Tour Stop/Giveaway: On the Threshold

 

Welcome author M. Laszlo to the Reading Nook blog where we are talking with them about their newest book, On the Threshold. Make sure to follow the tour HERE and enter the tour wide giveaway as the author will be awarding a $10 Amazon/BN gift card to a randomly drawn winner. This tour is sponsored by Goddess Fish Promotions.

Interview with M. Laszlo

Tell us about your latest book, who are the main character’s and what can we expect when we pick it up?

Fingal is the main character, and you can expect to laugh at his eccentricities and often foul mood. Nevertheless, he’s a good chap who earnestly wishes to resolve the riddle of the universe and to determine the actual origins of life, the meaning of life, and the purpose of civilization.

Do you come up with the hook first, or do you create characters first and then dig through until you find a hook?

Honestly, they come at the same time for me. The hook is a character with a problem. And it’s a problem that makes the character unique enough and important enough to teach the reader something.

Which of your own characters would you like to have lunch with?

Doktor Hubertus Pflug. He’s a wise, friendly German physician who appears in the book early on. I like him because he reminds me of Goethe and other great, thought-provoking German writers. I’ve always been a Germanophile. Love the dynamic music and the brooding cinema.

Tell us about what you are reading at the moment or anticipate reading in the future? Any favorite authors you enjoy reading in your spare time?

I just finished John Scalzi’s Starter Villain. It was very funny but not the kind of book I usually read. The book satirizes Ian Fleming’s works in many ways, and in the future, I would like to revisit Ian Fleming’s writing. In his books, James Bond is actually quite an interesting fellow.

Which of your own books would you like to live in?

I’ve got an unpublished manuscript about a family that lives on the coast of Maine. That’d be a nice place to live. Who doesn’t love the coast of Maine? 

What do you do when you have free time?

Sometimes I go hiking with friends. Sometimes I go to Mass or sit in the pews and reflect. Often I get together with my aunt, and we visit a diner and have omelettes.

How do you approach character development in your stories? Do you have any specific techniques or methods that you find particularly effective?

It is important to give your protagonist flaws at the very beginning. Then you have something you can change or improve upon. Honestly, it really is that simple!

What do you believe sets your writing apart from others in your genre, and why should readers choose to read your books?

My prose is lucid, and it’s easy to slip into the world presented by the page. Most important of all, my books teach the reader things that are accurate.

Can you discuss any upcoming projects or books that you're currently working on? What can readers expect from your future works?

My upcoming release, Anastasia’s Midnight Song, is a dark-obsession psychological drama/coming-of-age tale about a depressed British youth living in WW-I era Egypt. He enters into an illusory-love relationship with a beautiful Russian woman, and ultimately, the tale traffics in some of the most esoteric problems that can complicate the life of a teenager.

On the Threshold

by M. Laszlo

GENRE: Historical Science Fiction

Buy Link HERE

Obsessed with learning the origins of the cosmos, the actual meaning of life, and the true purpose of civilization, a fine Scotsman named Fingal T. Smyth dedicates himself to the study of Plato’s most extraordinary ideas. Convinced of Plato’s belief that humankind possesses any and all innate knowledge deep within the collective unconscious mind, Fingal soon conducts a series of bold, pioneering occult-science experiments by which to resolve the riddle of the universe once and for all. However, Fingal forgets how violent and perilous the animal impulses that reside in the deepest recesses of the unconscious mind. And when Fingal unleashes a mysterious avatar of his innate knowledge, the entity appears as a burning man and immediately seeks to manipulate innocent and unsuspecting people everywhere into immolating themselves. Now, with little hope of returning the fiery figure into his being, Fingal must capture his nemesis before it destroys the world.

 

Excerpt Two:

 

Fräulein Wunderwaffe did not return the smile. Hand on heart, the little girl drew a bit closer. Then, as the hot, animalistic presence undulated all across Fingal’s body, the little girl’s eyes grew wide. Until the little girl’s expression turned to that of a vacant stare.

 

A moment later, her feet pointed inwards, she removed her hat and undid her long, flaxen hair.

 

Again, he cringed. “If you’ve noticed something, ignore all. This hasn’t got anything to do with you.” A third time, he cringed.

 

A most ethereal, lyrical, incomprehensible hiss commenced then: from the other end of the winding, decorative-brick driveway, each clay block shining the color of blue Welsh stone, a sleek Siamese cat with a coat of chocolate-spotted ivory had just appeared. And now the creature raced toward his shadow.

 

As he looked into the animal’s big, searching, blue eyes, the chocolate Siamese studied the off-center tip of his nose. Then the animal turned away, as if to compare the peculiarity with that of some disembodied visage hovering in the distance.

 

Out upon the loch, meanwhile, a miraculous rogue wave suddenly arose—and now the swell crashed against the pebbly strand.

 

Not a moment later, a cool flame crawled across Fingal’s throat. The strange fire rattled, too—not unlike the sound of fallen juniper leaves caught up in the current and dancing against the surface of a stone walkway.

 

Crivens. By now, the alien, pulsating presence held him so tight that he could barely breathe. Before long, he fell to the earth, and as the dreamlike flame continued to move across his throat, he rolled all about—until the illusory sensation of cool warmth wriggled and twisted and dropped into his neck dimple.

 

 

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AUTHOR Bio and Links: 

M. Laszlo is an aging recluse who lives in Bath, Ohio. Rumor holds that his pseudonym is a reference to Victor Laszlo, a character in the classic film Casablanca. On the Threshold is his first release with the acclaimed, Australian hybrid house AIA Publishing. Oddly, M. Laszlo insists that his latest work, On the Threshold, does in fact provide the correct answer to the riddle of the universe.