Michael Dempsey's Blog, page 2

REVIEW: From Nocturne Romance Reads by Frishawn Rasheed

"This book is an edge-of-your-seat, can't put it down, thrill ride through urban fantasy at its best.

Though there are a great many twists and turns throughout the course of this great read, the author does a great job of maintaining a cohesive storyline; relate-able characters, and interesting fully constructed worlds within worlds. 

The main character of Paul Donner is a study in the tenacity of the human spirit. Though he is written as a man that has lost it all, he is never hopeless. Instead, Paul is a man trying to make the best of a life. He must live on society's fringes, while trying to cope with the loss of his wife, and his status as a reborn in a future that lives in the past. This character is written as a tortured soul, flawed, and dark, but by no means evil. It is in fact, his need to set things right and 'protect and serve' that first sets his feet upon the winding road that is Necropolis."

read the whole review at Nocturne Romance Reads

 

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Youngstown Reading Series and Open Mic With Special Guest Michael Dempsey

[image error]Please join YSU SLAA (Student Literary Arts Association) this coming Wednesday, Oct. 19,  at 7 PM for a special reading from novelist and playwright Michael Dempsey, author of the just-released, critically acclaimed "Necropolis."  It will take place at The Oakland Center for the Arts, 220 W. Boardman Street,Youngstown, OH.

An open mic will follow Michael's reading. We welcome original poetry and prose (under five minutes).

This BYOB event is free and open to the public.

"Necropolis," the result of a lifetime's love for speculative and crime fiction, is Michael's first novel. In addition to his new career as a novelist, Michael has written, acted and directed in theater, television and film in New York, Los Angeles, Louisville, Cleveland and other venues across the country.

Of Michael's first novel, author David Oppegaard writes, "Unsettling and eerie, Necropolis gives us a shadowy near future where the line between life and death has blurred and a past wickedness still echoes in the present, begging to be avenged. Dempsey writes with great nerve and imagination and will keep you reading long past midnight."

Questions? Write us at contact@jennymag.org.  Have you met Jenny? Find her at www.jennymag.org

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To fund literacy, FREE SHIPPING WORLDWIDE for NECROPOLIS at Better World Books

How cool!

After doing a little research for someone in the Philippines trying to get a copy of the book, it's come to our attention that (currently) 278 copies of NECROPOLIS are available with free shipping worldwide from Better World Books.

Better World Books collects and sells books online to fund literacy initiatives worldwide. With more than 8 million new and used titles in stock, they're a self-sustaining, triple-bottom-line company that creates social, economic and environmental value for all their stakeholders.

Right now, you can pick up brand new and used copies, amazingly, for UNDER LIST PRICE, and like we said, shipping is FREE WORLDWIDE!  But they may not replenish their inventory, so we advise that our international fans not delay in placing their order.

NECROPOLIS at BETTER WORD BOOKS

 

 

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If You See Buddha On The Road, Kill Him

October 9, 2011:

In a guest blog for the folks at Night Bazaar, Michael Dempsey shares his thoughts on "How To" books and writing gurus.

If You See Buddha On The Road, Kill Him

Q and A with novelist Michael Dempsey / SLAA Meeting

Time

Tuesday, October 11 · 3:00pm - 4:00pm










Location

  Kilcawley Center, Bresnahan 1 and 2, YSU Campus
  Youngstown, Ohio










Created By

  YSU Student Literary Arts Association










More Info


Join us this Tuesday at 3:00 for a Q and A session with special guest Michael Dempsey, author of the critically acclaimed tech noir thriller "Necropolis." Michael is our first guest speaker in the two-year history of SLAA meetings, so let's make this a special hour for him. Have some good questions ready!All who attend the meeting will be entered into a drawing for a signed copy of "Necropolis."

For more on Michael's acclaimed debut novel, visit:

http://www.necropolisthenovel.com/

We'll also be seeking nominations for SLAA officers for next year (Fall 2012). If you are interested in running for office, be sure to attend!

Sending wishes for good art and life, as always.

- YSU SLAA (Student Literary Arts Association)

Have you met Jenny? Find her at www.jennymag.org

Interested in joining Sigmat Tau Delta, an international English honors society? Email faculty advisor Dolores Sisco at dvsisco@ysu.edu or Student President Chris Lettera at calettera@student.ysu.edu

Forward any questions about SLAA to contact@jennymag.org

A BIG THANKS TO AUTHOR CHRIS BARZAK FOR THE INVITE.  CHECK OUT CHRIS'S WONDERFUL BOOKS:  Chris Barzak's website

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Lawn-Con 2011

[image error] Saturday OCTOBER 8, 2011
11:00 – 5:00 PM

23 South Hartford Avenue

Youngstown, Ohio

Michael will be appearing as a Guest Creator and signing copies of his novel.

