by john | Nov 20, 2011 | Return to Eden, Writing
For Sample Sunday here’s a chunk of my newest novel, Genesis – it’s a little like Mad Max meets X-Men:First Class.
The teens stopped cold at the scene in the store. Jake the storekeeper was on the ground in front of the counter, a large man looming over him holding a baseball bat in one hand. Jake was gasping for breath and holding his ribs, and the man standing over him wore a wicked grin. A thinner, equally filthy man stood by the door with a hunting knife in his hand. Christin and Matt froze in the door, then Matt bolted over to the man with the bat, drawing his pistol and aiming it at the big man.
“Drop the bat.” Matt said, and Christin wondered how he kept his voice from shaking.
The skinny man reached for her, and Christin dodged to one side, swatting his hands away. She put both hands on the counter and vaulted over it, putting the cash register between her and the thin robber. The third thug came into the shop then, and Matt’s eyes flickered over to the door, giving the first goon just enough of an opening to flick the bat out and knock Matt’s gun away. The man stepped forward and slammed his big fist into Matt’s jaw, sending the boy crashing to the floor next to Jake. Christin looked up at the noise, and the thin man caught her while she was distracted, pulling her kicking from behind the counter.
“Look what we found, Elmer. We got us some little busybodies.” The skinny man cackled, dropping Christin to the floor beside her brother.
“Yeah, but this one’s cute. Maybe we’ll take her with us to cook and clean up.” The big man rumbled.
“I don’t think so,” Christin spat back defiantly. “You wouldn’t like what I put in a stew. Like your ears!” The man she now knew was Elmer reached down and grabbed a handful of her hair, pulling her painfully to her feet.
He bent down level with her face and spoke very quietly and slowly. “Little girl, you’re old enough for me to have some real fun with, but I’m not into that kinda thing. Jed here is, though. So if you don’t shut up and stay out of our way, I’m gonna knock you slap out and give you to him for a birthday present. You understand?”
Christin’s eyes watered at the stench of his breath, a fetid mixture of beer, salted meat and human nastiness that had her stomach threatening to revolt all over the front of the man’s coveralls, but she managed a nod.
“Good. Now sit there like a good girl while we finish our shopping.” He dropped her back to the floor next to Matt, and picked up Matt’s pistol. He handed the gun to the third man and said “Watch them. If the boy moves, shoot him. If the girl moves, shoot the boy.” The other man nodded and leaned on the door, blocking it shut and keeping the gun by his side. The men moved through the store methodically, piling camping goods, hunting equipment and various tools on the counter. When they had amassed as much gear as they could carry, they loaded duffel bags with all their loot and started for the door.
Elmer stood for a moment at the counter looking down at the three of them sitting on the floor. Matt and the shopkeeper were glaring at them with eyes full of rage, but Christin was just trying to avoid the notice of the skinny Jed until they were gone. Elmer cleared his throat and said “I’m sorry we had to do this, Jake, but we ain’t had no work in three weeks, and now I don’t know what’s gone happen to us. We gotta get by best we can, and I’m sorry I had to knock you down for it. We won’t be back.”
“You better not, Elmer Clausen. If I so much as see you cross the street again I’ll kick your sorry ass and your worthless brother’s ass, too!” Jake spat a glob of yellow phlegm onto the big man’s shoe, and Elmer reared back to kick the old man in the face. As he did, Matt reached out, grabbed Elmer’s heavy work boot and pulled backwards with all his strength. The big man toppled backwards, dropping his bat as he flailed around trying to break his fall. Christin shot up and flung herself towards the door, hoping that she could get out and get help before the men regrouped. Jed was too fast for her, though, and he caught her around the waist, lifting her off the floor. She kicked uselessly at the air and squirmed, but the wiry man’s grip was like steel. He carried the struggling girl to the back of the store, into the small storeroom where Jake kept his cleaning supplies.
