WORLD WAR OZ from coast to coast.
An adult fantasy that takes one of America's favorite tales and transforms it into a dark and epic landscape few can escape much less understand. Imagine Potter meets Avengers in Emerald city and you're getting close.
After a homicidal alien from Orion arrives on Earth intent on annihilating human life, the 21st century's greatest sorcerers create a network of seven Oz-like city worlds designed to harbor the human race in a newly formed utopia while also protecting it from the alien entity. But the alien is far more magically powerful than anyone suspected. Piper Robbin, ancient daughter of the Earth's greatest sorcerer inventor, Edison Godfellow, must sacrifice all to defeat the implacable force that calls itself "The Witch Queen of Oz," and quickly, before Earth becomes only a cold cinder floating among the stars.
Excerpt
Suddenly outside on the street, she stood facing in the direction of the Cambodian take-out, her entire nervous system tingling and parts shaking as if with Parkinson’s due to the abrupt teleportation against her will. The night fell black and splattered with garish light. She looked up to see the Wall Street corpse directly above her, and she swore he was staring down with an oafish mocking expression as if he knew something she did not. Then the ground quaked, and like balloons filled with molten glass, every window in her apartment building exploded. The shrieks of burning people next. How many she did not know, but she knew she must save them.
Before Piper could act, a whip of turbulent energy uncoiled like a sun flare from her living room window eight stories above. She observed the Wall Street corpse nearby disintegrate into a memory of burning sparks. She immediately recognized the nature of the force—a Tao magical wavelength strong as a thunderstorm yet contained, compressed to a small vortex, and potent enough to kidnap half of Brooklyn.
Interview
Have you ever had an imaginary friend?
My best imaginary friend was a female, and she was strong, beautiful, and smart. Her emotions and mental faculties and integrity were the polar opposite of my own mother—with whom I had a bad relationship that never resolved. My imaginary friend actually respected me, and as I grew older, I fell in love with her as we continued to seek adventure in the Twilight Zone.
Do you have any phobias?
Up until my early twenties I had a bizarre fear of mannequins. I could not get within a few feet of a store mannequin. I would get an inexplicably uncomfortable feeling, a variation of dread that’s hard to describe. It gradually faded as I aged. It’s not an issue now. I never understood it. Was I frightened by a mannequin as a tot?
Do you listen to music when you're writing?
Absolutely not, just too distracting for me.
Do you ever read your stories out loud?
I’ve found an excellent line editing technique is to read the work out loud, or at least hear the voice in your mind and throat, and while pretending you are giving a reading with your favorite authors and your worst enemies in the audience. Your brain will highlight the necessary edits, and quite often, ones you would never have noticed otherwise.
Tell us about your main character and who inspired him/her.
Piper Robbin is a blend of elements, a fusion of who I could be (if female) with others I’ve known—a observations, quirks, hopes and dreams, reactions to both horror and absurdity. Her ultimate desire is survival, for herself, her loved ones, and others. She wishes to do the right thing, and yet, in the course of events, must constantly balance acts of good and evil. Despite her tremendous powers, she is human at the core, and therefore fallible and given to bouts of pettiness, error, and delusion. She is also a duality of flashy and innocuous. She can be either, as the moment dictates. She wishes to begin a new life, to see things from a new perspective, but fate dictates otherwise.
Warwick Gleeson is a dedicated writer of screenplays, short stories, novels, and poetry. He has lived in both LA and NYC and worked many different jobs in his life, everything from roofer to waiter to small business owner to government analyst. He was the major writer, creator, and senior story editor for another project published by Del Sol Press called "War of the World Makers" that debuted in 2017. The novel has since won four national novel awards (two first place and two place) for SFF. Warwick is a big fan of great SFF television writing, like the kind you find in Emerald City, Gotham, The Expanse, and Umbrella Academy. He now lives in Tuscon, AZ, with a fat lazy cat and his most wonderful wife who is also a writer.
The book is on sale for $0.99 during the tour
Giveaway
One randomly chosen winner via rafflecopter will win a $50 Amazon/BN.com gift card.
I appreciate you taking the time to give us a great book description and giveaway as well. Thank you so much!
ReplyDeleteHope you guys like the book... It's different.
ReplyDeleteSounds like a book I'll enjoy!
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