yep, I'm a total sap!)
Chrystalla: What kind of research did you do for this story?
Kim: I did tons of research while writing this book, but I like the research process, so it was kind of fun for me. I read up on everything from drugs and gangs, to how to start a motorcycle, to different kinds of temporary tattoos. I've also got a friend whose husband is a police officer, so I bounced a lot of fact-finding questions off of her as well. Oh yeah, and I had to pull out the old anatomy materials and dust off my knowledge of dissection from high school!
Chrystalla: What is the hardest part about being a writer? How do you get past it?
Kim: The hardest part for me is simply finding the time to write. I've got a full-time job (which I love) and a full-time family (whom I adore), so I cram my writing time into my lunch hour. (It's pretty much the only hour I get truly to myself.) I wouldn't change anything about my life, but there are days when I wish I could cram about eight more hours into my lunch hour!
Chrystalla: What can we look forward to next from you?
Kim: Right now I'm working on a sci-fi novel entitled After the Pulse, which explores life after Earth has been hit by an electromagnetic pulse. This one was a storyline that came from one of my husband's dreams, and I swear it was right after he watched the movie Zombieland. (He loves that movie.) So it explores what happens when the electrical grid has been disabled by the pulse and people are no longer able to rely on cars, computers, telephones, television – you name it, it's been zapped. Oh, and there are some random zombies and other crazies thrown in. It's a sci-fi/horror that is told from the eyes of a sixteen-year-old. It's suitable for YA, but should appeal to all sci-fi lovers.
I've also started a silly little middle-grade romance novel in which a sasquatch girl falls in love with a teenage boy. The twist – the sasquatch population is much more highly evolved than the human race, and they feel far superior to humans. It's their higher intelligence and advanced technology which enables them to blend in with society when absolutely necessary, but also helps them evade our wandering and ever-curious scientist explorers looking for proof of Bigfoot existence. Imagine her family's dismay when they find out Flora has a crush on a filthy human! Oh the horror! It's called Sasquatchattraction, and I'll eventually pull it from the shelf, dust it off and finish it, but…
Right now my readers are asking for the next book in the Justice Series, so after I've sent my current WIP to my beta readers and editors, I'll get back to that series. Flora's budding romance will have to wait a bit longer, I'm afraid.
Chrystalla: Where can people learn more about you and your writing?
Kim: My blog is the best place to start – www.kimjewell.wordpress.com
Where to find Kim Jewell:
Kim: My blog: www.kimjewell.wordpress.com
My Twitter handle: @kimjewell
My Facebook profile: http://www.facebook.com/kim.jewell
My Facebook fan page for Invisible Justice: http://www.facebook.com/kim.jewell#!/pages/Invisible-Justice/221641074526221
My LinkedIn profile: http://www.linkedin.com/profile/edit?trk=hb_tab_pro_top
Kim's book links:
Invisible Justice
Brute Justice
Misery's Fire
September 18, 2011
Six Sentence Sunday – The crossing (from Rex Rising)
Hi and happy sunday to all who are blog-hopping today reading story excerpts from six sentence sunday!
Today I continue right where I left off last week – Elei is on a boat crossing between the great islands and flashes of memories hit him, leaving him dazed. He remembers shots fired and himself running, but nothing more:
Shivers crawled up his spine. He lifted his hand and stared at the blood on his fingers. He'd been shot, but couldn't remember who'd done it.
Elei groaned to himself. He laid his gun — an antique, semi-automatic Rasmus — on his lap and wrapped his arms around himself, tucking his icy hands under his armpits; hoping fervently this was nothing but a dream, and knowing he just wasn't that lucky.
"Hey." The boatman approached him, stepping over the benches with his long, spindly legs. Red color flashed over his heart, pulsing with each beat.
Elei straightened with a wince and raised his gun.
