The Qwillery

Happy Monday and Happy Halloween!!




There are 3 debuts this week:

The Facefaker's Game by Chandler Birch;

Death at First Sight (A Bay Island Psychic Mystery 1) by Lena Gregory;

and

The Burning Isle by Will Panzo.




And from formerly featured DAC Authors:

The Burning Light by Bradley P. Beaulieu and Rob Ziegler;

The Operative (San Angeles 2) by Gerald Brandt;

Reports on the Internet Apocalypse (Internet Apocalypse Trilogy 3) by Wayne Gladstone

The Weaver by Emmi Itäranta;

Invisible Planets edited by Ken Liu;

An Import of Intrigue (Maradaine Constabulary 2) by Marshall Ryan Maresca;

and

Dominion (Burned Man 2) by Peter McLean.


Of the Abyss by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes is out in Mass Market Paperback;

The Courier (San Angeles 1) by Gerald Brandt is out in Trade Paperback;

How to Save the World (Superheroes Anonymous 3) by Lexie Dunne is out in Mass Market Paperback;

Staked (Iron Druid Chronicles 8) by Kevin Hearne is out in Mass Market Paperback;

Empire Ascendant (Worldbreaker Saga 2) by Kameron Hurley is out in Mass Market Paperback;

and

Arena (Arena 1) by Holly Jennings is out in Trade Paperback.



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






October 31, 2016

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
A Long December	Richard Chizmar	H - Collection
Six Scary Stories	Stephen King (Selected by)	H - Anthology
The Madness of Dr. Caligari	Joseph S. Pulver (Ed)	H - Anthology

November 1, 2016

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
What the #@&% Is That?: The Saga Anthology of the Monstrous and the Macabre	John Joseph Adams (Ed)	F - Anthology
Of the Abyss (mm)	Amelia Atwater-Rhodes	F - Mancer Trilogy Series 1
The Burning Light	Bradley P. Beaulieu Rob Ziegler	SF/AP/PA
The Facefaker's Game (D)	Chandler J. Birch	F
Twice Told Tail	Ali Brandon	CM - A Black Cat Bookshop Mystery 6
The Courier (h2mm)	Gerald Brandt	SF/CyberP/AP/PA - San Angeles 1
The Operative	Gerald Brandt	SF/CyberP/AP/PA - San Angeles 2
Decoherence	Liana Brooks	TechTh - Time & Shadows Mystery 3
Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen (h2tp)	Lois McMaster Bujold	SF/SO - Vorkosigan Saga 17
The Vor Game (ri)	Lois McMaster Bujold	SF/SO - Vorkosigan Saga 6
Congress of Secrets	Stephanie Burgis	HistF/AH
Shadowed Souls	Jim Butcher (Ed) Kerrie L. Hughes (Ed)	UF/CF - Anthology
Octavia E. Butler	Gerry Canavan	HC/SF -Modern Masters of Science Fiction Series
The Shattered Vigil	Patrick W. Carr	F - Darkwater Saga Series 2
Illicit	Cathy Clamp	P - Luna Lake 2
The Severed Streets (h2mm)	Paul Cornell	CF - Shadow Police 2
The Lost Child of Lychford	Paul Cornell	CF - Witches of Lychford 2
Beholder's Eye (ri)	Julie E. Czerneda	SF/SO - Web Shifters 1
Hidden in Sight (ri)	Julie E. Czerneda	SF/SO - Web Shifters 3
Changing Vision (ri)	Julie E. Czerneda	SF/SO - Web Shifters 2
Nightmares	Ellen Datlow (Ed)	H - Anthology
Empires: The First Battle	Gavin Deas	SF - Empires
The Right to Arm Bears (ri)	Gordon R Dickson	SF
How to Save the World (mm)	Lexie Dunne	UF - Superheroes Anonymous 3
Willful Child: Wrath of Betty	Steven Erikson	SF/SO - Willful Child 2
Pillar to the Sky (tp2mm)	William R. Forstchen	Th/SF
A Hunter Under the Mistletoe: All Is Bright \ Heat of a Helios (e)	Addison Fox Karen Whiddon	SFR/PNR
Neil Gaiman's Midnight Days	Neil Gaiman	F/GN
Survival Game	Gary Gibson	SF/AP/PA - Apocalypse Duology 2
Reports on the Internet Apocalypse	Wayne Gladstone	LF/TechTh/Dys/HU/AP/PA/SF - Internet Apocalypse Trilogy 3
Immortal Billionaire (e)	Jane Godman	PNR
Warheart (h2mm)	Terry Goodkind	F - Richard and Kahlan 4
Death at First Sight (D)	Lena Gregory	CM - A Bay Island Psychic Mystery 1
Ghal Maraz	Guy Haley Josh Reynolds	F - The Realmgate Wars 2
Christmas Magic	David G. Hartwell (Ed)	F - Anthology
Staked (h2mm)	Kevin Hearne	UF - Iron Druid Chronicles 8
The Dark Lord	Jack Heckel	FairyT/FolkT/LM/HU
Binary Storm	Christopher Hinz	SF/SO - Liege-Killer
Faithful	Alice Hoffman	CW
Curse on the Land	Faith Hunter	UF/CF/P - A Soulwood Novel 2
Empire Ascendant (h2mm)	Kameron Hurley	F - Worldbreaker Saga 2
The Weaver	Emmi Itäranta	Dys
Arena (h2tp)	Holly Jennings	SF - Arena 1
Saga of Recluce: Year 1-415 (e)	L. E. Modesitt Jr.	F - Recluce Omnibus
Konundrum: Selected Prose of Franz Kafka	Franz Kafka	LFSF - Collection
Illidan: World of Warcraft	William King	F - World of Warcraft
Death's Master (ri)	Tanith Lee	F/DF - Flat Earth 2
The Hidden People	Alison Littlewood	HistM
Invisible Planets	Ken Liu (Ed)	SF - Anthology
Old Man's Ghosts	Tom Lloyd	F - Empire of a Hundred Houses 2
Cosmonaut Keep: The Opening Novel in An Astonishing New Future History	Ken MacLeod	SF/AC - Engines of Light 1
An Import of Intrigue	Marshall Ryan Maresca	F/UF/DF - Maradaine Constabulary 2
Den of Wolves	Juliet Marillier	HistF - Blackthorn & Grim 3
Venom and Vanilla	Shannon Mayer	UF - Venom Trilogy 1
Dominion	Peter McLean	UF - Burned Man 2
The Burning Isle (D)	Will Panzo	F
Invisible Planets	Hannu Rajaniemi	F - Collection
The Memory of Whiteness: A Scientific Romance (ri)	Kim Stanley Robinson	SF
DemonWars: The First King: The Dame and The Bear (e)(ri)	R. A. Salvatore	F - Saga of the First King
Children of the Country (D)	Abigail R. Shaffer	LF/CoA/Occ/Sup
The Child to Come: Life after the Human Catastrophe	Rebekah Sheldon	LC/SF/F
Unquiet Land	Sharon Shinn	FR/F - Elemental Blessings 4
Archangel's Heart	Nalini Singh	PNR/F/UF - Guild Hunter 9
The Death of Dulgath	Michael J. Sullivan	F - Riyria Chronicles 3
The Beast (h2mm)	J. R. Ward	PNR - Black Dagger Brotherhood 14
Shadow of Victory	David Weber	SF - Honor Harrington 19
Angeleyes	Michael Z. Williamson	SF - Freehold Series 7
Once a Gypsy	Danica Winters	PNR - The Irish Traveller 1
The Path of Heaven	Chris Wraight	SF - The Horus Heresy
Burn	Suzanne Wright	FR - Dark in You 1
Living Spectres	Chelsea Quinn Yarbro	CM - A Chesterton Holte, Gentleman Haunt Mystery  2

