Can you tell readers a little bit about
yourself and what inspired to write in this particular genre?
I’m
originally from England but moved to Canada (specifically Montreal) as a young
chap/wee lad/rambunctious nipper. I’ve been writing my whole life, including a
stage play, screenplays, short stories, and novels (I’ve also written for
corporations like Cirque du Soleil, which was fun but it’s super difficult to
balance a laptop on a trapeze.)
I have young kids and was attracted to the YA sci-fi
fantasy genre because I love the idea of encouraging them and other kids to get
into reading. There’s an escapism and imaginative power to sci-fi fantasy that
is very attractive when you’re young. I’ve always been a huge fan of Doctor Who
(since the original series, pre-reboot) and I know that somewhere inside me I
hope that the producers will like my books and ask me to write a script for the
show one day!
What fascinates you about vampires?
Vampires
only have a passing mention in the Embodied trilogy, but harking back to Doctor
Who once again, I’ve always enjoyed seeing paranormal and mythological beings explained
through science, which is where the sci-fi fantasy crossover comes in. Doctor
Who has always had stories that “explain” vampires, ghosts, demons, the devil,
witches, etc, and I get a real kick out of this reverse-cultural-engineering or
whatever it is.
Vampires
per se are interesting because of what they represent. I think we all know
people who are psychic vampires, and unfortunately they’re often people we
love. These are people who draw their strength from sucking it out of those
around them. It’s very negative but highly fascinating to me.
What inspired you to write this
book?
I have an
8-year-old daughter. The key message of the entire trilogy is that we shouldn’t
seek unattainable physical perfection, and I think it’s a very important
message to share with girls in particular. As the trilogy unfolds, this theme
is expanded beyond the human body to the wider world. Is perfection in general
something that we should aim for? Shouldn’t imperfection be appreciated just as
much? The title character in book 2, Starley’s Rust, is a mysterious British
artist who makes paintings that seem to be in decay. His works are therefore
beautiful but also imperfect, as is his own physical and psychological persona.
Please tell us about your latest
release.
The
Embodied trilogy special edition ebook collection is – no surprise! – a 3-in-1
ebook featuring all the novels in the Embodied trilogy: Silent Symmetry,
Starley’s Rust and Diamond Splinters.
The
Embodied trilogy mixes sci-fi and urban fantasy in the coming-of-age story of
Manhattan prep school student Kari Marinner. Following her move to New York
from Wisconsin with her mother, she notices some strange goings-on involving
her mother’s employer, a secretive pseudo-religion called the Temple of Truth
(ToT).
Kari soon
falls in love with Cruz, a boy in her class from the wrong side of the tracks.
But she’s also drawn toward another boy, Noon, who turns out to be an Embodied
being from the Dark Universe. And she begins to wonder whether her emotions are
real or being manipulated by the ToT. As the mystery deepens, Kari has to face
down mythical beasts and trans-dimensional villains, travel to Paris with a
charismatic British artist, and ultimately make a heart-wrenching choice
between rescuing her mother or preventing aliens destroying the Earth.
Kari was
described by one reader as “a total feminist badass” and the series as “YA for
a fun, independent brainy chick.” I’d say that if you like soft sci-fi in the
same vein as Doctor Who, alternative Earth histories, mythical beasts and alien
freedom fighters, you’ll probably enjoy the Embodied trilogy.
This ebook
collection is a special edition because it also includes deleted scenes
(basically an alternate ending) from book 3, Diamond Splinters, as well as a
brand new foreword with author insights and a fun quiz/treasure hunt. Oh yeah,
and during this blog tour, the trilogy ebook is priced at 20% off ($7.99
instead of $9.99).
Do you have a special formula for
creating characters' names? Do you try to match a name with a certain meaning
to attributes of the character or do you search for names popular in certain
time periods or regions?
For
regular human characters, no, I don’t have a formula. Obviously the name should
match the character somehow. But in writing the Embodied trilogy I had an extra
challenge when it came to creating the names of the Embodied characters. I
can’t say why, though, because it would be a spoiler!
Was one of your characters more
challenging to write than another?
