Spotlight on The Dark Horde

I'm bringing you something a bit different today, with a musical spotlight on a band and a concept album, The Calling, a prequel for the horror novel, The Dark Horde by Brewin (and yes, the author is a band member). I have a few musical snippets, a playlist, and a look at the members. Enjoy.

TO KNOW THE FUTURE
IS TO KNOW THE HORROR TO COME

Time is short now, I sense them drawing close.
Whilst blood still flows through these shaking hands...

You can check out more on the YouTube Channel: 
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLqBA2W0pJD9RU8FyFPlAde7g2dNPcs6hw

And you can also check out the website:
https://www.thebrewin.com/works/the-calling

Brewin – Concept, Lyrics, Narration, Direction, Production

Brewin (Andrew Drage) lives in Melbourne, Australia. He has a first-class honours degree in zoology, statistics and philosophy from La Trobe University, has worked as an editor and designer for five titles in the highly acclaimed Gamebook Adventures interactive fiction series, a Senior Research Scientist at the Insectarium of Victoria and has over twenty years’ experience as an IT developer and analyst. He is the author of Infinite Universe, a science-fiction gamebook, Evermore: An Introduction, a philosophical fantasy novel, and the award-winning supernatural horror/thriller The Dark Horde, which The Calling is a musical prequel to.

Brewin has worked on The Calling for over twenty years with various artists, spawning many different incarnations of the album, but this is the only version to be released.

Hanny Mohamed – Music composition and performance, Production

Hanny Mohamed is a guitarist and composer from Melbourne’s long time running and established power metal band Black Majesty. He collaborated with Brewin in 2011 to create the music for Brewin’s Infinite Universe gamebook and has also been involved in The Calling project in its various forms since 2006.

Hanny is endorsed by Jackson Guitars, In Tune Guitar Picks and DSL Straps.

 

Logan Jacobs – Music composition and performance

Logan Jacobs is a guitarist and composer based in Melbourne. Logan began learning piano at six years old, taking simple lessons from his grandma. He took up playing guitar and bass at fourteen, and guitar has become his main instrument of choice since. Logan’s influences include John Carpenter, Giorgio Moroder, Vince Dicola, Judas Priest, Kiss, King Diamond, Def Leppard and Mike Slamer.

 

Danny Cecati – Main vocals

Danny Cecati is the singer of Melbourne's hard rock band Wicked Smile. He has previously sung for the progressive metal band Eyefear and the heavy metal band Pegazus. His powerful soaring vocals are world-renown and speak for themselves as to his class.

Wicked Smile’s debut album Wait for the Night is to be released September 24^th 2021.

 

Kevin Powe – Narrator, voice of Henry Wilcox

Kevin is an international voice actor with a love of storytelling and helping bring dark, complex characters to life. He has lent his voice to roles like Dracula and 2000AD's Judge Dredd, and Kevin proudly adds Henry Wilcox as a haunted and nuanced role to that list.  Kevin's work can be heard in Digital Extreme's Warframe, Trinket Studios' Battle Chef Brigade, and Tiny Bull Studios' Blind. He can also be heard in the Australian-made horror audio drama YOWIE, as well as Bithell Games' sci-fi comedy audio drama North Star Rising.

Soon you'll hear Kevin's work in the upcoming Beyond the Veil by Sun's Shadow Studios and in Fanclub's Dead Static Drive, described as 'Grand Theft Cthulhu'.

 

Shaun Farrugia – ‘Demon’ vocals

Shaun Farrugia is the founding guitarist and vocalist from Melbourne's veteran thrash/death band In Malice's Wake, a band that have established themselves as a dominant thrash/death metal force for well over a decade in Australia. Each full-length release has pushed further into darker and heavier territory leading to the savage fourth release The Blindness of Faith in 2021.

When not deploying his signature guttural rasp, Shaun paints art and teaches art to his primary school pupils.