“Naw, missy, you ain’t gettin’ out of here that easy. You’re gonna give ol’ Jed a little taste before we get done here. Now just lay there and be good.” He tossed her to the floor and turned to lock the door behind them. The small room was dimly lit by a small window set high in one wall, and Christin could see nothing that would help her get away from her captor anywhere on the floor. Christin scooted on her butt along the floor until her back hit a shelf, then she clambered to her feet and made ready to fight off the skinny man.
Jed looked at her standing there, fists clenched and hair tousled, and let out a cackling laugh. “You’re a feisty one, ain’t you? That’s alright, I like ‘em with a little spirit.” He unfastened his belt and pulled it through the loops in his jeans. He wrapped the buckle in his calloused fist and let the worn leather dangle. As Christin looked around for anything she could use as a weapon, Jed flicked the belt out at her legs. The leather snapped painfully on her calf and Christin jumped sideways, only to find the belt flashing in at her from the other side. Again and again he lashed out at her legs and arms with the belt, striking like a cobra at her flailing limbs. Christin started to feel dizzy, and the edges of her vision started to sparkle.
Not now, she thought furiously. I will not faint now. Her head felt stuffed, like the air pressure in the room was too great, and she shook herself to clear her vision. The belt snapped painfully across her right arm again, but this time she reached out and caught the lash before Jed could pull it back. He grinned a nasty grin at her and pulled hard on the belt, dragging Christin into his arms. He put his hands on her upper arms and leaned in for a kiss. The pressure in Christin’s head increased until it felt like someone was stabbing her in the nose with an icepick, then she felt a huge rush outward, and Jed suddenly flew backwards away from her.
The skinny would-be rapist flew through the locked door, splintering it and landing in the aisle of the store. Christin looked down at her hands, which were surrounded by glowing blue sparkles, as if she was generating electricity from her body. Jed clambered to his feet some five yards away and pointed the pistol he’d taken from Matt at her. Christin raised her hands to ward off the bullets she expected to rip through her body, and felt that rush of power again. From behind clenched eyes she heard a terrified scream, and opened her eyes to see Jed running for the front of the store. She walked after him, hands crackling with energy, and watched as he bolted right past his cohorts and out into the street.
Matt stood over the other two men, bat raised for another swat as she made her way to where he stood. Matt took one look at her and dropped the bat. Elmer and his other partner scrambled to their feet and ran for the door as Matt and Jake gaped at Christin. “Sis,” Matt said “what happened?”
“I have no idea.” Christin said as a wave of weariness passed over her like a blanket and she collapsed in the front of the store.
If you like what you read, you can buy Genesis at Amazon or Barnes & Noble.
by john | Oct 26, 2011 | Fiction, Return to Eden, Writing
Aside from being a killer book cover, it might help to know a little about the book, huh?
Genesis is the first volume of the Return to Eden trilogy. Unlike The Black Knight Chronicles, which is an open-ended series of stand-alone stories featuring the same characters in a string of related, but largely unconnected adventures, Return to Eden will be a traditional trilogy. It’s a three-book story, then we’re done.
The story centers on 17-year-old Christin Kinsey, her brother Matt, and the group of survivors they assemble in their journey. In the aftermath of an EMP (electro-magnetic pulse) attack, everything with a computer chip is fried, effectively throwing the world back a century in our technology. Most cars don’t work, most household appliances don’t work, and even if they did, there’s no electricity to power them. There’s no TV, no internet, no game consoles, no cell phones and no iPods.
Sounds like Hell for Teenagers, doesn’t it?
Well it gets worse. Not only do the teens have to learn how to survive in a world suddenly devoid of most of the creature comforts we’ve grown up with, but the basics of civilization start to erode with the infrastructure. Small-town sheriffs become more like feudal lords than law enforcement officers.
And then there’s the odd little fact that everyone between 13 and 20 seems to have suddenly developed superpowers. With the interference from technology gone, people are able to touch magic again, old, elemental magic. But only if you’re young enough, or open enough, to believe. So now the adults are acting like the kids in Lord of the Flies while a bunch of super-powered teenagers try to stay alive.
