Showing posts with label Cyberpunk. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cyberpunk. Show all posts

Book Blast: His Wild Flower by L. Grey S.

Author L. Grey S. and Gay Book Promotions share book info for His Wild Flower! Find out more about this cyberpunk tale today!
 

BOOK BLAST

Book Title: His Wild Flower

Author: L. Grey S.

Publisher: Self-published

Cover Artist: Tjota Art

Release Date:  December 28, 2021

Genres:  Dystopian Sci-Fi/cyberpunk, Boys Love

Tropes:  Enemies to lovers, slow-burn

Themes: Good vs Evil, courage & perseverance, redemption

Heat Rating:  3 flames     

Length:  80 600 words/ 324 kindle pages

This is a standalone book for now. It concludes, but there’s an open-ended silver lining in the epilogue.

Goodreads

Buy Links - Available in Kindle Unlimited

Amazon US  |  Amazon UK

There’s ugliness in beauty, but there’s also beauty in ugliness… 

We may be monsters, but we are each other’s monsters…

Blurb 

What is destiny? Do we have the power to change the course of our lives, or are we forever bound by fates formulated by the algorithm of being?

And coincidences – are they merely fluke occurrences or are they the results of a planned chain reaction?

That is the story of a man who has run away from his past, and another who is running from himself. Pursued by their own demons, the unlikely pair collide fiercely with judgements and misunderstandings. From enemies to lovers, the pair journey on a path to discover truths that they have been denied. But are they ready to face them?

Who is the hero and who is the villain in their story?

And what is their destiny…?


YouTube Trailer


Excerpt 

Chapter 1

Looking at himself in a half mirror, he tightened his fist and the arrowhead punctured his palm. Staring at the bident tattoo on the left of his chest, he trembled and a tear rolled down from his eye. Savagely stabbing the arrowhead onto it, he carved and mutilated the ink of his past.

Covered in blood, he squeezed his built body under the tight shower, clumsily hitting the on button. Standing naked under running water, he lifted his chin, parted his lips and tasted the chlorine water. The ravishing man ran his thick and rough fingers through his drenched hair. 

Blood drained like scarlet before waterfall from his mutilated wound. Unfazed by the stinging pain, he smothered soap over his sculpted torso, crimson bubbles dribbling down his rock-hard chest to those iron abdominals. Attached to his body were a pair of athletic legs and a perky derriere. Wrapped with unsightly scars, each told stories like cave paintings. He brushed his callused fingers over them. 

Out of the shower, he raided the minibar. Cracking open a few miniature vodka bottles, he splashed them over his mutilated wound and roughly dressed it before swallowing a handful of painkillers, complimentary of hospitality Alice. Breaths slowing down, his lids turned heavier.

* * *

He peeled open his swollen lids. Painfully tied to a chair with barbed wire, he noticed he was restrained by his own signature Shibari knots. He chuckled to himself; only one madman would mock him with such atrocity. 

He heard footsteps approaching. Pricked by thousands of pins and needles, his body went into shock when ice-cold water was splashed onto him. 

Laughing sinisterly in a familiar coarse voice, the man beside him smacked Marcus’s cheeks and whispered, ‘Time to wake up, my sleeping beauty.’ 

His throat tightened: Marcus was voiceless. A sudden punch to his jaw sent a back tooth catapulting out of his mouth. Falling to the ground, Marcus spat out metallic tasting blood between his teeth.

Holding Marcus’s arrow-tipped blades to his throat, the man sneered, ‘How could you, Sheng?! You traitor! I’m going to take away everything you cared about!’ 

Hah… that’s me… 

I am Sheng… I was Sheng…

Faint knocks from a distance distracted the man. 

* * *

…they were getting louder. Slowly lifting his lids, Marcus was unsure if he was still dreaming. Stumbling to the door, he was greeted by Alice with breakfast. 

Taking one look at the tray of mush, Marcus asked, ‘What’s this?’ 

‘The Director told me to bring this. High-protein mashed beans with a side of kale salad and toast.’ 

‘Ugh…’ Repulsed by the unappetising meal, Marcus took a slice of toast then chucked the tray on the desk and pulled a long hoodie over himself to venture outdoors. 

Hospitality my arse!

Guided by his lens, Marcus left the heavily guarded building with his head down and scouted around Downtown. He felt as though he had walked into a science fiction movie. 

The bustling Downtown was buzzing with flying drones and patrolling robots. Autonomous vehicles were driving themselves seamlessly and accordingly. Transportation capsules were travelling at super speed in transparent tubes which was around Downtown, surrounded by cloud-height skyscrapers.

Still trying to adjust to his new upgrade, Marcus’s cornea lens was being bombarded with relentless data, holograms and augmentations along with all the data from the Solar users. Dazed from experiencing the overwhelmingness that Stig had warned about, he kept bumping into people who were engrossed in their Solar devices. A migraine began to pound against his skull so he turned the lens off.

He wandered into a park. Sitting on a park bench, burying his head against his knees, he rocked desperately to try and force the pain away. A concussion had his brain mixed up, and he gasped when he suddenly flashed back to a pair of bloodstained hands.

I’m a coward. Everyone is dead and I’m still breathing. I failed to rescue them. 

