The Qwillery

Happy Monday!

There are 5 debuts this week:

The Punch Escrow by Tal M. Klein

The Five Daughters of the Moon (The Waning Moon Duology 1) by Leena Likitalo;

Gather the Daughters by Jennie Melamed;

Strange Practice (A Dr. Greta Helsing Novel 1) by Vivian Shaw;

and

Talon of God by Wesley Snipes and Ray Norman.




From formerly featured DAC Authors:

Nod by Adrian Barnes is out in Mass Market Paperback;

Red Right Hand (The Mythos War 1) by Levi Black is out in Trade Paperback;

The Wilding Sisters by Eve Chase;

Killing Is My Business (Ray Electromatic Mysteries 2) by Adam Christopher;

Time Siege (Time Salvager 2) by Wesley Chu is out in Trade Paperback;

Sovereign (Nemesis 2) by April Daniels;

Gilded Cage (Dark Gifts 1) by Vic James is out in Trade Paperback;

Raid (Wastelanders 2) by K.S. Merbeth;

and

Blood Gamble (Disrupted Magic 2) by Melissa F. Olson.

Debut novels are highlighted in blue. Novels, etc. by formerly featured DAC Authors are highlighted in green.

July 24, 2017

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Betrayed by Blood (e)	Beth Dranoff	PNR - Mark of the Moon 2
Accidental Sire (e)	Molly Harper	PNR - Half-Moon Hollow 14

July 25, 2017

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Wildfire	Ilona Andrews	PNR - Hidden Legacy 3
The Unholy Consult	R. Scott Bakker	F - Aspect-Emperor 4
Nod (tp2mm)	Adrian Barnes	Dys/LF/SF/AP/PA
Red Right Hand (h2tp)	Levi Black	DF/H - The Mythos War 1
Tomorrow War: Serpent Road	J. L. Bourne	TechTh - The Chronicles of Max 2
The Wilding Sisters	Eve Chase	CW/CoA/FL
Killing Is My Business	Adam Christopher	SF/Noir/PI - Ray Electromatic Mysteries 2
Time Siege (h2tp)	Wesley Chu	SF/TT - Time Salvager 2
Glory Imperialis: An Astra Militarum Omnibus	Mark Clapham Andy Hoare Richard Williams	SF - Astra Militarum
The Dream Keeper's Daughter	Emily Colin	R/TT/F/HistF
Sovereign	April Daniels	SH - Nemesis 2
Death's Bright Day (h2mm)	David Drake	SF - RCN 11
Dark Carousel (h2mm)	Christine Feehan	PNR - Carpathian 30
Dark Screams: Volume Seven (e)	Brian James Freeman (Ed) Richard Chizmar (Ed)	H - Dark Screams Anthology
Resurrection	John French	SF - The Horusian Wars 1
Battlefront II: Inferno Squad	Christie Golden	SF/MTI - Star Wars
Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets: The Official Movie Novelization	Christie Golden	SF/MTI
Dark Rites	Heather Graham	PNR/SupTh - Krewe of Hunters 22
The Fifth Doll	Charlie N. Holmberg	HistF
Gilded Cage (h2tp)	Vic James	F/Dys/SF - Dark Gifts 1
Assassin's Price	L. E. Modesitt Jr.	F - The Imager Portfolio 11
The Punch Escrow (D)	Tal M. Klein	SF/TechTh
The Five Daughters of the Moon (D)	Leena Likitalo	HistF/DF - The Waning Moon Duology 1
Red Tithe	Robbie MacNiven	SF - Carcharodons 1
Bone White	Ronald Malfi	H/GH/Th
Gather the Daughters (D)	Jennie Melamed	LF
Raid	K.S. Merbeth	SF/AP/PA - Wastelanders 2
Blood Gamble	Melissa F. Olson	UF - Disrupted Magic 2
Copper Veins	Jennifer Allis Provost	Dys/FR - Copper Legacy 3
Strange Practice (D)	Vivian Shaw	CF - A Dr. Greta Helsing Novel 1
Extinction Age	Nicholas Sansbury Smith	SF/AP/PA - The Extinction Cycle 3
Talon of God (D)	Wesley Snipes Ray Norman	UF
Age of Swords	Michael J. Sullivan	F - The Legends of the First Empire 2
After the Downfall	Harry Turtledove	AH

July 26, 2017

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
These Deathless Bones: A Tor.com Original (e)	Cassandra Khaw	H
Hounds of the Underworld	Dan Rabarts Lee Murray	M/Noir/H - Path of Ra 1

July 27, 2017

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
She-wolf: A Cultural History of Female Werewolves (ri)	Hannah Priest	LC/SF/F
The Leper House (e)	Andrew Taylor	GO
Broken Voices (e)	Andrew Taylor	GO
The Scratch (e)	Andrew Taylor	GO

D - Debut
e - eBook
Ed - Editor
h2mm - Hardcover to Mass Market Paperback
h2tp - Hardcover to Trade Paperback
ri - reissue or reprint
tp2mm - Trade to Mass Market Paperback
Tr - Translator


