Monday, April 8, 2013

Meet Author Sean Sousa

Welcome back to another exciting week at the JLB Creatives Blog. This week you will be introduced to the amazing author Sean Sousa (pictured right). He's got it going on when it comes to books!

But first things first.

Excitement is building around here at JLBC. The Authors in the Park Event was absolutely stunning on March 30th! Authors met fans, fans met authors, and aspiring writers were enthralled at the opportunity to ask questions of the seasoned local veterans of the literary world we had in our showcase. We didn't really take a break as we're preparing now for our next appearance. . .

. . .April 13 you will find the JLB Creatives Executive Team at the UCF Book Festival! Look for our booth, tell us you saw us on the JLB Creatives Blog and we'll give you a free bookmark! We will have tons of stuff to share with everyone like Authors in the Park upcoming events, how you can get scheduled for one of our brand new Lit Wits Sessions, check out the debut of JLBC's new services, and so much more. Hope to see you there if you're in the central Florida area on Saturday April 13, 2013.

And wait till you see what we will be up to next week! Hint: it involves a green day festival at a Florida theme park...think nostalgic. ;-)

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And now, on with the show. I think you're going to like this post as author Sean Sousa selected our Excerpt Extravaganza option. (And please remember, formatting on Blogger doesn't always hold true). I've also included the fantastic synopsis Sean provided. Enjoy!

Synopsis: Flash takes place in present day, and contains elements of both sci-fi and fantasy while remaining a very human story. There's a family struggling to mend itself. A father fighting to overcome his troubled past. A young man trying to win over the love of his life. And an underlying theme of hope and redemption.

At heart, Flash tells the story of a father and son who seek to mend their family in a world of giant robots and ancient tyrants. The sci-fi frames the novel, but compelling human drama is the crux of the series.

1. …To Fight Another Day

Prince Ahya laid eyes upon his kingdom for the first time – and was desperate to escape it.

He observed his people – blissful yet enslaved, with no will of their own – and refused to let the same fate befall the Earth. That was why, despite the grandeur of the kingdom before him, the prince could not obey his king, Grigori Geist. It was Dietrich Schmidt, the prince’s only ally, who had convinced him that he could be more than an instrument of destruction; but rather, a freer of the enslaved. It would begin with an escape from the city, the exposure of Geist to the outside world, and the rallying of allies to their cause.

The prince surveyed the city of Regnum Aeturnum, a megalopolis of over one hundred million people, built from a round, basin-shaped cavern excavated beneath the continent of Antarctica. Gleaming towers, temples, ramparts, and terraces sprang from the city floor, while Aether, a second city, hung from the cavern ceiling above. This suspended series of towers comprised a glowing ceiling of blue-white light – imitating the true sky, far above, that Prince Ahya had never witnessed.

Ahya…the meaning of the prince’s name was never given to him, nor could he discern it. Frustrated, the prince stood on an open air balcony on the lower levels of the Great Spire, an hourglass-shaped fortress of gleaming white quartz that lay in the center of Regnum Aeturnum, and the only structure that reached both cavern floor and ceiling. The Great Spire had been the prince’s home for the entirety of his young life.

In the solitude of the balcony, the prince watched and waited for his opportunity. Ahead of him, the Jupiter Terrace – the primary road of the city – stretched out from the base of the Great Spire toward the castle-like Gate of Ishtar, twenty-eight miles away. It was a dangerous gauntlet to run. In his youth and inexperience, the prince was not at the height of his power, nor did he expect Geist to simply let him leave. Despite the peculiar sensation of doubt creeping from his chest to the ends of his limbs, the prince had to try. Until he succeeded, millions of citizens would remain Geist’s puppets.

The prince spoke aloud with resolve in his voice. “Is it time?”

A quiet, slightly hoarse voice answered, heard only by the prince. “It is.”

At this, the prince leapt over the railing of the terrace, falling hundreds of feet below and sliding along the base of the Great Spire as it leveled off toward the ground. Such a fall did not faze the prince, for he was not made of flesh and blood, but of metal and circuitry – his sixty-foot body adorned in shining plates of gray armor, sculpted as like broad human muscles. As the prince sprinted from the Great Spire to the Jupiter Terrace, his glowing red eyes burned with determination – like Dietrich, he wished not only to escape Geist, but to one day defeat him.

Where can you find Sean in cyberspace? Here you go. . .