Nadaness In Motion is the book blog owned by Nada Adel Sobhi and it is where honest book reviews meet author interviews, guest posts, and personal writing ranging from poetry to short stories alongside the Takhayyal/Imagine writing prompt challenge. ---
“You cannot kill a breeze, a wind, a fragrance; you cannot kill a dream or an ambition.” - Michel Onfray
Today, I’m hosting a spotlight
for a book I wanted to read but knew early on I wouldn’t have the time to do
so.
Meet author Dorothy St. James
and her cozy mystery A Book Club to Die For.
Read on for a short excerpt from the book!
Book info
Series: Book 3 in The Beloved
Bookroom series
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Setting - Cypress, South
Carolina
Publisher: Berkley
Publication date: 1 November 2022
Number of pages: 304 pages
ISBN-10: 0593098633
ISBN-13:
978-0593098639
Digital ASIN: B09PZSBCVW
Synopsis
When a member of an exclusive
book club is checked out, spunky librarian Trudell Becket must sort fact from
fiction to solve the murder.
The Cypress Arete Society is
one of the town’s oldest and most exclusive clubs. When assistant librarian
Trudell Becket is invited to speak to the group about the library, its
modernization, and her efforts to bring printed books to the reading public,
her friend Flossie invites herself along. Flossie has been on the book club’s
waiting list for five years, and she’s determined to find out why she’s never
received an invitation to join.
But not long after Tru and
Flossie arrive for the meeting, they’re shocked to find the club’s president,
Rebecca White, dead in the kitchen.
Rebecca was a former TV actress
and local celebrity, but was not known for being patient or pleasant. She’d
been particularly unkind to the book club’s host for the evening, who also
happens to be the mother of Detective Jace Bailey, Tru’s boyfriend. And Rebecca
had made it clear that she didn’t think Flossie was book club material.
With her boyfriend and one of
her best friends wrapped up in a murder, Tru has to work fast to figure out who
cut Rebecca’s story short before the killer takes another victim out of
circulation....
Excerpt from A Book Club to Die For
Librarians are keepers of knowledge,
caretakers of truth, and sowers of wisdom. Many of us rush out to share the
world with our communities with the enthusiasm of a child who has suddenly
mastered a new skill. We want people to know, to know…well, everything.
This is our mission. This is our
passion.
We are the bringers.
We are the beacons cutting through
the darkest of nights.
I should be thrilled to be able to
provide this service to a local book club that calling itself the Arete
Society. So why did I have this sudden desire to turn around, march back to my
car, and drive home as fast as my old Camry would take me?
I’d been asked to give a
presentation. I’d been tasked to share my knowledge of books and my experiences
working at the library with a group of ladies who love books as much as I do. I
lived for moments like this.
Didn’t I?
Usually, yes.
But.
Not.
Tonight.
“Trudell Becket, what’s got you
dragging your feet like this?” Flossie Finnegan-Baker turned her wheelchair
toward me. “I do believe a cornucopia of slugs just passed us.”
“Cornucopia? Of slugs?” I asked.
That couldn’t be right. But before she could explain that a group of slugs was
indeed called a cornucopia, I said, “Never mind.” Flossie was rarely wrong when
it came to grammar and etymology. Besides, slugs weren’t important. “This,” I
said. “This is a mistake.” I felt the truth of it like a stone in my gut. I
stood in the middle of the long, winding sidewalk leading up to Hazel Bailey’s
front porch and scrunched my eyes closed. “I shouldn’t be here.”
“You’re suffering from a case of the
jitters.” My friend touched my hand. I looked at her, and she smiled
encouragingly at me. Flossie had dressed for the book club meeting in muted
shades of turquoise and tan. The colors spiraled together on her long, homemade
tie-dyed dress, but it was quite a shift from the bright (and often) clashing
colors she usually wore. She’d attached a large golden pin in the shape of
Edgar Allen Poe’s face to the collar of the thick white button-up sweater she’d
worn over her dress. “Honey, even I get the jitters every time I do something
new. Everyone does. That’s why you brought me. To have your back. And I do.
I’ve got your back. And you’ve got this. Let’s go.”
