Mikey D.B. on the Musical Inspiration that Led to His Book @mikeydbii #MustRead #TBR #Dystopian

What inspired me to write my book?

This is War by 30 Seconds to Mars.  I got that album for Christmas in 2009, and the second I heard the first song, Escape, my mind went crazy.  Youtube it!  It’s the only way to properly visualize what I’m about to tell you.  

As that first song played, I imagined a man, tortured and beaten, sitting in a chair in the middle of an abandoned football stadium.  The war drums built and built and as they did, another man, a rebel, stepped into the scene and began to circle the one in the chair.  As the lyrics then played, I pictured that it’s what the rebel would be saying to the man in the chair.

Time to escape the clutches of a name,

No this is not a game,

It’s just the beginning.

I don’t believe in fate but the bottom line,

It’s time to pay,

You know you’ve got it coming.

The way Jared Leto says these words, it’s as if he’s seeking revenge for the destitute and war torn lifestyle the man in the chair caused.  Just then, he and a crowd of people shouts:

This is war!

I was listening to that song on a major sound system, taking in the details of all the instruments and voices, and when this declaration of war sounded out, the bass shook and goose bumps shot all up and down my arms.  The rest is history really.  I wanted to write about a revolution, and that album became a major player in my writing process.  I did end up getting stuck at one point.  The plot became a poor version of The Hunger Games that had a lot to do with some drama I was dealing with in the dating world.  That whole sad realization put the project on hold and I started a second one that ended up becoming the missing half to Area 38. 

I do have to say, that the ending though, it was my favorite part to write and is my favorite part to ask people about.  I came up with it while sitting on my bed.  No music this time, just was pondering and it came.  I won’t give any spoilers, but it leaves the reader asking “How--what just happened?”  It makes them mad because it seems so contradicting to the nature of a character, but that’s what I love about it.  

This book, Saga of the Nine: Area 38 leaves the reader asking these questions, and more, in utter confusion, while the rest of the three books in the saga are meant to answer those concerns.  The ending seems random to some, but that’s only because the reader is missing a huge middle chunk.  They’ve read ABC and then X.  They don’t know the rest of the alphabet, and that’s where books two, three and four come in.

Change affects everyone and it is no different for Jackson. Living in Area 38 for as long as he can remember, he knows of no better way to exist than under the tyrannical rule of Christopher Stone, son of Stewart Stone from The Nine of The United Governmental Areas, aka The UGA. This all takes a dramatic turn when Jackson finds a red, metal box buried in his yard, filled with illegal artifacts—journals, a Bible, CDs, etc.—that are from a man of whom he has no recollection of: Mica Rouge.

 The year is 2036 and Mica, unlike Jackson, does know of a better way of life but is torn apart as he sees his country, The United States of America, crumbling from within by group known as The Political Mafia. The Mafia has infiltrated levels upon levels of governmental resources and it is up to Mica and a vigilante group known as The USA Division to stop them and their dark Utopian vision. To their demise, and at the country's expense, The Division fails and has no choice but to watch The Constitution dissolve and transform into The UGA.

In a final stand, having not given up hope, Mica and what is left of The Division, give one final fight in Colorado, or better known as Area 38. However, all is lost as The Division is betrayed by one of their own, Stewart Stone. Mica is left with no choice but to hide in exile, leaving what little history he can of himself and the great United States of America, with his wife, long time friends, and newly born son in hopes that they will one day finish what he could not.

Jackson, having found this legacy twenty-seven years later, decides to start the war that will end The Nine, and he with an outcast group known as The Raiders, begins his fight with Christopher Stone in Area 38. Filled with betrayal, unity, despair, hope, hate and love Area 38 follows both Mica and Jackson in their attempts to restore what they believe to be true freedom, and where one fails, the other rises to the seemingly impossible challenge.

Buy Now @ Amazon

Genre – Dystopian Thriller

Rating – PG13

More details about the author

Connect with Mikey D. B. on Facebook & Twitter

Website www.mikeydb.com

Roland Hughes Says, "The character chose to tell the story" #Dystopian #MustRead #BookClub

I must warn you, my mind is a dangerous place.  My friends have been hearing that since we were teenagers but it wasn’t until I started writing novels that they began to realize it was just a joke.

As a writer/author one question gets asked countless times.  I has many different wordings, but it is the same question.  “What lead you to write this story?”  “What was going through your mind as you wrote this story?”  “How did you come up with the idea for this story?”  The wording doesn’t matter, it is the same question no matter how it is phrased.  What they are really asking, even if they won’t admit it is “How can I (or my readers) write a story like this?”

Most author interviews I’ve read seems to indicate they become calloused from this question and toss out the same response no matter how it is phrased, like a politician with talking points.  In the past I have been innocent and tried to actually answer the way it was phrased in a politically correct manner.  Nobody wants to hear the honest answer.  The honest answer is “You can’t because I certainly didn’t.”

Shocked?  It’s true.  I didn’t get a writing degree, create an outline, or follow any rules other than grammar and spelling.  The character chose to tell its story.  I wrote it down as best I could then fixed a few things.  Quite honestly, if you wish to become a writer you just need to be adequate with spelling and grammar, able to hire professional editing and, most importantly, listen to the character.

If you are not a writer and reading this I fully understand if you are shaking your head.  It defies what most people are told when they are young, but it is the truth.  If you want to know how to be the kind of author who gets some good/great reviews on their work the honest answer is “you cannot be told.”  There is no response or set of rules one can provide you with.  There is no formula to creating something nobody has ever thought of before.  There is no college course you can take or degree you can get which will make you an author who gets good/great reviews no matter what admissions tells you when you are handing over your money.