AC - Alien Contact
AH - Alternate History
AP - Apocalyptic
CF - Contemporary Fantasy
CoA - Coming of Age
CW - Contemporary Women
DF - Dark Fantasy
Dys - Dystopian
F - Fantasy
FairyT - Fairy Tales
FL - Family Life
FolkT - Folk Tales
FR - Fantasy Romance
GH - Ghost(s)
GenEng - Genetic Engineering
GO - Gothic
H - Horror
HC - History and Criticism
HistF - Historical Fantasy
HU - Humor
LF - Literary Fiction
LM - Legends and Mythology
M - Mystery
MR - Magical Realism
MTI - Media Tie-In
Noir - Noir
Occ - Occult
PA - Post Apocalyptic
PI - Private Investigator
PM - Paranormal Mystery
PNR - Paranormal Romance
PRS - Paranormal Romantic Suspense
Psy - Psychological
R - Romance
RPGs - Role Playing Games
Satire - Satire
SF - Science Fiction
SFR - Science Fiction Romance
SH - Superhero(es)
SP - Steampunk
Sup - Supernatural
SupTh - Supernatural Thriller
Sus - Suspense
TechTh - Technological Thriller
Th - Thriller
TT - Time Travel
UF - Urban Fantasy
VisMeta - Visionary and Metaphysical
W - Western
Z - Zombies

Note: Not all genres and formats are found in the books, etc. listed above.

Adrian Barnes (2015)

Nod
Titan Book, July 25, 2017
Mass Market Paperback, 272 pages
Trade Paperback and eBook, September 1, 2015

Dawn breaks over Vancouver and no one in the world has slept the night before, or almost no one. A few people, perhaps one in ten thousand, can still sleep, and they’ve all shared the same golden dream.

After six days of absolute sleep deprivation, psychosis will set in. After four weeks, the body will die. In the interim, panic ensues and a bizarre new world arises in which those previously on the fringes of society take the lead.

Paul, a writer, continues to sleep while his partner Tanya disintegrates before his eyes, and the new world swallows the old one whole.

Bradley P. Beaulieu (2011)

Twelve Kings in Sharkhai
Song of the Shattered Sands 1
DAW, August 1, 2017
Mass Market Paperback, 656 pages
Trade Paperback and eBook, July 12, 2016

Best Book of 2015 by Amazon | Barnes & Noble | BuzzFeed • “Promises to be breathtaking.” —Robin Hobb

The Song of the Shattered Sands: Book One

Sharakhai, the great city of the desert, center of commerce and culture, has been ruled from time immemorial by twelve kings — cruel, ruthless, powerful, and immortal. With their army of Silver Spears, their elite company of Blade Maidens and their holy defenders, the terrifying asirim, the Kings uphold their positions as undisputed, invincible lords of the desert. There is no hope of freedom for any under their rule.

Or so it seems, until Çeda, a brave young woman from the west end slums, defies the Kings’ laws by going outside on the holy night of Beht Zha’ir. What she learns that night sets her on a path that winds through both the terrible truths of the Kings’ mysterious history and the hidden riddles of her own heritage. Together, these secrets could finally break the iron grip of the Kings’ power…if the nigh-omnipotent Kings don’t find her first.

Stacey Berg (2016)

Regeneration
An Echo Hunter 367 Novel 2
Harper Voyager Impulse, March 14, 2017
     eBook, 384 pages
Harper Voyager Impulse, May 2, 2017
     Mass Market Paperback, 448 pages

The world is ready to be reborn…

Protected by the Church for four hundred years, the people of the City are the last of humanity—or so they thought. Echo Hunter 367, made to be faithful to the Church and its Saint at all costs, embarks on what she’s sure is a suicide mission into the harsh desert beyond the City. Then, at the end of all hope, she stumbles on a miracle: another enclave of survivors, a lush, peaceful sanctuary completely opposite of anything Echo has ever known.

But the Preserve has dark secrets of its own, and uncovering them may cost Echo more than just her life. She fears her discoveries will trigger a final, disastrous war. But if Echo can stop the Church and Preservers from destroying each other, she might have a chance to achieve her most impossible dream—saving the woman she loves.

Elizabeth Blackwell (2014)

In the Shadow of Lakecrest
Lake Union Publishing, February 1, 2017
Trade Paperback and Kindle eBook, 282 pages

The year is 1928. Kate Moore is looking for a way out of the poverty and violence of her childhood. When a chance encounter on a transatlantic ocean liner brings her face-to-face with the handsome heir to a Chicago fortune, she thinks she may have found her escape—as long as she can keep her past concealed.

After exchanging wedding vows, Kate quickly discovers that something isn’t quite right with her husband—or her new family. As Mrs. Matthew Lemont, she must contend with her husband’s disturbing past, his domineering mother, and his overly close sister. Isolated at Lakecrest, the sprawling, secluded Lemont estate, she searches desperately for clues to Matthew’s terrors, which she suspects stem from the mysterious disappearance of his aunt years before. As Kate stumbles deeper into a maze of family secrets, she begins to question everyone’s sanity—especially her own. But just how far will she go to break free of this family’s twisted past?