November 2, 2016

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
The Loud Table: A Tor.com Original (e)	Jonathan Carroll	SF
Dune: Red Plague (e)	Brian Herbert Kevin J. Anderson	SF

November 3, 2016

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
The Jo Fletcher Books Anthology (e)	Various	SF/F - Anthology

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


AC - Alien Contact
AH - Alternate History
AP - Apocalyptic
CF - Contemporary Fantasy
CM - Cozy Mystery
CoA - Coming of Age
CW - Contemporary Women
CyberP - CyberPunk
DF - Dark Fantasy
Dys - Dystopian
F _ Fantasy
FairyT - Fairy Tales
FolkT - Folk Tales
FR - Fantasy Romance
GN - Graphic Novel
H - Horror
HC - History and Criticism
HistF - Historical Fantasy
HU - Humor
LC - Literary Criticism
LF - Literary Fiction
LM - Legends and Mythology
Occ - Occult
P - Paranormal
PA - Post Apocalyptic
PNR - Paranormal Romance
SF - Science Fiction
SFR - Science Fiction Romance
SO - Space Opera
Sup - Supernatural
TechTh - Technological Thriller
Th - Thriller
UF - Urban Fantasy

Emma Geen (2016)

The Many Selves of Katherine North
Bloomsbury USA, May 9, 2017
Trade Paperback, 368 pages
Hardcover and eBook, June 7, 2016

When we first meet Kit, she's a fox.

Nineteen-year-old Kit works for the research department of Shen Corporation as a phenomenaut. She's been "jumping"--projecting her consciousness, through a neurological interface--into the bodies of lab-grown animals made for the purpose of research for seven years, which is longer than anyone else at ShenCorp, and longer than any of the scientists thought possible. She experiences a multitude of other lives--fighting and fleeing as predator and prey, as mammal, bird, and reptile--in the hope that her work will help humans better understand the other species living alongside them.

Her closest friend is Buckley, her Neuro--the computer engineer who guides a phenomenaut through consciousness projection. His is the voice, therefore, that's always in Kit's head and is the thread of continuity that connects her to the human world when she's an animal. But when ShenCorp's mission takes a more commercial--and ominous--turn, Kit is no longer sure of her safety. Propelling the reader into the bodies of the other creatures that share our world, The Many Selves of Katherine North takes place in the near future but shows us a dazzling world far, far from the realm of our experience.

Lexi George (2011)

So I Married a Demon Slayer
    Kathy Love, Angie Fox, and Lexi George
Zebra, August 30, 2016
     Mass Market Paperback, 304 pages
Zebra, August 30, 2011
     eBook, 304 pages

Amid the neon lights of Vegas, and the glitz of high-fashion, demon slayers are the new sexy…

Hot! by Kathy Love

At Hot! Magazine, the devil really does wear Prada. When the CEO is an actual demon and the mailroom guys are undercover demon slayers, it’s not beyond the realm of possibility for an up-and-coming photographer, and a model possessed by much more than a sweet tooth, to fall in love.

What Slays In Vegas by Angie Fox

When a sexy succubus comes up against a demon slayer intent on killing her boss, a truly wild night turns into a quickie wedding. But even in a city where anything goes, their union is strictly forbidden. Which doesn’t mean either is rushing to jump out of the marriage bed.

The Bride Wore Demon Dust by Lexi George

He’s perfection in a tuxedo—more so out of it—and on a mission to protect his Alabama gal from the mysterious mayhem intent on her destruction. But the bride is a steel magnolia with special powers of her own, determined to drop-kick evil forces across the state line.

Max Gladstone (2012)

Bookburners
     Max Gladstone, Margaret Dunlap, Mur Lafferty, and Brian Francis Slattery
Saga Press, January 10, 2017
Hardcover and Trade Paperback, 800 pages

The critically acclaimed urban fantasy about a secret team of agents that hunts down dangerous books containing deadly magic—previously released serially online by Serial Box, now available in print for the first time!

Magic is real, and hungry. It’s trapped in ancient texts and artifacts, and only a few who discover it survive to fight back. Detective Sal Brooks is a survivor. She joins a Vatican-backed black-ops anti-magic squad—Team Three of the Societas Librorum Occultorum—and together they stand between humanity and the magical apocalypse. Some call them the Bookburners. They don’t like the label.

Supernatural meets The Da Vinci Code in a fast-paced, kickass character driven novel chock-full of magic, mystery, and mayhem, written collaboratively by a team of some of the best writers working in fantasy.

