Farish's Freehold: The Vampire of Rome news, Thanksgiving, and Geronimo Bosch will blow your mind

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. Yes, I know today is an American Holiday, but you can still make yourself a turkey sandwich and think good thoughts. Unless you're a Canadian, they already had their Thanksgiving, and probably just now recovering from L-tryptophan poisoning.

In The Vampire of Rome news, despite several delays, for which I apologize profusely, the print version is almost ready. My proof copy is on the way, and barring any layout issues or my suddenly insisting on revising the slaughter of the stuffed animals scene, I expect that with-in ten days, the print version of The Vampire of Rome will be available for purchase. Also my excellent director is busy working on the book trailer for The Witch's Lair, expect that within a month or so.

I am working on two different books, there is a military thriller I am just getting started on, more details to follow, and I am mentally plotting out some key scenes on The German King's Shade, book number five in The Inquisitor Series.

I first read NeroMancer waaay back in High School, yes I am that old, (my Fiftieth birthday is on the 29^th buy one of my books for a birthday present, or send me a pony, or a star-ship), and like many, many others was blow away. I have since then read many other pale imitators, but none held the rawness, the deep concepts wrapped around a compelling story the way Gibson's book did, until now.

I've know Geronimo Bosch for a while, I've read his books, they are sublime works of storytelling that pull me in and do not let me go until I hit the words, “The End.” I can not recommend them highly enough. If you want to see how to tell a great story, if you want to see how to explore concepts like “freedom and governance,” or “Where are the limits of power,” or “what defines someone as criminal,” if you want to read a darker version of William Gibson, then The Dominion City Blues Series is for you. You are leading a less fulfilling life if you have not read Geronimo Bosch, but I'll let him tell you himself, take it away Geronimo -

Fool's Sacrifice

and

books2read.com/u/mBeM2N

BLURB: FOOL'S SACRIFICE

DOMINION: A lawless city of ten million desperate souls. The State ignores the struggles of the dispossessed, but crushes any who challenge its rule.

G-Boy is a delinquent graffiti artist and ace pilot working the airborne auto theft trade who finds his life threatened when he teams up with a slick newcomer, a girl named Spider. She's tech savvy and scopes all the angles, but comes wrapped in a web of secrecy and bad luck. After they lift a haul of booby-trapped vehicles and their partners in crime are blown from the skies, they find themselves under suspicion from their gangland boss and painted as terrorists by the authorities who govern Dominion City.

As the net tightens around them, G-Boy is presented with a dilemma. Face punishment for his crimes or accept a fool's sacrifice by taking the hand of a mysterious stranger offering escape. But, at a price.

Fool's Sacrifice

and

books2read.com/u/mBeM2N

Excerpt:

G-Boy made straight for the Pegasus Speedster he’d clocked on Drum’s Palmprint, disregarding the sham scene of resistance unfolding around him. Once inside, the PACK stick activated the controls. “Good Morning Doctor Uberhalser, please prepare for your journey while we await connection to the Grid.” He looked up in time to see the duo of attendant Crazy 8’s that were monitoring the locale being taken out by Spider; spinning wayward and fried from her Shuriken strike. As she joined him in the vehicle: “Would all passengers please ensure they are securely harnessed before we travel commence.”

Touching the tiny PACK stick into manual override, the Pegasus hummed into life, living up to its name and taking to the air, rising through the green and orange smog of the cityscape before them. “Doctor Uberhalser, while you are considered a priority client,” the soothing female voice of the traffic control network emanated from within the steering stem, “it is to be remembered that use of the manual override facility is not advisable during this busy period of the day.”

“Get her to shut the fuck up.” G-Boy demanded as he gunned the Zooter over the tower-top and down into the sprawl and hum of the rush hour below.

Spider went about her work, PalmTex connecting to the PACK Nav in the Speedster itself and Central Bank remotely.

