Tag: Sci Fi

Welcome M. F. Sullivan w/ ‘The Hierophant’s Daughter’ #SciFi #Horror #LGBTQ #Trilogy @TheRealMFS @GoddessFish

On By Casey's CornerIn Authors & Books, Book Tours6 Comments

Today we have author M. F. Sullivan visiting. Welcome!

What would you like to tell readers about yourself?

* M.F. Sullivan is the author of Delilah, My Woman, The Lightning Stenography Device, and a slew of plays in addition to the Trilogy. She lives in Ashland, Oregon with her boyfriend and her cat, where she attends the local Shakespeare Festival and experiments with the occult. Find more information about her work (and plenty of free essays) below.

Today M. F. Sullivan will be talking about “Lessons I learned from my heroine.”
* My story’s protagonist, the General Dominia di Mephitoli, has by the beginning of The Disgraced Martyr Trilogy spent three hundred years as one of the most notorious martyrs on planet Earth. She’s accomplished this by winning 1000 battles in a series of outrageous shows of military might and intellectual cunning.
* So if she could do all that, why the hell was I overweight?
* It may sound silly, but by the time I finished the first draft of the trilogy, I was keenly aware of how out of shape I was. Yes, I’ve always been a bit pudgy, but as my significant other of three years is a former chef with a taste for fine dining, I’ve found it very difficult to, uh, keep food out of my round face, for lack of a more delicate phrasing. This has had a predictable impact on my weight, my looks, and my asthma, but I was able to ignore most of it. I wasn’t morbidly obese or anything, after all, just a little jigglier than normal.
* But there comes a point around the second draft of Book II where I was working with a period of time Dominia spends imprisoned. She was filling the time by doing sit-ups. And I was struck by this as I would have been were she a real woman I knew—if Dominia, as a starving prisoner kept in a dank cell, was able to find energy or frame of mind enough to maintain her body, what was my excuse? While living in Tucson I had made a good habit of walking every morning, but I’d let it lapse upon moving to Oregon—but my schedule of rousing at 4 am every morning stayed the same, so it seemed a reasonable move to slip a work-out into my early routine.
* Nine months later, I’m in far better shape, a pants size smaller, and grateful to the General—health of the body follows health of the mind, and one impacts the other. Writers learning from the lessons of their characters will inevitably be led to a healthy lifestyle. The gym is a great time to think about my work in progress, listen to my writing soundtrack, and plan for the day ahead. It’s safe to say few fictional characters have had such a constructive impact on my life—very generous, considering all the torment I put Dominia through as her author!

A look into…

~ Blurb ~

* By 4042 CE, the Hierophant and his Church have risen to political dominance with his cannibalistic army of genetically modified humans: martyrs. In an era when mankind’s intergenerational cold wars against their long-lived predators seem close to running hot, the Holy Family is poised on the verge of complete planetary control. It will take a miracle to save humanity from extinction.
* It will also take a miracle to resurrect the wife of 331-year-old General Dominia di Mephitoli, who defects during martyr year 1997 AL in search of Lazarus, the one man rumored to bring life to the dead. With the Hierophant’s Project Black Sun looming over her head, she has little choice but to believe this Lazarus is really all her new friends say he is–assuming he exists at all–and that these companions of hers are really able to help her. From the foulmouthed Japanese prostitute with a few secrets of her own to the outright sapient dog who seems to judge every move, they don’t inspire a lot of confidence, but the General has to take the help she can get.
* After all, Dominia is no ordinary martyr. She is THE HIEROPHANT’S DAUGHTER, and her Father won’t let her switch sides without a fight. Not when she still has so much to learn.
* The dystopic first entry of an epic cyberpunk trilogy, THE HIEROPHANT’S DAUGHTER is a horror/sci-fi adventure sure to delight and inspire adult readers of all stripes.

