Perrin Pring will be awarding a $20 Amazon or Barnes and Noble GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.
The Ryo Myths
by Perrin Pring
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
INTERVIEW:
1. What or who inspired you to start writing?
I’ve always wanted to be a writer, ever since I can remember. I loved to
read, and I was always day dreaming up stories. I’d spend my summer days as a
kid seeing how many Goosebumps books I could read in a day, then the next day
I’d try to beat the previous total. There was no defining event that inspired
me, it’s just been in me since I was little.
2. What elements are necessary components for this genre?
I think the trickiest part of writing sci-fi/fantasy, is making the
world work. If you re-define the laws of the universe, you need to make sure
they are always consistent, or you lose your smart readers. If I make gravity
only work randomly, the sharp reader sees that as a flaw and loses interest in
the story. If all the rules and laws work, the world comes alive. It’s just
getting all the pieces to fit together that is hard.
3. How did you come up with your idea for your novel?
When I started writing the Ryo myths, I was reading Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series and I was watching
a lot of Stargate SG-1. I wanted to make a world where both science and magic
existed. What came of that was the Ryo Myths.
6. As far as your writing goes, what are your future plans?
I have another book, currently unnamed, that I’m working on editing now.
It takes place mostly in our universe and is about time travel. It’s a romance
that also involves food. If you aren’t space opera fan, but you are into
science fiction/time travel/love/food/history, you’ll probably find my next
book interesting.
7. If you could be one of the characters from this book, who would it be and why?
I think it would be Captain Eri. While she isn’t human, to me she is the
Ryo Myths character who has the most humanity. She’s overcome terrible things,
and she does it thanks to an immense amount of inner strength. If I could
emulate anything from any of my characters, it would be Captain Eri’s tenacity
and strength.
8. Can you give us a sneak peak into this book?
The Ryo Myths trilogy takes place in a universe that is slowly being
enslaved by malevolent gods. Benevolent gods create the Chozen, beings who are
as strong as their creators and who are immortal, to fight the evil gods. The
problem is, there is only one Chozen left, Ryo, and she’s insane. The Ryo Myths
trilogy follows the crew of the Dark
Horse as they attempt to find and protect Ryo. The Dark Horse crew wouldn’t be the first group who you’d call upon to
protect the most important being in the universe, but they rise to the
challenge.
9. Do you belong to a critique group? If so how does this help or hinder your writing?
10. When did you first decide to submit your work? Please tell us what or who encouraged you to take this big step?
I originally self published the Ryo Myths’ first book, Appointment at the Edge of Forever.
After it sat on the digital shelves for a year or so, I got up the nerve to
start re-submitting it to publishers. I realized that I didn’t really like the
online marketing side of self publishing (and traditional publishing for that
matter!) and I wanted a traditional publisher. I approached the goal with a new
found sense of confidence, and Sarah Luddington at Glastonbury Publishing
picked me up. I think learning from my ‘failures’ as a self published author
made me much more aware of what I needed to do to make it onto the radar of the
traditional publishers. I’ve been rejected a bazillion times, and I assume I
will continue to get rejected, but with every new word I write, I gain
confidence, and I think that’s what was most debilitating to me when I first
attempted to get into the publishing game - confidence. As much as it sucks,
you as a writer are selling a product. If you don’t believe in what you’re
selling, you won’t sell it, to anyone, readers or publishers alike.
11. What is the best and worst advice you ever received? (regarding writing or publishing)
There are a million things people say you must do to be a writer. I’ve only found two of the million things
to be absolutely true. To be a writer you must:
Read
Write
The rest is just details.
I think the worst advice I’ve personally received was to write as soon
as I got up. I had a mentor who said I shouldn’t even wash my face or go to the
bathroom. I should just rise and be hungry to write. Anyone who has ever seen
me in the morning knows that would be the absolute worst thing for those in my
immediate vicinity. I should drink coffee before attempting to do anything, let
alone write a novel about human interactions.
12. Do you outline your books or just start writing?
I don’t outline, although I often have certain plot points I know I need
to hit to make the story work. I will diagram my stories on a whiteboard, just
to work through difficult parts, but I’ve never been an outliner. Even when I
was in junior high, and I was required to turn in an outline, I would write the
essay first then make the outline after.
