For today’s #FeatureFriday, I have with me Marcus Damanda, author of The Salvation State. He’s bringing us a treat: a sneak peak at book two in the Salvation State series! Be warned, it’s unedited and subject to change, but here it is!
(You can find The Salvation State, as well as Marcus’s other books, here.)
“This is what the truth is. Second Salvations murdered my parents, and I’m running away.”
It’s here! The latest from Marcus Damanda is a dystopian take on the world, bringing Rebecca and Daniel together for a journey that will change their lives forever.
With beautiful cover art by the talented Jay Aheer, and and ~Editor’s Pick~ from yours truly, and great characters, The Salvation State has it all. It’s the beginning of the end, and you’ll want to stay up to find out what happens next!
Blurb:
A single post over unregulated Internet channels. A sleeping society awakens to a chase, broadcast live on television screens all across the New United States of America…
Rebecca and Daniel have never met. A fifteen-year-old preacher’s kid and a sixteen-year-old atheist outcast, they appear to have little in common. And yet they have both attracted the attention of a recruiter for Angel Island, where bad kids go to be remade—or destroyed.
Agents of the all-powerful New America Unity Church will stop at nothing to get them. They’re building an army, a modern children’s crusade, in which Rebecca and Daniel may be just the kind of future leaders they need.
If not, they might be just the kind of sacrifice necessary to keep the rest of the faithless in line.
Title: PODs
Author: Michelle K. Pickett
Genre: Science Fiction>Dystopia, Young Adult, Zombies, Romance
Published: June 4th 2013 by Spencer Hill Press
Page Count: 312 pgs
Synopsis:
Seventeen-year-old Eva is a chosen one. Chosen to live, while others meet a swift and painful death from an incurable virus so lethal, a person is dead within days of symptoms emerging. In the POD system, a series of underground habitats built by the government, she waits with the other chosen for the deadly virus to claim those above. Separated from family and friends, it’s in the PODs she meets David. And while true love might not conquer all, it’s a balm for the broken soul.
After a year, scientists believe the population has died, and without living hosts, so has the virus. That’s the theory, anyway. But when the PODs are opened, survivors find the surface holds a vicious secret. The virus mutated, infecting those left top-side and creating… monsters.
Eva and David hide from the infected in the abandoned PODs. Together they try to build a life–a new beginning. But the infected follow and are relentless in their attacks. Leaving Eva and David to fight for survival, and pray for a cure.
Title: No Greater Illusion
Author: K. Baskett
Genre: Dystopian
Publisher: Self-published
Format: Ebook, Paperback
Length: 318 pages
Buy Links: eStore | Amazon (Print) | Amazon (Kindle) |
Book Description:
In the very near future, surging advancements in technology have afforded American citizens with a number of conveniences. Of these, most notable is the SmartTag, a microchip embedded under the skin between index finger and thumb, housing all manner of personal information such as bank account details, medical history, voter registration and more.
This tightly-woven tale follows the lives of several very different people – Tealia, a free-spirited and intelligent photographer battling with conflicting emotions for her ex-lover; Mercer & Viera Scott, a power couple barely holding on to their marriage as the priorities of success and parenthood slowly become skewed between them; impoverished single mother, Naria, content with her reliance on both her current lover and government assistance to make ends meet; and the Holton family, wealthy beyond measure, enjoying carefree days of privilege and luxury.
Their status quo, however, is about to be undermined as America reacts violently to the brutal assassination of a highly esteemed female presidential nominee on the evening of the debates. As the entire nation struggles to make sense of the ensuing chaos, fear and distrust ramp up to dizzying heights. The end result is a series of grave consequences that will drastically alter life as they know it, making them all wonder how much of their world is but an illusion.
A captivating story that is at once gripping and dark, this brilliantly painted picture of a dystopian America cautions against the power of technology and the folly of taking anything for granted. Haunting and lyrical, No Greater Illusion is an astounding debut novel with a powerful message that lingers long after the final page is read.
Ashes by Ilsa J. Bick
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Then she shut the door and locked it and left him there.
After being diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor, Alex leaves on a hiking trip to deal with her personal demons and say good-bye to her parents. That’s when it happens: the pulse. Electronic devices no longer work and folks are either dead or have a strange craving for flesh. Set on survival, Alex does what she must to avoid the Changed and save her improvised family.
