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Blog Archive
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2023
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December
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- FBC Crew List - Lucas' Favorite Books (and more) o...
- Book review: Looking Glass Sound by Catriona Ward
- Review: Sun of Blood and Ruin by Mariely Lares
- Book review: Murder on The Lamplight Express (The ...
- SPFBO Finalist review: Murder at Spindle Manor by ...
- SPFBO Finalist Interview: Morgan Stang, the author...
- A True Account: Hannah Masury’s Sojourn Amongst th...
- EXCLUSIVE COVER REVEAL Q&A: The Storm Beneath The ...
- Review: Fearless by Allen Stroud
- Book review: Snow Angels by Jeff Lemire & Jock
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December
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Thursday, December 7, 2023
EXCLUSIVE COVER REVEAL Q&A: The Storm Beneath The World (Children Of Corruption #1) by Michael R. Fletcher
Q] Welcome back to Fantasy Book Critic Michael. How are you doing since the release of A WAR TO END ALL, the end of your Manifest Delusions saga?
There’s this weird thing that happens after you release a book where you wander around feeling empty for a while. But then this itch grows down in the deepest recesses of your obsidian soul and at some point, you end up sitting in front of a computer again.
There was this mad flurry around the release, then the emptiness, and now I’m writing again. Which is good. Writers are like sharks; if we stop moving forward, we can’t afford to buy groceries. Or something.
So, I am a bit of a cardio junky. My brain is, apparently, extremely efficient at creating endocannabinoids. Basically, if I do 40+ minutes of cardio I get high. It’s kind of awesome. Funny thing though, it’s super easy to eat and drink back the calories you burn in 40 minutes, so I’m nowhere near skinny. Just high. I’m fat and high and my basal heart rate is under 60BPM.
But that’s not all of it. I also get a high from writing. When a book is going well, when it’s tumbling out of my brain faster than I can two-finger type the words, that same awesome brain starts dumping those lovely endocannabinoids.
I am a word junkie.
Well, I started thinking about that. I wanted to use it as part of a magic system. I believe that all great magic systems include a cost. The characters in The Storm Beneath the World can develop incredible talents, but the more they use them, the more addicted they become to using them. Eventually, they starve to death, using their talent over and over, forever getting that little bit better, until they starve to death. Much like a word-junkie writer who isn’t selling enough books.
After that, I decided I wanted a story without any humans because I wanted to look at hive instead of tribe (for reasons). And thus, my insectile ashkaro were born. And then I thought it would be cool if I wrote a fantasy book that took place in the upper atmosphere of a mega gas giant world. So…
Yeah, it was probably a bad idea, but you go where the muse leads.
I promised.
I lied.
I was thinking about humans and our monkey
heritage. We pretend like we’ve moved past that, but we haven’t. At all. We’re
chimps with slightly more advanced brains. That led me to thinking about what
it would be like if hive insects evolved intelligence and then began
discovering individuality.
Don’t tell anyone, but the book is actually a sneaky hive = tribe thing and what I’m really picking at is people. Shh!
Then, the magic system discussed above, a caste system based loosely on insect structures, sentient praying mantises, and war!
It’s that tired old trope.
MRF: Read my fucking books!
You’ll laugh, you’ll cry.
Then you’ll go have a snack.
Fuck, I dunno.
MRF: Two, though that might change.
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