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Erift’s Journeys: Secrets of The Sealed Forest
Joseph and Eric can’t wait to start their summer vacation filled with video games and pizza ’til sunrise. But when the two best friends receive an unexpected invitation to try out the most anticipated game of the year at an exclusive tropical island resort, they jump at the opportunity. However, once they arrive, they are thrown into a fantastical adventure where nothing is what it seems. Friends and foes must be sorted, puzzles deciphered, and their own hidden abilities discovered. They will have to fight with all they have because life is not a video game, and there’s no respawning.
In Erift’s Journeys: Secrets of the Sealed Forest, author J.T. Tenera gives us a “finding one’s true self” adventure filled with action and video game references. The main characters go through various settings trying to stop an evil force from being released into the world. There are moments of calm in the book while the main characters enjoy a tropical vacation and meet new friends, followed by fast-paced danger when they encounter enemies much stronger than they are. The heroes are never guaranteed a win in their fights and end up seriously hurt at times. Characters “level up” throughout the book, just as video game characters would. In fact, the book is filled with references to video games – “tutorials” where they learn about hidden abilities and magic spells, new weapons and items found during quests, and a band of characters with specialized skills.
Younger readers may also connect to game streaming references, with one of the main characters trying to build a subscriber base. I felt at times there were many cryptic messages and long-winded explanations that didn’t add much to the storyline. Young readers will find characters they can identify and relate to, such as the arrogant, wealthy classmate with a posse and a slightly crazy scientist/professor with exploding inventions.
Erift’s Journeys: Secrets of The Sealed Forest ends with many questions unanswered. This is the perfect lead-in to the next book in the series. This coming-of-age novel for young adults will entertain them with action and adventure on a topic they love, video games.
Pages: 297 | ASIN : B09DMFR44V
Start Off With Their Flaws
Kevin James Breaux Author Interview
Your novels always have in depth characters and twisting plots. What is your writing process like before and during the process?
Thanks for mentioning that. I work hard to make my characters interesting. I think the most important detail is to create characters that are flawed. Start off with their flaws and build up to the traits that make them likeable and then move slowly, for some, to things that are redeeming.
My characters are meant to seem like everyday people. I do not like to paint them as black or white, I like to use the hundreds of shades of grey in-between. That, in my opinion, makes them more believable and fascinating.
Have you ever thought about exploring different mediums to tell your stories; ex. comics, games, etc.?
This year, I translated one of my novels into comic book script format and submitted it to IDW Comics. I then sent AND even hand-delivered those scripts and copies of my novels to them. I am waiting to hear back. I should be meeting with a representative of the company in the new year.
I am very much a fan of comic and anime. I would love to write for them. While it would be amazing to do so with my own properties, I would also like a shot at writing something like G.I. Joe or something else from the 80’s.
The way I write is imagining my story as a movie. So, my goal would be to have one of my novels or series to become a movie or TV series. With Netflix and Amazon picking up so many books these days, I need to get my works into their hands. If you are reading this Netflix, give me a call. 😊
Writers often find inspiration everywhere and in everything they do. Do you find yourself often looking at the world through the lens of a writer?
Well… I will point out weak writing in a TV show or movie I am watching, but for the most part I separate my two worlds now.
That being said, I do look at the world and see things as a visual artist. Which might be why people often compliment my writing as being so vivid. I spent so many years in art school struggling to force what I saw in my head onto paper in pencil, charcoal, paint, etc…. Over time, I realized I could take those imagines in my head and translate them to words. It was the only way I was able to truly creatively express myself. And it turned out to be much easier.
Since I am both an artist and an author, I do wish to experience life, but my inspiration comes from surrounding myself with the things I love and bring me happiness. Sometimes it just takes watching a good episode of one of my favorite shows to get me fired up.
What novel are you working on right now and when will it be available?
Good question. I finished the Water Kingdom Series and its final book is just being prepped for release. It should be out in late January 2019. It is called THREE BURNING RED RUNAWAY BRIDES.
Then, I will start editing book three in the four book SOUL BORN Series. It is written but needs work. It was originally 180,0000 words long, so I had to break it into two books.
Lastly, I will get back to working on the follow-up to THE LIFEBLOOD OF ILL-FATED WOMEN. Hopefully have that released in early 2020.
