Descent Into Darkness by Zanne Raby

 Please welcome Zanne Raby author of Descent Into Darkness

Zanne Raby will be awarding a $15 Amazon or Barnes and Noble GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.

Descent Into Darkness

byZanne Raby

 

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GENRE:   Science-Fiction / Space-Opera

 

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INTERVIEW:

1. What or who inspired you to start writing?

 

The truth is that writing was always in my blood. My mom wrote children’s stories that were never published. Every night, when she put me to bed, she would tell me stories about faraway lands and different cultures. My mom was from an immigrant family that left a poor village in Sicily after the First World War. They arrived in the USA without any knowledge of English, but a desire to have a better life for their children. Mom would tell me stories about life in the “old country” and then when Russia and the USA were rocketing into space back in the late 1960s, she switched to stories about the moon and other galaxies. Now you can see why I chose to write sci-fi, with all that inspiration coming from my mom. Unfortunately, none of my mother’s fascinating stories were ever published, but she encouraged me from a young age to be creative. 

 

2. What elements are necessary components for this genre?

 

Let’s talk about the name of my series, “The Chronicles of Deneb”. Two of the novel are now out, and you can find them on Amazon, Kobo, and Barnes and Noble. But just from the title, you kind of get the idea that the novels aren’t happening on Earth. You think “sci-fi” right off the bat, but that’s just the beginning. I wanted the story to be interesting to almost anyone so Descent into Darkness(the second novel in the series) isn’t hard science fiction. In my opinion, extraterrestrial exploration is a necessary component of this genre, as well as interactions with alien cultures and fictional worlds.  That’s why when I wrote Descent into Darkness,I set it on a make-believe planet in the Denebian solar system, Deneb being a real star but without planets. DiDis heavy on adventure with a smattering of science and a smidge of romance. I believe that when you write sci-fi, you’ve got to insert enough factual data to make it believable, but the story can’t rely totally on science otherwise it gets bogged down in details to the point where it becomes a slog. That’s why I sprinkle a ton of adventure into the mix with characters that I unveil bit by bit throughout the series. Adventure + aliens = entertainment!

3. How did you come up with your idea for your novel?

 

This is going to sound a bit strange, but the original idea for the series came about through some conversations with my sister. She’s got an ocean liner full of friends who seem to be total gold-diggers (to each, their own), and there’s me, the woman who served in the Air Force for 38 years climbing up the camouflage ladder. Well, that lifestyle was just was super shocking. From all those long talks, came the idea to write a tongue-in-cheek book about gold-diggers in space. I started working on that, and then I realized I needed a back story. So I wrote a more serious adventure-based work titled The Flight of the Mayflower,the first book in the series where three Space Arks flee from Earth in 2080 to find a new habitable planet to call home. The current novel, Descent into Darkness,is the continuation of TFOMas the main characters face personal dilemmas integrating into a more advanced alien society where their arrival has plummeted the planet into turmoil.

4. What expertise did you bring to your writing?

 

Here comes my past to haunt me! I served in the Royal Canadian Air Force for thirty-eight years and retired as a Lieutenant-Colonel. I was on deployments, including Joint Task Force Afghanistan, Joint Force Command Brunssum and did a tour at US Central Command and a short stint at the Strategic Headquarters Allied Powers Europe. That means I have a ton of military experience, and you know what they say – “write what you know”. So, in my series, several of my main characters have military backgrounds – for instance, Lt-Col Fynn Vogel is a super-star fighter pilot jock, as is his wife, Erica Rosendahl. Colonel Pallav Kóbor is a Security Officer, big, brave and bent on revenge.  I also introduce a young female officer Captain Bafa Villutomi (an alien from Deneb) as Pallav’s sidekick. She’s smart, sassy and quick as lightning but she has a lot to learn – like most young officers. Like I did, all those years ago.

 

5. What would you want your readers to know about you that might not be in your bio?

 

I just adopted a sweet Pomchi puppy named Maximus. A little guy with a giant ego. He looks like a foxy little angel but acts like a real devil at times! He’s the first puppy I’ve ever owned and he’s training me well. Now I may seem to be an extrovert, but I’m actually a very private person. Most of my adult life, I’ve had to develop a real hard shell and not let anyone in to see who the authentic me really is. Part of this is due to my service with the Air Force where I needed to portray a specific persona to be taken seriously as a senior officer (who also happens to be a woman). But we all need our own space to be our goofy, crazy selves and laugh at the Three Stooges without being judged, right? Lose one point if you don’t know who they are!