Guilt… Marcus was tormenting himself with it. He was nothing but a lone wolf prowling in a foreign land, purposeless and meaningless.

He took a deep breath... and ended up choking himself with a pungent stench of drunkenness. Passed out beside him (at ten in the morning) was a man hugging an empty bottle of champagne at ten in the morning. With thick, scruffy hair over his face, Marcus could not get a good look at the intoxicated person. Missing a shoe, shirt unbuttoned, half undone tie – the man clearly had had a bit too much fun. 

The drunk propelled his guts and Marcus sprang away nimbly like a ninja. Holding his breath from the awful stench on his hypersensitive nostrils, Marcus caught the drunk before he rolled into his own sick. Laying the drunk down, he draped his hoodie over the man.

And left.

About the Author 

Little Grey Soul

Eye for Beauty,

A Boys Love devotee,

A storyteller of fictional fantasies.

Root of the East,

With a voice of the West,

Blending them makes writing Best!

Little by little,

Grey celebrates the middle,

Soul behind my writing is for you to unriddle.

Author Links

Goodreads  |  Facebook

Twitter   |   Instagram 

Hosted by Gay Book Promotions

Blog Tour + Giveaway: The Hands We're Given (Aces High, Jokers Wild #1) by O.E. Tearmann


Author O.E. Tearmann and Other Worlds Ink visit on The Hands We're Given (Aces High, Jokers Wild #1) blog tour! Learn more about the cyberpunk series and enter in the giveaway to win an eBook copy of After Hours Game: A Wildcards Christmas!

The Hands We're Given - O.E. Tearmann


O.E. Tearmann has a new MM (trans) hard sci fi/cyberpunk tale out, book one in their "Aces High, Jokers Wild" series: "The Hands We're Given."

Aidan Headly never wanted to be the man giving orders. That's fine with the Democratic State Force base he's been assigned to command: they don't like to take orders. Nicknamed the Wildcards, they used to be the most effective base against the seven Corporations owning the former United States in a war that has lasted over half a century. Now the Wildcards are known for creative insubordination, chaos, and commanders begging to be reassigned.

Aidan is their last chance. If he can pull off his assignment as Commander and yank his ragtag crew of dreamers and fighters together, maybe they can get back to doing what they came to do: fighting for a country worth living in.

Life's a bitch. She deals off the bottom of the deck. But you play the hands you're given.


Amazon US | Amazon UK | Amazon CAN | QueeRomance Ink | Goodreads




Giveaway

O.E. is giving away an eBook copy of “After Hours Game: A Wildcards Christmas: with this tour – for a chance to win, enter via Rafflecopter:


a Rafflecopter giveaway


Direct Link: http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/b60e8d4754/?




Excerpt

The Hands We're Given meme - O.E. Tearmann


The dark shapes of three drones flitted over the junkyard, blotting out the stars. Aidan desperately turned the keys, slamming his foot on the accelerator. The truck’s engine finally revved. Kevin flung open the passenger side door and leapt inside. “Go, go, go!”

Aidan slammed it into reverse and hit the gas. They jumped backward. Once the truck was far enough away from the fence, he changed gears and wrenched the wheel around. They bumped and rattled into the night as fast as Aidan dared without the headlights on. The heat of the engine would make them easy to follow for the drones’ thermal cameras, but the short-range guard drones couldn’t go too far from their base of operation before their programming called them back. Aidan just hoped they could outrun them.

He gripped the steering wheel so hard it hurt. He could feel the suit tightening down against his skin. His heart pounded in his chest. Kevin’s breathing was ragged beside him. Another burst of bullets sprayed the ground right in front of them. Aidan yelped and yanked the wheel to avoid getting hit. The truck jittered to the side. Aidan slammed on the gas. The desert night sped past in a blur of blue and red under the starlight. Slowly, the whir of rotors faded into the distance. Aidan’s grip on the steering wheel began to relax. Kevin pulled his tab out of the bag and set it on the dashboard, watching as the screen flipped through the security channels they’d hacked into, keeping track of the location of dozens of drones.

Finally, Aidan pulled up under an overhang of red rock and cut the engine. The wide-range security drones were due to make their fly-over soon. Better to stop for a while and recover, get back on the road when it was safer.

They sat in silence for a long time, listening for rotors over the quiet buzz of the night insects. Aidan rested his arms on the steering wheel and propped his chin on his wrist, watching the star-studded sky.

“You all right?” Kevin breathed. At some point during the drive, he had deactivated his slick suit.

Aidan sighed and leaned back so he could manually flip his face screen up.”Yeah. Think so. Banged my knee pretty bad. Your shoulder?”

“Bruised. Doesn’t feel severe.” Kevin shrugged.

“Um, good,” Aidan whispered eventually.

So. They were alive. They’d gotten out with most of what they’d gone in for.

At the expense of a bad bruise across Kevin’s cheek, that or worse to his shoulder, and an action that could have caused so much more.

Slowly, some of his anger seeped back. He took a breath. “You scared the hell out of me back there and acted like a complete gamma, Kev. Don’t do that again.”

Kevin ducked his head in a slow nod. “I’m sorry, Aidan. I—When I saw you like that, I guess I panicked.”