Our host lived at the edge of town
in the middle of a forest of cypress trees that gave the town its name. The
cypress’s silvery trunks stood tall and straight, like the spines of books on a
shelf, gleaming in the fading embers of the sunset.
Books were the reason I’d been asked
to speak to the Arete Society. And those same books were the reason I couldn’t
go through with it.
About the Author
Dorothy St. James is a former
Folly Beach beach bum. She now lives in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, with
her family, slightly (OK, terribly) needy dogs, and the friendliest cat you’ll
ever meet.
Author of a dozen novels,
Dorothy enjoys writing both cozy mysteries and romance.
Today, I'm
excited to feature indie author Ian Price and his debut cyberpunk novel Dystopia's
Edge.
I'd heard of
cyberpunk before but never really looked up what it meant. So, I took the
opportunity to ask Ian what cyberpunk is along with his research process, who does he imagine his main character would look like, and more!
This post
includes an exclusive interview with Ian Price along with an excerpt from Dystopia's
Edge. I look forward to reading the book over the summer :) so stay tuned
for the review.
First,
here's a quick bio about Ian followed by the synopsis for Dystopia's Edge.
About
the author:
Ian Rollins Price was born in New York, growing up there before moving
to Massachusetts in order to attend Harvard University’s prestigious weekend
bartending course.
Glad to have written a novel during the COVID-19 pandemic, Ian is
looking forward to his next project while raising a newborn daughter alongside
his wonderful wife.
The year is 2121. The world has changed a lot, but in ways that you’d
probably expect.
I thought I put my hitman days behind me. Turns out that couldn’t be
further from the truth.
I’m Benjamin Edge, mercenary for hire. Running guns, carrying out hits,
I’ve done it all. When you grow up as a child soldier fighting for one
city-state against another in the crumbling ruins of a fallen civilization,
killing becomes second nature.
This newest job seems a breeze, though. Smuggling lab equipment from San
Francisco to New Tijuana means running a harsh gauntlet, but it’s nothing I
can’t handle. A few hired guns—even a reformed drug addict who let me down in
the past—should be enough to blaze a trail through the Badlands.
Or at least I thought it was.
Until a corpse came back from the dead.
Sergeant Reaver, a bio-engineered super soldier I killed a decade ago,
is somehow still breathing. Not only that, but he’s brought all the crime
syndicates in Los Angeles under his banner. Now that he knows I’m on his turf,
it’s me against an army all the way to New Tijuana.
Good thing I packed plenty of ammo.
Interview with Ian Price by Nadaness In Motion
1.Can you tell us a bit
about yourself and your writing?
Ian Price: I was originally born in New York City and grew up in
that area before moving up to Boston for college. I was a biology major at
Brandeis University, but I frequently took literature classes for fun (it was a
liberal arts school with a strong science program). By the time I found myself
in a creative writing class, I found that I’d taken enough courses to pick up
an English minor.
My writing style tends to have a sense of humor to it
while attempting to tackle serious issues. A holdover from contributing to the
humor magazine on campus.
2.What are your
favorite reading genres? Can you name a few favorite authors?
Ian Price: I like to read a bit of everything. In terms of
non-fiction, I can’t recommend the works of Candice Milard enough. She writes
historical novels about pivotal points in the lives of Theodore Roosevelt,
Winston Churchill, and other prominent figures.
For fiction, I don’t think it’s controversial to say
that Neil Gaiman is one of the best out there.
3.Your novel Dystopia's
Edge is in the 'cyberpunk' genre. What is cyberpunk exactly?
Ian Price: Cyberpunk is a genre pioneered in the early 1980’s by
artists like William Gibson in his work ‘Neuromancer’ and Ridley Scott’s ‘Blade
Runner’.
It explores the idea that advancements in technology
aren’t inherently linked to advancements in how people treat one another; that
the human condition could involve the rich getting richer and the poor getting
poorer. The 1% getting flying cars while everyone else is forced to build those
cars in corporation-run work camps. ‘High tech, low life’.
Ian Price writing and editing tip - from his interview with Nadaness In Motion
4.Is Dystopia's Edge
your first book or have you published other books?
Ian Price: I was a hobbyist cartoonist all throughout college
and published comic strips in various school-run publications during my time
there. I later collected all of ‘em in a paperback published through Lulu, so I
guess that’s my first book?