6. As far as your writing goes, what are your future plans?

 

That’s an easy question. As long as I have inspiration, I’ll continue to write. Right now, I’m working on the third book in the series, Fires of Fury. And I have a draft outline of the fourth book, I think it might be called Spirits of Steel. The series will span over thirty years, so there’s more on the way for sure!

7. If you could be one of the characters from this book, who would it be and why?

 

Now that’s a good question. Fynn Vogel is the type of person I’d love to be. He’s the best of the best once you get him in the cockpit and up in the clouds. Loyal. Kind-hearted. Cocky and cute. An all-around fun person. Who wouldn’t want to be Top Gun? Then, there’s General Ravenna. She’s an alien from Deneb7 and a woman who had to prove herself every step of the way in a male-dominated world. A woman who was scarred by life and whose career has become a crutch. Extremely successful, she’s made it to the top. Sharp as a whip, ruthless, but she also has a vulnerable side. As the series progresses, we see more of Ravenna and like an onion, she has many layers. So, toss up between the two for me.

8. Do you belong to a critique group? If so how does this help or hinder your writing?

 

There are times when, like everyone, I have doubts. Some of it has to do with technology and what is in the realm of the scientifically probable. I have a group of friends who are brutally honest with me. I’ll send them a scenario, and then some possible outcomes for them to review. I gather all the responses and go with the majority. I listen to the voice of the group when I’m unsure. They’ve helped me quite a bit and I appreciate their honesty.

9. Do you outline your books or just start writing?

 

When I first started writing, I just wrote. I began the first novel in the series in March 2018, a few months before I released from the Air Force. I had so much uncertainty and fear in my life that writing helped unleash this. I just let the words flow across the screen. Well, sooner or later, when a person is writing a series that spans decades, you really have to make an outline and a timeline. Without this, there’ll be too many inconsistencies in the work. I start on sticky notes and post them on the wall, grouping them by year and character. It’s not carved in stone and I change it slightly from time to time, but my outline is like a road map leading me along the way.

10. How do you maintain your creativity?

 

Every day I get up and exercise, then take a long, hot shower. I have this great big shower with a pebble floor and three walls with stones embedded in them, plus a glass door through which I can see the hills and forests in the distance. And of course, a humungous sunflower shower head.  I get a ton of inspiration with the water trickling down. Water has always been inspirational to me, I mean, I live on a hill overlooking Georgian Bay, and you’re going to see a water theme in the series when I introduce the planet Cepheus, a watery world with an archipelago of mountainous islands linked by a series of bridges. But then again, I’m on a well so these long hot showers are something of a double-edged sword in the summer. We’ve run out of water a few times and I’m wondering if it’s got something to do with my creativity in the shower routine.

11. Who is your favorite character in the book. Can you tell us why? 

 

My favorite character is General Pallav Kóbor. Pallav is a straightforward kind of guy. Married his high school sweetheart, became a cop, had a couple of kids, and then had to follow his genius astrophysicist wife around the country until they ended up at NASA. While she’s earning a Nobel prize for the discovery of habitable Earth-like planets, he’s serving as the senior security officer and chugging along in her shadow. But things change for him when he finds out she’s doing the dirty on him. Pallav then dips into the dark side and plots revenge, not on her – she’s the love of his life – but on the brilliant astronautical engineer who just happens to be the guy who saved his bacon. In the first book of the series, Pallav is not a main character but that changes in Descent into Darkness. In DiD, Pallav runs with the wolves but he never loses sight of who he really is:  a family man at heart, who will do anything to keep his loved ones safe. Even at the cost of his own soul.

BLURB:

 

Descent into Darkness: Mayhem follows the Mayflower in the second book of The Chronicles of Deneb series. Journey along with the crew of the Space Ark Mayflower as they adapt to their new home on the planet Deneb. But along with their struggle to integrate into an alien culture, a new battle sweeps across the planet with the arrival of the human-transmitted Chimera bactovirus, bringing war and fanning the flames of racial intolerance. With a bloody conflict raging across the planet, the crew of the Mayflower is split between the two factions and embroiled in the chaos and destruction. Descend with the crew into darkness, where the only survivors of a global war will be on the right side of the border.

 

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EXCERPT:

 

“Pallav? You alright?” Tara’s voice broke him from his reverie and he pasted on a phony smile.

