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Tuesday, January 31, 2017

Interview with Thoraiya Dyer


Please welcome Thoraiya Dyer to The Qwillery as part of the 2017 Debut Author Challenge interviews. Crossroads of Canopy is published on January 31st by Tor Books.

Please join The Qwillery in wishing Thoraiya a Happy Publication Day!







TQWelcome back to The Qwillery. When and why did you start writing?

Thoraiya:  Thank you! And this is a tough question. I’ve said before that most children write stories, so the real question should be, why do some people stop? Some of my earliest writing was as a shy schoolchild attempting to make friends, often by casting my peers as humorously inept superheroes. Sometimes it worked!



TQAre you a plotter, a pantser or a hybrid?

Thoraiya:  Plotters go well with deadlines and I’ve trained hard to become one.



TQWhat is the most challenging thing for you about writing?

Thoraiya:  Telling people I’m a writer. Hahaha!



TQWhat has influenced / influences your writing?

Thoraiya:  Oh, almost everything, but most obviously the natural environment, history, mythology and modern scientific advancements.



TQDescribe Crossroads of Canopy in 140 characters or less, like a tweet.

Thoraiya:  Like a tweet, you say? What about:

TFW magic trees are 5x the height of the Eiffel Tower & your sister falls out of one #doh #CrossroadsofCanopy



TQTell us something about Crossroads of Canopy that is not found in the book description.

Thoraiya:  My main character, Unar, is creeped out by fish. Her phobia is borrowed shamelessly from a writer friend of mine. She knows who she is!



TQWhat inspired you to write Crossroads of Canopy? What appeals to you about writing Fantasy?

Thoraiya:  I’m going to answer that first part by quoting a previous interview: “I still have the bit of scrap paper I first wrote the idea on. It reads: “Write an epic fantasy novel about a tropical rainforest where countries are not horizontal, but vertical, and defended by magic.” I started writing Crossroads of Canopy after a trip to Cairns and the rainforests up there in tropical Queensland. All the other rainforests I’d been to wanted to come to the party as well – Nepalese forests, Canadian ones, Tasmanian and Singaporean and New Zealander. I put my version of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon in there because of a book on ancient civilisations that my Dad brought back from Lebanon for me.”

The freedom to explore the seeming-impossible is what appeals to me about fantasy. (Science fiction too, it’s just that it requires slightly more justification, if no less extrapolation.) If you can’t imagine a better society, you can’t build one, and if you can’t think up wildly imaginative theories of life, sentience, time and space, you can’t hope to scientifically prove or disprove them.



TQWhat sort of research did you do for Crossroads of Canopy?

Thoraiya:  Aside from walking around in a *lot* of rainforests, which was easy because I love them, I read a mountain of books, visited many megafaunal-fossil-filled museums, and dredged up a whole bunch of travel experiences I was fortunate enough to have.



TQPlease tell us about Crossroads of Canopy's cover?

Thoraiya:  It’s so pretty! It captures all the danger and mystery I tried to convey. And it’s green! : http://www.tor.com/2016/05/18/cover-reveals-thoraiya-dyer-crossroads-of-canopy-marc-simonetti/



TQIn Crossroads of Canopy who was the easiest character to write and why? The hardest and why?

Thoraiya:  The easiest characters to write were the three brothers, because I could hear their voices so clearly and distinctly from the very beginning. The hardest was the main antagonist. It took some time to get that character right. Because who likes trying to understand why damaged people do despicable things?



TQWhy have you chosen to include or not chosen to include social issues in Crossroads of Canopy?

Thoraiya:  The only fantasy novels without social issues are ones without any societies. Can you think of any? I can’t. Inequality is a recurring theme in the history of humankind. Also today and inevitably tomorrow.



TQWhich question about Crossroads of Canopy do you wish someone would ask? Ask it and answer it!

Thoraiya:  Does “path” rhyme with “hearth”? The answer is: sometimes. Hahaha!



TQGive us one or two of your favorite non-spoilery quotes from Crossroads of Canopy.

Thoraiya:

‘ “I can’t see the future,” Odel said. “Not yours, anyway. It’s only the deaths of children that I see. Since I turned sixteen, whenever I close my eyes, it’s little children falling that fill my dreams. I am the forty-fourth incarnation of Odel and I will find no peace until I die. Here’s a thing that I have learned, little Gardener. Sometimes, it’s best to not be chosen.” ’ – end Chapter 9



TQWhat's next?

Thoraiya:  What’s next is the second book in the series, Echoes of Understorey! In Book #2, I’ve tackled a warrior protagonist to follow on the heels of my magic-wielding one, and it was fun to write a story centred on Imeris, who is so different to Unar.



TQThank you for joining us again at The Qwillery.

Thoraiya:  Thank you for having me back!





Crossroads of Canopy
Titan's Forest 1
Tor Books, January 31, 2017
Hardcover and eBook,336 pages

The highly-anticipated fantasy debut from Aurealis and Ditmar Award-winning author Thoraiya Dyer, set in a giant mythical rainforest controlled by living gods

At the highest level of a giant forest, thirteen kingdoms fit seamlessly together to form the great city of Canopy. Thirteen goddesses and gods rule this realm and are continuously reincarnated into human bodies. Canopy’s position in the sun, however, is not without its dark side. The nation’s opulence comes from the labor of slaves, and below its fruitful boughs are two other realms: Understorey and Floor, whose deprived citizens yearn for Canopy’s splendor.

Unar, a determined but destitute young woman, escapes her parents’ plot to sell her into slavery by being selected to serve in the Garden under the goddess Audblayin, ruler of growth and fertility. As a Gardener, she wishes to become Audblayin’s next Bodyguard while also growing sympathetic towards Canopy's slaves.

When Audblayin dies, Unar sees her opportunity for glory – at the risk of descending into the unknown dangers of Understorey to look for a newborn god. In its depths, she discovers new forms of magic, lost family connections, and murmurs of a revolution that could cost Unar her chance…or grant it by destroying the home she loves.

“I am majorly impressed with Thoraiya Dyer's Crossroads of Canopy. A unique, gorgeous, and dangerous world, a stubborn female hero, and a writer to watch!”—Tamora Pierce





About Thoraiya Dyer

Photo by Cat Sparks
THORAIYA DYER is an Australian writer whose more than 30 short stories, as well as a novella and short fiction collection published since 2008 have racked up 7 wins from 17 Aurealis and Ditmar Award nominations between them. Her debut fantasy TITAN'S FOREST TRILOGY is published by Tor Books.








Website  ~  Twitter @ThoraiyaDyer 




Lush Fantasy Tale AFAR coming in March from Image Comics


Press Release


LUSH FANTASY TALE AFAR POISED
TO BE YA CROSSOVER HIT
Original graphic novel coming this March

Writer Leila del Duca (series artist and co-creator of SHUTTER) teams up with artist Kit Seaton (The Black Bull of Norroway) for the coming-of-age fantasy tale AFAR, coming this March from Image Comics.

