Shalini Boland

HOW DID YOU GET YOUR START AS AN AUTHOR?

I used to be a singer/songwriter, but after having kids I found writing novels fit in better with my lifestyle – I still get to be creative, but I don’t have to travel so much or spend hours prettying myself up.

 

DID YOU CHOOSE TO SELF-PUBLISH OR GO THE TRADITIONAL ROUTE?  WHY?

I initially had a London literary agent who submitted to publishers for me, but it was such a glacial process that I eventually decided to self-publish. Plus I’m a bit of a control freak, and it suits me to work to my own timeframes.

 

DO YOU PREFER EBOOKS, PAPERBACKS OR HARDCOVER?

My heart says paperbacks, but nine times out of ten I find myself reaching for my Kindle.

 

WHAT IS THE FIRST SCIENCE FICTION BOOK YOU REMEMBER READING?

1984. I read it in my early teens and it freaked me out.

 

WHEN YOU GO TO SEE A MOVIE, DO YOU TRY TO READ THE BOOK FIRST?

Always

 

DO YOU BUY A BOOK BY THE COVER?

I’d have to read the blurb before I bought it. But covers certainly have to attract me. I would never buy a print book if it had a dodgy cover.

WHERE WERE YOU BORN AND WHERE DO YOU CALL HOME? WHERE WOULD YOU LIKE TO LIVE?

Born in London. Home is Dorset (in the UK) and I absolutely love it. We have pretty towns, beautiful beaches, forest and countryside here. The only thing I would change is the weather. If we could drag the county 300 miles south, it’d be perfect.

DO YOU EVER WRITE IN YOUR PJ’S?

The question should be: Do you ever not write in your PJs?

 

DO YOU HAVE ANOTHER JOB BESIDES AUTHOR?

I’m a mother of two young boys and I also just started up a book promotion company.

 

WHAT IS YOUR MOTTO?

Opportunity is a duty

 

WHAT ARE YOUR PET PEEVES? 

Rudeness.

SLEEP IN OR GET UP EARLY?

In an ideal world I’d sleep in.

YOUR FAVORITE GADGET?

My Nespresso coffee machine.

HAVE YOU SEEN MY SHOES?

Have you looked in the shoe cupboard?

BONUS QUESTION: WHY DO VILLAINS PREFER LONG HAIR CATS INSTEAD OF 
HAIRLESS CATS? HAIRLESS CATS ARE MUCH MORE EVIL LOOKING. SEEMS LIKE A 
MISSED OPPORTUNITY.

Villains always consort with beautiful women/men and beautiful cats. It’s the law.

                                                                                                         

HOW IMPORTANT ARE NAMES TO YOU IN THIS BOOK? DID YOU CHOOSE THEM BASED ON SOUND OR MEANING?

It’s a gut instinct thing. If the name’s wrong, I can’t make the character come alive. As soon as I find the right name, they become real.

 

WHERE DID YOUR TOMORROW SPRING FROM? IN OTHER WORDS, HOW DID YOU COME UP WITH THE CRAZY WORLD?

I pictured how the world I live in now would be after a total social and economic collapse. How would people live? What would we do? How would we protect ourselves from the chaos? I figured that most people would want to try and barricade themselves in. They would want to keep their houses and manicured lawns and semblance of normalcy.

 

HOW DID YOU COME UP WITH THE IDEA FOR THIS STORY?

I had a wicked twist of an ending and worked backwards.

 

JUST HOW FAR IN THE FUTURE IS YOUR TOMORROW?

16 years.

 

IS THERE ANY SUPER-COOL FUTURISTIC TECHNOLOGY/WEAPONRY IN YOUR TOMORROW?

Not too much, apart from some cool armoured vehicles with vicious shock plates. It’s mainly people trying to keep hold of the stuff from ‘before’.

 

DO YOU WANT YOUR TOMORROW TO MAKE IT BIG, AS IN JK ROWLINGS-BIG? WHY OR WHY NOT?

I’d like it to be I-stay-anonymous big.

 

YOUR MAIN CHARACTER VS BATMAN, WHO WOULD WIN?

Depends on when … By the end of the trilogy, Riley would kick Batman’s ass.

 

 

MULTIPLE CHOICE

 

IF THERE IS TEOTWAWKI IN YOUR TOMORROW, WHAT CAUSED IT

Multiple terrorist attacks destabilised the economy.

 

ON A SCALE OF 1-5 WHAT WOULD YOUR BOOK GET FOR THESE ACTUAL MPAA RATING DESCRIPTIONS (I’m guessing 1 is not a lot, 5 is an awful lot)

VIOLENCE - 3

LANGUAGE - 2

DRUG USE - 1

SEXUAL CONTENT - 2

NON-STOP NINJA ACTION - 4

MILD PERIL - 5

SALTY LANGUAGE AND INNUENDOS - 2

JUNGLE ADVENTURE TERROR - 2

BRUTAL AND BLOODY VIKING COMBAT - 1

COMIC HORROR, VIOLENCE AND GROSSNESS - 1

SWASHBUCKLING ACTION - 2

ABUNDANCE OF OUTRAGEOUS GORE - 1

SEXY DANCING – 1 (Wish I’d put more in)

INTENSE SEQUENCES OF BAT ATTACKS 1 (You’d need to read my other trilogy for this)

DEMENTED MAYHEM - 5

SCENES OF DENTAL TORTURE – Not in the book, but it’s happened in real life.

