The View From Monday ... on Tuesday - January 29, 2019

Happy Tuesday!

There is one debut this week:

Here and Now and Then by Mike Chen.

Clicking on a novel's cover will take you to its Amazon page.

From formerly featured DAC Authors:

The Wolf in the Whale by Jordanna Max Brodsky;

Tides of the Titans (Titan's Forest 3) by Thoraiya Dyer;

and

The Sky is Yours by Chandler Klang Smith is out in Trade Paperback.

Clicking on a novel's cover will take you to its Amazon page.

Debut novels are highlighted in blue. Novels, etc. by formerly featured DAC Authors are highlighted in green.

January 29, 2019

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
The Dark Lands	Greig Beck	AH/SF - The Valkeryn Chronicles 2
Vigilance	Robert Jackson Bennett	SF/HSF/PolTh
Lake Silence (h2mm)	Anne Bishop	DF/CF/FR - World of the Others 1
Burn Bright (h2mm)	Patricia Briggs	PNR/UF - Alpha and Omega 5
The Wolf in the Whale	Jordanna Max Brodsky	Hist/CulH/F/HistF/CoA/FairyT/FolkT/LM
Witchy Winter (h2mm)	D.J. Butler	HistF - Witchy 2
Here and Now and Then (D)	Mike Chen	LF/FL/SF/TT
The Queen of Sorrow (h2mm)	Sarah Beth Durst	F - Queens of Renthia 3
Tides of the Titans	Thoraiya Dyer	F - Titan's Forest 3
Vengeance Road	Christine Feehan	PNR - Torpedo Ink 2
King of Ashes (tp2mm)	Raymond E. Feist	F - Firemane Saga 1
Welcome to Dystopia: 45 Visions of What Lies Ahead	Gordon Van Gelder (Ed)	SF/AP/PA/Dys - Anthology
Trouble No Man	Brian Hart	LF
Never Die	Rob J. Hayes	F
Crazy Cupid Love	Amanda Heger	PNR/FR -  Let's Get Mythical 1
The Smoke	Simon Ings	SF/GenEng/LF
Sins of Her Father (h2mm)	Mike Kupari	SF/SO - Privateer Andromeda 2
In the Region of the Summer Stars (h2mm)	Stephen R. Lawhead	F - Eirlandia 1
The Line Between	Tosca Lee	Sus
The Long Sunset (h2mm)	Jack McDevitt	SF - The Academy
Embers of War (tp2mm)	Gareth L. Powell	SF/SO - Embers of War 1
Miracle Workers	Simon Rich	MTI/HU/F
Cast in Oblivion	Michelle Sagara	F - The Chronicles of Elantra 14
Reckoning of Fallen Gods	R. A. Salvatore	F/DF - A Tale of the Coven 2
The Sky Is Yours (h2tp)	Chandler Klang Smith	LF/SF/AP/PA/F
Age of War (h2mm)	Michael J. Sullivan	F/HistF - The Legends of the First Empire 3
Bringers of Hell (h2mm)	Travis S. Taylor	SF - Tau Ceti Agenda 6

January 31, 2019

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Barren	Peter V. Brett	DF/F
The Prisoner of Limnos	Lois McMaster Bujold	F

D - Debut
e - eBook
Ed - Editor
h2mm - Hardcover to Mass Market Paperback
h2tp - Hardcover to Trade Paperback
ri - reissue or reprint
tp2mm - Trade Paperback to Mass Market Paperback
Tr - Translator



AC - Alien Contact
AH - Alternate History
AP - Apocalyptic
CF - Contemporary Fantasy
CoA - Coming of Age
Cr - Crime
CulH - Cultural Heritage
CyP - Cyberpunk
DF - Dark Fantasy
Dys - Dystopian
F - Fantasy
FairyT - Fairy Tales
FL - Family Life
FolkT - Folk Tales
FR - Fantasy Romance
GenEng - Genetic Engineering
GH - Ghost(s)
H - Horror
Hist - Historical
HistF - Historical Fantasy
HSF - Hard Science Fiction
Hu - Humor
LF - Literary Fiction
LM - Legend and Mythology
M - Mystery
MedTh - Medical Thriller
MR - Magical Realism
MTI - Media Tie-In
NF - Near Future
Occ - Occult
P - Paranormal
PA - Post Apocalyptic
PCM - Parnormal Cozy Mystery
PM - Paranormal Mystery
PNR - Paranormal Romance
PolTh - Political Thriller
PopCul - Popular Culture
Psy - Psychological
PsyTh - Psychological Thriller
Sc - Science
SE - Space Exploration
SF - Science Fiction
SFR - Science Fiction Romance
SO - Space Opera
SP - Steampunk
Sup - Supernatural
SupTh - Supernatural Thriller
Sus - Suspense
TechTh - Technological Thriller
Th - Thriller
TT - Time Travel
UF - Urban Fantasy

Note: Not all genres and formats are found in the books, etc. listed above.

