The Qwillery

James Islington

The Shadow of What Was Lost
The Licanius Trilogy 1
Orbit, November 8, 2016
Hardcover and eBook, 704 pages

"Love The Wheel of Time? This is about to become your new favorite series." - B&N SF & Fantasy Blog

"Islington has built a world with all the right genre elements: complex magic, terrifying threats out of legend, political intrigue, and a large cast of characters whose motivations are seldom clear. Fans of doorstop epic fantasy will not be disappointed." - Publishers Weekly

"Ingeniously plotted...Islington's natural storytelling ability provides incessant plot twists and maintains a relentless pace...A promising page-turner from a poised newcomer." - Kirkus

It has been twenty years since the god-like Augurs were overthrown and killed. Now, those who once served them - the Gifted - are spared only because they have accepted the rebellion's Four Tenets, vastly limiting their powers.

As a Gifted, Davian suffers the consequences of a war lost before he was even born. He and others like him are despised. But when Davian discovers he wields the forbidden power of the Augurs, he sets into motion a chain of events that will change everything.

To the west, a young man whose fate is intertwined with Davian's wakes up in the forest, covered in blood and with no memory of who he is...

And in the far north, an ancient enemy long thought defeated begins to stir.

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

Alex :  Glad to be here!

I started out writing movies. I've been a film geek since I was a teenager, and my friends used to tease me because I was such a little film snob. They started saying, "If you can't do better, we don't want to hear it." So one semester, I had a help desk job and too much time on my hands, so naturally I decided to start banging away at a screenplay. It was a romantic comedy, and needless to say, it was terrible. No one needs to take tips from a high schooler about love and sex. After that, I got a little more serious and wrote a feature-length blockbuster action in 2003, then finally finished my first novel in 2006. I've been writing novels ever since, and I'm about to finish my eighth.



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

Alex :  I'm meticulous about planning my characters' motivations. Every speaking character in my stories has a decent biography with all of the forces acting upon them. I use Aeon Timeline to map their life stories and determine specific ages for each event, questioning how certain events at certain times would alter their personalities. From there, I tend to naturally divide my books into three acts. I thoroughly plot the first two acts, but leave the third act blank, save for a basic idea. I think a spectacular ending needs to be discovered, and is a function of the character interactions over plot.



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

Alex :  I always want to write outside of my comfort zone. Each new book needs to be substantially different than anything I've ever produced. If it comes easy to me, I'm not interested. Emotional investment is also key--even my lighthearted comedy starred a character who was deeply flawed, anxious and suicidal. I don't appreciate characters who always maintain the moral high ground, because I'm not sure that's possible in life. I care about the screw-ups, not the sexy, wisecracking swashbucklers.



TQ:  What has influenced / influences your writing?

Alex :  I had a great high school education that focused on mid-century American lit, like CATCHER IN THE RYE, THE GREAT GATSBY and A FAREWELL TO ARMS. From there, I went on to read a lot of Flannery O'Connor, and fell in love with her clear, concise prose. In 2008, I read AND THE HIPPOS WERE BOILED IN THEIR TANKS, and learned that even total assholes can be compelling main characters. In addition to the literary influences, I love big, silly action flicks and stylish cinema. I'm always trying to capture both the literary and the cinematic: big visual ideas filtered through the clearest possible lens.



TQ:  Describe Every Mountain Made Low in 140 characters or less.

Alex :  An autistic woman living in a late-stage capitalist hellhole is confronted with the ghost of her best friend; seeks revenge for her murder.



TQ:  Tell us something about Every Mountain Made Low that is not found in the book description.

Alex :  There are two southern American myths in the story, one explicitly present and one referenced. Tailypo, an Appalachian folk horror classic, is one of the characters who aids Loxley on her path of revenge. He owns a bar, The Hound's Tail, in the darkest depths of the city. The other mythological character is Kate Baggs, otherwise known as the Bell Witch, operating out of Nashville. I like to think that tons of American mythological creatures exist in this setting, from the wendigo to Sasquatch, all hiding just out of sight of the cities.



TQ:  What inspired you to write Every Mountain Made Low? What appeals to you about writing Fantasy?

Alex :  My son has autism, and like any father, I wanted to research his condition and make his life easier. The more I learned about him, the more I discovered about myself, my anxieties and habitual behaviors. Like so many parents, I came to believe in the social model of disability--that our civilization creates disabilities through its failure to empathize and provide for people. Meanwhile, I became angrier and angrier with portrayals of autism in the media. I hated the savantism and blank character reduction so commonplace in television and books. I was sick of seeing them reduced to calculators. Autistic characters should be people, not plot devices.

Meanwhile, I had this idea for a book set in the mythical American South. It wasn't really taking shape. I knew I wanted to have a character based around the brown recluse, a highly-poisonous spider native to my area, but I didn't want it to be the "seductress spider" cliche that everyone runs with. I wanted to write a timid character who could be dangerous in unpredictable ways when cornered, but otherwise just wanted to live life alone. When that character became autistic, everything clicked into place, from the overarching narrative to the cutthroat setting.

I included fantastical elements because I can't help it. I love a big, sprawling setting with supernatural elements. To date, every book I've written has had ghosts or magic or ancient curses. It's just the way I do business.



TQ:  What sort of research did you do for Every Mountain Made Low?

Alex :  I wouldn't ever tackle a book like this without a significant amount of life experience. I focused on reading biographies by autistic people like THE REASON I JUMP, IDO IN AUTISMLAND, CARLY'S VOICE and Temple Grandin's THINKING IN PICTURES. I wanted to hear from people who were actually autistic and weave their experiences into my own. Anything less would be an incredible disservice to a thriving and diverse community of great individuals.



TQ:  In Every Mountain Made Low who was the easiest character to write and why? The hardest and why?

Alex :  The easiest character to write is Duke Wallace, the theocrat at the center of the conspiracy. Duke is a hyper-conservative evangelical Christian, and we have quite a few of those around here. I grew up in the church, and I was surrounded by some of the abusive beliefs Duke brings to bear on those around him. He thinks he's doing the right thing, but he gets there by not respecting peoples individuality and wishes. He's patronizing and self-aggrandizing, and I find writing him cathartic.

My main character, Loxley, is the hardest to write. I care about her so much, and I want to be respectful of the people with whom she shares her daily struggles. She's a constant balancing act. She has a difficult existence, being surrounded by such an uncaring society, but she isn't there to be pitied. She has trouble perceiving our fragile social nuances, but she's whip-smart and highly capable. People take advantage of her flaws, but she's not a fool. And I can't simply make her an angel. She grew up as part of a racist society, and some of her mother's prejudice has rubbed off on her.



