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Robert S. Wilson: The Big, Bright Belly of God

9/26/2014

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Today, I have the pleasure of hosting author Robert S. Wilson, an exceptionally talented writer whose work is every bit as philosophical and literary as it is dark and horrific. I haven't read a story of his I didn't like, and I'm excited to share that he has some new and re-releases to promote. In his short essay, "The Big, Bright Belly of God," he tackles a subject I've struggled with for some time, and does so elegantly.

Robert S. Wilson is also giving away all sorts of prizes, so make sure to check out the links at the bottom of this post. With that, I hand over the page....

Robert S. Wilson: The Big, Bright Belly of God


The name of this post was taken from a story I wrote called The Death Catcher. I'm sure you can guess what The Death Catcher is about… If not, I'll give you a hint. What has no life and is dead all over? If you guessed death, you win a prize!*

Death is inevitable.

We all know this and yet, we all try our best to forget it most all of the time. Writers—particularly dark fiction writers—could probably be said to dwell on the subject to a rather unhealthy degree. Like it or not, regardless of what you believe or disbelieve or what may or may not come after it, death is the single most profound subject of life. And I mean no irony in saying so. For every second we're alive nothing is more mysterious, unnerving, unstoppable, or compellingly disturbing than the feeling of knowing you came to exist, you now live, and that ultimately some day, preferably peacefully and painlessly, but more likely terribly and excruciatingly, it will all come to an end.

Blinked out… never to return. (Unless you believe in reincarnation…)

But what, I think, makes death even more unnerving, even more disturbing, and makes us feel even more helpless in the face of it, is the fact that it is not just a lonely fate meant for ourselves alone. I know that I alone will not die; that not only will my elders and my peers and my brother and my sister and my wife die, but my children too will die some day. And that knowledge further complicates the element of immense fear—the tragedy—of death to its utter pinnacle.

And nothing can truly be understood about death without knowing real, desperate, incalculable and emotional loss. The realization that some amazing person who in some way or many ways brightened up your life is now gone from the only life we can truly without question claim to know.

I say that nothing can truly be understood about death without knowing loss because how can anyone understand anything without knowing the true depth of its effects to those in its epicenter? When I was about eight years old or so my aunt on my father's side passed away. I loved my Aunt Betty, but I barely really knew her. I thought from then on that I knew what loss was. In reality, my Aunt Betty loved to lavish me with toys and other gifts when I would come to visit her and therein lay the foundation of our relationship. She loved to buy me stuff and as a young child who barely understood real familial relationships, I loved to receive things.


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True loss requires more connection than this. I know because I learned that the hard way in 2006 when my mother passed away. My mother, who at the time was probably one of the two people in the world I was closest to. 

But true loss and the horrible twisting disturbing bite of it can have other faces. Earlier this year I lost an old friend of mine. We weren't inseparable, we didn't talk on the phone often. We spoke every now and then online, and there was a time when we did spend time together often more than ten years ago. We were both musicians who wrote some music together and had a strong similar passion for writing and performing music. 

We had talked throughout the years of getting together some day and writing something new some day, but that day never came and now it never will. And even though I was much closer to my mother, this sort of loss was just as painful if not more so in some ways. This was someone young, younger than me, someone with big, big unfinished dreams, who had been actively fighting to make them come true and in the blink of an eye he was gone. 

Someone so full of life, so fiercely unafraid to live, and such a beautiful artist in so many ways.

The beauty of his music, the unfinished plans, the feeling of letting my friend down, and even more so the realization that in a lot of ways I am completely and utterly responsible for taking this person for granted and now I can never take that back. These are some of the things that made his loss, for a time, so completely and life derailingly unbearable. But the worst part of it and what twinged his loss with such a huge sense of utter morbid hatred and bitterness is how my friend died.

He was murdered. In cold blood. For twenty dollars and his Jeep. The Jeep having been left abandoned the next day.