In a fantastical postindustrial desert, fifteen-year-old Boetema suddenly develops the ability to astrally project to other planets while she sleeps. When she accidentally gets a young man hurt on a planet light-years away, she must figure out a way to project back to save him. On her own world, Boetema’s parents have temporarily left her and her thirteen-year-old brother, Inotu, to make a living as salt shepherds. Left to their own devices, the two siblings must flee across a dangerous desert when Inotu gets into trouble with a threatening cyborg bodyguard. As Boetema visits amazing planets and encounters vibrant cultures, she must confront her mistakes and learn to trust in Inotu as she navigates her newfound abilities.

"Working with Kit on this science-fantasy family adventure has been an incredible experience,” said del Duca. “Kit has taken our characters and added so much depth and beauty to the world we created. Her posing, character designs, environments, and imagination compliment the script delightfully and I'm very happy with AFAR, our first collaboration in a genre we both adore."

"It has been my great to joy to work with Leila del Duca on this book,” said Seaton. “Leila has woven an epic fantasia about a vibrant young woman with a talent for traversing galaxies when she sleeps, and her clever yet naive younger brother, who has a knack for finding trouble. Leila is a skilled storyteller who will leave you craving the next adventure."

AFAR OGN (ISBN: 978-1-63215-941-0) hits comic book stores on Wednesday, March 29th and bookstores on Tuesday, April 4th. It may be ordered by retailers with Diamond code JAN170641, and it is available for preorder via Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Indiebound, and Indigo.

Advance praise for AFAR:

"I love how del Duca, Seaton, and [editor] Stotts create a comic that touches on
mindfulness. Boetema is a new kind of hero who achieves a higher mental state
through her dreams. Created by some very imaginative artists, AFAR is a world of
infinite possibilities.” —Nick Dragotta (EAST OF WEST, HOWTOONS)

"Leila and Kit have managed to create a story with emotional depth, cosmic scale,
lavish designs, and characters that are truly unique. In a cultural landscape of reboots,
sequels and adaptations, AFAR stands out as a very promising collaboration between
two gifted storytellers." —Benjamin Dewey (AUTUMNLANDS, Tragedy Series,
Beasts of Burden)

"AFAR is an absolutely beautiful debut from writer Leila del Duca and artist Kit Seaton
which solidifies the pair as a creative team to watch." —Joe Keatinge (SHUTTER,
GLORY, and RINGSIDE)

"A strange, beautiful world and fascinating, tough characters makes AFAR a riveting
read. Gorgeous artwork, too!" —Faith Erin Hicks (The Nameless City, The
Adventures of Superhero Girl)










ABOUT IMAGE COMICS
Image Comics is a comic book and graphic novel publisher founded in 1992 by a collective of best-selling artists. Image has since gone on to become one of the largest comics publishers in the United States. Image currently has five partners: Robert Kirkman, Erik Larsen, Todd McFarlane, Marc Silvestri and Jim Valentino. It consists of five major houses: Todd McFarlane Productions, Top Cow Productions, Shadowline, Skybound and Image Central. Image publishes comics and graphic novels in nearly every genre, sub-genre, and style imaginable. It offers science fiction, fantasy, romance, horror, crime fiction, historical fiction, humor and more by the finest artists and writers working in the medium today. For more information, visit www.imagecomics.com.

Monday, January 30, 2017

The View From Monday - January 30, 2017


Happy last Monday in January!

There is one debut this week:

Crossroads of Canopy (Titan's Forest 1) by Thoraiya Dyer.

Clicking on a novel's cover will take you to its Amazon page.



From formerly featured DAC Authors:

The Hanging Tree (Rivers of London 6) by Ben Aaronovitch;

In the Shadow of Lakecrest by Elizabeth Blackwell;

Bookburners by Max Gladstone, Margaret Dunlap, Mur Lafferty, and Brian Francis Slattery;

A Criminal Magic by Lee Kelly is out in Trade Paperback;

Six Wakes by Mur Lafferty;

Ashes to Fire by Emily B. Martin;

Murder Go Round (A Witch City Mystery 4) by Carol J. Perry;

Justice Ascending (The Scorpius Syndrome 3) by Rebecca Zanetti.

Clicking on a novel's cover will take you to its Amazon page.






Debut novels are highlighted in green. Novels, etc. by formerly featured DAC Authors are highlighted in blue.

January 31, 2017
TITLEAUTHORSERIES
The Hanging Tree Ben Aaronovitch UF/DF - Rivers of London 6
Fire Touched (h2mm) Patricia Briggs UF - Mercy Thompson 9
We Can Remember It for You Wholesale and Other Classic Stories Philip K. Dick SF - Collection
Crossroads of Canopy (D) Thoraiya Dyer F - Titan's Forest 1
The Weird and the Eerie Mark Fisher LC/H/Sup
Bookburners Max Gladstone
Margaret Dunlap
Mur Lafferty
Brian Francis Slattery
UF - Bookburners
Rise: A Newsflesh Collection (h2mm) Mira Grant SF/AP/PA - Newsflesh Novellas
Bloodline (h2tp) Claudia Gray SF - Star Wars
A Criminal Magic (h2tp) Lee Kelly HistF
Pet Sematary (ri) Stephen King H
Six Wakes Mur Lafferty SF
The Undoing (tp2mm) Shelly Laurenston FR/PNR - Call Of Crows 2
God Save the Queen (h2mm) Kate Locke SP - The Immortal Empire 1
The Seer (tp2mm) Sonia Orin Lyris F
Ashes to Fire (e) Emily B. Martin F
Binti: Home Nnedi Okorafor SF/AC - Binti 2
Murder Go Round Carol J. Perry PCM - A Witch City Mystery 4
The Long Cosmos (h2mm) Terry Pratchett
Stephen Baxter
SF - Long Earth 5
The Islanders Christopher Priest AH/SF
2084: The End of the World Boualem Sansal LF/Pol/Dys
The Ghoul Vendetta Lisa Shearin UF -  SPI Files 4
The Machine James Smythe LF
Gotham: Dawn of Darkness Jason Starr Media Tie-In/Th/CF - Gotham
Age of Myth (h2mm) Michael J. Sullivan F/HistF - The Legends of the First Empire 1
Resident Evil: The Final Chapter Tim Waggoner Media Tie-In/H/SF - Resident Evil
Headlong Flight Dayton Ward SF - Star Trek: The Next Generation
The Sword of the South (tp2mm) David Weber F - War God  4
Justice Ascending Rebecca Zanetti SF/AP/PA/R - The Scorpius Syndrome 3



February 1, 2017
TITLEAUTHORSERIES
In the Shadow of Lakecrest Elizabeth Blackwell Gothic
Plague of the Manitou (h2tp) Graham Masterton H - A 'Manitou' Horror Novel 7



D - Debut
e - eBook
Ed - Editor
h2mm - Hardcover to Mass Market Paperback
h2tp - Hardcover to Trade Paperback
Ke - Kindly only eBook
mm - Mass Market Paperback
ri - reissue or reprint
tp2mm - Trade to Mass Market Paperback



