Q: What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book, Death Tango?
A: If you like deep-dive
world-building, four-dimensional
character development with quippy dialogue, visionary metaphysical
conversation and fast past WhoDunIt Thrillers blended with Horror-tinged
Sci-fi, then you will love ‘Death Tango’.
Q: Do you edit as you draft or wait until you are totally done?
A: I
can do nothing until I’ve spewed everything in my head down onto the page.
Q: What’s your favorite foodie indulgence?
A: I’m
a pretty high-level Google Guide, level-7 as of this writing. A Google-Guide
receives points for contributing to and upkeeping Google Maps via ratings and
contributing to corrections, location, timing and accessibility updates, Q+As
etc. Folks like the superior foodie pictures I take and add especially
considering the fact I’ve severe vision loss and often can’t see the awesome
photo I took.
Q: What
are your favorite genres to read?
A: Science Fiction and
Horror.
Q: What’s a recent tv show/movie/book/podcast you highly recommend?
A: I
would be remiss if I didn’t give a shoutout to one of my favorite early horror
series ‘Child’s Play’ today on National Chucky The Notorious Killer Doll Day!
Q: What do you do when you have free time?
A: I am actually a touring
performing artist, songwriter and public speaker for my
day job. In my free time I write novels!
Q: What can readers expect from you next?
A: As a novelist, I’d be
interested to develop ‘Death Tango’ into a series, dripping with authentic
representation of different identities and disabilities, captivating worlds and
intricate interpersonal and metaphysical discussions. As a recording artist, I
aim to record an album celebrating the different, the weird, and the fringe in
all of us, and to hopefully build out a full tour. As a public speaker, I’d
love to continue traveling the nation and the globe speaking and performing on
said topics.
Death Tango
by Lachi
GENRE: Science Fiction/Horror
In a Utopian twenty-third-century New York City, where
corporations have replaced governments, AI dictates culture, and citizens are
free to people-watch any other citizen they choose through an app, this
horror-laden Sci-Fi Thriller follows four mis-matched coeds as they attempt to
solve the murder of an eccentric parascientist. Only someone or something able
to navigate outside the highest levels of croud-sourced surveillance could get
away with murder in this town. If the team can't work quickly to solve the
case, New York City will be devoured by a dark plague the eccentric had been
working on prior to his death, a plague which, overtime, appears to be
developing sentience.
Buy link:
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Death-Tango-M-Lachi-ebook/dp/B0BLGYMCQ7/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0
Excerpt
Two:
Rosa heard Torian Ross murmur an expletive from Johnny’s
bedroom. She turned into the hall and spotted him standing in the dark room
facing a backlit closet of some sort. He turned to her, immediately palming for
her to halt. Rosa would never forget the look of pure terror on his face at
that moment. Torian wasn’t the type to scare easily. Before she could ask him
the matter, she stopped short as she saw a dim shadow hover over his face.
Someone was approaching him.
The person emerged from the closet and stood before Torian.
Exact build, exact posture and exact hair color down to the highlights—a wholly
perfect robotic replica of Rosa Lejeune, wearing only a threadbare tank and
frayed underpants. Along with a tattered face, the android’s arms and legs
exposed inner metallic joints and loose artificial sinew as if it had walked
out of an unfinished autopsy. Its many bruises proved the bot had been
regularly abused. This week Rosa had faced some of the most bizarre things
she’d ever known, but this? This was by far the eeriest.
“Hello,” the android pertly intoned to a stunned Torian
Ross. “I am Rosa Thirteen, and you are not my master.” Though slightly
mechanized, the vocal timbre and pronunciations matched Rosa’s precisely. “I
have your iris match programmed in my archive as Oz Corp Piece of Shit. Hello,
Oz Corp Piece of Shit.”
“Holy Jesus,” Rosa whispered as the depravity of this
abomination’s existence sunk in. A brisk inhuman twist of the neck brought Rosa
Thirteen to feast its eyes on Rosa. With a front view of the android’s face,
Rosa noticed one of the bot’s eyes was missing. Just an empty socket, like that
of its master.
