Army of Tomorrow Blog News with special guest Patrick Tomlinson and THE ARK

Welcome to this addition of Army of Tomorrow Blog News. We are a few days late this week do to some personal matters, but enjoy the read!

WINNER OF ELECTRIC GARDENS paperback giveaway from March-April is LAURA STOCKMAN

The contest for this April-May is a Robot 4-book paperback giveaway!Win all four of these books below simply by commenting on this blog! It is a post-apocalyptic-dystopian-survivalist-AI-robot-enthusiasts dream!

Feel free to check them out by clicking the image to the left on this blog. 

Special Guest Today is Patrick Tomlinson, author of THE ARK

Welcome, Patrick Tomlinson author of The Ark from Angry Robot Books. 

“There is so much good stuff wrapped inside The Ark: a locked-room murder mystery, bare-knuckle action, and the kind of hard-boiled science fiction that will make your brain pop. Climb aboard.”

– Adam Rakunas, author of Windswept

READ/BUY

A murder mystery set on a generation ship months from reaching Humanity's new home.

INTERVIEW:

When did you start writing stories?

PST: On a whim in 2009, I started writing a Hitchhiker’s guide to the Galaxy fanfic novel. After a long and circuitous route, it became the bones of my first original novel, GATE CRASHERS, which is coming out in June from Tor Books.

What was your favorite book growing up? Now?

PST: As a kid, my favorite book was probably SPHERE by Michael Crichton. Then I saw the movie and it managed to wreck both of them for me forever. Now? SPEAKER FOR THE DEAD still stands out, but my tastes are constantly growing in new and unexpected directions. THE FIFTH SEASON and THE THREE BODY PROBLEM are both up there as well. Next month? Who knows.

If you could live anywhere in the world where money was not a factor, where would it be?

PST: New York City after they put it under a climate-controlled dome.

How did you come up with the story?

PST: The story of THE ARK literally came to me in the shower. I’d just finished watching a Discovery Channel show on the physical requirements and technological hurdles of building a generation ship and started thinking about what sort of people would be selected to live on one, how society, cultural practices, and laws would have to adapt to the limitations placed on the residents. Then I started thinking about what sort of people would step off the ship after a couple centuries. I had the book outlined within a few hours and got to work. Six months later, I had a rough draft.

What are your current writing plans?

PST: Currently, I’m smack in the middle of a three book contract with Tor Books writing sci-fi comedies set in a universe we’re calling The Breach. The first book, the aforementioned GATE CRASHERS, is a first-contact story with humans basically running around waving their dicks at the rest of the galaxy and daring them to do something about it. The next book, STARSHIP REPO, is exactly what it sounds like. I just finished writing it and it’s spectacularly ridiculous.

One word answers:

Horses, sharks, or eagle?

PST: Giraffe.

Robots, animals, or people?

PST: Animal/human hybrid cyborgs.

Simon and Garfunkel, Metallica, or Queen?

PST: Foo Fighters.

Novels, novellas, or short stories?

PST: I’m not much of a reader…

Morning, afternoon, or night?

PST: The equatorial region of a tidally-locked planet.

Thank you and good night!

PST: Thanks for having me on.

Thank you so much for joining us Patrick Tomlinson! We will have special guest WALTER RHEIN in May! 

  REVIEW for this Blog New is FOOL's GOLD

I don't normally go for a book like this, but I was very bored one day and saw it being advertised. My job has time between work where I can usually write or take notes and read books. So, I chose this for my week. It was definitely fun and put me in another space I don't usually go into. I had to  look around at times while blushing. LOL.

I wouldn't say it is the best slight erotic book out there, but if you were a Fifty Shades of Grey fan, which actually I was not, you would probably like this read. 

Warning: It is not a post-apocalyptic or dystopia and there are no robots;)

But it will make you wish you were alone reading it. LOL

READ/BUY 

EXCERPT from Electric Gardens:

READ/BUY

     “You are to report to the Confinement Center, for a meeting.”  

     Words like Confinement Center and meeting are never good. The Tins want to know something, something they think they will get from Kyle53.

     I stand too, beside my best friend. I see the sweat dripping from his neck; his breaths get faster, and his hands shake. 

     “What is this about?” I say loudly, to deaf ears.

     The Tin turns, with its grip still on Kyle53, and he has to comply, has to follow, or his arm will be ripped off from the socket. 

     “I’ll talk to you later, Lex!”

     “Later, it will all be fine. Just tell them what they want to know.”

     I say that for a good show. Kyle53 knows me well. I don’t want the Tins to know anything we know. Our secrets, are our secrets. The one thing we have that the Tins can’t take from us. The one thing that belongs to us solely. 