13. How do you maintain your creativity?
I read, constantly. I also practice Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, which is a
ground based grappling martial art. Jiu Jitsu requires a great amount of both
mental and physical strength. It helps me learn to think through problems in
the most difficult of situations (i.e. someone sitting on my chest while
attempting to choke me out.) Since learning to stay calm and creatively think
myself out of getting submitted on the mat, I’ve found my ability to reason my
way through difficult plot problems and character hang ups is much improved.
14. Who is your favorite character in the book. Can you tell us why?
My favorite character is Red because he is my monkey wrench. He can
always be counted on to mess up whatever good momentum my protagonists had
going for them. Just when I thought my characters were going to get out of
whatever situation I put them in, suddenly my brain would decide that Red was
going to do something selfish, and the plot would get a little more twisted.
Red is lovable and infuriating, politically incorrect and strangely loyal. He
is my best flawed character and hence the most fun to write.
Book Blurb for Appointment at the Edge of
Forever:
Filion felt safe
in his role as a Dream Searcher. He was paid to venture into other’s dreams and
exert influence over individuals whom he would never meet in the flesh.
But that was
until he received The Summoning. Filion has been called to track down and
protect Ryo, the last of the Chozen. She is the only hope of preventing a tide
of evil driven by the Afortiori and the prospect of universal slavery if they
aren’t stopped.
Time is ticking
and Filion has no idea of how to find Ryo let alone how to protect her, yet
destinies of planets rest in her hands. Enlisting the help of a rag-tag band of
mercenaries, Filion will set out to search the wastes for Ryo. Together they
will confront an evil whose power they just might have fatally underestimated.
Book Blurb for Tomorrow is Too Late:
I was a natural flier, I could take a
punch, and I was smarter than most. Within five years I was a full-fledged
pilot. On my last assignment, I was Master Pilot Eri Everfar, commanding pilot
of a class B Federal war ship, the Seeker, and that’s where I met him, Drakier
Lu…
Filion and his
new friends have escaped Bok and are stuck in an asteroid field that isn’t
supposed to exist. They’ve almost run out of fuel, their water supply is
seriously depleted, all of their food has been destroyed, and the girl they’d
just risked everything to save, Ryo, is dead.
Captain Eri’s
former lover, Drakier Lu, has been promoted to Master Commander of the entire
Federal Fleet, and his assignment is to find and capture the Dark Horse.
Captain Eri has been identified as a Tiori, and she and her associates have
just become the Federation’s most wanted. Things aren’t what they seem though,
and the line between good and evil blurs as the players’ true motivations come
to light.
Filion and the
crew return, traveling the galaxy and dodging the Federation and the Tioris,
all the while searching for a rogue planet that may or may not be harboring the
one person who can save them all…
Book Blurb for The Degrees of Destiny:
When I was on Lamu, I
inhaled an Afortiori's vileness. That blackness will be what allows me to win.
I will use their own evil against them. Because of this I am tainted. I am but
a degree different from what I fight, but in that degree, hangs the balance
between universal slavery and Free Will.
Having fled from Lamu only moments before its destruction, Filion and his friends find themselves hiding in the shadows as the Federation and the Afortiori mobilize against their worst enemy, The Etulosba and its crew. The Etulosba, Ryo, plans for her final battle. She was engineered to fight for Free Will, but to win that war, she will have to become what no Chozen was meant to be - an Afortiori. Caught in Ryo's wake, Captain Eri is torn between leading her crew and confronting Drakier Lu, her former lover and torturer. Will she be able to overcome what he did to her, or will she fail, thereby becoming what he made her and letting down Ryo, her crew, and ultimately, the universe? Filion and the crew return in the final installment of The Ryo Myths. Join them as they begin a journey that not all of them will survive.
Having fled from Lamu only moments before its destruction, Filion and his friends find themselves hiding in the shadows as the Federation and the Afortiori mobilize against their worst enemy, The Etulosba and its crew. The Etulosba, Ryo, plans for her final battle. She was engineered to fight for Free Will, but to win that war, she will have to become what no Chozen was meant to be - an Afortiori. Caught in Ryo's wake, Captain Eri is torn between leading her crew and confronting Drakier Lu, her former lover and torturer. Will she be able to overcome what he did to her, or will she fail, thereby becoming what he made her and letting down Ryo, her crew, and ultimately, the universe? Filion and the crew return in the final installment of The Ryo Myths. Join them as they begin a journey that not all of them will survive.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
EXCERPTS:
Excerpt – Appointment at the Edge of Forever
She barreled blindly through
the forest, not knowing where she was going, only that she had to go. She had
to get away, away from whom she didn’t know, but she had to move. They were
watching her.
