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Glossolalia
Nancy is like any woman in the prime of her life; active, engaged with hobbies, and busy with a normal day job. But underneath the surface, she is anything but ordinary. Plagued with a strange form of narcolepsy, Nancy can’t help but feel the grip of forces other than her own. With her uncle’s seemingly gracious help coming into question, she is soon exposed to the world of government conspiracy, mind control and espionage. It’s up to her to find out who’s behind it all, but can she get a grip in time to save herself and others?
Tantra Bensko’s Glossolalia is a thrilling and bumpy ride through the mind of a woman who comes off initially as relatively boring and normal. She’s crushing on a co-worker and at the mercy of jokes from her cube mates. She has her hobbies, piano and karate, and a good friendship with a girl named Alyssa. After Nancy’s parents died mysteriously when she was younger, her uncle Geoff took her into his care and provided her with a stable job at his corporation. Plagued with fugue states and narcolepsy her whole life, her uncle has also been giving her a steady supply of pills that she can’t seem to break her addiction to. She starts to question her uncle’s intentions and in an effort to break free from him and the pills, she coincidentally starts to reveal Geoff’s much darker agenda for her.
Initially, I began to question Nancy’s motives and her own sanity. The writing was quite scattered and jumped around enough to make me wonder if Nancy was just in a constant state of a psychotic break. In one moment her mind was scrambling for answers and in the next it was calm and reasonable. It took quite some time to figure out the relationship between Emily, Angela and Nancy, but the slow reveal did add to the suspense. Nancy’s tenacity and constant questioning of her life kept the book moving along at a nice pace. And there is plenty of references to the Nevermind, the CIA, MKULTRA, and other government groups which helps to build the psychological suspense of the novel.
Pages: 250 | ASIN: B01I8SLVTY
Globes Disease
Globes Disease by Lance Keeble is an edge of your seat thriller! We follow Jodi and several of her friends as they deal with an affliction affecting all of them. Their small town is under siege by a Vampire, who hunts those with such an affliction and government agencies promising them a cure. This strange mix of individuals must come together if they hope to survive. They will not only have to fight for each other, but fight to keep their humanity in the process.
I did not know what to expect going into this book. The cover art was interesting, as was the title, but once the story got going I was more mystified by what genre this novel fits into. It’s not quite science fiction, even with the disease device. It does not feel paranormal with the vampire and lycanthropy. Even with the suspense/thriller elements thrown in, they alongside with all the other speculative fiction elements do not define the book entirely. For the indiscriminate genre reader, this book is for sure a treat, because it plays with all the familiar conventions found in those respective genres.
From page to page, Keeble’s prose is electric. The characters jump off the page with each thought and action that they conduct. And to some degree, I felt like I knew these characters at one point in my life, because of the breath that Keeble can breathe into them. I was amazed. Some of the names had me scoff, like the characters, Quake and Ano, but as time went on the names kind of went with them and felt natural.
All in all, the pages read very easy and the reader shouldn’t be surprised when they find themselves twenty pages in after a blink. The pacing Keeble maintains is one that I admired, since it lends to the novel’s suspense and thriller architecture. And it is not only that, but the mystery that exists within the early pages of the book, because as the reader you want to know how all these various characters get swept up into this awful mess.
There were some hang ups for me as a reader, mainly along the lines of how many points of view Keeble chose to follow. It makes the chapters very short and it can ready almost choppy at times, since we are jumping from head to head. This flaw is only saved by how well written his characters are.
The final verdict is this: if you are looking for an interesting and pulse-pounding read than I would recommend this book. If you are searching for a book that defies genre convention and definition than this is the book you are looking for. If you desire a book with a fun case of characters bound in a common mission and goal, when the world is so divided, then this is the book for you. If any of those reasons apply to you then I would very much recommend this book.
Pages: 353 | ASIN: B01F0D0GVY
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://i0.wp.com/images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51fO9XzEf1L.jpg?resize=181%2C272&ssl=1)
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.
She Killed Her Father
Greg Spry Author Interview
In Beyond Cloud Nine Ace fighter pilot Brooke Davis stumbles upon a conspiracy involving terrorists, aliens, and the highest levels of government. What was the initial idea behind this story and how did that transform as you were writing the novel?
The plot of BC9 was born of two initial premises.