I hope you're enjoying these snippets, and you can read more of them from authors writing across the whole range of genres here: Six Sentence Sunday
September 13, 2011
Guest Author David North-Martino
David North-Martino, martial arts instructor and published fiction author, has kindly agreed to talk today about himself and his stories.
Chrystalla: Hi dear David and welcome to my blog! Why don't you tell us a few words about yourself first?
Dave: Hi Chrystalla! Thanks for the opportunity.
I'm a Massachusetts-based writer. I live with my wonderfully supportive wife in a small town that borders on the state of Rhode Island.
I worked for a decade in the criminal justice field in the private security industry as a manager and a human resources recruiter. After it was downsized, I went back to get my degree in English and psychology from the University of Massachusetts. Now that I have my degree, I'm making a go at writing full-time.
My first published short story won the 2nd annual $500.00 Déjà vu Horror Fiction Contest at Dark Recesses Press and appeared in their 4th issue. My short fiction has also appeared in Afterburn SF, The Swamp, and most recently, as you know, in the anthology: Extinct Doesn't Mean Forever. I also have a story slated to appear in Epitaphs, the inaugural anthology of the New England Horror Writers (NEHW) coming up in November.
When I'm not writing I love to study and teach martial arts.
Chrystalla: Martial arts, wow… I bet your fight scenes must be described in wonderful detail! Okay, brace yourself for this question: Why do you write?
Dave: I don't think I have much of a choice! When I don't write for an extended period of time I feel like something's missing in my life. There's an emptiness that must be filled, writing is the only thing that will do it. When I was a teenager, if I wasn't writing fiction, I was filling journal pages with reflections, anecdotes, and bad poetry.
When it comes to writing fiction, I think I'm working out my inner demons. It's like therapy. I feel "lighter" after I write. I also write stories that I hope will get readers to think, to ponder. But with that said, although I like what I write to have meaning, my main focus is to entertain. There's no better feeling than finding out a reader enjoyed a story.
Chrystalla: No choice, I love that (it's so true, as every author knows!) Tell us, who or what inspired you to write fiction?
Dave: Originally, I wanted to be a comic book artist. Back in the 70's and 80's the artists were like rock stars and their art leapt off the page and captured my imagination. I wasn't a great artist and I realized what wanted to do was tell stories. A comic book artist, writer and creator, Jim Starlin, mentioned in an interview that he was planning to write more because he felt it was less time consuming to write stories instead of illustrating them. Those comments clicked with me and I've been writing ever since.
Then in 1985, Ray Garton's book Darklings made me want to try my hand at novels. In the novel, Garton used supernatural monsters as a metaphor for the monsters that dwell within all of us. That really got me excited. However, it would be many years before I tried my hand at writing polished stories and submitting them to editors or crafting novel length work.
Chrystalla: What genres do you write and why?
Dave: I write horror, science fiction, fantasy, mystery, crime, and thriller, even some mainstream and literary. My writing tends to gravitate toward the darker spectrum and most of it is speculative in some form. I guess I just write what I enjoy. And I have very eclectic tastes.
Chrystalla: What can you tell us about your writing projects and recent releases?
Dave: My mainstream speculative short story "The Language of Ice" was included in the Extinct Doesn't Mean Forever anthology put out by Dare to Dream Press and is also available as a short story single. Need I say, Chrystalla Thoma's excellent story, "The Angle Genome," is included as well?
I just got word that my horror/crime short story "Malfeasance" was accepted in Epitaphs, the inaugural anthology of the New England Horror Writers. Look for it in November. You can find out more about NEHW here: http://nehwnews.wordpress.com/
Currently, I'm finishing a short novel that's a paranormal thriller called The Wolves of Vengeance. I plan to have it wherever fine e-books are sold by year's end.
Chrystalla: What gave you the ideas for those short stories and your novel?