LAWN-CON 2011 INFO



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Night Bazaar Guest Blog: IF YOU SEE THE BUDDHA ON THE ROAD, KILL HIM

October 9, 2011

Check out NECROPOLIS author Michael Dempsey's guest blog on The Night Bazaar, a group blog for science fiction, fantasy, and horror authors with books releasing from Night Shade Books in 2011:

IF YOU SEE THE BUDDHA ON THE ROAD, KILL HIM

Thanks to Courtney Schafer and all the folks at Night Bazaar!

 

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Dempsey to Guest Blog on Night Bazaar

On October 9, NECROPOLIS author Michael Dempsey will guest blog on The Night Bazaar, a group blog for science fiction, fantasy, and horror authors with books releasing from Night Shade Books in 2011.

In the meantime, check in daily as Night Bazaar regulars Bradley P. Beaulieu, Kameron Hurley, John Hornor Jacobs, Stina Leicht, Thomas Roche, Courtney Schafer, Martha Wells discuss topics related to the writing life, and join in the celebration for their book releases!

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Night Shade Books' New Voices Program

Even in boom times, the deck's stacked against a first-time novelist.  So, considering the challenges presently facing our industry, I wrote NECROPOLIS with little expectation of publication.  Yes, I suspected that I'd stumbled across something new and exciting in my tech noir crime thriller, but a book with a fresh angle needs a bold champion.  And with the big houses circling their wagons, it seemed that boldness was in short supply.

I witnessed their determination to discover the next generation of genre superstars

Enter Night Shade Books.  They not only wanted to publish NECROPOLIS, they were fast-tracking it!  Gulp.  I knew they'd introduced Hugo and Nebula Award-winners like Paolo Bacigalupi to the world.  But then I witnessed their determination to discover the next generation of genre superstars.  They're going at it with a vengeance, marshaling all their recent growth and success behind their ambitious New Voices Program.  And it just impresses the hell out of me.  Instead of protecting what they already have, they're putting it on the line to build a brighter future.  It takes guts to dedicate almost half your schedule to new writers.  But it's precisely this kind of program that holds out hope that, by nurturing new voices, we can reinvigorate current readers and create new ones.  So sure, I'm pretty damned excited about getting NECROPOLIS published.  But being a part of this New Voices Program, seeing the talent assembled, I'm more than excited…  I'm honored.

 

How this book got here.

Supernatural-noir is wildly popular these days.  Vampire and wizard detectives, like Jim Butcher's Harry Dresden or Laurel Hamilton's Anita Blake, are adored.  I heartily enjoy them, but I didn't want my first novel to be a copy of their formula.  A Hollywood mogul once told me that readers want "the same, but different."  His other counsel?  "Write what you love."  Hmm.  I wasn't sure that I could reconcile these two pieces of advice…

I loved crime stories, but also science fiction.

So what did I love?  Well, growing up, I loved crime stories, but also science fiction.   Film noir, with its darkness and desperation, its cynical detectives and seedy swindlers.  But also space heroes, time travel and teleportation.  I also dug the convention known as retrofuturism—the past's vision of the future—a World of Tomorrow with robots, flying cars and domed cities.  I loved it all.  Then it came to me:  if, as Arthur C. Clarke said, "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic," maybe I could have my cake and eat it, too—all the fun of supernatural-noir but in a science fiction setting!  Blend femme-fatales with plasma pistols, hardboiled wisecracks with holograms.  That seemed like it would be an absolute blast.

The truth is, I hadn't really kept up with science fiction.  My career had mostly been spent in the theater, and before that, writing comedy for sitcoms.  So I knew more about who'd won a Tony Award than who won a Hugo Award.  I was a William Gibson fan, so I knew about cyberpunk.  And I had actually incorporated some steampunk design elements into a production of MACBETH that I directed (which turned out über cool, if I do say so myself).  And although I'd seen and loved movies like BLADE RUNNER and DARK CITY, I didn't know there already existed an established, distinct subgenre in literature that integrated the noir sensibility with science fiction—alternately called dieselpunk, tech noir, or sci fi noir (although it seems that the exact definitions of these subgenres differ, depending on who you talk to.)

I actually wrote a big chunk of this book in 2004, before the whole blended genre thing took off.  When I saw things similar to it beginning to be published and produced, I thought that I'd better finish it and get it out there before my book, which had started out ahead of the curve, got caught behind it.  So I dusted it off and finished it in 2010, the whole time thinking about what that producer had told me.

I didn't want to create an alternate reality, like dieselpunk normally seems to…and I wanted to see if I could still use some of those conventions, but make it more grounded and realistic.  So to make this retro world more plausible, I created a culture that deliberately chooses retrofuturism—people so traumatized by some catastrophic event that they retreat into nostalgia, hiding behind an idealized tomorrow that never was.  Finally, I created a genetically resurrected detective solving the biggest crime possible—his own murder.

So in NECROPOLIS, the perps aren't all human, but they aren't vampires.  Its hero is back from the dead, but he's no zombie.  You'll find gritty vengeance, but also a wink and a tip of the fedora.  There are old friends in new clothes and new friends in old.  Hopefully, that's an alchemy that fulfills my friend's definition of success.