Aliens are
always challenging for the simple reason that they don’t share regular human
behavior, emotions or motivations. The Embodied are from the Dark Universe, a
place we can’t even imagine, and it made them especially difficult to write.
But I love a challenge! One of the main characters, Cruz, is first-generation
Puerto Rican. I wouldn’t say that writing him was a huge challenge, but more so
than Kari, who has the same WASP-y cultural baggage as me.
Is there a character that you
enjoyed writing more than any of the others?
Yes, Starley,
the title character in book 2. He’s British, and I got to let loose with him in
a way that I couldn’t with the American characters. I simply had a lot of fun
writing him – his energy and very different vocabulary and speech patterns
compared to the others.
What is your favorite scene from the
book? Could you share a little bit of it, without spoilers of course?
Gosh,
that’s a tough one! That’s like asking me to pick my favorite child! The
trilogy has scary scenes, action scenes, funny scenes, sad scenes… Tell you
what – I’ll share the opening scene from book 1, Silent Symmetry. Each of the
books starts with a flashback to Kari as a very young child, and the story
starts when she learns that her father has died. It takes Kari until the end of
the trilogy to discover what really happened that winter morning…
The
second I walked through the door, I knew something was wrong. Not yet old
enough to read, I could tell by the way Mom propped herself against the kitchen
wall with the phone dangling loosely in her hand. My stomach turned inside-out.
“Mrs.
Marriner?” said the tinny voice in the phone. “Are you still there?”
Mom
put the receiver slowly back to her ear and groaned, “Uh-huh.” Her eyes were
unfocused, her lips trembling.
“Is
there someone who can look after your daughter? You need to come downtown and
identify the body.”
“Uh-huh.”
Mom’s
eyes came back to life and flitted down to look at me with a mixture of
sadness, pity and fear. She clenched her lips together and hung up the phone. I
walked toward her, wary, wondering. Mom crouched down and pulled me close. “I
love you, pumpkin,” she whispered.
“I
love you too, Mommy,” I answered, reassured by the familiar exchange.
“Listen,
I have to go run an errand. I... I’ll drop you off at Maddie’s, okay?”
Normally
the idea of a playdate would have made me jump for joy. But I knew something
was wrong.
“Go
pick out a sweater.”
“Okay.”
And off I ran to my room, still shielded from the new reality.
* * * * *
That
evening, Mom ordered pizza and we sat next to each other at the kitchen table
as she explained to me that daddy wouldn’t be coming home any more. I can
remember crying, but not really understanding. Mom cried too, even though she
did her best to stay strong. She told me a little story about daddy driving to
work and a big truck pushing his car off the bridge. Daddy flew and he was
still flying. It was just an accident and daddy wishes he could come home, but he
can’t, and he still loves me bigger than the universe and sends me kisses and
hugs every morning and every night.
The
Wisconsin winter rain pounded on the kitchen window. We finished the pizza in
silence. Something was wrong and there was nothing either of us could do to put
it right.”
Did you find anything really
interesting while researching this or another book?
Oh yes,
I’m currently finding out all kinds of interesting things about Victorian
Montreal while researching a new series in the gothic horror genre known as dreadpunk.
For example, Montreal is an island in the Saint Lawrence river and there are
several bridges connecting it to the South Shore. But the oldest one is also
the crappiest one, and it’s called the Victoria Bridge. The thing is, when that
bridge was opened in 1859 (by Queen Victoria’s eldest son, the Prince of Wales)
it was the longest bridge in the entire world! It was such an engineering
marvel that it was known popularly as The Eighth Wonder of the World! And at
the foot of the Montreal side of the bridge is an enormous boulder called the
Black Rock, which commemorates the thousands of Irish immigrants who died from
typhus on ships coming from Britain and were buried in mass graves on that spot
around a decade earlier. It was a fascinating place at a tumultuous period of
its history. So many stories to tell, and they just leap out from the research
a lot of the time!
What is the most interesting thing
you have physically done for book related research purposes?
On a
research trip to New York City for Silent Symmetry, I took the sane helicopter
tour of Manhattan that Kari takes with her mother. That was my one and only
time in a helicopter so it was pretty amazing!
