But I have to keep my promise from last week - letting you in on where JLBC will be exhibiting next. Did you guess it by the hint I left you? If you guessed Silver Springs you're right! JLB Creatives received a formal invitation to exhibit at the Green Day Festival for Earth Day at Silver Springs Nature Park in Silver Springs, Florida on April 18-19. The JLBC Executive Team will be discussing how ebooks help make the planet a better place, offering up Authors in the Park Event Series information, offering Lit Wits insider notes, and meeting kids from all over central Florida to talk with them regarding the literary world. Are we excited? Absolutely!
OK - down to business, of fun as we like to call it around here. I had the opportunity to interview author Tony Breeden. I'm certain you will enjoy this interview, and hope you will share it with your online friends.
Meet Author Tony Breeden
I'd like to start out with what book or books are you currently working on?
Can we expect a new release soon?
I’m currently working on a
few different projects. Johnny Came Home was a prequel of sorts for the trilogy
to follow. I’m about halfway done writing John Lazarus: Mann from Midwich,
which takes place about a year after the events in Johnny Came Home. Johnny
will find himself both a hero and a villain in a world that suddenly finds
itself coping with the presence of super powered humans. Readers can expect more
of the comic book-inspired action and plot elements that made the first book
such a fun read.
I’m also contributing to
the Worlds of Faith anthology, edited by Paul Taylor. All of the short stories
featured will be examples of Apologetics Fiction – defending the Christian faith, by
means of well told and interesting stories. Worlds of Faith is slated for a May
1st publication date.
I just finished Luckbane, a science fiction/steampunk/adventure fantasy
crossover novel that features everything from dragons and cyborgs, to robots
and minotaurs, aliens to wizards. Luckbane is the first novel in a new series
called Øtherworld. The basic premise is someone has terraformed a world for the
express purpose of allowing gamers to play the universe’s favorite game live
and in person. Unfortunately, this world has abundant food and living space,
something we no longer enjoy back on a dystopian Earth, so the gamers
eventually end up squaring off against more than they bargained for. We’re in
the process of editing Luckbane, but it should be available by late spring
2013.
I’ve also started work on An Instrument of Wrath, which pits a vampire
who’s been around long enough to see AD turn to BC against angels, both fallen
and faithful, scientists, hunters and other vampires, in a quest to save his
own soul and maybe most of the world. It should be finished in early 2014.
Lastly, I’ve promised my children that I will complete an illustrated
children’s book for them called The T-Rex and the Fuzzy Bunnies: A Bedtime Story
for Boys.
Yeah. I keep busy.
It sure sounds like it! As you know, we all love stories – especially yours! Would you
be willing to give the readers a synopsis of your current book?
Johnny Came Home is an action-packed novel full of mad
scientists, zombies, flying saucers, future technology, conspiracy theories, epic
battles and Biblical truth. Three years after the fire that took his home and
his family, John Lazarus returns to the town of Midwich searching for answers
to why he can do extraordinary things no one's ever seen outside of a comic
book. Is he human? Alien? Something more? The answers lie within the Titan
complex that overshadows Midwich. But someone else wants Titan's secrets too
and will stop at nothing to make sure that she alone possesses them. To find
his answers, Johnny is forced to fight a cadre of super villains led by mass
hypnotist Pandora, who intends on destroying Titan and Midwich as her first
step toward war with Homo sapiens.
Outstanding! How about a little more detail? Love and romance, paranormal, epic fantasy, sci-fi,
mystery, thriller, drama, and the list goes on. Where do your books fall as far
as genre and reading audience?
The John Lazarus
Adventures fall solidly in the sci-fi genre, as do all tales with mad
scientists and super-powered humans. I love sci-fi. I call it the thinking
man’s genre. It’s a great way to explore the human condition.
Øtherworld: Luckbane is a strange mix of sci-fi, fantasy adventure and
steampunk. It takes place in a hi-tech dystopian future, where people play a
real-life fantasy/steampunk role-playing game on an alien planet.
An Instrument of Wrath is primarily a paranormal vampire tale, but it’s
also part of the Christian spiritual warfare genre [made popular by Frank
Peretti].
I love it! Let's keep going. . .we're on a roll. Let's say for the first time in your writing career someone
recognizes you as their favorite author, in public. Would you panic? Smile and
bask in the moment? Blush and walk away? Invite them for coffee and cupcakes?
Scream? Run? Faint?
I’m pretty approachable. I
do a fair bit of public speaking and singing, so that sort of thing doesn’t
bother me. I’m always too happy to chat it up a bit. And I’m always up for
coffee.