Covers Revealed - Upcoming Works by DAC Authors

Here are some of the upcoming works by formerly featured Debut Author Challenge (DAC) Authors. The year in parentheses is the year the author was featured in the DAC.

Delilah S. Dawson (2012)
Kevin Hearne (2011)

Kill the Farm Boy
The Tales of Pell 1
Del Rey, February 26, 2019
Trade Paperback, 400 pages
  Hardcover and eBook, July 17, 2018

In an irreverent new series in the tradition of Monty Python, the bestselling authors of the Iron Druid Chronicles and Star Wars: Phasma reinvent fantasy, fairy tales, and floridly written feast scenes.

“Ranks among the best of Christopher Moore and Terry Pratchett.”—Chuck Wendig

“When you put two authors of this high caliber together, expect fireworks. Or at least laughs. What a hoot!”—Terry Brooks

Once upon a time, in a faraway kingdom, a hero, the Chosen One, was born . . . and so begins every fairy tale ever told.

This is not that fairy tale.

There is a Chosen One, but he is unlike any One who has ever been Chosened.

And there is a faraway kingdom, but you have never been to a magical world quite like the land of Pell.

There, a plucky farm boy will find more than he’s bargained for on his quest to awaken the sleeping princess in her cursed tower. First there’s the Dark Lord, who wishes for the boy’s untimely death . . . and also very fine cheese. Then there’s a bard without a song in her heart but with a very adorable and fuzzy tail, an assassin who fears not the night but is terrified of chickens, and a mighty fighter more frightened of her sword than of her chain-mail bikini. This journey will lead to sinister umlauts, a trash-talking goat, the Dread Necromancer Steve, and a strange and wondrous journey to the most peculiar “happily ever after” that ever once-upon-a-timed.

Amazon : Barnes and Noble : Book Depository : Books-A-Million : IndieBound

Google Play : iBooks : Kobo

Book 2
Available April 16, 2019

Kevin Hearne (2011)
Lila Bowen (2012)
Chuck Wendig (2012)

Death & Honey
Subterranean Press, February 28, 2019
Hardcover and eBook, 304 pages

Death & Honey contains three novellas by New York Times bestsellers Delilah S. Dawson, Kevin Hearne, and Chuck Wendig. Each of the stories features a full-color, full-page illustration by Galen Dara, who also contributed the cover and a full-color frontispiece.

In The Buzz Kill by Kevin Hearne, Oberon the Irish wolfhound and Starbuck the Boston Terrier sink their teeth into a new Meaty Mystery when they discover a body underneath a beehive in Tasmania. It’s been badly stung, but the bees aren’t at fault: This is homicide. The hounds recruit the help of their Druid, Atticus O’Sullivan, and the Tasmanian police to track down the killer in the interest of a reward—but this time, they want more than food and justice.

Grist of Bees, by Delilah S. Dawson writing as Lila Bowen, follows Rhett Walker, who has given up his destiny as the monster-hunting Shadow to settle down with his beloved Sam. But when the call to action grows too strong, Rhett saddles up to follow a peculiar bee into the unforgiving desert. The bee leads him to a weeping mother in a strangely prosperous valley, and Rhett has no choice but to hunt the creature that's stolen her child—even if it destroys a land of milk and honey.

Interlude: Tanager by Chuck Wendig returns us to the world of Miriam Black. Lauren “Wren" Martin is a young psychic woman who can see the stained souls of killers; it is her gift, or as she sees it, her curse. And up until now, it has been her mission to kill those killers, to remove them from the pattern so that they may not murder again. But now, after a death that may not have been deserved, she’s left rudderless, without plan or purpose, until a woman with a strange power of her own takes her in and gives her a new mission—and a new target.

Amazon : Barnes and Noble : Book Depository : Books-A-Million : IndieBound

iBooks

Lettered and Limited Editions available here at Subterranean Press

Note: The eBook edition has a different cover from the Hardcover.