We live in a vast universe, so vast, our minds can't even begin to understand the scope of even a condensed and scaled-down version of it. A vast glorious universe that could very well be one pinprick in a cloud of infinite others. A universe filled with wonders that span billions of years and light years of majestic forces and creations: galaxies, stars, planets, lives of countless variations; from the glimmer of sunlight on a drop of morning dew to the pitch black debris between the stars of the Milky Way. 

And yet… we are tiny, insignificant little creatures sprung up from the waters, climbed down from the trees, having evolved from numerous ancestors before us into something that can, after billions of silent, mindless years of clockwork-movement and fight-or-flight, kill-or-be-killed natural selection, look out at the vastness and unending beauty of existence and know that what we're seeing is but a snapshot. A glimpse of something so complex and so beautifully awe-inspiring, and yet we could never truly behold such a thing in all of its true glory and elegance because our minds are yet still unable to fathom even the tiniest working parts of such a thing.

And knowing this, nothing becomes more clear—more sobering—nothing fills up the heart with more emptiness—than the realization of just how deeply unfair death is.


*Actually, you won nothing. Such is life. Get used to it. Because when it's over…

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Robert S. Wilson is the author of Shining in Crimson and Fading in Darkness, books one and two of his dystopian vampire series: Empire of Blood. He is the Bram Stoker Award-nominated editor of Blood Type: An Anthology of Vampire SF on the Cutting Edge, a co-editor of Horror for Good: A Charitable Anthology and Nightscapes: Volume 1, and lives in Middle Tennessee with his family and a silly obnoxious dog. His short stories have appeared in numerous anthologies, online, and paper publications, and his cyberpunk/horror novella Exit Reality was chosen as one of e-thriller.com’s Thrillers of the Month in July 2013.

His debut fiction collection Where All Light is Left to Die was just released on September 23rd and the second novella in his cyberpunk/crime thriller Ray Garret/Lifeline series, SoulServe, is available for pre-order and will release on September 30th. He is currently working hard to finish a number of novels and novellas all at once like a blind juggler given knives and led into oncoming traffic.


You can find more information on Where All Light is Left to Die and SoulServe at his website.

Contest alert! Stop by and join in the fun at the Robert S. Wilson Thrown-Together-at-the-Last-Minute-Due-to-An-Overwhelming-Amount-of-Procrastination-and-Indecision
Blog Tour and Book Giveaway Contest for your chance to win one of several prizes.

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Free Short: "RAKER"

9/15/2014

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Back in July, I hosted author Christopher A. Gray in promotion for his new release, Dark Nights. Today, he'd like to share he has a stand-alone short story, "RAKER" temporarily available for free on Amazon Kindle. "RAKER" features a few characters from Dark Nights, so fans of the novel might enjoy this short freebie. Click on the cover image for more details.


About the story:

RAKER 
1. noun 
Remote Armed Kinesthetic Engagement & Reconnaissance android, used primarily by Fire Departments and Police Departments in the United States. RAKERs are deployed for rescue, bomb disposal, and other tasks which are deemed too dangerous for humans. Some models are being manufactured for the armed forces to serve as offensive battlefield weapons. 

Christopher A. Gray’s RAKER follows an incident one evening when Dr. Norman Stravinsky sends his RAKER android out to deliver a sensitive file to a colleague. When it encounters a crime in progress, the android must decide whether to interrupt its primary duties as bodyguard to Stravinsky in order to prevent the crime from continuing. The decision results in a confrontation between itself and the Seattle Police Department.
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Book Review: THE DAY THE LEASH GAVE WAY AND OTHER STORIES

9/14/2014

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Overall, this is an excellent collection, one I highly recommend. While there were a couple of stories I didn't enjoy at all, specifically "An Angel for the Angels" and "End of the Rainbow," the handful of exceptional stories kept me from dropping my review down to four stars. I think my favorites were "Acupuncture," "Competition," and "Dead Man's Burrito," although several more neared the top of my list. Before reading this collection, I'd only read Zelazny's noir and suspense/thriller. While I thought those were excellent, his horror is even better. The squeamish might not appreciate every story in here, but the average horror fan is in for a real treat. 5 stars.
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The Jane in Me

9/12/2014

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I recently wrote a guest blog post titled “When the Protagonist Takes Over,” which is about the unintentional evolution of a story between concept and storyline and the actual finished draft. In it, I described my initial intentions for Jane versus the direction her series ended up taking, highlighting just how vastly different the two are.

While it can be fun to speculate how the characters or muses might influence a story, in all seriousness the changes come from somewhere within the author’s psyche. What influences that may or may not always be easy to pinpoint. When I thought about the changes that ended up occurring in Jane, I knew immediately they stemmed from unresolved issues I’d buried beneath a heap of forced strength. While writing should not function solely for the author, especially when it works to enable catharsis, sometimes it is appropriate to use bits of one’s past to fuel a particular work. I believe, in Jane’s case, this is one of those cases.

I’d known the recurring antagonist, who has so far presented himself solely in flashbacks and nightmares, was going to be abusive. I wanted Jane to have a dark past, something she’s worked over the past fifty years to overcome; however, I had no idea it was going to be this dark. Speaking as a woman who’s survived both physical and psychological abuse, I can say the flashbacks and nightmares never completely go away. When a human monster leaves a dark smudge on your soul, it can fade over time, but it’s always going to be there no matter how faint it becomes. In my case, that smudge is the commonality between the author and the character—and that commonality extends in Jane’s need to find the light within the darkness, to turn something terrible into the springboard for something good.

I don’t talk about this piece of my past often, but when I do, I remember the searing pain that came with having a cracked skull. I remember the bruises, the split lip, the torn rotator cuff. I remember the terror and the torture. I remember fearing for my life. This has not left me bitter though. I wish I didn’t have those memories, even though I’ve put them to good use. Collectively, they have made me an exceptionally compassionate, sympathetic person, and that’s the kind of person I wanted Jane to be. I know she wouldn’t be the character she is without my past to help forge it. Still, it is a part of my past I try to forget, even though it does slip through the mental barriers from time to time.

In Jane the Hippie Vampire: Hair, her own memories push their way to the surface with an intensity they hadn’t before presented. There were a couple of parts that disturbed me while I wrote them. And that intensity only grows in the next installment, Flower Power, which will be available solely in the four-episode bundle. Some of it was difficult to write, but I’ve come to realize Jane is more the tortured soul than I’d initially planned, and that’s okay.

About Hair:

In this third novella in the dramatic horror series, Jane the Hippie Vampire, Jane goes south for the winter, hoping to find reprieve in the forests of the Blue Ridge Mountains. A supernatural stalker of the shape-shifting variety has different plans, however. Will her new-found ally--a park ranger with secrets of his own--and his redneck family be enough to save her from a fate worse than undeath?



Jane the Hippie Vampire: Hair is available on Kindle.

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R. Arundel: Vital Elements of a Medical Thriller

9/12/2014

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Today, guest author R. Arundel is here to discuss his thoughts on the elements of a medical thriller and how they relate to his recent release, The Face Transplant. He will be giving away a $50 Amazon or Barnes and Noble gift certificate to one reader via Rafflecopter (see below). For more chances to enter, go to Goddess Fish Promotions.
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R. Arundel: Elements of a Medical Suspense Thriller

A compelling premise


This is the most important part of any medical suspense thriller.  A great deal of time needs to be spent on making sure that the premise of the story will engage and draw the reader into your story.  The premise should be something that is fresh.  It is possible but very difficult to use a premise that everyone has used in a suspense thriller and make it exciting for readers.

A central character that the audience is rooting for


A central character is very important in terms of creating an emotional attachment between the reader and the story.   A central character that the audience likes and wants to succeed will make the reader want to continue your novel.  However, some very effective and enjoyable novels can be created with heroes that are less than perfect or even central characters that the audience wants not to succeed.