 

“Sorry darling, I was a million light years away. I’ll be fine,” he promised. Sweat trickled down his back in the unrelenting heat of the Denebian day, his disruptive pattern shirt already sticking to his body as he shrugged into his rucksack.

 

“Daddy, I’m gonna miss you.” The chirpy sing-song voice of little Jolanta gave him cause to smile at the child as she held out her arms to him. Swooping her up, Pallav dropped a kiss on the little girl’s rosy brown cheek, her eyes glistening with tears.

 

“And I’m going to miss you too, little one.” Hugging the orphaned girl to his chest, he burrowed his face into the cloud of dark hair that was as soft as a feather before pinching her cheek and gently setting her down. Guilt pierced his heart at the sad resigned look on the child’s face. Had it not been for him, Jolanta would be snug as a bug with her biological parents and not in lockdown high above the capital city living with a pair of humans.

 

Poor little thing… she’s known so much loss in her short life, he thought. Surrounded by death as the human Chimera bactovirus raged across Deneb, Jolanta had been cruelly abandoned by her mother after Tara retrieved the fallen child from the cobblestoned marketplace in the centre of the capital city. He could still picture his wife walking through the door with the tiny tot in tow. Shocked, surprised, but then captivated, Pallav let the child into his heart. It wasn’t like his two teenagers wanted him around anymore. No, Luke and Isabella were busy chartering their own course in the Wessel world with Gomalan insisting that they attend the best boarding school in the nation.

 

Taking advantage of his position, Pallav had initiated a thorough search for Jolanta’s parents only to get confirmation that they were amongst the thousands in Styria who had succumbed to the pandemic. Since her arrival, the young orphan had been his little shadow, never leaving his side, following the big man’s movements with her luminous opalescent eyes. He smiled inwardly at the thought of Jolanta climbing into her little cot and begging her new daddy for a bedtime story. Guilt-ridden he realized that he’d miss her more than his own children who were so immersed in their new lives that even their weekly holotalks were rushed and awkward. Laughing at himself, Pallav knew he was totally under the child’s spell.

 

“I promise to be back in time for market day, so no tears, okay?” Taking the little urchin’s chin in his hands, Pallav stared into her eyes. “And you have a promise to make to me too young lady, don’t you?” The little brown head nodded up and down, serious eyes acknowledging the responsibility her adopted father had assigned to her.

 

 

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AUTHOR Bio and Links:

 

Since the days of the Napoleonic War, there has always been a member of Zanne's family in uniform. Choosing to follow in the footsteps of her ancestors, Zanne joined the Canadian Armed Forces in 1980, and was selected to attend the Royal Military College of Canada – the first year that women were accepted into that prestigious academy of learning. After graduation, she studied to become a Transportation and Movements Officer in the Royal Canadian Air Force.

 

During a career spanning 38 years, some of the most memorable experiences involved command of 8 Mission Support Squadron as part of Joint Task Force Afghanistan, leading a study on support to the Canadian Arctic involving several trips to Northern Canada, including Canadian Forces Station Alert (the most northern settlement in the world), a three–year tour with NATO at Joint Force Command Brunssum, a deployment as the NATO Liaison Officer to United States Central Command, and finally a nomination as the Deputy Commander for the Canadian Forces Recruiting Group.

 

After hanging up the uniform and putting away the combat boots, Zanne bought a small acreage in Central Ontario and designed her own house. With an office overlooking the picturesque shores of Georgian Bay, surrounded by maps and images of alien worlds, she is pursuing her life-long ambition to become an author. Enough of the reports and returns that littered her desk over her career, now she could turn her attention to unleashing the creativity that had taken a back seat to the analytical world of logistics. The time had come to shake the dust off and begin a new career. The winds of change had called.

 

Zanne is currently crafting The Chronicles of Deneb, a sci-fi series that will take the reader from a dystopian earth on a voyage across the galaxy in search of a safe haven. But the planets the team discover provide anything but the sanctuary they sought. In her spare time, Zanne enjoys travel, photography, hiking, and gardening. And always, a good story to pass the time.

 

 

Connect with Zanne Raby

 

WEBSITE zanneraby.com

 

FACEBOOK Zanne Raby

 

INSTAGRAM @zanne_raby

 

GOODREADS Zanne Raby

 

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL Zanne Raby

 

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GIVEAWAY INFORMATION and RAFFLECOPTER CODE:

 

Zanne Raby will be awarding a $15 Amazon or Barnes and Noble GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.

 

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/28e4345f4098