Wayne Gladstone (2014)

Reports on the Internet Apocalypse
The Internet Apocalypse Trilogy 3
Thomas Dunne Books, November 1, 2016
Hardcover and eBook, 240 pages

In Reports on the Internet Apocalypse, the third and final installment of the Internet Apocalypse Trilogy, Gladstone, the would-be Internet Messiah, finds himself in exile from America, falsely accused of terrorism and murder. Meanwhile, a government Special Agent is hot on his trail and has joined forces with a first-time Hollywood producer bent on optioning Gladstone’s story for film.

When the World Wide Web returns in a highly compromised and commercialized state, possibly due to the efforts of a billionaire presidential candidate, Gladstone and his pursuers must collaborate in an attempt to reclaim a free and open Internet.

Reports on the Internet Apocalypse brings to an end the dystopian trilogy that imagines a world forced to face itself in real life.

Francesca Haig (2015)

The Map of Bones
The Fire Sermon 2
Gallery Books, December 6, 2016
Trade Paperback, 416 pages
Hardcover and eBook, May 3, 2016

Book Two in the critically acclaimed Fire Sermon post-apocalyptic trilogy, “with its well-built world, vivid characters and suspenseful plot” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review), is an exciting and thought-provoking continuation of this epic social commentary written by award-winning poet Francesca Haig.

Four hundred years after a nuclear apocalypse, all humans are born in pairs: the Alphas, and their deformed Omega twins, who are ruthlessly oppressed. But despite their claims of superiority, the Alphas cannot escape one harsh fact: Whenever one twin dies, so does the other.

Following the events of The Fire Sermon, the Omega resistance has been brutally attacked, its members dead or in hiding. The Alpha Council’s plan for permanently containing the Omegas has begun. But all is not entirely lost: the Council’s seer, the Confessor, is dead, killed by her twin’s sacrifice.

Cass is left haunted by visions of the past, while her brother Zach’s cruelty and obsession push her to the edge and threaten to destroy everything she hopes for. As the country moves closer to all-out civil war, Cass will learn that to change the future she will need to uncover the past. But nothing can prepare her for what she discovers: a deeply buried secret that raises the stakes higher than ever before.

Happy Monday! No debuts out this week, but we have some releases from formerly featured Debut Author Challenge Authors:

Harmonized by (Tidewater eNovella) Mary Behre;

Stormbringer (Wyrd 2) by Alis Franklin:

Agents of the Internet Apocalypse (Internet Apocalypse Trilogy 2) by Wayne Gladstone;

The Obsidian Temple ( Desert Rising 2) by Kelley Grant;

and

The Flicker Men by Ted Kosmatka.

July 20, 2015

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Last Wolf Standing (e)(ri)	Rhyannon Byrd	PNR - Bloodrunners 1
Ether & Elephants (e)	Cindy Spencer Pape	SPR - Gaslight Chronicles 8
Twilight Illusions: Beyond Twilight (e)	Maggie Shayne	PNR - Wings in the Night 3

July 21, 2015

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Xenos	Dan Abnett	SF - Warhammer 40,000: Eisenhorn Trilogy 1
Primal Heat Part 2: A Paranormal Shapeshifter Werejaguar Romance	A. C. Arthur	PNR - Shadow Shifters 6
A Cure for Suicide	Jesse Ball	LF/Dys
Rewinder	Brett Battles	SF/TT - Rewinder 1
War Dogs (h2tp)	Greg Bear	SF - War Dogs 1
Harmonized (e)	Mary Behre	PNR - Tidewater Novella
Skinner (Ke)	David Bernstein	H/Oc
The Supernatural Enhancements (h2tp)	Edgar Cantero	LF/Gh
Messi@: A Novel (e)(ri)	Andrei Codrescu	SF
The Blood Countess (e)(ri)	Andrei Codrescu	H
Bridged by Love	Nancy Corrigan	PNR
Bound in Black	Juliette Cross	UF - Vessel Trilogy 3
Fallen Embers	P.G. Forte	PNR - Children of the Night 5
Stormbringer (e)	Alis Franklin	UF - Wyrd 2
Agents of the Internet Apocalypse	Wayne Gladstone	Dys/Satire - Internet Apocalypse Trilogy 2
The First Confessor	Terry Goodkind	F - Richard and Kahlan - Sword of Truth Prequel
The Obsidian Temple (e)	Kelley Grant	F - Desert Rising 2
Dead Man's Reach	D. B. Jackson	HistF - Thieftaker Chronicles 4
The Flicker Men	Ted Kosmatka	Th/SF
The Devil's Bag Man	Adam Mansbach	Th/H/Sup - Jess Galvan 2
The Wars of Atlantis	Phil Masters	F
The House of Small Shadows (h2tp)	Adam Nevill	H
Beautiful You (h2tp)	Chuck Palahniuk	Satire/AP
All Those Vanished Engines (h2tp)	Paul Park	SF
Way Station (e)(ri)	Clifford D. Simak	SF
City (e)(ri)	Clifford D. Simak	SF
Out of Their Minds (e)(ri)	Clifford D. Simak	CF
A Heritage of Stars (e)(ri)	Clifford D. Simak	SF
Time Is the Simplest Thing  (e)(ri)	Clifford D. Simak	SF
All Flesh Is Grass (e)(ri)	Clifford D. Simak	SF
Shakespeare's Planet (e)(ri)	Clifford D. Simak	SF
The Werewolf Principle (e)(ri)	Clifford D. Simak	SF
Enchanted Pilgrimage (e)(ri)	Clifford D. Simak	SF
The Dark Arts of Blood	Freda Warrington	DF/PNR - Blood 4

July 22, 2015

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Ethics and Form in Fantasy Literature: Tolkien, Rowling and Meyer	Lykke Guanio-Uluru	H&C
The Totally Secret Origin of Foxman: Excerpts from an EPIC Autobiography: A Tor.Com Original (e)	Kelly McCullough	SF

July 23, 2015

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Equilibrium (e)	CS Sealey	F

e - eBook
Ke - Kindle eBook only
h2tp - Hardcover to Trade Paperback
ri - reissue or reprint