TQ:  Why have you chosen to include or not chosen to include social issues in Every Mountain Made Low?

Alex :  This isn't exactly a light read. The town where Loxley lives, the Hole, is an unchecked capitalist paradise. There's no such thing as antitrust, and a single large corporation, the Consortium, owns most of the land in the southeast. They own the roads, utilities and farms. They make most of the food and pharmaceuticals. They supply life itself, and the residents of the Hole are socially-stratified and poverty-stricken. The world is a manifestation of the wealth gap.

I set it in a near-dystopian city because I worry every day about what would happen to my son without me. I hope that people would step in and help him have a happy life, but the conservative politicians where I live defund every social program they can find. Special education often gets cut first, leading to disheartened teachers and disenfranchised students. I believe that, with the moralization of wealth, we create a destructive, uncaring society that actively harms those at the fringes. People with autism face the pervasive bigotry of neurotypical society, and I worked hard to include those constant micro-aggressions.

My story also contains a stream of "well-meaning" men who abuse their influence over others: policemen, employers, executives, landowners. Sometimes these men are subtle, sometimes not. In my town, you can't throw a rock without hitting patriarchal crap, so part of this book is me throwing rocks.



TQ:  Which question about Every Mountain Made Low do you wish someone would ask? Ask it and answer it!

Alex :  "The word 'autism' never appears in the novel. Why not?"

Thanks. Great question. :-D

Loxley lives in a world that doesn't care about her. There is no such thing as an autism diagnosis for her, since people either learn to survive, or they starve to death in the streets. America has a terrible set of mental health policies, and so it's no surprise that a large percentage of our homeless folks are walking around with un-diagnosed mental health issues. The Hole is America on its worst day.



TQ:  Give us one or two of your favorite non-spoilery quotes from Every Mountain Made Low.

Alex :

Jayla had her stand up, then helped her replace her smudged jacket. She slipped the mask over Loxley’s face, completing the stranger in the mirror. The violinist on the other side of the glass was beautiful and confident. Mysterious. Strong. A little wild. Her dull hair poked out around the mask at odd angles; she hadn’t tamed it after her bath.

Jayla seemed to notice the unkempt hair at the same time. She stroked it once. “We’ve still got a lot of work to do.”

“I like my hair like this.”

“I could make it even better.”

Loxley shook her head, along with the violinist across from her. She thrilled to see this side of herself, and her voice came out easily and clearly. “No. This is perfect. This is the real me.”

----

“Over time, Vern taught me that some things were right, and some things were wrong. ‘Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend.’ I was a flexible man, soft of character and will. I became a hard man, forged by the hand of God, and he made me inflexible."



TQ:  What's next?

Alex :  Nothing I can share yet, but good things are always on the horizon!



TQ:  Thank you for joining us at The Qwillery.

Alex :  Thanks for having me!

Every Mountain Made Low
Solaris, October 25, 2016
Mass Market Paperback and eBook, 416 pages

Loxley Fiddleback can see the dead, but the problem is... the dead can see her.

Ghosts have always been cruel to Loxley Fiddleback - but none more than the spirit of her only friend, alive only hours earlier. Loxley isn’t equipped to solve a murder: she lives near the bottom of a cutthroat, strip-mined metropolis known as “The Hole,” suffers from crippling anxiety and can't cope with strangers. Worse still, she’s haunted.

She inherited her ability to see spirits from the women of her family, but the dead see her, too. Ghosts are drawn to her, and their lightest touch leaves her with painful wounds.

Loxley swears to take blood for blood and find her friend’s killer. In doing so, she uncovers a conspiracy that rises all the way to the top of The Hole. As her enemies grow wise to her existence, she becomes the quarry, hunted by a brutal enforcer named Hiram McClintock. In sore need of confederates, Loxley must descend into the strangest depths of the city in order to have the revenge she seeks and, ultimately, her own salvation.

About Alex

Alex White was born and raised in the American south. He takes photos, writes music and spends hours on YouTube watching other people blacksmith. He values challenging and subversive writing, but he'll settle for a good time.

In the shadow of rockets in Huntsville, Alabama, Alex lives and works as an experience designer with his wife, son, two dogs and a cat named Grim. He takes his whiskey neat and his espresso black.

Every Mountain Made Low is his debut novel.




Website  ~  Facebook  ~  Twitter @alexrwhite

Will Panzo

The Burning Isle
Ace, November 1, 2016
Trade Paperback and eBook, 432 pages

A powerful and gripping debut grimdark fantasy novel, set in a world of criminals, pirates, assassins, and magic…

“A man has only three reasons for being anywhere: to right a wrong, to earn a coin, or because he is lost.”

Cassius is not lost…

The mage Cassius has just arrived on the island of Scipio. Five miles of slum on the edge of fifty miles of jungle, Scipio is a lawless haven for criminals, pirates, and exiles. The city is split in two, each half ruled by a corrupt feudal lord. Both of them answer to a mysterious general who lives deep in the jungle with his army, but they still constantly battle for power. If a man knows how to turn their discord to his advantage, he might also turn a profit…

But trained on the Isle of Twelve, Cassius is no ordinary spellcaster, and his goal is not simply money. This is a treacherous island where the native gods are restless and anything can happen…

Amelia Atwater-Rhodes

Of the Abyss
Mancer Trilogy 1
Harper Voyager Impulse, September 27, 2016
      eBook, 400 pages
Harper Voyage Impulse, November 1, 2016
     Mass Market Paperback, 469 pages

After decades of strife, peace has finally been achieved in Kavet—but at a dark cost.  Sorcery is outlawed, and anyone convicted of consorting with the beings of the other realms—the Abyssi and the Numini—is put to death. The only people who can even discuss such topics legally are the scholars of the Order of the Napthol, who give counsel when questions regarding the supernatural planes arise.

Hansa Viridian, a captain in the elite guard unit tasked with protecting Kavet from sorcery, has always led a respectable life. But when he is implicated in a sorcerer’s crimes, the only way to avoid execution is to turn to the Abyss for help—specifically, to a half-Abyssi man he’s sworn he hates, but whose physical attraction he cannot deny. 

Hansa is only the first victim in a plot that eventually drags him, a sorcerer named Xaz, and a Sister of the Napthol named Cadmia into the depths of the Abyss, where their only hope of escape is to complete an infernal task that might cost them their lives.

