The Next Big Thing Blog Chain

I was recently invited to participate in the Next Big Thing blog series, By Lori Hines, another Phoenix local author. Lori and I originally met at a Read Local Event in Glendale, Arizona. Lori’s novels “The Ancient Ones,” and “Caves of the Watchers,” published by Aberdeen Bay, include information about ancient Arizona as well as a balance of mystery and the paranormal. Check out Lori and her books at http://lhauthor.wordpress.com/

 

The idea of The Next Big Thing is each writer answers the following questions then tags five more up and coming authors.

Ten Interview Questions for the Next Big Thing:
What is your working title of your book?

I am currently most excited about the much anticipated release of Trolls, but I am working on the second book in the DREAD series, Max’s Despair. I am also working on several other pieces including a noir fantasy tentatively titled Vril.

Where did the idea come from for the book?

Most of my books start as ideas stemming from the research that I do merely out of curiosity. I will dive into study on various topics and some will strike my fancy enough to write a story instead of a research paper.

What genre does your book fall under?

All of my current books fall under fiction and adventure, the fantasy or historical aspect is secondary. I am such a fan of classic adventure.

Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?

I do not currently have any actors in mind primarily because I am not a fan of new actors but the ones I do like are getting a bit too on in years to play the parts anymore.

What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

Trolls – A young girl’s adventure in a fantastic world of magic and monsters, appropriate for all ages.

Vril – All crimes have an element of the bizarre, some have elementals equally bizarre.

Max’s Despair – The king of the DREAD Fleet tells all, in this history of how Maxmillion de Xavier became captain of Despair.

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

I am currently and hope into the future, represented by Arizona Publishing Services based here in Phoenix, Arizona.

How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?

I am a long time NaNo-warrior and I write all of my rough drafts since 2003 during NaNoWriMo. The editing obviously takes much longer.

What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

Trolls definitely has been compared to Alice in Wonderland or Peter Pan, while I hope readers feel the Captain Blood or Treasure Island ambiance in Max’s Despair.

Who or what inspired you to write this book?

Trolls is of course inspired by my son and the children that I come in contact with. Kids are great inspiration for adventure stories.

What else about your book might pique the reader's interest?

I hope that readers really enjoy that all of my main characters never go it alone. There is always a need for allies. I really want readers to love the secondary characters as much as the heroes.

The Next Big Five:

Ashley Barnard

Ann Chamberlain

Patti Hulstrandt

Chet Shupe

Todd VanHooser

Vril - Chapter One Preview

Chapter One

Has every detective had a few odd cases?  Of course, it is the nature of the job.  Odd is a relative term in this business too.  Every gumshoe has a limit.  Every P.I. goes in with an idea of what sort of case he will take, and which ones are just a few paces enough past sane to make him shake his head, tip his hat and turn his back. 

Sure, some of us started as beat cops with field experience built up to feel as though we have seen it all.  That can make a man either harder than a pair of concrete shoes or so tenderized that near anything makes him drink it away every night.

The kids, just out of training, the bookish ones who degreed their way into the business, they amuse the most though, they are a flip of the coin.  Maybe it is all the clinicism that creates their instant cynicism and detachment.  Sad to think it though, that such young hearts could go so cold as to not see the very human side of the stories they work on. 

I have a little of both worlds.  Failed my first try through forensic studies, and could not afford the pay back on all that school without a job.  I never wanted to be a cop, an enforcer.  Too much like work to this nimble mind.  I wanted to solve not serve.  But, I did my time, ran through the physical training like a champ too, if I may say so, enjoyed the challenge really.  I was younger then.  Where my mind was too young to stay on task, my body was focused on being honed to perfection.  Picking up dames was formidable motivation for my youthful focus.  I do not think I could do it today. 

Limits, that’s what I was speaking on.  We all had them back then; we all have them now.  I did not think mine changed much.  The schooling the first time had given me enough technical savvy to see life as a case study, not much more.  Working the streets brought back my humanity, but not my faith in it.  Age and wisdom, and another few years at the books, gave me the rest.  There was nothing I had not seen on the street or read in an article.  Well, not yet anyway.

Rio Vista and Foothills Week One: Action Only Exercise

 I Promised to post this. Like I mentioned in class at Foothills, it is not what one might think is going on, but it was fun either way.

Week One: Action Only

 

Mike sighed and took the first step toward the diner door.  He scanned the dining area for the reason for his visit. 

He was seated at the counter, concentrating intensely on the cup of steaming coffee in front of him, a man in unassuming suit.

Mike slid onto the stool beside the man, and turned the clean cup in front of him over to accept hot coffee offered by the passing waitress.  He waved the girl on before she could ask the typical, managerially programmed questions.

Mike leaned to mumble to the quiet man. 

The man did not so much as tip his gaze from his coffee to respond.   

Mike tapped anxiety around the coffee cup.

The man in the suit offered nothing in his demeanor to betray his emotions. The man looked from his coffee to direct his attention on Mike.  Mike leaned away impulsively as the man’s eyes caught him.

Mike focused on his own coffee cup.  He wished he had not made contact,

The man continued to stare at Mike, the coffee cup forgotten.

