This time I got to meet a couple of interesting authors and hear them read passages from their works. One I already knew previously (Marshall) but hadn't gotten yet to know his writings. The other was new to me and a very interesting guy with an interesting book, an interesting take on the vampire genre, with more to come.
Today's readings were by Mark Allen and Marshall Miller.
Mark Allen is retired military and has written a vampire book titled Nocturnal. I that book he did not want to follow the trend in vamps being glittery or romantic. Not an easy thing to do now a days to come up with a fresh slant on vamps. His vampire is scary, clinical in his actions and not ever quibbling over his situation, the ethics, the pain of being him.
He knows who he is. He lives how he does. And he's unapologetic about it. He is realistic however and he does cull food with a sense of economy and reality. Some are just not targeted as his food sources, children, the weak, the innocent. But he didn't choose this path out of compassion or ethics. Rather he chooses the dregs of humanity out of a sense of efficiency and his own sense of perfection. not unlike perhaps, a wolf in targeting the easy kill or the choice of what is perhaps inadvertently the best for the herd.
Mark gave an impassioned reading and one felt he truly felt his protagonist deeply. His next book he is already working on will venture into the realm of werewolves, but with, as is Mark's nature, a fresh take on them and their greater endeavors in society. Mark also mentioned that he writes screenplays, has an L.A. agent and has directed an indie film.
Marshall Miller has written a series of books about an alien invasion that is certainly worth a look.I've known Mark for a little while now, through the Studio. He hosts a show on public access with another author, Peter Stockwell, for KLAW (Kitsap Literary Authors and Writers), and Kitsap Publishing based in Poulsbo, WA. They usually air on Saturdays at 6PM PT.
From a description on Writer's in Kitsap County on MeetUp.com:
Kitsap County has a monthly television show filmed at Bremerton public television station by the fairgrounds. Want to get involved? Want to be interviewed? Come by the station every last Tuesday of the month, we take over the station at 2 PM. Come learn how you can help.
Someone coined the phrase for Marshall that his three volume TSCHAAA series (from Kitsap Publishing) as the War and Peace of alien squid invasion novels. Marshall read from his first book, The Gathering Storm. It was a fun and intense section he read of his book.
As his own write up says:
If you like Sci Fi/Speculative Fiction with Adult Themes that make you THINK; If you like books with exciting and well-developed characters; If you like strong heroes and heroines, unusual but interesting Aliens, and slam bam ACTION that harkens back to the Golden and Silver Age of Pulp Fiction, you’ll LOVE this series.
These were both very interesting authors and we look forward to their next efforts. I also personally look forward to the next author event at Studio 724!
Shameless plug for one of my own books, Death of heaven (video book trailer).
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