Title:
Euphoria/Dysphoria
Authors: Michelle
Browne & Nicolas Wilson
Genre: Sci-Fi,
Dystopian Bio-punk
Cover Artist:
Katie de Long
Release Date: 20th
November 2014
BLURB supplied by
Bewitching Blog Tours
Execution above
or extinction below...
“Please help me.
I'm pregnant.”
A chance
encounter with a fugitive has turned Christine's life into a nightmare.
Survival is hard
enough in the poverty-stricken streets of the Lower Blocks, and this woman is
far from the first to flee the Engineers who oversee the City. But now
Christine's a target: hunted by the aristocracy, her future uncertain, and past
laid bare. And a person with Christine's powers can't afford to be caught.
Humanity built
the Foundation to elevate themselves from the poisoned earth, but Christine and
Ilsa must choose whether to descend to hell below, or remain in hell above.
EXCERPT
Christine knew that with an Engineers’ blood on her
hands, she’d be in for it. That was Three for her, for sure. More likely, she
would be immediately taken, due to the severity of her transgressions. No
reason to play it safe; best-case scenario, she’d probably have to hide out for
months to work through all of the changes needed to disguise herself. She
thought of the other grey-market acquirers she knew and wondered which of them
liked her enough to shelter her.
She cursed the woman running alongside her and
herself for getting drawn into this in the first place. It was too late now—she
could only hope that she could make her downfall have as great an impact as
possible by seeing Ilsa through this. Tearing her mind from the future, she
looked at for exits. No time to worry and fuss. She just had to keep moving.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
MICHELLE BROWNE
She is all over the internet, far too often for anyone’s
sanity,
and can be found in various places.
Nic's work spans a variety of genres, from political
thriller to science fiction and urban fantasy. He has several novels currently
available, and many more due for release in the next year. Nic's stories are
characterized by his eye for the absurd, the off-color, and the bombastic.
For information on Nic's books, and behind-the-scenes
looks at his writing, visit www.nicolaswilson.com
INTERVIEW WITH BOTH AUTHORS
What is your name, where were you born
and where do you live now?
Nic lives in Portland, Oregon, and
Michelle lives in Calgary, Canada.
Did you always want to be a writer? If
not what did you want to be?
Michelle: At the age of six, I wanted to
run a lion reserve. Forensic investigation and child psychiatry were also
careers that I considered, especially when I was younger, but I’m quite glad that
I’m a writer (and editor!)—for one thing, there are fewer actual dead bodies.
Nic: I developed an interest in writing
early on, but I also was a realist enough to realize that the odds of that
being a real “job” weren't good. I never really wanted to be anything
else, though. I almost went into the military, but I changed my mind. I've got
a bum knee, since degraded to bum back and knee. I probably could have gotten
through the basic stuff without mishap, but it would only have been a matter of
time and deterioration before I couldn't fake full health. And, to be honest,
I'm not great at following orders.
Do you work another job as well as your
writing work?
Michelle: I’m a professional freelance
editor, and I work with other authors and small publishing companies to provide
line-editing services.
Nic: Michelle's a great editor; she
actually worked on some of my non-coauthored projects. I'm a graphic designer.
Not the kind who does logos and masterpieces, though. I'm the dude producing
the emailed BLACK FRIDAY SPECIAL 2 FOR THE PRICE OF 1 advertising stuff. I've
also got a disturbingly large selection of techniques to make any text look
like it was written in poop. And I've even used them.
What is the name of your latest book,
and if you had to summarise it in less than 20 words what would you say?
Michelle: After the Garden—a
post-apocalyptic story in the distant future, about love, superpowers, giant
spiders, and religious extremism. After that, it’ll be The Meaning Wars, the
third installment of the series of the same name. It’s a sci fi dystopia, and
this is a big one—characters from the previous books are coming together at
last.
Nic: Blood Moon- zombie vampires.
Nexus 2- Star Trek, but hornier and weirder. Lunacy-
Werewolves... in space. Nexus 2 should be out before xmas, and Lunacy
hopefully not long after, provided I can tie down a few loose strings cleanly
enough to avoid pissing my developmental editor off.
Which of your books were easier/harder
to write than the others?
Nic: Every project has its challenges.
I'd say Euphoria/Dysphoria was a little more difficult to write than
most, because having even one more cook with equal right to be in that kitchen
is more challenging than being able to dismiss an editor's notes as not to your
tastes. I enjoyed writing with Michelle, and I'm glad we were able to work
through that learning curve. I'm a literary brat; I like to make weird
aesthetic decisions and let my foul mouth run wild. And when I'm only
accountable to myself, that's one thing. But when someone else is involved, it
makes sense to rein myself in a bit. Not everyone likes as many off-color jokes
in their work as I do. Michelle has the patience of a saint to look the other
way on as many banter-y gags as she did.
Michelle: Cowriting a book was a really
interesting creative challenge, but Nic was pretty phenomenal to work with, and
we had a great editor who helped us along. Other than that, I’d say the hardest
part of writing is revisions. The last stretch of revisions always frustrate me
because I’m so eager to get the story out and into the wild!
What can we expect from you in the
future? ie More books of the same genre?
Books of a different genre?
Michelle: I’m pretty crazy about
post-apocalyptic scenarios, especially long after a disaster has happened,
because I love the human challenge element and the way people relate to each
other under pressure. The Meaning Wars is more of a high science fiction
setting, with my usual leaning towards social science rather than hard science.
