What is the sweetest thing someone has done for you?
For years, when I was in grad school and when I went to
campus daily, my wife would put a little “I love you” note in the lunches she
packed me. After I started working from home more, she took all the notes she
could find and assembled them into a collage to give me as a birthday present,
a little whole built from the parts. I still have it in my office.
How would you spend ten thousand bucks?
Interesting question, and one my wife and I are constantly pondering.
$10k isn’t enough to move to a new place, much less set up the kind of
homestead we’ve built here. But $10k could get us goats and the barn/pen for
them, as well as a bandsaw mill. Or it could help us extend our solar array, or
build a better well system, or expand the livestock and garden zones…homesteading
is a great way to spend a few thousand dollars at a whack.
Where do you get your best ideas?
Aside from the inevitable “when I don’t have a notebook
handy”? I usually have the clearest mind in the morning, in that sweet time
where I’m lying in bed but haven’t committed to waking up yet. It’s a great
dreamscape to sandbox in. Some of my favorite lines in the Emissary Quintet
came from those moments.
What comes first, the plot or characters?
Ah, the old chicken-and-egg question. Plot happens when
characters interact, be it with the world or each other. The plot shapes the
characters, who grow (or regress) from their experiences. Neither comes first;
both are emergent qualities of the story.
What does your main character do that makes him/her special?
Ewan enlivens the world he’s in, whatever world that is. His
optimism is constantly challenged and eroded over the series, but he’s
resilient, and he never loses sight of his goal to make the world a better
place for himself and others. Even when they try to kill him for it.
Emissary
BLURB:
Ewan
O’Meara is no stranger to death: in recent months, he’s found his way to limbo
at least once per week, much to his parents’ concern. It’s a necessary price
for getting experience to become the greatest adventurer his homeland of
Veridor has ever known, but the overbearing Veridian Church has him pinned
down, soaking him for the penance gold to unlock his stats each time he
respawns. And because the Church’s ancient war put an end to both the godlike
Gems and the epic quests they once bestowed, Ewan has no better alternative.
That
is, until he encounters a young woman fleeing arrest from the Church’s
soldiers. At first glance, Treanna Rothchild needs it: she’s clueless about
Veridian life. But she has other skills that defy Ewan’s understanding, and she
knows things. Unsettling, seditious things the Church wants kept secret at any
cost.
And
she’s in Veridor to raise an army, to fight an enemy only she can see.
Risking
both life and soul, Ewan follows Treanna where no Veridian has ever been and
there is no respawning. But for him to have a chance at making a real
difference in the strange, harsh world she reveals to him, he must first come
to terms with it. Especially as he and Treanna discover how much it has in
common with Veridor—and how much they depend on each other to survive.
New-adult
science fiction, wrapped in gaming and fantasy around a hopepunk core, Emissary
is an immersive, thought-provoking adventure with a little teen romance and a
lot of heart.
Excerpt
Three:
Tree broke contact, then looked at the others. “I’m taking
command. Samuel, move Nathan to cover by the lift. Put his feet up, and keep
pressure on that wound. We’ll throw down a kit once we can.”
Sam hesitated but nodded, then knelt to scoop Nathan up.
“Love,” Tree said, locking hard, frightened eyes on Ewan.
“You’re with me. Loot the corpses. We’ll disguise ourselves, then retake the
camel and retreat.”
“What about Gabe and Vincent?”
“They’ll escape with us, if they’re quick enough.”
Ewan swallowed. “Yes, ma’am.”
She darted off to one of the bodies, and he stepped over to
the robed figure he’d impaled, thinking a bloody gash in his outfit might be
less of a giveaway than a giant frapping hole. But when he pulled the robes
free, he knew with a sickened jolt that blood was the least of the differences
in appearance.
The man’s copper-skinned face was scarred all over in what
was obviously a deliberate, artistic pattern, as though he’d mistaken a knife
for a pen. His nose and ears were pierced through with bits of metal, with hair
and beard braided and bound in wire that could have come from the ruin’s walls.
His muscles were lean and hard, far better fed than should have been possible
for someone from the Wastes. Even in death he had a feral air about him, a
lingering lethal intent that had Ewan half expecting him to leap out of the
sands again.
His hand still clutched a gun, hardly bigger than a tablet. Ewan
reached for it, hesitated, and left it to retrieve his thrown sword.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
AUTHOR Bio and Links:
E.B. Brooks
lives in the southeastern USA, where he splits his time between writing,
research, and homesteading. He enjoys building fictional worlds, real houses,
and landscape models, but he’s most at home with his wife and children, and
their many, many pets.
Website:
http://ebbrooksfiction.com/
Twitter:
@EBBrooksFiction
YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCG2vFKJoCSoJaP6qCECwPIA
Goodreads:
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/19919752.E_B_Brooks
The StoryGraph:
https://app.thestorygraph.com/authors/d82b9abb-6a6a-48a7-8563-a84689316df7
Bookbub:
https://www.bookbub.com/authors/e-b-brooks-df6155fb-c7c4-4568-b612-ac5ae2eeb86b
7 comments:
Thank you for featuring this author today.
Thank you for hosting me!
The cover looks good.
The book details sound interesting.
The book sounds interesting and I’ll be adding it to my list. Thank you for the giveaway!
Thank you all for your comments! Donna, I hope you enjoy the full book.
This looks like a great book!
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