Memories flooded through
her. She was on a ship, she was in a car, she was healing the sick, she was
giving orders, she was lost. These memories weren’t hers, yet they felt so
natural. They felt so real. It was her, Ryo, in those memories, but she
couldn’t recall any of them any more than one could truly recall a dream.
She stopped running. Her
side ached from the exertion, and her right leg still bled painfully. She
peeled back the dark, sticky dress. The cut was deep. It wasn’t going to heal
on its own. Then the bubbling came back.
Her hands moved over her
leg, and she gasped. The bubbling grew, the hotness, the confidence, the power;
all of it came back. She closed her eyes and the pain peaked, then it was gone.
She waited several breaths, and then finally opened her eyes. Other than the
dried blood and torn dress, one would never have known her leg had been
injured. The skin was flawless without even a hint of a scar. She looked at her
hands. She had known exactly where to put them. It was as if she had done this
every day of her life...
She stood up and quickly sat
back down. Her legs shook, and her breathing was ragged. What was happening to
her?
Who was she?
Excerpt One – Tomorrow is Too Late
This was the
last thing she needed right now. Captain Eri sat on the bridge, her focus on
the minefield of asteroids surrounding her ship. She jabbed at the keyboard on
the Dark Horse’s control panel. They’d cleared Bok’s atmosphere nearly ten
hours ago, and according to her maps, they weren’t near an asteroid belt now.
This didn’t make any sense. These asteroids hadn’t been here a week ago when
they’d passed through this exact bit of space. What was going on?
“They’re getting
more concentrated,” Captain Eri breathed.
She was right.
Not only were large chunks of rock and ice hurtling past them, but now small
bits of rock and debris pelted the ship as well, the black nothingness of space
becoming ever more thick and hazy. Then suddenly, the horizon cleared. The
dusty mist, the asteroids, all of it was gone.
“What the…” Red said.
The ship started
to shake.
“We’re being
pulled…” Captain Eri said, as the ship bucked beneath them.
Wiq stared out
the window. With each new bump a colorful cloud enveloped them. It was like
they were skipping across a planet’s outer atmosphere…
Wiq jerked her
eyes from the explosions of color and concentrated beyond them. She focused on
the blackness, and then she saw it.
“This is no
regular asteroid field,” she breathed.
“Oh Gods,”
Captain Eri said, her eyes dilating. “That’s a planet.”
Excerpt One – The Degrees of Destiny:
And that, Captain Eri
realized, was the crux of the issue. He’d taken her trust, and she wanted it
back. She wanted to share it. She wanted to share it with him. Deep down, she
hoped that she would wake from this nightmare to find him on her step, ready to
take her on that date she’d wished for for two years. She wanted to believe
that she could be fixed, that he’d come home, that this wasn’t her life…
But that wasn’t going to
happen. There was no going back, ever. What he’d taken from her was
irreplaceable, but… Suddenly, it was no longer elusive.
She leaned back and spun the
chair so she could see out of the bridge’s windows. She felt, not okay, but
aware. It was as if all of the pieces had finally snapped into place, and now
the puzzle was clear.
He had her trust, but not
her life. What she did with her life was up to her. She just had to decide in
which direction to move.
Did she stay where she was,
or did she move forward?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
AUTHOR Bio and Links:
Perrin is the author of The Ryo Myths, a sci-fi/fantasy trilogy
that has been heralded to engage both nerds and non-nerds alike. Check out her
books on Amazon and
Barnes and Noble.
When not writing, Perrin enjoys drinking coffee and swimming, although usually
not at the same time.
AMAZON: http://bit.ly/AUTHAM
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
GIVEAWAY INFORMATION and RAFFLECOPTER CODE
Perrin Pring will be awarding a $20 Amazon or Barnes and Noble GC
to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.
Welcome to the Angel's blog. I hope you have a great tour. Allana Angel
ReplyDeleteThanks for having me Angel's blog! It was great!
ReplyDeleteI liked the excerpt, thank you.
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like an intriguing series! So glad you could stop by Rogue's Angels' blog, and I wish you much success on your tour!
ReplyDelete--Amber Angel
@Rita, all of the books are pretty quick reads. Thanks for visiting.
ReplyDeleteinteresting books
ReplyDeleteThanks for hosting!
ReplyDeleteI have enjoyed learning about the book. Thanks for sharing it.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed the interview and all the excerpts. Thank you for the post and the giveaway!
ReplyDeleteGreat interview, I really enjoyed reading your post. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDelete