Can you tell readers a little bit about
yourself and what inspired to write in this particular genre?
William Cooper
gave me nightmares, and my dad forced me to start reading Orwell at a young
age. Absolute power corrupts absolutely, and a quick glance through the daily
newspaper confirms this. From smart phones, to smart meters, to cameras on
next-gen gaming consoles, to bluetooth wireless installed in vehicles, to CCTV,
to social networks employing facial recognition, somebody somewhere is watching
everyone always.
The moral of my
story, of course, is that those who are watching should not watch too closely.
Sometimes I wear a moo-moo, cover my face in peanut butter, and do the worm on
my kitchen floor while listening to terrible disco. I just want to spare them
the horror.
Was one of your characters more
challenging to write than another?
I was initially
bored with my villains, so I decided to exaggerate their evil and eccentric
qualities. Skirra is OCD and loves her subjects too much; Krodha's only method
of solving problems is to resort to violence; Brigham is an ice-cold
transhumanist.
Is there a character that you
enjoyed writing more than any of the others?
Burnaby Rue is
crazy. The Daityan military experimented with clinically killing him and
resuscitating him for the purposes of mind control via trauma. One day, Burnaby
had a near death experience during experimentation, came back to life, broke
away from his mind control programming, and massacred everyone in the office.
Despite his
escape, he never psychologically recovered from the incident. He is bent on
revenge and outs his cigarettes everywhere, including against friends'
mattresses and his own pants leg.
Do you
have a formula for developing characters? Like do you create a character sketch
or list of attributes before you start writing or do you just let the character
develop as you write?
The characters find me and beg me to write them. However,
after we're introduced, it's my job to make sure they have an interesting
balance of strengths and weaknesses. I especially like each main character to
have a weakness that can be exploited by villains to maintain a tug-of-war of
power until the end of the book. Lukian has a number of handicaps (he is
brainwashed, injected with nanomachines, and bumbles awkwardly through social
situations), and his battle with those qualities are what endears him most to
me.
What is your favorite scene from the
book? Could you share a little bit of it, without spoilers of course?
My favorite scenes
in Kain are when Lukian experiences altered states of consciousness. They are
composed completely of archetypes and fragments of his mind. It's the part
where the readers really get to know him, and the part where he gets to know
himself.
What is the most interesting thing
you have physically done for book related research purposes?
Unfortunately, I
can only dream of doing all the things I researched! I learned about climbing
through air ducts, into elevator shafts, wading through sewers, and shooting
guns in zero gravity.
With the book being part of a
series, are there any character or story arcs, that readers jumping in somewhere
other than the first book, need to be aware of? Can these books be read as
stand alones?
All the books in
the Sex, Drugs, and Cyberpunk series are written to be read as stand alone
novels. They can be read in any order--but the more books you read, the more
you will learn about the characters and the world.
Lukian Valentin
has some busy days working as a body guard in Jambu ahead of him, but I need to
write a few more books to introduce the villains, before he fights them.
Do any of your characters have
similar characteristics of yourself in them and what are they?
Lukian went
through some rough times and had to reach deep inside his soul to find himself,
to appreciate the value of his life--we've both overcome suffering in similar
ways. Part of what made me want to write the story was to share the reminder of
never losing hope, and that any determined person can overcome anything.
Naoko's hatred of
cappuccino machines is also my hatred of cappuccino machines.
Do you have any weird writing quirks
or rituals?
I can't sit on the same piece of furniture for too long. I
sat on my futon to write my first book and half of my second book--now the
futon is an instant source of writer's block (sorry, Futon). I also need to
change positions frequently. I don't sit at a desk and have all varieties of
pillows for strange sprawling positions.
What are your guilty pleasures in
life?
Peanut butter and
chocolate chip Lara Bars, listening to Evanescence, and watching mushy romantic
anime.
What can readers expect next from
you?
On October 23rd,
I'm releasing another book as part of a twin series (Sex, Drugs, and Biopunk),
set in the same world as Lukian's story. There is a different roster of
characters, but it provides deep political insight to the workings of Lukian's
world. It's science fiction, with heavy paranormal romance and gothic horror
elements. After a last-minute title change, the book is called Alien Bride.
Where can readers find you on the
web?
My books are
currently for sale on Amazon. After October, they will be available through
Smashwords and its affiliated distributors.
I highly encourage
any curious readers to visit my website, friend me on Facebook, or drop me an
email!
Kain
Sex, Drugs, and Cyberpunk
Sex, Drugs, and Cyberpunk
Book One
Brie McGill
Genre: Cyberpunk/Steamy Romance
ISBN: 148267324X
ASIN: B00CQ8BJLI
Number of pages: 323
Word Count: 115,000
Cover Artist: Jeanne Quinn
Book Description:
Counting days is irrelevant in the life of a well-to-do man, unless he counts the days passed in total service to the Empire. Salute. Submit. Shut up and scan the wrist. Therapists armed with batons and brass knuckles guide the derelict along a well-beaten path to Glory.
When human experiment Lukian Valentin escapes the Empire to save his crumbling sanity--through a grimescape of fissured highways, collapsing factories, putrescent sewers--he realizes the fight isn’t only for his life, it’s for his mind. Torturous flashbacks from a murky past spur him on a quest for freedom, while the Empire’s elite retrievers remain at his heels, determined to bring him home for repair.
Lukian needs one doctor to remove the implanted chips from his body, and another to serve him a tall glass of answers. Lukian attempts a psychedelic salvage of his partitioned mind, gleaning fragments of the painful truth about his identity.
A scorching, clothes-ripping rendezvous with a mysterious woman offers Lukian a glimpse of his humanity, and respite from his nightmarish past. It also provides the Empire the perfect weakness to exploit for his recapture.
To rise to the challenge of protecting his new life, his freedom of thought, and his one shot at love, Lukian must reach deep into his mind to find his true identity. To defeat the Empire, he requires the deadly power of his former self--a power that threatens to consume him.
When human experiment Lukian Valentin escapes the Empire to save his crumbling sanity--through a grimescape of fissured highways, collapsing factories, putrescent sewers--he realizes the fight isn’t only for his life, it’s for his mind. Torturous flashbacks from a murky past spur him on a quest for freedom, while the Empire’s elite retrievers remain at his heels, determined to bring him home for repair.
Lukian needs one doctor to remove the implanted chips from his body, and another to serve him a tall glass of answers. Lukian attempts a psychedelic salvage of his partitioned mind, gleaning fragments of the painful truth about his identity.
A scorching, clothes-ripping rendezvous with a mysterious woman offers Lukian a glimpse of his humanity, and respite from his nightmarish past. It also provides the Empire the perfect weakness to exploit for his recapture.
To rise to the challenge of protecting his new life, his freedom of thought, and his one shot at love, Lukian must reach deep into his mind to find his true identity. To defeat the Empire, he requires the deadly power of his former self--a power that threatens to consume him.
About the Author:
Doctors suspect Brie developed an overactive imagination during childhood to cope with the expansive corn maze known as rural Pennsylvania. Unable to afford an operation to have the stories surgically removed from her brain, she opted instead to write them down.
Brie lives in British Columbia with her boyfriend and naughty black cat, somewhere not too far from the sea. She enjoys trips to the local farm, chatting with her long-distance friends on a rotary phone, and roflstomping video games from the nineties.
Brie's favorite authors include Anne Rice, George Orwell, and Hunter S. Thompson.
Official page: www.sexdrugsandcyberpunk.com
Twitter: www.twitter.com/briemcgill
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1 comment:
Hi Roxanne,
Thank you for hosting me today!
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