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A Deep Personal Journey
Capricorn, Utopia & Days Gone By is a collection of novellas that incorporates philosophical meaning into three different but highly entertaining stories. Was it intentional to write stories with a moral message or did it happen organically?
I had a good idea how each story was going to end before I started writing, but the roadmap was fluid, and not set in stone.
The main characters are flawed in various ways. Their shortcomings had to carry a lot of weight and their triumphs had to be powerful. My goal was to show hopelessness in such a way that it brought hope to my audience. Yes, things are bad, but in the end, there is something to take away. Sometimes tragedy is capable of bringing the best out of people.
Utopia stood out as my favorite story from this volume. Do you have a story that you personally enjoy more out of the three?
I think Capricorn resonates with me the most. This isn’t just a story to save a loved one, but one that contains a deep personal journey into one’s own salvation. Montague is surrounded by evil, and he believes the only way to combat it is to become it. He becomes lost to it while admitting his views in dark, poetic soliloquies. In his mind everyone is guilty, and humanity is not worth saving until finding one who was never part of it. This pure innocence begins to shift the way he thinks.
Did you write these stories for this collection or did you write them over time and then combined them?
Each story was written years apart as separate screenplays before being published individually. After rewriting and extending these stories I decided to combine them into a 2-volume novella set to make the books cost effective.
Do you have plans to write more novellas through other outlets, like Kindle Vella?
I had considered using Kindle Vella for Apocalypsia, but now that I have all my titles published, I’ll continue working on promoting my books over trying to break into another area where I will either need a new story or try to market to a different audience. Although, I hope to one day have my stories reach more people, so I’m not closed to the concept just yet.
Author Links: GoodReads | Twitter | Website
The City is a Cancer. They are the Cure .
In the aftermath of a civil war the city is in ruins and without order. Montague administers his idea of justice with his black steel sword until he discovers Capricorn. He becomes drawn to her and vows to protect her, but this is challenged when a group of thugs kidnap her.
Montague is sent on a determined rescue mission, but in order to succeed he must battle the thugs of the city and their leader. Montague then finds himself on a path of seven trials in order to gain entry into Mammon’s domain to save the one he loves.
UTOPIA
Sometimes perfect comes with fine print.
Brian Troth is a defense attorney, who after being shot in the head, awakes from a coma thirty years later. He is told that the world is now perfect where everything is provided. He is given a new job, a posh apartment and, to his surprise, the perfect romantic match.
However, when he questions the sudden disappearance of a colleague and stumbles upon a concealed government secret; he and his loved one become targeted for a swift removal.
DAYS GONE BY
Hope.
Three days after Christmas an auto accident left Caleb partially disabled and took the life of his five-year-old nephew. Now on the anniversary, four years later, Caleb is afraid to leave his house; even to attend his brother’s upcoming wedding.
Soon past friends and deceased relatives mysteriously begin showing up in his home to deliver their messages and help him through his phobia by showing him glimpses of his past, present and possible future.
Capricorn, Utopia & Days Gone By
Capricorn, Utopia and Days Gone By is a collection of novellas with very different stories from author Jerry. J. C. Veit. The only thing that really ties these stories together is the author’s superb writing.
Capricorn is a tragic love story between Capricorn, an abandoned young woman that was brought up in isolation, and Montague, a man following his mission of retribution. Montague made it his life’s mission to destroy demons in the cities around him. He finds Capricorn underground and she reminds him of the power of human connection and love. I felt very moved by the story and I felt that it was reminiscent of Romeo and Juliet, but with more of a dark fantasy tone. I enjoyed the atmospheric writing and reveled in the bittersweet love story.
Utopia is another tragic story following a young lawyer that doesn’t really learn his lesson; that the truth of life is caring about other people. He is offered freedom for silence and finds that the world that he enters into is anything but a utopia, even though everything is set up to be so. I felt sorry for the protagonist because I felt connected to the character due to the authors sharp writing. I felt like the whole story was cathartic and revealed a lot of truths about life. The author weaves into all of his stories a great moral lesson which gives the story a lot of depth.
Days Gone By is a poignant drama that follows a newlywed couple through various changes and traumatic events but mainly focuses on Caleb. He struggles with depression and is overcome by his own negativity and inability to stay uplifted. He is forever changed by tragic events of family members, but through this trauma he manages to come to an understanding of himself. Days Gone By for me was a deep look into the human psychological condition and I found it be an emotionally-resonant read.
Overall, the three stories couldn’t be more different in setting and plot, but all three will leave readers with an important message. Jerry J.C. Veit incorporates philosophical meaning and truths into his stories, which I personally enjoyed. This is a worthwhile collection of novellas that will leave you pondering.
