Austin Dragon's Blog, page 14

Favorite Blog Post #1: Top 5 Reasons The Walking Dead Is Great Drama!

Halloween may be over, but I can still squeeze in a horrifically good post. I am not ashamed to admit I love The Walking Dead. I was watching it right at the beginning in its season one debut in 2010. Well, we’ve entered Season Six so here’s a fan favorite blog post: Top 5 Reasons The Walking Dead Is Great Drama.

#TWD #TheWalkingDead #WalkingDead

The post Favorite Blog Post #1: Top 5 Reasons The Walking Dead Is Great Drama! appeared first on Official Website of Author Austin Dragon.

The Sleepy Hollow Horrors (Blog Tour and Giveaway)

Sleepy Hollow. Washington Irving wrote the classic horror short in 1820. It was made into a popular Disney movie in 1949 and played decade after decade afterwards, a Hollywood movie by Tim Burton and starring Johnny Depp, and currently a JJ Abrahms American television series in its third season. Loved the book and the Disney movie, the Tim Burton was fair in my opinion, and I haven’t seen one episode yet of the television series (I’ll watch the first two seasons when they come out on Netflix). But all this shows that Washington Irving crafted an enduring story set in early, post-Revolutionary America in the real town of Sleepy Hollow, New York and featuring an especially unique and powerful apparition known primarily as the Headless Horseman.

My Sleepy Hollow Horrors (Hollow Blood and The Devil’s Patch) is my second series and my first adaption of another author’s work. With any genre, subject, or work I write in, I have to put my own spin on it and the Sleepy Hollow Legend is no different.

What’s different about my version of Irving’s classic?

I tried to stay true to Irving original work by keeping the main characters and especially the feel of the region as described. What is different is that it is a decade after the events that ended with the confrontation between Ichabod Crane and the Headless Horseman. A stranger comes into town (Sleepy Hollow) looking to find out exactly what happened to Ichabod, so in that way Book One is a detective story.

I love history and I was born in New York so I was able to weave real history into the fiction story. Did you know Washington DC became the nation’s capitol after Philadelphia, PA? We see the tiny specks of flame that would ignite the American Civil War sixty years later. We also learn that the Horseman isn’t Sleepy Hollow’s only apparition to be spoken of in the wee hours of night by the fireplace.

Book Two takes a different approach. There is no mystery to be solved as in Book One. All there is facts. The stranger’s identity is revealed and, for those who know the reference, he is assembling his own Super Posse—if you don’t know the Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid reference, think the movie Predator.

It was such a joy to write both books—the first is 100 pages and the second is 115 pages. That was also by design to keep with Irving’s classic. He wrote a short story; I wasn’t about to write an 800 page tome.

Hollow Blood is a scary read with a touch of the detective thriller and the ever ominous question hanging over them: “Will Death Be Upon Them All?” In The Devil’s Patch, it’s all about the “hunt that damn monster down” sub-genre.

So don’t forget to stop by my 7-stop Hollow Blood Blog Tour with Beck Valley Books (Monday, October 26th to Tuesday, November 3rd)! Check out each stop and the reviews. And don’t forget to enter out last giveaway for the year: a Worldwide $50 Amazon Gift Card /Paypal Cash Giveaway! (Click on any blog tour stop for details)

Get your own copies and enjoy my Sleepy Hollow Horrors today.

 

#Amazon #GiftCard #Giveaway #SleepyHollow

The post The Sleepy Hollow Horrors (Blog Tour and Giveaway) appeared first on Official Website of Author Austin Dragon.

Liquid Cool: The Characters (The Villains)

Superman has Lex Luther. Professor X has Magneto. Bat Man has the Joker. Sherlock Holmes has Moriarity.

Every good protagonist needs a good antagonist. Well, in Metropolis there isn’t one, but a seemingly endless stream of them. In my cyberpunk, corporations are not the bad guy. That was considered “edgy” prognosticating back in the 1980s–we know better now. In my cyberpunk, the bad guys are bad guys in corporations, governments and on the street. That’s reality. Oh, there will be big conspiracies to uncover, but not in the way you think.

Before we can talk about the “little” villains (people), let’s talk about the “big” ones (themes).