 

Chris Kane – Guest musician

Chris Kane is a guitarist from Melbourne and is the founding member of the melodic death metal band Eye of the Enemy. Over the course of three albums, Chris has created a unique writing style with a mix of death and thrash metal with a hint of melody.

His signature style of musical storytelling can be heard on the track “Rebirth”.

Chris is endorsed by Ibanez Guitars.

 

James Lowe – Guest musician

James Lowe is a guitarist and composer based in Melbourne. He has been playing guitar since 1997 and is currently working on one of his solo projects with other prominent musicians. His interests include spaghetti, things that are mad, and penguins.

 

Dexter Seamus – Voice of young Henry

Dexter was only 5 years old when he played the part of Henry and is now a 23-year-old recording artist and hip hop producer based in Melbourne. He recently released his debut album Love in the Hills.

 

Jane Brewin – Voice of Henry’s mother

Jane Brewin has had a life-long career in general, mental health and infant care nursing, caring for her patient's physical and mental health with compassion, respect and good humour. Her great pleasures these days are her family, her dogs and being creative. She lives in Melbourne with her partner of many years, the eldest of her two sons and two dogs, and intends to live her best life until the very end!

 

Andrew Carolane – Voice of Bernard Russell, psychiatrist

Andrew Carolane graduated from the University of Melbourne with a Bachelor of Dramatic Art in 2012 and a first-class honours Bachelor of Fine Arts Honours Degree specialising in acting technique in 2017. An actor, director, writer and acting coach with over fifteen years’ experience in the industry, he has worked with some of the most renowned stage actors in Australia including Alison Whyte, Brian Lipson, Greg Stone, Peter Houghton and Andre De Vanny. He has played many roles, Shakespearean and otherwise, with the Australian Shakespeare Company, Proper Villains Theatre Co, Victorian College of the Arts, Malthouse Tower Theatre, La Mamma Courthouse Theatre, and most recently as a member of the 5AM (Five Angry Men) ensemble performing The March in a Malthouse Theatre/5AM performance event.

Aldo Requena – Artist

Aldo ‘Valgorth’ Requena is an Argentine artist. Many of his works deal with a dark subject-matter. He is also known for his association with the metal music scene. With over a hundred designs published worldwide, his artwork has featured on albums, books, apparel, posters advertising and film. He is the artificer of the art and texts used on the Necronomicon book for the Argentine movie Necronomicón.

Aldo runs Hammerblaze, a graphic design company which has done works for a variety of metal artists and labels of all calibres from all around the globe.

Character Spotlight: Shawn Russell from Tattoos by Stacy Overby

Today I have another treat for you with a close-up look at a character from the new science fiction release Tattoos by Stacy Overby. Enjoy.

Who is Shawn Russell?

(from the space opera Tattoos by Stacy Overby)

What can I tell you about Shawn?
The first thing you ought to know about him is that he is my resident smartass. Shawn Russell has got a sarcastic streak several light years wide and isn’t afraid to use it. It’s almost as if he has no clue how to take life seriously, which is somewhat true. See, Shawn was born to upper-middle class parents who expected him to go to Sharien University on Delarin II, a prestigious school known for educating students into United Earth Government diplomats. While they didn’t have unlimited funds, Shawn had a comfortable enough life to not want for much. He was also smart enough to get into Sharien University, if he would have applied himself.

In the end, though, the life of a diplomat just didn’t appeal to Shawn. Not knowing what else to do, he learned to fly a variety of atmospheric and interstellar ships. It turned out he had a real talent as a pilot. The United Earth Government being what it is, caught wind of his piloting skills and made him an offer he couldn’t refuse—the chance to fly the best ships out there to points across all UEG space, all living expenses paid, and a pretty good paycheck. Seeing as Shawn gets rather impulsive, he signed up without asking too many questions.

