Monthly Archives: November 2012

The Future Burns Bright (Volume 1)… Done!

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As has previously been noted on this blog, the fourth and final book of The Angel Brings Fire — namely, The Future Burns Bright — will consist of two (2) separate volumes.

I know this may seem rather counter-intuitive to some readers (e.g. “why didn’t you just call it ‘Books #4 and #5?”), but The Future Burns Bright really is a single story (you’ll just have to take my word for this). But actually, the main reason for the two-volume format is, for the paperback version of the book, the various POD publishers impose certain upper limits in terms of “maximum page count”… there was simply no way in which to properly finish the story, within the artificial limits that would have been required to fit it into a single book.

(Note : Obviously, these limits don’t apply to an e-Book; but to have done The Future Burns Bright exclusively as an e-Book, would have created an entirely different set of problems… like, “people who bought the paperback versions of the first 3 books and who don’t have an e-Reader, are “SOL”… “let’s not go there, eh”.)

In any event, I’m pleased to report that all editorial and narrative work is now complete on Volume 1 of The Future Burns Bright; it exists as a .PDF with preliminary cover art (I’m waiting for the “final” cover art to get done).

I’d ask fans of The Angel Brings Fire to be patient, as The Future Burns Bright will be available in its entirety, in the late summer of 2013… but if you just can’t wait, send me an e-mail and I’ll try to get you a preview (in .PDF, .MOBI or .EPUB e-Book formats, only) copy.

And as a “teaser”… read on, to see the back-cover synopsis of the book!

The Angel Brings Fire
Book 4 (Volume 1) : The Future Burns Bright, Volume 1

The “Storied Watcher”, a.k.a. Karéin-Mayréij, is living up to her name : at war with the U.S. police state of 2040, she’s just paid a visit to the White House, that nobody will ever forget. But she’s not the only disaster with which the President must contend… nuclear terrorists are almost ready to set off an H-Bomb, somewhere in America.

While a FBI team tries frantically to placate the alien-girl, treachery abounds : the government plans to rid itself of her, by murdering those she loves, many of whom have been “renditioned” to a nightmarish, secret Alaskan prison.

But the friends of Karéin-Mayréij now have alien-powers of their own… and they’re in a desperate battle to stay alive, while the Storied Watcher recruits an army… one that the President (to say the least) isn’t prepared for.

Unfortunately, time’s running out… both for millions of helpless Americans, and for the family of a certain “Destroying Angel”.

It’s only a few minutes, to a bright-burning dawn…

Marcus Shields

Author, The Angel Brings Fire

Characters from Angel and The Empire

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Following on a post of the same nature related to the character list from Doubt Me Not, here are some more popular-culture similes of the characters in the third book of the Angel Brings Fire series. (Note : Obviously, quite a few of the characters from the first two books are also in Angel and The Empire, and with one minor and one rather <ahem> “important” exception, I’m not going to re-portray these; what’s depicted below, except for the Storied Watcher, represents the “net new” characters from Angel and The Empire.)

First off, since the post that originally described the book’s characters, I’ve stumbled across a better “prototype” for Karéin-Mayréij, a.k.a. the Storied Watcher. This is the former Google chief architect and (as of when this is being written) the new CEO of Yahoo, namely, Marissa Mayer. She’s almost a perfect “fit” for Karéin… if her hair was done a bit differently and she had, err, somewhat longer incisors, she’d be bang-on. You’ll see what I mean by looking at this picture and this one.

The next “new” major character in Angel and The Empire, Jerry Kaysten (who is the President’s Chief of Staff… he’s actually in Doubt Me Not, but not in as important a role), has been a hard one to find a prototype for. However, if you can imagine a slightly older Jack McBrayer from 30 Rock, with thinning hair, you’ll get the idea… and the redoubtable Mr. McBrayer certainly has perfectly captured Jerry Kaysten’s eager-beaver, “anything-to-please-the-Boss”, style.

As those of you who have read it (teaser alert!) will be aware, during the course of Angel and The Empire, the Storied Watcher manages to “recruit” a number of new followers. Two of these – “Wolf” (a Tucson-area bounty-hunter) and Mikhail Grishin, a.k.a. “Misha” (a Russian deep-cover spy) – are similar to the wrestler William “Christian” Reso and this (anonymous?) Russian Spetsnaz model, respectively. (Note : “Misha” is slightly older than the guy depicted in the latter picture.)

Incidentally, I have also found an even better prototype for Minnie Chu : namely, the famous “Lady Whirlwind” of the Hong Kong martial arts film industry, the redoubtable Angela Mao Ying. Angela (in her younger days) is an almost perfect image of the FBI team leader.

Marcus Shields

Author, The Angel Brings Fire