Pages: 290 | ASIN: B0BKLPTWZZ
Tainted, Dirty, Rundown, and Lying in Ruins
Author Interview: Jerry J.C. Veit
Capricorn follows Montague, a vigilante that delivers justice as he sees fit in a dystopian future where crime rules the city. What was your inspiration for this story and how did it develop as you were writing?
Capricorn was based on a poem I wrote in my late teens. The poem was basically Montague’s entire monologue in the first few pages of his introduction when he is describing the city as a cancer.
The character of Capricorn is purity, but with a childlike persona; which, when put into an adult woman, makes her appear to be crazy. Capricorn’s character is loosely based on Kai, who is kind of a strange, childlike girl in the PlayStation 3 game, Heavenly Sword.
I had much of the dialogue previously planned out before writing and I knew how it was going to end. The hard part was trying to make it feel justified. Montague had to find internal resolution and defeat his own demons. That’s why his 7 trials had to take place.
Montague is an intriguing character. I wasn’t able to pin down if he was an anti-hero or a good or bad guy, which was part of his appeal. What morals did you try to capture while developing his character?
Montague is someone who has given up on humanity. Everyone is a villain in his eyes. He abandons his own name in an attempt to forget his former self and become something similar to the angel of death. His job, he gave himself, is to bring some sort of balance back to the world and to do so means killing everyone who is unjust; which seems to be mostly everyone.
The only thing that makes him human is his compassion towards the innocents trapped in this city of violence. He saves a woman from being raped, but when a thief is murdered right in front of him he merely just walks over his dead body. He wants to protect good people, but at the same time believes there are no good people. This conflict puts him in a dark place.
I felt the backdrop of the crime ridden city was vividly developed. What themes did you want to use while creating your backdrop?
The main character of this story is the city itself. It’s tainted, dirty, rundown, and lying in ruins, but it remained this way because no one wanted to fix it. If you mixed the city in “The Book of Eli” and the city in “Judge Dredd” you would get the city in Capricorn. It’s a criminal’s paradise. It was never mentioned in the story, but you can almost imagine the sky being permanently overcast; it’s a type of hell and only Montague is fighting against it.
What is the next book that you are working on and when can your fans expect it out?
I’m a world builder. I put a lot of time into crafting the landscapes and populating them with life and a history. Even before I begin writing a story I come up with names of places and things or animals and peoples. That’s where I am now; writing pages and pages of notes which will eventually become appendices. They are developed mostly for me so I can keep track of everything; adding them into the book for the fans is just a byproduct of my writing process.
Author Links: GoodReads | Twitter | Facebook | Website
In the aftermath of a civil war the city is in ruins and without order. Montague administers his idea of justice with his black steel sword until he discovers Capricorn. He becomes drawn to her and vows to protect her, but this is challenged when a group of thugs kidnap her.
Montague is sent on a determined rescue mission, but in order to succeed he must battle the thugs of the city and their leader. Montague finds himself on a path of seven trials in order to gain entry into Mammon’s domain to save the one he loves.
Capricorn
Capricorn by Jerry Veit is a pulpy thrill ride. Set in a dystopian world where a city has fallen to criminals and other underworld scum, we follow the hero, Montague, who deals out his own brand of justice. A man who clearly has a dark past of his own struggles with his unrelenting anger until he meets Capricorn, a beautiful young woman. They instantly have a connection but their meeting is cut all too short when a group of thugs kidnap her. Montague is driven by his pledge to Capricorn and undergoes seven trials in order to enter Mammon’s domain wherein his love is imprisoned.
The story is given in play format. The format does not detract from the story itself, although it would do well in audio format. The world of Capricorn is an interesting mix of fantasy, dystopian, and urban fantasy. There are even some themes and symbolism of classical mythology and the Judeo-Christian mythos thrown in for good measure. The world building itself walks a fine line of being just complex enough to make the world feel alive.
Typical of Veit, Capricorn is a story driven by fast actions and passionate motivations. Montague is a not quite anti-hero, but embodies similar traits of the archetype, especially by how he deals out justice. He seems to sway back and forth over the line of being good or bad, although he bears everything that is thrown at him. The trails follow a somewhat formulaic method, but still give the reader certain checkpoints.
This brings up the antagonist, who in some stories helps define the protagonist. Named the Demon, but later Mammon, Veit does some interesting things when the Demon clashes with Montague and it was these moments that will make the reader keep reading until the end. A traditional quest story set in a world that is so strange but familiar to us. Montague does seem to exist in a vacuum and does come across as too singularly minded, which tends to alienate the reader somewhat. This is circumvented by the pure romance and chemistry that Capricorn and Montague have for one another. The adventure, danger, and risk also keep this story lean and fast-paced.
Overall, Capricorn is a fun read for more mature fans of pulp fantasy, urban fantasy and dystopian fiction.
Pages: 136 | ASIN: B00IPSZQCQ
LITERARY TITAN 