Well, then - a coffee break it is (we'll be back in a minute folks. . .) Ahhh - that was a great suggestion Tony. OK, back to the interview.
I write at least five
minutes each day. I take my laptop with me everywhere, just in case. Sometimes
I write for several hours (though I try to keep it to an hour for my family’s
sake), but as long as I write for at least five minutes, I’ve accomplished what
I set out to do. I try to stick with one specific project (currently Øtherworld: Luckbane),
but if I get writer’s block, I just switch projects for that day and come back
to the main project the next day.
That's a great goal - I think I might try that. I normally find more than five minutes in a day, but what a wonderful way to look at it on those busy days - certainly we can all find 5 minutes somewhere to squeeze out some creativity. Thanks for the tip! Who is your favorite character that you have
created? Tell us about him or her and why you are so fond of them.
Weasel Hopkins is, thus
far, my favorite character. Weasel is John Lazarus’ best friend, ever since
they met on a job a few years before the events of Johnny Came Home. He’s
irreverent, mouthy and a magnet for trouble. He’s never at a loss for something
to say (he usually talks too much) and tends to say what we all wish we
could’ve said. Throughout the book, I basically abuse poor Weasel at every
hand. He’s a lot of fun to write, as the following dialogue shows:
“Sorry? You're sorry? Oh,
I think we're well beyond sorry here. Sorry is I accidentally stepped on your
foot. Sorry is I was late picking you up from school but I'll make it up to
you.” His expression turned dark. “You let your redneck daddy duct tape me to a
chair!” He roared, struggling against his bonds.
You're cracking me up! I'm already in love with Weasel myself. . .thanks to you. Let me ask you this, of all the professions in this world you opted to
be a writer. What brought you to it?
I credit my late aunt
Sharon with giving me the writing bug. I’ve always loved to draw; it’s my first
love. She saw me drawing dinosaurs one day and after quizzing me about them,
she brought me some brads and cardstock. A few hours later, I had put together
my very first book with dinosaurs lovingly illustrated in crayon.
I wrote too many stories
and novels to count over the years, but they were purely for my own
amusement. Then one day, I was browsing local Christian bookstores, just bored out
of my mind. With few exceptions, I was looking an endless sea of romance
novels, marketed at women. I'm a guy, so I'm into science fiction, fantasy and
action thrillers. I remember thinking, "Why should I be forced to get the
stuff I actually enjoy reading from secular bookstores in novels written from a
non- or even anti-Christian worldview?"
The success of the Left Behind series demonstrated how influential
exploratory fiction can be in shaping and reinforcing beliefs concerning
eschatology. I realized that apologetics fiction could do the same for
evangelical convictions concerning our origins. With that in mind, I set out to
tell a great sci-fi story that gives a plausible young earth creationist
explanation of comic book super powers rather than the prevalent evolutionary
assumption of beneficial mutations, popularized in the X-Men movies and
on TV shows like Heroes. The result was Johnny Came Home.
How cool is that? The world is blessed to have you as an author for certain. I love your book covers. Do you create and design your own book covers?
So far. I like to draw and
design as much as I like to write. The cover for Johnny Came Home features a
church based largely on All Soul’s Church from the Andy Griffith Show. Ironically,
when I named the church Soul’s Harbor, I had no idea what the church from
Mayberry was called. It was just the church I pictured in my head. I added the
crashed saucer and a starry night sky (even though that scene takes place in
the morning in the book) to complete the picture.
I re-used the church for
the Mann from Midwich cover, adding a large full moon against which a flying
John Lazarus is silhouetted. Johnny’s action pose was suggested by a parkour
photo.
I’m still designing the
super top secret cover for Øtherworld: Luckbane. ;]
Cool! One last question then I will let you go. . .Where can we find your book(s) and you around the web?
You can find Johnny Came
Home in hardcover at Amazon.com. Ebook formats are available at Barnesand
Noble.com, Smashwords.com and Amazon.com.
WEBSITE OR BLOG ADDRESS: http://TonyBreedenBooks.com
FACEBOOK PAGE: http://facebook.com/tonybreedenbooks
TWITTER HANDLE: @creationletter
There you have it - the amazing author Tony Breeden. I'm inspired, are you?
Please share this post with your reader friends, and maybe even pick up a copy or two of Tony's books to read yourself or give as gifts.
Until next week - stay casual, live life to the fullest, and have a piece of chocolate for me.
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Janet Beasley - author of The Hidden Earth Series