Ap - Apocalyptic
Dys - Dystopian
CF - Contemporary Fantasy
DF - Dark Fantasy
F - Fantasy
Gh - Ghosts
H - Horror
H&C - History and Criticism
HistF - Historical Fantasy
LF - Literary Fiction
Oc - Occult
PNR - Paranormal ROmance
SF - Science Fiction
Sup - Supernatural
Th - Thriller
TT - Time Travel
UF - Urban Fantasy

See Part 1 here

See Part 1.5 here

See Part 2 here

See Part 3 here

See Part 4 here

See Part 5 here

See Part 6 here

See Part 7 here

See Part 8 here

See Part 9 here

See Part 10 here

See Part 11 here

See Part 12 here

See Part 13 here

David Edison

The Waking Engine
Tor Fantasy, May 5, 2015
Mass Market Paperback, 496 pages
Previously published in Hardcover and eBook, February 2014

Welcome to the City Unspoken, where Gods and Mortals come to die.
Contrary to popular wisdom, death is not the end, nor is it a passage to some transcendent afterlife. Those who die merely awake as themselves on one of a million worlds, where they are fated to live until they die again, and wake up somewhere new. All are born only once, but die many times . . . until they come at last to the City Unspoken, where the gateway to True Death can be found.

Wayfarers and pilgrims are drawn to the City, which is home to murderous aristocrats, disguised gods and goddesses, a sadistic faerie princess, immortal prostitutes and queens, a captive angel, gangs of feral Death Boys and Charnel Girls . . . and one very confused New Yorker.

Late of Manhattan, Cooper finds himself in a City that is not what it once was. The gateway to True Death is failing, so that the City is becoming overrun by the Dying, who clot its byzantine streets and alleys . . . and a spreading madness threatens to engulf the entire metaverse.

Richly imaginative, David Edison's The Waking Engine is a stunning debut by a major new talent.

Stephanie Feldman

The Angel of Losses
Ecco, June 15, 2015
Trade Paperback, 288 pages
Previously published in Hardcover and eBook, July 2014

The Tiger’s Wife meets A History of Love in this inventive, lushly imagined debut novel that explores the intersections of family secrets, Jewish myths, the legacy of war and history, and the bonds between sisters.

When Eli Burke dies, he leaves behind a mysterious notebook full of stories about a magical figure named The White Rebbe, a miracle worker in league with the enigmatic Angel of Losses, protector of things gone astray, and guardian of the lost letter of the alphabet, which completes the secret name of God.

When his granddaughter, Marjorie, discovers Eli’s notebook, everything she thought she knew about her grandfather—and her family—comes undone. To find the truth about Eli’s origins and unlock the secrets he kept, she embarks on an odyssey that takes her deep into the past, from 18th century Europe to Nazi-occupied Lithuania, and back to the present, to New York City and her estranged sister Holly, whom she must save from the consequences of Eli’s past.

Interweaving history, theology, and both real and imagined Jewish folktales, The Angel of Losses is a family story of what lasts, and of what we can—and cannot—escape.

Alis Franklin

Stormbringer
Wyrd 2
Hydra, July 21, 2015
eBook 272 pages

In Liesmith, a “wildly entertaining debut novel . . . guaranteed to resonate with fans of mythopoeic fantasy from the likes of J.R.R. Tolkien, George R. R. Martin, and Neil Gaiman” (Library Journal), Alis Franklin introduced a band of charming, unforgettable heroes. Now they’re playing host to reincarnated Norse gods who are settling ancient grudges in the twenty-first century.

Ragnarok—aka the end of the world—was supposed to doom the gods as well. Instead, it was a cosmic rebooting. Now low-level IT tech and comic-book geek Sigmund Sussman finds himself an avatar of a Norse goddess. His boyfriend, the wealthy entrepreneur Lain Laufeyjarson, is channeling none other than Loki, the trickster god. His best friends, Em and Wayne, harbor the spirits of slain Valkyries. Cool, right?

The problem is, the gods who survived the apocalypse are still around—and they don’t exactly make a great welcoming committee. The children of Thor are hellbent on reclaiming their scattered birthright: the gloves, belt, and hammer of the Thunder God. Meanwhile, the dwarves are scheming, the giants are pissed, and the goddess of the dead is demanding sanctuary for herself and her entire realm.

Caught in the coils of the Wyrd, the ancient force that governs gods and mortals alike, Sigmund and his crew are suddenly facing a second Ragnarok that threatens to finish what the first one started. And all that stands in the way are four nerds bound by courage, love, divine powers, and an encyclopedic knowledge of gaming lore.

Wayne Gladstone

Agents of the Internet Apocalypse
Internet Apocalypse 2
Thomas Dunne Books, July 21, 2015
Hardcover and eBook, 224 pages





[description not yet available]

Katherine Harbour

Thorn Jack
Night and Nothing / Thorn Jack 1
Harper Voyager, March 10, 2015
Trade Paperback, 368 pages
Previously published in Hardcover and eBook, June 2014

Combining the sorcery of The Night Circus with the malefic suspense of A Secret History, Thorn Jack is a spectacular, modern retelling of the ancient Scottish ballad, Tam Lin—a beguiling fusion of love, fantasy, and myth that echoes the imaginative artistry of the works of Neil Gaiman, Cassandra Clare, and Melissa Marr.

In the wake of her older sister’s suicide, Finn Sullivan and her father move to a quaint town in upstate New York. Populated with socialites, hippies, and dramatic artists, every corner of this new place holds bright possibilities—and dark enigmas, including the devastatingly attractive Jack Fata, scion of one of the town’s most powerful families.

As she begins to settle in, Finn discovers that beneath its pretty, placid surface, the town and its denizens—especially the Fata family—wield an irresistible charm and dangerous power, a tempting and terrifying blend of good and evil, magic and mystery, that holds dangerous consequences for an innocent and curious girl like Finn.

To free herself and save her beloved Jack, Finn must confront the fearsome Fata family . . . a battle that will lead to shocking secrets about her sister’s death.





Look for Bones and Heart: A Night and Nothing Tale in March 2015.

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

Wayne:  Thank you. I don't know. I've always written. I've loved the sound of words and the challenge of crafting language to best express ideas.



TQ:  Are you a plotter or a pantser?

Wayne:  First I'd like to thank you for making me check Urban Dictionary for the definition of pantser. Second, PLOTTER. My books (Notes 2 and 3 are on the way) are really the novelizations of the movies in my head, and good stories are well-plotted. I like structure. I find it comforting, not controlling. Perfectly plotted stories can be as thrilling as beautiful prose. Now, sometimes you have to just write and go in a general direction to find that plot and I certainly do that. But at some point, you have to get down to brass tacks and see how the beats are working out.



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

Wayne:  The hardest part for me actually is plot generation even though I believe in it so much. Dialogue and character development come much easier to me. I also find describing rooms difficult, but that's mostly because I don't care. I've never read a book and been like "wow, I really know what that bed looks like and where the flowers are on the desk." I just don't care about window dressing as much as people or ideas. Its hard to do things well that bore you.

I write a lot on the train to and from the day job. I love it. The motion feels like writing even before you write. I successfully wrote in a bar last night for the first time. That was fun even if cliche.



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

Wayne:  So many. Franz Kafka for his mixture of simultaneous compassion and contempt for his characters. Rod Serling for his intro/outro Twilight Zone eloquence. Russell T. Davies and Steven Moffat of Doctor Who for their ability to dream big and be bold. I tend to be influenced by works more than writers. Bartleby the Scrivener, Notes from Underground, Long Day's Journey Into Night, Death of a Salesman, The Wall, Brazil, 'Night Mother, Diner, Avalon, Ziggy Stardust, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, The Corrections, Kavalier and Clay, Children of Men, so many things I've read, seen, and heard.



TQ:  Describe Notes from the Internet Apocalypse in 140 characters or less.

Wayne:  When the Internet shuts down, one man, joined by a gossip blogger and web cam girl, chases rumors that someone in NY is still online.



TQ:  Tell us something about Notes from the Internet Apocalypse that is not in the book description.

Wayne:  The satire is merely a backdrop. The story is about love.



TQ:  What inspired you to write Notes from the Internet Apocalypse?

Wayne:  My years of existing online as an internet comedy personality and in the real world as something approximating a man.



TQ:  What sort of research did you do for Notes from the Internet Apocalypse?

Wayne:  None except existing as those two entities listed above. For Book 2 I did a lot of research about the physical and financial logistics of the Net, but that wasn't necessary for Book 1.



TQ:  Why did you choose to write a satirical techno-apocalyptic novel? Do you want to write in any other genres or sub-genres?

Wayne:  With Notes, I have. Notes is a satire, a faux noir mystery, sci fi, psychological character study, and a love story. It's more of a parody of an apocalypse story because, the world goes back only like 20 years tech wise. I removed just one element so we can examine what it's done to society in a controlled environment.



TQ:  Give us one of your favorite lines from Notes from the Internet Apocalypse.

Wayne:  Most of my favorite lines are part of passages that would really be spoilers. This one doesn't reveal too much though:

"A tree that falls alone in the forest still makes a sound. It just wishes it didn’t."



TQ:  What's next?

Wayne:  Books 2 and 3. I'm supposed to deliver a book this year and next to complete the trilogy.



TQ:  Thank you for joining us at The Qwillery.

Notes from the Internet Apocalypse

Notes from the Internet Apocalypse
Thomas Dunne Books, March 4, 2014
Hardcover and eBook, 224 pages

When the Internet suddenly stops working, society reels from the loss of flowing data and streaming entertainment. Addicts wander the streets talking to themselves in 140 characters or forcing cats to perform tricks for their amusement, while the truly desperate pin their requests for casual encounters on public bulletin boards. The economy tumbles and the government passes the draconian NET Recovery Act.

For Gladstone, the Net’s disappearance comes particularly hard, following the loss of his wife, leaving his flask of Jamesons and grandfather’s fedora as the only comforts in his Brooklyn apartment.　But there are rumors that someone in New York is still online. Someone set apart from this new world where Facebook flirters "poke" each other in real life and members of Anonymous trade memes at secret parties. Where a former librarian can sell information as a human search engine and the perverted fulfill their secret fetishes at the blossoming Rule 34 club. With the help of his friends---a blogger and a webcam girl, both now out of work---Gladstone sets off to find the Internet. But is he the right man to save humanity from this Apocalypse?

For those of you wondering if you have WiFi right now, Wayne Gladstone’s Notes from the Internet Apocalypse examines the question "What is life without the Web?"

About Wayne

By Asher Gladstone

WAYNE GLADSTONE is a longtime columnist for Cracked.com. He is the creator and star of the Hate by Numbers online video series. His writing has appeared on McSweeney's Internet Tendency, Comedy Central’s Indecision, and in the collections You Might Be A Zombie and Other Bad News and The McSweeney's Joke Book of Book Jokes. He lives in New York.





Website  ~  Facebook  ~  Twitter @WGladstone  ~  Tumblr

• Spirited (Tidewater 1) by Mary Behre;
• The Weirdness by Jeremy P. Bushnell;
• Black Moon by Kenneth Calhoun;
• The Emissary by Patricia Cori;
• The Enchanted by Rene Denfeld;
• Healer of Carthage by Lynne Gentry;
• Notes from the Internet Apocalypse by Wayne Gladstone;
• The Barrow by Mark Smylie.

• Hearts of Chaos (Deadglass Trilogy 3) by Kira Brady;
• An eBundle of the Alex Verus Novels 1-4 by Benedict Jacka
• Ghost Train to New Orleans (Shambling Guides 2) by Mur Lafferty
• The Grim Company (Grim Company 1) by Luke Scull is out in Mass Market Paperback

Mary Behre

Spirited
Tidewater 1
Berkley, March 4, 2014
Mass Market Paperback and eBook, 320 pages

She’s running from who she is…

All Jules Scott wants is to live a normal, quiet life—preferably one that doesn’t include ghosts. Jules’s talent for communicating with the dead has brought her nothing but trouble. Despite her best efforts, needy spirits always find her and draw her into their otherworldly drama. When one implicates her in a series of deadly crimes, she may need to entrust her secrets to the person least likely to believe her…

He’ll do whatever it takes to catch her.

