Source: Interview with Steven J. Guscott author of Book of Prophecy.
Interview with Steven J. Guscott author of Book of Prophecy.
Leave a reply
Interview with Steven J. Guscott author of Book of Prophecy.
Hi Steve, and Welcome. Would you like to begin by telling the readers something about yourself?
Hi, I’m Steve (Steven J. Guscott). I was born in England, spent my teens and yearly-mid twenty’s in Scotland, and I now live back in England. I’m twenty-seven and wish more than anything to own a Dragon.
My two main obsessions in life have been doing sports and reading books (now writing them). I’m a total dork/geek/nerd. I can be very serious when necessary, and I do over-think life a lot, but most of the time I’m an absolute child. I love just being silly, and am thankful that I have four nieces and a nephew that allow me to let this side out and use them as my cover.
What is/are your book/series about and what inspired you to write it?
The Book of Prophecy, is my first book. It is set on a different world in a very simple society. The story follows Dragatu and his family. They own a secret book, The Book of Prophecy, and it contains the future. Dragatu is told about it by his father, but he is not meant to read it until he’s older. Dragatu cannot help himself and the story deals with the consequences of his action, what happens between him and his two brothers, and how fragile life can be when you are given incredible power.
The inspiration came at the beginning of 2010. I was thinking it would be awesome to write a story. I had no idea where to start so I forgot about the idea. A few weeks later, on a very sleep deprived night, I was thinking about a few random things and the name Dragatu came in my head. I thought it was a cool name for a character, but then fell asleep. Luckily, the next day I remember the name and started adding the world he lived in, his family and lots of ideas and themes that I like, such as choice/predestination, morality and its grey areas, fight scenes, love, nature, and philosophy.
How long did the first one take to write and how many times did you go through it before it was finally done?
*…takes deep breath in remembered pain*
Before I answer, let me tell you two things: I’m not a patient person when it comes to wanting something, and I started writing this story with only a past in academic writing under my belt.
I started from scratch. I wrote the first draft and an outline for a series of three stories in four months in 2010 (still edited it right up until publishing aug 2014). However, my writing was terrible. I edited and edited and edited, and was still really bad. However, I felt the ideas were good enough so endured my short comings and tried to learn, and slowly I did improve. I was helped by a lot of people, mainly my publisher Sammy HK Smith, and I can’t remember how many full edits it took, maybe a hundred (no joke). Since then, it has evolved into a series of six, but who knows how long it will take to write them all.
Where do your settings come from? Are they taken from real places, made up entirely, or a conglomerate of the two?
Some of the setting is inspired by my favourite book, Dune.
One strange thing that happened was I realised some of the setting had been inspired by where I lived. At the time I lived in Stirling, Scotland and they have amazing hills stretching to make up part of the Forth Valley.
A year after writing the book I looked at the hills and was like ‘Whhooooh!! That’s the hills from my book!’ This unintentional use of things around me, or in my life/past, has happened a lot and it’s always fun to spot one. Some of the setting/plot has been conscious, but those subconscious ones always make my jaw drop.
Who is your favorite character and why?
I don’t really have a favourite character from the book. It’s strange, but in my mind they are real, and I try not to be judgmental. I know that’s a weird answer but that’s how I feel. If I really, really, really, had to pick a character I liked more, I would say it was Phoenon, one of Dragatu’s brother’s. He’s very innocent at times, and that is something I always put above other qualities.
Are you an outliner or a pantzer when it comes to start a book? If the latter, do the ideas come to you in one big lump, or are they piecemeal?
It varies. I’ve been different depending on the story. With BoP the ideas were pretty much all there in the first session of writing the ideas. However, with other story’s I’ve chopped and changed things with drafts when new ideas come.
Finally, where can the book be purchased and what are your plans for the next ones?
It is currently discounted on most if not all Amazon site 99c/p
The second book is finished (loose phraseology) and will be going to the publishers to be looked at very soon.
Thank you so much for having me!!
Steve (Steven J. Guscott)
My review of this wonderful book.
By Elizabeth Hull – Published on Amazon.com
Format:Kindle Edition
This story is a wonderful illustration of the power of the written word. Dragatu finds his world transformed when he and his brothers are granted enormous mystical powers not seen in ordinary men. The problem is that peace has lasted centuries and no one quite know how to behave in war so the book becomes not a mere guide but a religion which one person wants to enact exactly into the current circumstances.