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
standalones?
Yes, the
books can be read as standalones, because each has its own story and a subtle
recap of the overall context it’s taking place in. But there is an overarching
storyline too, so if you want to know whether Kari rescues her mother and
clears up the mystery of Noon’s involvement in her father’s death, then you’ll
have to read the whole thing.
Do any of your characters have
similar characteristics of yourself in them and what are they?
As I
mentioned earlier, Starley is English, so I couldn’t help but include a bit of
my personality in his character. However I based him on a mix of a couple of
real-world celebrities. Can’t say who though!
Do you ever suffer from writer’s
block? How do you deal with it?
Rarely,
but there are two ways to deal with it, both involving getting the hell away
from a screen! I either go for a walk or take a nap (I guess depending on my
energy level) and the effect is like magic.
Do you write in different genres?
I do –
I’ve written an adult psychological thriller, The New Sense, as John B. Dutton,
as well as a book of short stories called Life is Good that cover a range of
genres. As mentioned above, I’m part-way through a gothic horror series in the
dreadpunk genre. My next Embodied story is likely to be historical fantasy set
in ancient Egypt.
Do you find it difficult to write in
multiple genres?
No, I
really enjoy it and find that it keeps me sharp.
When did you consider yourself a
writer?
There were
three different events that combined to make me add “Writer” to my email
signature: Back in 1998 I wrote a stage play that was produced to some acclaim
in Montreal, and then a couple of years later I received two grants to write a
screenplay. All this time I was also writing short stories and my first novel,
but what clinched it for me was taking the plunge to become a freelance
marketing copywriter (ads, websites, stuff like that) in 2005 because that was
the point when all my time was spent writing and all my income came from it.
What are your guilty pleasures in
life?
Guinness.
But I don’t even feel guilty about it!
Other than writing, what are some of
your interests, hobbies or passions in life?
My British
roots are showing when I say that I’m a huge soccer fan! I’m a very proud
father, so looking after my kids is something I really take pleasure in. I
genuinely love words and language, so I’ve always been keen on foreign
languages and speak three pretty well, but I like to learn new ones.
What was the last amazing book you
read?
The
Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin
Where is your favorite place to
read? Do you have a cozy corner or special reading spot?
Bed.
Where can readers find you on the
web?
I have a
brand new website at www.jbdutton.com and
my writing blog is at http://JohnBDutton.wordpress.com.
You can also visit my professional Facebook page at: http://facebook.com/JohnBDuttonAuthor
or see my pics on Instagram at: https://www.instagram.com/johnbdutton/
The Embodied Trilogy
Special Edition Ebook Collection
JB Dutton
Genre: YA Urban fantasy / science fiction
Date of Publication: July 11, 2016
ISBN: 9780991791842
ASIN: B01H7U1QOE
Number of pages: 560
Word Count: 183,094
Cover Artist: Alexandra Nereuta
Follow Kari's exciting adventure in in one special edition of all three ebooks, including bonus author insights, deleted scenes and a treasure hunt quiz..
The Embodied trilogy is an unusual web of adventure, romance, fantasy, and science fiction.
Prep school student Kari Marriner is swept up in a mystery that fast becomes a thrilling adventure when she discovers that mysterious aliens called the Embodied and their pseudo-religion, the Temple of Truth, been influencing her family’s life for decades. She soon finds herself battling dragons, unicorns, and nefarious angels on the streets of New York and in the catacombs of Paris, while having her emotions torn by a handsome alien and a jealous boyfriend. In a final showdown, she must travel to the creatures’ home in the dark universe and make a heart-wrenching choice: rescue her mother or save the Earth.
Special Tour Price $7.99
Excerpt:
The first
sensation was my stomach lurching and spinning. Then I seemed to be plunging
dizzily while simultaneously zooming higher on some kind of impossible
rollercoaster ride. And suddenly I felt nothing. Absolutely nothing. I was
separated from any kind of physical reality, like – oh… oh wow – like I was
totally disembodied. I could sense things but not see them with my eyes. I had…
a sort of mathematical awareness, as though I was plugged directly into the
mainframe of a supercomputer the size of the universe, my mind swimming in pure
information. Geometric shapes twinkled in and out of existence. Lines and
points moved around in constant motion. It felt like a dream made of numbers…
patterns and data combining and separating. Spirals within spirals and symmetries
within symmetries.