Peter Stenson (2013)

Thirty Seven
Dzanc Books, February 5, 2019
Trade Paperback, 288 pages
  Hardcover and eBook, February 13, 2018

One of Boolist's Best Ten Horror Books of 2018

The Survivors, their members known only by the order in which they joined, live alone in a rural Colorado mansion. They believe that sickness bears honesty. And that honesty bears change. Fueled by the ritualized Cytoxan treatments that leave them on the verge of death, they instigate the Day of Gifts, a day that spells shocking violence and the group’s demise.

Enter Mason Hues, formerly known as Thirty-Seven, the group’s final member and the only one both alive and free. Eighteen years old and living in a spartan apartment after his release from a year of intensive mental health counseling, he takes a job at a thrift shop and expects to while away his days as quietly and unobtrusively as possible.

But when his enigmatic boss Talley learns his secret, she comes to believe that there is still hope in the Survivor philosophy. She pushes Mason to start the group over again—this time with himself as One.

Part Fight Club, part The Girls, and entirely unlike anything you’ve ever experienced, Peter Stenson’s Thirty-Seven is an audacious and austere novel that explores our need to belong. Our need to be loved. Our need to believe in something greater than ourselves, and our ultimate capacity for self-delusion.

Amazon : Barnes and Noble : Book Depository : Books-A-Million : IndieBound

Kobo

Tom Sweterlitsch (2014)

The Gone World
G.P. Putnam's & Sons, February 5, 2019
Trade Paperback, 400 pages
  Hardcover and eBook, February 6, 2019

“I promise you have never read a story like this.”—Blake Crouch, New York Times bestselling author of Dark Matter

Inception meets True Detective in this science fiction thriller of spellbinding tension and staggering scope that follows a special agent into a savage murder case with grave implications for the fate of mankind…

Shannon Moss is part of a clandestine division within the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. In western Pennsylvania, 1997, she is assigned to solve the murder of a Navy SEAL’s family—and to locate his vanished teenage daughter. Though she can’t share the information with conventional law enforcement, Moss discovers that the missing SEAL was an astronaut aboard the spaceship U.S.S. Libra—a ship assumed lost to the currents of Deep Time. Moss knows first-hand the mental trauma of time-travel and believes the SEAL’s experience with the future has triggered this violence.

Determined to find the missing girl and driven by a troubling connection from her own past, Moss travels ahead in time to explore possible versions of the future, seeking evidence to crack the present-day case. To her horror, the future reveals that it’s not only the fate of a family that hinges on her work, for what she witnesses rising over time’s horizon and hurtling toward the present is the Terminus: the terrifying and cataclysmic end of humanity itself.

Luminous and unsettling, The Gone World bristles with world-shattering ideas yet remains at its heart an intensely human story.

Amazon : Barnes and Noble : Book Depository : Books-A-Million : IndieBound

Google Play : iBooks : Kobo

Covers Revealed - Upcoming Works by DAC Authors

Here are some of the upcoming works by formerly featured Debut Author Challenge (DAC) Authors. The year in parentheses is the year the author was featured in the DAC.

Jennifer David Hesse (2016)

May Day Murder
A Wiccan Wheel Mystery 5
Kensington Books, March 26, 2019
Mass Market Paperback and eBook, 352 pages

Spring is in the air, but for Edindale, Illinois, attorney Keli Milanni, murder is the only thing blooming. . .

Keli’s looking forward to Beltane, the time-honored Wiccan holiday that celebrates life with feasting, ceremonial dancing, and ancient Celtic rituals. But since recently leaving her law firm and opening her own practice, Keli has more on her plate than simple abundance. Still, she always has time for a friend. Erik, a Druid from a neighboring town, has had a run of bad luck he blames on a curse cast by his ex-girlfriend Denise, a practicing witch whose expertise in the dark arts can’t save her from her own deadly end.

When Keli finds herself a person of interest in the investigation, she begins to wonder if she herself might be cursed. With a little help from her friends, including her devoted boyfriend Wes, Keli aims to find out who poisoned Denise. What she uncovers is a witch’s brew of spells, hexes, and black magic that raises questions about her own Wiccan worldview. As the community gathers for the May Day festivities, it’s up to Keli to stop a killer from springing ahead to another murder . . .