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

Stephanie:  Hi, TQ – thank you for having me. I’ve been writing all my life – in journals as a girl, in college, at every job I’ve had – somehow they were all writing or editing jobs. I got committed to my own writing – poetry and my novel, The Next, in my mid-fifties.



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

Stephanie:  I am definitely a plotter-pantser hybrid. I plan and plot but once I’m on solid ground, feeling secure in my journey, I release to the fates and let the book take me where it needs to go.



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

Stephanie:  The most challenging thing about writing is protecting the time to write. I have a full time job, friends and family, obligations and errands – you know, life. For me, writing requires that I sequester myself, go into a tunnel, leave the fun behind for a while. For a different kind of fun.



TQ:  How does being a poet affect your prose writing?

Stephanie:  I think being a poet makes me listen deeply to the rhythms of my sentences. I love lyrical writing, I love a good beat, I love repetition, I love to drive the story using all of it. I learned that from both reading and writing poetry. In fact, when I get stuck, I pick up a poetry book and read, to help me quiet down and listen for the rhythms.



TQ:  What has influenced / influences your writing?

Stephanie:  It sounds kind of corny, but (aside from everything in my past and present) I am consistently influenced by my daughters – the love we have for each other, their open-hearted world views, their kindness, the sisterhood they share, and now that they are adults, our friendship. Motherhood has been a constant source of learning for me – I’ve gotten so much from it at all stages. I’ve been told that comes through in my book.



TQ:  Describe The Next in 140 characters or less.

Stephanie:  A contemporary, literary ghost story of betrayal, revenge and lust after life.



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

Stephanie:  I love this question. I think – I hope – it’s rock and roll and sexy and funny. Despite the fact that Joanna, the protagonist, is a ghost.



TQ:  What inspired you to write The Next?

Stephanie:  I got the idea for The Next walking down Broadway in my neighborhood on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. I was nursing a broken heart, and it was a warm early fall afternoon, and it seemed like every shop and every car that passed was blaring Adele's "Rolling in the Deep". The popularity -- and anger -- of the song made me feel a little bit better. We've all been there. I wanted to capture that raw jealousy and rage that I was secretly feeling too, but could never express ... except through fiction!



TQ:  What sort of research did you do for The Next?

Stephanie:  Believe it or not, I did a fair amount of research about ghosts. I watched youtube videos, I read ghost stories, I read “scientific” articles and books about ghosts and hauntings and invisibility. I was pretty surprised by how much is out there about ghosts. I’m still not convinced.



TQ:  In The Next who was the easiest character to write and why? The hardest and why?

Stephanie:  The easiest character in the book to write was Laney. I felt very connected to her grief over the loss of her mother, and her confusion as to how to move forward with her own life without her mother’s day to day guidance and support and love. I tapped into my own grief over the death of my parents years ago.

The toughest characters were Jo and Ned. I wanted them to be complex, complicated, not necessarily always likeable, but human and relatable. I think I succeeded, judging from the reviews, but it wasn’t easy to reveal them as their worst selves on the page, but their best selves too.



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

Stephanie:  Why did you choose to make the protagonist a ghost? Seems like a risky decision, not exactly mass marketable!

I don’t believe in ghosts, but I believe we are all haunted by the past, especially as we get older, especially by what might have been, how we could have done better … and the past comes in strong in the dark, in the middle of the night. I also like the ghost metaphor for a woman of a certain age, made less visible, less sexual, less present in the world by society, because she’s getting older, or is sick, or is single. I think I may have been raging against that.



TQ:  Give us one or two of your favorite non-spoilery quotes from The Next.

Stephanie:  I have one I truly love: “Bitches are made, not born.” I’ve been told the book is full of quotable lines – I’m not going to spoil it.



TQ:  What's next?

Stephanie:  I’m working on enjoying the ride for The Next. My publisher, St. Martin’s Press, has been enormously supportive of the book, and I’m spending the next couple of months talking to readers and other writers through the internet, at live readings, through Skype for book clubs, etc, so that’s really fun. In early 2017, I’ll be leading writing workshops for breast cancer patients, and digging in on my new novel. I’ve also got a few personal essays on deck. Oh, and my day job!



TQ:  Thank you for joining us at The Qwillery.

Stephanie:  Thank you!

The Next
St. Martin's Press, October 18, 2016
Hardcover and eBook, 320 pages

"Love and loss, revenge and redemption, this debut novel will stick with you for a long time." —Emily Giffin

"I love The Next...elegantly written, thoughtfully sharp, surprisingly touching." —Cathleen Schine

Is there a right way to die? If so, Joanna DeAngelis has it all wrong. She’s consumed by betrayal, spending her numbered days obsessing over Ned McGowan, her much younger ex, and watching him thrive in the spotlight with someone new, while she wastes away. She’s every woman scorned, fantasizing about revenge … except she’s out of time.

Joanna falls from her life, from the love of her daughters and devoted dog, into an otherworldly landscape, a bleak infinity she can’t escape until she rises up and returns and sets it right—makes Ned pay—so she can truly move on.

From the other side into right this minute, Jo embarks on a sexy, spiritual odyssey. As she travels beyond memory, beyond desire, she is transformed into a fierce female force of life, determined to know how to die, happily ever after.

About Stephanie

Stephanie Gangi lives, works and writes poetry, fiction and personal essay in New York City. The Next is her debut novel.






Website  ~  Twitter @gangi_land

Facebook  ~  Instagram

Each month you will be able to vote for your favorite cover from that month's debut novels. At the end of the year the 12 monthly winners will be pitted against each other to choose the 2016 Debut Novel Cover of the Year. Please note that a debut novel cover is eligible in the month in which the novel is published in the US. Cover artist/illustrator information is provided when we have it.

I'm using PollCode for this vote. After you the check the circle next to your favorite, click "Vote" to record your vote. If you'd like to see the real-time results click "View". This will take you to the PollCode site where you may see the results. If you want to come back to The Qwillery click "Back" and you will return to this page. Voting will end sometime on October 31, 2016.

Vote for your favorite October 2016 Debut Cover!

The Apothecary's Curse

Carrier

The Comet Seekers

Every Mountain Made Low

FantasticLand

The Machine Society

The Next

Only the Dead Know Burbank

Sirius

 

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

Barbara:  Thank you! I started writing when I was about ten years old. My mom loved writing poems, so I sort took up the pen and started writing. Hers rhymed, mine never did.



