Monthly Archives: December 2016

Goings-on and planned publication schedule (for 2017)

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First off, a bit of a mea culpa to my faithful readers.

Some of you have been wondering, “what on Earth has been going on, with the Angel Brings Fire series (and particularly the sequels to it), in 2016?” The following is the explanation.

I have a “day job” in IT (computer) security; this is a demanding field at the best of times (especially nowadays, with all the visibility that the Russian hacks of the Democratic Party in the 2016 U.S. Presidential election, has generated), but in late 2015 I accepted a new assignment with a major U.S.-based financial sector customer of my current employer.

At the time, I was aware (due to factors that are beyond the scope of this commentary) that this was likely to be a “challenging” deployment… well, I was right, but with hind-sight I can see how badly I under-estimated how “challenging” it ended up being. For the first half of 2016 it was not at all unusual for me to be working 16- to 18-hour days, and the situation only improved in the 4Q of the year (none the less, it is still a very demanding job).

It should be obvious that in this kind of environment, I had little time and even less mental energy to spend on The Angel Brings Fire and (then) The Future Burns Bright; and on top of all that, in 2016 I also encountered some family issues (all, fortunately, “good things”… but time-consuming, none the less) that ate up much of my available personal time to work on the book.

The work situation in 2017 is looking a little less hectic, though, so I should be able to devote more time and effort to finishing off the series. So I’m cautiously optimistic that I should be able to complete The Future Burns Bright (the sequel series), sometime in (late) 2017.

Here’s the status, as of late December 2016 :

  • Storm In The North (Book 1, The Future Burns Bright) : Work on the narrative is complete, except for final editing and proof-reading.
  • The Race (Part 1) (Book 2, The Future Burns Bright) : Work on the narrative is complete, except for final editing and proof-reading.
  • The Race (Part 2) (Book 3, The Future Burns Bright) : Work on the narrative is about 85% complete.
  • The Future Alight (provisional title) (Book 4, The Future Burns Bright) : Work on the narrative is about 30% done.

There will also likely be an “Epilogue” book that will follow shortly thereafter; this will explain the outcome of some plot and character elements that (while interesting), are not central to the narrative of the book series (and thus could not be included in its main volumes).

To sum up, I’d like to thank all my readers for their continued interest in, and support of, The Angel Brings Fire and (eventually) The Future Burns Bright, science fiction / modern fantasy / superhero novel series. I know it has been a long time coming… but I believe, when you read The Future Burns Bright, and you find out what happens after the end of The Angel Brings Fire… you won’t be disappointed!

Sincerely

Marcus Shields

Author, The Angel Brings Fire and The Future Burns Bright

 

Jerry has a new war-song! (And… a note about his abilities.)

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As many of you already know, the more powerful characters in the Angel Brings Fire novel series, have a “war-song” — a mysterious type of half-psychic, half-real “music” that sometimes plays when these characters energize or use the alien-powers that they have inherited from the Storied Watcher.

In previous editions of the blog I have added posts that try to describe (in a very general way) what these “war-songs” sound like. The information provided earlier on is still valid, but as time goes by and as I encounter more popular music, I reserve the right to amend the allocations of “whose war-songs sound like what ‘real’ song”.

Today’s one such day… in the last “war-songs” posting I had the following remark about Jerry Kaysten, the former Chief of Staff to the (original) President of the United States :

“Jerry Kaysten : Calgary by Bon Iver, but only the short part beginning at the song’s 1:50 mark; this melody predominates when Jerry uses his “killer joke” ability. When running at high speed, his war-song sounds more like Time Turns Around by the Spoons.”

This is still accurate but there is a different piece of music that much better replicates what the quick-footed Mr. Kaysten’s personal war-song actually sounds like : the fantastic “My Decision” number by the Netherlands pop-rock group, Moss. (Not to be confused with the U.K. heavy-metal band of the same name.)

Make sure you check this one out on YouTube… it’s not only what Jerry sounds like when he gets going, but it’s a crazy good song anyway! (And it’s available for sale on iTunes, so do the right thing and pay these innovative musicians for the use of their creative works… I did.)

As an aside… it may at first seem that Jerry Kaysten’s alien-powers are relatively mundane compared to those of some of the other “post-humans” (particularly ones like Cherie Tanaka and Wolf).

In fact, nothing could be further from the truth. Jerry’s hyper-speed abilities, although they can only be used for a relatively short amount of time between resting-periods, can render most opponents — either “more-than-human” or just plain old Homo Sapiens — next to defenseless.

Only a very few other characters, for example Misha or Minnie Chu (and of course the Storied Watcher herself), have the reflexes and quick reaction time to adequately defend themselves against Jerry’s rapid-fire attacks. Others, such as Bob Billings, have abilities that somewhat erode Kaysten’s advantages but are still not a complete defense against him.

So give our friend Mr. Kaysten some respect… he may look like an “also-ran”… but he’s anything but! 😉

Marcus Shields