I’ve had other outlets for my creative side since then
(a little stand-up, some extra work in a couple Boston produced movies, etc.)
but I guess Dystopia's Edge is my first proper fiction novel!
5.What inspired you to
write Dystopia's Edge?
Ian Price: Short answer—when the pandemic hit and the world
seemed to be falling apart around me, I tried to distract myself by playing
video games in my free time. My April wedding got cancelled due to safety
concerns, watching the news had my nerves on a razors’ edge, and eventually I
just needed to do something more constructive with all that anxiety.
So, one night at 3 AM, I was physically unable to fall
asleep. Not knowing what else to do, I picked up my laptop and started writing
until I was able to fall asleep. That’s what I did for about a year. The result
was completing the first draft of Dystopia’s Edge.
Cyberpunk just seemed like the best genre to express
the anxieties I felt at the time. Eventually, after I submitted the first draft
to a few beta-readers, I was told that the story also had some Western vibes to
it. So that’s cool.
Some characters in the book let me explore themes like
drug addiction, the value of nature, and how much I idolize the children’s’
entertainer Fred McFeely Rogers. But I won’t talk too much about them. I
wouldn’t want to get into spoilers.
6.If Dystopia's Edge
were to be made into a movie or series, who would you like to play the main
character Benjamin Edge?
Ian Price: Oh gosh, Jason Mamoa? Or maybe Bo Burnham if he went
on one of those Hollywood workout regimens to get absolutely jacked? If some
studio somewhere wants to adapt my novel, they’re welcome to cast whoever they
please.
7.Dystopia's Edge has a lot of military-and-gang-themed parts
How did you go about researching this?
Ian Price: In my novel, California isn’t really a unified state
anymore. It takes place about 50 years after a period of tremendous global
instability that subdivided that area into 3 regions.
The area around San Francisco is what we would
consider the most normal. It’s where the wealthier population lives a
comfortable lifestyle that’s equitable to our own. Political power is in the
hands of big corporations. My day job is as an office-worked in the
pharmaceutical industry, so that was easy to write.
In Dystopia's Edge, the area around Los Angeles
has been taken over by a fascist dictatorship. I’m a big fan of history. I
studied the rise of Stalin and the Soviet Union back in college, watched more
than few documentaries on pre-WWII Italy / Germany documentaries, and even
visited Argentina shortly before the pandemic happened. Military coups are no
joke and I wanted to express the anxiety they give me when I think about them.
The land just outside those two cities is largely
decentralized. They’re controlled by a loose collective of organized gangs.
Growing up in a well-off New York suburb, I always thought the divide between
rich and poor was obscene. All one needed to do was walk over a tiny bridge
into an underprivileged neighborhood and find themselves in a place where the
crime rate had tripled. I spent some time on that other side and based the gang
stuff on my experiences there. I’ll leave it at that.
8.Dystopia's Edge is quite a big book :D – how much editing
did you have to go through? Can you tell us a bit about your writing and
editing process?
Ian Price: I did A LOT of editing. I spent about a year on the
first draft and a second year on post-production work. After reading through
the book and editing a 2nd draft myself, I then submitted it to 6 beta-readers.
Three were close friends and 3 were people I hired on Fiverr. In addition to
catching typos I might have missed, they also helped me fine-tune the plot. If
1 beta-reader doesn’t like a portion of your book—it might just be personal
taste on their part. But if 6 beta-readers don’t like a portion of your
book—it’s something that just doesn’t work and needs changing.
I also hired a professional proofreader. Always hire a
professional proofreader.
9.Have you set a
Goodreads goal for 2022? If yes, how many books would you like to read this
year?
Ian Price: I have not set a Goodreads goal for 2022. My wife is
due for a baby in April and I’ve got a few more baby books I need to finish up,
though. Shout-out to The Expectant Father by Armin Brott. It’s a
baby book written by a Navy Seal who became a stay-at-home dad.
10.While we're still not sure how travelling will work in
the summer of 2022, if you could travel anywhere this year or in coming years,
where would you go?(This is an invitation to come visit Egypt, where I'm
from ;) )
Ian Price: I would LOVE to come to Egypt. My wife and I were
supposed to have a honeymoon in Italy back in 2020, so at some point I’d like
to do that to. Heck, it’s a wonderful world out there and I want to see it all!