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

Barbara:  I was absolutely a pantser until this novel. I would get an idea and just start writing, knowing more or less what I wanted to explore. With this novel, I outlined the entire book before I started writing. I plunked the outline for each chapter just below the chapter heading in the manuscript to guide me through each chapter. But as I wrote, the story (and characters) sort of took over, as they are wont to do. And the final book is quite different than where it began. But all through the writing process, I kept going back to that outline every time I got stuck, and whether or not I adhered to it, it always reminded me of where I was going, if not how I was going to get there!



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

Barbara:  The discipline of doing it every day, no matter how blocked I am, no matter how tired I am. I’m not one of those writers who sets a 2,000 word goal for every day (although I did with Apothecary) unless I’m on deadline. So, yeah, discipline is the most challenging thing. After that, probably leaving favorite, but unnecessary, scenes on the cutting room floor (as it were). The old “Killing your darlings” adage. It’s painful, and I never completely delete them, preferring, instead to keep them for the future (and another book).



TQ:  What has influenced / influences your writing?

Barbara:  My writing has always been fueled by a lifelong curiosity about the world. I look at the stars and wonder about them; I hear the call of a bird and I have to know what kind it is. I think (I hope) my characters reflect that in one way or another. In Apothecary, Gaelan Erceldoune, who is more than four centuries old is still in awe of the stars and planets. There’s a scene in which he picks up a rock on the beach. He doesn’t simply look at it; he wonders what’s inside. Is it a geode? What kind? That’s my own curiosity talking—I’d do exactly the same thing!



TQ:  You've worked as a microbiologist and have a degree in Biology/Chemistry. How did this influence (or not) The Apothecary's Curse?

Barbara:  My undergraduate education and work in Biology and Chemistry influenced me quite a bit in writing The Apothecary’s Curse. The scientific core of the story also relies on our modern understanding of genetics and medicine, but also on our human propensity to label as magic or miracle things we do not yet understand. Is it magic or is it science? That is the question. And it’s a question that comes up several times in the novel. Again, my grounding in the sciences helped me both read technical papers on the relevant medical and biological principles and translate them into a fantasy story.



TQ:  Describe The Apothecary's Curse in 140 characters or less.

Barbara:  Between magic and science, history and mythology lies The Apothecary’s Curse-a tale of free, unintended consequences, and, ultimately, love.



TQ:  Tell us something about The Apothecary's Curse that is not found in the book description.

Barbara:  Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (the creator of Sherlock Holmes) plays a small but significant role in the story. And his fingerprints are everywhere!



TQ:  What inspired you to write The Apothecary's Curse? What appeals to you about writing Fantasy (Urban and Historical)?

Barbara:  I’ve always been drawn to the ballads and legends of the British Isles, especially the supernatural ballads of fairy queens and elfin knights. The ballad of Thomas the Rhymer, who was, according to the legend, kidnapped by the Queen of Elfland and returned seven years later with the gift of prophecy and more, has always intrigued me. So I asked the question: “What if Thomas returned with something more than the gift of prophecy? What if he returned to Scotland with a mysterious, ancient book of healing? And what if that book, generations later was accidentally misused?” The answer to that question is the central story of The Apothecary’s Curse.

I love writing historical fantasy because it allows me to take real history (accurately told) and ask interesting “what ifs.” My favorite fantasy stories are always grounded in reality and history, science and the possible (no matter how improbable).



TQ:  What sort of research did you do for The Apothecary's Curse?

Barbara:  So much research!! To make the science work, I read extensively about the 2009 Nobel prize-winning work in genetics. I researched both Celtic and Greek mythology and a bit of astronomy to create some of the backstory for Gaelan. I also researched the history British medicine, especially as it relates to the practice of “gentlemen” physicians and apothecaries in Victorian England—especially to understand how Gaelan would be a qualified medical practitioner and to underpin the tension between Simon Bell and Gaelan in the Victorian sections of the novel. I researched the settings as well: from the Borders region of Scotland to Smithfield Market of 19th Century London to my own backyard of Chicago’s north shore. I also read a lot of history of the era surrounding Gaelan’s early life in late 16th Century Scotland under James VI. Oh! And lots and lots about Sir Arthur Conan Doyle way beyond his writing of the Holmes canon! That scratches the surface. In other words, a lot of research went into creating The Apothecary’s Curse and its world.



TQ:  In The Apothecary's Curse who was the easiest character to write and why? The hardest and why?

Barbara:  I think the easiest character for me was Gaelan. But he was also the hardest. Easy because I understood him—not because I am an immortal (!), but because he shares my curiosity about the world and everything in it. Also easy, because I gravitate toward melancholy, brooding heroes, so I adored writing the enigmatic, sometimes-misunderstood Gaelan Erceldoune. He (and Simon) were also difficult technically. They both exist both in the Victorian part of the story and the present-day story. I had to be constantly vigilant in the modern story about keeping their diction (especially in dialogue) 21st Century while keeping them in character.

So, that’s a bit of a cheat for an answer, so I’ll say that Anne Shawe was the hardest of my main characters to write. I wanted to avoid having her be too much “me”—a slightly naïve, enthusiastic, eager scientist. I also needed to make sure the incredible, but right-in-front-of-her-eyes nature of her situation didn’t make her come off as either too gullible or skeptical beyond belief (like Scully often was in The X-Files in the later years).



TQ:  Why have you chosen to include or not chosen to include social issues in The Apothecary's Curse?

Barbara:  The Apothecary’s Curse definitely touches on social issues, especially the question of what happens when our knowledge and technology outstrip our wisdom to use it. I think that theme filter through all the characters both in the modern and Victorian stories. Each of the characters in The Apothecary’s Curse encounters dilemma in different ways during the course of the story. I think that that all good fiction should say something. Maybe the something is subtle and indirect; maybe it’s overt.



TQ:  Which question about The Apothecary's Curse do you wish someone would ask? Ask it and answer it!

Barbara:  Where did you come up with the names “Gaelan Erceldoune” and “Simon Bell” (the two protagonists)?

Both of their names were chosen with a lot of thought. Both of their names speak to their families’ histories and then some (especially Gaelan). I took the name Gaelan from the ancient Roman-Empire physician-philosopher Galen of Pergamon. He was one of antiquity’s most influential men of science, especially in anatomy, physiology, pathology, and pharmacology. Gaelan’s last name Erceldoune connects him with his ancestor Thomas the Rhymer, whose full name was Lord Thomas Learmont de Ercildoune. The place Ercildoune (or as I spell it Erceldoune) is now the town of Earlston in the Borders region of Scotland.



TQ:  Give us one or two of your favorite non-spoilery quotes from The Apothecary's Curse.