AC - Alien Contact
AH - Alternate History
AP - Apocalyptic
CF - Contemporary Fantasy
CoA - Coming of Age
CW - Contemporary Women
FairyT - Fairy Tales
FL - Family Life
FolkT - Folk Tales
FR - Fantasy Romance
GB - Genre Bender
GenEng - Genetic Engineering
GH - Ghosts
GN - Graphic Novel
H - Horror
HC - History and Criticism
HistF - Historical Fantasy
HU - Humor
LC - Literary Criticism
LF - Literary Fiction
LM - Legends and Mythology
M - Mystery
Meta - Metaphysical
MR - Magical Realism
Occ - Occult
P - Paranormal
PA - Post Apocalyptic
PCM - Paranormal Cozy Mystery
PM - Paranormal Mystery
PNR - Paranormal Romance
Pol - Political
Psy - Psychological
PsyTh - Psychological Thriller
R - Romance
SF - Science Fiction
SFR - Science Fiction Romance
SH - Superheroes
SO - Steampunk
Sup - Supernatural
SupM - Supernatural Mystery
TechTh - Technological Thriller
Th - Thriller
TT - Time Travel
UF - Urban Fantasy
UFR - Urban Fantasy Romance
Vis - Visionary


Note: Not all genres and formats are found in the books, etc. listed above.

Sunday, January 29, 2017

Melanie's Week in Review - January 29, 2017




Hello reader. I was really hoping to knock your socks off with an over the top Week in Review to take our collective minds off the news. However, the news is pretty much all I have been reading in the last week and none of it was good. I did find some time for a couple of short stories.  So this week this WIR is going to be short and sweet.


Seanan McGuire is back with this poignant short story (or maybe it was a novella?) of Jenna, the girl who died before her time. Jenna life was cut too short when she died not long after her sister Patty. Jenna is now a ghost living out her allotted time as a volunteer at a suicide prevention hotline and saving elderly cats. When ghosts start to go missing Jenna maybe the only one who can save them.

McGuire doesn't fail to produce interesting plotlines and Dusk or Dark or Dawn or Day does not disappoint. Jenna is clearly still mourning the loss of her sister decades before and McGuire allows that feeling to pervade every page of this story. This is a story that is truly bitter sweet. McGuire is always worth a read.


Ilona Andrews posted on their blog that she had read Stephanie Burgis' short story The Art of Deception and I decided to give it a go. This is the story of a down on his luck swordsman Niko and his landlord/girlfriend Julia. When Julia gets a summons home Niko reluctantly agrees to join her. What neither was expecting is their pasts catching up with them...and almost killing them. Swords and sorcery is a deadly combination.

I enjoyed this story and was quite disappointed when it came to an end. Niko and Julia were a couple I could easily read more about. Alas, the story was over too soon. Definitely worth a read especially if you are a fan of short stories.


That is it for me this week. Apologies this is a short one and I hope to have more to tell you about next week. Until then Happy Reading.





Dusk or Dark or Dawn or Day
Tor.com, January 10, 2017
Trade Paperback and eBook, 192 pages

When her sister Patty died, Jenna blamed herself. When Jenna died, she blamed herself for that, too. Unfortunately Jenna died too soon. Living or dead, every soul is promised a certain amount of time, and when Jenna passed she found a heavy debt of time in her record. Unwilling to simply steal that time from the living, Jenna earns every day she leeches with volunteer work at a suicide prevention hotline.
But something has come for the ghosts of New York, something beyond reason, beyond death, beyond hope; something that can bind ghosts to mirrors and make them do its bidding. Only Jenna stands in its way.

Dusk or Dark or Dawn or Day is a new standalone urban fantasy novella from New York Times bestselling author Seanan McGuire.





The Art of Deception
Five Fathoms Press, August 9, 2016
eBook, 48 pages
Review Copy: Reviewer's Own

Niko Hrabanic was once a famous swordsman. But after a scandal-laden departure from his last job at a royal court, he's now hiding out in a rural inn, making himself useful to his attractive landlady in all sorts of ways that don't actually involve paying rent...

...until a summons from the mysterious and dangerous White Library shakes up his life all over again. His landlady, it turns out, has secrets of her own. Now Hrabanic and Julia will have to confront both of their pasts - and if they're going to have any hope of survival, they'll need both Hrabanic's sword arm and Julia's magical training.

It's time for them to become experts at the art of deception.

*Shortlisted for the 2016 WSFA Small Press Award for Short Fiction*

The Art of Deception is a 12,400-word novelette full of swordfighting, banter, and a twisty plot. It was originally published in the 2015 anthology Insert Title Here, ed. Tehani Wessely (FableCroft Press).

Saturday, January 28, 2017

2017 Debut Author Challenge Cover Wars - January Winner


The winner of the January 2017 Debut Author Challenge Cover Wars is Crossroads of Canopy by Thoraiya Dyer from Tor Books. The cover art is by Marc Simonetti.


Crossroads of Canopy
Titan's Forest 1
Tor Books, January 31, 2017
Hardcover and eBook, 336 pages

The highly-anticipated fantasy debut from Aurealis and Ditmar Award-winning author Thoraiya Dyer, set in a giant mythical rainforest controlled by living gods

At the highest level of a giant forest, thirteen kingdoms fit seamlessly together to form the great city of Canopy. Thirteen goddesses and gods rule this realm and are continuously reincarnated into human bodies. Canopy’s position in the sun, however, is not without its dark side. The nation’s opulence comes from the labor of slaves, and below its fruitful boughs are two other realms: Understorey and Floor, whose deprived citizens yearn for Canopy’s splendor.

Unar, a determined but destitute young woman, escapes her parents’ plot to sell her into slavery by being selected to serve in the Garden under the goddess Audblayin, ruler of growth and fertility. As a Gardener, she wishes to become Audblayin’s next Bodyguard while also growing sympathetic towards Canopy's slaves.

When Audblayin dies, Unar sees her opportunity for glory – at the risk of descending into the unknown dangers of Understorey to look for a newborn god. In its depths, she discovers new forms of magic, lost family connections, and murmurs of a revolution that could cost Unar her chance…or grant it by destroying the home she loves.

“I am majorly impressed with Thoraiya Dyer's Crossroads of Canopy. A unique, gorgeous, and dangerous world, a stubborn female hero, and a writer to watch!”—Tamora Pierce



The Results




The January 2017 Debuts


Marvel Entertainment And Square Enix Team Up For Multi-Year, Multi-Game Creative Partnership

Press Release

PRNewsFoto/Square Enix, Inc.

Marvel Entertainment And Square Enix Team Up For Multi-Year, Multi-Game Creative Partnership
Original Blockbuster Games in Development at Award-Winning Square Enix Studios Crystal Dynamics and Eidos-Montréal

GLENDALE, Calif. and TOKYO, Jan. 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Marvel Entertainment and SQUARE ENIX® today announced a new multi-year, multi-game licensing agreement to develop and publish original games based on beloved Marvel Super Heroes, beginning with The Avengers. This newly established partnership pairs the creative minds at Marvel and Square Enix for one of the most powerful alliances in interactive entertainment. The first blockbuster game is being crafted by Crystal Dynamics®, developers of the award winning TOMB RAIDER® series, in collaboration with Eidos-Montréal, the home of the critically acclaimed and award-winning DEUS EX game series.

