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Next in my series of 5 questions with Ninestar Press authors, it’s L.A.Ashton!

Who is the star of your book?
Oskar–a thousand year old Viking vampire and Aranck–a thousand year old Native American vampire.

What is your story about?
Oskar and Aranck were the best of friends while human. After a millennia of assuming the other dead, they find each other once again.

When is it set?
Modern day!

Where is it set?
Corn Country (read: Iowa and the Midwest)

Why this story?
Because I’ve loved vampires since I was young, and because queer folks deserve all the fun, tropey stories the cishets get!

Blurb:
“In the scheme of Oskar’s long life, they’d spent such little time together. And yet he was left feeling that the time they’d spent together had been the most full, the most important, and the most impossible to replicate. Perhaps it was because the end of their time had been punctuated by Oskar’s death– having Aranck was the same as having a heartbeat.” * * * After one thousand years of listless eternity, Oskar is used to his particular brand of loneliness. But a long walk through middle America and a few chance encounters will lead him straight to a man he’d known to be long since dead—his childhood best friend, Aranck. Together the two vampires remember what it felt like to live, all the while navigating a conflict with the local pack of werewolves. A lot has changed in a thousand years, and only time will tell if those changes will bring Oskar and Aranck closer together, or ensure they remain apart.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

L.A. Ashton is an LGBT+ author writing LGBT+ fiction. They enjoy rock music,  traveling, and anything else that adds color to their daydreams. They believe in  the healing properties of art and of having a cat firmly stationed on one’s lap. Their official site can be found at www.LAAshton.com

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Thanks for joining in and I wish all the best with ECHOES!

-Glenn

Next in my series of 5 questions with Ninestar Press authors, it’s R.R. Campbell!

Who is the star of your book?
Imminent Dawn follows four perspective characters–an art-school dropout, a ruthless tech magnate, a relentless investigative journalist, and a naive, advancement-hungry administrative assistant. Though there are four characters readers follow throughout the book, I see Chandra, the art-school dropout, as the story’s true protagonist.

What is your story about?
The story takes place during the first round of human trials for an internet-access brain implant. Chandra, our protagonist, initially enrolls in the study with the goal of securing an implant for her wife. An accident for which Chandra feels responsible has left her wife in a coma, and Chandra hopes the two of them can one day communicate through the brain implant should her wife never stir naturally.

The ruthless tech magnate, Wyatt Halman, struggles to keep the research study on track amid a number of grievous threats to it both from within the compound and without.

Our investigative journalist, Meredith Maxwell, is intent on securing the tech story of a lifetime from within the secretive research compound, but when her sleuthing runs afoul of the government’s designs, she is forced to choose between doggedly pursuing the truth and her own life.

And, lastly, our administrative assistant Ariel Commons compromises her own future and possibly that of the study by putting her trust in all the wrong places.

When is it set?
The story takes place on an alternate timeline in a not-so-distant future. I had a lot of fun playing with things like brand names–making some eerily similar to those in our own world while leaving others unchanged–and references to historical events are meant to leave readers feeling trapped between both our world and that of the book.

Where is it set?
The book takes place primarily on the Human/Etech EMPATHY research compound in Liberty, Texas, the heart of the North American Union.

Why this story?
As the line between humankind and our beloved technology becomes increasingly blurred, I thought it important to explore what the consequences of that might be during the final hour prior to the widespread fusion of the technological and the biological.

Imminent Dawn is the first in a five-book series, so we’ll have plenty of time to see how it plays out in this universe.

Links: NineStar Press | Goodreads | EMPATHYseries.com | rrcampbellwrites.com | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | NineStar Press | Kobo | Smashwords | Goodreads

Blurb:
Art-school dropout Chandra would do anything to apologize for her role in her wife’s coma—including enroll in the first round of human trials for an internet-access brain implant.

At first, the secretive research compound is paradise, the perfect place to distract Chandra from her grief. But as she soon learns, the facility is more prison than resort, with its doctors, support staff, and her fellow patients all bent on hatching plots of their own, no matter how invested they might seem in helping her communicate with her wife.

Making matters worse, a dark wave of uncertainty crashes down on the compound, forcing Chandra to become an unlikely but pivotal player in conspiracies stretching from the highest levels of the North American Union government to the lowest dredges of its shadowy hacking collectives.

To save herself and her wife, Chandra and her newfound friends from the study will have to overcome the scheming of a ruthless tech magnate, the naïveté of an advancement-hungry administrative assistant, and the relentless pursuits of an investigative journalist, all of whom are determined to outpace the others in their own quests to resurrect lost love, cover their tracks, and uncover the truth.

A twistedly delightful clockwork of intrigue and suspense, EMPATHY: Imminent Dawn is an electrifying sci-fi debut from author r. r. campbell.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
R.R. Campbell is an author, editor, and the host of the Writescast Network, a podcast collective for writers, by writers. His debut novel, Accounting for It All (November 2018, NineStar Press), is a work of contemporary fiction that, to date, has been received with overwhelmingly positive reviews. He has also been published in Five:2:One Magazine‘s #thesideshow, and with Erotic Review and National Journal Writing Month. Imminent Dawn (January 2019, NineStar Press) is the first installment in the epic EMPATHY sci-fi saga.

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Sounds great! Thanks for joining in and all the best with your new novel!

-Glenn