Barbara: 

“He ignored the derision in Bell’s tone, sweeping past him as he brushed his shirtsleeve across the cover; a swirl of dust erupted between them. Then with a rag pulled from his trouser pocket, Gaelan burnished the cover with meticulous, minute strokes, revealing the engraved image of an intricate tree. Emerging from deep within the leather, its bare branches entwined and diverged into snakes, each consuming its own tail—an ouroboros. The snakes merged, transforming once again into an elaborate border of interconnected and twisted helices. Gaelan beheld the marvelous engraving, considering the complexity of its design.

The hawthorn: sigil of balance between life and death. A reminder that all medicines were a paradox, curative or poisonous and, as Gaelan well knew, too often producing unexpected consequences. And then there were the ouroboroses—they were alchemy’s symbol for the circularity of life: life from life, life from death, from death to living in an eternal chain. For what was the true nature of medicine’s practice? To lift the dying, to forestall death’s knock at the door, and recommence life. But Gaelan knew, more than most, that the ouroboros also signified life eternal . . . immortality, alchemy’s eternal quest.”

TQ:  What's next?

Barbara:  Right now, I’m working on a second novel that takes us more deeply into Gaelan’s history. I also continue to contribute to Blogcritics Magazine, where I serve as executive editor and publisher.



TQ:  Thank you for joining us at The Qwillery.

The Apothecary's Curse
Pyr, October 11, 2016
Trade Paperback and eBook, 340 pages

In Victorian London, the fates of physician Simon Bell and apothecary Gaelan Erceldoune entwine when Simon gives his wife an elixir created by Gaelan from an ancient manuscript. Meant to cure her cancer, it kills her. Suicidal, Simon swallows the remainder—only to find he cannot die. Five years later, hearing rumors of a Bedlam inmate with regenerative powers like his own, Simon is shocked to discover it’s Gaelan. The two men conceal their immortality, but the only hope of reversing their condition rests with Gaelan’s missing manuscript.

When modern-day pharmaceutical company Genomics unearths diaries describing the torture of Bedlam inmates, the company’s scientists suspect a link between Gaelan and an unnamed inmate. Gaelan and Genomics geneticist Anne Shawe are powerfully drawn to each other, and her family connection to his manuscript leads to a stunning revelation. Will it bring ruin or redemption?

Qwill's Thoughts

The Apothecary's Curse starts in Victorian London and introduces us to the main protagonists - Dr. Simon Bell and Gaelen Erceldoune.

In the novel Dr. Simon Bell is a member of the famous Bell family of doctors and brother to Dr. James Bell. (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle based some of Sherlock Holmes on the real Dr. James Bell.) Simon Bell is a well known doctor in his own right in the novel. He is deeply in love with his wife, Sophie, and would do anything to save her from the cancer that is killing her.

Gaelen Erceldoune is a well-known apothecary. He has set up his business in a poor section of London and does his best to help the people of his neighborhood. He has an immense collection of books on the healing arts and science. Gaelen also is in possession of a manuscript that has been passed down in his family. It contains many cures not available to the 'modern' medicine of the Victorian era. The manuscript's history is absolutely fascinating and becomes even more so in the latter sections of the novel.

Simon's and Gaelen's lives become inextricably linked when Gaelen, who has withdrawn from aiding doctors due to certain events in his life, agrees to help Simon and give him a cure for his wife. Things go wrong with the cure, though who is to blame is never 100% clear to either man, and Sophie dies. Simon becomes despondent and in a desperate attempt to end his own life and reunite with his wife takes the rest of the cure. He doesn't die... he is granted immortality. Gaelen loses his manuscript due to events beyond his control. He is wrongly accused of crimes and life becomes a hell for him.

The novel details the lives of the two men in both the Victorian and modern era. Simon has been keeping on eye on Gaelen over the years partially out of friendship and partially out of a desire to help Gaelen find his missing manuscript. Simon wants to die and only the manuscript holds the key to reversing his immortality. Events conspire against Gaelen and his miraculous abilities to heal become known. Enter both Anne Shawe, a geneticist, and an unethical pharmaceutical company that wants Gaelen for his unique physiology. Things come quickly to a head after Gaelen is exposed. The game is afoot!

The Apothecary's Curse is beautifully researched and there is a real sense of history and wonder throughout. Bell and Erceldoune are an odd couple linked in immortality and the things they have lost throughout the years. Both men are well-developed and their lives in both the modern and Victorian eras detailed. Barnett has created a captivating combination of Historical and Urban Fantasy, of science and the supernatural, and of loss and love in The Apothecary's Curse.

About Barbara

Barbara Barnett is publisher and executive editor of Blogcritics Magazineand the author of Chasing Zebras: The Unofficial Guide to House, M.D. Barbara has won several awards for her writing, spanning from technical writing achievement to her writing on spirituality and religion. Barbara has a degree from the University of Illinois in biology/chemistry and has worked as a microbiologist. She is the current president of the Midwest Writers Association.





Website  ~  Twitter @B_Barnett  ~  Facebook

Stephanie Gangi

The Next
St. Martin's Press, October 18, 2016
Hardcover and eBook, 320 pages

"Love and loss, revenge and redemption, this debut novel will stick with you for a long time." —Emily Giffin

"I love The Next...elegantly written, thoughtfully sharp, surprisingly touching." —Cathleen Schine

Is there a right way to die? If so, Joanna DeAngelis has it all wrong. She’s consumed by betrayal, spending her numbered days obsessing over Ned McGowan, her much younger ex, and watching him thrive in the spotlight with someone new, while she wastes away. She’s every woman scorned, fantasizing about revenge … except she’s out of time.

Joanna falls from her life, from the love of her daughters and devoted dog, into an otherworldly landscape, a bleak infinity she can’t escape until she rises up and returns and sets it right—makes Ned pay—so she can truly move on.

From the other side into right this minute, Jo embarks on a sexy, spiritual odyssey. As she travels beyond memory, beyond desire, she is transformed into a fierce female force of life, determined to know how to die, happily ever after.

Barbara Barnett

The Apothecary's Curse
Pyr, October 11, 2016
Trade Paperback and eBook, 340 pages

In Victorian London, the fates of physician Simon Bell and apothecary Gaelan Erceldoune entwine when Simon gives his wife an elixir created by Gaelan from an ancient manuscript. Meant to cure her cancer, it kills her. Suicidal, Simon swallows the remainder—only to find he cannot die. Five years later, hearing rumors of a Bedlam inmate with regenerative powers like his own, Simon is shocked to discover it’s Gaelan. The two men conceal their immortality, but the only hope of reversing their condition rests with Gaelan’s missing manuscript.