If the audience is not very emotionally engaged to the central character the story has to be constructed so that it creates interest and the reader wants to know how it ends.

Constant series of exciting events with tension


Events that are unpredictable are essential to hold the interest of the reader in the story.  A person keeps reading a novel because they would like to see how the story progresses.  Using too many standard techniques and scenarios will bore the reader, especially readers who read a great deal in your genre.


It is preferable in the quest to keep events exciting to avoid chance and coincidence. Although dumb luck and coincidence do occur in real life, in many stories especially if overused they create a very artificial feel and the reader may become disenchanted.


Tension mounts when each building block of the story is placed on the next, increasing the stakes and the difficulty which the characters face.

Unpredictable ending


Trying to create an ending that is not easily seen by the reader can make a book very enjoyable. I always try to fully understand how my novel will end before I begin writing.  I may change the ending when I write, but often the ending is very similar to what I had envisioned when I started the story.  When thinking about the ending it may be valuable to sketch out a couple of scenarios.

Well-paced story


When I use the term pacing the story I am referring to bringing out critical elements of the story at the appropriate time.  If you bring out all the exciting elements too early or too close together the reader will then be left with long passages of the story where other less exciting details are presented that are essential to the story but may not hold the readers interest.  Sometimes it is helpful to create a diagram or a “story map” to see where all the elements of your story occur. By analyzing this it is then possible to play with the placement of certain elements of the story to see if they could be better placed elsewhere.  Also sometimes for the reader to understand what is happening there is need for background information or very technical information that is didactic. Looking at the story in a diagrammatic form may help you position these elements beside or within the context of more compelling action in the story. I also try to create and ebb and flow to the story that is unpredictable.


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About the novel:

Dr. Matthew MacAulay is a Facial Transplant Surgeon at a prestigious New York hospital. His friend and mentor, Tom Grabowski, dies under mysterious circumstances. Matthew is forced to investigate. He uncovers his friend’s secret. A new technique that allows perfect facial transplants. No incisions, no scars. The surgeon is able to transplant one person’s face to another with the perfect result. Tom was able to accomplish this monumental feat with the help of Alice, a supercomputer robot with almost human abilities. While trying to find the people responsible for murdering his friend Tom, Matthew realizes he is the prime suspect. Matthew must flee for his life with the help of Dr. Sarah Larsson, a colleague and reluctant helper who has a secret of her own.

Alice helps them make sense of a baffling series of seemingly unrelated events. Matthew is forced to undergo a facial transplant to hide his identity and help to uncover the truth. The clues carry Matthew and Sarah around the world. Matthew stumbles onto a sinister plot of monumental proportions, the real reason Tom was murdered. This discovery leads Matthew all the way to The White House with a dramatic conclusion. Matthew never wavers in his quest for the truth and perseveres against all the odds. He must race to stop a major catastrophe, ratcheting up the excitement until the thrilling conclusion. The Face Transplant is a powerful medical suspense thriller of the first order. The novel was written by a surgeon. The novel has a realism that only a surgeon can bring. The plot weaves politics, medicine and espionage into a tightly paced, intelligent thriller. The novel crescendos page by page to a totally unexpected conclusion.

Excerpt:

“There are only 3 types of bleeding that are important when performing surgery. One: bleeding you can’t see. Two: bleeding that you can hear. Three." After a long pause for effect, a quiet silence filled the operating room theater as nurses, anesthetists, medical students and visiting surgeons strained to hear. With a sense of the dramatic Myles lowered his voice. “Three…,” then roared, “Your own!” With the final comment the operating room burst into applause and laughed, it was vintage Myles, perfect delivery, perfect intonation. He had a flare for the dramatic. The Professor pulled off his gloves with a flourish and left Matthew to close the incision with the scrub nurse.

About the author:

Robert was born in London, United Kingdom.  His early formative years were spent in Toronto Canada.  Robert attended the University of Toronto Medical School.  After obtaining his Doctor of Medicine degree he completed surgical training in Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery at the University of Toronto and obtained certification from the American Board of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery. Robert Mounsey practices surgery in private practice in Toronto.