“Mom?” I called
out. Or at least imagined myself calling out. Ripples in this web of
information undulated in front of me when I said her name. “Mom? It’s me. It’s
Kari.” More complex ripples floated away.
Nothing.
At that moment
it occurred to me I had no way of getting back home.
“Noon?” I said
hopefully. Oh man – he’d told me how to use the sphere to reach the Dark
Universe but now I was here and totally disembodied, I had no way of
controlling my body to remove the sphere from my forehead.
But before I
could worry about this too much, the waves of information started to coalesce
into more recognizable shapes. Pyramids and spheres, but not solid ones. They
seemed to be made of… of symbols and binary code. That was it – they were like living
equations! And then weirdly, in one of the pyramid shapes, I could recognize
Noon. I felt as though I could see his mesmerizing face. Even though it was
data or whatever, it was somehow him. The whole experience was kinda hypnotic.
Was it even really happening? In one respect, I guess none of it was real,
because I was literally seeing outside my universe.
“Kari – you made
it,” I heard him say.
“Is that really
you? Cilic didn’t kill you?”
“Well, he killed
Embodied me, but the Mihim brought my diamond pyramid back here.”
This was
super-bizarro. Now it was like the surrounding patterns had gone out of focus
and I could clearly see the pyramid that was Noon’s true form.
“Wait, let me do
something,” he said. “I’m going to recreate a reality you’re familiar with to
make this easier for you.”
And the entire
crazy churning data kaleidoscope sort of crystalized. I found myself standing
in a towering hall with walls, floor, and ceiling made of what looked like
sheets of sheer diamond. But in the depths of the diamond the same patterns I’d
seen before were refracted in a million colors. It was the most beautiful thing
I’d ever encountered.
Silent Symmetry
The Embodied Trilogy
Book One
JB Dutton
Genre: YA Urban fantasy / science fiction
Date of Publication: January, 2013
ISBN: 9780991791804
ASIN: B00B0534UC
Number of pages: 194
Word Count: 54,359
Cover Artist: Alexandra Nereuta
Book Description:
Kari Marriner’s earliest memory is her father’s death in a car crash back in small-town Wisconsin. Now, 12 years later, her mother has been hired by a pseudo-religious organization in Manhattan called the Temple of Truth (a.k.a. the ToT). At Chelsea Prep, Kari develops a crush on classmate Cruz. But when she realizes that Noon, another attractive guy at school, is involved with the ToT, her curiosity gets the better of her.
Kari stumbles upon a secret tunnel leading from her apartment to another in the building, where an ancient book holds images she can scarcely believe, and a cavernous room contains... something inexplicable. As Kari pieces together the incredible evidence, she discovers that the ToT is run by other-worldly beings called The Embodied who influence human behavior and have established a global long-term human breeding program. But why? And what is her role in all this?
Just as she starts wondering whether the love she feels for Cruz is genuine or if her emotions are being controlled by The Embodied, her mother is kidnapped and Kari has to figure out who is human, who is Embodied, and who she can count on to help rescue her mother.
Book One Free
Excerpt:
When I got in,
the apartment was empty. I dumped my stuff and had a shower. I only realized as
I was drying my hair that the apartment was really empty. Flash wasn’t there.
The hairdryer was his nemesis, and the feud had being going on since he was
traumatized by it as a kitten. But he couldn’t resist confronting it. Whenever
I blow-dried my hair he would freak, hissing and arching his back, fur standing
on end. But not this time.
I turned off the
hairdryer and called his name. Nothing. I made little squeaking noises with my
lips, walking from room to room. Okay, this was bizarre. Where the eff could he
be? There was only one sure-fire way of making him come running. I went into
the kitchen and opened the cupboard where the cat food was stored. I shook the
bag loudly. Silence.
Wait, there
wasn’t silence.
There was a
muffled voice coming from... coming from? I bent down to follow the sound. It
was coming from the cupboard.