Aidan sighed. Kevin was normally so level-headed. He’d been utterly cool on-Grid, when Aidan had been scared shitless.

So why had he acted like this out here?

On the tab screen, the red dot of a drone approached their location. They waited in breathless silence as the long-range drone passed, not even the sound of whirring to announce its presence. The red dot moved out of range.

Aidan breathed out. Kevin looked up with a smile. So close. They were so close.

“That’s the last of them. A very fine night’s work if I do say so.”

Aidan tried to smile, but it faltered. “I didn’t get the holo board. That was the part we needed most.”

Kevin smirked as he pulled the bag up from the floorboard and into his lap. He rifled quickly through the materials they had managed to grab, yanked, and pulled out the board with a wink.

“Oh, I don’t know about that.”

“What? How…?” Aidan breathed, feeling the wave of defeat that had been threatening lift.

“Fell down the pile when you did,” Kevin whispered, grinning. “I simply grabbed it up. After all, I am the requisitions officer. Snatching things is my forte.”

A rush of joy shot through Aidan. They’d done it. They’d gotten everything. Nose to nose with Kevin, he grinned.

“Holy shit, we- Holy shit! You… wow. Kevin, holy shit! This is like one of your vids!”

Kevin’s eyes glittered like silver in the low light. “You know, if this is a vid, I know how the scene ends.”

“Yeah?” Aidan asked, still giddy with relief.

Kevin was still smiling, his teeth white outlines in his grin. And he was leaning closer. Aidan could feel the heat of his skin, his breath.

“Heroes always get a kiss at the end of the adventure. That’s the convention.” Kevin tipped his head, eyes holding Aidan’s. “Would the hero like a kiss?”

Aidan froze. Was Kevin actually… Was he…?

He wet his lips. His voice escaped as a whisper. “Am I supposed to be a hero?”

Kevin’s smile was soft now, and he was so very close. “I don’t see anyone else in the driver’s seat. So you must be.” Then he pressed his lips against Aidan’s.

Kevin’s lips were hot. Aidan’s brain turned inside out. Kevin was kissing him.

Kevin had started kissing him.

This was real.

He leaned into the warmth with a pleasure that was almost pain. This was only going to be a second, but if only this second would last.

Softly, Kevin drew back. “Was that okay?”

Kevin’s whisper barely made it through the buzzing in Aidan’s brain. He gasped in a breath. “Um, okay. Yeah.” He swallowed hard and forced himself to sit up. "We-we should get going home…”

Kevin nodded, eyes still holding his as he drew away. “I suppose we should.”





Author Bio

AUTHORBIO

O.E. Tearmann lives in the shadow of the Rocky Mountains, in what may become the Co-Wy Grid. They share the house with a brat in fur, a husband and a great many books. Their search engine history may garner them a call from the FBI one day. When they're not living on base 1407 they advocate for a more equitable society and more sustainable agricultural practices, participate in sundry geekdom and do their best to walk their characters' talk.

Author Website: http://aceshighjokerswild.com/
Author Facebook (Author Page): https://www.facebook.com/wildcards1407/
Author Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/18359444.O_E_Tearmann
Author Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/O.E.-Tearmann/e/B07J62VX9W


LOGO - Other Worlds Ink

Giveaway + Blog Tour: The Burning Magus (Blue Unicorn #3) by Don Allmon


Welcome author Don Allmon and Riptide Publishing who are here today to promote the latest in the author's Blue Unicorn series, The Burning Magus. Find out more about this cyberpunk/fantasy story and be sure to leave a comment to be entered in the giveaway to win your own copy of BIG GAY ICE CREAM by Bryan Petroff and Douglas Quint! Good luck!



Howdy all! And welcome to the blog tour for book three of the Blue Unicorn trilogy, THE BURNING MAGUS!
THE BURNING MAGUS is a cyberpunk/fantasy Ocean’s 11. Or it would be if Danny and Rusty had been an orc and an elf, they’d been lovers, and the Bellagio casino had been an evil wizard’s tower.
If you’ve been following the series, BURNING MAGUS brings the whole gang together: JT and Austin, Comet and Buzz, the Blue Unicorn and Roan.
It’s the final book in the series where the heroes get their HEA, the villains get their come-uppance, and well… I won’t spoil everything.
To celebrate, we’re gonna have a drawing! The lucky winner gets a hardback copy of BIG GAY ICE CREAM [link: https://biggayicecream.com/] by Bryan Petroff and Douglas Quint. To enter, leave a comment below with your email address, and at the end of the tour I’ll draw a name! Good luck everyone!