The Urban Neon Jungle

In a “world of skyscrapers,” urban sprawl takes on a whole new dimension. Metropolis is a city of 50 million people living in monolith towers that dwarf any of our tallest buildings. If so many people lived in such a city–think Downtown Manhattan on steroids–wouldn’t such an environment have a negative impact on people? Wouldn’t they become more detached from each other, more anti-social, meaner?

The Rain

From the opening moments of the series, we learn it is always raining or about to rain. We don’t know why, only that this is how it is. A city that’s always overcast and raining doesn’t tend produce the friendliest of populations. (Though they say Seattle is a friendly place.)

Megacorporations and Uber-governments

The private and public sector are always at odds. But in Liquid Cool, we learn that this tension has grown to a cold war, of sorts, for the ultimate control of the city. Besides the rain, only one thing is getting in their way–crime.

Up-Top

What exactly is Up-Top? It’s mentioned frequently in the book. Can you figure it out?

#LiquidCool #Cyberpunk #ScienceFiction #Detective

The post Liquid Cool: The Characters (The Villains) appeared first on Official Website of Author Austin Dragon.

Liquid Cool: The Characters (Good Guys)

The core of any ongoing story is its protagonists–the person or persons that we follow through its world, and that we get emotionally invested in. It is also through the protagonist’s eyes that we experience the story.

In Liquid Cool, the reader will be introduced to a wide array of unique characters, some good, some bad, and some we really won’t know. With the exception of the main character, Cruz, some of our main characters were already introduced in the Liquid Cool prequel (short) These Mean Streets, Darkly. The main Liquid Cool characters are:

Cruz

He is founder and owner of the Liquid Cool detective agency. Life sometimes picks a person to be something that, in retrospect, they were always meant to be. One moment Cruz is an occasional classic hover-car restorer living like so many in Metropolis, from gig to gig, then the next, he is the private eye at the center of the biggest crime cases in the city dealing with uber-government agents, megacorporate middle-men, tech-trickster hackers, digital samurai gangsters, and analog cyborg hoodlums.

China Doll

Cruz’s fashionista girlfriend. She is the second-in-command of the Eye Candy, the city’s premiere beauty and style emporium. The wives and girlfriends of the rich and powerful do let slip their secrets–and Eye Candy is where they do it.

Run-Time

Cruz’s lifelong best friend, but also the Founder, CEO and President of Let It Ride Enterprises, one of the biggest and politically-connected, megacorporations in Metropolis.

Phishy

Cruz’s number one “frenemy,” but he’s not a bad person, just untrustworthy. Then he becomes Cruz’s confidential street informant and weapon’s supplier because an unarmed detective in Metropolis is a soon-to-be dead one.

Punch Judy

Cruz’s other “frenemy.” Then Cruz hires the cyborg, ex-posh gang member, ex-French citizen as his secretary. Why not? She can punch a hover-car through a window.

Officers Break and Caps

Not friends, but with so much violence happening around Cruz, the two Metro “Peace” Officers become very close acquaintances.

 

Next week’s post: Villains

 

#LiquidCool #Cyberpunk #ScienceFiction #Detective

The post Liquid Cool: The Characters (Good Guys) appeared first on Official Website of Author Austin Dragon.

The Liquid Cool $100 Amazon Gift Card Giveaway!

For those of us in the United States, we’re back from our long Labor Day weekend.

In my last post, I revealed the great cover for my new cyberpunk (sci-fi) detective series, Liquid Cool. It features our hero detective–Cruz, the Private Eye–and gives you a taste of its stylish and high-tech but low-life world.  I’ve coined the dual terms of “Retro Neo Cyberpunk” or “Neo Retro Cyberpunk” because it’s my reimagining of the sci-fi sub-genre. It’s different from my current futurist series because there is no finite end point. It can keep going with endless new cases and new books for readers.

We plan to have a lot of fun with these books, so next week I will do an expansive Character Profile of main characters, secondary ones, and villains.

However, this post is the announcement of our latest Amazon Gift Card Giveaway! We’re getting closer to the debut novel’s release, so let’s celebrate.

#LiquidCool #GiftCard #Giveaway #Win

The post The Liquid Cool $100 Amazon Gift Card Giveaway! appeared first on Official Website of Author Austin Dragon.

Liquid Cool on Pinterest

As any author knows, social media can be one of the biggest time-sucks around if you’re not disciplined. At the beginning of this year, I made a big change as far as my social media. I gave up on Facebook for Pinterest. Now, Facebook is still huge, but for many of us (businesses) using their Fan Page, the dramatic changes to their algorithm, which dramatically decreased organic engagement, was my last straw too. Facebook wants its Fan Page to be a paid feature, which is totally fine, but as a relatively new author, organic engagement is very important to me. So I switched to Pinterest and I love it!