TQ:  Welcome to The Qwillery. When and why did you start writing?

Adrian:  When I was a kid, books made me feel alive--and amazed. Each new book was-and is--like that. I guess I sort of cried, ‘Me too! Me too!’ and so I did my best to join in!



TQ:  Are you a plotter, a pantser or a hybrid?

Adrian:  A bit of both, I guess. I tend to have a master plan and character or two, but after that I keep adding ‘stuff’ to make the stories cooler, funnier, and weird. My idea has always been to create novels as jammed full of...stuff! This includes stories, philosophy, and description.



TQ:  What is the most challenging thing for you about writing?

Adrian:  I love the thought before I write and I adore endless editing, so I suppose it’s the actual writing that gets in the way as a necessity between the two!



TQ:  Who are some of your literary influences? Favorite authors?

Adrian:  Invariably I give credit to Lewis Carroll, a man who blew the entire world up for me...something for which I eternally adore and respect. His two Alice books are more real than the world we see around us.

I have also always loved Harlan Ellison, the SF man who also loved Alice and who also blew our visions of life apart, replacing it with something bigger and truer. He never tried to copy life as ‘real’. Rather he would take us take us beyond ‘normal’ to something much larger. When I was a teen I had read one of his stories but wanted more! He wasn’t in the library or books near me, so I took the bus downtown and searched the stores of old books for weeks. Eventually I found six or seven of his!



TQ:  Describe Nod.

Adrian:  Paul wakes up one morning only to discover that no one in the world has slept in the last 8 hours. Well, a few dozen people around the world had slept--and no one knows why they were left alone. That day the newspapers blabbed that science says that we all go insane after two weeks awake. And after four weeks, we’ll all die--or be killed. Theories spread like cancers as to what brought this to our world: disease, poison, drugs, aliens, and even God. And Paul? He watches it all happen and writes it down. A book he calls NOD.



TQ:  Tell us something about Nod that is not found in the book description.

Adrian:  Paul’s book, called NOD, is about the history of ancient words. The book is stolen by a local man, who sees it as a vision of the future and begins to start a new vision of life. All around Paul, a version of NOD begins to appear, even as the world begins to die.



TQ:  What inspired you to write Nod? Did you set out to write a dystopian SF novel? Why apocalypse via sleep deprivation?

I suppose I find the world sort of crazy and doomed given the way we all act and I wanted to come up with a metaphor for what I see each day. We all act as though ‘life goes on’. But it just doesn’t. Not really. And we don’t want to face that. Why? Big stuff!



TQ:  What sort of research did you do for Nod?

Adrian:  I read up on the basic knowledge about human insomnia, of course. Sadly, there are some people who fail to sleep for two weeks and it’s horrible, but we study them and try to learn more about how our brains, under massive pain, cope. In fact, the ‘death at thirty days’ is a guess from doctors. No one has lived longer than two weeks. But in our crazy busy world, I’m sure we’ll get there one day...



TQ:  Who was the easiest character to write and why? The hardest and why?

Adrian:  The easiest character to write was Paul because, ahem, he’s a lot like me. He thinks and writes a lot! The worst? Paul’s partner, Tanya. I knew I would have to make her suffer and I felt guilty the whole time. The good news is, if I finish NOD 2...Tanya will get a second chance at life, despite her death.



TQ:  Which question about Nod do you wish someone would ask? Ask it and answer it!

Adrian:  Everyone asks me, ‘why couldn’t they sleep?’ and were sort of angry about that. I guess I wish someone would ask the questions ‘why can’t we sleep’ in a way. If that makes sense...



TQ:  Give us one or two of your favorite non-spoilery lines from Nod.

Adrian:  “She turned and walked out of the room. I watched her go with a miser’s attention. Each remembered detail of her face was precious to me.” These words, I suppose, apologize to Tanya in all her pain...



TQ:  What's next?

Adrian:  Next for me is my new novel, Satan A La Mode, which comes out in December 2015. It’s my attempt to write a modern version of Alice in Wonderland: I aspire to create whimsy, seriousness, humour, poetry, politics, and so on. This new book is illustrated by the amazing artist Yuliya Kashapova. She is my partner on this project and has provided 75 pieces of art that go as far as, well, Alice in Wonderland.



TQ:  Thank you for joining us at The Qwillery.

Nod
Titan Books, September 1, 2015
Trade Paperback and eBook, 272 pages

Dawn breaks over Vancouver and no-one in the world has slept the night before, or almost no-one. A few people, perhaps one in ten thousand can still sleep, and they've all shared the same golden dream. A handful of children still sleep as well, but what they're dreaming remains a mystery. After six days of absolute sleep deprivation, psychosis will set in. After four weeks, the body will die. In the interim, panic ensues and a bizarre new world arises in which those previously on the fringes of society take the lead. One couple experience a lifetime in a week as he continues to sleep, she begins to disintegrate before him, and the new world swallows the old one whole...

Adrian Barnes was born in Blackpool, England but moved to Canada in 1969. He teaches English at Selkirk College, British Columbia. He is married with two children. He received an MA in Creative Writing from Manchester Metropolitan University and Nod is his first published novel.










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