Things went along fine with this routine until he got tangled up with one particular co-pilot. She was the kind of woman who turned heads wherever she went and knew it. Of course, she turned Shawn’s head. It didn’t take long for Shawn to learn it was a relationship that was never going to amount to anything. One thing led to another and Shawn found himself in a nasty situation. His commanding officers in the UEG military offered him a choice—join Black Ops or face a court martial and all that would bring.

Shawn chose to join Black Ops. He saw it as a way of keeping himself out of trouble and didn’t want to risk incarceration or, possibly, execution. The UEG military didn’t play games when they court martialed people. Though it was never his aspiration, Shawn learned to love many facets of Black Ops life—most of all his training in explosives. Many of the skills he needed as a pilot—math, science, quick decisions, calm under pressure—also lent themselves well to handling explosives. Of course, there were the explosions as well. Shawn loves to watch things blow up. In fact, he tends to get a bit over-zealous with his explosives.

Underneath the bluster, impulsiveness, and brashness Shawn lets the world see is a man who is looking for something, what he does not know. He felt like an outsider when he flew for the military, most of the time he was in school, and even in his own family. He knows he wants a place to fit in as who he is, rather than who others want him to be. Black Ops filled a little of this for him, but it still isn’t quite the right fit.

Shawn has let Eli in close enough to see there’s more than the recklessness he holds out to the world. The two of them hit it off when Eli ran Shawn through his weapons training in Black Ops. Shawn had been among the first students Eli had after being promoted to a training officer. Their camaraderie has led to one of the most effective pairs of Black Ops specialists the branch has seen in a long time. This is both a good and a bad thing. Good because when Shawn and Eli head out on a mission together, there’s not much that will stop them from getting it done. Bad because there’s not much that can stop the two of them when they have a goal in mind, and Shawn loves knowing this fact makes much of Black Ops and UEG military command squirm.

I don’t want to give too much more away about Shawn. He’s got a big secondary role to play in Tattoos. Better yet, he’ll also be getting his own book in the future. So, go get Tattoos and let me know what you think of Shawn!

Tattoos by Stacy Overby

One hushed cry in the middle of the night, and Eli Thorson's life unravels. A highly trained Black Ops specialist, he is used to danger, but Eli's path forces him to confront the illusions he’s been taught his whole life -- ones that make him question all the good he thought he was doing.

Unable to work for a command that defiles the oaths he swore, he works to untangle the web of lies and deceit he finds woven throughout his worlds. The tattooed marks of his profession run more than skin deep. As a Specialist it is his duty to protect the people, the laws, and all the United Earth Government stands for, even if it means taking down the entire Black Ops division to do it.

Tattoos is available at:

Amazon

Smashwords

Books2Read

Author Spotlight: Miracle Austin

Today I have a spotlight for an author, the very talented Miracle Austin. Enjoy...

Miracle Austin

~Bio~

           Miracle is a YA/NA Cross-Genre author; adults also enjoy her works. She’s been writing ever since first hearing Drive by The Cars in junior high.

          Horror/suspense are her favorite genres, but not limited to. She enjoys writing diverse flashes and short stories, while threading social themes in between.

          She’s currently working on her first novella, Doll, a story about three outcast teens versus the popular mean girl in an untraditional way. She’s completed her first extremely, eclectic—requires mind to be open to the impossible—short story collection, Boundless.

          You could say that Boundless is a gumbo of themes, some light-hearted, while others are much darker… She plans to release both by the end of the year.

          Lonestar UnOrdinary Girl, her next work, is a supernatural tale with comedic elements. She enjoys attending Comic cons and book festivals. Miracle resides in Texas with her family.

“Lingering fiction that ignites diverse mind journeys and beyond…”

For more about the author and her books check out these sites:

Website: www.miracleaustin.com

Facebook: Miracle Austin Author

Twitter: @MiracleAustin7

Instagram: MiracleAustin7

*ANTHOLOGIES*

LUNA’S CHILDREN

The Study Break

 (Short Story)

Ivory and Catalina, two college girls, head into the big city to a hot club. Before dawn, their destinies change forever!

