Please welcome Clayton Barnett author of The Fourth Law.
Clayton Barnett will be awarding a $30 Amazon or Barnes and Noble GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.
The Fourth Law
by Clayton Barnett
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GENRE: Science Fiction
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INTERVIEW:
1. What or
who inspired you to start writing?
While I’d completed a 80k word visual novel about eighteen
months beforehand, on November 3rd, 2014, a friend sent me an email
with a question: “Are you doing anything
for NaNoWroMo this year?” “What’s that?” I replied.
Finding out that it was a challenge to write a 50k+ word
novel in 30 days – and I LOVE irrational deadlines! – I jumped at the chance.
2. How did you come up with your idea for your novel?
For about six weeks, there had been two only marginally
related ideas drifting about my mind: an
image
of Hatsune Miku (at 2:34) reaching out of a monitor, and a throw-away line
from Professor of Law Glenn Reynolds in a talk
about AI’s (at about 10:15). The
moment I took up the NaNoWriMo challenge, I knew what I was going to write
about.
3. As far as your writing goes, what are your future plans?
So much! As part of
what I now call my Machine Civilization series, I’ve already released book #2,
“Echoes of Family Lost.” Books #3 and #4
are in process. Tangentially related,
with my colleague from 3-AR Studios, I’m writing a webcomic entitled “Poisoned
Hearts,” also about self-aware machines.
I’ve written the script for a 13-chapter graphic novel series about the
super spy Sidney Reilly, but in a Steampunk milieu. And, I’ve two large sequels planned for my
flagship visual novel, OTChi Kocchi.
4. If you
could be one of the characters from this book, who would it be and why?
Could be? I am Clive
Barrett. Glad he’s dead, vicious
bastard.
5. Can you give us a sneak peak into this book?
The Amazon
Kindle version was kind enough to dump the first two chapters out
there. Grumble, grumble. However, here’s a little more…
In the pause of the
conversation, she heard the crashing and clacking of those enormous
cylinder-things behind her. Ai must know that they make me uncomfortable,
and that’s how the seating ended up like it did. Thaad put down his
coffee cup.
“Come now, Lily Barrett—”
“Just Lily is fine, thank you.” He nodded and
continued.
“You’re a clever young woman. I’m sure you’ve a
good idea what’s going on here?”
“Actually, I’ve a couple... it’s just....” She
trailed off.
Ai
put on one of her rare frowns. “No, Thaad, this isn’t right: she’s
our guest and my
friend. May I?”
The lad shrugged.
Ai leaned across the table, then stopped, looking a
bit sheepish. “I... I really wanted to hold your hands, friend Lily.”
Lily’s heart almost broke at that. Ah! She had an idea and moved her empty mug to
the center of the table.
“If we can’t hold one another, let’s hold something
in common,” she said as she hooked her index fingers over the mug’s rim.
Her smile faltered, though, when she saw the look of near shock on both their
faces.
“You make us older,” Thaad breathed. Ai
hooked her fingers like Lily’s, as her smile crept back to her face.
“We are machine civilization,” Ai said simply.
Lily chewed on that for a moment.
“So... like AI?” She asked. The crash and
rattle behind her increased for a moment.
Thaad looked as if he swallowed something sour.
“We...” he paused, getting himself under
control. “We do not like that term. Is what you feel for my sister
real or artificial?”
“What? Of
course it’s real! I love Ai!” Lily exclaimed. Ai’s smile got
bigger, if that was possible. Sister?
He nodded, then stood. “Thank you. We can
make you older, too. I must leave.”
And he was gone.
6. What is the best and worst advice you ever received? (regarding writing or
publishing)
Two things for best advice…
#1. “Set irrational
deadlines!” My friend and illustrator
colleague for my visual novels taught me this; if you don’t set a dead line,
YOU WILL NOT FINISH! “I’ll write some
tomorrow,” “I don’t have time today,” “It’ll be done by Thanksgiving…” NO IT WON’T!
Set a deadline,preferably one outside of yourself, and stick to it. For our visual novel, we had to be done as we
were presenting it at a local anime-con.
For “The Fourth Law,” it was the NaNoWriMo challenge. I cannot, cannot stress this point enough!
#2. “Write drunk; edit
sober.” – E. Hemmingway. While I’ve
never much cared for his literary works, he was one hell of a man and I love
this saying.
For worst advice…
“Be yourself!” Any
job interview I’ve done that in lasted no more than five minutes. Awful to write that way, too. I’m not interesting, so I write about these
people that are.
7. Do you
outline your books or just start writing?
Heh. This was a slide
in my
presentation to my girls’ school when I talked about creative writing and
self-publishing. I just see these scenes
in my head, then I write them down. I’ve
no idea where they come from.
Frightening, really.
8. How do
you maintain your creativity?