Peace is not possible unless the decent qualities of behavior are maintained. How the brothers deal with the supernatural and the change in their life is thrilling. I would hope there is a sequel.
Air Canada bumps disabled person.
Money is everything, isn’t it Air Canada? Let’s wring the last cent for poor service. Oh and thanks very much for the whiplash I got on landing. I thought we had crashed for a few pain filled seconds. I was also astonished to be directed to what looked like a chicken shed on disembarkation. However, the wondrousness of your business ethics shone through when you choose to bump a registered disabled person because they were flying on points.
Oh, and trapped at an airport, let us not forget the twenty-five minute line-up with all wickets open and just four people being attended to over that period. It was so edifying to find, after the enormously long wait, that the gate had closed, despite the airplane not due to take off for another forty minutes. Was there a special flag run up to show this was a points flight Air Canada? Is that why the gate was closed? So you could charge me $75 for a guarenteed place on the next flight. The booking clerk then girlishly tee heed several times and announce I would have to pay another $25 for the first piece of luggage. I only had one piece of luggage, Air Canada. It was a small case I could have fitted in one of the overhead bins if I hadn’t been disabled. I have never had to pay an extra $25 for the ‘first’ piece of luggage before. I would have remembered anything that bizarre, Air Canada.
Having been told the gate was closed, I was astonished, when I eventually found it after being directed to the wrong gate by Ms Tee Hee not once but twice, to see that it was not in fact closed. No Air Canada, it was open and actively paging for people who were late. I sat there for ten minutes watching the shut gate accepting people, and when I asked I was told the flight was full so you sold my ticket to someone who paid cash, Air Canada. You left a gimp to sit in a cold airport for three hours because of your greed. Oh and on the subject of the disabled, it is normal to make an announcement for pre-boarding for persons with children or disabilities. Well I was sitting on a chair in the disabled section, Air Canada, and no such announcement was made. I am so grateful that I had to go down a series of very steep ramps to get to what you euphemistically regard as some sort of flying device. Did you only take the guy in the wheelchair down in the lift because you thought he might fly out of the tunnel when he came to a bend, Air Canada?
Oh and on the subject of having to have a different plane, why was one guy allowed to change his flight on the next flight, that I was forced to catch and not charged extra? He came right up to the boarding gate and asked them and they directed him to another place to get a waver. He wasn’t disabled, Air Canada, and I will bet he wasn’t flying on points either, but he was hot. So hot in fact, that someone had to come on to the aircraft, after we had all boarded, to check his identity as someone was so overcome that they forgot to ask for it. What sort of security is that Air Canada? Oh and how come people were allowed to add bags to the stowed luggage rack as they were boarding the aircraft? On the tarmac?
I have to be fair, Air Canada, and give you credit for the one thing you got right. You did not lose my luggage. Well Done!!!! This makes the first time in the last four miserable experiences as your hapless customer that you haven’t lost my luggage.
Have a great day. No love, Me.
Introducing Spark and Carousel by Joanne Hall
Introducing Spark and Carousel by Joanne Hall
My friend and colleague from our publisher Kristell Ink, Joanne Hall has a new book out and I asked her to say a few things about it, such as how it came into being and what it is about. Here she is to share.
Spark and Carousel
I started writing Spark and Carousel towards the end of 2011, and during that year I lost my grandfather and two close friends, as well as going through the prolonged breakdown of a long-term friendship. I didn’t start out writing the book as a reaction to that grief, but certainly it coloured some of the themes of the book (without dropping too many spoilers!) Having said that, I had just written a Big Heavy Serious Book (The Art of Forgetting) and I wanted to write something that was lighter and more of a romp, with a bit more humour. There are some really dark moments in Spark and Carousel, but there are also some funny ones, I hope… It’s also the first book I’ve written that was set mainly in a city, so that was a new environment to play with.
Blurb
Spark is a wanted man. On the run after causing the death of his mentor and wild with untamed magic, he arrives in Cape Carey where his latent talents make him the target of rival gangs. It is there that Carousel, a wire-walker and thief, takes him under her wing to guide him through the intrigues of the criminal underworld.