I also hope to have another sequel out in The Nightmare Cycle, a different
series—book one of which is The Underlighters. Book two will be Monsters and
Fools. That will be out in 2015’s latter half, along with The Meaning Wars
(early next year), if I’m lucky.
Nic: More genres, definitely. I write
pretty much anything under the “speculative fiction” umbrella, and then some.
My next few projects are sequels, and a few older projects still somewhat
soaked in afterbirth. Those have some scrubbing up to do before they're ready for
company.
What genre would you place your books
into?
Michelle: Science fiction, definitely,
but there are touches of horror and dark fantasy as well. In the future, some
urban fantasy, steampunk, and even a contemporary work or two will be
forthcoming. Because I’m masochistic.
Nic: I kinda shot myself in the foot on
this one; I wrote in several. In general, “specfic” is not a bad label for me,
but even that misses some of the outliers; I also wrote Banksters, a
psychological suspense with absolutely no magical or scifi elements, and
am currently publishing more entries in The Gambit, an urban fantasy
series along the lines of The Dresden Files or Constantine. Most
of my work is science fiction, both soft and hard. But there's a lot of
outliers that fall outside that umbrella.
If you had to choose to be one of your
characters in your book/books which would you be? and why?
Michelle: I really like Ilsa. She tries
so hard to be a good person, but she starts on the back foot in a lot of ways.
Her development was really interesting.
Nic: I've got several characters who are
kind of Me+1. It's kind of my thing; I don't know if I should be proud of how
much I've pigeonholed myself into the disillusioned Peter Pan syndrome
suffering Everyman. In Euphoria, I empathize the most with Tyson. So
little of his life is actually in his control, but he does his best within a
broken system, and when the time comes to stand for something and fight it, he
does so without ruining himself over everything he lost in the process. And
he's not a jackass about being Mr. Nice Guy, the passive aggressive third wheel
watching every woman around ignore him.
Do you have anybody read your books and
give you reviews before you officially release them?ie. Your partner, children,
friends, reviewers you know?
Nic: Katie de Long, my developmental
editor. I've worked with her for years, and Michelle has recently started
running things by her, too. She's hell on plotholes, and author egos. I'm always happy to have ARC reviewers; I
value those opinions, as well. Not for all projects, but for some, I serialize
them on my blog. I'm not really afraid for people to see my work with a few
rough edges.
Michelle: Katie de Long, as mentioned.
She’s a goddess, I swear. I also live and die by my fans—I have some other
authors who’ve helped me out, and their beta reads are worth their weight in
gold. It’s lovely. I can’t believe I used to write without betas and an editor!
[Ooo I love reading Arc's and have done some Beta Reading too, so please feel free to give me a shout if ever I can help? My favourite genres are Post Apoclyptic/Dystopian]
How do you come up with the Title and
Cover Designs for your book/books?Who designed the Cover of your books?
Nic: Euphoria/Dysphoria was designed by Katie de Long, a fellow writer and artist. Also
mentioned above as my developmental helper. We spoke to her about the project
in its earliest stages, and when she got a sense of what we had planned, she
rushed off and had a mockup to us in a few hours. I hadn't even decided whether
I had room in my schedule to write the darn thing, but once I saw that cover, I
knew that I wasn't gonna be the one holding things back.
The title is a bit of a funny story,
since I usually connect to the title before I write the book or mockup the
cover (Not a good graphic designer, but a graphic designer, remember?). But in
this case, I stumbled onto it as a placeholder descriptor name for our notes,
and Michelle liked it. Apparently my subconscious is smarter than my head
sometimes.
Michelle: I see the title as
representing the eutopic/dystopian duality in the setting. For Pocas, the
world’s pretty decent. They live in the high air, and with quite a bit of
luxury compared to everyone else. There’s also a strong theme of freedom in the
book, and the euphoric element of that feeling. However, dysphoria also ties
into the struggles of the labourers and what happens when…well, spoilers! The
cover, also by Katie, encompasses the duality very nicely.
Do you think books transfer to movies
well? Which is you favourite/worst book
to movie transfer?
Nic: Personally, I think it's hard to
top Fight Club. I like Palahnuik's writing in general, but the movie did
actually improve on it, and lay his point plainer. In similar vein, you
wouldn't catch me dead reading American Psycho, but the film adaptation
is a favorite.
Michelle: Oh, man, this is a hard
question. I think Coraline by Neil Gaiman was one of the best transfers
I’ve seen, though I also love The Shining—even if Stephen King doesn’t. The
worst, in a way, is American Psycho, because the movie is so much more
watchable and better than the book. Nic and I agree on a lot of things, and
this is one of them.
Did you have a favourite author as a
child?
Nic: Tolkien, ever since my dad read me The
Hobbit. And also Batman. I grew up as a comics nut.
Michelle: Diana Wynne Jones, probably—I
love her high fantasy works because of their scope and imagination. I also
liked Roald Dahl a lot.
Where can readers follow you?
Lots of places! Here's Michelle's links.
And here's Nic's.
***GIVEAWAY***
5 ebook copies of Euphoria/Dysphoria
and swag packages
containing a pendant, bookmarks, etc.
Open to shipping within the US or Canada only.
[Sorry the swag packs are US/Canada only, though I know I'd love to read this book so I'll be entering for chance to win an e-copy, how about you?]
[Sorry the swag packs are US/Canada only, though I know I'd love to read this book so I'll be entering for chance to win an e-copy, how about you?]
Thanks for talking to us, Jeanz!
ReplyDeleteNic