R. Arundel studied Film Studies at Ryerson University, after this he began writing screenplays and novels. The Face Transplant is his debut novel.

R. Arundel is married and lives in Toronto, Canada. When not writing or practicing surgery, Robert can be found cycling. For more information, go to Arundel's website or follow him on Twitter. The Face Transplant is available in paperback at Amazon and Barnesandnoble.com.



a Rafflecopter giveaway
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Book Blast: Rose Shababy's THE BLUE EFFECT

9/8/2014

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Today, author Rose Shababy is here to share a little about her new release, The Blue Effect. She will be giving away a $25 Amazon gift card to one random winner via Rafflecopter, so make sure to enter for your chance to win.
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About the novel:

Blue Brennan is jaded and bitter despite her pinup girl looks and quick wit. Night after night, she scours the Seattle club scene looking for someone or something to fill the emptiness inside.

When she meets the mysterious Kasey, her world stops… literally. He claims she has the ability to control time and stuns her even further when he reveals his own gifts.

Blue is inexplicably drawn to Kasey and reluctantly enters his world filled with a new breed of humanity. They’re misfits like her, blessed or cursed with powerful abilities, struggling to hide their differences from the rest of society.

Then the group discovers a nameless, faceless sociopath with nightmarish powers; and he’s coming for Blue. She’s left reeling when they discover her gifts are the key to defeating his terrible evil and saving them all.

Now she must race against the clock to harness her own powers and save her new friends. Can she be more than a renegade? Can she be a hero too?



Excerpt:

He held out his free hand and I reached for it without thinking. Taking the hand of this stranger seemed like the most natural thing in the world.

Our fingers touched and my skin came alive. I felt a surge of electricity as some sort of energy shot from his hand into mine, running through my whole body and back to his like an endless circuit. I couldn’t stifle the gasp that broke through my lips. I stared at him, my vision narrowing until his face and eyes and smile were the only things I could see.

The energy between us exploded outward like a wave into the crowd, through the people and everything around me stopped. The music ended like a switch had been flipped, the people froze mid-step and even the air around me seemed to stop moving.



About the author:

Rose Shababy and her family reside in eastern Washington State. Rose grew up in the Northwest but swears she’s going to move to warmer climates someday. She’s claimed this for over 20 years, however, and has yet to move more than 75 miles away from her mother.

Rose has a deep love of all things Star Trek and yearns to travel the heavens, as well as an intense desire to be bitten by a radioactive spider. Unfortunately she sucks at science and math so she hasn’t been able bring her dreams to life, instead living vicariously through books, comics, television and film. She hopes to someday make a million dollars so she can afford to buy her way to the international space station, but she’d settle for being able to fly around the world and leap tall buildings in a single bound.

Rose also loves to cook and worked for years in a gourmet Italian grocery and deli where she learned to hone her skills. She prepares culinary masterpieces for her family, but fervently wishes the dishes would wash themselves. Especially now that her dishwashers/children are nearly grown and only one still lives at home.

Rose likes to use her free time wisely. For instance, she likes to daydream, will often read for hours until she falls asleep on the couch with an electric blanket and a warm tabby cat curled up on her hip, as well as spending cozy weekend days watching Syfy movies like Sharknado and Mega Piranha with her husband.

If Rose were a cartoon animal, she’d prefer to be a wise old owl or a sleek and sexy jaguar, but in reality she’d probably be a myopic mole with coke-bottle glasses.

For more information, check out her website and Facebook author page or follow her on Twitter. The Blue Effect is available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and iTunes. You can also follow the virtual release party on Facebook.


Enter using the Rafflecopter form below for your chance to win a $25 Amazon gift card. For more chances to win, follow the other guest spots in this tour; you can find the list of links at Goddess Fish Promotions.

a Rafflecopter giveaway
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