And all Christin really wants to do is make sure her mom is safe.
That’s a brief rundown on Genesis and the whole Return to Eden series. Available 11.11.11 wherever books are sold.
by john | Oct 25, 2011 | Business of publishing, Fiction, Return to Eden, Writing
Baen Books is one of the pioneers in ebook sales, particularly in genre fiction. While I think they do a lot of things right, there are a couple of things I think they miss the boat on (notably, not having their ebooks available for purchase from Amazon, you know, the largest seller of books in any format in the world??). But since I don’t run the company or have any financial stake in anything they do, it’s not really any of my business.
But one thing Baen does that I’ve never seen anywhere else is offer e-ARCs for purchase. What’s an e-ARC, you might ask? Well, let’s start with what an ARC is. An ARC is an Advance Reader Copy, a pre-release copy of a book typically provided to journalists, reviewers, or people of note to garner blurbs, reviews or hype about a book before it is released to the general public. An e-ARC is an electronic version of the same thing.
What Baen has done is turn this into a marketing tool, and a revenue stream as well. They sell e-ARCs on their website, making it very clear that these are not the final versions of the books. Things might change a little, there might be some further polishing, some cover edits, things like that, before the final book is released. But a hardcore fan doesn’t want to wait. Not only that, but these hardcore fans will actually pay a premium to get the book early.
I’m hoping that I have a few hardcore fans, because as of today I will be offering e-ARCs of Genesis for sale here on the website. These will not be sold at a premium, but will be the same price as the release price of the book – $2.99. These are ARCs, though, so don’t kill me on typos. If you find one, please send me an email and point it out, so I can change it before the final release. The cover is also not finalized, but will be close. So this is the whole story, the completed story, just not at its final polished state.
But if you’re one of those people who has to be the first one on your block to have the next cool thing, then this is your deal. This is the kickoff volume to my new series, a very different series than the other stuff of mine you’ve read. This is much less silly, and it’s designed to be teen-friendly, so no f-bombs.
And that was tough, let me tell you!
But here’s the link to buy with PayPal. Just shoot me $2.99, and within 24 hours I’ll email you the file in whatever format you choose (PDF, ePub or Kindle).Enjoy!
by john | Jun 27, 2011 | Fiction, Return to Eden, Vampires, Writing
So Knight Moves will likely not be available for purchase in July of this year.
It’s not ready. That’s just the deal. I’ve completed a couple of drafts on the book, sent it off to some beta readers, and am awaiting feedback. I’ll then incorporate that feedback into another revision and send it off to my new editor, Lynn. Then (if the sample pages she did for me this weekend that led me to say “you’re hired” in about eight seconds are any indication) she will rip the thing to absolute shreds and I’ll spend a few weeks putting it back together. By this time July will be gone, and there won’t be a book yet. But when the book comes out it will be a few things. First, it will be the most expensive book I’ve published so far. Second, it will be the most polished, and hopefully typo-free. And I think it’s going to be pretty good.
I’m happy with the overall flow of the story. There’s a little more character development in this one than in the last two, and a few new characters added to the world. Some I kill, some leave town and some stick around, at least for a little while. There’s more Father Mike, because people missed him in Back in Black (so did I), and more Sabrina. There’s also a lot more bloodshed, and I think that I’ve successfully raised the stakes for the characters. They have more on the line than in the other books, and I think that makes for a stronger book.It’s about the same length as the others, maybe a hair shorter.
So it needs more polish, and that’s going to mean it won’t be out until the end of July at the latest, and August is more likely. Sorry if there was anyone really desperate for more of the Black Knight boys, but you can go to Amazon and pick up Movie Knight, the short story I published last weekend. That should hold you over. I’ll probably make another short story or two happen between now and the release of Knight Moves, so keep an eye out.