Amazon : Barnes and Noble : Book Depository : Books-A-Million : IndieBound

Google Play : iBooks : Kobo

A Wiccan Wheel Mystery 1	A Wiccan Wheel Mystery 2
A Wiccan Wheel Mystery 3	A Wiccan Wheel Mystery 4

Julie McElwain (2016)

Betrayal in Time
Kendra Donovan Mysteries 4
Pegasus Books, July 2, 2019
Hardcover and eBook, 464 pages

Kendra Donovan’s adventures in nineteenth-century England continue when she is called upon to investigate the murder of a spymaster.

February 1816: A race through the icy, twisting cobblestone streets of London ends inside an abandoned church—and a horrific discovery. Bow Street Runner Sam Kelly is called to investigate the grisly murder of Sir Giles Holbrooke, who was left naked and garroted, with his tongue cut out. Yet as perplexing as that crime is, it becomes even stranger when symbols that resemble crosses mysteriously begin to appear across the dead man’s flesh during autopsy. Is it a message from the killer?

Sam turns to the one person in the kingdom who he believes can answer that question and solve the bizarre murder—the Duke of Aldridge’s odd but brilliant ward, Kendra Donovan.

While Kendra has been trying to adapt to her new life in the early nineteenth century, she is eager to use her skills as a twenty-first century FBI agent again. And she will need all her investigative prowess, because Sir Giles was not an average citizen. He was one of England’s most clever spymasters, whose life had been filled with intrigue and subterfuge.

Kendra’s return to the gritty streets and glittering ballrooms of London takes her down increasingly dangerous paths. When more bodies are discovered, murdered in the same apparently ritualistic manner as Sir Giles, the American begins to realize that they are dealing with a killer with an agenda, whose mind has been twisted by rage and bitterness so that the price of a perceived betrayal is death.

Amazon : Barnes and Noble : Book Depository : Books-A-Million : IndieBound

iBooks : Kobo

Caught in Time
Kendra Donovan Mysteries 3
Pegasus Books, July 9, 2019
Trade Paperback, 464 pages
Hardcover and eBook, July 3, 2018

Still stranded in 1815, FBI agent Kendra Donovan finds herself on the trail of a vicious murderer with a shocking secret.

October 1815: There is only one place Kendra Donovan wants to travel—back to her own time period in the twenty-first century. But since that’s not happening, she agrees instead to travel with her new guardian, the Duke of Aldridge, to one of his smaller estates in Lancashire. Their journey takes them through Yorkshire, a region whose breathtaking beauty masks a simmering violence brought on by the Industrial Revolution, which pits mill owner against worker.

When Kendra and the Duke encounter a band of Luddites on a lonely, fog-shrouded road, the Duke informs the authorities in the nearby village of East Dingleford that mischief may have been done at the local mill. However, it isn’t just mischief but murder that is discovered, when the body of the mill manager, Mr. Stone, is found brutally bludgeoned to death in his office.

The Constable is certain the radical-minded Luddites committed the murder. One look at the crime scene and Kendra knows they did not, prompting the Duke to shock the locals by volunteering their services to catch the real killer. Joined by lover Alec and Bow Street Runner Sam Kelly, Kendra must sort through the puzzle of Stone’s rather unsavory life, picking apart alibies and dissecting carefully created deceptions from a growing list of suspects.

As a special agent for the FBI, Kendra thought she’d encountered every kind of evil. But when another, even more vicious murder rocks East Dingleford, Kendra realizes that they’re dealing with a stone-cold killer—one who has a shocking secret that he will do anything to protect.

Amazon : Barnes and Noble : Book Depository : Books-A-Million : IndieBound

Google Play : iBooks : Kobo

Kendra Donovan Mysteries 1

Kendra Donovan Mysteries 2

Carol J. Perry (2014)

Final Exam
A Witch City Mystery 8
Kensington Books, February 26, 2019
Mass Market Paperback and eBook 368 pages

A cold case update in Salem, Massachusetts . . .

Life at the house on Winter Street is abuzz with preparations for Aunt Ibby’s 45th high school reunion, and Lee Barrett is happy to pitch in, tracking down addresses and licking envelopes. But as a field reporter for Salem’s WICH-TV, her priority is to be on top of the town’s latest news before anyone else.