Detective Seth English can’t get distracted from the big case he’s working on, not even by his alluring new neighbor. He doesn’t believe that Jules had anything to do with the string of robberies-turned-murders that he’s investigating, but when she keeps showing up in all the wrong places, his gut tells him she knows more than she’s letting on. To solve his case, he’ll need to expose what the sexy redhead is hiding—no matter how impossible the truth may be…

Jeremy P. Bushnell

The Weirdness
Melville House, March 4, 2014
Trade Paperback and eBook, 272 pages

With the literary muscle of Victor LaValle’s Big Machine and the outlandish humor of Kevin Smith’s Dogma, this debut reveals the dark underbelly of the NY literary scene.

What do you do when you wake up hung over and late for work only to find a stranger on your couch? And what if that stranger turns out to be an Adversarial Manifestation who has already brewed you a fresh cup of fair-trade coffee? If you’re Billy Ridgeway, you take the coffee.

“This is some kind of make-a-deal-with-the-Devil type shit,” he says. Lucifer explains that Billy must steal the Neko of Infinite Equilibrium, a cat-shaped statue with magical powers, before the most powerful warlock in the eastern United States can upset the balance of the universe. In exchange, Billy’s novel will be published for a five-figure advance.

Traffic may be in the way of Billy’s getaway car, he may lose his job at the Greek deli, his girlfriend may break up with him, and it’s likely he’ll have to battle his greatest literary rival with his fists… but one way or another, he is determined to become a published author and save the universe.

Along the way, Billy learns about courage, friendship, and love, while considering some important questions: Why do people have pets? Who would store seafood in a warehouse in Chelsea? And where do those bananas in bodegas come from, anyway?

Patricia Cori

The Emissary
North Atlantic Books, March 4, 2014
Trade Paperback and eBook, 288 pages

In her debut novel, Patricia Cori weaves her visionary message into a page-turning fantasy adventure that speaks to the very soul of the planet.

Within minutes of one another, three bone-chilling events take place around the globe. In Los Angeles, hundreds of blackbirds drop out of the sky, zapped to their death, mid-flight; in Maine, miles of beach are covered in tens of thousands of dead fish; in New Zealand, 150 whales and dolphins lie dead or dying on the beach.

Jamie Hastings, a renowned psychic researcher and telepath, forges a deep soul connection with the dying whales that leads to her troubled journey at sea as a consultant for USOIL, a Texas based oil company that's drilling in the most pristine waters of the Pacific Northwest, looking for oil--or so it seems. A bizarre unfolding of events aboard ship sparks the unraveling of a truly evil plan of a secret government that is intent upon silencing the music of the oceans and destroying all life on the planet.

As impossible as it is to imagine anything as sinister as the shadow Jamie faces in her mission to save the earth from the doomsday weapon bearing down on the world, the fact is that it is actually happening, at this very moment, while most of the world is asleep--or simply unaware.

One woman has been chosen to be the voice, against the forces of evil, of the cherished creatures of the sea. She is the emissary.

The question is: Is there still time for her to stop it?

Rene Denfeld

The Enchanted
Harper, March 4, 2014
Hardcover and eBook, 256 pages
Fiction Debut

A wondrous and redemptive debut novel, set in a stark world where evil and magic coincide, The Enchanted combines the empathy and lyricism of Alice Sebold with the dark, imaginative power of Stephen King.

"This is an enchanted place. Others don’t see it, but I do." The enchanted place is an ancient stone prison, viewed through the eyes of a death row inmate who finds escape in his books and in re-imagining life around him, weaving a fantastical story of the people he observes and the world he inhabits. Fearful and reclusive, he senses what others cannot. Though bars confine him every minute of every day, he marries visions of golden horses running beneath the prison, heat flowing like molten metal from their backs with the devastating violence of prison life.

Two outsiders venture here: a fallen priest and the Lady, an investigator who searches for buried information from prisoners’ pasts that can save those soon-to-be-executed. Digging into the background of a killer named York, she uncovers wrenching truths that challenge familiar notions of victim and criminal, innocence and guilt, honesty and corruption—ultimately revealing shocking secrets of her own.

Beautiful and transcendent, The Enchanted reminds us of how our humanity connects us all, and how beauty and love exist even amidst the most nightmarish reality.

Kenneth Calhoun

Black Moon
Hogarth, March 4, 2014
Hardcover and eBook, 288 pages

For fans of The Age of Miracles and The Dog Stars, Black Moon is a hallucinatory and stunning debut that Charles Yu calls “Gripping and expertly constructed.”

Insomnia has claimed everyone Biggs knows. Even his beloved wife, Carolyn, has succumbed to the telltale red-rimmed eyes, slurred speech and cloudy mind before disappearing into the quickly collapsing world. Yet Biggs can still sleep, and dream, so he sets out to find her.

He ventures out into a world ransacked by mass confusion and desperation, where he meets others struggling against the tide of sleeplessness. Chase and his buddy Jordan are devising a scheme to live off their drug-store lootings; Lila is a high school student wandering the streets in an owl mask, no longer safe with her insomniac parents; Felicia abandons the sanctuary of a sleep research center to try to protect her family and perhaps reunite with Chase, an ex-boyfriend. All around, sleep has become an infinitely precious commodity. Money can’t buy it, no drug can touch it, and there are those who would kill to have it. However, Biggs persists in his quest for Carolyn, finding a resolve and inner strength that he never knew he had.

Kenneth Calhoun has written a brilliantly realized and utterly riveting depiction of a world gripped by madness, one that is vivid, strange, and profoundly moving.

Lynne Gentry

Healer of Carthage
The Carthage Chronicles 1
Howard Books, March 4, 2014
Trade Paperback and eBook, 416 pages

A twenty-first-century doctor. A third-century plague. A love out of time.

First-year resident Dr. Lisbeth Hastings is too busy to take her father’s bizarre summons seriously. But when a tragic mistake puts her career in jeopardy, answering her father’s call seems her only hope of redeeming the devastating failure that her life has become.

While exploring the haunting cave at her father’s archaeological dig, Lisbeth falls through a hidden hole, awakening to find herself the object of a slave auction and the ruins of Roman Carthage inexplicably restored to a thriving metropolis. Is it possible that she’s traveled back in time, and, if so, how can she find her way back home?