~ Excerpt ~

VIII
* Miki Soto
* What couldn’t a person access from the Japanese Internet? The question inspired Dominia to get out of the bathtub for another look at the card. There was no address, whether web or physical, as there hadn’t been an address on the ad floating across that billboard; instead, when she studied the lotus embossed upon the card, the DIOX-I highlighted it as though it were a link. How fascinating, this augmented reality! After fixing the device’s settings back to manual control, she “clicked” on the link with an unsteady wink, and her right field of vision was covered by the floating window of a browser. Had she cochlear implants, she would have heard some sort of music, or even a voice accompanying the woman’s writhing in and out of the browser’s dark: less a whole person, and more a disembodied assortment of lips, fingers, lower backs, and thighs. At last, the vision disappeared to present her with the crimson words, “WELCOME TO THE RED MARKET.”
* A button appeared: “Connect Your Halcyon for Age Verification.” The idea of giving the women of the international and highly loathed illegal organization any information might have stopped her in a simpler time, as it surely stopped 70 percent of potential Red Market customers—the ones able to access the site, anyway, inaccessible from Europa and the Front through traditional routes. That had been all the Hierophant could do to combat in any meaningful way the world’s oldest profession-cum-cult. Far trickier than hampering Internet access was controlling in-person transactions in gold or silver, or the off-brand cryptocurrency, Redcoin; and because there were almost no freelance prostitutes left in the world, catching a working girl was difficult.

Buy The Hierophant’s Daughter here…
Amazon – US | Barnes & Noble | NetGalley

Find M. F. Sullivan here…
Amazon Author Page | Blog | Goodreads | Twitter

Thank you for joining us here today, M. F. Sullivan! It was a pleasure getting to know you and your story.

ANNOUNCEMENT! M. F. Sullivan says, “One randomly chosen winner via rafflecopter will win a $50 Amazon/BN.com gift card!” So be sure to leave a comment AND use this RAFFLECOPTER LINK to enter the drawing. Also, visit the other tour stops for a greater chance of winning!

a look at ‘Metrofloat New York’ by William Quincy Belle #ScienceFiction #thriller #PostApocalyptic @wqbelle @SDSXXTours

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Metrofloat New York
by William Quincy Belle
Genre: Science Fiction
A Post-apocalyptic Sci-Fi thriller.
Several hundred years in the future, Earth is a different planet. Antigravity has been invented and “flying” has given way to “floating”: giant platforms with cities remain above the growing surface temperatures as enclaves of the privileged. A global pandemic has wiped out 80% of those on the ground, and a virulent, flesh-eating disease, necrofasc, has left most with artificial body parts. Insects are the main food staple. A utopia for some, a dystopia for others.
Metrofloat New York, a futuristic city of thirty million, is run by an oligarchy of five rich and powerful people. An unknown assassin, working from within the system, attempts to seize control and declare himself dictator by methodically removing all rivals. Detective Matthew Heart of the Metropolitan Police must deal with his partner, a cyborg policewoman, his unofficial family, a transgender woman and her one-legged daughter, and a mysterious assailant bent on taking over the world by killing anyone who stands in his way.
William Quincy Belle is just a guy. Nobody famous; nobody rich; just some guy who likes to periodically add his two cents worth with the hope, accounting for inflation, that $0.02 is not over evaluating his contribution. He claims that at the heart of the writing process is some sort of (psychotic) urge to put it down on paper and likes to recite the following, which so far he hasn’t been able to attribute to anyone: “A writer is an egomaniac with low self-esteem.” You will find Mr. Belle’s unbridled stream of consciousness floating around in cyberspace.
Follow the tour HERE for exclusive content and a giveaway!

a look at the Phoenix Rising #series by Alexandra Christian #SciFi #Romance @lexxxchristian @SDSXXTours