The cupboard was
a medium-sized space, maybe three feet high and 18 inches wide, and as I stuck
my head inside to listen I felt like I was somehow entering another world. It
was a gut feeling. You know, the kind you can’t explain but know you should
trust. Some people call it instinct, but Mom explained to me once that the gut
and the ancient lizard brain are linked. This is the “fight or flight” response
that you feel when you’re threatened. It’s helped us survive over millions of
years of evolution. And it’s rarely wrong.
So what was
different in there? What was my subconscious reacting to? The smell. Yes, that
was it – something smelled different in there, and it wasn’t cat food. Now the
muffled voice was louder, more distinctive. And I could tell that there were
actually two voices, a man’s and a woman’s.
I put my head in
further and another part of my gut sent me a second message. The dimensions
were wrong. The cupboard stretched back much further than it should have, back
beyond the kitchen wall.
I withdrew and
stood up. I opened the cupboard above it and moved the cereal boxes to one
side. This one was only a couple of feet deep. Looking back into the cat food
cupboard, it was obvious that it went back at least a foot more.
I stood with my
hands on my hips for a moment, trying to process. And where on earth was Flash?
I called his name again and listened. Suddenly the voices stopped. I bent down
and put my head back in the cupboard. There was a stale smell, and... was that
a draft? I reached inside and felt around. The cupboard was so deep it was hard
to see the back clearly. I shuffled inside, resting on my forearms and prodding
the back wall with my fingers. It moved slightly. I pushed harder, and with a
groan it swung open at the bottom. It was hinged somehow at the top, like a
large flap. I opened the flap wider and felt a distinct whoosh of cooler,
damper air hit my face. I peered through the opening but it was pitch black
inside. Then the voices started again, this time much clearer. I still couldn’t
make out what they were saying, but it was definitely a man and a younger woman
talking.
Pushing the flap
open even wider I realized that I could fit through the opening. The other side
of the flap felt like a tunnel or duct the same width and height as the
cupboard. The trouble was, it was too dark in there to explore it. I needed a
flashlight.
Mom is nothing
if not resourceful. There were always spare batteries in the house when I was a
kid. A first aid kit that nurse-Mom whipped out at the first sign of fever. And
a well-stocked emergency box in an easy-to-reach location.
Five minutes
later I was back in the cupboard, flashlight in hand.
I wriggled
inside on my hands and knees, then pushed the flap open again. I crawled
through it, testing the strength of the surface beneath me as I went. The
tunnel creaked a bit – I guess it was made of wood – but it seemed pretty firm.
I advanced, the tunnel’s blackness stretching out in front of me. The flap
swung shut and the dank air enveloped me.
I stopped and
listened, probing the tunnel with the flashlight. It seemed to go on forever.
“Flash?” I whispered loudly. But all I could hear were the echoey voices. I
carried on crawling forward. They seemed to be getting louder. The young
woman’s higher-pitched voice was easier to make out than the man’s gravelly
rumble.
I thought I
heard her say, “...control of it...here, I can get...here...make it...” Just
snatches of sentences. The man said something in reply. When I was crawling,
the noise my jeans made on the wood made it impossible to distinguish
individual words in what the woman was saying. I shone the flashlight ahead of
me. Was that a turn in the tunnel? As I got nearer, I could tell that there was
a junction to the left in the tunnel up ahead.
I reached the
bend and looked around it, the flashlight beam sweeping the tunnel walls. There
was another long stretch that ended in...? A bend or a drop? “Flash?” I
whispered again and listened. Now both voices were more distinct. They were
definitely coming from further along the tunnel.
“...can’t stop
them,” said the man.
“That’s just
it,” answered the woman. Then silence.
I crawled
onward, accompanied only by the swoosh and scrape of my jeans and shoes. Half a
minute later I reached the end of this stretch of tunnel. Now there was a turn
to the right, and a section that went upward. I raised my head to look up this
chute. For a second my brain made a connection. That was it – garbage chutes!
These big old buildings were usually equipped with them. Maybe that was what
this was. But why did the tunnels go sideways? No, it made no sense.