Watch Dystopia's Edge book trailer
If you're thinking Nada (me) and Ian are chatty – I must admit we are! But there's a lot to be said about Dystopia's Edge, which I'm looking forward to reading in a couple of months.
Now here's an exclusive peak at Dystopia's Edge, the cyberpunk novel that's kept Ian busy during the pandemic.
The book is written from the first person perspective of Benjamin Edge (the Jason Momoa maybe-lookalike ;) )
Excerpt from Dystopia's Edge by Ian Price
We kept heading east, veering ever slightly to the south as we went. I
told Rita that we’d need to go that way to steer clear of some old, abandoned
copper mines that could be found nearby. Those caves had been stripped clean of
their precious metals a century ago. Now their winding, underground caverns
functioned mainly as the perfect hideout for marauding raider clans.
Corvin, myself and the rest of our old mercenary company had once been
hired to go there for a job. A group of about thirty or so crazed barbarians
had taken up residence in those caves. This particular clan had been vigilant
in their apparent goal of robbing every passing cargo truck they laid their
eyes on. The lot was especially violent in their methods too.
So violent, in fact, the U.S. government itself actually took notice.
They were willing to pay a flat fee to any private mercenary group that went in
there, rooted them out, and brought back proof of their eradication.
When our troop got there, the first thing I remember noticing was the
smell.
There was a sick, sweet aroma floating out from the underground… a stale
odor wafting from the mouth of those caves like bad breath.
Once everyone got inside, we realized it was the dead bodies of all the
passengers they’d robbed. We’d been briefed that they’d gone missing, abducted
for some twisted purpose by the raiders. Honestly, though, I still believed
we’d find them alive… forced into manual labor at gunpoint. I thought they’d be
tired, a little beat up, but still capable of rescue.
Instead... the raiders had cannibalized them all for food. I was the
sole member of our group who was surprised by this, so maybe I was just more
naive back then.
Our shootout with those barbarians was won easily enough. There were a
lot of ‘em, sure. But we had much better guns and even better training. The
hostiles were only used to dealing with one or two security guards who’d been
hired to protect any cargo transports they’d robbed. Against us, they didn’t
stand a chance.
Most of my team spent the day behind cover, waiting patiently for the
barbarians to get aggressive and charge us. They were cannibals, after all, so
it didn’t take much to get them angry. A few smoke bombs, a couple well-placed
taunts… that usually set them off enough to make ‘em fight sloppy. They’d rush
out from cover, guns blazing. Then we’d pick ‘em off.
A few of them tried to retreat, fleeing the caves through tunnels we
hadn’t known about. When they got outside though, Corvin was waiting for them.
He’d found a perch from where he was able to snipe the yellow ones at a
distance. Most of them couldn’t make it ten feet before they received a bullet
in the head.
Their war chief had been a little more challenging to deal with. Every
time his clan had raided an armed truck, he’d always pilfer their best weapons
for himself. Our team eventually fought our way into his deepest lair (an
underground lake located at the bottom of the mine). I remember thinking that
the fella looked like a walking arsenal.
Buddy, this guy was carrying everything except the kitchen sink.
Submachine guns in each hand, every inch of him covered in body armor,
night-vision goggles, a shoulder-mounted rocket launcher…
It's
been a while since I've conducted author interviews but I'm excited with my
first feature for 2022.
Meet
author Hurriya Burney. Her first book is an intriguing mystery novel and I'm
super excited to share an excerpt from it.
Plus
join me for an exclusive interview with Burney, where we talk about writing,
her books, and more.
First, here's a bit about Hurriya Burney
HS Burney writes
fast-moving, action-packed mysteries set against the backdrop of majestic
mountains and crystalline ocean in West Coast Canada. She loves creating
characters that keep you on your toes.
A corporate executive by
day and a novelist by night, HS Burney received her Bachelors’ in Creative
Writing from Lafayette College.
A proud Canadian
immigrant, HS Burney takes her readers into worlds populated by diverse
characters with unique cultural backgrounds. When not writing, she is out
hiking, waiting for the next story idea to strike, and pull her into a new
world.