The Avengers project is being designed for gamers worldwide and will be packed with all the characters, environments, and iconic moments that have thrilled longtime fans of the franchise. Featuring a completely original story, it will introduce a universe gamers can play in for years to come. More details on The Avengers project and other games will be announced in 2018.

The world premiere teaser trailer of The Avengers project can be seen here.

"By partnering with Crystal Dynamics and Eidos-Montréal, we are now working with two of the industry's most talented and respected game development studios to bring Marvel stories to life in ways our fans have never experienced," said Jay Ong, Senior Vice President, Games & Innovation, Marvel Entertainment. "The Avengers project is a perfect example of how Marvel is making games a key part of the landscape for Marvel storytelling, alongside comics, television and film. We can only do this by matching our greatest Super Heroes with the world's top developers, such as the creative minds at Square Enix."

"Marvel's diverse, innovative universe has created millions of longtime fans, including all of us," said Phil Rogers, CEO, Square Enix Americas and Europe. "It's exciting to bring together Square Enix's award-winning development studios with Marvel's extraordinary storytellers to establish a new entertainment powerhouse. This collaboration of passion and talent will craft epic, imaginative experiences allowing gamers to live out their Super Hero dreams like never before."

Crystal Dynamics is the studio behind the critically acclaimed and world-famous TOMB RAIDER franchise, which has sold over 48 million copies worldwide. With over 30 video game titles released and hundreds of awards, the heroine Lara Croft has been a cultural icon for 20 years and has made an indelible mark on virtually every facet of entertainment. The most recent release, Rise of the Tomb Raider®, has received over 100 awards and nominations and is one of the highest rated games on next generation systems.

Eidos-Montréal is the award-winning studio behind the relaunch of the DEUS EX series. In 2011, the studio made its mark with the critically acclaimed Deus Ex: Human Revolution®. Its sequel, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided™, was released in 2016 and received more than 100 awards and nominations.

About Square Enix, Inc.
Square Enix, Inc. develops, publishes, distributes and licenses SQUARE ENIX®, EIDOS® and TAITO® branded entertainment content throughout the Americas as part of the Square Enix group of companies. Square Enix, Inc. is affiliated with a global network of leading development studios such as IO Interactive™, Crystal Dynamics®, and Eidos Montréal. The Square Enix group of companies boasts a valuable portfolio of intellectual property including: FINAL FANTASY, which has sold over 115 million units worldwide; DRAGON QUEST®, which has sold over 68 million units worldwide; TOMB RAIDER®, which has sold over 48 million units worldwide; and the legendary SPACE INVADERS®. Square Enix, Inc. is a U.S.-based, wholly-owned subsidiary of Square Enix Holdings Co., Ltd.

More information on Square Enix, Inc. can be found at http://www.na.square-enix.com. For more information on Crystal Dynamics, please visit http://www.crystald.com, their Twitter account, or their LinkedIn page. For more information about Eidos-Montreal, please visit https://eidosmontreal.com/, their Twitter account, or their LinkedIn page.

About Marvel Entertainment
Marvel Entertainment, LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company, is one of the world's most prominent character-based entertainment companies, built on a proven library of more than 8,000 characters featured in a variety of media over seventy-five years. Marvel utilizes its character franchises in entertainment, licensing and publishing. For more information visit marvel.com. © 2017 MARVEL

SQUARE ENIX, the SQUARE ENIX logo, CRYSTAL DYNAMICS, the CRYSTAL DYNAMICS logo, EIDOS-MONTREAL, the EIDOS-MONTREAL logo, TOMB RAIDER, RISE OF THE TOMB RAIDER, LARA CROFT, DEUS EX, DEUS EX: HUMAN REVOLUTION, DEUS EX: MANKIND DIVIDED, IO INTERACTIVE, TAITO, FINAL FANTASY, DRAGON QUEST and SPACE INVADERS are registered trademarks or trademarks of the Square Enix group of companies.


The world premiere teaser trailer:


Meredith Finch and Ig Guara Launch New High Fantasy in Rose


Press Release


WONDER WOMAN WRITER MEREDITH FINCH
AND IG GUARA LAUNCH NEW HIGH FANTASY IN
ROSE

Bestselling writer Meredith Finch (Wonder Woman, Little Mermaid) and fan-favorite artist Ig Guara (Batman: Arkham Knight, Blue Beetle, The Ravagers) team up for their first creator-owned series with Image Comics in ROSE—an all-new fantasy series set to launch this April.

ROSE is a classic fantasy tale about a girl trying to restore balance to a broken world. Rose must connect with her Khat—Thorne—to become the Guardian the world needs. But things aren’t easy for Rose and Thorne, as the powerful sorcerous Drucilla has many powerful and demonic allies—all of them focused on stopping one scared little girl who’s desperately trying to stay alive and do what’s right.

“Ever since I was a little girl, I have loved fantasy fiction,” said Finch. “Rose, for me, more than anything is a love letter to that genre. Having the opportunity to publish Rose, a book that means so much to me, through Image, a company that has established itself as the premier publisher of creator-driven comics, only makes this experience that much more special."

The new series will also feature a Cover B by revered artist David Finch.

ROSE #1 Cover A by Guara (Diamond Code FEB170548) and Cover B by David Finch (Diamond Code FEB170549) will hit stores on Wednesday, April 12th. The final order cutoff deadline for comics retailers is Monday, March 20th.




ABOUT IMAGE COMICS
Image Comics is a comic book and graphic novel publisher founded in 1992 by a collective of best-selling artists. Image has since gone on to become one of the largest comics publishers in the United States. Image currently has five partners: Robert Kirkman, Erik Larsen, Todd McFarlane, Marc Silvestri and Jim Valentino. It consists of five major houses: Todd McFarlane Productions, Top Cow Productions, Shadowline, Skybound and Image Central. Image publishes comics and graphic novels in nearly every genre, sub-genre, and style imaginable. It offers science fiction, fantasy, romance, horror, crime fiction, historical fiction, humor and more by the finest artists and writers working in the medium today. For more information, visit www.imagecomics.com.

Redneck (Southern Vampires) to Launch in April


Press Release


THE SOUTHERN VAMPIRES IN SKYBOUND’S
REDNECK WILL PUT TRUE BLOOD TO SHAME

Donny Cates (GOD COUNTRY) teams up with artist Lisandro Estherren and colorist Dee Cunniffe for an all-new Southern vampire series—REDNECK—set to launch this April from Image Comics/Skybound Entertainment.

The Bowmans are vampires who have quietly run the local barbecue joint in their small town for years, living off cow's blood. Their peaceful coexistence ends as generations of hate, fear, and bad blood bubble to the surface—making it impossible to separate man from monster!