First, as a kid, I loved anything with fighter planes, especially fighter planes in space. Many shows and movies featured the brash young male fighter pilot of which we’re all familiar, but few works of fiction starred a female lead pilot. The more I thought about it, the more I was convinced a female lead would give a story a different feel, and it hadn’t been done nearly as often, so I rolled with it.
Second, we’re all familiar with the standard alien invasion story. Powerful aliens hover their gigantic motherships over our big cities. The human military is powerless against them, can’t punch through their shields, etc. Just when all hope seems lost, we humans find the one glaring weakness that will defeat these intelligent yet negligent invaders and hallelujah! The world is saved and everyone bands together in harmony. Can I get an eye-roll, please? With that in mind, I thought to myself, “How can I turn that premise upside down and leverage it to my advantage?” I thus had the antagonists in BC9 use a seemingly cliché alien invasion in a very non-cliché way to push their agenda.
I felt that the technology and science in Beyond Cloud Nine were delivered in such a way that anyone could understand it. Was this by design?
Absolutely. I seek to make my writing accessible to as wide of an audience as possible. I try to take after Arthur C. Clarke, who was a master of taking complex scientific concepts and simplifying them into an easy, breezy read.
The editor of BC9 deserves a lot of credit for teaching me the difference between telling, showing, and experiencing. We’ve all heard that an author should show rather than tell–most of the time; there are instances where telling makes sense. Don’t just write that something happened (telling). Write descriptive language that demonstrates it happening (showing). However, there’s another level beyond showing that better speaks to readers. Don’t just show something happening. Show how it affects the character, physically, mentally, and emotionally (experiencing). Rather than bogging readers down with the technical details of how something works (a pitfall some hard science fiction authors fall into), I try to place my focus on how technology and events affect people.
Brooke Davis is an interesting and well developed female character. What were the driving ideals that drove the characters development throughout the story?
With Brooke, I definitely indulged my inner pessimist. I took everything that annoys me and magnified it tenfold. Also, as discussed earlier, I tried to create a lead that contrasted with the typical suave fighter jock. Brooke is anti-social. You won’t find her in bars tossing back shots.
The guilt of believing she killed her father taints her perception of everything.
A main story arc that’s every bit as important as whether the antagonists are defeated is her journey to work through that guilt and grow.
I find a problem in well written stories, in that I always want there to be another book to keep the story going. Where does Brooke Davis’s character go in the second novel?
The sequel, Beyond the Horizon (Beyond Saga Book 2), was published in May 2016. It stars Brooke’s niece, Maya, as the girl embarks upon humankind’s first interstellar mission. Brooke plays a critical supporting role even though she remains in the Sol system. “Demoted” to a civilian flight instructor because of her actions at the end of BC9, Brooke seeks to earn her way back into a cockpit. When she learns of the tragedy awaiting the interstellar mission, she takes a series of bold actions to try to get out to Gliese 581 to save her niece and the mission.
While we’re on the subject of sequels, I just sent Beyond Yesterday (Beyond Saga Book 3) off to the editor. The third installment in the tetralogy should be available in the summer of 2017.
Author Links: GoodReads | Twitter | Facebook | Website
Ace star fighter pilot Brooke Davis lives for pushing hundreds of gees in orbital combat, but she’d give it all up in a moment to become the first human to fly faster than light. When Brooke stumbles upon a conspiracy involving terrorists, aliens, and the highest levels of government, she finds their goals seductive but their methods abhorrent. With the moral core of human civilization hanging in the balance, she must risk her shot at history, her family, and her life to prevent the schemers from forcing their nefarious brand of salvation upon the solar system.
I Dove Into This Dystopian World
Mark Tullius Author Interview
25 Perfect Days Plus 5 More chronicles the path into a hellish future of food shortages, contaminated water, sweeping incarceration, radical religion, and extreme population control. What was the spark that made you want to write a book with such dystopian themes?
The idea for 25 Perfect Days came about after my wife suggested that I connect “5 Minutes Alone” and “Four Percent,” two short stories I’d been trying to publish. Once I saw the possibilities, I dove into this dystopian world. I had been spending a lot of time researching police brutality, government conspiracies, and the abuse of human rights, so this was my chance to work through the anger I had toward these injustices.
There is a large cast of characters in this novel. What was your favorite character to write for and why?
Tough question, but I have to go with Michael Adams, the father in “Five Minutes Alone.” I reworked this story several times, even after it’d been published, because my perspective changed after I became a father. I forced this character to make a very difficult decision and discovered a lot about him in the process.