When the local police dredge up a vintage sports car containing human remains, Lee is thrilled to be the first reporter on the scene. Once she learns the car is connected to the cold case her boyfriend Pete happens to be working on, her powers of investigation are quickly alerted. But it’s her Aunt Ibby’s emotional reaction to Lee’s TV report that puts her on the case. With the help of O’Ryan, her psychic feline sidekick, she’ll have to unravel a tangled past of secrets and promises to stop a killer from making history again . . .

Amazon : Barnes and Noble : Book Depository : Books-A-Million : IndieBound

Google Play : iBooks : Kobo

A Witch City Mystery 1

A Witch City Mystery 2

A Witch City Mystery 3	A Witch City Mystery 4
A Witch City Mystery 5	A Witch City Mystery 6

A Witch City Mystery 7

Covers Revealed - Upcoming Works by DAC Authors

Here are some of the upcoming works by formerly featured Debut Author Challenge (DAC) Authors. The year in parentheses is the year the author was featured in the DAC.

Christopher Brown (2017)

Rule of Capture
Harper Voyager, August 13, 2019
Trade Paperback and eBook, 336 pages

Better Call Saul meets Nineteen Eighty-Four in this first volume in an explosive legal thriller series set in the world of Tropic of Kansas—a finalist for the 2018 Campbell Award for best science fiction novel of the year.

Defeated in a devastating war with China, America is on the brink of a bloody civil war. Seizing power after a controversial election, the ruling regime has begun cracking down on dissidents fighting the nation’s slide toward dictatorship. For Donny Kimoe, chaos is good for business. He’s a lawyer who makes his living defending enemies of the state.

His newest client, young filmmaker Xelina Rocafuerte, witnessed the murder of an opposition leader and is now accused of terrorism. To save her from the only sentence worse than death, Donny has to extract justice from a system that has abandoned the rule of law. That means breaking the rules—and risking the same fate as his clients.

When Donny bungles Xelina’s initial hearing, he has only days to save the young woman from being transferred to a detention camp from which no one returns. His only chance of winning is to find the truth—a search that begins with the opposition leader’s death and leads to a dark conspiracy reaching the highest echelons of power.

Now, Donny isn’t just fighting for his client’s life—he’s battling for his own. But as the trial in the top secret court begins, Xelina’s friends set into motion a revolutionary response that could destroy the case. And when another case unexpectedly collides with Xelina’s, Donny uncovers even more devastating secrets, knowledge that will force him to choose between saving one client . . . or the future of the entire country.

Amazon : Barnes and Noble : Book Depository : Books-A-Million : IndieBound

Google Play : iBooks : Kobo

Sebastien de Castell (2014)

Queenslayer
Spellslinger 5
Orbit, May 21, 2019
Trade Paperback and eBook, 400 pages

A failed mage learns that just because he’s not the chosen one it doesn’t mean he can’t be a hero in the fifth book of an adventure fantasy series from Sebastien de Castell.

Kellen Argos is an outlaw spellslinger with a bad reputation, a long list of enemies, and zero luck. When he accidently smears blood on the Daroman flag, he’s dragged before the queen to be executed for his act of treason.

Face-to-face with the young monarch, Kellen is offered a chance to save himself. If he can defeat the queen at a game of cards, he’ll walk free…if not, his life is forfeit. But what begins as a game reveals a conspiracy against the queen’s life. And now, Kellen is not only playing for his own freedom, but also for the future of an empire.

Spellslinger Series
Spellslinger
Shadowblack
Charmcaster
Soulbinder
Queenslayer

For more from Sebastien de Castell, check out:

The Greatcoats Quartet
Traitor’s Blade
Saint’s Blood
Knight’s Shadow
Tyrant’s Throne

Amazon : Barnes and Noble : Book Depository : Books-A-Million : IndieBound

Google Play : iBooks : Kobo

Spellslinger 1	Spellslinger 2
Spellslinger 3	Spellslinger 4

Christopher Husberg (2016)

Fear the Stars
Chaos Queen Quintet 4
Titan Books, June 4, 2019
Trade Paperback and eBook, 400 pages

The fourth book in the epic Chaos Queen series. "Perfect for fans of Daniel Abraham and Brandon Sanderson." (Library Journal on Duskfall)

All parties converge on the capital city, Triah - Cinzia and the Odenites to establish their new religion and appeal against a charge of heresy; Knot and Astrid to find answers in the vampire girl's past; and Winter has come to conquer the city, at the head of a tiellan army. But Winter is still struggling with her addictions and anger; Knot's efforts to be reunited with her can only lead to disappointment. Cinzia cannot free herself from a terrible bargain. And as the battle lines are drawn, the true nature of the goddess Canta, and the Odenites' final purpose, will soon be revealed...