About The Burning Magus
Love can make a good crime go bad.
JT was a perfectly happy orc building cars in the Arizona desert until his old friend and sometimes lover Austin showed up and talked him into one last crime. Now “one last crime” has snowballed. With a new team of thieves — a supersoldier, a hacker, a driver, a graffiti artist, and a seafaring wizard — JT and Austin are determined to free an artificial intelligence from the dungeon of the Burning Magus.
For JT, this job is more than a prison break; it’s a do-over of The Job That Went Bad two years ago, the catastrophe in which JT lost his closest friend and then chose to abandon everything, even Austin. Maybe this time no one will die. Maybe this time JT can return to Arizona and bury his old life for good.
Except Austin won’t be buried. After two years alone, Austin knows he wants JT — not just as a partner in crime, but as the lover he always should have been. Maybe this time they won’t make the same mistakes, especially when it comes to each other.
About the Blue Unicorn Universe

JT is an orc on the way up. He’s got his own boutique robotics shop, high-end clientele, and deep-pocketed investors. He’s even mentoring an orc teen who reminds him a bit too much of himself back in the day.
Then Austin shows up, and the elf’s got the same hard body and silver tongue as he did two years ago when they used to be friends and might have been more. He’s also got a stolen car to bribe JT to saying yes to one last scheme: stealing the virtual intelligence called Blue Unicorn.
Soon JT’s up to his tusks in trouble, and it ain’t just zombies and Chinese triads threatening to tear his new life apart. Austin wants a second chance with JT — this time as more than just a friend — and even the Blue Unicorn is trying to play matchmaker.
The Blue Unicorn stories can be enjoyed in any order — jump in wherever you'd like!

About Don Allmon
In his night job, Don Allmon writes science fiction, fantasy, and romance. In his day job, he’s an IT drone. He holds a master of arts in English literature from the University of Kansas and wrote his thesis on the influence of royal hunting culture on medieval werewolf stories. He’s a fan of role-playing games, both video and tabletop. He has lived all over from New York to San Francisco, but currently lives on the prairies of Kansas with many animals.
Connect with Don:
       Website: www.donallmon.com
       Twitter: @dallmon
       Pinterest

To celebrate the release of The Burning Magus one lucky person will win a hardback copy of the cookbook BIG GAY ICE CREAM by Bryan Petroff and Douglas Quint! https://biggayicecream.com/new-page/ Leave a comment with your contact info to enter the contest. Entries close at midnight, Eastern time, on November 24, 2018. Contest is NOT restricted to U.S. entries. Thanks for following along, and don’t forget to leave your contact info!

Blog Tour: Countermind by Adrian Randall


Adrian Randall is making his clubhouse debut today to talk about his new cyberpunk dystopian novel, Countermind.


A queer thing happened when I wrote the first scene of Countermind. Alan Izaki, a fugitive telepath, hacker, and petty thief, is robbing a pawn shop in Hong Kong. Jack Smith, a government agent charged with catching rogue psychics, attempts an arrest. Both of these characters are gay.

I didn’t “decide” to make them gay. They’d already emerged that way, fully-formed, into my imagination. The thing is, as the story grew larger and kept adding more characters, the new arrivals were all queer, too. Here was Arissa binti Noor, a government psychic with dissident sympathies, unaware of the danger awaiting her. And here’s Kim Kyung-min, a privileged neuroscientist who carries a big revolver and an even heavier regret. And then there’s Feng Huang, a brilliant game designer working on a program so secret, even she doesn’t know about it. Every time they showed up, I asked myself, “Is this realistic?” And every time, the answer was “Fuck it, I’ve already got psychics. This is nothing.”

“Realism” as a critique of representation is kind of misleading. Of course queer people are real, and they really could end up in the same story together. And those stories don’t have to be “queer” stories. We care about coming out, and being accepted, and winning equality. But we care about a lot more things besides, like privacy, and freedom, and art (and even dumb shit like video games). So it’s not unrealistic for queer characters in a cyberpunk dystopia to find themselves caught up in a tense game of cat-and-mouse as their agendas bring them conflict with each other before they (hopefully) end up working together for a greater good.

“Queersploitation” is a pretty new term, coined by comic scribe Steve Orlando (who’s doing yeoman’s work of his own in expanding representation) to describe a queer take on the exploitation genre. It doesn’t have a concrete definition yet, though it’s a useful label for the broad set of stories about queer people doing badass shit. (And that’s not something that has to be justified as realistic, because we already rock pretty hard.) Even if the term itself is new, the genre has been around for a long time. Melissa Scott’s Trouble and Her Friends is a great example—I don’t think Countermind could have been written if she hadn’t already carved out a space for queer cyberpunk escapades.

I loved writing Countermind because I loved watching these compromised, driven, awesome characters kick some ass. I hope you’ll love them, too. Check them out.

Blurb

In a postprivacy future, secrets are illegal and all communication is supervised. Telepaths are registered and recruited by a government with no qualms about invading the minds of its citizens. Fugitive psychics are hunted by the Bureau of Counterpsychic Affairs, or Countermind.

Alan Izaki is one such fugitive, as well as a hacker, grifter, and thief.

Countermind agent Jack Smith is hunting him through the twisted underbelly of Hong Kong.

But Alan possesses a secret so dangerous and profound it will not only shake Smith’s loyalties, but the foundations of their society.

And Alan isn’t the only one on the run. Rogue psychic Arissa binti Noor escapes Countermind, in search of brilliant game designer Feng Huang. She hopes that together, they can destroy the government’s intrusive Senex monitoring system.

Their goals seem at odds, and their lives are destined to collide. When they do, three very different people must question their alliances and their future, because everything is about to change.

