Reckoning
(The Many Deaths of Dynamistress, # One)
by Vincent M. Wales~~~~~~~~~~~~~BLURB:
There is much disagreement about when super-powered metahumans began to appear. Most scientists believe the first births were in the '40s, perhaps the '30s, although there is a small (but vocal) minority claiming they have always been among us. More than anything else, young Dinah Geof-Craigs wanted to be one of them, to be famous, to be on the cover of Supers magazine. But puberty came and went without the meta-mutation that would imbue her with superhuman abilities. Mother Nature had cheated her of what she deserved. And that would simply not do.
In Reckoning - the first volume of a trilogy about the metahuman known as Dynamistress - award-winning author Vincent M. Wales (Wish You Were Here, One Nation Under God) gives us the memoir of the world's first self-made metahuman. But it is less a story of becoming a superhero than it is the story of a flawed woman becoming whole.
Excerpt :I had never been very studious in high school. My grades had always been decent, and I’d always enjoyed learning, but even in the late ‘80s, I knew the schools weren’t concentrating on things that really mattered. Seriously, why does anyone need to know what our Gross National Product is, or the major imports and exports of Brazil?
I will, however, defend one practice that a lot of people don’t seem to understand. Why, they lament, when kids today all have computers, are we still filling their heads with advanced mathematics? It’s simply not necessary, they claim, to teach them how to do calculus. But they’re wrong. If we stopped teaching it, we’d never advance. No one would be able to take math in new directions.
Memorizing the terms of office of all the U.S. presidents, however, will always be pointless.
At any rate, I think my professors were a bit astounded. After all, for these first two years, I was taking just the basics in biology. But after class, I’d pick their brains about the latest things. The automated gene sequencer had been invented recently, and I had all sorts of questions about that. There was talk about a Human Genome Project soon to be beginning, and I asked almost daily if they’d heard anything new about it. I badgered them about the finer points of the regulation of gene expression. And I think they got tired of my incessant questioning about point mutations.
But I didn’t much care if others thought I was odd. It was the life I wanted, at that point… working on weekends, spending weekdays in classes taking as many credits as allowed, and passing my nights by avoiding home as much as possible. I was in my own little world, avoiding my family, and becoming estranged from those I used to call friends.
Talk about establishing a bad precedent.
AUTHOR Bio and Links:Vincent M. Wales was raised in the small town of Brockway, Pennsylvania, where he frequently complained about the weather. Since then, he has worn many hats, including writing instructor, suicide prevention crisis counselor, essayist, Big Brother, freethought activist, wannabe rock star, and award-winning novelist.
He spends most of his writing time in coffee shops, since his cats fail to grasp the entire concept of “writing time.”
He currently lives in Sacramento, California, where he frequently complains about the weather.
- Website: www.vincentmwales.com
- Blog: www.vincentmwales.com/wp/
- Twitter: www.twitter.com/vmwales
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/vmwales
- Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7260379.Vincent_M_Wales
- All purchase links: www.vincentmwales.com/reck.html
Did you do any kind of research to determine the details of your characters’ lives / lifestyles?Author Interview
I sure did. Much of my current book series is set in San Francisco. While I live within driving distance of the Bay Area, I don’t really go there often. But I made several trips there to get the feel for where my characters would live, where they’d go out for dinner or drinks. In fact, I even took a friend (who’d read the book) on a “Dyna Tour” of San Francisco, pointing out where she lived, where she worked, where certain events took place, and so on.
The best book/s you ever read?
When it comes to fiction, I can definitely name two: Frank Herbert’s DUNE and Parke Godwin’s FIRELORD. In non-fiction, I’ll push for Alfie Kohn’s NO CONTEST: The Case Against Competition.
Did any real-life political incidents or maneuvering make it into the book?
Definitely. The bulk of RECKONING covers the time period from the mid-90s to 2007, and quite a lot of real life events are captured in the book, some of which are given minor tweaks, but most are pretty much just as they happened. Some have great impact on the story, while others are just included for context. I’m also a stickler for certain details that most readers wouldn’t even notice. For example, there’s one chapter where the main character visits her home town on the 4th of July one year. And I made sure to research weather history so that I got it right. In this series of books, if I talk about the weather conditions, be assured they’re accurate for that day in history for that location.
Do you think that the cover plays an important part in the buying process?
Everyone knows “you can’t judge a book by its cover.” Except that’s what we do all the time. Cover art is often what attracts us to an unfamiliar book. An unattractive or unremarkable cover can cause us to just browse on past, too. I’m actually appalled at so many terrible covers gracing books, today, including some bestsellers.
What do you think of “trailers” for books?
The first time I heard of them, I was a bit bemused, honestly. A movie to promote a book? Seemed a bit backward to me. On the other hand, there was something cool about the idea, too. So I went ahead and made one for RECKONING, which can be seen on www.vincentmwales.com. It was a fun, though at times nerve-wracking, process! I’m pretty happy with the end result, though.
What were the most surprising things you learned in creating your books?
I did a lot of research of all sorts for the Dynamistress series. Probably the most interesting (though not really surprising) stuff I learned was when I was researching DARPA. That’s the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. Some of the things they’re working on were absolutely fascinating. A couple of them even made it into the book, such as the Trauma Pod. As for actual surprises… I’d have to say that I was surprised by the fact that writing about some of the issues that Dyna has to deal with proved to be therapeutic, allowing insights into some of the issues I was dealing with, myself.
a Rafflecopter giveawayHE AUTHOR WILL BE GIVING AWAY:Vincent will be awarding a $25 Amazon GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.
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