I knelt at the
junction, searching for an explanation. Then, before I knew what was happening,
I screamed. Something had dropped from the chute and landed in front of me.
Something alive. I scrambled backward, heart in mouth, the flashlight making
crazy-ass shadows on the tunnel walls.
In seconds I was
back at the first turn, but as I tried to crawl around it, one of the belt
loops on my jeans snagged on a nail. I tried to pull it off, frantic. I glanced
back down the tunnel and saw a movement. It was coming toward me. It was...
Flash.
My limbs sagged,
I stopped struggling, and the loop unhooked from the nail. The cat meowed and
trotted up to me. Laughing in relief, I petted him. “You... you... I love you!”
I said, happy to have found him. And happy that he wasn’t a giant rat. Or
something worse that the depths of my imagination had conjured up in my state
of panic. He purred and snuggled against my nose.
“Kari.”
I froze.
It was the young
woman’s voice. Distant, but distinct. I strained my ears to hear more but I was
already far from the source of the sound, and Flash’s purring obscured the rest
of the words. But I know I heard it. I know I heard my name.
“Kari.”
Starley’s Rust
The Embodied Trilogy
Book Two
JB Dutton
Genre: YA Urban fantasy / science fiction
Date of Publication: January 2015,
second edition April 2016
ISBN: 9781311725493
ASIN: B00ONKYNOC
Number of pages: 206
Word Count: 60,934
Cover Artist: Alexandra Nereuta
Book Description:
Six months ago, Kari Marriner’s life was torn apart. Now turned 17, she’s looking for answers in her rural Wisconsin hometown. But just as the Embodied seemed to have vanished, there’s a new, more terrifying visitor from the Dark Universe.
Back in Manhattan, a charismatic English artist named Starley convinces Kari he can find her missing mother if she flies to Paris with him. He also shares an incredible secret from the dawn of mankind. But Starley is not who he seems. Before she knows it, Kari finds herself standing in front of the Mona Lisa with him, yelling out, “He’s got a bomb!”
And that’s when things go totally insane. The Rebel Embodied’s henchman, Cilic, returns to Earth on a deadly mission. The body of Kari’s treacherous friend Aranara is washed up on the banks of the Hudson. But is she really dead? In the Paris catacombs, Kari and Starley are hunted by a nightmarish mythical creature that’s all too real.
A family mystery, an exiled race, freakish beasts, jealousy, love… and death. Kari has to face them all in this fast-paced fantasy thriller.
Amazon Paperback Amazon UK Paperback
Excerpt:
The sun was
setting behind the buildings. A big barn with half the roof missing. A grain
silo. A couple of smaller shed-type buildings, one with no door, the other with
the door hanging off its hinges. And a farmhouse. Windows shattered. Front door
gawping at me. I gulped and sent an ILY back to Cruz. He liked those.
Then I had the
strangest feeling. Like a disruption in the atmosphere, but also in my mind.
The air changed somehow, and I heard a rumbling of distant thunder. I could
have sworn that the fading daylight got brighter for a few seconds. The hairs
stood up on the back of my neck. It made me stop moving. Then reality seemed to
snap back to normal. I kept going toward the farmhouse.
I saw something
move.
The setting sun
had backlit the barn so it was hard to be sure what it was. A horse, I think. A
big, black stallion moving around in the barn.
My mind filled
in the blanks. Probably a horse that had escaped from a neighboring farm and
made a new home for itself here. Okay, cool. No mystery. Maddie must have seen
it and her mind made it fit the legend.
I lay Maddie’s
bike down in the grass, careful not to make a sound. I tiptoed toward the barn,
not wanting to startle it. I turned on the flashlight app on my phone. Clouds
were gathering, the light was fading. More distant thunder. I just needed to
find it, take a photo and show Maddie. Her grandfather would know what to do,
how to capture it safely and find its owner.
I entered the
barn, still creeping quietly. Ew. It certainly smelled like a barn. There was
hay strewn around on the ground. My phone flashlight was practically useless.
It illuminated a patch, like, five feet in front of me. In the dim light, I could
make out a row of stalls on each side and a hayloft up ahead with a ladder
propped against it.