     My hands clasp the table beneath me, and I feel my chest huff a few times, shocked. I can think of a few things they might want to know. Why we were talking about our classes in my room; if he’s ever seen me go into the vents; if he knows where his sister is. 

     That’s got to be it. The Tins figure he is her brother. He’d be the one she’d reach out to if she returned to the Compound. Then again, maybe she’s lost somewhere on the outside, as far as the Tins know.

     I can’t finish my breakfast, and return my tray with the single thought, don’t let them break you. Don’t let them break you. 

I hope you enjoy this weeks Blog News and I'll see you again, twice as a matter of fact, next month! 

Any questions or comments can be sent to the author M.Black: touch-of-grace@hotmail.com 

Army of Tomorrow news welcomes Brett Savory and a New Release from M.Black

Welcome my Army of Tomorrow readers We have a lot of fun today! First up is the winner to the paperback giveaway for last month and then we have the new release ELECTRIC GARDENS from M.BLACK, followed by a spotlight and interview with BRETT SAVORY, and lastly a review of what M.Black is reading now. Enjoy the blog news for the week! 


The Winer of the ELECTRIC GARDENS paperback from last month is: LAURA STOCKMAN! Congrats girl! 

The New Release of the month is ELECTRIC GARDENS! 

After several world catastrophes, robots called 'Tins' have come to power.

Lexi019 knows them well. She's lived inside of a Compound ruled by Tins for the past twelve years, and maintains a strict schedule. After attending Electric Gardens classes, she learns that she will be transferred, as all eighteen-year-olds are, to serve the gardens for the rest of her life.

Instead, Lexi defies the Tins and looks for a way out. With her best guy Kyle53 at her side, and a couple of unlikely friends, Lexi eventually finds her way out of the Compound. 

But in the end, can she escape... or like all things in this artificial, post-apocalyptic world, be stuck under the Tins' power forever?

SPOLIGHT on BRETT SAVORY

The Perfect Machine

Henry Kyllo is a Runner, a member of a secret society called the Inferne Cutis. Every day he is chased through the city by Hunters whose goal is to fill him with bullets. It is a secret war steeped in history, tradition, and mutual fear.

Rumours abound about what happens when a Runner achieves ascension, but it has supposedly never happened before, so no one knows for sure. Except that it has happened before. And it is happening again.

This time, to Henry Kyllo.

File Under: Science Fiction [ Hunter / Killer | The Man Machine | Over and Over | Run, Rabbit, Run ]

MY 2 CENTS: This is such a cool idea, but of course I love well-written monster-robot stories. I recommend you take a look at his work and let me know what you think! 

INTERVIEW: BRETT SAVORY

Welcome Brett Savory, author of A PERFECT MACHINE from Angry Robot Books Publishing. 

“A destabilizing gutshot of science fiction, crime, and existentialism that will leave your head spinning well beyond the final pages of Henry Kyllo’s apotheosis. Savory truly delivers an inventive, disturbing, and unforgettable thrill ride.”

—Paul Tremblay, author of A Head Full of Ghosts and The Little Sleep

INTERVIEW:

When did you start writing stories?

My earliest memory of writing a story is at age 11 when I wrote a tale called “Fright Night” for my 7^th-grade English class. I got the highest mark in the class for it, so I decided I should keep writing that kind of stuff. Ha! It was all about mutants, killer bees, haunted houses, and duplicitous brothers, and tons of machine guns. Very action-horror—kinda like A Perfect Machine, I suppose.

What was your favorite book growing up? Now?

My favourite book growing up was The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. My favourite now (barring any o the books we’ve published at ChiZine Publications) is probably American Psycho.

If you could live anywhere in the world where money was not a factor, where would it be?

St. Martin would be lovely!

How did you come up with A Perfect Machine?

It’s based on a story called “Running Beneath the Skin,” which was published in 2004 in the Penguin/Roc anthology Outsiders. I basically just took the opening, massaged it a bit, then expanded it from there on to novel length. As for the idea itself, I have no idea where that came from. Maybe from watching Tetsuo: The Iron Man.

What are your current writing plans?

I’m half-way through my 4^th novel, Lake of Spaces, Wood of Nothing. Once that’s done, I fire it to my agent, and we see if anyone wants a weird Lynchian spy thriller!  :-)

One word answers:

Horses, sharks, or eagle?

Sharks.

Robots, animals, or people?

Robot animals! (Totally cheating.)

Simon and Garfunkel, Metallica, or Queen?

Metallica (but only up to 1988).