Author Links: GoodReads | Twitter | Facebook | Website
![Soul Born by [Breaux, Kevin]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51ouWps%2BNIL._SY346_.jpg)
All Opal wanted was to be respected as a wielder of magic, but her teachers passed her over time and time again. When a mysterious warlord embarks on a conquest to destroy the lands of Illyia, Opal seizes the opportunity to step out from the shadows of her instructors and take her rightful place among them. Tala, an alluring young elf, was banished from her tribe, hunted and nearly killed by the beasts of the deep forests, but more than anything else she is a survivor. Joining forces with an ancient elemental power, Tala finds herself in the center of an unrelenting human war. Flesh like leather and bone as strong as steel, Karn, a veteran from the first kingdom to fall, is fueled by vengeance. While pushing headlong into battle Karn begins recalling memories of another life: ghosts that haunt his dreams. Through death of soul, their new world is born.
Book Nomads
Some time ago my friends and I were sitting in a small restaurant near our office in Amsterdam. Food was great, the conversation was flowing, and even though I don’t exactly remember what we were talking about, a spontaneous and intriguing thought popped up in my head.
Are my books bored?
Of course, I love all my books, and every time I bought one I always treated it with the upmost respect but, was that enough? How boring must it be to sit on a bookshelf…. forever?
Some of them, like ‘The Courts of Chaos’, I keep re-reading every month, but most of them I just read once and it is over.
I thought a bit more about the reason why. I feel like it is related to latest data-driven optimizations and profiling trends in all entertainment. Movies, Video games, Anime and Books, big studios/companies/mangakas are producing so much, and so much of it looks good-ish, but turns out to be just exploitation of the market. Very few want to put themselves out there and push the boundary so they can make me re-live their story over and over again. Kind of depressing when you think about it. I am not saying that great work is less than before, it is just harder (for me) to find.
Anyway, this was a bit off topic. After I thought about my books sitting on that lonely bookshelf at home, I thought, how cool it will be if I could just share them with my neighbors?
First I would meet someone who reads things that I read, and, for purely selfish reasons, I could ask this person to recommend me some books that I might like, or at least books that I would want to get from his re-reading book list.
That seemed really awesome!
I shared the idea with my friends, and they also loved it, so we decided to build a platform to facilitate borrowing and lending books. We launched https://www.booknomads.com.
Shortly after, I shared my first book ‘The Design and Implementation of the FreeBSD Operating System’ (https://www.booknomads.com/browse/book/165/1) and it felt great. I learned so much from it, it was a shame for it to sit all day long, bored and ignored on a bookshelf. Now it is on an adventure by being a booknomad 🙂
BookNomads is still quite young and you can help us improve it by giving us feedback, or adding your books.
Any feedback is invaluable.
Thanks in advance!
PS: My daughter(6 yo) also loves it, and now she is waiting for someone to borrow her books so she can make new friends.
PPS: I wonder if there is a name for that feeling you get after you finish a book, the more the book resonates with me the stronger it is. It feels like emptiness and completeness at the same time, as if I am stretched into the abyss. I want to get the books that made you feel like that!
Borrow books around you
because books deserve to travel
Keep My Mind Active
Jerry J.C. Veit Author Interview
Apocalypsia details a post-apocalyptic Earth. Demons comb the land and what is left of humanity struggles to survive and trust one another. What was the inspiration that made you want to write such an immersive story?
I had a lot of time on my hands (haha). I was in my early twenties, worked two days a week, living in my parents’ basement, and was addicted to video games. Writing was my way to keep my mind active and a way to escape my uneventful reality. It started out as some dark and depressing poetry (some of which appears in the book). I felt like the only way I could find meaning in this world is if it ended. That was the idea that sparked Apocalypsia. I wanted to go on an adventure, and if I couldn’t live it, I could at least create it. I also drew inspiration from authors like Edgar Allen Poe, and Charles Dickens, and stories like Beowulf and Lord of the Rings.
This story is a fun blend of science fiction, fantasy and post-apocalyptic. Did you plan the novel before you wrote or did this happen organically?
I was told to always know the ending of your story before you begin. Apocalypsia was the exception. I had no idea where this story was going to go. At times I felt the story was telling itself and I was just the messenger. I never thought about what will come next only what was happening now.
In its infancy I wanted to make Apocalypsia a graphic novel. I wrote it into twenty-five separate books in a little over a year and a half. Since I cannot draw or know an artist that could take on this huge project I rewrote it to read more like a manga, but without the art; since I was into Japanese anime at that time. About a year later I developed a love of screenplays and the desire to write them. Apocalypsia was rewritten again into three different scripts due to its length and the 80-120 page constraint of a normal screenplay. When I discovered self-publishing the book that exists today got another overhaul. The book gained new content and became a little darker too. I was older so everyone in the story had to grow up also. Overall it took seven years and several rewrites before Apocalypsia appeared in our hands.
What is your writing experience and how has that helped you write Apocalypsia?