Cover Artist: L.C. Chase

Buy link: https://www.dsppublications.com/books/countermind-by-adrian-randall-357-b


Excerpt

It was past midnight, and some parts of Hong Kong actually did sleep at this hour. The pawnshop was near Kwai Chung, its customer base mostly local workers pawning valuables just to squander their money on the races, men who wouldn’t have the resources to track down the goods they’d put up as collateral. Alan had chosen the shop for its proximity to a body of water, and it was just a minute’s hard sprint to the nearest container yard, then through that to the channel.

Alan charged downhill on roads still slick from the afternoon’s rain, gleaming with the reflected glow of the city. No neon signs or electronic billboards, just streetlamps and a few lit office windows. Droplets ran in steady trickling streams off the buildings, canopies, streetlights, AC units. Steel shutters of closed storefronts shimmered wet, and Alan’s skin glistened in the damp air. He didn’t hear any pursuing footsteps, didn’t bother turning his head to check.

He’d only gotten a brief glimpse of the attacker in the pawnshop, but that had been plenty. The man looked just a few years older than Alan, Eurasian, tall and lean, hale, clean-cut, clean-shaven. His attire had been dark but utterly nondescript. There was an impression of a black suit jacket, black slacks, and a black button-down shirt (but no tie, and open at the neck). Alan hadn’t the time for more lingering impressions, but the man would’ve been attractive under more civil circumstances.

The man wasn’t the shop owner, and was too well-dressed to be another crook or a triad member. That probably meant law enforcement, ample reason for Alan to make the quickest possible escape without sparing even a backward glance.

Alan vaulted from the sidewalk over a steel railing, dashed across the street, leapt another rail, and charged down a covered stairway, letting gravity lead his charge toward the water, angling toward the red lights atop the cargo-loading cranes just visible over a row of gently swaying palm trees. He hit the next street with such speed he lost some momentum to a brief stumble. A red-and-silver taxicab blared its horn at him, and Alan ducked under the canopy of a shuttered dim-sum shop to get his bearings. He glanced up at the building corners in the nearest intersection and spotted the closed-circuit cameras. He couldn’t see which way they pivoted in their housings, but didn’t think they’d have a clear look at him where he stood. Just to be safe, he’d have to circle around, keeping shy of major streets if he was to stay clear of any more traffic cams, though his pursuer couldn’t be far behind.

Or was it pursuers? The man had attacked Alan alone, not a standard practice for an officer of one of the world’s most famous police forces. If he was a government agent, he had to know what Alan was, right? And what such agent would be so reckless as to challenge a rogue telepath completely solo? Alan doubted even a state psychic would risk such a confrontation, and this man had given no sign of being a psychic himself, had not attempted any telepathic attacks, relying entirely on physical force. Who was he?

Whatever he was, if he caught Alan, it would mean death or worse. He had no need to know who this man was, only to escape him.

Alan pulled his jacket tight around him and popped the collar up. He turned a corner for a side street with fewer cameras and fewer lights and strolled a leisurely path into the shadow of an elevated highway, traffic rumbling above him. From there, he made his way through a hole in a chain-link fence he’d prepared earlier tonight with the help of his bolt cutters, slipping into the container yard, and then he sprinted across the yard toward freedom.

He ran straight into the agent.

The man stepped around the corner of a container and flashed Alan a razor smile as he kneed him in the stomach, allowing Alan’s own momentum to double him over. Then the man threw Alan into the side of the steel container with a clang that echoed inside his head as his arm was twisted behind his back. Alan was strong for his size, but the agent was using some sort of judo leverage shit. Alan tried to wrench free, nearly succeeded, and then the man compensated for his strength by spinning him into the side of another container.

The man tightened his hold and hissed into Alan’s ear.

“How many counts of resisting arrest?”

Alan gasped, gulped, and tried to talk his way out, forcing the words. “Come on, man. You never said you were arresting me.”

“I thought it was implied. You did flee.”

“After you shot me!”

“With a government-issue ranged electroshock device. Pay attention.”

The agent tripped Alan roughly to the ground and buried his knees in Alan’s back. His hand forced Alan’s face against the concrete, and Alan wheezed as the air was squeezed out of his lungs.

Alan screwed his eyes to the edges of their sockets, trying to see up through the corner of his eye. The light of a passing ship winked between the container towers and slid over the man’s features: dark eyed, dark haired, darkly smiling.

“Resist some more,” the agent said. “I don’t need to excuse brutality, but it helps with the paperwork.”

Alan realized—a bit belatedly and with scant sense of relief—that he was now very much in danger of physical harm.

He expanded his thoughts outward and upward, seeking out the luminescent glow of his assailant’s mind as if reaching for a firefly in the night. He found it, wrapped telepathic fingers around it, and squeezed tight.

There you are, Alan thought at him.

Fleeting impressions of the man’s surface cognitions filtered through the permeable membrane of Alan’s consciousness: mild surprise, then recognition, and then a strange kind of resigned satisfaction.

“And there you are,” the man whispered.