Dave: Let's start with The Language of Ice:
Back in the late 90's I read an article in Discover magazine about the women of the Ice Age. I would later combine that information with the theory that we carry ancestral memory in our DNA. I originally wanted to write a novel about a woman affected by her ancestral memory. Her modern life would somehow parallel the life or lives of her female ancestors. I never got beyond the idea stage.
Not long before the anthology announcement, I watched a show on the Discovery channel that presented the theory that the Neanderthal had interbred with early modern humans. They hadn't gone extinct but were still with us in our DNA. I reasoned that if someone were to remember an ancestral past life, they would get this information through their unconscious mind, through their dreams. I had experimented with lucid dreaming and thought that would be a great vehicle to transport the main character back in time so that they could fully experience the past environment. I decided to make my main character a museum curator who was working closely with a complete female Neanderthal skeleton. And I wanted to give the story a dreamlike feel where the reader could either see the story through a scientific or a metaphysical lens where perhaps she was somehow having visions of a past life.
My idea for Malfeasance was inspired by a radio talk show host who asked the question, and I'm paraphrasing: "If your child was locked in a trunk and had only twenty-four hours worth of oxygen, and the kidnapper was in custody but wouldn't talk, and the only way to make him talk was to torture him, what would you do?" My editor, Tracy Carbone, said the story reminded her of a Law & Order SVU episode with a devilish twist.
As for my upcoming novel, The Wolves of Vengeance, a student I knew in high school that died of a drug overdose inspired the story. I wondered what would have happened if he could have turned his life around, that became the basis for the character. Then I wondered what would happen if all the bad things the character did in his past had come back to haunt him. In the novel he has to return to his hometown to face down the demons from his past and protect the woman that he loves.
Chrystalla: Thank you for telling us the stories behind your stories! It's always wonderful to hear what inspires authors and what real facts hide behind their tales. David, I would like to ask you, what's the hardest part of being a writer, how do you get past it?
Dave: I think it can be very difficult to deal with self-doubt. By the time I've finished a piece of fiction I am so thoroughly sick of working on it I tend to think it's a big pile of crap. I entirely lose perspective on the work and I just have to kind of go on faith that it's worth sending out into the world. I find it helpful to review the acceptance letters I've received in the past from editors. I also like to look at the nice letters I've received from editors, even when they ultimately didn't accept my work. But really, all you can do is send your work to editors, agents, or send it directly into the world through e-publishing, hope for the best, and learn from your mistakes.
Chrystalla: Thank you for being here and sharing all this with us! Where can people learn more about you and your writing?
Dave: I maintain two blogs that I don't update nearly enough:
The Pen and the Sword:
http://davidnorthmartino.wordpress.com/
Surviving the Writing Life:
http://davidnorthmartino.blogspot.com/
I would also welcome anyone interested in my work to send me a friend request on facebook. http://www.facebook.com/dnorthmartino
David's short story "The Language of Ice" can be found in the Extinct Doesn't Mean Forever anthology (click on image!):
You can also buy his short story separately (click on image!):
September 11, 2011
Six Sentence Sunday – Fragmentation
Good morning and good sunday everyone! Thanks to all of you who visit and post comments. Today I have for you another snippet from the beginning of "Rex Rising". Last week, Elei found himself in a boat but couldn't remember what he was doing there. Here is where we pick up now:
Broken pieces of memories rushed back with a deafening roar. Shots fired. Running through the streets. The docks of Ost.
He was crossing the straits between the great islands.
Shivers crawled up his spine.
I wish you all a lovely day and visit the Six Sentence Sunday website to read more snippets from great authors!
September 8, 2011
Guest Author Phoenix Sullivan
Today I have a special guest. Phoenix Sullivan, fabulous author of science fiction and historical fiction (Sector C, Spoil Of War), animal lover and vet, wonderful person and fantastic editor of the anthology "Extinct Doesn't Mean Forever" (not necessarily in that order but surely all of those!).
Read below about Phoenix's latest release, Sector C.
Hi dear Phoenix, and welcome to my blog! Why don't you tell us a few words about yourself first?