Amazon : Barnes and Noble : Book Depository : Books-A-Million : IndieBound

Google Play : iBooks : Kobo

Chaos Queen 1

Chaos Queen 2

Chaos Queen 3

Interview with Gareth Hanrahan, author of The Gutter Prayer

Please welcome Gareth Hanrahan to The Qwillery as part of the 2019 Debut Author Challenge Interviews. The Gutter Prayer is published on January 22, 2019 by Orbit.

TQ:  Welcome to The Qwillery. What is the first piece of fiction you remember writing?

Gareth:  Oh wow. Um. I’m pretty sure I got into trouble writing Voltron fanfic in primary school, in Third Class (Third Grade).



TQ:  Are you a plotter, a pantser or a hybrid?

Gareth:  Hmm. When it comes to worldbuilding, pretty much a pantser – years and years of working on roleplaying games means that I’m pretty good at coming up with context and ramifications for whatever weird ideas I want to play with. For narrative, I try to plot more, although I find I need to revisit the plan every few chapters and adjust it based on how the characters are developing.



TQ:  What is the most challenging thing for you about writing?

Gareth:  Unlearning some of the habits I picked up writing tabletop games (in an rpg adventure, you want to avoid dictating what the main characters do or feel, as that’s up to the players). Also, the usual challenge of finding time and energy.



TQ:  What has influenced / influences your writing?

Gareth:  Is it absurd if I say everything? I’ve found the oddest things linger, and become weirdly influential. I randomly picked up a book on Victorian engineering many years ago, for example, and that was a huge influence not only on The Gutter Prayer, but on four or five other projects. You can get wonderful results by paying attention to the most mundane things – old street signs, or animals in rock pools, or whatever – and assuming there’s a magical significance to them.

Major literary influences – Tim Powers, Robert Holdstock, China Mieville, Lovecraft, Tolkien.



TQ:  Describe The Gutter Prayer using only 5 words.

Gareth:  I’m tempted to use a quote from the book – “fucking fuckers fucked us” – but it’s only four words. “Vengeful rogues amid architecture & stabbings”?



TQ:  Tell us something about The Gutter Prayer that is not found in the book description.

Gareth:  Guerdon’s patrolled by creatures called the Tallowmen – wax monsters created by the alchemists’ guild. Imagine a person made of wax, only their spine’s replaced by a magical wick, and their mind is the burning candle-flame inside their skull. They make the Tallowmen from condemned criminals, and then send them out to enforce the law. Tallowmen burn down over time, they’ve got to be renewed every so often – so the creatures are forced to obey the alchemists in order to win another chance at their horrid existence.



TQ:  What inspired you to write The Gutter Prayer? What appeals to you about writing Fantasy?

Gareth:  I don’t think there was any single moment of inspiration – more a sort of critical mass of ideas. I wrote the first 20,000 words or so for nanowrimo one year without any real clue of where the story was going or what it was for – I rarely find time to write for myself – and came back to it the following year and finished it.

Fantasy – fantasy’s a wonderful set of tools. It lets you exaggerate and concretise elements of the story (the villain can be a literal dark lord on a dark throne), it lets you focus the action on a small number of people (three thieves in a city, or a few Hobbits in a fellowship, can save the world), giving you human action on an epic scale.

Also, you get to make up monsters all day long.



TQ:  What sort of research did you do for The Gutter Prayer?

Gareth:  None for the book itself. But I’d done research for other projects on alchemy, or architecture, or crime in the 19th century, or how secret societies work, so I was able to draw on all that. If you drew a Venn diagram of “non-fiction books Gar has read in the last twenty years”, the Gutter Prayer would be somewhere near the centre.



TQ:  Please tell us about the cover for The Gutter Prayer.

Gareth:  The cover’s a wonderfully atmospheric piece by Richard Anderson, depicting the city and the three thieves, Cari, Spar and Rat. I love the sense of scale it gives – you’ve got these buildings and spires towering over the thieves.

I’ve heard, over and over, from people who say the cover sold them on the book before they ever picked it up. I’m really happy with the cover.



TQ:  In The Gutter Prayer who was the easiest character to write and why? The hardest and why?

