Rick Soper's Blog, page 5

Gabriel

Gabriel is the vigilante who's hunting high profile targets in the Rock Star. Why is hunting them? Who is he working with? Why does he maim instead of kill? What is his relationship to Max Harris? Who is he coming after next? I'll never tell... Well actually I will if you continue to read the Rock Series, which will be three books long, but I'm going to keep you guessing right up until the point I do. But that's why we all read right, so we can finally get to the answers, and hopefully along the way we have a multiple guesses that if the author is writing well are all wrong, and we're very happy when we get to the final reveal. so just have fun with it, I did when I was writing it.

The Twins

How to describe the Twins? Mysterious, totally hot, constantly naked, absolutely viscous if provoked, I could spend pages talking about them. But I won't because if you read my last post I want you to be surprised when you read about them, and I don't want to give to much away. But I will give you this one detail, I had great fun writing about them, and they'll be around through a lot of books. So if you want to read about some very fun and interesting characters, please pick up a copy of The Rock Star, and be ready The Singer, the second book in the series, will be coming out in the next few months.

Quick & Dirty!

Goodreads is not a classroom where I have to prove that I know every detail of a book to get a grade. In fact I very rarely, if ever, will mention any specific details of a book in a review. As someone who likes to read, and likes to write, I like to be surprised, and surprise my readers, so the last thing I want to read in any review are all the details that would keep me from the edge of my seat and take away that shock value I so greatly enjoy. So when you read a review by me I'm going to go all Dragnet on you, as in "just the facts". Do I like it, do I hate it, and what in general made me feel that way. If I want to write a lot more than that, then I'll write another book. Which by the way I'll keep doing. I hope you enjoy my reviews and my books and I always love to hear another opinion, so please feel free to let me know what you think.

Reviews...

I like Goodreads because it gives me a forum to discuss books I like and ones I don't. You'll see me do a lot of four and five star ratings for books, but don't be put off by that, you'll see me give a few single stars too, I'm honestly going to tell you if I like or don't like a book, which is brave considering my own books will be listed here for all to criticize. But truly if someone doesn't like my book I want to know about it just as much as someone who loves it. You only get better as a writer by hearing about the things you've done wrong as well as hearing what you've done right. When you look at the books I've put in the time to review here, know that I like certain types of books, so I tend to buy what I want to read, and in general I'm going to enjoy them and I'll tell you about it. On the other hand, if I buy a book I think I'm going to like, or I'm sold by the quotes on the front, and it turns out to be crap I will be the first one to make the crap call. In the process I'm liable to upset a few people, but that's ok I'm also going to make some other very happy about being truthful. None of us are here to win any popularity contests, we're here to share our personal opinions, and maybe sell a few books in the process. With all of that being said, I truly hope you buy my books, enjoy my reviews, and always feel free to tell me what you think.

Jake Martin

The entire idea of the Rock Star came from one simple question, "How would your life change if you saved a Rock Star from drowning?" Jake Martin is the first character you meet in the book because he was always that man who saved the Rock Star from drowning, the man who gets thrown into a world he doesn't understand, and can't control. In some ways I was shooting for what Hitchcock did in a lot of his movies by taking an ordinary man and throwing him into an unordinary situation to see how he would react. But Jake to me is a little more than your average ordinary man. You get hint of his history and his tragedies right up front, but not full explanations. I did this purposely so you'll try to fill in the blank, and be either happy with yourself at being right later, or mad at me for not doing what you thought I should. You should know that I absolutely hate books that I pick up and in the first few pages I'm already guessing the ending. If that happens then the book is just a chore of getting to the point of proving myself correct, and you can rest assured that if I put myself through that experience with any author I'm probably never coming back to that author again. Hopefully you can't guess the ending to the Rock Star at the beginning, and if you do, my guess is you'll be wrong, and hopefully you'll be surprised when you get there. What happened to Jake, and what will happen to him, is a closely guarded secret, that I hope you'll stay around to read about. But don't worry before we get to that point I'll come up with a few things to keep you entertained.

Aleksei Petrenko

Aleksei Petrenko is the head of the Russian group in the Rock Star. The initial question you might ask is why is there a Russian group running around Monterey, California? And my answer would be, because I went to Monterey on a number of occasions with buddies of mine and every time we went over there we ran into Russian women, which we all thought was weird at the time. So when I started putting this novel together, and I was thinking about all the people that would inhabit my vast universe characters in Monterey I thought I just had to include some Russians because of my own experiences there. But then I thought what would I do with them? I think as you read the book you'll find I made their activities...interesting. But as you read about the Russians you should understand that in many cases they are just taking advantage of the opportunities in front of them, and in doing that they are acting more American than many of us who were born here. You see in my mind a lot of the people who were born outside the US, who had the opportunity to come to this country, find that they really appreciate all the things that this country can offer to them, and they take hold of everything in front of them with the enthusiasm we should all have. And while the extremes of the book are an exaggeration for entertainments purposes, the underlying principle of taking hold of, and advantage of, the opportunities presented, should be a basic philosophy for all of us, and I think the Russians in the book are just pointing out something we should already know.