The novel is really a collection of short stories, much like the novel World War Z. Why did you choose this format to tell the story?
I began my writing career with short stories and absolutely love being able to tell a story in just a matter of pages. The short story format however comes with many limitations, especially when protagonists routinely die and there are hard-to-find connections between stories. I intended each of the stories to be capable of standing alone, but also add something to the overall collection. One of my favorite aspects of this format is that I could pop right back into it and expand it to showcase a new character or an unjust law as I did with 5 More Perfect Days (included in the bonus edition.)
In 25 Perfect Days Plus 5 More you tackle a lot of extreme social viewpoints. Do you think there is anything today that you once thought only fiction, but has become reality?
I’m afraid I haven’t been all that creative in imagining some of these desperate situations, as I’ve simply exaggerated what is already taking place in different parts of the world. Outlawing homosexuality, the use of indentured servants, our dependency on technology, the corruption and oppressive potential of both religion and government. The biggest compliment I’ve been given in reviews is that 25 has made readers consider their rights and how important they are to hold onto.
What is the next book that you are writing and when will that be published?
Early 2017 I will be releasing Unlocking the Cage which documents my four-year journey where I traveled to 25 states and over 100 gyms to interview 400 MMA fighters. Summer will mark my return to fiction with Try Not to Die: In Brightside and Ain’t No Messiah.
Author Links: GoodReads | Twitter | Facebook | Website | Youtube
25 Perfect Days, named one of IndieReader’s Best Indie Books for 2013, just got better with the addition of 5 More Perfect Days. A totalitarian state doesn’t just happen overnight. It’s a slow, dangerous slide. 25 Perfect Days Plus 5 More chronicles the path into a hellish future of food shortages, contaminated water, sweeping incarceration, an ultra-radical religion, and the extreme measures taken to reduce the population. Through twenty-five interlinked stories, each written from a different character’s point of view, 25 Perfect Days captures the sacrifice, courage, and love needed to survive and eventually overcome this dystopian nightmare.
Death Leaders
It’s 2031. Crime and violence plague the city of Chicago. The government constantly tracks its people with small hardware implanted into each citizen’s neck. At the same time, another organization, possibly even more powerful than the US government, is working in the shadows – completing their own macabre agenda. Chris, once a homeless orphan, is rising quickly through the ranks of this organization. Having been adopted by a very old man who is well-known throughout the organization, many are jealous of Chris and his high pedigree, making it even harder for him to perform his grave responsibilities.
In this way Kendra Hadnott sets up what happens next in her delightful new novel Death Leaders, a tight, well-written yarn. Death Leaders is Hadnott’s 6th novel, and is a work from a writer with experience, insight, and imagination. The writing and dialogue is fluid, allowing you to simply become engrossed in the story. Her characters’ emotions and actions are believable and empathetic, you find yourself rooting for Chris and then questioning if you should be. And lastly, the dystopian setting and story keeps you enthralled throughout.
After receiving a confusing new assignment related to a young local woman, Chris begins to take careful first steps, knowing his reputation and future in the organization depend on it. As he becomes more acquainted with this girl, he begins to sympathize with her, wondering about her past and becoming smitten by her good looks. But as he continues moving forward, he realizes that someone else, possibly from his very own organization, is stepping in and complicating the situation. He doesn’t know why someone is interfering or even how far up the organization’s ladder this conspiracy goes. Is it just jealousy of his father, or is it something else? After turning to his friends for help, he realizes that even they are keeping secrets from him.
In the same vein as Hunger Games and Divergent, Hadnott creates a not-so-average teen who is trying to make sense of his personal life, as well as how he fits into a larger system. Death Leaders is well-written and gripping. The characters’ backgrounds, feelings, and motives are well fleshed-out, and the setting is appropriately creepy, tinged with a dark side that is just enough. This definitely has crossover appeal – enjoyable for both young adults and parents alike. This isn’t just a novel that revels in the dystopian worlds that are so popular right now. Sure, the setting is exciting and fascinating – a dismal future, where the population has little freedom and where certain random ‘life’ events aren’t quite random. But, like the Hunger Games trilogy, the real appeal is the focus on characters’ emotions, actions, and motives. It’s all just set in an incredibly detailed and rich backdrop that keeps us wondering what will happen next.
Pages: 131 | B01C1WUTVO