"Redneck is truly a dream come true for me as a storyteller, and to be able to tell this story on a stage as nice as Skybound and Image have given us? I don't think it gets better than that,” said Cates. “Redneck is deeply personal for me, and I think will be for a lot of people out there as well. It's a story about a family's quest to turn themselves into more than the monsters they've always been. To find a little peace in a world that hates them. It ain't gonna be easy, and it's sure as hell gonna be bloody. But it might just be the best time you've ever had reading a book about vampires!"

REDNECK serves up the tale—of a different kind—of family just trying to get by, deep in the heart of Texas.

REDNECK #1 (Diamond Code FEB170570) hits stores on Wednesday, April 19th. The final order cutoff deadline for comics retailers is Monday, March 27th.





ABOUT IMAGE COMICS
Image Comics is a comic book and graphic novel publisher founded in 1992 by a collective of best-selling artists. Image has since gone on to become one of the largest comics publishers in the United States. Image currently has five partners: Robert Kirkman, Erik Larsen, Todd McFarlane, Marc Silvestri and Jim Valentino. It consists of five major houses: Todd McFarlane Productions, Top Cow Productions, Shadowline, Skybound and Image Central. Image publishes comics and graphic novels in nearly every genre, sub-genre, and style imaginable. It offers science fiction, fantasy, romance, horror, crime fiction, historical fiction, humor and more by the finest artists and writers working in the medium today. For more information, visit www.imagecomics.com.

ABOUT SKYBOUND ENTERTAINMENT
Founded in 2010, Skybound Entertainment is a multiplatform entertainment company specializing in television, comics, film, digital content, interactive, gaming, and merchandise. The company is led by The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman and his longtime producing and business partner David Alpert.

East of West, The Apocalypse: Year Two Coming to Deluxe Hardcover Edition


Press Release



EAST OF WEST, THE APOCALYPSE: YEAR TWO
DELUXE HARDCOVER EDITION
HITS STORES THIS MARCH

Critically-acclaimed writer Jonathan Hickman (THE BLACK MONDAY MURDERS) and artist Nick Dragotta’s EAST OF WEST, THE APOCALYPSE: YEAR TWO deluxe oversized, prestige format hardcover edition will collect the Second Year of the Apocalypse storyline—issues 16-29 of the ongoing series—and will hit stores this March.

EAST OF WEST took the comics industry by storm and defined the sci-fi/western genre crossover long before HBO’s Westworld and other similar stories tooks off in popularity. EAST OF WEST remains a fixture on the New York Times bestseller list and one of the most successful creator-owned series on the market.

EAST OF WEST, THE APOCALYPSE: YEAR TWO HC (ISBN: 978-1-5343-0059-0, Diamond Code: JAN170824) hits comic book stores on Wednesday, March 22nd. The final order cutoff deadline for comic retailers is Monday, February 27th.

EAST OF WEST, THE APOCALYPSE: YEAR TWO HC hits bookstores on Tuesday, March 28th. It is available for pre-order now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, IndieBound, and Indigo.


Select praise for EAST OF WEST:

“Like the spaghetti westerns of Sergio Leone, Hickman focuses on atmosphere and 
environment, with slow pacing and sudden quick-on-the-draw action, adding a touch of 
Lovecraftian horror and epic sci-fi for good measure... readers will want to stick around 
until the final shots are fired.” —Booklist

“Hickman’s comics, often befuddling on an issue-by-issue basis, are best enjoyed 
when they can be binge-read.” —The Ringer

East of West may be billed as a western, and while there are bonafide Indians and 
folks dressed in cowboy getup, you’ll also see mystical rituals and a landscape that 
wouldn’t be out of place in Blade Runner. Hickman has fused together just about every 
major genre you can think of to create his most ambitious story to date.” —IGN





ABOUT IMAGE COMICS
Image Comics is a comic book and graphic novel publisher founded in 1992 by a collective of best-selling artists. Image has since gone on to become one of the largest comics publishers in the United States. Image currently has five partners: Robert Kirkman, Erik Larsen, Todd McFarlane, Marc Silvestri and Jim Valentino. It consists of five major houses: Todd McFarlane Productions, Top Cow Productions, Shadowline, Skybound and Image Central. Image publishes comics and graphic novels in nearly every genre, sub-genre, and style imaginable. It offers science fiction, fantasy, romance, horror, crime fiction, historical fiction, humor and more by the finest artists and writers working in the medium today. For more information, visit www.imagecomics.com.

Friday, January 27, 2017

Interview with Paul Crilley and Review of Department Zero


Please welcome Paul Crilley to The Qwillery as part of the 2017 Debut Author Challenge interviews for his adult debut, Department Zero.







TQWelcome to The Qwillery. When and why did you start writing?

Paul:  When I first moved to South Africa I bought Life the Universe and Everything, and The Colour of Magic to read on the plane. Those were the first genre books I’d read, (even though I loved Star Wars and other SF movies.) I started reading more and more and when I was 14 realised writing was what I wanted to do. Cue lots of bad writing and terrible half-finished novels.



TQAre you a plotter, a pantser or a hybrid?

Paul:  Definitely hybrid. I start off a book with the best intentions. I’m going to have the whole thing plotted. I’m going to do all the work before I even type Chapter One. But it never works out that way. I manage to plot out the first 30k or so, get writing, and then… nothing. Well, not nothing, but this is where I have to see where the characters take me. I mean, I have a vague outline. I know the midpoint and where I need to be at the end. But everything after 30k is pantsing.



TQWhat is the most challenging thing for you about writing?

Paul:  Pausing. Giving my characters room to breathe and develop. It’s a weakness in my writing that I’m trying to fix. I always want to keep going forward. Onto the next big scene. But I need to slow down a bit, I think.



TQWhat has influenced / influences your writing?

Paul:  My biggest influences are William Gibson, Terry Pratchett, Douglas Adams, and Neil Gaiman. All those authors were read at a fundamental period in my writing development and I still feel their influence today.



TQDescribe Department Zero in 140 characters or less.

Paul:  God, you’re not asking much are you?

It’s a multiverse portal fantasy with Cthulhu mythology, buddy-cop interactions, a single dad trying to do right by his daughter, and it’s snarky.

Sorry. Didn’t quite make it to 140 characters. I think I’m 8 over.



TQTell us something about Department Zero that is not found in the book description.

Paul:  Here is a description I worked on when I was trying to boil the book down to a few paragraphs. (Not easy, I assure you.)

Harry Priest is down and out. He’s in “biohazard remediation”, which is a fancy way of saying he cleans up crime scenes for a living. He’s divorced, and the highlight of his day is when he gets to say goodnight and read a bedtime story to his daughter. (Over the phone.)

Harry and his partner Jorge stumble onto what they think is just another crime scene at an old motel in Santa Monica, and when Jorge steals some evidence form the scene, Harry finds himself chased down by Vervet monkeys with the faces of old men (that quote Shakespeare at him), spider monsters that eat your brain, various creatures from the Cthulhu mythology, and of course, the acolytes of the Old Ones.

All this brings him into contact with Havelock Graves of the Interstitial Crime Department, an agency that polices the multiverse. The ICD works the infinite number of realities from their base in Wonderland and when Graves offers Harry a job Harry accepts. (Well, he has to. He got fired from his old job.)