Cyprian Thascius believes God called him to rescue the mysterious woman from the slave trader’s cell. What he doesn’t understand is why saving the church of his newfound faith requires him to love a woman whose peculiar ways could get him killed. But who is he to question God?

As their different worlds collide, it sparks an intense attraction that unites Lisbeth and Cyprian in a battle against a deadly epidemic. Even as they confront persecution, uncover buried secrets, and ignite the beginnings of a medical revolution, Roman wrath threatens to separate them forever. Can they find their way to each other through all these obstacles? Or are the eighteen hundred years between them too far of a leap?

Wayne Gladstone

Notes from the Internet Apocalypse
Thomas Dunne Books, March 4, 2014
Hardcover and eBook, 224 pages

When the Internet suddenly stops working, society reels from the loss of flowing data and streaming entertainment. Addicts wander the streets talking to themselves in 140 characters or forcing cats to perform tricks for their amusement, while the truly desperate pin their requests for casual encounters on public bulletin boards. The economy tumbles and the government passes the draconian NET Recovery Act.

For Gladstone, the Net’s disappearance comes particularly hard, following the loss of his wife, leaving his flask of Jamesons and grandfather’s fedora as the only comforts in his Brooklyn apartment.　But there are rumors that someone in New York is still online. Someone set apart from this new world where Facebook flirters "poke" each other in real life and members of Anonymous trade memes at secret parties. Where a former librarian can sell information as a human search engine and the perverted fulfill their secret fetishes at the blossoming Rule 34 club. With the help of his friends---a blogger and a webcam girl, both now out of work---Gladstone sets off to find the Internet. But is he the right man to save humanity from this Apocalypse?

For those of you wondering if you have WiFi right now, Wayne Gladstone’s Notes from the Internet Apocalypse examines the question "What is life without the Web?"

Sarah Harian

The Wicked We Have Done
Chaos Theory 1
InterMix, March 18, 2014
eBook

Darkly suspenseful and completely unexpected, The Wicked We Have Done is a debut author’s thrilling new take on New Adult romance.

Twenty-two-year-old Evalyn Ibarra never expected to be an accused killer and experimental prison test subject. A year ago, she was a normal college student. Now she’s been sentenced to a month in the compass room—an advanced prison obstacle course designed by the government to execute justice.

If she survives, the world will know she’s innocent.

Locked up with nine notorious and potentially psychotic criminals, Evalyn must fight the prison and dismantle her past to stay alive. But the system prized for accuracy appears to be killing at random.

She doesn’t plan on making friends.

She doesn’t plan on falling in love, either. 

Cleve Lamison

Full-Blood Half-Breed
Hydra, March 11, 2014
eBook, 286 pages

In Cleve Lamison’s hard-hitting debut, two young men divided by an intense hatred—yet marked with a common destiny—have the power to save the world . . . or destroy it.

It’s been two thousand years since the bastard spawn of the god Creador lost their war to enslave humankind, transforming the Thirteen Kingdoms into a violent world where the martial arts are exalted as sacred gifts from the gods—and honor is won through arena blood sport.

Paladin Del Darkdragón, a sixteen-year-old warrior-in-training, is a “half-breed.” His battle against pure-blood bullies like Fox the Runt has forced him to master the four fighting forms. But when he blends them, he is condemned as a heretic by authorities and banished from the training temples. Seeking redemption, he enrolls in the arena games, savage trials that end in death.

This year’s games mask an old plot driven by a new prophet. With a horde of Creador’s Bastards and an army of fanatics led by Fox the Runt at his command, the Prophet will bend the world to his will or burn it to ash.

Paladin faces an impossible choice: redeem his honor in a fight he can’t hope to survive, or abandon his loved ones to perish in the sweeping holy war consuming the Kingdoms.

Daniel Levine

Hyde
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, March 18, 2014
Hardcover and eBook, 416 pages

What happens when a villain becomes a hero?

Mr. Hyde is trapped, locked in Dr. Jekyll’s surgical cabinet, counting the hours until his inevitable capture. As four days pass, he has the chance, finally, to tell his story—the story of his brief, marvelous life.

Summoned to life by strange potions, Hyde knows not when or how long he will have control of “the body.” When dormant, he watches Dr. Jekyll from a remove, conscious of this other, high-class life but without influence. As the experiment continues, their mutual existence is threatened, not only by the uncertainties of untested science, but also by a mysterious stalker. Hyde is being taunted—possibly framed. Girls have gone missing; someone has been killed. Who stands, watching, from the shadows? In the blur of this shared consciousness, can Hyde ever be confident these crimes were not committed by his hand?

“You may think you know Dr. Jekyll, but this Hyde is a different beast altogether."—Jon Clinch, author of Finn

"Prepare to be seduced by literary devilry! Go back to Victorian times to find a very postmodern whodunit. Visceral prose, atmosphere you could choke on, characters who seem to be at your very shoulder."—Ronald Frame, author of Havisham

"Hyde brings into the light the various horrors still hidden in the dark heart of Stevenson’s classic tale of monstrosity and addiction. Devious and ingenious, it is a blazing triumph of the gothic imagination."—Patrick McGrath, author of Asylum

Peter Liney

The Detainee
Jo Fletcher Books, March 11, 2014
Hardcover and eBook, 352 pages
US Debut

Peter Liney honed his strong narrative skills and attention to detail during his long career as a writer of German, Australian, British, and South African television and radio programs. In his debut novel, The Detainee, Liney has crated a dystopian world in which the state has gone bust and can no longer support its weakest members.

The Island is a place of hopelessness. The Island is death. And it is to this place that all the elderly and infirm are shipped, the scapegoats for the collapse of society. There’s no escape, not from the punishment satellites that deliver instant judgment for any crime—including escape attempts—and not from the demons that come on foggy nights, when the satellites are all but blind. But when one of the Island’s inhabitants, the aging "Big Guy" Clancy, finds a network of tunnels beneath the waste, there is suddenly hope—for love, for escape, and for the chance to fight back.

Claire R. McDougall

Veil of Time
Gallery Books, March 11, 2014
Trade Paperback and eBook, 416 pages

A compelling tale of two Scotlands—one modern, one ancient—and the woman who parts the veil between them.