“I give it about ninety seconds stat before we’re Buzzed for those Crazy 8’s. Ten seconds longer and Pegasus here realises we aint Uberhalser.” G-Boy was zipping through busy fly lanes on the Good Doctor’s priority.

“Who are they calling for Dummies? Like it aint personal; during rush hour??!!?” This was Spider spitting, but without distraction.

“Hey, we got a lucky break: A Doctor with a hot ass rocket; Priority clearance. We might just make it - Diagnostics? Security gizmoes..?”

“It’s top of the range. Some weird shit I aint seen before: water jettison - override, blister bomb in roof compartment – deactivated. Windscreen will blacken as soon as Doctor Uberhalser gets in touch, which will be before the Buzz arrives. Well weird; unusually rapid communications zipping around about these Wings, mang.” G-Boy banked sharp right and dove down through three lanes of traffic. “Way to get us noticed, soldier.” The windscreen darkened to black in an instant and Pegasus ComsTex filled the void. “Here’s Uberhalser.”

A shiny-faced respectabloid appeared on screen where the outside world had been, replete with a shiny grey smock against a plain beige background; dull, even for a recorded message. His recorded voice was no more inspiring; “Please desist from your actions. They are futile. You have stolen a Class Zero State Vehicle and are currently being monitored as a Priority One Pursuit Target: Report to Central Bank for instruction.” The image flickered and the message started over.

G-Boy flew through a busy junction, VekTex enabled but busting shit to luck, he tailspun an OldsMobile into the ensuing carnage left in the Pegasus’ wake. Ploughing through more grouped Crazy 8’s the Speedster emerged from the raging InCity Spillway into less chaotic routeways.

“Weird, weird shit... No. It’s wired like a bomb. It’s basically a bomb.”

Where a traffic stream had slowed entering an OutCity tributary, G-Boy ran the stately rocket into the front end of the lead wagon. Grabbing the PACK stick, he exited the Speedster, leaping onto the roof of the jalopy he’d smashed into with thirty or more stacks of Floaters moving between him and the ground. Reaching round through the window, he grabbed hold of the female passenger by the hair and had almost dragged her through the window when the door came open with her. G-Boy now addressed the driver, “Get out now, or I drop your fucking wife.”

Spider aided in the transition of bodies and, once in possession of the flying shitheap, left the terrified couple on the booby-trapped rocket to their likely deaths.

Spider was unimpressed: “That wasn’t the most intelligent thing I’ve seen you do, back there. I say ‘It’s a bomb’ and you crash us into the nearest available hunk o’ trash.

“Calculated risk...” Replied G-Boy tersely.

“Calculated?” She couldn’t conceal her incredulity. “We should be dead, mang. Dead as dead is dead.”

“...And we’re not. Things are looking up. With a little luck... those Wings blow up... takes the heat off us.” G-Boy pitched the Skymma into a steep descent against Grid regulations and without the Good Doctor’s priority exemption it was a move likely to draw Buzz Cops on their tail. “Time to see if the chute is compatible with this baby, cuz she sure won’t be outrunning no Buzz.”

The parachute provided by Tex threw a blanket of excessive data out to Central Bank regarding their vehicle’s status and position on the Grid, covering everything from code violations to machine override functions; the recently skidjacked auto would appear simultaneously in numerous nearby sectors and its location would require determining prior to being isolated from the Grid. It was hoped this would provide them with sufficient time to earth the wagon and hole up at ground level before the Buzz arrived on the scene. Spider piggybacked the chute onto the owner’s PACK, enabling the chute to open its barrage of techno verbiage and re-direct attention temporarily from them.

“Why did that sucker not blow up in our faces,” Spider’s indignation showed no signs of abating. “Is it on a timer? Fuel gauge activated? Or remotely, by the Doc himself...?”

“Someone out to kill the Doctor...?”

“No. That’s the weird part. The bomb wasn’t rigged up or planted. It was incorporated into the design.”