THE DEAD WALK

The Meat Lover’s Special 

(Short Story)

Dash, a young domestic violence victim, finds her way out like she never imagined!

SANITARIUM

LAST PASS 

(Short Story)

A vengeful ghost, Coop, haunts a popular highway with his ghost truck and it’s very, very personal!

Book Spotlight: Sevara: Dawn of Hope

Today I have a book spotlight for the YA fantasy novel, Sevara: Dawn of Hope by Damian Wampler. Enjoy!

Sevara: Dawn of Hope by Damian Wampler

Sevara’s orphanage teaches wife etiquette instead of arithmetic, domestic duties instead of grammar, and stick fighting instead of phys ed. There’s a swimming pool (but no water) and a doctor (who sells the unwanted girls to slave traders). All girls must become servant-wives, or be kicked out onto the streets with nothing. Sevara refuses to marry, and doesn’t last long on the outside.

Luckily, someone has been watching her.

Given incredible powers, Sevara must choose between protecting the city, and saving the only man she’s ever loved. Dawn of Hope is a one hundred thousand word young adult novel that will appeal to readers of all ages, and is suitable for children over the age of thirteen.

Sevara: Dawn of Hope is available at:

Amazon

Author Bio:

Damian is a lifelong documentary photographer who originally hails from Newark, Delaware. Damian earned a bachelor's degree in English and Anthropology from Boston University and boarded a place bound for Kyrgyzstan shortly after, where he taught English for two years as a Peace Corps volunteer. Later, he earned a Master's degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in Russian, Eastern Europe and Central Asian Studies, and returned to the Kyrgyz republic as a Fulbright researcher. He returned to the United States to study digital photography at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. He also wrote and produced a full-length play which premiered June, 2009. Damian is also the writer and creator of the Sevara graphic novel.

Author Website: http://www.sevarawillrise.com 

32 Seconds by J. K. Pitcairn

Today, the blog is a stop on the virtual book tour for the novel 32 Seconds by talented author, Johanna K. Pitcairn. There's a spotlight, a bit about the author, and a few fun facts about the book and its writer. So read on, and enjoy!

32 Seconds by J. K. Pitcairn

To the average onlooker, the city of Los Angeles represents glitz, glamour, and the celebrity lifestyle. But to seventeen-year-old Julie Jones, the city is a vast host of problems she’s longing to get away from. The latest? An unfortunate disagreement with her ex-boyfriend Mark—one that could land her in some serious hot water.

So rather than face the troubles that torment her, Julie decides to run away from her old life and start fresh somewhere new. But her parents aren't on board with the plan, and she soon finds her bank accounts frozen and her wallet empty.

With just seventy-five dollars and a full tank of gas, the troubled teen is far too stubborn to turn around and head home. So what’s a girl to do?

What Julie doesn't know is that her travels are about to take her somewhere unexpected—a place where she’ll be forced to come face to face with the ghosts of her past in order to secure her future.

A tale of redemption, hope, and freedom lost and found, 32 Seconds is a thought-provoking exploration into the human spirit and the nature of forgiveness.

Available on Amazon

Random Fun Facts:

1) To trigger my inspiration, I binge on Netflix. I pick shows from any genre, and study the dialog and the plot. I also watch video game walkthroughs on YouTube. It's a great help to develop my characters.
2) I can't remember the last time I've had a bad case of writer's block. Plotting helps eliminate that issue. 
3) My biggest pet peeves: misspellings, grammatical errors, and inconsistent formatting. 
4) Julie Jones has named her car "Bubble", and when she swears, she says things like "shizzle", "shizzle nizzle" or "crapola in a peanut butter jar".
5) The original title for the first draft of the story, before it became 32 Seconds, was Death by Chocolate. 
6) Julie Jones loves In&Out burgers, and strawberry milkshakes. 
7) Julie is also a surfer. Her favorite beach is the one in Oceanside, CA. 
8) I'm a cat lover. I have four cats, and they all distract me from writing by taking turns and lying on top of my laptop.