Music and changes of scenery. The only times I ever sit down in from of a
keyboard and screen is write down what I’ve already seen. I cannot imagine trying to “sit and write” a
story.
9. Who is
your favorite character in the book. Can you tell us why?
I freely admit to having worried this particular question
for about twenty-four hours. I desire to
answer it, but the more I think about it, the more it changes. For example:
when I first saw Fausta, and how she became the springboard to introduce
Lily to the Four Laws, I did not like her much at all: young, brash, rude. However, about 110 pages later, I was so
comfortable with her that she stands next to Lily as the second protagonist in
my second book, “Echoes of Family Lost.”
So, I was about to type, ‘Fausta, I suppose.’ But that got me thinking about everyone
else. I quite literally have no idea how
smart Dorina is; it may in fact be that she has no limit. She’s the one that came up with the whole
‘move their minds’ thing. She puzzles
her way through how to manifest their images into our world… and I already know
she’s working on odder things than that!
But, the question is about this book, “The Fourth Law.” So, I’m back to Lily. She’s haunted by her past, uncertain about
her present, and quite lost as Ai – and all of Ai’s family – show her a world
she’s never imagined. It was tremendous
fun to go on discovery with her, so she’s my favorite for “T4L.”
10. Are
your plotting bunnies angels or demons?
Yes.
On the angel front, Book #3 of Machine Civilization will be
an illustrated, 20-page children’s book about when a certain young character
decides she wants to be baptized.
Demon-wise, Book #4 – only in notes right now – is a five
year flashback to the Formation War as seen through the eyes of Sylvia
Fernandez, a lawyer working for Clive Barrett and his Extraordinary
Commission. That’s a bleak, awful,
espionage story.
Thanks the Angels
BLURB:
In 2026, 23
year-old apprentice nurse Lily Barrett lives in a shattered time. Following its
economic collapse, the US has devolved into a group of a few barely-functional
smaller states, and vast swathes of barbarian badlands. Her sister has been
missing for years, and her father, after earning the opprobrium of most of the
world for running a state terror organization, presumed dead.
Two things keep her going:
her live-in job at a small, Catholic orphanage in the city of Waxahachie,
Republic of Texas, and Ai, her odd, but dear friend, whom she met online: a
young woman who only shows herself to Lily as a rendered CG image.
Troubled by her past,
haunted by her name, and facing an uncertain future, Lily seeks only a quiet,
normal life. But, that past and her present conspire against her. A new Morning
has come, and with it, delights and terrors, happiness and adversity.
Where do we come from?
What are we?
Where are we going?
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EXCERPT:
A young woman, or older
girl. Call her twenty, Lily thought. A
burnt-orange, silk, Chinese-style dress. Her face that indeterminate Eurasian
that could have her from Hungary to western China. Her hair, though. Long, and
artificially dyed; in this awful light it was hard to tell exactly, but
somewhere between a blue and a green... aquamarine?
Aquamarine?!
Lily very slowly put her
left hand out, stopping just shy of the girl’s face.
“Is...is it...you, Ai?” The
girl smiled and nodded.
“Welcome to my home, friend
Lily!”
Huh?
Happy that she finally saw
Ai in person, Lily was completely perplexed.
“Your... home?”
With a look of surprise and
her hands to her cheeks, Ai exclaimed, “Oh! But where are my manners? I’ve
never had a guest before! Let’s sit over here!” She stepped past Lily’s left.
Turning, Lily saw a small wrought-iron table with two chairs of similar
make. Those were not there a second ago.
Ai sat primly and waved at the other chair for Lily. After a moment’s
hesitation, she joined her.
Ai continued to beam at her.
“This is so nice! That’s right, you’re a coffee drinker, here! I’m going to try
some tea, though.” Ai raised a delicate china cup to her lips, then paused.
Lily looked down to find a
stout white mug in front of her. Her nose told her that the liquid inside was
coffee, but why was the coffee as clear as water?
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AUTHOR Bio and Links:
One
time engineer, some time pharmacy technician, full time husband and father,
Clayton Barnett stumbled into writing a traditional novel last November during
National Novel Writing Month. Liking the
results, he edited what would become “The Fourth Law” and set about teaching himself
self-publishing. In July of 2015, he
released a sequel entitled “Echoes of Family Lost,” in what is now called his
Machine Civilization series. He is
working on a third book – for children – and is making notes for a fourth. Clayton Barnett lives in central Ohio with
his wife, two daughter, and two dogs.
Website
$0.99
Book Purchase Link
http://www.amazon.com/Fourth-Law-Clayton-Barnett-ebook/dp/B00RF4A7R0/
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GIVEAWAY INFORMATION and RAFFLECOPTER CODE
Clayton Barnett
will be awarding a $30 Amazon or Barnes and Noble GC to a randomly drawn winner
via rafflecopter during the tour.
