Giveaway and Interview with David J Normoyle, author of The Narrowing Path

I'm thrilled to have David J Normoyle on my blog talking about his enthralling dystopian fantasy The Narrowing Path (my review here).  I really enjoyed it and would recommend it to anyone who loves an imaginative adventure set in a truly cruel dystopian world.

Happily, David is giving away a couple of Ebook copies of The Narrowing Path. All you have to do to win is to write a comment on either this interview or the review post and I will randomly pick a winner on Sunday 29 September. Good luck.

Now to David . . .

Hello David and welcome to my corner of the blogosphere. Firstly, can you tell me where the inspiration for The Narrowing Path come from?

I'd recently read a few dystopians such as Hunger Games where there's a fight to the death between teenagers. Mostly, the reasoning behind making the teens fight is flimsy. In the movie Battle Royale for instance, it's barely explained at all. So I wanted to create a society where this fight to the death had a more firm reasoning behind it. In The Narrowing Path, the fight is seen in society as an evolutionary struggle which ensures that the best survive.

Also instead of just physical fighting, I wanted the struggle to rely more on wits and intelligence and leadership. Like in Game of Thrones where those who are the cleverest generally end up on top. In this novel, the teenagers are launched into the real world with nothing but their wits and strength. They have to make their own way, and those who impress the leaders of society along the way (while also managing to avoid getting killed by rivals) are the ones who win and get to live. So I started working on those two ideas and The Narrowing Path is the result.

Well, I think you achieved that very well. When will the rest of the series be available?

The Treacherous Path should be out around February next year with the final book in the trilogy, The Collapsing Path, due out toward the end of next year.

Now for the horrible question . . . Tell me in 140 characters why someone should read your book.

Delve into a world of scheming and fighting--the only ones more bloodthirsty than the youths who walk the path is the adults who guide them

Great answer! Please share something about yourself – a potted biography.

As a child, I loved the world of books, and that combined with a severe daydreaming condition were worrying signs to my parents. But their fears were allayed when I grew up to become a respectable sort, an engineer. All went well until my early thirties when I was struck down by that most nefarious of insects, the writing bug. I spewed up vomitous words for a while but seemed to make a full recovery and returned to normal life. But under the surface all was not right, and I secretly studied the art and craft of writing. And now, to the despair of my parents and society in general, I follows the solitary and quite mad pursuit of being a writer.

The world can always do with more writers. So, where do you write and how do you keep inspiration flowing?

I write at the desk in my bedroom. I get my inspiration by turning off the internet. Perspiration is the important quality, the key is to keep working even--or especially--when the words aren't flowing.

Strange, but before my move to the UK, I also had a small office in my bedroom. It was great, so I understand the appeal. Tell us about your favourite music.

I'm not into music as much as most people but I like old school rock the best: U2, Rolling Stones, Bruce Springstein, that kind of thing.

I also still enjoy the old rock - showing my age - but happily I also moved on to embrace and love indie and modern rock. So what's your favourite food?

I like most types so it's more about the quality than the type for me. If I had to chose one, it'd be Indian.

Hot and spicy . . .  I get that. What was the best book you’ve read in 2013?

I've read a lot of great books in 2013, including Redshirts, Ready Player One, Gone Girl and The Passage. However I'm going to revert to my favourite genre and pick an epic fantasy I read recently. Blood Song by Anthony Ryan. If the sequels are as good, this will be the start of a fantasy series up there with the very best.

Hmm . . . there are some titles in that list that I don't know. I will have to check them out. Finally, where can fans find you?

http://www.davidjnormoyle.com
http://www.facebook.com/DavidJNormoyle
http://www.twitter.com/@davidjnormoyle

Thank you so much for visiting with me today David (an all my readers!) I look forward to the next book in The Narrowing Path series.

And: Don't forget the giveaway, guys. Just leave a comment and you could win a eEbook of The Narrowing Path.

Until next time

Cheers

Gwynn

Author Interview: Lindsay Buroker

Lindsay Buroker

Regular readers to my blog will know that I just love The Emperor's Edge series by Lindsay Buroker. You can find my reviews here and here. I sent Lindsay a few questions about the series and herself which she gladly answered for us. Hope you enjoy getting to know her as much as I did . . .

Lindsay, let me begin by asking what inspired The Emperor’s Edge Series?

Hm, lots ;) I always liked action-adventure stories, ones where the "adventuring party" goes off on a mission and has to save the victim, the city, the world/universe, etc. As a kid in the 80s, I grew up watching Star Trek reruns, Macgyver, and the A-Team, so you could say I was prepped well for quirky heroes and campy dialogue. I was an only child so read a lot, too. Mostly historical fiction (more adventure stuff) and books about animals (animals having adventures, that is). In middle school, I found fantasy and science fiction novels, and from then on, all the stories taking place in my head existed in secondary worlds that involved swords (even the science fiction. . . you can't go wrong with swords, right?)

I always loved good dialogue too, lines that surprise and make you laugh out loud. That's a big part of what makes me fall in love with characters. When I was "getting serious" about writing, I came this [ ] close to choosing screenwriting over novels, but books were my first love (and I didn't think I could handle the Hollywood lifestyle anyway). As a dialogue-junky, I couldn't imagine writing anything that didn't have an ensemble of characters to interact with each other.

So, I'd say everything from age five onward led me to the Emperor's Edge stories, though I do distinctly remembering getting the idea for Sicarius and some of the other characters when I was watching the movie U.S. Marshals of all things. Tommy Lee Jones as a 60-year-old Sicarius? Hm, probably not. I think it was just the idea of this team of experts working together to catch the bad guys.

Anyway, that's probably more than you wanted to know. It is interesting to me now, given that I've drifted toward female main characters of late, that Amaranthe wasn't an original part of "the team." She came later, after a reader in my writing workshop said I needed some women in the story. At first I tried to write a story where I integrated her into the team (Sicarius was in charge back then, if you can imagine). It ended up being an OK story, but didn't impress me enough that I ever polished it up with thoughts of publishing. Things got a lot more interesting when I decided Amaranthe should be in charge of this team of guys. So the first EE book was all about how I could make that happen and get the band together.

Who is you favourite character and why?

I don't have a favorite character, insomuch as I have pairs of characters that are fun for me to write because of the way they play off each other. The dialogue and the way people interact with each other is much more interesting to me than a character by him or herself. I always enjoy writing Amaranthe and Sicarius together, Books and Maldynado, Maldynado and Yara (actually Maldynado's kind of fun with just about anyone, heh).

Which character was the hardest to write?

I'm going to say Basilard, mainly because he can't talk. He's got his sign language, but when the team is skulking about in the dark (and this happens a lot!), it can be hard to find ways to keep him alive on the page. Even when it's not dark, he has a quiet personality, so I'll have to remind myself to have him comment now and then. I think I do best with him when he's off alone with one other character. Naturally, in group situations, your mouthy people are going to do most of the talking (I'm looking at you Maldynado. . . and you, too, Amaranthe --you've been accused of burbling, you know).

To answer the unspoken question, yes, authors do have conversations with their characters from time to time . . . It's not weird. Really.

Tell me something personal about yourself.

I like the number 3, the color blue, and I recently jammed my toe so hard in a tennis match that I'm fairly certain the nail is going to fall off this summer. Hey, you asked. ;) 

Thanks Lindsay!

Now I know you are dying to get your hands on Lindsay's books, so I'm happy to tell you that book one in the series The Emperor's Edge is free everywhere.  It's so worth reading. Lindsay also has a fantastic blog where she posts stuff to help other self-published authors. It's a great resource. 

Cheers

Gwynn