When modern-day pharmaceutical company Genomics unearths diaries describing the torture of Bedlam inmates, the company’s scientists suspect a link between Gaelan and an unnamed inmate. Gaelan and Genomics geneticist Anne Shawe are powerfully drawn to each other, and her family connection to his manuscript leads to a stunning revelation. Will it bring ruin or redemption?

Mike Bockoven

FantasticLand
Skyhorse Publishing, October 11, 2016
Hardcover and eBook, 272 pages

Since the 1970s, FantasticLand has been the theme park where “Fun is Guaranteed!” But when a hurricane ravages the Florida coast and isolates the park, the employees find it anything but fun. Five weeks later, the authorities who rescue the survivors encounter a scene of horror. Photos soon emerge online of heads on spikes outside of rides and viscera and human bones littering the gift shops, breaking records for hits, views, likes, clicks, and shares. How could a group of survivors, mostly teenagers, commit such terrible acts?

Presented as a fact-finding investigation and a series of first-person interviews, FantasticLand pieces together the grisly series of events. Park policy was that the mostly college-aged employees surrender their electronic devices to preserve the authenticity of the FantasticLand experience. Cut off from the world and left on their own, the teenagers soon form rival tribes who viciously compete for food, medicine, social dominance, and even human flesh. This new social network divides the ravaged dreamland into territories ruled by the Pirates, the ShopGirls, the Freaks, and the Mole People. If meticulously curated online personas can replace private identities, what takes over when those constructs are lost?

FantasticLand is a modern take on Lord of the Flies meets Battle Royale that probes the consequences of a social civilization built online.

Mike Brooks

The Machine Society: Rich or Poor. They Want You To Be a Prisoner
Cosmic Egg Books, October 28, 2016
Trade Paperback and eBook, 224 pages

Mike Brooks’ debut novel is an adventure story set in a dystopian future in which our taste for branding, consumerism and artificial reality is boundless. In /The Machine Society/, he weaves together psychological insight, philosophical reflection and spiritual inquiry to give us a novel that is both a deep satire on modern life and a rich metaphor for our longing to find inner peace.

Dean Rogers lives in the Perimeter of New London, holding down a soul-destroying job, surrounded by people who have lost the will to communicate. He is afraid his debts will spiral out of control, resulting in him being cast out of the city, outside of the Security Wall. Meanwhile, in the Better Life Complex, New London’s rich elite live in plastic luxury, unaware of the sinister secrets that underpin their world.

The Machine Society is an original and intelligent sci-fi thriller, and a heartfelt rally cry for the soul’s liberation.

Jonathan Crown

Sirius: A Novel About the Little Dog Who Almost Changed History
Scribner, October 4, 2016
Hardcover and eBook, 256 pages

A highly original, tragicomic novel as seen through Sirius, an extraordinary dog who helps his Jewish family escape from Germany to California, becomes a Hollywood star, and ultimately contributes to Hitler’s downfall.

Levi, a fox terrier, lives with his family in a grand townhouse in Berlin. Each day he enjoys a walk through the neighborhood, where people greet him by name. But the year is 1938, and Berlin is no longer safe for Levi or the Liliencrons, his Jewish owners. They rename him Sirius, after the constellation, to protect him.

One night, Nazi troops storm the city and begin to search houses. Sirius alerts the family, and they manage to flee to California. In his new home, Carl Liliencron becomes a chauffeur and Sirius befriends everyone from Humphrey Bogart and Cary Grant to Rita Hayworth and Jack Warner. He is renamed Hercules and becomes a canine movie star. Little does Sirius know that he’ll soon have to perform his most difficult acting role yet, when through a series of exceptional events as World War II unfolds, he winds up at the right hand of Hitler himself. Can Sirius help the German resistance, derail the Führer, and reunite with his family? Or is the cost of peace too high?

With charisma, heart, and delightfully spry prose, Sirius is an enchanting fairy tale about love and humanity and a roving exploration of a momentous historical moment. Like My Dog Skip and The Artist, this feel-good novel will make you stand up and cheer.

Stephanie Gangi

The Next
St. Martin's Press, October 18, 2016
Hardcover and eBook, 320 pages

"Love and loss, revenge and redemption, this debut novel will stick with you for a long time." —Emily Giffin

"I love The Next...elegantly written, thoughtfully sharp, surprisingly touching." —Cathleen Schine

Is there a right way to die? If so, Joanna DeAngelis has it all wrong. She’s consumed by betrayal, spending her numbered days obsessing over Ned McGowan, her much younger ex, and watching him thrive in the spotlight with someone new, while she wastes away. She’s every woman scorned, fantasizing about revenge … except she’s out of time.

Joanna falls from her life, from the love of her daughters and devoted dog, into an otherworldly landscape, a bleak infinity she can’t escape until she rises up and returns and sets it right—makes Ned pay—so she can truly move on.

From the other side into right this minute, Jo embarks on a sexy, spiritual odyssey. As she travels beyond memory, beyond desire, she is transformed into a fierce female force of life, determined to know how to die, happily ever after.

Timothy Johnson 

Carrier
Permuted Platinum, October 18, 2016
Hardcover and eBook, 322 pages

An alien infection turns its hosts into violent, insane murderers, threatening to overrun the space carrier Atlas.

With Earth's resources on the verge of exhaustion and worldwide civil war imminent, the stars were looked to for answers. Beneath the surface of lifeless planets were found all the resources that could ever be consumed.

Stellan Lund is chief security officer aboard the carrier Atlas. Life on a carrier is peaceful—as long as the crew does its job, the New Earth Council leaves them alone. The only risk is an occasional case of black madness, a mental-break condition that turns its hosts into violent, insane murderers—but it's a small chance to take for some freedom.

Then the Atlas is ordered to a dying planet where an unknown material awaits. When an accident exposes some of the crew to the alien substance, reports of black madness escalate—but something about these cases is different.

And if the ship's crew can’t eradicate the infection no one will make it home.

Helen Sedgwick

The Comet Seekers
Harper, October 11, 2016
Hardcover and eBook, 304 pages

A magical, intoxicating debut novel, both intimate and epic, that intertwines the past, present, and future of two lovers bound by the passing of great comets overhead and a coterie of remarkable ancestors.