This book is broken into two parts, and they couldn’t be more different. The first part is a fast-paced, well-written account of how Alex, Ellie, and Tom meet, encounter the Changed, and plan to survive. The characters are well done, engaging the reader to cheer for their survival. It is an easy – if mature in some parts – read.
The second half of the book is a total departure from the first half. Not only is Alex alone again, but there are no more Changed until the very last chapter – no more action. The reader is left wondering what happened to the other characters (which I presume will be dealt with in the sequel) and tossed into a town, meeting new characters and departing from the Alex from the first part – even she questions where the old her has gone. This part is frustrating, though no less intriguing if only to find out where it is going.
Ashes takes teen dystopia to a gruesome level, though leaving the reader questioning the swift change in the middle of the book. Regardless, it is a fast read, with a lot of action in the first part and hopefully a lot of answers in the sequel.
Today I have a wonderful post about the integrity of writing by Terry Persun, author Cathedral of Dreams. Terry’s most recent book, Cathedral of Dreams was recently named a finalist for ForeWord Magazine‘s Book of the Year Award in the Science Fiction category at the American Library Association Conference. Before I give him the floor, I’ll give you the blurb, but don’t miss out on this guest post – you may learn something!
In Newcity, everyone is content. Bad feelings are not allowed, because your monitoring chip will alert the police to bring you in for treatment. Getting better is mandatory. Unchecked emotions made the world outside Newcity dangerous, unruly, and violent. At least that’s the official story in Newcity.
Keith knows something is wrong. Strange visions lead him to become one of the few who escapes Newcity. He fi nds freedom and companionship outside, but pressure building to revolt against the city’s insidious regime of social control. Leadership is thrust upon him, with only his visions for guidance, only a small band of friends for support—and the fates of both Newcity and the outside world at stake.
Cathedral of Dreams is a compelling tale of a dystopian future and personal heroism
Now, here’s Terry with some good words of advice to all you writers out there.
Writing with Integrity
If you’re reading this, you probably know a lot of my story. For instance, I write for a living; have been writing for over thirty years; and hope never to stop. And so when I talk about writing with integrity, I have specific ideas in mind. A fair amount of the writing I do includes the novels I write – at least a thousand words a day when I’m working on a project. My income arrives primarily through my technical and science writing.
Integrity first arrives on the scene while writing technical pieces. Research is important, asking the right questions of the right people is also important. I never believe everything I read on the Internet, for example. I always over-source my pieces through interviews and outside reading. I know to ask an engineer an engineering question, and not believe what a marketing official tells me. I know to ask a competitor what the differences are between products, as well as the employees. Integrity along these lines means that I do everything in my power to find the truth, and when it’s a bit fuzzy, I say so.
When writing fiction or poetry, integrity means something a little different. There are still those facts that can be researched, like what kinds of fish traveled up and down the Susquahanna River in the 1860s, and what types of trees grow in New Mexico. But with fiction, there’s another type of integrity that has to do with the story itself. When you’re writing about a character and they run into a challenge, the author has to know the truth of the character in order to write with integrity. Overly plotted stories can go awry at this point. If the character is supposed to do one thing to feed the plot arc, but the character of the character – as he or she has been written to this point – would do something completely different, then there is a problem.
Stepping into the life of another person, as authors must do in order to write a novel, means following that character wherever they might go, whether you agree with them or not. Too many authors allow their own moral compass to interfere with their characters. Or they “stick to the plot of the story.” Neither of these methods have the right amount of integrity behind them. These turning points are important to the book and the author. Everyone, I believe, knows what integrity feels like. We all have a sense for it. We know when we’re slacking, or adjusting, or giving in. We also know when we’re doing the right thing. I’ve been there. I know. And when I choose to ignore my integrity, my book suffers and I have to do larger rewrites to put it back on track.
My suggestion to people just starting out with their writing careers is to beware of adjusting your integrity just to get to the end of the book. Look at following your character as a way to be surprised by the book. Do what your character tells you to do. You won’t go wrong, and you may learn something new about how you view the world.
###
Terry Persun writes in many genres, including historical fiction, mainstream, literary, and science fiction/fantasy. His latest novel, Cathedral of Dreams is a ForeWord magazine Book of the Year finalist in the Science Fiction category. His novel Sweet Song just won a Silver IPPY Award, too. Terry’s website is: www.TerryPersun.com or you can find him on Amazon at: http://amzn.to/gpWf3L
Musings of a Writing Reader 