I actually wrote all of my books as screenplays first until I learned about self-publishing. I reformatted my screenplays into novelized script versions by taking away all the screenplay lingo, headers and directions, but kept the name of the speaker before my dialogue to cut down on “he said” “she said” throughout the entire story. Screenplays taught me about plot points and showing not telling. I learned to write a good ending and a good beginning and then finding out how to link the two. I learned how to write books by thinking about them as movies. Usually screenplays are the product of books. My books are products of screenplays.
What is the next book that you are working on and when will it be available?
I have started writing a steampunk story. I think that will be a cool genre to explore. I have the beginning written and several notes about the world, technology and devices that exist, and character backgrounds and personalities, but I’m still working on the plot so no release date in sight yet.
Author Interview: GoodReads | Twitter | Facebook | Website
Much of civilization lies in ruins after the mysterious happenings of a demonic uprising. In this post-apocalyptic world survivors must scavenge for supplies while taking up arms against demons, goblins, and even each other.
When an ally’s fort is attacked; a small group of survivors take it upon themselves to unite and stand against the further spread of demons. Along the way new allies agree to stand with them. Encountering stronger demonic threats and the discovery of an ancient artifact, which could destroy the boundaries between Hell and Earth, causes a collision of the human resistance into an epic final battle with the demonic forces.
On A Hero’s Journey
Rocco Ryg Author Interview
The Genocide Gene is the third book in the thrilling Onryo Saga and continues the adventures of the teenage superheroes in their fight to save humanity. I felt this story was very well written. What is your experience as a writer?
In addition to term papers in grad school, I wrote fanfiction about my favorite shows growing up. It was great practice to hone my craft and experiment with my original concepts. As fun as that was, nothing beats creating original characters and guiding them on a hero’s journey.
One thing that stands out to me in The Genocide Gene is the creativity embedded in this world. What was your inspiration for creating such and imaginative world?
As I was researching Africa, I had to come up with ways to integrate what I had learned into a creative storyline. I read about the business of portable gas stoves, so I had a battle in a factory. I read about the African boda-boda drivers, so I envisioned a chase scene on their mopeds. Every time I read something interesting, I wondered how I can utilize it in an exciting way.
I also created my own African country so that I could integrate the culture, history and issues of other countries into it, such as civil wars and age-old divisions brought about by European colonization. That way, I could write about the political problems of places such as Uganda, the Congo, South Africa and others all at once.
The Genocide Gene has an intriguing setup to a novel that is high in social commentary. What was your moral goal when writing this novel and do you feel you’ve achieved it?
Bringing people together in harmony has always been my main goal, whether it be American liberals and conservatives or feuding African tribes. I wanted to present a war-torn nation keep impoverished and dysfunctional due to prejudice and hatred, but it was important to show people of other backgrounds getting along in spite of what their groups teach them. While the political extremists seek to tear their nation apart through fear, those who serve the cause of unity and understanding are the only ones who can bring peace to their people. While my conclusion can’t happen in real life, I can only keep the faith that the people of these lands find ways to bring about prosperity.
When will the fourth book in the Onryo saga be available and where will it take readers?
The Tree of Zaqqum will take readers to Israel/Palestine, and others Middle Eastern locations too. My heroes will have to stop a mysterious mastermind and his followers from destroying cities with stolen WMDs and quantum technology. Their friendship is further tested as Chikara gains a new ally that may become something more.
I’m still in the research phase at that moment, but the story is coming together piece by piece. I’m guess it may take two years to complete.
Author Links: GoodReads | Twitter | Facebook
![The Genocide Gene (The Onryo Saga Book 3) by [Ryg,Rocco]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51Hj0i-5%2B-L.jpg)
“It has been only a few months since Chikara Kaminari was given strange powers and a mission from her precognitive mother. Joined by her friends Renka and Gen, she traveled the world and stopped a band of super-powered extremists from imposing their will upon humanity. Now, a new menace has surfaced to threaten the lives of millions.
In the segregated African nation of Ghadhia, two fanatical brothers are scheming to ignite a new civil war and commit genocide against the tribes they have been raised to hate. The heroic trio must unite with new friends and old enemies to stop them, facing African terrorists, Afrikaner supremacists and enraged mobs along the way. But as Chikara and her friends journey further into the heart of darkness, their deepest fears and hidden feelings threaten to tear their friendship apart.”