About the Author:

Johanna K. Pitcairn has dreamed of becoming a writer since childhood--authoring her first novel at the age of nine, and countless poems, stories, and screenplays by the age of seventeen. Later, rather than pursuing a career as a director and screenwriter, she decided to go to law school, driven by her father's opinion that "writing does not pay the bills."

Ten years later, she moved to New York City, which inspired her to go back to the excitement, wonder, and constant change of being a writer. Pitcairn is a huge fan of psychological-thriller novels and movies, and delves into her hopes, fears, friends, enemies, and everything in between in her own writing.

Contact the Author:

Website I Blog I Facebook I Twitter I Goodreads I

The Independent Author Network 

CoffinHop Begins Tomorrow!

The happily horrific blog hop, nattily known as CoffinHop begins tomorrow, Oct 24^th and runs until that horrifying holiday of Halloween. I, (as well as many, many others), am participating and I’m ready to creep the socks off you.

As a CoffinHop preview I'm showcasing a story by one our our new CoffinHoppers, V.V. Vaymin, and posting my own Coffin Hop schedule:

Cashword by V. V. Vaymin

"Well what about the price of life? How much is life?" Mr. Welp asked his history class during a current event discussion.
“You can’t put a price on life,” Shelly Macky piped. Blonde, blue eyed, one would think she was a partier, but Shelly was extremely conservative. She went to church every Sunday, despised pro-choice activists, believed the government would never lie to its people, was a vegetarian, and thought that everyone should be the same.
“Well, what do you call war?” retorted Richie Love, a boy clothed in black and considered satanic by the high school populace.  Richie was the opposite of Shelly.  He didn’t attend church because he had concluded that one could talk to God whenever one wanted to.  He believed the church was a fraudulent institution.  As for the government?  Well, the government lied to its people, used its people, and repressed its people with censorships and security laws. He believed the constitution had been written for a reason. He believed that women, each woman, should have the choice to have a child or not. And, he ate meat and loved it.
“What do you mean?” Shelly asked.
“War costs money and you’re going to war to kill people. So, that’s putting a price on life isn’t it?”
“But that’s different from abortion.”
“How?”  Richie asked sitting back in his chair.
“Hello,” Shelly exclaimed, “you’re killing a baby!”
“No, a baby is when the fetus pops out.  And babies die during war.”
“Yes but that’s not the intention. We don’t go to war to kill babies. We get abortions to kill babies. And a baby is the same thing when it’s in the womb verses when it’s out. You’re killing a living being,” she huffed, sitting up straighter. He really irritated her. He just didn’t see.
“So, we kill animals to eat.” Richie twirled a pencil between his fingers.
“I don’t. I’m a vegetarian, and I can’t believe people go through the barbaric act of killing to eat.”
Richie laughed and set the pencil down; it rolled off the table onto the floor. “You are such a hypocrite. You kill to eat. You kill plants.”
“Plants—’”
Richie held up his hand cutting her off. The class, along with Mr. Welp, watched them with amusement. Shelly always had something to say, and Richie was quiet unless a topic intrigued him then he would never shut-up.  Put them together and history class wasn’t so boring.
“If I remember correctly,” he said, “you argued earlier that abortion was wrong because it kills a living being, right? However, plants are living beings.”
“Yeah, but they don’t feel,” Shelly countered.  Her face was flushed; she hated Richie. She thought he was arrogant, violent and argued for the sake of arguing. He picked on her and she often hoped that God would spite him and show him the error of his ways.
“Neither does a fetus before its nervous system develops.  And, how do you know plants don’t feel?  Did you ask them?”
“Ok,” Mr. Welp interjected before they could continue. “Back to the topic at hand. How do you put a price on life?”
“I still think you can’t.” Shelly replied.
“The government and the church do.” Richie said calmly. He wasn’t done arguing with her. For three months he had listened to Shelly preach and criticize everyone’s life but her own and those that were similar to her.
“How does the church put a price on life?” Shelly asked half hysterical.
“Oh, I don’t know,” he mused, folding his arms in front of him, “ten percent of your income is supposed to go to the church in order for you to be a good person.”
“You don’t have to donate and that’s if you’re Catholic.”
“Aren’t you?”
“Mr. Love,” Mr. Welp said sitting on his desk, “let’s drop this and get back to the subject at hand.”
“I thought we were on the subject at hand, but obviously there are a plethora of subjects that are too ‘uncomfortable’ to discuss,” Richie replied getting frustrated.
“Well,” Shelly drawled, “I would never put a price of life.”
Two weeks later, Friday night, Shelly and Martha were on their way to a sleep over at their church. They had stopped at a gas station to fill up the tank, grab some chips and drinks, and were about to pay when Martha decided to add two Cashword puzzles to the bill.
“How do you play these?” Shelly asked once they were back in the car.
“Just scratch the question marks, and then scratch the letter on the crossword part.” Martha said pulling out onto the road. “I heard you and Richie Love were going at it in history again.”
“Yeah, he really makes me mad. He’s so arrogant.”
“Really, I thought he was quiet and sincere.”
“Oh please Martha, you think every guy is a total sweetheart.”
“Hey now.”
“Well, it’s the truth,” Shelly said scratching away the last question mark.
“Gosh it’s hot in here,” Martha said rolling the windows down.
“Yeah, it’s definitely going to be summer soon,” Shelly paused, “I won!”
“Really,” Martha glanced at her, “how much?”
“One hundred dollars!” Shelly exclaimed. As they went around a turn, a gust of wind shot into the car blowing the Cashword out of Shelly’s hand.
“Crap! Martha pull over. I’m gonna get it.”
Martha slowed down, pulled onto the shoulder and flicked on her hazard lights.
“Be careful,” she said as Shelly jumped out of the car, “that’s a blind corner and it’s not exactly thirty-five through here.”
Shelly nodded absentmindedly as she walked back to the turn. The sun had gone down substantially since they had left the gas station, but the fading light reflected off the card turning it into a glowing beacon against the asphalt.
Shelly glanced down the road, no cars. She walked to the middle and bent down to pick up the Cashword.
Martha screamed as a conversion van came around the corner and Shelly was no more.