Novels, novellas, or short stories?

Novels (though I do love a great short story, of course).

Morning, afternoon, or night?

Afternoon (if the sun’s out; if not, night).

Thank you and good night! 

Thanks for having me!

Review of what M.Black is reading now:

THE FERRYMEN

I have been reading THE CULLING, THE AUTHORITY and have just finished THE FERRYMEN.

I have to say I really liked this series. I got way into book one and had to see what happens. I think book two is my favorite, just because I really liked how Dahn was fleshed out with his tortured love issues. 

I would give book one four stars, books two five stars and book three four stars. 

Essentially, there is a culling that happens to keep the solar system in check and our main lead is one of those who culls. She eventually finds the corruptness behind it all and 'bad guy' and this leads her to joining the rebels who are called the Ferrymen. But now she has to pretend to be a culler and pretend she still works for the Authority. 

There is a love triangle with our main girl, a guy from the Authority and a guy from the Ferrymen, but this is a backdrop not the main story. It is not a romance, but you do get a sense of feelings from the three characters. I really liked Dahn the best personally, but you will see who she ends up with at the end of book three which concludes the series.

Recommend you to check it out!

Solid four star series!

FREE

Well, that concludes this blog new! Hope you enjoyed it and I'll talk to you two weeks from now. I hope you keep reading!

  M.Black

Blog News: Electric Gardens gets a publisher and new cover!

Electric Gardens is being published by CREATIVITY and has a new awesome cover! I just love it! 

What do you think?

RELEASE DATE: MARCH 15th

Leave your comment and one lucky winner will receive the PAPERBACK of ELECTRIC GARDENS!  Winners drawn at the end of the month. 

This book series has really been an exciting journey for me. I love robots. As you can tell with every other book I write being about robots and how they could eventually impact our world. They already are and as we become more advanced, they become more advanced...it is all a bit mind-boggling.

So, tell me what do you think about this robot invasion on our world? Do you think it will be roses and candy or the next apocalypse? 

Leave your comment about robots and win the eBook of ELECTRIC GARDENs. One lucky winner will be chosen at the end the month. 

***

Inspiration of ANIMAL GRAPH

As many of you know I am a lover of wildlife and nature. I am mostly vegetarian with exception to occasional fish. I am a strong believer in the healing power of natural foods from the Earth, not a factory and also enjoy reading about the latest science technology.

That took me to Animal Graph.

Grafting is something scientists have been doing with plants and animal skin for a while, not long, but a while. Snake grafts are being used on burn victims and certain grafting procedures are used to enhance the growth of plants.

I took this a step further and had a dream. Literally while I was sleeping this came to me.

What if in the future, a dictator name Truss took over North and South America? What if he gifted prisoners to perfect his own Graphed soldiers? What if some of this prisoners escaped? 

In the 6 book series of Animal Graph we explore the Amazon, Savannah, Orinoco River, Highlands, Plateaus. All the beauty of the Amazon forests, as well as some of its splendid flora and wildlife like Toucans, Howler Monkeys and Caiman. We also meet radiated creatures poisoned by the nuclear wars. 

 JIN and ADAN have to run for their lives in the picturesque Amazon, because the are being hunted to train soldiers. But their grafts will aide them and as they learn to use their animal graph, they will turn the tide of this upcoming war.

If you enjoy stories like Dr. Moreau or Hunger Games, or even stories of survival with twists you don't see coming...this is for you! 

SAMPLE/BUY BOOK HERE

***

REVIEW of GENDER GAMES

I have read The girl Who Dared to Think and really liked that book. I'm on book four of that series now. 

I however can not say the same for this book. I really tried to like it. The beginning started off strong and I thought, wow, this will be good. And then most of the book happened.

Not only was there very little exploration of genders and inequality, the main characters felt more caricature than anything else the more I read. 

The entire plot was mostly about the main character and her motorcycle, wrestling dude. We flip back and forth from riding motorcycles with them, to the fight scenes in the rink and while that is good sometimes, it just took up so much of the story that it felt like a bunch of filler. I for one was very bored and needed more development of story, plot twists.

The ending had a slight plot twist which made it more plausible to pick up the second book to see what happens, but after reading half of book two I just could not do it anymore. I'm not sure why this story does not appeal to me.

I guess in the end it felt juvenile, like a of filler instead of story, and uninteresting characters that I really never got to know well enough or care enough about. Overall, the idea could have gone in many interesting direction of gender, but none of those issues are really explored well.

I normally would rank this a 3 star for effort and the writing is fine, there are not many mistakes and there is a story there, I just did not like it much. But because there are so many five stars on this book, ridiculous amounts, I have to give it a 2 star to balance the unfairness. 