Here’s the dedicated Liquid Cool Board Here.

And here are a couple Liquid Cool pins for your consideration:

The post Liquid Cool on Pinterest appeared first on Official Website of Author Austin Dragon.

Liquid Cool Cover Reveal!

Okay, I’ve been teasing my new cyberpunk (sci-fi) detective series for the past few months now. One more tease before the official release—the Cover Reveal!

If you haven’t read the prequel excerpts or gotten the entire prequel (short) itself HERE, I’d so so now because it’s coming…

Visit and Follow my Pinterest Liquid Cool page HERE for the inspirational images for the series.

#Cyberpunk #SciFi #Crime #Detective #Thriller

The post Liquid Cool Cover Reveal! appeared first on Official Website of Author Austin Dragon.

These Mean Streets, Darkly (A Liquid Cool Prequel)

NEW RELEASE!

Yes, the prequel to my upcoming cyberpunk detective series, Liquid Cool, is here! You can read the free excerpt HERE and/or get your copy today HERE.

It’s to hold you over until Liquid Cool is released. It will be my genre blend of science fiction (specifically, cyberpunk) and mystery (specifically, detective thriller) which happen to be two of my favorite genres.

So tell me what you think and please do share the excerpt with everyone!

CLICK TO TWEET

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#SciFi #ScienceFiction #Cyberpunk #LiquidCool

The post These Mean Streets, Darkly (A Liquid Cool Prequel) appeared first on Official Website of Author Austin Dragon.

Serious Science Fiction: The Digital Technology Time Bomb?

Is it just me or the number of hacks into public databases seem to be growing? Even more disturbing is that it’s not merely mom-and-pop businesses, but multi-national corporations; and it’s not just some local government office but the Social Security Administration, the FBI, and even the White House.

Article: Hackers stole Social Security Numbers from 21.5 Million, Gov’t Admits

As a member of Generation-X, I grew up at the dawn of the modern technological age–computers that took up an entire building floor to the first desktop to the first laptop; from the first mobile phone to the current smartphone; vinyl records to CDs to digital downloads; the VHS-Betamax ‘wars’ to DVD to Blu-Ray to streaming. The technological progress has been dizzying, especially for those of us who have lived through it from the very beginning.

But! Yes, there is always a “but.” I’m writing my fun, cyberpunk detective series, but there is always a serious foundation. My Liquid Cool series will be no different. Another theme I’ve always wanted to explore is what if rather than going down our current road of digital technology, we remained with analog technology.

I’ve been thinking a lot about this lately with both our best corporations (yes, Sony was hacked by the Chinese) and cyber-attacks on the White House itself (will we ever really know how serious the breach was?) To be honest, I have never been comfortable with how we’ve allowed ourselves and our world to be transformed by our digital technology. We’re like perpetual kids on Christmas morning with the presents. We think it’s all magic, but it’s not. Is true digital tech security really possible? Is all this digital interconnectivity making us far too vulnerable as a society? We don’t need nuclear weapons to cause an armageddon anymore. All there needs to be is properly placed EMP (electromagnetic pulse) bomb to take away the digital tech that we as humans have become far too dependent on.

Well, I already have one armageddon saga with my After Eden series (subtitle: The Genesis of World War III) so no need to add another with my new Liquid Cool series. But the serious issues can still be explored. That’s what good science fiction is for.

 

#Cyberpunk #ScienceFiction

The post Serious Science Fiction: The Digital Technology Time Bomb? appeared first on Official Website of Author Austin Dragon.

Now It’s Summer! Amazon Gift Card Giveaways

The only thing better than giving away one Amazon gift card is giving away three!

July 1st was the release of my new After Eden novella, Pure Conspiracy. My first After Eden Tek-Fall novella, Metal Flesh, was rereleased with a cool new cover. And for the past couple of months, the theme has been my new upcoming cyberpunk detective series, Liquid Cool.

So enter our $100 Amazon Gift Card Giveaway and enjoy the summer!

#Win #Amazon #Giftcard #Contest

The post Now It’s Summer! Amazon Gift Card Giveaways appeared first on Official Website of Author Austin Dragon.