“You are Rosa Lejeune,” Rosa Thirteen declared. For an
instant, Rosa felt a surreal break in reality as the thing, the Her, addressed
her. Then came a full body flush of terror as the android’s shoulders also
snapped toward Rosa. “You cause my master pain. You cause my master to mistreat
my hardware.”
“I…” Rosa could hardly do more than open her mouth in
petrified awe.
The bot furrowed its brow and with a deep, mechanical growl
bellowed, “You must be destroyed!”
The bot charged for Rosa with a hasty limp. Torian rushed to
grab its arm, but it yanked free and jabbed him full force in the chest with an
iron punch that sent him flying backwards. This was no woman. Underneath the
simulated skin was cold, hard metal.
Rosa sprinted back toward the living room, but even with the
limp, Rosa Thirteen revved up formidable speed. As it rushed forward, the
android bumped against a wall-panel, and Vivaldi’s Common Era concerto,
Andante, blasted stridently through every wall in the apartment. The first song
to which Rosa and Johnny had ever danced.
Rosa grabbed at an end table and raised it to thwart the
coming bash. But Rosa Thirteen grabbed the table’s legs and flung it across the
room to crash against a mirrored wall. Rosa staggered backwards into a coat
closet. She snatched a heavy coat from the rack as Thirteen rushed her and
chucked it at the bot’s face, causing the bot to halt and flail its arms,
temporarily confused at the sudden darkness. Rosa grabbed the sleeves of the
coat at its hilt, twisted and pulled with adrenaline-laden force. She felt
gears snap at the base of the bot’s neck.
Rosa ducked around Thirteen and dove for the kitchen,
accompanied by a swell in Vivaldi’s blissful strings. She seized a carving
knife and cleaver from a cutlery set on the counter. The bot snatched off the
coat and charged for the kitchen, its head permanently lopped to one side. Rosa
swung the clever at the bot’s head to finish the job. Thirteen knocked the
cleaver aside effortlessly, but Rosa did manage to sink the carving knife deep
into the bot’s abdomen.
This impact caused minimal damage, so Rosa retreated back to
the living room, this time headed for the exit. However, the bot reached out
and gripped Rosa’s arm just under the shoulder. The android lifted Rosa into
the air and slammed her onto the living room floor with such velocity Rosa
could hardly process it until she lay face up on the ground, her shoulder
throbbing.
Thirteen stomped hard onto Rosa’s belly. Rosa’s breath
escaped her along with bits of lunch. The bot then lifted its leg to stomp down
on Rosa’s face. Rosa searched for a final prayer, but her could find none
amidst her whirling terror.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
AUTHOR Bio and Links:
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Lachi is an
internationally-touring creative artist, writer and award-winning cultural
activist living in New York City. A legally blind daughter of African
immigrants, Lachi uses her platform to amplify narratives on identity pride and
Disability Culture. In her public life, Lachi has helped increase accessibility
to the GRAMMY Awards ceremonies as well as create numerous opportunities for
music professionals with disabilities, through her organization RAMPD. Lachi
also creates high-quality content amplifying disability. She has hosted a PBS
American Masters segment highlighting disabled rebels and releases songs such
as "Lift Me Up" and “Black Girl Cornrows” that elevate disability and
difference to the pop culture market. Named a “new champion in advocacy” by
Billboard, she’s held talks with the White House, the UN, Fortune 100 firms,
and has been featured in Forbes, Hollywood Reporter, Good Morning America, and
the New York Times for her unapologetic celebration of intersectionality
through her music, storytelling and fashion.
In her
free-time Lachi writes sci-fi and fantasy novels with diverse, headstrong
characters, focusing heavily on atonal world-building, quip-ridden character
development, likable villains and psycho-spiritual discourse.
Website:www.lachimusic.com
Twitter:
twitter.com/lachimusic
Facebook:
facebook.com/lachimusic
Instagram:
instagram.com/lachimusic
8 comments:
We appreciate you hosting today.
Sounds like a great book.
Looking back on your life, who or what makes you instantly light up?
I enjoyed the interview. This story sounds really good.
Thank you for featuring my book!
This sounds like an interesting book.
I enjoyed the interview.
Which character did you find to be the most difficult to write?
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