Author bio

Adrian Randall is a PhD and a dual-class bureaucrat/scientist. A native Floridian, he lives in Alexandria with the love of his life and their many beautiful board games. He has a tenuous grasp on reality, owing to a steady diet of novels, comics, and other distractions. All his ideas start as character backstory for MMOs and RPGs, and he does all his writing while listening to video game soundtracks. So if he's gaming instead of working on a book, it's not procrastination, it's workshopping. He usually spends his free time geeking out about some damn thing or another. You can geek out with him through any of his social media channels. If he doesn’t respond, it means he broke his phone again.

Twitter: @cyberpreppy

Tumblr: cyberpreppy.tumblr.com

Goodreads: www.goodreads.com/cyberpreppy



Review: Junk Mage by Elliot Cooper

When technomancer Quillian Defote crash-lands on remote planet Marutuk, he has limited time to repair his ship and get off world. If he fails, he’ll forfeit his position as professor of mechanical transmutation at the prestigious Ivy Arcanarium and ruin his employment prospects in yet another sector.

Hunter, a cyborg guarding a junkyard that holds what Quill needs, is charmed by the wayward mage and wants to help him. But Hunter is bound by honor to dutifully guard his mistress and her possessions, no matter how cruelly she treats him.

Together Quill and Hunter stand a chance of starting a new life together if carnivorous wildlife, a violent necromancer, and stubborn pride don’t keep them apart.




Soooooo . . . . . . FUN!

I am officially in love with Quill, Hunter and Elliot Cooper. I had a great time reading Junk Mage from the very beginning and my only niggle is that it wasn’t longer. I wasn’t ready to let these characters go and I wouldn’t be mad if the author decided to conjure up a sequel. I know Quill has some more snark in him that I need to read.

I read Junk Mage in one sitting and got caught up in the story so quickly I didn’t even look at my locations in the book until it was about over and I was all, “NO, not ready!”.

Quill is not selfish by any means, but he is so chill and the overall lack of fucks he gives about most everything have earned him a bit of a reputation and made it a smidge tough to get a job. He’s managed to secure a position at a prestigious magical university through an old friend, but said friend is a rule follower and pretty adamant that Quill gets to his post on time, or he’s out. Of course, Quill being Quill, he cuts a few corners and gets himself stranded on a planet known to be populated by criminals and the dregs of the universe.

Quill’s got skills though and he’s off in search of parts to cobble together using his technomancy strengths so he can fix up his ship, appropriately named Lemon, and get to school on time. The author built the setting around Quill really well. There was plenty of detail to picture his challenges but not so much that Quill’s character got lost, his personality stayed front and center, just where it belonged. 

He’s pretty stoked when he comes across what seems to be a junkyard and figures he can get the parts he needs and get back in the sky pretty quickly. Problem is the cyborg guarding the yard is more junkyard dog than friendly shopkeep and he gives Quill the brushoff without ceremony. Quill is curious though and he needs parts so he’s not giving up easily. They begin a real conversation tentatively and I loved reading the evolution of their friendship.

Turns out Hunter doesn’t own the yard, he doesn’t even really manage it, he’s purely there for his muscle and to protect his mistress. Quill is familiar with Hunter’s mistress’s work in the illegal magic she dabbles in and his heart breaks for Hunter and the life he’s leading out of loyalty to his mistress. Quill really is a big softy as is also evidenced by his protective instincts for the native creature that attaches to him, Junior the cannibalistic Narl, even though the critter could literally suck the bones out of his bod. But, Junior was being bullied and Quill just couldn’t let that be a thing. So, it’s no wonder his heart goes out to Hunter too.

Quill’s second visit to the yard, and to Hunter, was seriously precious. When Quill presented Hunter with his “gift” I swooned. Just like any self-respecting book lover would. I was developing a soft spot for Hunter and his reaction to the gift was. It. It was subtle, but it was so important and Quill knew it. The second visit also led to all manner of magical shenanigans and adventure. It was fun to read without being over the top and not too much so that the story lost its fun.

There’s implied steam at the end of the story, but the romance that was all about support and hope, not hearts and flowers was perfect for the characters. I’ve got no problems believing that these two could live happily ever after. Quill is just wired that way and I don’t think Hunter will ever lose his sense of wonder of Quill.

I’d recommend this to anyone who loves their sci-fi with a healthy dose of humor and accidental heroes. Those kinds really are the best. They read realistically and make the MC’s accessible to the reader, which, in the case of fantasy and sci-fi reads is so important. Again, wouldn’t be at all upset to read some more about these guys.

Also, the cover is made of awesome. :D

For more information on  Junk Mage and Elliot Cooper, check them out on Goodreads.

Did you see Elliot Cooper and NineStar Press' giveaway today? See here!


**a copy of this story was provided to BMBR for an honest review**

Blog Tour + Giveaway: Junk Mage by Elliot Cooper



Elliott Cooper brings his fantasgasmic cover, details on his latest story (cyberpunk and tech geeks...this one's for you) and his charming personality to celebrate, "Junk Mage" where tech meets magic! Stick around, read Elliot's hilarious interview and...check out the awesome discount code from NineStar Press (hurry it'll expire soon)

Plus...there's a GIVEAWAY! We know, we hear the squees all the way over here!

See our review for Junk Mage here!