Now I thought
about it, the smell was kinda weird. I grew up around here and although I’d
never spent any time on a farm, I sensed that there was some kind of extra,
non-farm smell here. Hard to identify. But yucky and familiar all the same.
Was that an
animal noise in one of the stalls on the left? Or just the wind blowing through
the holes in the walls? I crept toward the stall very, very carefully. My hand
holding the phone was shaking. Come on, Kari. Get a grip. The sides of the
stalls weren’t high enough to conceal a horse. Unless it was lying down in the
hay, of course.
I reached the
stall where I thought I’d heard the noise. I waited a second, held my breath,
then stepped in front of the stall’s open gate. It was empty. And that’s when
the hairs stood up on the back of my neck again. But this time there was
another, all-too-familiar feeling along with it.
It was the
feeling I had when Noon was in my head. Yet not exactly the same. This was
unpleasant, even disturbing, and somehow stronger.
I spun around.
In the barn doorway stood the black stallion. Protruding from its forehead was
a long, tapered horn. It really was a unicorn. It raised its head and my mind
felt like a heavy blanket had been draped over it. It eyed me purposefully. My
irrational fear as a little girl came flooding back, multiplied by a million. I
almost peed my pants. Was this a bad dream? Maybe I would wake up surrounded by
My Little Pony’s in my 8-year-old’s bedroom?
If only…
The unicorn took
a step forward. The feeling in my head got even stronger and now I could swear
that I heard the name Noon repeating over and over. Not his voice, just his
name. Was the unicorn Embodied? I didn’t get a chance to wonder about this
because now the feeling in my head was becoming worse… painful. I was convinced
that my mind was being probed by this astonishing creature. In the space of a
few seconds, the pain increased and so did the repetition of the name Noon
until it was so excruciating that I felt like screaming. I put my hands to my
temples and opened my mouth. As I was about to close my eyes, I saw the unicorn
start to charge toward me.
Despite the
pain, I managed to fling myself to one side and into the empty stall just
before it reached me. It galloped past and I heard it stop. My head was still
throbbing. I staggered to my feet, one fist still pressed to my temple. Maybe I
could make a break for it.
The unicorn
appeared in front of me, blocking the stall entrance. I was totally trapped. I
looked around in desperation. A broken wooden handle was poking out from a pile
of hay in one corner. I grabbed it and pulled out a pitchfork. The unicorn
advanced into the stall, its head lowered so that its horn was aimed directly
at my head. The pain coursed through my brain like a river of electricity.
I swung the
pitchfork at the unicorn’s head. I missed, but it backed up, startled. I swung
again. It made a snuffling sound and stepped back further.
“LEAVE ME ALONE!”
I screamed.
The unicorn
cocked its head to one side like it was listening to me. The pain in my brain
diminished.
I swung again
and shouted the same thing.
The unicorn drew
itself up to its full height and then something even more incredible happened.
It raised its tail. But this was no stallion’s tail. It was like a huge peacock
tail, shimmering with shades of black, gray, and silver. The tail fanned out,
probably ten feet wide, and despite the pain in my head, I lowered the
pitchfork, just standing there in awe. What was this being? It seemed to
possess incredible power and at the same time be unimaginably beautiful. In
fact, it was all the more terrifying because it was so beautiful.
Diamond Splinters
The Embodied Trilogy
Book Three
JB Dutton
Genre: YA Urban fantasy / science fiction
Date of Publication: May, 2016
ISBN: 9780991791835
ASIN: B01DFUUIA8
Number of pages: 212
Word Count: 62,257
Cover Artist: Alexandra Nereuta
Book Description:
Prep school senior Kari Marriner has a heart-wrenching choice to make: rescue her mother or prevent aliens destroying the Earth.
Having faced down mythical beasts and trans-dimensional villains, Kari has finally unraveled the mystery of the cult-like Temple of Truth and found the diamond sphere that can free her mother from the evil clutches of the Thoth high priests. But to find out how to use the sphere, Kari must team up with the one person she can never trust: Aranara, the treacherous sister of her missing soulmate Noon.