Unfortunately for Harry, Graves, as well as being arrogant, loud, and over the top, is also a big fat liar. The kind whose pants are on fire. His team was demoted to Department Zero after the incident at the motel, Department Zero being the lowest department in the entire ICD.) And what does Department Zero do? They clean up crime scenes. Of the supernatural kind.

Graves wants to use Harry as bait to draw out the people that got him demoted, and this brings them into contact with a cult that worships Cthulhu and wants to free him from his prison in the Dreamlands. Cue lots of bickering, travel to alternate realities, battles, incredibly strategic and fast retreats, the Spear of Destiny, Robert E Howard-type fantasy worlds, and more bickering.



TQDepartment Zero is your first Adult novel and a genre bender - Fantasy, SF, and Steampunk. How different is it to write a novel for adults? What appealed to you about mixing genres?

Paul:  I love writing for kids and adults. It sounds weird but there is a freedom to writing for kids. You can throw in more big ideas and concepts and they’ll accept them quicker than adults will. But I love writing for adults as well. It’s fun to deal with adult themes and get to swear a bit. Both are totally different and I’d do both forever if I could.

As to mixing genres, I wanted to write a funny book that had all of my favorites tropes. Banter between characters set in the modern world, secret societies, fantasy worlds, Victorian England, mad chases, Cthulhu mythology, and… I’m sure a few other genres I’m missing. I wanted to bring them all together into one book universe so I could play around with anything I wanted.



TQWhat sort of research did you do for Department Zero?

Paul:  Lots of reading about the Cthulhu mythology, the types of monsters HP Lovecraft created, the themes he explored. I wouldn’t really call it research, though. It was great fun.



TQPlease tell us about Department Zero's cover.

Paul:  I absolutely love the cover. The artist is Patrick Arrasmith and apparently he does all his work on a scratchboard. The cover does feature some easter eggs from the book, as well as easter eggs from an earlier version of the story where things had to be changed for copyright reasons. So if anyone figures that out, they earn points.



TQIn Department Zero who was the easiest character to write and why? The hardest and why?

Paul:  Havelock Graves is the easiest. He’s such an arrogant, self-righteous person, his dialogue pretty much writes itself. Harry was the hardest, because we’re in his head all the time, and I had to work in a lot of painful stuff about separation and divorce, stuff I was going through at the time. (Not too much, though. I still had to keep it fun, first and foremost.)



TQGive us one or two of your favorite non-spoilery quotes from Department Zero.

Paul:  A. I quite like the opening of a chapter when they go to an alternate London, where the War of the Worlds actually happened.

So here’s the thing. When I set off after the guy who stole the spear, I really didn’t expect to end the night chained to an altar in the ruins of St. Paul’s Cathedral while my blood is sucked from my body by a group of insane (and unfit) cultists frantically working foot pumps in an attempt to bring the rotting corpse of a Martian invader back to life.

But them’s the breaks, honey.

##

And the opening of the book:

The polite term for what I do for a living is “biohazard remediation”.

That’s what I say if anyone asks me at a dinner party. Not that I’m ever invited to dinner parties. (Megan got custody of all the friends in the divorce.) But it’s what I’d say if I was invited, and if someone was actually polite enough to approach through the chemical smell of industrial-strength cleaning products that clings to my body.

Another term for what I do is Crime and Trauma Scene Decontamination. Or CTSDecon, if you want to sound cool.

Which, basically, means that I clean up stiffs for a living.

All the stiffs. No prejudice in my line of work.

Murder? Check.

Suicide? Check.

Murder-suicide? Check.

Industrial accidents? Check.

Decomposition after unattended death? Check.

Infectious disease? Check.

Spontaneous human combustion? Check. (Not that I’ve ever had one of those, but I live in hope.)



TQWhat's next?

Paul:  I’m currently working on the sequel to Poison City, which is called Clockwork City. Poison City is out now and it’s the first in an urban fantasy series set in Durban, South Africa. It’s about Gideon “London” Tau, a man who works at the Delphic Division, a branch of the SA government that tackles supernatural crime.



TQThank you for joining us at The Qwillery.

Paul:  Thanks for having me.





Department Zero
Pyr, January 24, 2017
Trade Paperback and eBook, 301 pages
(Adult Debut)

THE END OF THE UNIVERSE IS ONLY A HOP, SKIP, AND SLIGHT STUMBLE-THROUGH-A-WORMHOLE AWAY

Harry Priest just wants to make sure his ex-wife doesn’t take away his visitation rights, and his dead-end job cleaning up crime scenes for the past ten years isn’t doing him any favors.

But when Harry attends what he thinks is a routine death, he stumbles onto a secret multiverse of alternate realities all reachable through universe-hopping gates. Policing these worlds is Havelock Graves, the Interstitial Crime Department’s top agent for ten years running (according to him).  When Harry accidentally messes with the ICD crime scene, Graves and his team are demoted as low as they can go: Department Zero. They’re recruiting Harry too—not because he charmed them, but because he just might hold the key to saving the universe . . . and getting their old jobs back.

To do this, Graves and his team set out to solve the crime that lost them their jobs. A crime that involves a cult planning to hunt down and steal the fabled Spear of Destiny in order to free the Great Old One Cthulhu from his endless sleep in the Dreamlands. (Because that’s another thing Harry soon finds out. Everything H. P. Lovecraft wrote is true. Like, everything.)

The team will have to fight its way through realities filled with Martian technology and evade mad priests (Harry’s favorite kind) in a realm of floating landmasses where magic really exists.

And Harry has to do it all in time to say good night to his daughter.



Qwill's Thoughts

Harry Priest, the main character in Paul Crilley's adult debut, is in a dead-end job as a crime scene cleaner. He's divorced and the highlight of his day is calling his daughter each night to read to her before she goes to sleep. His relationship with his ex-wife is strained. He's been a disappointment.

After being called to a crime scene site to clean up, Harry and his boss's son stumble upon something that they are not meant to see. Things go downhill from there or perhaps uphill depending on your point of view. Harry is recruited into the Interstitial Crime Department (ICD) by Havelock Graves. Graves is a larger than life self-aggrandizing agent who nevertheless gets things done. Harry thinks he will achieve his dream of fighting crime. He had wanted to be a policeman. Instead he's on crime scene clean up again with Graves and Ash (a team member of Grave's) in Department Zero, the most lowly department of the ICD.

Graves wants his old job back in the top echelon of the ICD having been demoted because of something that Harry did before he was in the ICD. This sets up a rollicking adventure for Harry and Graves as they travel the multiverses to save the everyone and everything.

Crilley does a wonderful job describing each of the multiverses and layering in much of the Cthulhu Mythos of H.P. Lovecraft. The inner workings of the ICD, how its agents travel between multiverses, and the multiverses themselves are well drawn. It's quite easy to picture each of the distinct places to which Harry and Graves travel.

There is a lot of humor in Department Zero - laugh out loud humor. Harry is wonderfully self-deprecating, funny and snarky. He seems to get himself into sticky situations with regularity. After all, he is new to the whole multiverse thing. Graves may be a buffoon at times but he is a fabulous agent. Harry and Graves make a very odd but wonderful team even though Harry wants to punch Graves with some regularity.