The Genocide Gene
The Genocide Gene is the third book in the thrilling Onryo Saga and continues the adventures of the teenage superheroes in their fight to save humanity. Chikara, Renka and Gen are the superhero trio with mystical powers that they inherited from a ring with a mysterious black rock. The trio is on a crime fighting spree when Chikara receives a message from her late mother that takes the superheroes on an adventure to Sierra Leone. Meanwhile, a team of brothers are planning to eradicate tribes in a deadly attack and soon enough the teenagers are caught up in a whirlwind of African supremacists, terrorists and evil politicians. Friendships and alliances will be put to the test as they battle their way through a storm of evil extremists. Will their friendships survive this heroic escapade or will it finally be the end of the Japanese crime fighters?
The Genocide Gene, written by Rocco Ryg, is the third edition of the Onryo Saga and as always he delivers an exceptional story line packed with action and charm. The story begins back in 1985, with a cover-up involving a mysterious black stone which gives people ungodly powers. This powerful stone forges the path to a catastrophe that will echo its effects in years to come.
It then flashes forward to the year 2012 where everyone’s favourite Japanese super heroes have banded together with their mystical powers to clean up the streets of drug crimes, child trafficking and murdering of innocent souls.
Like a voice beyond the grave, Chikara is contacted with a message left by her late mother where she requests that Chikara, Renka and Gen venture to the deep throes of Africa. Friendships will be tested and lines crossed as you delve deeper into the twisted underground world of Sierra Leone, forcing the reader to confront terrorists, gangsters and teenagers with magical abilities. You will reminisce with old friends and be left with a bitter taste as they dance with old enemies and form unlikely alliances in a bid to do what they do best- saving lives.
Prepare to be on the edge of your seat as you follow extremists on the hunt for those who can heal, and feel the terror as enemies are enveloped with an evil presence. My favourite part of Rocco Ryg’s novels is that he is able to intricately weave multiple story lines together in such a way that the reader will be engrossed from start to finish. I love seeing how the characters grow and how they challenge themselves in situations using their individual powers. The Genocide Gene also explores a rich diversity of cultural differences and gives you a taste of gangster life across different nations.
Staying true to the themes of action crossed with a dash of politics and mystical powers, The Genocide Gene will be sure to satisfy your need for a superhero tale. I would recommend this for all who are in need of an adventure. Will they be successful in Chikaras mission from the grave or have the superheroes finally met their match?
Pages: 268 | ASIN: B01M0KF137
Super-Powered Fights
Rocco Ryg Author Interview
This God, I, is a novel based around a group of teenagers turned Japanese superheroes as they band together in a battle against evil. Where did the inspiration for the thrilling action come from and how did it develop as you were writing?
I’ve always been a fan of comic books, anime and the action genre, so I’ve had ideas brewing in my head on how to construct a story full of car chases, paranormal battles and science fiction. For the scenes with domestic terrorists, I read about the history of nationalist extremism in the United States, such as Ruby Ridge, Waco and the Oklahoma City bombing, and tried to emulate what I learned. For super-powered fights, I had to come up with creative ways the heroes and villains could use their surroundings.
Japanese anime styled characters cross political extremists which sets the tone for this action packed adventure. What were some ideals you hoped would drive the narrative of the story?
Every character needs a believable motivation, and a political agenda can provide just that. Our cultural backgrounds and political views are a reflection of who we are as people, and I sought to create characters that would embody their various ideals and principles. While the extreme villains use their powers to force their ideas onto the world, the heroes have to be open-minded, consider all sides and work together to come to a reasonable conclusion. It was important for the heroes to put their values above the need to win at all costs, lest they end up just as bad as the people they’re fighting.
The superheroes come from a range of backgrounds and have a varied mix of super powers. How did you balance the characters powers to keep them interesting yet believable?
Every superpower has been thought of before, so it was important that my characters would utilize them in different ways, such as turning a roller coaster into a giant robot or controlling a crowd’s emotions to ignite a protest. It was also essential for every ability to serve a purpose, either to move the plot forward, reveal more information and create an action-packed spectacle.
This God, I is book 2 in the series. Where will book 3 take the characters?
In “The Genocide Gene,” Chikara and her friends travel to Africa to stop two demented brothers from starting a civil war and committing genocide. Along the way, they have to save hundreds of kidnapped schoolgirls and take on merciless rebel groups.
Author Links: GoodReads | Twitter
![This God, I (The Onryo Saga Book 2) by [Ryg, Rocco]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51JDOUFRJDL.jpg)
“Japanese superhero Chikara Kaminari has accepted her destiny: to save mankind from powerful political extremists. Joined by her friends, the empathic Renka and the shadow-controlling Gen, Chikara journeys to America to rescue her friend Michiko from the Ayn Rand- obsessed billionaire, Chillingworth.