“Maybe it’s a standard feature. I don’t make a habit of lifting State Goonmobiles, so I wouldn’t know...” G-Boy grounded the skidjacked flyer in as smooth a motion as the old zooter would allow and the two emerged onto the causeway in a seedy, half-derelict, semi-industrial MidCity sector.

Thirty storeys above ground level, an explosion carved apart the early morning rush hour, flaming debris cascading earthward in a domino avalanche effect. In Spider’s wider eyes, G-Boy caught reflected fiery pinwheels and secondary explosions. “If this is a set-up, I only hope Drum and the others make it out alive.” Her uplifted gaze contrasted starkly with her deflated demeanour.

Fool's Sacrifice

and

books2read.com/u/mBeM2N

website: GERONIMO BOSCH

twitter: @boschgeronimo

Motivations: G-Boy, when we first meet him, is motivated by survival. The Dominion OutCity is a lawless world ruled by gang culture and he's just doing his best to get by. But, he's also using drugs to blot out the trauma of the past. Gradually, G-Boy comes to see that even the underworld, with its cosy little rackets, is in peril. His motivations change as he is introduced to the bigger picture: a strongarm State coming down hard on the largely defenceless, less privileged, inhabitants of the OutCity. G-Boy is enlisted as a member of an insurgent group, standing against the tyranny of State rule. His dilemma then becomes whether or not to trust the motives of the insurgency.

Strengths/Weaknesses: G-Boy's initial strength resides in his reckless, devil-may-care attitude. Needless to say, this also becomes a weakness. Later, he is provided with a tech upgrade; a new piece of kit, a game-changer. This, too, turns out to be a strength which is not without its downside. In terms of other weaknesses, alongside his predilection for narcotics, he would really benefit from being a better judge of character.

Philosophical Issues: Isn't life as a human being all about desire to control and our reaction to control? Isn't the ideal of love really about meeting someone within this framework with whom these desires and antagonisms can find the nearest thing to equilibrium and consensus? Well that's pretty dry and wouldn't be much of a story on its own, right? So, G-Boy is caught up with these issues - but in a heightened reality. And I find it more interesting to confuse who the good guys and bad gals are. Like, is it really ethically sound to encourage someone to endanger their life for political ends?

Offbeat, Obscure References: No 80's references, I'm afraid. It was a cool decade to be a kid growing up though. Real fond memories. There are, however, plenty of song titles scattered throughout my work. Some are from bands that would have been around in the 80's, like Devo certainly. Look out for Captain Beefheart, Pavement, etc.

When/Why: I started writing FOOL'S SACRIFICE in 2008, playing around with the germ of an idea. I got serious about it and knuckled down in 2012, figuring out how to turn it into a novel. While it is a self-contained story, by the time I finished writing it in 2014, I knew there was enough left to explore in a series. I've since published three novellas looking into the backstories of characters from the novel. As for the why: I think we're moving back into a time of greater inequality in the 'West' and seem to think that scapegoating the poor for the failings of neo-liberalism is a rational way forward. I beg to differ. Add in the 'War on Terror' plus the tech divide and you've got yourself some fertile ground for a novelist. Some people say that Science Fiction has had its day, all the tropes are played-out, the future caught up with us - The Future is Now! Again, I beg to differ...

What Next?: The next book in the DOMINION CITY BLUES series is ROGUE'S REVENGE.

Preview: ROGUE'S REVENGE follows Zee, a female operative of the insurgency, in the aftermath of events in FOOL'S SACRIFICE. The OutCity is in turmoil. All the underworld structures are breaking down. The forces of State appear to have their foot firmly on the neck of the insurgency. But the tech advantage which the insurgents possess is developing all the time. Will it be enough...?

Available: ROGUE'S REVENGE will be available Spring 2017. I'll be releasing extracts and running offers through the website prior to release. There's just the small matter of a wedding to look forward to in between. I'm pleased to say that someone is finally making an honest man of yours truly!