Crilley uses the Cthulhu Mythos to great effect in Department Zero. If you are a reader of Lovecraft you will recognize many of the Old Ones, references to the Dreamlands, and more. Crilley's take on how to wake Cthulhu and its consequences is fun and interesting. As a longtime fan of of the Cthulhu Mythos I really enjoyed that Department Zero is grounded in Lovecraft's mythology. And if you aren't familiar with Lovecraft's work (and those that wrote more in the Mythos), Crilley does a great job of explaining everything so you will not miss out at all.

Department Zero is not just fun, shooting strange beings and trying to save the world, it's also a personal journey for Harry. Being faced with death and destruction at every turn makes Harry think. He realizes things about his life, his former marriage, and who he wants to be during the course of the novel. He's really a good guy. While Graves is jaded by all he's seen, Harry is enthralled by the odd, the weird and the fantastic.

Department Zero is an exuberant ride through the multiverse. It's a spirited fantasy adventure with strange beings and worlds, nail-biting thrills and great humor.





About Paul

Paul Crilley is the author of The Osiris Curse and The Lazarus Machine. Born in Scotland in 1975, he moved to South Africa when he was eight years old. He was rather disappointed to find out that he would not, in fact, have elephants and lions strolling through his backyard. He now lives in a small village on the east coast of South Africa with his family. He writes fantasy, Young Adult, and Middle Grade books and also works in South African television. He spent a year as part of the writing team for the computer game, Star Wars: The Old Republic, and also writes comics when he can get a chance.

Amazon Author Page  ~  Facebook  ~  Goodreads  ~ Twitter @paulcrilley

Thursday, January 26, 2017

Guest Blog by Jacey Bedford - Building Half a World


Please welcome Jacey Bedford to The Qwillery! Silverwolf (Rowankind 2) was published on January 3rd by DAW.







Building Half a World
By Jacey Bedford

Thanks to Sally for inviting me to write a blog post for The Qwillery. My fourth book, Silverwolf, has just been published (by DAW). It’s a historical fantasy. Because I hop back and forth between writing science fiction and fantasy, I’ve been thinking a lot about worldbuilding.

Worldbuilding is nothing new to writers of speculative fiction. We have to do it all the time, make the background to our novels live – and that’s before we start with plot or characterisation. (Though not necessarily ‘before’ in a chronological sense as in my experience they all seem to jumble into my head at the same time.) In a contemporary novel the writer can assume that the reader will take things for granted, especially if the novel is set in a familiar Western culture. We live in a built world with houses, streets, taxicabs, aeroplanes, McDonalds, shops, televisions, the internet, shoes, breakfast cereal. In science fiction and fantasy you don’t necessarily have all that, though you may have some of it. (Will there be McDonalds on the Moon and Mars two centuries hence?)

Worldbuilding is fun because you can simply make stuff up – although, of course, it has to be logical and believable, or at least have verisimilitude. One of the (many) definitions of science fiction is that it should be believably extrapolated from science and physics as we understand them. But if your story is far enough in the future then there comes a point where all bets are off. In my Psi-Tech space opera books, I can launch a flight of fancy (literally) and as long as I make it seem real and logical, I Crossways.) And I can have my spaceships reach places in super-fast times by using a system of jump gates that make shortcuts through foldspace. The folding space concept isn’t new, of course, I’ve just added a twist to it. A twist that could change everything.
can introduce new concepts, or borrow existing tropes and play with them. I can create new worlds—worlds that have pink grass or are 98% covered in water, worlds that are dangerously exposed to their sun’s rays, or are just coming out of an ice-age. I can invent a space station which houses a million people and is run by a coalition of crimelords. (Hint: it’s called

Worldbuilding for historical fantasy is slightly different. You already have a world, fully formed, which you need to research thoroughly and then you need to add in your own world-bits while still keeping everything believable. My historical fantasies (The Rowankind Trilogy) is set in 1800 - 1802 in a Britain with magic, but the magic is subtle. At first it just looks like
the straightforward historical 1800. Ross (Rossalinde) Tremayne is an unconventional heroine because she dresses as a man and captains her own privateer ship, but that’s not flying in the face of history. There have been female pirates before. Female everything before.

I found this little newspaper snippet about a cross-dressing female whose gender wasn’t discovered for nine years. That’s not bad going in the days before everyone had personal privacy.

The first Rowankind book, Winterwood, opens in Plymouth, a town strongly tied to the ocean. I’ve visited there several times, but don’t know it all that well. I was lucky enough to find a series of detailed historical maps on the web (which sadly have disappeared since my original research). They gave me my starting point with street names and an idea of what Sutton Pool looked like at the right point in history. Thanks to Pinterest, I also found a series of Victorian photographs and earlier illustrations showing buildings in Plymouth and especially around the Barbican and Sutton Pool that were old enough to have been there in 1800. (Plymouth took a lot of bomb damage in the Second World War, so Plymouth today doesn’t always map very well on to Plymouth in 1800 except around the water line.)
Having established real, historical Plymouth I then introduced magic into the world. Oh, look over there, there are licensed witches who have their places of business near the market and offer small spells for sale as designated by the Mysterium – the government organisation that regulates magic. Then we discover that Ross is an unregistered witch, something she could hang for if they catch her. The magic unfolds from there.

There’s a race of beings, not quite human, though human enough that people have forgotten that skin that looks ash grey and has grain marks like polished wood is not normal. These are the rowankind, gentle, uncomplaining bond-servants inserted into most middle and upper class houses. Their free labour props up households and businesses, and since we’re thirty years into the Industrial Revolution, they also labour in the early manufacturies, and in peripheral jobs. No one remembers where they came from. They’ve always been there—or have they?

So far, so good. The magic blends in with early nineteenth century life as it really was. The rowankind support the industrial revolution. Nothing much is out of place—yet! As we get deeper into the book we discover more magic lurking in the background of this world. The forests are protected by the Green Man and the Forest Lady. And what’s all this talk about the Fae, surely they are just a legend? Then there’s Corwen, a wolf shapechanger who’s turned his back on his family because he thinks his family has turned its back on him.

It’s like building a wall. The bricks are the reality of history, while the mortar fills up the cracks with whatever you need to build your story. I’ve used real places and real history and built on them. The house where Corwen’s family lives is based on a country house close to where I live. When Corwen and Ross go to London in search of Corwen’s twin brother Freddie, I’ve used real streets and likely houses, plus Ross ship, the Heart of Oak anchors off Wapping Old Stairs on the Thames. These stairs were designed as access to the river in an increasingly built-up London. Wapping Old Stairs are next to a pub called
Photographed for E. Arnot Robertson's book
Thames Portrait (Macmillan, 1937).
the Town of Ramsgate, which is still there today. It changed its name a few times, from the Red Cow, to Ramsgate Town and then to the Town of Ramsgate, but the exact dates aren’t recorded. I’ve had to take my chances with guessing what research can’t tell me. With research, you get as close as you can, but sometimes, you still have to guess what the most likely option is.