And
here's a bit about the book:
Book name: The
Lake Templeton Murders
Series: A
Fati Rizvi Private Investigator Murder Mystery
Genre:
Mystery, Thriller
Number of
Pages: Around 420 pages
Synopsis:
A body washes up on the
shores of Lake Templeton, a small town on the coast of Vancouver Island. Sharon
Reese, the victim, was a dedicated government employee. Everyone liked her, but
no one knew much about her. Was she hiding something? Maybe a questionable past
riddled with scandal. And did it lead to her plunge to death, in a drunken
stupor, off the dock outside her secluded lakefront lodge?
Was it an accident? A
suicide? Or cold-blooded murder? Private Investigator, Fati Rizvi, is
determined to find out.
Fati arrives in Lake
Templeton to find secrets that run as deep as the City’s sewers. Everyone is
hiding something and nothing is as it seems. A cult escapee. A corrupt
politician. A struggling airline. A multi-million dollar public-private project
to revitalize the Lake Templeton waterfront. How are they all connected?
As Fati valiantly unravels
the knots, another body is found on the shore. Is it the same killer? And can
Fati stop them before they strike again?
Get a taste of The Lake Templeton Murders by HS
Burney with this excerpt from the book:
The crime scene has been cleared up.
Culver Beach sparkles in the vestiges of the sinking sunlight, sand glinting
like diamond dust. The only remnants of the morning’s tragic discovery - dried
boot prints in the grassy sand, left behind by the police.
The nearest house is walled off by a
thicket of trees and is currently empty, owned by a businessman who only spends
a few months here in the summers. The beach is quiet, with not even a dog
walker in sight. I walk on the sand for a few minutes, shoes in hand, reveling
in the quietude. I breathe in the fresh air, slightly briny, and crisp enough
to open up my nasal pathways.
No answers will be found here. Not
for me. I have limited experience analyzing crime scenes. Even though, as a
beat cop, I elbowed my way to many sites above my pay grade, attaching myself
to the most brilliant detectives like a barnacle. Thankfully, you don’t need to
be an expert at crime scene analysis to catch a killer.
And catching a killer is what I do
best.
I will answer the plea in Sharon’s
outstretched arms, still flailing in death as her body collided against the
land, unmoored from its watery grave. I will unravel the secrets in the wide
eyes and rote responses of Sharon’s colleagues, all identical, parroting one
another. The combative non-responses of Mayor Alena Krutova. And the
exaggerated sorrow of Sergio Alvarez, Marketing Manager at City Hall, who
claims to only know Sharon as a dear colleague.
I will piece together the puzzle of
Sharon’s life. Who was she? What was she doing in Lake Templeton? Did she steal
a half a million dollars from the City? And did it drag her to an early death,
pitched off the deck outside her own home?
What transpired on Sharon’s deck last
night after the sun sank behind the heavy winter shadows?
Want to
know more about Burney and her books, her writing, and her diverse characters?
Let's
get to the interview
1.Your
first book is a mystery, which means it's one of your favorite genres. Can you
tell us who your favorite mystery authors are?
HS Burney: I would read anything by Harlan
Coben. I first discovered him when I was frequently taking business trips from
Vancouver to Toronto. I would buy a book at the airport and finish it by the
time my plane landed in Toronto four-and-a-half hours later.
I’ve
also always enjoyed mysteries by Mary Higgins Clark. And who can forget the
classics – Agatha Christie and Arthur Conan Doyle.
More
recently, I’ve been reading works by more independent and less mainstream
authors, such as Rachel Abbott and Jackie Kabler. Outside of the core mystery
genre, I enjoy reading edge-of-your-seat psychological thrillers.
2.You
mentioned working on your second book, so is The Lake Templeton Murders
going to be a series? Do you have a number of books in mind? Can your books be
read as standalones?
HS Burney: You can call it a series. But they
are also standalone novels. Private Investigator, Fati Rizvi, was such a joy to
write. I know her intimately. She feels like a close friend. I want to solve
more mysteries with her, put her in interesting situations, and let her put the
puzzle pieces together.
My
next book, which I am hoping to publish by Spring 2022 takes PI Fati Rizvi on a
new adventure. I don’t have a number of books in mind that I want to write. In
fact, I have more ideas than I can execute in a lifetime. The only shortage is
time.