In the meantime, while I’m polishing Knight Moves, I’ve made some pretty good progress on Return to Eden. I’m pretty sure that will end up being the title for the series, so I’m not sure what this book will be called yet. For now, we’ll keep it as is and call it R2E. I hammered out a couple thousand words this weekend, then got stuck. I mean bad stuck, like a Hummer in a mudhole kinda stuck. So Suzy and I sat around for the better part of an hour brainstorming, and between the two of us we got the thing back on track. She helped a ton with the overall plot arc of the book, and that let me get back to outlining and writing. I’m about 25,000 words into the thing, and now I actually know where I’m going with it.
It’s going to need some serious love and attention when I finish the first draft, because I know the first 15K or so needs a total rewrite. The language just doesn’t work, it’s way too formal for the book, but I’m consciously not going back to work on that until I get to the end of the first draft. I can’t let myself go back and edit until I’m done with the first run – otherwise I’ll never write the damned book! But now that I know where I’m going it should come together pretty quickly, and I might have it ready to go as early as September. It’s a big departure from The Black Knight Chronicles, but I think most folks will like it. I’m really starting to dig these characters, for totally different reasons than the BK boys.
Then since I didn’t have anything better to do, and because I can’t resist a bright shiny, I started a completely different book. And by completely different, I mean a cop thriller. No magic, no supernatural creatures, just a serial killer and a cop that’s chasing him. I’ve got the first couple of chapters done, and I’ve got the outline done for that as well. That one’s been an interesting journey as well, because the character that I started Chapter 1 with, who I thought was going to be the main character for the whole book, turned out to be the sidekick. Because it can’t be his book, it has to be the cop’s book. I think it’s an interesting concept, and once it’s a little further along I’ll give you a couple of hints about it to see what you guys think. It should be finished up early fall as well, maybe October or so.
So in summary –
Knight Moves will not be available in July, but should be out in August.
Return to Eden (tentative title) will be out early fall, maybe as early as September.
Untitled Thriller will be out later in the fall, maybe as early as October.
I’ve got a bunch of Black Knight short stories in mind, and want to get at least one per month out for the rest of the year.
Black Knight Book 4 will be coming late this year or early 2012, depending on how quickly I finish up the other stuff. I already know a little about that book, as in what will be the Big Bad and what a couple of subplots are going to be. I also know the Big Bad for Books 5 & 6 in that series, so that’s a good outlook for next year.
by john | Jun 17, 2011 | Return to Eden, Writing
So I started Return to Eden right after I finished The Chosen. Then I put it aside for a couple of years, and just recently (like this week) got back to work on it. I’ve written three novels and a collection of poetry in the interim, and it’s been an interesting experience to look back on the bits I’d written and see how my writing style has changed in just a couple of years.
Now it might have only been two years since the time I started the project and the time I came back to it, but those have been two really full years. Let’s take a look at what I’ve written since then.
Hard Day’s Knight – 60,000 words +
Back in Black – 60,000 words
Knight Moves – 60,000 words+
Several short stories for various websites and anthologies, all pretty short pieces – 10,000 words
Red Dirt Boy – Collection of a couple dozen poems
Not to mention a few hundred blog posts, but the voice in those hasn’t really changed. Also, I’ve read a lot about story and craft in the past two years, and really studied a lot about how to write a novel and a series. So it’s no surprise that my style is a bit different, and that I see a LOT of things I want to go back and tweak in the early parts of the book. But I’m going to force myself to forge ahead, and get at least the first draft completed before I make any major revisions. Heinlein’s rules have been quoted around the internet for years, and I’ve come across them several times in the past week, and they’ve really helped me keep from going back and tinkering with Return before I get the first draft done.
Heinlein’s Rules for Writing
1) You must write
2) Finish what you start
3) You must refrain from rewriting, except to editorial order
4) You must put your story on the market
5) You must keep it on the market until it has sold
6) Start working on something else
Obviously I don’t agree with all of these, particularly the not rewriting except to editorial order. I’m still a believer in the process of revision, but that’s the great thing about rules – once you know what they are, you can break the ones you don’t like!