For instance I needed to know who made the red coats for the British army. I could find out who commissioned them, how much they cost, and even what the rake off for the commissioning officer was, but I couldn’t find out for sure who actually plied the needle and under what conditions. (This is before the army’s factory at Pimlico was opened and before all the information on Victorian East End sweatshops becomes relevant.) In the end I had to make a guess based on what I know of the history of the time and what seems likely. Sweatshop it is, then—only this one is run by goblins
But it’s not just getting the historical facts right.

What you have to remember is that whatever you put into your story is going to make changes to history as we know it. In my world Mad King George is still mad, but that madness has a magical root. Boulton and Watt are still manufacturing steam engines, but how will that change if the factory owners discover that the rowankind can manipulate wind and water? Lighting the cities with gas is only a few years away (London’s first street was lit in 1807), but why would anyone need to invent gas lighting if the streets can be lit by magic? If a ship under full sail can be propelled by a weather witch, why would anyone need to invent the steamship?

All interesting questions which need to be answered.

In Winterwood Ross and Corwen free the rowankind from their bondage. In Silverwolf they have to deal with the ramifications of their actions. And, yes, the third book, Rowankind, is already in my head. In the meantime I’m working on Nimbus, the third Psi-Tech novel, due out in October 2017.

Cover Art by Larry Rostant

Cover Art by Stephan Martiniere





About Jacey

Jacey Bedford is a British writer from Yorkshire with over thirty short stories and four (so far) novels to her credit. She lives behind a desk in an old stone house on the edge of the Pennines with her husband and a long-haired, black German Shepherd – that’s a dog not an actual shepherd from Germany. She’s the hon. sec. of Milford SF Writers’ Conference, held annually in North Wales.

Jacey’s books:
Empire of Dust (Psi-Tech series #1)
Crossways (Psi-Tech series #2)
Nimbus (Psi-Tech series #3) Due October 2017
Winterwood (Rowankind #1)
Silverwolf (Rowankind #2)

Follow Jacey:
Web: http://www.jaceybedford.co.uk
Twitter: @jaceybedford
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jacey.bedford.writer
Blog: http://jaceybedford.wordpress.com
Milford: http://www.milfordSF.co.uk





Psi-Tech

Empire of Dust
A Psi-Tech Novel 1
DAW, November 4, 2014
Mass Market Paperback and eBook, 544 pages

Mega corporations, more powerful than any one planetary government, use their agents to race each other for resources across the galaxy. The agents, or psi-techs, are implanted with telepath technology. The psi-techs are bound to the mega-corps — that is, if they want to retain their sanity.

Cara Carlinni is an impossible thing – a runaway psi-tech. She knows Alphacorp can find its implant-augmented telepaths, anywhere, anytime, mind-to-mind. So even though it’s driving her half-crazy, she’s powered down and has been surviving on tranqs and willpower. So far, so good. It’s been almost a year, and her mind is still her own.

She’s on the run from Ari van Blaiden, a powerful executive, after discovering massive corruption in Alphacorp. Cara barely escapes his forces, yet again, on a backwater planet, and gets out just in time due to the help of straight-laced Ben Benjamin, a psi-tech Navigator for Alphacorp’s biggest company rival.

Cara and Ben struggle to survive a star-spanning manhunt, black-ops raids, and fleets of resource-hungry raiders. Betrayal follows betrayal, and friends become enemies. Suddenly the most important skill is knowing whom to trust.



Crossways
A Psi-Tech Novel 2
DAW, August 4, 2015
Mass Market Paperback and eBook, 544 pages

Ben Benjamin, psi-tech Navigator, and Cara Carlinni, Telepath, can never go home again. To the Trust and Alphacorp alike, they are wanted criminals. Murder, terrorism, armed insurrection, hijacking, grand theft, and kidnapping are just the top of a long list of charges they’ll face if they’re caught.

So they better not get caught.

These are the people who defied the megacorporations and saved a colony by selling the platinum mining rights and relocating ten thousand colonists somewhere safe, and they’re not saying where that is.

They take refuge on crimelord-run Crossways Station with the remnants of their team of renegade psi-techs and the Solar Wind, their state-of-the-art jump-drive ship. They’ve made a promise to find a missing space ark with thirty thousand settlers aboard. But to do that, Ben and Cara have to confront old enemies.

Alphacorp and the Trust: separately they are dangerous, united they are unstoppable. They want to silence Ben and Cara more than they want to upstage each other. If they have to get rid of Crossways in order to do it, they can live with that. In fact, this might be the excuse they’ve been looking for….




Rowankind

Winterwood
Rowankind 1
DAW, February 2, 2016
Mass Market Paperback and eBook, 432 pages

It’s 1800. Mad King George is on the British throne, and Bonaparte is hammering at the door. Magic is strictly controlled by the Mysterium, but despite severe penalties, not all magic users have registered.

Ross Tremayne, widowed, cross-dressing privateer captain and unregistered witch, likes her life on the high seas, accompanied by a boatload of swashbuckling pirates and the possessive ghost of her late husband, Will. When she pays a bitter deathbed visit to her long-estranged mother she inherits a half brother she didn’t know about and a task she doesn’t want: open the magical winterwood box and right an ancient wrong—if she can.

Enter Corwen. He’s handsome, sexy, clever, and capable, and Ross doesn’t really like him; neither does Will’s ghost. Can he be trusted? Whose side is he on?

Unable to chart a course to her future until she’s unraveled the mysteries of the past, she has to evade a ruthless government agent who fights magic with darker magic, torture, and murder; and brave the hitherto hidden Fae. Only then can she hope to open the magical winterwood box and right her ancestor’s wrongdoing. Unfortunately, success may prove fatal to both Ross and her new brother, and desastrous for the country. By righting a wrong, is Ross going to unleash a terrible evil? Is her enemy the real hero and Ross the villain?



Silverwolf
Rowankind 2
DAW, January 3, 2017
Mass Market Paperback and eBook, 432 pages

A swashbuckling adventure following privateer Ross Tremayne introduces Jacey Bedford’s magical alternate history series, Rowankind

Britain, 1801. King George’s episodic sanity is almost as damaging as his madness. First Consul Napoleon is gathering his forces in France. The disease of democracy is spreading. The world is poised on the brink of the modern era, but the rowankind, long a source of free labor, have shaken off their bonds.

Some have returned to laru to find freedom with the Fae; others are trying to find a place in the world, looking for fair treatment under the law. The course of the industrial revolution may change forever.

Wild magic is on the rise. Creatures of legend are returning to the world: kelpies, pixies, trolls, hobs, and goblins. Ross and Corwen, she a summoner witch and he a wolf shapechanger, have freed the rowankind from bondage, but now they are caught in the midst of the conflict, while trying their best to avoid the attention of the Mysterium, the government organization which would see them hanged for their magic.

When an urgent letter calls Corwen back to Yorkshire, he and Ross become embroiled in dark magic, family secrets, and industrial treachery. London beckons. There they discover a missing twin, an unexpected friend, and an old enemy—called Walsingham.