3.Can
you tell readers what your novel research process is like?
HS Burney: My research process is primarily
focused on police procedure. I am blessed to have a police detective and a
judge within my network, who were instrumental to lending a touch of
authenticity to The Lake Templeton Murders.
There
is a theme of financial fraud in the novel, which I am a somewhat of an expert
at as a 15-year banker. I’ve seen some very interesting situations during my
career!
My
setting is one in which I live and work and am proud to call home. This is
important to me as I write more powerfully when I can visualize, touch, and
breathe in my setting. My novels don’t require a ton of research because I
situate them in real settings that I am familiar with. This is important to me
– to write what I know.
4.Your
bio says you like to include 'diverse characters with unique cultural
backgrounds.' Do readers get to see this in The Lake Templeton Murders?
Can you elaborate more about the cultural backgrounds you like to include in
your writing?
HS Burney: I am blessed to be surrounded by a
mosaic of diversity in my hometown of Vancouver, Canada. Being an immigrant
myself, it is very important to me to incorporate this diversity into my books
– not in a way that looks like tokenism but in an authentic, natural way. Given
that I am surrounded by people from all kinds of ethnic backgrounds in my real
life, writing characters that reflect this requires no extra effort. It happens
organically.
My
main character, Private Investigator, Fati Rizvi, is a South Asian female PI
born to Pakistani immigrants. Her sidekick, Zed, is a young gay man. Another main
character is an immigrant from Russia. But they aren’t the only diverse
characters in the book.
I
believe that adding elements of diversity adds rich complexity to a story. It’s
something I’ve found lacking in mystery novels, although I’m starting to see
more writers put focus on this in recent years.
5.Have
you set a Goodreads goal for 2022? If yes, how many books would you like to
read this year?
HS Burney: I gave myself a very conservative
goal of 12 books for 2022 – because I wanted to make sure I hit it! Having said
that, I have no doubt I will exceed this goal. My goal as a writer is to write
and publish 2 books this year.
6.Other
than mystery, what are your favorite genres?
HS Burney: A related genre – psychological
thrillers. I suppose you can say that I enjoy any book that keeps me on the
edge of my seat. I want twists and turns and bombs dumped on me. I want
suspense. I want to keep wondering what happens next until the very end.
7.Some
mystery books tend to be a bit gory or descriptive in the details of the crime,
is The Lake Templeton Murders similar? How much blood and violence can
readers expect in the book and series?
HS Burney: Not at all. That’s not really my
thing. My murders are relatively clean and involve minimal blood. I am also not
a fan of violence. I don’t have the stomach for it.
The Lake Templeton Murders is more focused on the puzzle of the
case. The narrative weaves through the background of the characters involved
and how it feeds into their motivations, and relates to the problem at hand,
i.e. solving the murder. Here is an excerpt from
a reader's review:
“What I found when compared to today’s genre of most modern day murder
mysteries, [was] that there is no gratuitous “in your face” violence, explicit
sex scenes or profane language every other sentence. On reflection I found that
to be somewhat refreshing.”
8.Can
you tell us a bit about your work or works in progress?
HS Burney: I’m one of those odd writers that can
only have 1 work in progress at any given time. I struggle to pull myself from
story to story and world to world.
I
am currently working on the next mystery involving Private Investigator Fati
Rizvi, which I have titled The Missing Twins. It’s set in the
wealthy neighborhood of West Vancouver, one of Canada’s priciest postal codes.
In
The Missing Twins, The Azad-Shah family are pillars of the
community, both successful entrepreneurs with a brood of four. They are lauded
on magazine covers and their bespoke, custom-built house has been showcased in
Canadian Real Estate Magazine. Fati gets called in because their
nineteen-year-old twins are missing. They disappeared on their 19th birthday,
the day they ushered in official adulthood.
As
Fati starts to unravel the knots, she uncovers that the Azad-Shah family isn’t
as picture-perfect as they would have you believe. There are secrets,
dysfunction, the messy nest of hidden ties and grievances. The happy family
dance is just a veneer, like garnish on a peeling painting.
The book explores themes of family dysfunction, similar to my first
book, The Lake Templeton Murders. I am looking forward to releasing it
by Spring 2022.