Mike glared in the man’s direction a flash, but avoided extended eye contact.  The man smiled, showing teeth glowing white.

Mike looked away. Mike swallowed his trepidation.

The man sipped his coffee.  He made no exhibition of the heat though the cup was steaming.  The man tried to lock with Mike again. His smile wolfishly displayed.

Mike sipped his coffee.  His face contorted as the liquid scorched his tongue. He set the cup down.

The man raised an eyebrow; Mike watched it instead of the glinting blue eye below it.

 The man sipped his coffee.  His focus floated around the emptying restaurant. He drained his cup and tossed an assortment of change onto the counter.

Mike covered the coins from the passing waitress, she scowled but continued by.  He did not want to give the waitress grounds to send them away.

 The man nodded.

Mike noticed the attempt at eye contact.  Mike looked away then back again.

The man leaned away slightly.  He smiled and straightened in his seat.

Mike’s eyes darted around the diner. 

The man put a hand on Mike’s arm.

Mike drew away, slow enough, he hoped, not to draw attention to his alarm. 

The man settled his hand back around his coffee cup.

Mike worked to regain a more offensive pose.

The man seemed finally to reconsider the situation Mike put him in.  He looked Mike over; he nodded.

The man’s hand indicated an empty booth near the door.

Mike’s suspicion held him in his seat for only a moment.  His curiosity wanted to take the chance.

bint Hazine: A Tale of Ecstasy

Bint Hazine: A Tale of Ecstasy

J.J.M. Czep

512 BC.

The great King of Wu tested Master Sun Tzu, commanding him to train the royal harem of 180 concubines as soldiers. Sun Tzu, a man of great honor and military prowess, divided the tittering females in two companies and appointed the king’s favorites as commanders. The concubines giggled at Sun Tzu’s order. Sun Tzu told the king that his position as general was to ensure the soldiers understood the order.

Upon reiteration of the command, the harem giggled once more. Sun Tzu ordered the execution of the favored concubines. Of course, the king protested! Sun Tzu however, explained, it was the position of these appointed officers to enforce soldiers’ compliance to the general. Once appointed, it was a general’s duty to carry out his mission, even against royal protest. Following this test of character, and the execution of the king’s favorite girls, both harem companies performed their maneuvers flawlessly under the rule of newly appointed officers.

1690’s AD.

“Un! Deux! Trois! Quatre! Cinq! Six! Sept! Huit! Neuf!” Gennie’s voice carried over the deck as the tip of her blade glinted in the midday sun.

Gennie shook her head as she watched the disheveled attempt at synchronicity before her. “You are dancers, are you not?”

“Only some, Korsana.” The front most woman in veils and silks rotated her shoulder as she allowed the sword in her delicate hand to droop.

“Do you really think this is going to work?” Blaze’s sarcasm was an unwelcome tone in Gennie’s ear as the man sidled up beside her. “You aren’t very good at the sword, what makes you think you can teach them?”

She sighed as she scanned the clutch of harem hens that had opted to join Ecstasy as escape from cloistered captivity under the Sultana’s rule.

“Non.” Gennie jammed the cup of the sword into Blaze’s chest. “Voila.”

Short-lived relief spread across the collective weary brows of the harem girls.

“Non, non, non!” Gennie marched toward the closest woman and grabbed her sword hand.

The woman pulled away and crossed her delicate arms wrapping the silk veil over her soft shoulders, leaving Gennie holding the weapon.

Gennie’s eyes caught the flash of gems covering the woman’s breasts. “Mais, possible.” She tore the veil from the woman’s shoulders. “This only restricts your movement.”

“Ay!” The woman grabbed at the veil, “Emshi!”

Gennie forced the weapon into the harem girl’s open arms. The veil, she held away. It was the glint in Gennie’s eye though that struck the woman. “Do you think you are still in your cozy harem?” Gennie’s gaze fell upon each of the dozen or so pretty faces arrayed on the deck. “You are on my ship, my Ecstasy. I was not slave to your Sultana par ce que I was willing to fight.”

“We fought.” The interruption was swallowed back as it hung in the air. “We did.” The speaker looked about at her harem sisters for support.

“C’est vrai,” Gennie swept the veil around her head and shoulders. “dans the palace, against a few eunuchs.” Gennie gestured crudely at her own crotch, “Practically women, aussi. Mais, you must continue to fight out here, against even the likes of assassins!” Gennie’s finger swept in Blaze’s direction.

The harem girls looked at one another.

“You are on my ship. You will earn your way.” Blaze staggered back as Gennie snatched the sword from the his hands.

“Korsana, dit.” Gennie’s lips formed each word carefully. “Beddek hada?” She shook the veil.

The attention of all harem girls were on Gennie and this one of theirs that stood defiant before the one who freed them..

The woman’s eyes darkened, determination crossed her jaw; her delicate hands gripped the sword.

“Na'am – Aaywa” She took the stance that Gennie trained, but she did not count as the pirate woman.

She looked over her shoulder and nodded to her harem sisters. An unspoken command, one Gennie knew well the power of, was given.