Author: Elliot Cooper
Title: Junk Mage
Publisher: NineStar Press
Release Date: July 4, 2016
Genre: Sci-fi/Cyberpunk
Category: Romance
Pairing: MM
Sex Content: NA
Orientation: Pansexual, Gay
Identity: Cisgender
Length:
Words: 17400
Pages: 49
Cover Artist:
Natasha Snow
Goodreads Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30297466-junk-mage
Purchase Links:
NineStar Press: http://ninestarpress.com/product/junk-mage/
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Junk-Mage-Elliot-Cooper-ebook/dp/B01HC246XK/
Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/books/1123954544?ean=2940153358055
All Romance Ebooks: https://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-junkmage-2061100-145.html

COUPON CODE: Get 20% off preorder on NineStar Press website with coupon code “Junk Mage”
****(Good until July 3rd)



Book Blurb

When technomancer Quillian Defote crash-lands on remote planet Marutuk, he has limited time to repair his ship and get off world. If he fails, he’ll forfeit his position as professor of mechanical transmutation at the prestigious Ivy Arcanarium and ruin his employment prospects in yet another sector.

Hunter, a cyborg guarding a junkyard that holds what Quill needs, is charmed by the wayward mage and wants to help him. But Hunter is bound by honor to dutifully guard his mistress and her possessions, no matter how cruelly she treats him.

Together Quill and Hunter stand a chance of starting a new life together if carnivorous wildlife, a violent necromancer, and stubborn pride don’t keep them apart.


Author Bio

Elliot Cooper is a creativity addict who enjoys writing stories that embody adventure, a hint of the taboo, and shadows that are deeper than they appear at first glance. He also enjoys video games and knitting, and lives in the southern US with his human and feline family.

Website: www.elliotcooperwrites.com
Twitter: @elliotwrites

Speed round of serious questions with Elliott. Ready! Set Go!

Interviews can be so formal, so we decided to do something a bit different. Ready? First, let’s settle a serious debate. What comes first, the chicken or the egg?
The chicken of course - evolution and all that. You can't have a chicken egg without a chicken first :)

What punctuation mark best describes your personality? Why?
I'll go with the apostrophe because it's a bit of a jack-of-all-trades like me. Also it's a fun word to say!

Let’s stick with the personality thing for a minute. If your personality could exist in the form of a dog, what dog breed would you be and why?
A pug! Lazy but loving, and can be excitable when it comes to certain things.

So say you’re a superhero. What would your superhero name be? And please, tell us what your costume would look like.
I'd be The Procrastinator! My costume would be street clothes because I'd never get around to making an actual costume.

Okay, we’re going to be serious now. I swear. Do you write naked?
While pants are overrated in the home, I always stick to boxers.

Sorry. But seriously now. An oversized penguin waltzes into the room right this second wearing a hot dog costume. What does he say and do?
He asks me to squirt hot mustard all over him and makes lewd gestures. (This probably says more about me than any other answer :B )

If you were a brand, what would your motto be?
Please feed me sushi.

Any ideas for selling hot chocolate in Hawaii?
Give the branding a volcano theme. Chocolava!

What do you think cats dream about?
Hunting, eating, cuddling, and having their every whim catered to :)

So now that we’re gotten the important stuff out of the way, where can we find you on social media?

Facebook: http://facebook.com/elliotcooperauthor
Twitter: http://twitter.com/elliotwrites
Website: http://elliotcooperwrites.com


Thanks for having me! :D


Excerpt
Elliot Cooper © 2016
All Rights Reserved

I fiddled with the controls on my binocular goggles, one of my own handy creations, and panned the tree line beyond the open, greeneryilled expanse stretching out on the other side of the road. Nothing caught my eye, even at higher magnification. I went left, following the road, jetbike blowing dirt and gravel up into a chalky cloud behind me.
The road curved around a section of deep, dark forest, and I saw my savior. Like a beacon of rusting hope, the hulking bodies of old ships, bikes, boats, and wheeled vehicles hunkered in a huge, fencedff ring at the end of the road.
It was the most beautiful pile of junk I’d ever seen.
A lone figure moved among the wreckage, and I knew I had no time to lose. If I played this right, I could cut a deal, get some parts to work with, and be back to old Lemon before sunset. The bug-eyed critters liked to ease out of the forests, slow and sloth-like, as soon as the light began to fade. No way did I want to figure out why they made those creepy chittering, gnashing noises all night.
I parked my bike and hopped off near the gate, flipping my goggles up and wiping my forehead with my sleeve as I went. It was never a good idea to sneak up on someone who was openly armed, and I definitely wanted the guy’s full attention. I waved in greeting and smiled with all the warmth and excitement I could muster.
“Hey! Hi! You there! With the gun!”
He marched over—huge, bald, and muscled—the brown coveralls tied at his waist and his tight tank top leaving very little to the imagination. It looked like he’d been given hand-me-downs from a scrawnier brother.
“State your business,” he demanded in a rich voice, his rifle in sight but lowered. Half of the hand beside the trigger was polished silver metal.
“I’m interested in buying some parts. Are you the owner?” His expression turned quizzical. Armed guard, then.  “D’you guys take universal credits? Please say you take them.” I didn’t have anything else. I hadn’t intended to take a side trip to a backwater thieves’ den that didn’t even seem to have any thieves in it. But here was captain beefcake, potential business partner, hero, and temporary social life. If he didn’t shoot me.
“Nothing’s for sale. Move along.” He gestured with his gun.
“I can’t interest you in a barter? Something?”
He stood there like a human wall. He didn’t even blink.
“Go away.”
“Look, I crashed on the beach. I just want to get what I need and… well, go away. From this whole weird planet. But to do that, I need some parts. Please.”
“In ten seconds, if you’re still standing there, I’ll shoot.” The cyborg raised his rifle and peered down the sight.
I wondered if he had bionic eyes, too. I wondered if the fence was electrified. I wondered what I could say to change his mind. Whatever it was, it’d take more than ten seconds to work out.
My hands up defensively, I motioned—thoughts working the gun’s barrel up at a ninety-degree angle with a loud creak. The cyborg jerked his head up and stared at the gun, then at me.
“I’m sure we can work out a deal, mister,” I said and put on another of my charming smiles. It usually worked, but this guy was a tough nut to crack. “You have to need something. Everybody needs something or other.”
“Another junk mage.” His brows furrowed over his deep set eyes. It wasn’t a good look for him. His face went impassive again as he tossed his rifle aside and reached behind his back with one hand. There had to be a pistol or some other weapon tucked into his coveralls, but he was smart enough to know if I couldn’t see it, I couldn’t easily ruin it.
“Huh. I’ve never been called that before,” I told him, even though he’d been talking to himself. Maybe that’d get Ry to crack a smile on our next call. Quillian Defote: junk mage extraordinaire. “Is your boss a technomancer? Can I talk to them? Mage to mage?”
“She doesn’t like strangers I don’t shoot.”