So 2 1/2 stars is my final decision. I don't think fans of Divergent or Hunger Games will be satisfied with this read. It falls drastically short.  The comparison is insulting frankly. 

But you might want to try her other book The Girl Who Dared To Think. 

CHECK OUT GENDER GAMES here 

Blog News for Mid March

Thank you to all my readers! I love communicating and connecting with all of you.


First round of business is the winner of the paperback QUANTUM STATE is:Ashleigh Hack

She has been contacted. If I don't hear from her, I will pick another winner.


Second round of business, be sure to comment to win the ebooks ELECTRIC GARDEN in the thread below:

Third round of business...I am finished writing books one and two in the ELECTRIC WORLD series and am working on book 3 now. I will keep you all posted for when the series will be releasing. Currently, it is set for book one to be released in Mid-March, but I will let you know if things change.

It is a very interesting premise, with Tins ruling our world. Teenagers are sequestered in a Compound which is watched by the Tins (robots) and Lexi019 just wants to break out.


Fourth round of business is that one paperback of ELECTRIC GARDENS is up for grabs and can only be won by commenting on this blog news post. So, post here with your eMAil and win the first paperback released of ELECTRIC GARDENS before it's release date! Winner will be chosen  Mid-March.




Fifth round of business:
BOOK REVIEW of MATCHED by Ally Condie.

I had the pleasure of reading this last week and I didn't think I would be impressed. Like many dystopian and romance stories, I thought it would an overdone plot with cheesy characters and an even more cheesy romance, but I absolutely loved it. In fact it has become one of my favorite dystopian romance stories!

The author has a way of not only making you care about the characters, but to care about material things such as a compass or compact! That's good writing. Ally draws you into the story and the characters and lets you in on who they are, developing them all well.

I was not sure which way the romance would go, and am still pleased with how everything played out. I am sad they did not all get to have a happy ending, and I have to say my only disappointment is that the book ended and I'll have to pick up the next one to finish this story. 

Highly recommended dystopian romance reading!

M.Black/

Ami Blackwelder 

Sixth Round of business is an EXCERPT from the upcoming release ELECTRIC GARDENS:

   “Wait,” his voice sounds crunchy like the red apple. His hand barely grazes the top of the gravely cell wall. I just see his worn finger tips and a folded, flat rice-milk carton. Another note. He lets the note drop from the top of the cell wall and I catch it on the other side. “I hid it under my shirt.”

     When the thick folded paper touches my palms, I feel a warm fuzz surge through me. I’m always excited to read his notes. Seems he has a new one every month. I try to keep as many as I can, but sometimes I have to bury them in the dirt behind the Compound. Writing on paper is forbidden in here, and he can be glitched if caught. Still, he does it.

     “Thanks.”    

     The rustic-horn is going to blow, and it is time to return to the Re-Learning center. We only get twenty minutes to ourselves outside, and I have to use part of that time to get to and leave the cells. I fold the note again and slip it between my shirt and breasts, anxious to read it when I’m finally back in my Compound room.

     At age twelve, the Tins began allowing us more freedom from the usual routine. We could leave for lunch and eat outside on the nearby grounds, or walk the Compound. Felt like a breath of fresh air, even though the air outside the buildings is harder to breathe. Seemed like such a big deal when we were first allowed outside again. Seven years I was stuck inside, with just brief moments outside to walk directly from Building C to the Re-Learning Center. The freedom we were given at lunch was only twenty minutes, always is, but still we—humans—relish it. 

     I head away from the cells, away from Kyle53, and toward the Re-Learning Center. A few Tins scratch across the grounds in my passing. I nod with a short smile. It’s important to acknowledge them. One stops and its red eyes peer over at me, scanning me, “Lexi019, good afternoon.” 

     “Yeah, sure.” 

Seventh Round of business is my book pick for this week. 

Over 500 pages of monsters, myths and murder! Plus, a sneak peek at book three, The Medusa Coin. Follow Detective Greg Loren and Soriya Greystone as they hunt the most dangerous creatures of myth and legend down the shadowy streets of Portents.

Buy here

ELECTRIC GARDENS eBook Giveaway

ELECTRIC GARDENS eBook Giveaway!

5 copies are up for grabs! 

Contest ends February 15th.

Enter by commenting on this thread! 

Look out for the public release March 15th, and the paperback giveaways! 

Win QUANTUM STATE paperback

Win a paperback copy of QUANTUM STATE by commenting here. Include your eMail. Two runner-ups will win eBook copies. Winner chosen Mid-February.