The next day Pennville Post read:
Girl Killed Retrieving $100 Cashword Card

Author Bio:

Ms. Vaymin spent the early years of her childhood moving across the United States with her nose in a book. With her head in the clouds she dreamt of becoming a writer or an artist. As she entered her teens, however, her thoughts turned to more practical and stable vocations to fit into society but those nagging earlier visions were never far from the surface. When she was 22-years-old she became a no-mortgage homeowner and decided to pursue earlier ambitions. Now at 24 she is the author of the Sci-Fi, thriller The Great Storms and a soon-to-be mother.
Website:  http://vaymin.wordpress.com/

And here’s my schedule for CoffinHop 2012:

Day 1: Oct. 24th- Introduction to my book Gothic Cavalcade

Day 2: Oct. 25th- A book review of The Luneburg Werewolf by Steve Vernon

Day 3: Oct. 26th- A guest post by Karen Dales and a link to her giveaway

Day 4: Oct. 27th- A story, an excerpt and a poem, written by me

Day 5: Oct. 28th- An interview with Michael Brookes, author of The Cult of Me (plus a book giveaway)

Day 6: Oct. 29th- A post on my visit to the HalCon Sci-fi Convention

Day 7: Oct. 30th- Some Fun with TV Vampires

Day 8: Oct. 31st- A guest Post by A.M. Harte, author of Hungry for You and Above Ground

There will also be ebook freebies tossed in at random intervals for your enjoyment and more freebies at the conclusion of the tour.