On By Casey's CornerIn Authors & Books, Book Tours1 Comment
Naked
Phoenix Rising Book 1
by Alexandra Christian
Genre: SciFi Romance
OUT OF THE STACKS
Librarian Phoebe Addison has lived her entire life within a seventy-five mile radius of her small Louisiana town, but when she receives a strange medallion from her adventurous, off-world sister, reality tilts toward the bizarre. Everything Phoe thought she knew is…well, wrong. Dead wrong. But bone-numbing fear has no place in this brave new world—nor by the side of the dangerous, exquisite man who saves her life.
… AND INTO THE FIRE
Following the tragic slaughter of his family, operative Macijah “Cage” St. John understands evil in a way no man ever should. He traded happiness for a magnificent and terrible power, and fate isn’t done with him yet. He wasn’t looking for comfort. He didn’t need tenderness. But today he’ll play hero to a damsel in distress, and his quest will deliver him to the uncanny Martian colony of New London—and his heart to the demure Phoebe Addison. The bookish beauty’s hidden talents and deep abiding love just might save Cage from himself.
NeoGeisha
Phoenix Rising Book 2
BACK…
Macijah “Cage” St. John’ didn’t want the spy life anymore. He would have been thrilled to spend every morning lying in the field behind Phoe’s home in smalltown Louisiana watching the clouds roll by. But his Miss Addison wanted to spread her wings, literally. So Cage accepted a mission that teamed him up with his lady love. If only he had trusted her.
TO THE FUTURE
Everything about being a spy was a million times more exciting, and scarier, than the books she’d read in her former life as a librarian. When her first mission with Cage turned into a colossal clusterf*ck because he withheld information and kept secrets, Phoebe’s world narrowed into a long tunnel of betrayal. Captured by space pirates and delivered to a horrible fate, she wished the last words between them had been of love, because she was certain she would never see Cage St. John again.
In NeoGeisha, Alexandra Christian returns to the intriguing, post-apocalyptic world she created in Naked. Cage and Phoe continue to build their relationship, but not without complications. Romantic conflict and fast-paced action keep the pages turning, right down to the satisfying ending. ~ Nancy Northcott, Author of the Light Mage Wars series
NeoGeisha hit all my personal high points: wild adventure, sheet-scorching sex, killer machines, thousands-to-two odds and a vampire shape-shitfting James Bond in space. ~Vivien Jackson, Author of Wanted and Wired series
In Absinthia
Phoenix Rising Book 3
ALL INCLUSIVE VICTORIANA & STEAMPUNK
Interplanetary master spies, Macijah “Cage” St. John and Phoebe Addison are forced to take vacation time, and she wants to go to Absinthia, an off-world all inclusive interactive vacay planet set up as Victorian London, but with all the future comforts. Cage doesn’t do down time, but their boss has other ideas, so begrudgingly, Cage agrees to go to Absinthia. Within a day of their arrival, they get embroiled in a Ripper copy cat series of murders complete with séances, “altered” humans, kidnapping, and affairs of the heart – their hearts, which will always belong to each other.
Out of Ashes
Phoenix Rising Book 4
THE LOVE YOU TAKE IS EQUAL TO THE LOVE YOU MAKE
Phoebe Addison and Macijah “Cage” St. John have so much going on they can barely take a breath. Interplanetary master spies who generally drive their boss crazy, they are now trying to track down the person – is a skin walker a person? – who tried to kill him at their engagement party. Yeah, they were talked into returning to Louisiana so the whole town could show up and gawk at Cage. But they have bigger problems than usual when tracking an assassin. Secrets that have been buried for too many years are about to be uncovered if Cage and Phoe can survive the people, vampires and “things” that are trying to kill them. And to top if off, Phoe has a secret she’s sure will send Cage into a tailspin. But, as with everything they have lived through to be together, their love is the constant that is its own reward.
Alexandra Christian is an author of mostly romance with a speculative slant. Her love of Stephen King and sweet tea has flavored her fiction with a Southern Gothic sensibility that reeks of Spanish moss and deep fried eccentricity. As one-half of the writing team at Little Red Hen Romance, she’s committed to bringing exciting stories and sapiosexual love monkeys to intelligent readers everywhere. Lexx also likes to keep her fingers in lots of different pies having written everything from sci-fi and horror to Sherlock Holmes adventures. Her alter-ego, A.C. Thompson, is also the editor of the highly successful Improbable Adventures of Sherlock Holmes series of anthologies from Mocha Memoirs Press. A.C. will also pen several Shadow Council Archives novellas starring everyone’s favorite sidekick, Dr. John Watson, coming soon from Falstaff Books.
A self-proclaimed “Southern Belle from Hell,” Lexx is a native South Carolinian who lives with an epileptic wiener dog and her husband, author Tally Johnson. Her long-term aspirations are to one day be a best-selling authoress and part-time pinup girl. She’s a member of Romance Writers of America and Broad Universe—an organization that supports female authors of speculative fiction.
Follow the tour HERE for exclusive excerpts, guest posts and a giveaway!