I was inducted into this Blog Tour project by Thaddeus White, a crafter of adult fantasy and colorful worlds to put it in.  Thaddeus holds a special place in the literary realm for me because although I've been writing for a long, long time and was preparing to self-publish my books (there are eight written), I had never thought to read any self-published works until his Bane of Souls.  I learned in that moment that one does not have to buy traditionally published books to get a great story.

You can meet Thaddeus thus:

Blog: http://thaddeusthesixth.blogspot.com/

Twitter: @MorrisF1

Amazon:

www.amazon.com/Sir-Edrics-Temple-Adventures-Edric-ebook/dp/B00GCAF2CI/

www.amazon.co.uk/Sir-Edrics-Temple-Adventures-Edric-ebook/dp/B00GCAF2CI/

 

Now for my entry into this shindig:

1) What is the name of your character? Is he/she fictional or a historic person?

He might not look like it, but Lesley Kellerman is a junior at Cornell University.  You can call him fictional if you want, but I'm sure that would annoy him if he knew.  He already has trouble taking himself seriously.

2) When and where is the story set?

The story takes place in 2076, but I don't ever mention the exact date, as it is important only to the placement of planets and therefore just fell out of background research.  Geographically, most of it is set in and around Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, but fate eventually takes the main characters to Mars Station, to the very edge of the Solar System, and beyond.  Now, look!  You forced a spoiler out of me.  Shame on you!

3) What should we know about him/her?

Aside from being self-conscious about not being able to grow facial hair, he is a computer science student, and doing quite well with his project.  He calls it ACE, Artificial Cognition Experiment.  He hopes to be the first person to be able to program a computer with a conscience, but he's having a problem with that because he hasn't been able to to define exactly what right and wrong are in his own life.  He is still working on that and the problem frequently occupies his thoughts.

4) What is the main conflict? What messes up his/her life?

He is in the Ruins, the southern tip of Manhattan that was devastated by a nuclear attack during the 30-second war.  But that's old history.  While there, he rescues two little girls from the clutches of a would-be rapist only to find out that they aren't little girls at all.  One of them, Nekalee, is a year older than he is.  In fact, they're not even human, but from a distant civilization that was in space before humans invented clothing.  Exactly why they look human, and why there are full-grown adults who look like human children, are themes that follow the series through to its conclusion.

Lesley is faced with the struggle between the moral obligation to protect them and help them get home, and the repressive laws of Academy society that make doing so dangerously illegal.  He has to face the fact that what is right isn't necessarily what is lawful, especially when it comes to illegal fraternization with the opposite sex, academic fraud, and the theft of an Academy spaceship.  Then, to further complicate his life, he begins to fall in love with Nekalee and has to cope with the possibility that he is a pedophile and never knew it.

Still, he comes to understand that no matter how the adventure has messed up his life, it's messed up Nekalee's and Ritee's a lot more.

Of course, those are all conflicts on the inside.  The ones on the outside — like people trying to kill you while you're hiding from aliens from halfway across the universe who are also trying to kill you — may actually be more urgent problems.  And that can be quite a distraction when you are trying to pull off the most daring act of subterfuge ever perpetrated by a college student.  On Earth at least.

5) What is the personal goal of the character?

He thinks his goal is to make a name for himself in artificial intelligence, and through that to eventually get enough respect to find a real-live girlfriend, an aspiration that has remained stubbornly elusive.  But as the story progresses, he comes to understand that his real goal is to do the right thing.  Not only does that trump all his other objectives, it's a lot harder than the rest of them.  Doing what is right is often much more painful than doing what is easy.

6) Is there a working title for this novel, and can we read more about it?

More than a working title; it's been established for years.  The title is A Hierarchy of Gods, a reference that turns up several times in the book and a nod to the fact that there is a lot more in the universe than we little humans have ever imagined.  It is the second book in The Saga of Banak-Zuur.  And yes, you can see how it all begins.  Heck, you can even start learning the aliens' language.

7) When can we expect the book to be published?

The anticipated date was, for a long time, the end of June, 2014.  However, as usual, the vicissitudes of life have introduced delays, so expect it in July or August.  Of course, that will push back Nemesis until at least the end of the year, and the third book in The Saga of Banak-Zuur, The White Shamitz, to about the middle of 2015.  In the meantime, you can still read the first book in the series, Korvoros.

 

Where to next?

Fiona Skye

Faery Tales: Urban fantasy with a twist.

web site: http://fiona-skye.com/

Twitter: @FionaSkyeWriter

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Fiona-Skye/e/B00CKY01EE/

Lisa Calell

Disconnected/Reconnected: a powerful and painful tale of love and woe.

Twitter: @Lcalel1

Amazon: www.amazon.com/L-Calell/e/B00C9XD35K