And be sure to check out the Coffin Hop Store for a grab bag of creepy goodies:  http://www.cafepress.com/coffinhop

Spotlight on Socialpunk

Today, I'm playing host again, this time to author Monica Leonelle as she makes her way around the internet on a blog tour for her book Socialpunk (the first novel in the series).  There are also prizes to won; to enter just use the Rafflecopter widget located on the bottom of this post.

So here you go, an introduction to Socialpunk:



Socialpunk by Monica Leonelle

Ima would give anything to escape The Dome and learn what’s beyond its barriers, but the Chicago government has kept all its citizens on lockdown ever since the Scorched Years left most of the world a desert wasteland. When a mysterious group of hooded figures enters the city unexpectedly, Ima uncovers a plot to destroy The Dome and is given the choice between escaping to a new, dangerous city or staying behind and fighting a battle she can never win.

Excerpt from Socialpunk

Prologue:

After playing God for six years with the world he created, he couldn’t control any of his subjects, none at all. Over the years, he had watched them evolve and become the sum of their own choices rather than the sum of his; and for that, he regretted ever giving them life.
A small, blinking red light from just inside his eyelid reminded him of the news they sent him earlier that morning. The company had cancelled his funding and would shut down his project within three months. According to them, the project cost too much and took up too much space, and the inconclusive results couldn’t be published reputably, now or in the future.
Six years of his work, tens of thousands of lives at stake—and he could do nothing to save any of it. He bowed his head, letting his chin rest on the rim of his breakfast smoothie. The smoothie reeked of powder—crushed pills—but he supposed he had better get used to it. He wouldn’t be able to afford the luxury of real food after they canned him.
He closed his eyes and called up the camera view of one of his favorites, number 3281. She fascinated him; he couldn’t deny it. When he had designed her, her pre-teen rebelliousness lit fire in her eyes. A survivor, he’d thought. He’d meant for her to have it all—to grow up, to get married to the love of her life, and to have a beautiful family of her own someday.
But he had only given her sadness so far. Instead of creating a strict father, he had given her an abusive one. Instead of creating a loving boyfriend, he had given her a friend who could never love her. And instead of creating a strong, proud mother, he had given her a meek one, who watched the whole thing unfold and did nothing about it.
He looked at his last and final creation sitting in the chair across from him—his own son, not awakened yet. The law forbade him to have any children of his own, so this boy would substitute.
But he had done the unthinkable with this creation—he had bestowed on it his own thoughts, emotions, and decision-making processes. He’d given the boy his own mind, his own physical characteristics, his own wants and desires.
He had never done so with any of the others because of the dangers of investing too heavily in any one of his subjects. But who could he kid? He had not stayed objective thus far, watching some of his subjects more closely than others, wishing for the happiness of some at the expense of others. He had become an abomination, a monster of his own doing, who had created subjects only to watch them suffer.
He couldn’t forgive himself; not now, not ever. His eyes lingered on the vial that sat next to his breakfast smoothie, that he’d stowed away for the day when they destroyed all his work, his entire world. He would save it, tuck it away for now, for as long as he could protect them. When things spun out of his control, he would drink it and end himself the way he had ended them.
In the ancient stories, gods frequently gave their sons as gifts. Now, he would give his son as a gift to her, number 3281. So she could be happy in her last months on earth, before they destroyed her with the rest of them.

Socialpunk available at:

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Socialpunk-1-ebook/dp/B007RN7632/

Barnes and Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/books/1109952773

Author Bio:
Monica Leonelle is a well-known digital media strategist and the author of three novels. She blogs at Prose on Fire (http://proseonfire.com) and shares her writing and social media knowledge with other bloggers and authors through her Free Writer Toolkit (http://proseonfire.com/free-writer-toolkit).

To enter the Contest:

a Rafflecopter giveaway