A pleasure to be here, Chrys! Thank you for having me over.
I'm a (young!) retiree living on a small farm in North Texas I call Rainbow's End. In the corporate world of high-tech computers and networking, I was a writer and editor for 23 very looooong years. Before that, I was a registered veterinary technician. As you might guess, the two constants in my life have been writing and animals.
Tell us about your latest release.
SECTOR C starts out as a medical mystery then steps its toe into thriller territory in the second half of the book. To talk about the book, I have to spoil a bit of the mystery, so if you don't like to know any secrets ahead of time, feel free skip on down to where you can buy it 
). The descriptions on the e-tailer sites are deliberately vague and non-spoilery.
So for the rest of you who don't mind some spoilage, here's the REAL blurb for the story:
Cloning Ice Age mammoths and saber-tooth cats for canned hunts seems like a good business venture – until it reintroduces the species-jumping pandemic that wiped out the megabeasts 10,000 years ago. Now history is about to repeat itself, with humans the next target for extinction.
Triple E Enterprises offers wealthy clients a chance to hunt endangered and exotic wildlife on the plains of North Dakota. For the really wealthy, there's the elite package in Sector C: exclusive specimens from the Pleistocene. The company is preparing to go public – until people and livestock in the area start dying at an alarming rate.
Investigator with the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Mike Shafer teams with veterinarian Donna Bailey to find out why. Their search for Patient Zero leads to the Triple E compound where the company is holding a high-dollar megahunt to get rid of the last of its infected stock. Problem is, the hunt is also exposing clients to the fatal disease. Even more troubling, the company is about to capitalize on the prion-based pandemic it unleashed by selling a possible cure to a Sino-Pakistani pharmaceutical that doesn't have U.S. interests at heart.
Three things stand in Mike and Donna's way of getting the potentially life-saving research to the CDC before it goes offshore: Triple E's hostile attempts to stop them, a raging wildfire set by arsonists, and a group of panicked megabeasts inadvertently released from Sector C.
But even if they do succeed, it may already be too late.
What gave you the idea for this book?
The idea for SECTOR C was implanted a few years ago during a conversation with my brother and sister-in-law about whether using in vitro fertilization and surrogate mothers to repopulate endangered animals was a good idea or not. Was there a way to make money with the technology without exploiting the animals? After that marinated for a while and designer animals such as lygers and tigrons starting popping up more frequently, I began wondering about theories for rewilding extinct animals. The mammoth genome has been mapped, genetic material taken from mice frozen for 12 years has been successfully cloned, and Japanese researchers now say an embryo cloned from frozen mammoth DNA is no more than five years away. Exciting stuff! But cool ideas need a plot wrapped around them.
Thinking about why mammoths and other Ice Age beasties became extinct in the first place, I latched onto the idea of disease, which hasn't been ruled out as a possible cause. But most diseases are either caused by external factors, like viruses and bacteria, or are host-specific, like cancer and diabetes – things that aren't transmissible. I needed something that's not only a genetic disease, but one which is transmissible across species and capable of causing a pandemic.
Luckily (well, luckily for the story anyway!), I found a candidate.
Then I needed a way for a private enterprise to make money off the animals it produced. I figured out a good – if controversial – way for that to happen too.
What is special about this book – what sets it apart?
At first blush, SECTOR C is a pandemic story, much like the ones Robin Cook, Michael Crichton and Daniel Kalla tell. Much like the one the new movie in the States, Contagion, tells. SECTOR C, though, has three unique-ish elements:
Ice Age megabeasts and a theory for why they died out.
A pandemic that affects not only people but other animals as well.
An uneasy ending that doesn't wrap things up neatly. By that I don't mean it ends on a cliff-hangar but has a real-life ending where some things work out and some things don't.