So I’m bulldozing through on Return, and it’s an interesting process. This story moves a lot more slowly than the Black Knight books, which worries me a little bit. There’s always that niggling doubt about whether or not the fans of one series will enjoy a series that’s very different. In this I take inspiration from Jim Butcher, who writes The Dresden Files in a very quick style, but also writes the Codex Alera series in a more slow, convoluted style. Both series are excellent, but one moves at a much slower pace than the other, just because that’s how those stories want to be told. The characters in Return want their stories to unfold slowly, so I’m letting them tell the story at their pace. And that pace so far is 20,000 words without any supernatural events or anyone getting killed.
Once it’s finished, I may need to tighten up the pacing somewhat, but there’s been plenty going on in those 20K words. The catalyst for the magic in the story just hasn’t happened yet. But it’s coming. Oh yes, it’s coming soon…
by john | May 22, 2011 | Return to Eden, Writing
So once upon a time I promised to post sections of a work in progress, posted one bit and then forgot about it. Well, I didn’t really forget, more like the world took me in another direction for a few weeks, but I’m back now, so here’s the next little piece of Return to Eden. Let me know what you think!And thanks to everyone who’s discovered me through the blog tour, it’s exhausting running all over the internets, my feet are killing me, but it’s very worthwhile so far. The first installment can be found here, if you’re late to the party.
Christin drove into the parking lot at West Asheville High School, and parked the truck at the far end of the lot, as usual. It didn’t take too many mornings of being mocked by Cindy Monihan and her gaggle of bleached-blonde cheerleaders and wannabes for the Kinseys to decide it was easier to walk a few more steps up to the school each morning than deal with the popular kids. Of course, it didn’t matter where they parked, they still had to run the gauntlet of the beautiful people to get into the school, and that was as fun as your average dentist’s visit.
“Oh look, everyone, the Kinsey twins have decided to grace us with their pollution once again,” announced Cindy, who wielded her new Prius like a weapon against Christin’s gas-guzzling truck.
“Not twins, bimbo, but if you weren’t too vain to wear your glasses you’d see that,” muttered Matt as they walked into the school, heads lowered against the disapproving glances of Cindy’s psuedo-environmentalist friends. They cared about the planet because it was the latest flavor, not because they had any great connection to Mother Earth.
Since Matt had his head down, he never saw the chest he ran into, but it didn’t take anyone nearly as bright as the younger Kinsey to realize that Brian Regan, Cindy’s boyfriend, had heard his mumbled insult.
“What did you say, asswipe?” The much larger boy said to Matt, who had bounced off his chest like a superball.
“I said we’re not twins.”
“What else did you say, butt-munch?” Brian gave Matt a shove, spinning him into another of his friends. By now most of the starting offensive line for the football team had formed a circle around Matt, grinning and handing their letter jackets to their girlfriends just in case there was bleeding.
Matt’s temper flared white-hot, and he lost control of his mouth, as he was wont to do in these, or really any, situations. “I said, if your bimbo girlfriend would put on her glasses once in a while, she could see past the end of her makeup mirror.” Christin groaned quietly, hoping her mother had paid for the health insurance this month, because it looked like Matt was going to be needing another trip to urgent care.
“Hold the little chump,” Brian said to his buddies. They instantly grabbed Matt’s arms, but left his legs alone, which cost Brian dearly when he stepped in to deliver Matt’s punishment. The smaller boy was no football bruiser, but two years of varsity cross country had given him plenty of lower-body muscle, and the kick he landed on Brian’s groin was as good as any field goal the team had made all season. Regan dropped like a sack of well-manicured potatoes, and his buddies relaxed their grip on Matt’s arms just enough for him to wrestle his way free and bolt into the school building, his sister hot on his heels. The first bell was just ringing as they made their way inside, laughing hysterically.
“That was great, little bro. Meet you for lunch?” Christin asked.
“Yeah, if I can avoid the goon squad.” Matt gave his sister a high five and they headed off to their morning classes, for the last time.