Róisín and François are immediately drawn to each other when they meet at a remote research base on the frozen ice sheets of Antarctica. At first glance, the pair could not be more different. Older by a few years, Róisín, a daughter of Ireland and a peripatetic astronomer, joins the science team to observe the fracturing of a comet overhead. François, the base’s chef, has just left his birthplace in Bayeux, France, for only the second time in his life. Yet devastating tragedy and the longing for a fresh start, which they share, as well as an indelible but unknown bond that stretches back centuries, connect them to each other.

Helen Sedgwick carefully unfolds their surprisingly intertwined paths, moving forward and back through time to reveal how these lovers’ destinies have long been tied to each other by the skies—the arrival of comets great and small. In telling Róisín and François’s story, Sedgwick illuminates the lives of their ancestors, showing how strangers can be connected and ghosts can be real, and how the way we choose to see the world can be as desolate or as beautiful as the comets themselves.

A mesmerizing, skillfully crafted, and emotionally perceptive novel that explores the choices we make, the connections we miss, and the ties that inextricably join our fates, The Comet Seekers reflects how the shifting cosmos unite us all through life, beyond death, and across the whole of time.

Bradford Tatum 

Only the Dead Know Burbank
Harper Perennial, October 18, 2016
Trade Paperback and eBook, 400 pages

With Lon Cheney and Boris Karloff among its characters, this sweeping and stylish love letter to the golden age of horror cinema tells the wonderful, tragic story of Maddy Ulm. It takes readers through her rise from the complicated shadows of Berlin’s first experiments with expressionist cinema to the glamorous deserts of Hollywood. For Maddy has a secret. A secret that has given her incredible insight into the soul of horror. A secret that has a terrible price as well.

A young girl awakens in a hastily dug grave—vague memories of blood and fever, her mother performing a mysterious ceremony before the world went away. Germany has lost the first great war and Europe has lost millions more to the Spanish Flu epidemic. But Maddy has not only survived, she has changed. No longer does she eat, sleep, or age. No longer can she die. After taking up with a pair of street performers, she shocks and fascinates the crowds with her ability to survive outrageous traumas. But at a studio in Berlin, Maddy discovers her true calling: film.

With her intimate knowledge of fear, death, and realms beyond the living, she practically invents the modern horror genre on the spot. Before long, she travels to California and insinuates herself in Hollywood as the genius secretly behind The Phantom of the Opera, Dracula, and Frankenstein. And yet she must remain in the shadows—a chilling apparition suspended eternally between worlds.

Clever, tragic, and thoroughly entertaining, Only the Dead Know Burbank introduces readers to one of the most unique, unforgettable characters in fiction.

Alex White

Every Mountain Made Low
Solaris, October 25, 2016
Mass Market Paperback and eBook, 416 pages

Loxley Fiddleback can see the dead, but the problem is... the dead can see her.

Ghosts have always been cruel to Loxley Fiddleback - but none more than the spirit of her only friend, alive only hours earlier. Loxley isn’t equipped to solve a murder: she lives near the bottom of a cutthroat, strip-mined metropolis known as “The Hole,” suffers from crippling anxiety and can't cope with strangers. Worse still, she’s haunted.

She inherited her ability to see spirits from the women of her family, but the dead see her, too. Ghosts are drawn to her, and their lightest touch leaves her with painful wounds.

Loxley swears to take blood for blood and find her friend’s killer. In doing so, she uncovers a conspiracy that rises all the way to the top of The Hole. As her enemies grow wise to her existence, she becomes the quarry, hunted by a brutal enforcer named Hiram McClintock. In sore need of confederates, Loxley must descend into the strangest depths of the city in order to have the revenge she seeks and, ultimately, her own salvation.

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

Colin:  Thank you, happy to be here. I started writing some time around age 3 or 4, I think — "mom" being the first, last, and only word in my debut, which was awarded an illustrious place on the family fridge. I began taking it more seriously in college after a professor made the mistake of saying she thought a piece I wrote was funny. You can blame her for this.

I started writing because I (usually) enjoy it, at least when I'm in the moment. Sometimes, when you're writing, the world sort of falls away, and when you snap back to it, you've got 100 words on the page you don't really remember writing that you can't believe are your words... That's a special feeling.



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

Colin:  Mostly pantser, sort of hybrid though. On the plotting side, I'll jot down key points or themes I want to try and hit, and I don't like to start writing the first draft until I've got at least most of the narrative shape in my head.

Other than that, though? Pure flinging spaghetti at walls.



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

Colin:  Getting the spaghetti to stick to the wall. Pasta just doesn't adhere well to smooth surfaces.

Honestly, there are a lot of challenges, but I think the biggest I face is doubt. I often have a nagging feeling that every word/sentence/paragraph I write has some alternate, perfect version, but I'm just not talented enough to see what that is. Dealing with that feeling can be tricky. I've just tried to accept this weird duality of not being easily satisfied with what I have on the page while also recognizing that not everything will be perfect and I can only do the best I can.



TQ:  What has influenced / influences your writing?

Colin:  Marketing comparisons aside, reading Christopher Moore growing up really changed the way I looked at writing. Here was a guy writing genuinely laugh-out-loud speculative fiction. Up to that point, I hadn't realized that authors were allowed to be funny. I know that's strange to say, but that's how it felt to me.

Also, THE MASTER AND MARGARITA left a big mark on me — I loved its magical realism. That really struck a chord with me. Mythology obviously influenced me, too. After that, the list gets pretty exhausting.



TQ:  Describe The Ferryman Institute in 140 characters or less.

Colin:  Two broken souls — one an immortal guide to the dead, one about to be dead — end up on an adventure together that just might save them both



TQ:  Tell us something about The Ferryman Institute that is not found in the book description.

Colin:  I think this story can be a bit sadder and/or more introspective than the description lets on. I certainly hope it earns a smile or two along the way, but it's not exactly light fare.

Also, there's kissing. So, uh, if that grosses you out, or something, you should be aware of that, I guess. Just saying.



TQ:  What inspired you to write The Ferryman Institute? What appeals to you about writing contemporary fantasy?

Colin:  Someone very close to me was battling with severe depression, among other things. I woke up one morning with the distinct thought of _What if you wanted to kill yourself, but couldn't?_ I know that's not exactly the cheeriest thought the world has ever been privy to, but it was an interesting and almost reassuring idea at the time. The rest sort of snowballed from there.

The thing I enjoy about fantasy is that, as the author, you get to design the rules, so to speak. You want a character who can jump off cliffs all willy-nilly because he feels like it? Go for it. I believe fantasy carries these inherent elements of discovery and suspense, even when dealing with the mundane, because at any given moment, the story can tap into the unexpected. There is always the potential for surprise and wonderment around every corner in a good fantasy.