You might recognize the cover art on the book ). Some of the same themes resonate between SECTOR C and the Extinct Doesn't Mean Forever anthology, which I edited (and which contains a wonderful story by Chrys: "The Angel Genome"). I wanted a way to honor the connection between the works.
Do you have a favorite scene in the book?
I'm not sure "favorite" is quite the word for it, but I have a scene where someone's pet dies in a way that I cried writing. Actually, I cried over two animal death scenes, but one was particularly heartbreaking for me because, tragically, it happens due to the pet owner's misguided attempt to protect the rest of the family. Trying to write that in a way that was balanced and would give readers pause in wondering how they would react in the same situation was tough.
Still, that's one of the main goals I had for this book: To present hard choices and controversial ideas and ethical standards in as balanced an approach as possible. I have some clear biases where animals and science are concerned, but I worked hard to ensure they don't come through as agenda-izing.
What kind of research did you do for this story?
I relied heavily on satellite images of the area in North Dakota where most of the action takes place as well as pictures of ranchland for sale in the area. I researched the native flora and fauna. I have a short scene where one of my MCs doesn't want to hike through some tall grass because of chiggers. One of my beta readers asked if North Dakota even has chiggers and I was proud that I could immediately point to the research that shows it does. I confess I have never actually been to North Dakota but I pored over maps and images and data to be sure I got it as right as possible.
While documenting all the bits and pieces about size of dairy herds in the Great Plains, methods the CDC uses to collect patient data, and all the other pesky topics that I didn't know off the top of my head was time-intensive, researching the mechanics of the disease was the most brain-intensive. After all, I was positing something that doesn't exist today but that could plausibly have existed 10,000 years ago, be cloned in a collateral damage kind of way, and be transmitted across almost any species. I was determined to get the science right. And getting the science right also meant no easy answers and no vaccine-in-the-nick-of-time ending.
Luckily, I have a head for biology and physiology so making the connections and understanding the lingo wasn't as difficult as it could have been. Some of that research winds up on the page because, well, the first half of the book is a medical mystery. There are enough details, I hope, to satisfy the geeks and not so many that non-geek eyes glaze over. It's always a delicate balance — one that even veteran medical thriller authors struggle with to varying degrees of success.
What is the hardest part about being a writer? How do you get past it?
Promoting, hands down. And I haven't gotten past it yet )
Where can people learn more about you and your writing?
I maintain two blogs:
Confessions of an Animal Junkie: Heartwarming stories about running a farm, being a vet tech and learning to engage with the animals around us. Come share YOUR stories and pictures too.
Dare To Dream / Be Thrilled: Writing- and publishing-related topics; over 100 queries and synopses critted in the archives.
I'd love it if you'd like my SECTOR C Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Sector-C-Medical-Mystery/150265391728555?sk=wall
And I'm @PhoenixSullivan on Twitter
SECTOR C is just US $2.99 and is available from:
Amazon US: http://tinyurl.com/43uuwnp
Amazon UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/SECTOR-C-ebook/dp/B005K4W0QS
Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/books/1105175664
OmniLit: http://www.omnilit.com/product-sectorc-599461-245.html
Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/85483
September 4, 2011
Six Sentence Sunday – The Boatman (Rex Rising)
Hi everyone who is following the Six Sentence Sunday game – everyone gives six sentences exactly from a published or still in progress work. Last week, I gave you a snippet from the beginning of Rex Rising. The next sentences continue right where I left off last week:
The boatman. Elei let out a breath and lowered the gun, but didn't click the safety back on, just in case. The cold breeze ruffled his short hair and water splashed and murmured. The low hum of an engine set his teeth on edge. What was he doing in a boat out at sea? He prodded his memories, but came up blank.
I hope you enjoy the game and the snippets.
You can find Rex Rising at the following distributors:
Read more about it – learn about the geography of the world and the science behind the story here, on this blog, at: http://chrystallathoma.wordpress.com/rex-rising
Visit the Six Sentence Sunday site for lots of great snippets!