The medication that treats Maggie’s seizures leaves her in a haze, but it can’t dull her grief at losing her daughter to the same condition. With her marriage dissolved and her son away at school, Maggie retreats to a cottage below the ruins of Dunadd, once the royal seat of Scotland. But is it fantasy or reality when she awakens in a bustling village within the massive walls of eighth-century Dunadd? In a time and place so strange yet somehow familiar, Maggie is drawn to the striking, somber Fergus, brother of the king and father of Illa, who bears a keen resemblance to Maggie’s late daughter. With each dreamlike journey to the past, Maggie grows closer to Fergus and embraces the possibility of staying in this Dunadd. But with present-day demands calling her back, can Maggie leave behind the Scottish prince who dubs her mo chridhe, my heart? 

Scott Meyer

Off to Be the Wizard
Magic 2.0
47North, March 18, 2014
Trade Paperback and Kindle eBook, 386 pages

Martin Banks is just a normal guy who has made an abnormal discovery: he can manipulate reality, thanks to reality being nothing more than a computer program. With every use of this ability, though, Martin finds his little “tweaks” have not escaped notice. Rather than face prosecution, he decides instead to travel back in time to the Middle Ages and pose as a wizard.

What could possibly go wrong?

An American hacker in King Arthur’s court, Martin must now train to become a full-fledged master of his powers, discover the truth behind the ancient wizard Merlin…and not, y’know, die or anything.

Mark Smylie

The Barrow
Pyr, March 4, 2014
Trade Paperback and eBook, 700 pages
Cover Illustration © Gene Mollica

Action, horror, politics, and sensuality combine in this DEBUT EPIC FANTASY novel for fans of George R. R. Martin and Michael J. Sullivan, set in the world of the Eisner-nominated Artesia comic books.

To find the Sword, unearth the Barrow. To unearth the Barrow, follow the Map.

When a small crew of scoundrels, would-be heroes, deviants, and ruffians discover a map that they believe will lead them to a fabled sword buried in the barrow of a long-dead wizard, they think they've struck it rich. But their hopes are dashed when the map turns out to be cursed and then is destroyed in a magical ritual. The loss of the map leaves them dreaming of what might have been, until they rediscover the map in a most unusual and unexpected place.

Stjepan Black-Heart, suspected murderer and renegade royal cartographer; Erim, a young woman masquerading as a man; Gilgwyr, brothel owner extraordinaire; Leigh, an exiled magus under an ignominious cloud; Godewyn Red-Hand, mercenary and troublemaker; Arduin Orwain, scion of a noble family brought low by scandal; and Arduin's sister Annwyn, the beautiful cause of that scandal: together they form a cross-section of the Middle Kingdoms of the Known World, brought together by accident and dark design, on a quest that will either get them all in the history books, or get them all killed.

Liv Spector

The Rich and the Dead
William Morrow Paperbacks, March 18, 2014
Trade Paperback and eBook, 320 pages

To solve the crime of the century, she'll have to go back in time....

Welcome to Star Island, where Miami's wealthiest residents lead private lives behind the tall gates of their sprawling mansions. It's a blissful escape from the hot and dirty city—or it was, until New Year's Day 2015, when twelve of the most powerful people in the world were found murdered in the basement of a Star Island mansion.

The massacre shocked the nation and destroyed the life of investigator Lila Day. Her hunt for the Star Island killer consumed her. But the case went unsolved, resulting in her dismissal from the Miami PD.

Now, three years later, life hands Lila an unexpected second chance: reclusive billionaire Teddy Hawkins approaches Lila and asks her to solve the case. But how do you investigate a crime when all the leads have long ago gone cold? The answer, Teddy tells her, is to solve the case before it happens. He's going to send Lila back in time.

With nothing left to lose, an incredulous Lila travels back to 2014, determined to find the Star Island killer once and for all. But as she goes undercover among the members of Miami's high society, she finds herself caring for—and falling for—people who are destined to die that fateful night. Now she must either say good-bye or risk altering the future forever.

Will Storr

The Hunger and the Howling of Killian Lone
Atria Books/Marble Arch Press, March 11, 2014
Trade Paperback and eBook, 368 pages

Killian Lone comes from a long line of gifted cooks, stretching back to the seven­teenth century, and yearns to become a famous chef himself. When he starts an apprenticeship under Max Mann, the most famous chef in London, he looks set to continue the family tradition. But the reality of kitchen life is brutal. Even his fellow apprentice, Kathryn, who shows Killian uncharacteristic kindness, can’t stop his being sucked into the vicious, debauched world of 1980s fine dining, and gradually he is forced to surrender his dream.

Then he discovers a dark family secret—the legacy of an ancestor who was burnt as a witch for creating food so delicious it was said to turn all who tasted it mad. Killian knows he can use this secret to achieve his ambitions and maybe, finally, to win Kathryn’s affections. But is he willing to pay the price?

This is Killian’s confession—a strange tragedy about love, ambition and incredible food . . .

Wayne Gladstone

Notes from the Internet Apocalypse
Thomas Dunne Books, March 4, 2014
Hardcover and eBook, 224 pages

When the Internet suddenly stops working, society reels from the loss of flowing data and streaming entertainment. Addicts wander the streets talking to themselves in 140 characters or forcing cats to perform tricks for their amusement, while the truly desperate pin their requests for casual encounters on public bulletin boards. The economy tumbles and the government passes the draconian NET Recovery Act.

For Gladstone, the Net’s disappearance comes particularly hard, following the loss of his wife, leaving his flask of Jamesons and grandfather’s fedora as the only comforts in his Brooklyn apartment.　But there are rumors that someone in New York is still online. Someone set apart from this new world where Facebook flirters "poke" each other in real life and members of Anonymous trade memes at secret parties. Where a former librarian can sell information as a human search engine and the perverted fulfill their secret fetishes at the blossoming Rule 34 club. With the help of his friends---a blogger and a webcam girl, both now out of work---Gladstone sets off to find the Internet. But is he the right man to save humanity from this Apocalypse?

For those of you wondering if you have WiFi right now, Wayne Gladstone’s Notes from the Internet Apocalypse examines the question "What is life without the Web?"