“Wahid!” She swung the scimitar high over her head and drew it through the space between her and the Korsana.

Gennie did not flinch, though she saw the sudden shift of the shadow behind her and allowed a smirk to dance across her face.

“Ithnan!” She drew the upturned blade to project from the point just at the waist of her sheer black harem pants.

A second veil filled Gennie’s hands as another, in a shimmering green bra, took up the blade she had carried from the Sultana’s treasury.

“Thalatha!” More voices and more blades cut the horizon with unnerving synchronicity.

Gennie took a step back, to close the space between her and the assassin, she smiled and tipped her head back to look up at the man.

“Arba’a!” They sliced the horizon a second turn.

Veils lay in pools at the feet of the women in only glittering bras and sheer flowing black pants. Gennie nodded, her eyes glinting like the bosoms of her new army.

“Khamsa!” A wave of soft, graceful shoulders jutted to the fore as blades struck the boards of the ship like a roll of thunder.

“Sitta! Sab’a!” Gennie smirked at Blaze’s flinch from the imagined score to the back of one knee then the other.

“I cannot wait to show the boys.” Gennie imagined the response this display might draw from de Xavier, or better still, in Gennie’s mind, the sword master himself, Theodorick.

“Thamaniya!” The harem’s dance thrust their other shoulder forward.

It was the glittering final thrust that drew Gennie’s hands in applause.

“Tis’a!” Every perfectly pampered arm leveled at the heart of their invisible adversaries.

The beauty of this closing pose was worth the afternoon of shade-less repetition of the maneuvers.

“Tu voit.” Gennie slapped her hand against Blaze’s arm and snatched the blade from his grasp. “Je sais. Cette la, mes femmes des treasure.” Gennie paused. “Non, my bint Hazine.” She slapped the blade against the side of her leg and shoved the veils into Blaze’s arms.

“Allez! Encore!” She smiled directly at the first concubine, the one she unveiled. “Mais, in your tongue.”

The woman’s eyes lowered a moment in obedience. “As you say, Korsana.”

“Voila.” Gennie tapped the back of her hand against the assassin’s chest. “What do you say now, mon ami?”

Blaze did not immediately respond as his eyes were dazzled by the glistening bodies clothed in glittering attire as the sun glinted off the shifting edges of synchronized scimitars.

Gennie continued her saunter to her cabin, leaving Blaze to look from bint Hazine to the haughty captain. A moment more of contemplation was all he needed before following.

Blaze paced to the small window of the main deck cabin, leaving Gennie to bow over her logs and pages.

“And now that you’ve trained them,” Blaze stared in wonder at the stunning killing machine Gennie had forged, “Your shimmering Spartans,” he quipped, “what will you do with them?”

Gennie did not look from her task of jotting notes of the day and the tally in the number out on the deck. “As I see, I will have my very own personal guard.” She lifted her eyes to check if Blaze had his face turned to her. “Do you not think it suitable?”

Blaze turned, his expression one of pre-assumed annoyance as Gennie hoped. “I am pretty sure no matter how well you train them, they’ll still just be harem girls who’ve only ever won a battle with a lot of crying and pouting.”

It was again Gennie’s quiet smirk that made Blaze realize how dangerous these women really were.

“They really are very distracting in all those jewels.” Gennie sighed and wistfully turned the feathered quill against her cheek.

“Mesmerizing.” Blaze gripped the slot in the door with whitening fingertips and flipped the latch.

“I will allow you to borrow them,” Gennie rested her chin on threaded fingers. Blaze’s pale eyes turned only slightly from the dancers.

“Only on occasion, should you have need.”

His eyes were again on bint Hazine, his consideration of the offer turning in his mind. “Just so long as I get to keep my gun.” He grumbled.

“Oh of course,” Gennie’s eyes were in her books again. “I would not dream of taking it when you are out with the ladies.” She made certain to catch the assassin’s eye. “And you would not dream of leaving a ship that has become just ever so much more interesting.”

The music of bint Hazine singing out the numbers in the tongue of the Sultana floated in as Blaze pushed open the door of the cabin.

“Non, non,” Gennie waggled the feather at Blaze before he could close the door. “Please, leave it open, mon ami, I do like a bit of music while I work.”

Blaze rolled his eyes and marched away, leaving the door open wide.

There be seven deadly sins,

Sure as there’s as many seas,

But never, in all history,

Have murderous beauties such as these,

Trained in dance and arts, grace and fair

By rulers unfair, cruel and without care,

Glittering treasures from shores of every sea,

Freed by one marked a devil’s queen,

To live as free women,

Shimmering beauties

Re-schooled in arts most deadly,

These are bint Hazine.

Meet the inspiration for this story and watch them dance at Phoenix Comic Con 2012! Joining with The DREAD Fleet, bellydance troupe bint Hazine take the stage in Check, Mate! an original script by: J.J.M. Czep. The story of Ecstasy and her fellow ships of The DREAD Fleet continues in the live, hour long performance at the Phoenix Convention Center, May 27th and 28th. For more information see the Phoenix Comic Con site.

Copyright: The DREAD Fleet and J.J.M. Czep