But when Spark’s magic cracks the world and releases demons from the hells beneath, two mages of his former order make it their mission to prevent his magic from spiralling out of control. They must find him before he falls into the clutches of those who would exploit his raw talent for their own gain, forcing Spark to confront a power he is not ready to handle.
Meanwhile, a wealthy debutante learning magic in secret has her own plans for Spark and Carousel. But the sudden arrival of the mages throws her carefully laid plans into disarray and she unleashes a terrible evil onto the streets of the unsuspecting city—an evil only Spark’s magic can control.
Everyone wants a piece of Spark, but all Spark wants is to rid himself of his talents forever.
Extract
The blow around the mage’s head set his ears ringing. He slithered from the saddle and slumped on the ground, dizzy and confused. Cavan hauled him up by the shoulder, shaking him until his teeth rattled. “Is this your doing? Some stinking wizard’s trick?”
Blocking the route ahead was a sheer wall of rock, higher than a horse could jump. Weathered and patterned with moss and lichen, it seemed to have grown out of the landscape. It had been there for centuries.
It had not been there this morning.
“Can we go though it?” Moon-face kicked the wall, and swore. There was nothing spectral about it. Kayall’s lips twitched in a suppressed smirk. “Or round it, Cavan?”
“We’ll have to go round. This is going to hold us up far too long. Bloody wizards!” Cavan vented his frustration with a boot to Kayall’s gut that left him doubled-up and wheezing. Before he could regain his breath, Cavan had lashed his hands to the pommel of his saddle.
“You walk from here,” he said. “That way I can keep an eye on you!”
Kayall grinned. “It’s not me you have to look out for!”
“What are you – Mother of stars!”
The ground in front of them split open like an over-ripe fruit. With the dull scrape of a blade emerging from a sheath, a second rock wall burst through the gap, stretching high above their heads and out to either side, throwing out grey arms to form a circle around the trio and their plunging, terrified horses. Moon-face fell on his knees, clutching at his chest, lips working a silent charm against evil magic. Cavan, more practical, rounded on his prisoner.
“You’re doing this! Make it stop!”
Kayall shrugged. “How can it be me? Do you see me waving my hands about and muttering incantations? No? Because that’s what wizards do!” He ducked, but couldn’t dodge the swinging fist that connected with his jaw and threw him on his back in the dirt. He glared up at Cavan, and spat. “You decided to take on mages. How did you think it would end?”
Available soon. Preorder here.
http://www.amazon.com/Spark-Carousel-Joanne-Hall-ebook/dp/B014LBFC88/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1441629240&sr=1-1&keywords=Spark+and+Carousel
I need votes.
Source: I need votes.
I need votes.
Please can I get votes for my book on this site?
http://thebookawards.com/awards/shadow-over-avalon/
Fortune twists in the strongest hands. This is no repeat; this is what happens next.
A man, once a legend who bound his soul to his sword as he lay dying, is now all but a boy nearing the end of his acolyte training. Stifled by life in the undersea city of Avalon, Arthur wants to fight side by side with the air-breathing Terrans, not spend his life as servant to the incorporeal sentient known as the Archive. Despite the restrictions put on him by Sanctuary, he is determined to help the surface-dwellers defeat predators whose sole purpose is to ensure their own survival, no matter the cost.
Ashira, War Maid and princess of the surface-world, is ready to sacrifice her life to defend her kin, but when she is betrayed and cast out of the life chosen for her, she must choose whether to die with honor or become one of the creatures her kinsmen fear and loathe.
Following two threads of time, C.N. Lesley’s new incarnation of the Arthurian tales of old delivers the perfect blend of science fiction and fantasy. 
Distant Worlds – Welcomes Sophie E Tallis!
Ode to winter’s coming.
And so it starts.
Summer slides into fall with drunken wasps full of rage at boredom and impending doom
Night closes in for the long haul of winter.
Where did the evenings go?
Soon, too soon the honking vees of geese will fly south on their annual pilgrimage to the sun.
Frost comes bitter at first light, glistening.
Summer flowers die.
Now we wait but not for long, with snow only a whisper away from shrouding the land.