As they search for their adversaries, Chikara and her friends encounter a murderous cell of homegrown terrorists called RAMPAGE (Revolutionary American Militant Patriots Against Government Enslavement). This militia of neo-nazis, white supremacists and anti-government extremists will stop at nothing to bring down the public sector, and only the three heroes can stop them before their war on the state claims innocent lives.
The future hangs in the balance as Chillingworth lures the world’s most powerful leaders to the United Nations. Using Michiko’s mind-controlling voice, he seeks to lead the Earth into a new era of selfishness and Anarchy. The heroes have to stop him, but the conservative Chikara and the socialist Gen have different definitions of the term “save the world.” While one wants to stop the plot, the other wants to control the politicians his own way. The three must put aside their disagreements and work together before America’s most extreme ideologues tear the world apart.”
Resurrecting This Conspiracy
Don Templeton Author Interview
Pretty Hate Machine is a high paced action novel that begins with a suicide mission of a nine year old girl. What was the inspiration for the thrilling beginning of this novel and how did that help create the ending?
Pretty Hate Machine is a reboot of my first published novel in a series called The Executioner, published by Gold Eagle Books. It was #262 in the series and was called Trigger Point. You can see it on Amazon or go to my blog at bluefalconpress.com and read the post I wrote about this very subject. Gold Eagle didn’t allow me to fully explore the X-Files nature of this story line so now 17 plus years later, I’m resurrecting this conspiracy to tell it the way it should have been told from the beginning. Interesting trivia: I turned in that first Executioner manuscript to Gold Eagle around the 1st of the year in 1999. On April 20th, Columbine took place. My editor called me dumbfounded: “What is going on down there? THIS IS JUST LIKE YOUR BOOK.”
As to the ending, it seemed only fair to dish out everything the bad guys were serving up in the beginning by using their little mind controlled killers against them.
There are so many different vibrant and colorful characters in this story from FBI agents to alligator farmers to prostitutes. What was the funnest character to write for?
Well, as to the funnest character to write — Mallory Hammond, hands down. She started off with this tag line description in my planning notes: “She’s Fox Mulder in Scully’s body.” Well, as you’ve seen — she’s MUCH MUCH more now than just Fox Mulder in Scully’s body. And she’s not chasing UFOs. She’s chasing Cthulhu while undertaking the path of the Adept in the Western Esoteric Tradition, following in the footsteps of the Golden Dawn and Aleister Crowley. She might become the lead in a series of her own.
I found myself thinking of this novel as a Guy Ritchie movie or maybe Quentin Tarantino. Who were some creative people that inspired this novel and you as a writer?
Hunter S. Thompson. He is Artemis T. Gordon. I consider Thompson to be the greatest American writer of the 20th Century. It’s time to immortalize him as a hero in a slam-bang pulp action epic with the fate of the world hanging in the balance.
What is the next book that you are working on and when will it be available?
The next book? Well, that would be #2 in the series. It’s called Splatterpunk. The first chapter of this novel is included as a teaser at the end of Pretty Hate Machine. It will be available in the Summer of 17. Buckle up, Bones. You ain’t seen nothin’ yet. And, again, this one is a reboot of the second (I wrote 4 total) Executioner novel I wrote that was published as Executioner #264 Iron Fist.
Author Links: Website | Twitter | Facebook | GoodReads | Lulu
![Special Task Force: GREEN MAJIK #1 "Pretty Hate Machine": The Reader Feedback Dooms Day Edition by [Templeton, Don]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51fO9XzEf1L.jpg)
Someone is turning American school girls into suicide juggernauts.
Detective Jack “Blackjack” Carnahan investigates the brutal homicide of a postal employee and his family. A mysterious Man In Black agent from Homeland Security is focusing on Carnahan over the victim’s computer hard drive and what wasn’t on it when taken into custody.
Meanwhile, in the swamps of Louisiana, Special Agent Mallory Harmon is trussed up for ritual sacrifice by an inbred clan of alligator farmers. A startling discovery has been made: the frightening swamp dwellers have been trafficking in an exotic species — a species that has never been observed alive in the wild before.
Local hypnotherapist Buffy Rayburn has been drafted into the service of a “special task force” dispatched to investigate the the worst schoolyard shooting in U.S. history, the May Day Massacre. Buffy is the leading expert in the hotly debated existence of Satanic Ritual Abuse.
While Jack Carnahan races against the clock to discover the connections between a pint-sized suicide juggernaut, the brutal killings of a UFO researcher and his family, and the U.S. Government, a gang of assassins-for-hire, Denver Police motorcycle traffic cops by day, are closing in, determined to add Blackjack Carnahan to the list of casualties being shredded in this Pretty Hate Machine.
Buy the ticket. Take the ride.
LITERARY TITAN 