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Review: Project Ordell by Susanna Hays

Ordell Rutledge lives in the small town of Blackwick where he helps in his father’s modest automaton shop. While he enjoys interacting with the few people who grace his father’s business, he feels isolated because he can’t relate to them. For ten years, life’s been quaint and peaceful, but Ordell has a secret: he is an automaton, sentient enough to pass as human.

Ordell’s life is upended when the person he trusts most betrays him. Heartbroken, he sets off for Linnesse, a city that accepts automatons as people and is booming with the latest technology. With another sentient automaton, Elias Griffith, at his side, they overcome obstacles and uncover the strange truth behind Ordell’s past. But sometimes the past is best left in the dark.


Ordell is a sentient automaton living in Blackwick with his father and creator, Octavio, living peacefully and enjoys helping his father build other automatons to be sold as workers. Or so he believes.

One day he comes home from running his errands and finds his father arguing with a man who gives him the creeps. A week later he is betrayed by Octavio, and has been sold as a pleasure slave to that man.

Running away, he finds himself at Winifred’s house, whom he discovers is his real creator, and she has another automaton locked in her basement to keep him safe. She sends Ordell, and the other automaton, Elias to Linesse, where automatons are free to live as they please thanks an underground revolution that has been fighting for automaton rights for decades.

But the journey is long, and Ratcliffe, the man who bought him, will not give him up without a fight.

This story was loooooooooong. I feel exhausted just thinking about it now. There was so much nothing going on that it took me 8 weeks to read. I just couldn’t get into it. It may work for others, but it did not work for me.

Ordell has only been ‘alive’ for ten years, and while I won’t say he has the maturity of a ten year old, because that is just creepy, he has a naivety that borders on child-like. He is innocent, modest, and easily scandalised. His logic is sound, if he lived in a bubble, which he appeared to, until he was sold. His outrage and sensitivity was irritating and the dialogue didn’t flow well for me.

Elias was a former pleasure slave whom was re-programmed to protect Ordell. His protective streak was not sexy. It was overbearing and silly. There were holes in the story on how he knew what to do and where to go, for a robot whom lived in a basement for however long, and before that was a mindless sex-doll, he sure does know a lot about the outside world. Some of that was explained by programming, but the rest was not.

The story had an innocence to it that contradicted the darker elements of sexual slavery, and kidnapping. It was very whimsical and had a flutterby flow to it. The undercurrent of darkness didn’t really come through in this style of writing, and that was a shame, because it would have given the story the edge that it needed.

A lot of the dialogue was the same, just in a different location. Obviously, it wasn’t exactly the same, but it sure felt like one prolonged dialogue. Also, a lot of meaningless detail that did not progress the story. The only exciting part for me was the mechanical Kraken they encountered on their journey. I wish that scene had been longer.

The romance between Ordell and Elias was odd. It was very fluffy, and I felt like a robot reading about it. I didn’t feel the connection between them at all. I wanted to feel the heat, but it felt like they were just doing it because it was expected. They are supposed to have emotional and physical reactions just like humans.. You know, sentient, but it did not come across that way at all.

This was a really interesting concept, set in a sort of mashup between cyberpunk and gas light, that I really wanted to love. Unfortunately I feel like I will remember this story for all the wrong reasons. Tighter writing of the plot, and chopping about 25% of the dialogue/descriptions/action would greatly improve the flow of this story.

I really can’t recommend this to anyone, but if people want to take a chance, and enjoy cyberpunk/gas light/historical sci-fi then this might be something to try.

Dreamspinner Press
Goodreads
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