You can learn all you need to know by reading two short stories in a single book.  The book is Skeleton Crew.  The first short story to read out of it is Ballad of the Flexible Bullet.  This simple tale explains in detail what the mind of a writer is really like and where stories really come from.  If you don’t believe that after reading it then either switch to non-fiction writing or choose a new line of work.

The second story you need to read (and in this order) is Word Processor of the Gods.  This one story tells you everything you need to know about every story you will ever write.  Your mind and story are both free to travel as far as they wish if and only if they keep a tether to that subset of things which define humanity.

Fornit Some Fornus

“John Smith: Last Known Survivor of the Microsoft Wars” is one big interview. It is a transcript of a dialogue between “John Smith” (who, as the title of the book implies is the last known survivor of the Microsoft wars) and the interviewer for a prominent news organization.

Buy Now @ Amazon & B&N

Genre – Dystopian Fiction

Rating – PG

More details about the author

Website http://johnsmith-book.com/

Promised Land: A Galatia Novel (The Galatia Series) by C. D. Verhoff #Fantasy #SciFi

Promised Land: A Galatia Novel is told from multiple view points. All chapters, except those narrated from Michael Penn’s perspective, are told in third person. Michael is the Official Scribe of Galatia. He’s in charge of penning Galatia’s history. Therefore, when he speaks from personal experience, the story is told in first person. Here is an excerpt:

I waited breathlessly, wondering if we were going to war. My brother through adoption, Mayor Red Wakeland the Second, leader of the displaced citizens of Galatia, sat in the center of a large nylon tent reading a scroll by candlelight. The star-shaped birthmark at the corner of his left eye crinkled as the furrows in his brow deepened in concentration. Surrounded by men wearing tunics, armor, swords and fur—he looked like an anachronism in a checkered flannel shirt and blue jeans.

In my sweat pants and frayed T-shirt, United States flag printed across the chest, I looked out of place too, but my thick yellow beard blended with the times. Razors were scarce here and men now had more important things to worry about than a mug full of whiskers.

“Every king, queen and chief in the West has signed this blasted thing,” Red growled. “They’re warning us not to settle anywhere in the Northlands, Midlands or Southlands, which as I understand it, means basically they’re telling us to go the hell away or we’ll be sorry.”

“Unfortunately, you are correct,” said Prince Loyl of the House of the White Rose. Except for the metal breastplate molded with the image of a rose, he was dressed in an unadorned hunter-green tunic, trousers, and suede boots. A circlet of silver served as his crown.

Having several brothers and sisters ahead of him in line for the throne, Prince Loyl was only a minor prince of the Kingdom of Regala D’Nora. He had become a regular sight in our camp. His inquisitive nature, Regalan good looks—complete with feline ears, retractable claws, and a manly face surrounded by a mane of snow-white fur—combined with an affable personality meant that he was well-received by our people, especially the ladies, but he always behaved like a true gentleman.

Our gadgetry and history fascinated the prince and his Regalan archers. Right now he was struggling to pull himself away from a Mario Brothers game on a laptop. He finally powered it off and gave the discussion his complete attention. Red often leaned on the knowledgeable Regalans for advice about a variety of topics, from politics to combat, or basic survival skills.

“In accordance with the Law of First Rights, the members of the Western Alliance are obligated to remove you from these lands in any way they deem necessary, unless you can prove the Galatians were here before them,” Loyl said. “As you know, my father is a powerful member of the alliance, and though he longs for an allied neighbor to help keep the Slivens at bay, the law aims his archers’ bows in your direction.”

“So I’ve been told,” Red said with a frustrated growl. “The only good news is that they’re giving us a year to vacate.”

“Only so you have more time to build up the city they plan to take away,” Prince Loyl said.

Red rose and ordered everyone to leave the tent, but yanked me back by the collar of my T-shirt. “Not you, Mike.” He motioned for Prince Loyl to sit back down too. “I want to bounce a few thoughts off you two. That way we three can sleep on them instead of just me.”

The rest of the men filed out of the tent into the night, letting in a cool breeze perfumed with the woodsy citrus scent of lavender. We leaned back in our collapsible Ohio State stadium chairs, waiting for the mayor to speak his mind. The sound of the camp—adults snoring, babies crying, and a woman singing Brahms’s Lullaby—drifted into the tent. An owl’s lonely hoot carried from the forest half a mile away. Autumn would soon be upon us: the crickets were already singing their funeral dirge, filling the space between each of their chirps with silence, as if they were meditating their upcoming demise. Or was it ours they sensed?

Short Description:  The last survivors of the human race are riding out nuclear winter in an underground bunker when disaster strikes. Forced to the surface centuries ahead of schedule, what they find blows their minds. Who can explain it? Two social misfits work together to unravel the mystery.

Extended Description:  After living in a posh underground shelter his entire life, Lars Steelsun is plunged headfirst into a mind-blowing adventure on the surface of the Earth. As Lars and his displaced bunker mates are led across the grasslands by Mayor Wakeland, a man of questionable sanity who claims to talk with God, they discover a primitive world where human beings are no longer welcome. Even more mystifying is the emergence of new senses and abilities from within. Learning to use them has become a priority, but his biggest challenge comes from the vivacious Josie Albright. Her lust for glory is going to get them both into trouble. Sparks fly when her gung ho ways clash with his cautious personality. Can they overcome their differences to find love and a homeland for their people?

May not be suitable for younger readers. Contains mild profanity, sexual situations (infrequent), and violence. 

Buy Now @ Amazon

Genre - Epic Fantasy

Rating – R

More details about the author

Connect with C. D. Verhoff on Facebook & Twitter

Blog http://cdverhoff.blogspot.com/