While
it may come as a surprise to some, not everywhere celebrates
Thanksgiving today. Tragic I know, but thems the facts. Why, my
cousins in Canada already celebrated their Day of Thanks! So while I
spend the day editing, perhaps smoking a cigar and drinking bourbon,
playing with little girl, and salivating as the lovely Dr. Farish
turns a nearly flightless bird into dinner, I have the talented Eden
Royce to carry the day for my weekly blog post, here to talk about
her novella “Containment.” As usual I do have an announcement
about The Witch's Lair, which will be at the end of the post.
Blurb
“Life
is different among the dead.”
They
are kept in chambers, their energy used to feed the City’s
voracious appetite for fuel now that traditional sources are long
gone. These grisly fuel cells are kept watch over by Feast, a
devil-human hybrid whose recent run-ins with the City leave him
questioning its authority.
When he is needed to bring in one of the most dangerous creatures for containment, Feast is faced with a decision that may make him the next power source.
When he is needed to bring in one of the most dangerous creatures for containment, Feast is faced with a decision that may make him the next power source.
Excerpt:
Life
is different among the dead. It didn’t completely end for them, but
it changed. Most still had movement. Some held on to desire. Some
kept sadness or rage. It fascinated me even as I watched them, intent
blazing in their eyes.
You’d think their
eyes would be empty. But they were vibrant and full of hatred. And
revenge. And I was alone with them.
Swirling patterns of
phosphorescence left by wraiths turned into grotesque artwork as they
moved about their containment chambers. On rare occasions these
ghosts, or spirits, or whatever they were, stopped moving long enough
for me to get a good look at their faces as they spiraled toward me
at astounding speeds. They were hollow-cheeked, wide-eyed, and
terrifying as their transparent forms thudded against the glass. The
sound danced off the walls and echoed in my ears.
Even after doing this
job for over five years, it was still mesmerizing to watch the random
movements of their incorporeal bodies as they slammed against the
Pseudoglas to no avail. In lab tests, the barrier had held against
simulated hurricanes and tsunamis; it wouldn’t be affected by
infuriated ghostflesh.
It affected me, though.
Each shift in this cramped office alone watching over the spirit room
killed my hopes a little. Constant reminders that each person, down
to the humblest soul would end up here, as a restless phantom or
tormented spirit giving the City the last of its spectral energy.
Row after row of clear
reinforced Pseudoglas separated the dead from my mortal flesh and
kept them from having any effect outside their boxes. Apparitions.
Ribbon ghosts swirled their light trails into crude abstract designs.
Spectral vortexes with their roiling, tornadic force slammed against
their confines. Their eerie cacophony was the soundtrack of my dreams
and nightmares.
Main
Character's motivations:
Feast
is motivated partially by the need for self-discovery. He’s part
human and part devil. Since he doesn’t know his father, he’s left
feeling like a part of his nature is a mystery even to himself.
What
are their secret strengths/ weaknesses?
Feast’s
strength is he’s a loner. He knows he’s different and doesn’t
feel the need to conform or try to fit the mold.
His
weakness is he underestimates his abilities and doesn’t know his
true strength. Yet.
Any
philosophical issues in this story? If so how do you address them,
how does MC live and overcome them?
The
issue of death is the underlying theme of the story. Is it right to
use spectral energy to power a city? Shouldn’t the dead just rest
in peace?
Abuse
of natural resources is addressed as well. There was a war over
resources and while the reader won’t see the war itself in the
book, all characters are dealing with the fallout.
Any
offbeat, obscure or 80s references?
Aw…now
I wish I had some.
This
story takes place in the future, specifically the twenty-second
century. How we live now is ancient history and most pop culture
references are lost to time. There is a reference to books made of
paper and the few crumbling copies are preserved as decorations in
digital libraries. No one’s read them. But maybe they should.
When
did you start to write this one and why?
Around
five years ago, Containment started
as a short story because I wanted to write about a character who had
grown up with one parent and knew little to nothing about the other.
Feast knows only that he is part devil and his father’s people are
hated.
While
Feast is older for a human, he’s young for a devil. He wonders what
traits he shares with the devils and as he gets older, what is he
going to become?
The
world grew until I had a novella. Then I had people emailing me,
wanting to know more about Feast and the next thing I knew I was
writing a trilogy.
What's
next in this series or in your next book?
Containment
is (currently) a three part series.
In part two, Feast is being hunted. Not by ghosts—which he can
handle—but by creatures he’s never seen before, determined to
destroy him. The only lead he has to go on is his father, so Feast
travels to the city of devils to find answers. But has he gotten
himself into even deeper trouble?
Preview
of your next book?
“Feast!”
The young woman leaped at me, mouth open. Her long, oddly thick teeth
hung over her lower lip. She was fast and had me knocked over and
pinned to the conference room floor before my synth coffee arrived.
The
real horror is that nothing so stressful should happen before coffee.
When
will it be available?
If
I can keep my pace up, I expect Containment
2 to be released in January 2016.
Bio:
Eden
Royce is descended from women who practiced root, a type of conjure
magic in her native Charleston, South Carolina. She currently lives
in Kent, The Garden of England, with her husband and a maniacal black
cat named Samurai. Featured in her work are the language and
traditions of the Gullah people, descendants of the first slaves
brought to the Sea Islands off the coast of South Carolina and
Georgia.
Eden
is also one of the writers for The 7 Magpies project, a first of its
kind: a short horror film anthology written and directed entirely by
black women. She is also the horror submissions editor for Mocha
Memoirs Press where she conceived and edited The Grotesquerie, an
anthology of twenty-one horror short stories written by women. She
also writes a regular feature for Graveyard Shift Sisters, a site
dedicated to purging the black female horror fan from the margins,
where she interviews black female authors and reviews their latest
work.
When
she’s not writing, Eden loves roller-skating, watching quiz shows,
and perfecting her signature dish for Masterchef. Learn more about
Eden’s brand of horror via her social media links.
Website:
http://edenroyce.com/
The
first 2/3 of The Witch's Lair are back for the second round of edits.
The cover has also been finalized. Designed by the talented Danielle
Fine, who has once again captured the book in visual form. Expect the
cover reveal soon.
Junior
Inquisitor
Still just $2.99
Inquisitor
Series - http://goo.gl/mJtTf8
SOULLESS
MONK Book # 2
Smashwords
- https://goo.gl/NXw3Gr
Amazon
- http://goo.gl/p9fBn0
Inquisitor
Series - http://goo.gl/5lCyaX
The
Witch's Lair, number three in the Inquisitor Series, release date -
Valentine's day 2016. Excerpt follows
“Brother
Sam come here quickly,” I sent out.
He
shambled up and looked down.
“Oh
no, not again,” he said sweat pouring of off his white face.
“What
is it?”
“A
Mine Wretch,” he said in a shaky voice. “Mine accident occurs,
miners are trapped and die, slowly. As they die one by one in the
dark, something turns that fear into anger and creates a Mine Wretch.
A body of sorts is formed from the rock and it begins to hunt. It’ll
kill anything alive and stomp the body to bits. That’s why I
joined.”