When a submarine trip to the bottom of the Hudson River ends in death and disaster, Kari is scarred, both emotionally and physically. She wants to run and hide but digs deep and finds new sources of inner strength. As the storm of the century hits New York, a child’s life hangs in the balance and Kari gambles everything in a final confrontation with the genocidal Thoth.
Excerpt:
Aranara pushed
at the hatch. Nothing happened. Whether it was the water pressure or some
safety mechanism I don’t know, but she stopped trying and went back to the
control panel. The sub reversed. I looked through the transparent bottom and
saw Noon’s pyramid coming back into view. As soon as it was directly beneath
us, she climbed onto her chair and aimed the gun at the globe-shaped acrylic
window. With a surge of terror, I realized what she was about to do.
“Nooooo!” I
screamed as she fired. I was kneeling on the floor of the cabin beside
Mangold’s body. I automatically shielded my face. The bullet ricocheted. The
dome had cracked instead of shattering. She shot twice more, not even flinching
from the flying bullets. The crack spread. Water started to spray in. I reached
up to try to stop her, but she held me off with one hand while she fired again
with the other.
The window
bulged inward. Then it burst. Water poured in and I screamed again, clawing at
her uselessly as she pulled away enough acrylic to make an opening big enough
to swim through. The water gushed like a torrent. She got hold of the sides of
the hole she’d made and somehow managed to pulled herself out. The sub listed
to one side and my reality shifted. Everything felt like a dream. I was in a
reversed fishbowl. The air was inside and the water was outside, with Aranara
swimming in it, downward toward Noon’s pyramid on the riverbed. The water was
already up to my knees. There was nothing I could do. This was where I was
going to die.
Wait – maybe one
thing! I had shut Noon out. Maybe he could do something. I closed my eyes and
calmed myself as best I could. “Tell Aranara to help me. I’m going to drown.”
I heard nothing.
The water was up to my waist now. Spray. Smell. Sickening fear. I looked down
but now it was impossible to see where Aranara was underneath the sub because
of the river water rushing into the cabin. Did she already have the pyramid?
Was she blocking Noon’s communication with me somehow? The water reached my
chest. The dreamlike state disappeared. New panic set in. There was only one
chance. Once no more water was flowing into the opening that Aranara had made,
I could try swimming out through it. But we were seventy feet below the
surface. Could I hold my breath long enough? I saw something move at my feet
and looked down. I let out a huge scream as Mangold’s head floated up next to
mine. Oh god, oh god. The water was up to my neck. I stood on the chair. My
head was touching the top of the dome. The water was now level with the
opening. I had to fill my lungs with as much oxygen as I possibly could from
the few inches that were trapped at the top of the cabin. I breathed deeply.
One, two, three deep breaths. The water lapped at my chin. Four. I held my
breath.
I pushed off the
chair toward the opening. It was barely wide enough. But before I could reach
it, the submarine pitched downward. The hatch hit me in the back. The opening
was further away than before, below me now. I swam toward it. The acrylic was
at least an inch thick. I caught hold of the edge of the opening with one hand
and pulled myself forward. As my head went through, the submarine lurched to
one side. A searing pain in my cheek. I held on tight. Now I could use both
hands to pull myself through. Then I was out. My lungs were already starting to
hurt. Daylight was so far away up above. Suddenly an arm circled my waist. It
was Aranara. She didn’t even look at me, just kicked with both legs, pulling me
away from the listing sub. I felt myself getting dizzy as we rose faster than a
normal person would be able to. The pressure was enormous. The air was forced
out of my lungs. I passed out.
About the Author:
After graduating from film school in London, England, JB Dutton emigrated to Montreal in 1987, where he still lives with his two young children and their even younger goldfish. He spent over a decade as a music TV director before moving into the advertising industry as an award-winning copywriter for clients such as Cirque du Soleil. JB Dutton has written novels, short stories, blogs, screenplays and a stage play. He also writes adult fiction under the name John B. Dutton.
Goodreads author page: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6949179.J_B_Dutton
Amazon author page: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B009297EM2
Professional Facebook page: http://facebook.com/JohnBDuttonAuthor
Twitter handle: @JohnBDutton
Tumblr: http://JohnBDutton.tumblr.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/johnbdutton/
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