Gareth:  Carillon wasn’t necessarily the easiest to write, but she was the most necessary. As I said earlier, my background is in writing tabletop games, where you want to leave space for the players to provide the protagonists. So, I’m really used to coming up with interesting situations, with compelling supporting characters, with villains – but not protagonists who actually do stuff. Carillon’s impulsive and incapable of sitting still or walking away. And once she was in motion, everyone else could react to her, and that made it possible for me to write the book.

The hardest – I had to restrain myself with writing Professor Ongent. He’s in the Giles-from-Buffy role of providing backstory and exposition, and I could write that stuff for years.



TQ:  Does The Gutter Prayer touch on any social issues?

Gareth:  A little. There’s a lot about power dynamics in there, about the gap between high-minded ideals and practical solutions. Several of the people the main characters think of as villains are genuinely – according to their own beliefs – trying to make the world a better place, and have judged the costs worth it. They’re not the only people paying the cost, of course, but that does that make them entirely misguided?



TQ:  Which question about The Gutter Prayer do you wish someone would ask? Ask it and answer it!

Gareth:  Let’s go for “Why did you pick the present tense for the story, instead of the more usual past tense?”

A lot of the story is about delving into the history of Guerdon, into events and secrets that have been buried over the centuries. I wanted the past to feel distant and weighty. Also, the three main characters are, in their ways, very much creatures of the immediate moment. Cari acts on impulse, Rat on instinct, and Spar’s very much aware that his future’s measured in months, not years.



TQ:  Give us one or two of your favorite non-spoilery quotes from The Gutter Prayer.

Gareth:

          Aleena sheathes her knife, puts away the gun. “The Keepers sent me,” she begins.
          The elder ghoul snarls, angry at the lack of respect. Beyond it, other elders stir from their reverie. Sorcery hisses through the air like mustard gas, stinging Rat’s eyes and nose. He wants to run.
          “Buggering monks with their shitty scrolls. Er. I had all this written down,” mutters Aleena, and she tries to recite the correct greeting from memory. The words aren’t meant for human tongues, and she stumbles over them, like she’s trying to gargle with finger bones in her mouth.
          The orange-eyed elder unfolds, one obscenely long hoof-footed leg extending down to the cave floor, then another, crushing skulls to powder as it stands up and towers above them. Its jaws open much too wide as it yawns and roars. The elders may be the protectors and priests and gods of their race, but they think nothing of swatting an individual ghoul. Rat cringes in anticipation of the killing swipe.
          “Fuck this.”
          Aleena blazes with sudden light. Angelic, transfigured, her physical body is a stained-glass case for the burning lamp within. Her voice like choirs of angels.
          “I DROPPED THE BLOODY SCROLL, ALL RIGHT? I CAN’T SODDING MAKE NICE.” Every word a resounding trumpet. “BUT NOTHING’S CHANGED. THE BARGAINS YOUR KIND MADE WITH MINE STILL HOLD. I’M NOT YOUR FUCKING ENEMY.” She cocks her head.
          “YOU DON’T WANT ME AS YOUR ENEMY.”

TQ:  What's next?

Gareth:  I’m frantically working on edits for the second book in the series, entitled either THE SHADOW SAINT or THE DIVINE MACHINE, as well as a bunch of tabletop roleplaying projects ranging from spies-vs-Cthulhu adventures in the 1960s for Fall of Delta Green to Middle-earth material for The One Ring game.



TQ:  Thank you for joining us at The Qwillery.

The Gutter Prayer
The Black Iron Legacy 1
Orbit, January 22, 2019
Trade Paperback and eBook, 560 pages

A group of three young thieves are pulled into a centuries old magical war between ancient beings, mages, and humanity in this wildly original debut epic fantasy.

Enter a city of saints and thieves . . .

The city of Guerdon stands eternal. A refuge from the war that rages beyond its borders. But in the ancient tunnels deep beneath its streets, a malevolent power has begun to stir.

The fate of the city rests in the hands of three thieves. They alone stand against the coming darkness. As conspiracies unfold and secrets are revealed, their friendship will be tested to the limit. If they fail, all will be lost, and the streets of Guerdon will run with blood.

The Gutter Prayer is an epic tale of sorcerers and thieves, treachery and revenge, from a remarkable new voice in fantasy.

