A Door Never Dreamed Of, Red Sonya, and the Vampire of Rome

Unless you're up late waiting for my next blog post, and part of me is hoping that you are, you'll be reading this on Thursday morning, or later, and thusly my latest daughter has been born. I have to get up at 4 AM to get the wife to the hospital on time. I have a feeling it's going to be a long day.

As I type I have no idea if Red Sonya will be red, or bald or even a brunette. Photos will probably go up on my facebook site https://www.facebook.com/lincoln.farish.7 or https://www.facebook.com/authorlincolnfarish/ and twitter of course, https://twitter.com/LincolnFarish.

I will try to get in some more writing, if I have free time (possible), as I am up to 50k now on The Vampire of Rome and things are gelling nicely. Bodies are strewn about, betrayal has occurred, Sebastian finally finds out about Brother Malachi's black ring and what it means. I think you'll like it. While I'm all kinds of wrapped up, I have another author here to entertain you.

J. Edward Neill is the author of close to 30 books, ranging from Sci-Fi to dark fiction to philosophy books best read at a party, like Cards Against Humanity, only more high brow, and fun. Take it away J. Edward -

Amazon: http://amzn.to/1UbNJ6V

 

Blurb:

A thousand years from today, nearly all of humanity is jacked-In.
We sleep, connected to machines, dreaming our lives away.
For most people, it's the perfect life.
But for the few who never jacked-In, it's exile.
Abandoned, persecuted, and betrayed, the Outs plot their vengeance across the centuries.
And when they open the Door, only one way of life will survive...

Amazon: http://amzn.to/1UbNJ6V

Waking Rafe

When Rafe sat up in his breather chair and gazed at the people surrounding him, the first thing he remembered hearing them say was, “You’re different, son.”

“Where am I?” he murmured.

From somewhere in the mass of people crowding the tiny room, he heard someone answer. “Alta Sur.” The woman craned her neck to see him. “Near the fault-line.”

“But don’t worry, kid,” a squat, sweaty man blurted. “Fault’s been contained. Gravity pods. No earthquakes here, not unless the Outs make 'em."

Rafe swung his legs over the side of the breather chair. His feet hurt. His eyes hurt. He felt tired for a reason he couldn’t fathom. He looked at his hands and at the people crowding him in. Everything about the room, the crowd, even his skin felt dirty. An hour ago he’d been floating wraithlike through a thousand corridors of time and space.

And now this.

A man in a white lab-coat walked up to him. His collar was stained and his hair greasy.

Never seen anyone so filthy before, thought Rafe. Everyone and everything…unclean.

“How do you feel?” the man in the lab-coat asked. “The chairs are better than ever, but even so…most people say they feel sticky for a week or two. And your eyes will probably hurt, too. When they peel the retinal pads off, it tends to sting for a few days. But your muscles…your body…those should be fine. Especially for you, Rafe. Your jacks were state of the art.”

“I’m hungry,” was all he could muster.

The room laughed at that. It felt like they were watching him, judging him. During his two decades of being jacked-in, he had studied all the Berlitz rules of human psychology, and in his mind he remembered all the emotional challenges of un-jacked.

Doesn’t matter.

Knowing it…not the same as feeling it.

Because this is the real world.

Isn’t it?

“What’s the matter, kid?” The squat man stared at him. “You sick? Maybe you’re not who they say you are. Happens all the time. Geniuses in the ether ain’t shit out here.”

“No,” he said. “I’m really just hungry, is all.”

In silence, he counted the people in the room. Nineteen. In a room made for just one. What do they want?

After another breath, he knew he’d been un-jacked. He’d consumed all the history books. He knew this room was one of billions in the real world. The only thing he couldn’t figure was; why’d they pull me out?

Why me?

Why now?

Amazon: http://amzn.to/1UbNJ6V

 



Author Info and questions

J. Edward Neill

Links

My personal site: http://downthedarkpath.com/books/

My blog site: http://tesseraguild.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/JEdwardNeill

What are their secret strengths/ weaknesses: A Door Never Dreamed Of features two heroes who oppose each other. Neither one believes he is heroic, and yet both of them are. Rafe, a jacked-In young man, relies on his intuition and creativity, but once he's unjacked, he's at the mercy of the physical world. Moz, an exile, is all brute strength and passion, and yet these qualities mean little when faced with superior In technology.

Any philosophical issues in this story? If so how do you address them, how does MC live and over come them? I'm a philosophy nut, and so A Door Never Dreamed Of features several deeper themes. Does humanity possess a mandate to pursue maximum technology? Are we human if we don't exist in the physical world? Is morality real...or is it completely subjective? Both Rafe and Moz must face these and many more. And it's not assured they'll overcome anything. :)

Any offbeat obscure or 80s references? - I riff on The Matrix, Ender's Game, Norse mythology, and the popular sci-fi book, Hyperion.

When did you start to write this one and why? - To be direct, this is the story (along with another) I've dreamed of writing my whole adult life. I needed to finish it. And so it was the easier...and hardest book I've ever written.

What's next in this series or in your next book? - A Door Never Dreamed Of won't have a sequel (not now anyway) but my next book is also an extreme sci-fi affair. Darkness Between the Stars will be a bit more typical of modern sci-fi, in that it'll have grand fight scenes and cool technology.

Preview of your next book? The blurb for Darkness Between the Stars is:

Little Joff…always dreaming of the stars.

He knows something is out there, but he’s not sure what it is.

Because there is something out there.

And one day, after all the dreams of his childhood fade, Joff will sit on a ship as it spirals through the void.

Alone.

With all the time in the world to count the stars.

And measure the darkness growing between them.

When will it be available? - Late Summer, 2016.


Good stuff there for y'all. And speaking of the stuff dreams are made of how about giving my books a gander.

Junior Inquisitor Book One

  

Amazon - http://goo.gl/D6KrbX

Smashwords - http://goo.gl/XsGgAC

Inquisitor Series - http://goo.gl/mJtTf8

 

 

Soulless Monk Book Two

  

 Smashwords - https://goo.gl/NXw3Gr

Amazon - http://goo.gl/p9fBn0

Inquisitor Series - http://goo.gl/5lCyaX

 

 

The Witch’s Lair Book Three

 

Amazon - http://goo.gl/ZRO6Jw

Smashwords - https://goo.gl/MokJnC 

 Inquisitor Series - http://goo.gl/mJtTf8

Bonus points for whomever guesses correctly the movie my quote came from, read carefully.