Today the blog plays host to a Brain to Books Blog Tour, for the Red Dog Conspiracy series by Patricia Loofbourrow. I have a peek at both novels in the series and a delightful interview. Enjoy!
The Jacq of Spades: Part 1 of the Red Dog Conspiracy
by Patricia Loofbourrow
Would you put your life at risk for a child you barely know?
In a far future US, the once-beautiful domed neo-Victorian city of Bridges is now split between four crime families in an uneasy cease-fire. Social disparity increasing and its steam-driven infrastructure failing, a new faction is on the rise: the Red Dogs.
22 year old Jacqueline Spadros was kidnapped from her mother's brothel and sold to the Spadros syndicate ten years ago. The murder of her best friend Air as he tried to save her from them haunts her nightmares. Now unwillingly married to one of the city's biggest drug lords, she finds moments of freedom in a small-time private eye business, which she hides in fear of her sadistic father-in-law.
Air's little brother disappears off his back porch and the Red Dogs are framed for it. With the help of a mysterious gentleman investigator hired by the Red Dogs to learn the truth, Jacqui pushes her abilities to their limits in hope of rescuing the child before the kidnapper disposes of him.
Dark, gritty, multi-layered Victorian-inspired detective neo-noir that keeps the reader guessing to the very end.
You can find The Jacq of Spades at Amazon:
The Queen of Diamonds: Part 2 of the Red Dog Conspiracy
by Patricia Loofbourrow
NO ONE IS AS THEY SEEM ...
The Queen of Diamonds brings you the second action-packed chapter of the Red Dog Conspiracy.
While the villain Frank Pagliacci is defeated, all is not well in Bridges. Tensions rise between the Families, who accuse each other of spying, while Red Dog attacks escalate. Aristocratic jewel merchant Anastasia Dame Louis, styling herself "The Queen of Diamonds," hires private eye Jacqueline Spadros to collect from her debtors so she can leave the city.
But Jacqui can't leave David Bryce's kidnapping and the murders of her teenage informants unpunished. Convinced the madman "Black Jack" Diamond was behind the crimes, she pursues ways to prove it. The scoundrel and his crew, however, seem to be one step ahead: the terrifying man in white is seen lurking outside David's home, forged letters appear across the city, and merchants in the Spadros quadrant report threats from a man who fits his description.
Jack's sister Gardena Diamond then asks Jacqui for help: someone is attempting to blackmail her. It is then that Jacqui learns Rachel Diamond's curious secret - and the truth behind her terrible condition.
When witnesses who can identify the kidnappers begin dying and evidence emerges that Jacqui's mother is next on the list, Jacqui is forced to make a dreadful choice.
Someone will surely die. Will it be Jacqui, or her mother?
You can find The Queen of Diamonds at Amazon:
You can also check the Red Dog Conspiracy's Facebook page:
~*~
Interview with Patricia Loofbourrow
Why
don’t you begin by sharing a little about yourself.
I'm
married with three grown children. I grew up in southern California and have
lived in central Oklahoma for the past eleven years. I'm really interested in
culture and how it shapes people's thoughts and lives.
Could you tell us a bit about your latest book?
Could you tell us a bit about your latest book?
The Queen
of Diamonds is the second in a 13-part novel, Red Dog Conspiracy. The Red Dog
Conspiracy follows a female private eye named Jacqueline Spadros who lives in a
far future domed neo-Victorian city which has been split between four crime
families. In the first book, The Jacq of Spades, Jacqui gets her first major
case when the younger brother of her murdered best friend is kidnapped. The
Queen of Diamonds begins one week after the events in the first book.
How long have you been writing, and how many books have you published to date?
I didn't
begin writing novels until 2005, when I stumbled across NaNoWriMo. I had always
wanted to write a novel so I tried it and got hooked. The Jacq of Spades was my
first published novel, but I had written eight before that.
You write in several genres. Do you have a favourite? And if so, why?
I love science fiction. You can do and say so much in and
about the future! The future can be anything you want it to be. The question,
"what if?" is really what drives my love for this genre.
Plus you can say all sorts of things about today when
writing science fiction and get away with it because, hey, it's just a story.
Star Trek did that to great effect.
Why did you write this book? What was your inspiration?
I was trying to figure out what to write for NaNoWriMo 2013 and this sentence came to me: "The last time I had a chocolate martini, I was with the most beautiful man in the world. Wouldn't you know it, the next time I had one the bastard shows up again."
Why did you write this book? What was your inspiration?
I was trying to figure out what to write for NaNoWriMo 2013 and this sentence came to me: "The last time I had a chocolate martini, I was with the most beautiful man in the world. Wouldn't you know it, the next time I had one the bastard shows up again."
And I thought, "wow, that sounds very noir!" But
it sounded like a woman. And I thought, "wouldn't it be great to have a
gender-flipped noir, where the detective is a woman?" That was where I
began with the story. I wondered what happened between these two people, why
she hated him. And I began to play with all this. Since I like steampunk (and I
write science fiction), why not put it in a neo-Victorian future? I sort of
went on from there.
Somewhere in outlining it I realized I was starting too
soon in the story. I needed to explain where this woman came from, how she
ended up here. So The Jacq of Spades was born, which is very much a prequel to
the story I originally was going to write (which is now book 6 in the series).
What did you find most challenging about writing your book?
Although this is a first person story, I have multiple
characters and factions who all have their own agendas. Keeping them all
straight, figuring out what they're all doing, and making sure they're all kept
up to date in each book has been the most challenging part of all this.
Did anything surprise you about the process of writing your book?
When I began, I knew nothing about film noir, so I took an
online course in the summer of 2015 where we watched films and studied them. I
was surprised by how much I liked them, and how the themes of film noir
resonated with me. I set about to create a novelized neo-noir, set in a far
future steampunk dystopia. I got a lot of the concepts I put in my story - the
bleak random fate religion based on cards given to you by a impersonal
machine-like being, for example - from the ideas and themes set forth in 40's
film noir.
What is your greatest challenge as a writer? I'm still learning how to revise my novels to make the story stronger.
Are you working on another book?
What is your greatest challenge as a writer? I'm still learning how to revise my novels to make the story stronger.
Are you working on another book?
Well, yes, book 3 in the series. I've outlined it and have
begun to do research. I write all my first drafts during NaNoWriMo, so I need
to get ready for that.
I'm also working on another book in the same universe
which takes place 30 years after the end of the series with two of the people
who survive all this. I'm doing it under a pen name though, so as not to spoil
the series. Plus it's a very different genre.
Author Bio:
Patricia Loofbourrow, MD is an SFF and non-fiction writer, PC gamer, ornamental food gardener, fiber artist, and wildcrafter who loves power tools, dancing, genetics and anything to do with outer space. She was born in southern California and has lived in Chicago and Tokyo. She currently lives in Oklahoma with her husband and three grown children.