Amazon : Barnes and Noble : Book Depository : Books-A-Million : IndieBound

Google Play : iBooks : Kobo

About Gareth

Photo by Edel Ryder-Hanrahan

Gareth Hanrahan's three-month break from computer programming to concentrate on writing has now lasted fifteen years and counting. He's written more gaming books than he can readily recall, by virtue of the alchemical transmutation of tea and guilt into words. He lives in Ireland with his wife and twin sons. Follow him on Twitter @mytholder.









Website

The View From Monday - January 21, 2019

Happy Monday!

There is one debut this week:

The Gutter Prayer (The Black Iron Legacy 1) by Gareth Hanrahan.

Clicking on a novel's cover will take you to its Amazon page.

From formerly featured DAC Authors:

A Labyrinth of Scions and Sorcery (The Risen Kingdoms 2) by Curtis Craddock;

The Will to Battle (Terra Ignota 3) by Ada Palmer is out in Trade Paperback;

and

Vultures (Miriam Black 6) by Chuck Wendig.

Clicking on a novel's cover will take you to its Amazon page.

Debut novels are highlighted in blue. Novels, etc. by formerly featured DAC Authors are highlighted in green.

January 22, 2019

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
The Hod King	Josiah Bancroft	F/HistF - The Books of Babel 3
The Kingdom of Copper	S. A Chakraborty	F - The Daevabad Trilogy 2
A Labyrinth of Scions and Sorcery	Curtis Craddock	F/SP - The Risen Kingdoms 2
Tor.com Publishing Editorial Spotlight #1: A Selection of Novellas (e)	Carl Engle-Laird (Ed)	SF/F - Anthology
The Gutter Prayer (D)	Gareth Hanrahan	F - The Black Iron Legacy 1
Pandora: Contagion	Eric L. Harry	SF/Th - Pandora Thriller 2
Callis and Toll: The Silver Shard	Nick Horth	F - Warhammer: Age of Sigmar
Mississippi Roll (h2tp)	George R. R. Martin Wild Cards Trust	SF - Wild Cards 17
The Will to Battle (h2tp)	Ada Palmer	SF - Terra Ignota 3
Readymade Bodhisattva: The Kaya Anthology of South Korean Science Fiction	Sunyoung Park (Ed) Sang Joon Park (Ed)	SF - Anthology
Miraculum	Steph Post	Occ/Sup/Cr/HistM
Crucible	James Rollins	Sus - Sigma Force Series 13
Blood Angels - The Complete Rafen Omnibus	James Swallow	SF - Warhammer 40,000
All Systems Red (Hardcover Edition)	Martha Wells	SF - The Murderbot Diaries 1
Vultures	Chuck Wendig	SupTh - Miriam Black 6
Warriors of the Chaos Wastes	C L Werner	SF - Warhammer Chronicles
Golden State	Ben H. Winters	Cr/PolTh/TechTh

D - Debut
e - eBook
Ed - Editor
h2mm - Hardcover to Mass Market Paperback
h2tp - Hardcover to Trade Paperback
ri - reissue or reprint
tp2mm - Trade Paperback to Mass Market Paperback
Tr - Translator



AC - Alien Contact
AH - Alternate History
AP - Apocalyptic
CF - Contemporary Fantasy
CoA - Coming of Age
Cr - Crime
CulH - Cultural Heritage
CyP - Cyberpunk
DF - Dark Fantasy
Dys - Dystopian
F - Fantasy
FairyT - Fairy Tales
FL - Family Life
FolkT - Folk Tales
FR - Fantasy Romance
GenEng - Genetic Engineering
GH - Ghost(s)
H - Horror
Hist - Historical
HistF - Historical Fantasy
HSF - Hard Science Fiction
Hu - Humor
LF - Literary Fiction
LM - Legend and Mythology
M - Mystery
MedTh - Medical Thriller
MR - Magical Realism
MTI - Media Tie-In
NF - Near Future
Occ - Occult
P - Paranormal
PA - Post Apocalyptic
PCM - Parnormal Cozy Mystery
PM - Paranormal Mystery
PNR - Paranormal Romance
PolTh - Political Thriller
PopCul - Popular Culture
Psy - Psychological
PsyTh - Psychological Thriller
Sc - Science
SE - Space Exploration
SF - Science Fiction
SFR - Science Fiction Romance
SO - Space Opera
SP - Steampunk
Sup - Supernatural
SupTh - Supernatural Thriller
Sus - Suspense
TechTh - Technological Thriller
Th - Thriller
TT - Time Travel
UF - Urban Fantasy

Note: Not all genres and formats are found in the books, etc. listed above.