TQ:  What sort of research did you do for The Ferryman Institute?

Colin:  I shudder to think what my Google search history looks like thanks to this book. Psychologists would probably have a field day with that: "Well, given his Googling on myths, suicide, the Lincoln Tunnel, and affect versus effect, we can only conclude he was an acolyte in an ancient cult going to perform a sacred blood ritual in the Lincoln Tunnel. Oh, and his grammar was horrifyingly atrocious."



TQ:  In The Ferryman Institute who was the easiest character to write and why? The hardest and why?

Colin:  Easiest: toss up between Alice and Cartwright. For whatever reason, their voices came naturally to me — it felt more like I was taking dictation than I was writing them.

Hardest: Javrouche. He ended up getting rewritten several times. His using of French honorifics was actually from one of the latest drafts, so he was evolving even to the very end.



TQ:  Why have you chosen to include or not chosen to include social issues in The Ferryman Institute?

Colin:  I think having a fantastical lens to view a story through sometimes brings issues in the real world into sharper focus. The suicide angle was more of a personal desire to try and tell a story that was ultimately about hope -- that, even at the possible moment, when all seems lost, there's still a chance things can turn around.



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

Colin:  "What's the best way to give you several hundred million dollars as gratitude for bringing this book into the world?"

What a great question that would be to get, right?

On a more serious note: "What do you hope to accomplish with this book?"

Really, I just wanted to tell a good story. My writing has a ways to go, but if I could provide the means by which a reader loses him or herself for a while, I'd be thrilled. If it helps someone pick up a little bit of hope when they were in need of it, well, all the better.



TQ:  Give us one or two of your favorite non-spoilery quotes from The Ferryman Institute.

Colin:  Oof... Really tough to pick a favorite, but here's one I enjoy: "Death was such an abstract concept right up until the point when it wasn’t anymore."



TQ:  What's next?

Colin:  Hopefully another book, but I'm trying not to get too ahead of myself. I feel extraordinarily lucky to even have a chance to share this book with the world, so surviving this one is where my head's at.



TQ:  Thank you for joining us at The Qwillery.

Colin:  Thanks for the opportunity!

The Ferryman Institute
Gallery Books, September 27, 2016
Trade Paperback and eBook, 432 pages

In this stunning, fantastical debut novel from a bold new voice in the bestselling traditions of Christopher Moore and Jasper Fforde, a ferryman for the dead finds his existence unraveling after making either the best decision or the biggest mistake of his immortal life.

Ferryman Charlie Dawson saves dead people—somebody has to convince them to move on to the afterlife, after all. Having never failed a single assignment, he's acquired a reputation for success that’s as legendary as it is unwanted. It turns out that serving as a Ferryman is causing Charlie to slowly lose his mind. Deemed too valuable by the Ferryman Institute to be let go and too stubborn to just give up in his own right, Charlie’s pretty much abandoned all hope of escaping his grim existence. Or he had, anyway, until he saved Alice Spiegel. To be fair, Charlie never planned on stopping Alice from taking her own life—that sort of thing is strictly forbidden by the Institute—but he never planned on the President secretly giving him the choice to, either. Charlie’s not quite sure what to make of it, but Alice is alive, and it’s the first time he’s felt right in more than two hundred years.

When word of the incident reaches Inspector Javrouche, the Ferryman Institute's resident internal affairs liaison, Charlie finds he's in a world of trouble. But Charlie’s not about to lose the only living, breathing person he’s ever saved without a fight. He’s ready to protect her from Javrouche and save Alice from herself, and he’s willing to put the entire continued existence of mankind at risk to do it.

Written in the same vein as bestselling modern classics such as The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde and A Dirty Job by Christopher Moore, The Ferryman Institute is a thrilling supernatural adventure packed with wit and humor.

Qwill's Thoughts

The Ferryman Institute by Colin Gigl is the story of Charlie Dawson, Ferryman extraordinaire. He's been working as a Ferryman for over 200 years and he's exhausted. He's tired of ferrying. He's tired of saving the day when a death is difficult and the soul he's dealing with may be traumatized. He's spending more and more time away from the Ferryman Institute. Out of the blue he receives a special and secret assignment from the President of the Institute. He's sent to ferry Alice Spiegel after she commits suicide. But for the first time ever he's given the choice to save a person or not. Charlie saves Alice.

There are many rules that Ferryman have to obey including not revealing themselves to living humans. Charlie breaks this rule (along with others) and he is in a huge amount of trouble - being locked up for centuries trouble! Inspector Javrouche who is the internal affairs officer is after Charlie for this breach among others.

Charlie is a wonderful main character. He's conflicted about what he does. He's compassionate and caring. He's somewhat sarcastic and funny. However, his work has become senseless to him. He has good friends at the Institute. Individuals who are worried about him, but he bottles up everything he is feeling and continues to do his job. He's one of the best Ferryman that has ever existed and the Institute needs him. He's greatly admired, but that is not enough for him. He doesn't want to be a hero.

Alice has had a difficult life recently - she's going nowhere professionally, she's been heartbroken in more ways than one, and she sees no continued use for her existence. Meeting Charlie (and not killing herself) starts to bring her out of her sadness. She's got a spark of self-worth left. If Charlie can nurture that, Alice may have a chance. She's a terrific counterpoint to Charlie. She's strong and independent but needs to lean on Charlie to see that she has much to live for.

Inspector Javrouche is mean, spiteful and really, really dislikes Charlie. There are reasons for this which become apparent over the course of the novel. His behavior towards Charlie is the catalyst for a lot of what happens in the novel though Charlie's saving of Alice is the linchpin event.

There is a fabulous cast of supporting characters as well - Charlie's friends and co-workers. In particular his best friend and mentor, Cartwright, is just lovely.

The Ferryman Institute is steeped in Greco-Roman lore. The Institute's history is deeply interesting and there are quite a few surprises about the Institute's founding, how it works, and its bureaucracy. Gigl has created a well thought out and developed backdrop to the novel.

The Ferryman Institute is a terrific novel. It's full of action, tension, excitement, and fascinating characters. It's a really, really fun read with moments of both laughter and introspection. Charlie Dawson is a reluctant hero, but a hero nonetheless.

About Colin

Photo by Carly Gigl

Colin Gigl is a graduate of Trinity College with degrees in creative writing and computer science (no, he’s not quite sure how that happened, either). He currently works at a start-up in New York and lives with his wife in New Jersey.









Website  ~  Twitter @cgigl  ~  Facebook