Max Harris

Max Harris is the other FBI agent in the Rock Star, besides Jon Stevens. As we meet Max in the Rock Star he's more of an ordinary run of the mill agent, the kind of agent who does his job, but really isn't anywhere near the superstar that Jon Stevens is. But don't be fooled, theres more to Max Harris than you will initially expect. Ito start with though Harris is pitted against the Vigilante Gabriel and it's really hard to stand out where Gabriel is involved. Gabriel is playing the media for all the publicity that his crimes can garner, and Harris is doing everything he can to fight against that, but Gabriel is a well prepared adversary. Harris' role will expand as the novels go forward, and his story will take a few turns you should enjoy.

Jimi Christian

Jimi is the Rock Star in the novel the Rock Star, and when people read the book, they ask me did I intend him to be like Jimi Hendrix, because the names are spelt the same, and my answer is yes, and no. For me Jimi Christian is a combination of Rock God Guitarists. In size, stature, and his hyperactive performing style he's like Angus Young. But in the proficiency and range with which he plays he's like Jimmy Page. His temperament and philosophies lean more towards Jimi Hendrix's spaced out side, but also have some influences from Jimmy Page's more esoteric interests. But hopefully what I've done in creating Jimi Christian is to make him his own individual person. But just know as I put him out there I'll leave many details out, not that I don't know them, I have entire biography written out, but more because I believe that the less you know, the more you'll wonder, and for me a lot of times I have more fun with the blanks I can fill in myself from different books, than the books where every detail is shoved into my face. Hopefully you'll enjoy reading about Jimi Christian as much as I did writing about him.

Jon Stevens

Jon Stevens will be the central character in many of my books and stories. Stevens is an all star FBI agent who has specialized in serial killers and unsolvable crimes like The Bainbridge Killings, The X-Spot murders, The Casino Killer, The Internet King, The Central Valley Sniper, and The Stoner. But as Stevens enters in to the book The Rock Star he's been severely damaged. In taking down The Stoner Stevens had his head bashed in and the experience has left him in doubt of his own skills and instincts. But he's sick of rehab and waiting, so he lies his way back into the field, and once he gets there he finds himself lost in his own anger, bad dreams, and questions about his sanity. Stevens is a big man, who's used to being the leader in an investigation, who's used to intimidating others, but being hurt by the Stoner has bruised his confidence, and he needs to be at the top of his game to find the killer who left his teenage female victim with her heart cut out and her body on fire on an altar in a beach in Carmel, California, because Stevens is sure that this won't be the killers last victim.

A little about the book...

I wrote a book that I would enjoy reading, and while that might not seem like anything to you right off the bat, take a look at the books and authors on my reading list: Chelsea Cain, James Rollins, F. Paul Wilson, Preston & Child, Lee Child, Steig Larsson. Its a veritable who's who of the writing world. And no before you ask that question, I didn't copy any of them, but I did write a book that I felt belonged in their category. Maybe the title throws you, because I'm sure when you see it and you think, The Rock Star it's probably about some starry eyed groupie that falls madly in love with a Rock Star only to have her heart crushed, and you'd be very wrong about that. You see I grew up when we didn't have twenty four hour reality shows, twenty four hour news, and so many gossip magazines that nothing could ever be hidden. When I grew up there were rumors about rock stars that involved deals with the devil, back masking, hidden deaths, orgies, drugs, and all sorts of wild and crazy things that put those Rock Stars up on a pedestal of wonder and amazement to all the teens that followed them. So when I conjure the word Rock Star I'm thinking about a creature of wonder that comes out of his mysterious lair to whip the masses into his shamanistic ritual of excess and sonic bombardment. Not some teetering old man who you can't understand, or some thin armed little half-man bouncing about in some choreographed idiocy, or some talentless fool barking bad lyrics over an incessant beat. No none of that, but an actual Rock Star that's so good you think of him as either a wizard or a god. But the Rock Star is only one component of the story. There's also a burning body, a celebrity hunting vigilante, Russian killers, a sexy assassin, Gypsy Twins, secret groups, hidden homes, an agoraphobic hacker, a local sheriff, and a few FBI agents, one of who is severely damaged. I had one reader tell me that it was a constellation of characters, and it is, because some of them won't make it to the third book. But a whole bunch of them will. I approached this book and the two that follow it like HBO approaches a series, you have multiple characters who can pull the story in multiple directions, but at different points their stories will converge and overlap and explode and hopefully you'll be cheering for it when they do. Why is this a series of three books? For the same reason Peter Jackson had to make the Hobbit into three movies, he was having too much fun to make just one movie. I had too much action to stuff into one book and I was having fun writing it. I could have gone all Game of Thrones and left the book like I first wrote it at over a thousand pages, but that was just too long, and there were some natural breaks in the three novels. I'll let you know the first is out, the second is written, but needs to be edited, and the third is planned out. But these characters won't stop there I've planned multiple novels after that, so if you read the book and you enjoy some of the characters, you can look forward to them being around for a while. Which characters live, and which die, and who goes to jail, and who gets mutilated along the way, I'll never tell, because I know when I read a book I want to keep guessing right till the end.