(You missed out psycho raiders and religious nutters – 5)

 

 

IF YOUR MC WAS IN A PRESENT-DAY HIGH SCHOOL HE/SHE WOULD BE A

GEEK

NERD

JOCK (M&F)

GLEE KID

MEAN GIRL/GUY

EMO/GOTH

HIPSTER/COOL KID – Little bit of this

OUTSIDER

PREPPY

SKATER/SLACKER/POT SMOKER

 

 

IF YOUR BOOK WERE RATED LIKE A ROMANCE NOVEL, THE HEAT LEVEL WOULD BE

1) NONE
2) SWEET
3) MILD – But with lots of sexual tension
4) HOT
5) WILD RIDE

6) BLOOD THIRSTY 

 

Thanks for having me J

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David J. Normoyle

It’s a dog eat dog world we live in. Throughout history, dystopian societies are more the rule than the exception.

We mightn’t want that to be true but a look through the history books doesn’t provide comforting reading. If history provides warnings from the past, dystopian fiction sends warnings back from the future. Society tries to avoid repeating mistakes from the past, but also strives to avoid Orwellian futures.

In The Narrowing Path, we explore the concept of an extreme form of survival of the fittest. The population is limited, and the ruling class want to keep the status quo. They have plenty of children, and they want to ensure only the best males survive. But how to define best in this context, and how to test it? In this technologically backward world, the only way is to let the children prove themselves in a real world setting.

So just as the rulers of this world scheme among themselves, and trade, and try to build enterprises, so their teenage children are set loose in the city to show they can do the same. The rulers watch the progress of the teenagers, taking note of which of them are successful in their ventures, which of them are clever in their schemes, which of them are strong and ruthless in their dealings with rivals, and which of them show the leadership that will allow them to successfully rule the future generations. It’s a fight to the death, but with wits rather than weapons.

The test of The Narrowing Path is a harsh test for a harsh world. Only about one in twenty of the sons of the noble families are allowed to survive and go forward to become future rulers. The rest die over the course of the Path. The noble daughters live longer, but it isn’t much better for them; they are forced to live in harems until discarded by their husbands when they age.

But even when society as a whole is bleak, the human spirit often provides the strength to break free. In the world of The Narrowing Path, it is the lower classes who work together and help each other, often sacrificing themselves so that others might live. They have to deal with not just the problems of the strictly limited population, but also the brutal regime inflicted on them by the ruling class, but their suffering makes them stronger rather than weaker, makes them love more than they hate.

It’s a dog eat dog world we live in. But it can and will get better.

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Jenni Merritt

Leon: Do you make up these questions, Mr. Holden, or do they write them down for you?

Mr. Holden: They’re just questions, Leon.

Subject: Kowalski, Leon (Bladerunner)

It is finally my turn to answer some questions, as part of the What Tomorrow May Bring blog schedule.  

Are you ready for this?

* HOW DID YOU GET YOUR START AS AN AUTHOR?

I was obsessed with writing and reading all growing up and told most anyone who would listen that someday I was going to be an author.  Even though I loved it, I never seemed to get anything done though.  Until I discovered NaNoWriMo.  Yes, I am a NaNo Lover.  In one month, I had finally finished my first draft of a book and then did another and another and...

* HAVE YOU WRITTEN IN ANY OTHER GENRES BESIDES YA DYSTOPIAN?  WHAT DREW YOU TO THIS GENRE?

So far my other WIPS consist of urban fantasy, paranormal, fairy tales....I am even growing the idea for my first contemporary piece.  I love stories too much to stay roped into one genre.  As to why I was drawn to dystopian: I love screwing with the idea of society then seeing what people do to fix it.  It is intriguing.  I fell in love with The Giver, then searched for years for more great dystopian reads.  The next step was obviously adding my own voice in with the collection.

* HOW DO YOU OVERCOME WRITER'S BLOCK?

I tend to slam my head on my desk.  Stuff my face full of chocolate.  Get lost in Netflix and Facebook.  Wander aimlessly... Then I force myself to throw up words until the words finally start to make sense.

* WHAT IS THE FIRST SCIENCE FICTION BOOK YOU REMEMBER READING?

Oh my...I believe it was A Tale of Time City.  I loved that book (and yes, I still reread it every so often.)

* IS THERE AN AUTHOR THAT YOU WOULD REALLY LIKE TO MEET?

One??  Goodness, let's see... Orson Scott Card is a for sure.  Along with JK Rowling, Terry Goodkind, Steven King...

* LAPTOP OR DESKTOP FOR WRITING?

Desktop for sure.  I have a laptop (am using it right now in fact) but there is something about sitting at my desktop with dual screens and spinny chair that gets my mind in working mode.

* DO YOU EVER WRITE IN YOUR PJ’S?

As soon as I get the itch to write, the first thing I do is run to my room and throw on the nearest pair of jammies.  Some people wear suits to work.  Some wear vests with flair.  Authors wear PJs.  It is just a fact.

* WHERE DID YOUR TOMORROW SPRING FROM? IN OTHER WORDS, HOW DID YOU COME UP WITH THE CRAZY WORLD?

A good friend of mine got charged for a crime.  Being as he couldn't afford an attorney, he got appointed one.  And even though he wasn't guilty for the crime, he got sentenced for it based on stipulations.  To make matters worse, his sentencing was protected under a measure that ensures mandatory sentences.  So there he was, no previous history, sentenced for a crime he wasn't guilty of, and thrown into prison for nearly eight years.  This got me thinking: What if it was always this way?  What if the jails ruled the country? Thus the book was born.

* DID YOU DO ANY SPECIFIC OR UNUSUAL RESEARCH FOR THIS BOOK? 

I did lots of research on prisons.  I even made friends with a fellow NaNo writer who used to work in a prison, and I scoured for any info I could get.  

* DO YOU WANT YOUR TOMORROW TO MAKE IT BIG, AS IN JK ROWLINGS-BIG? WHY OR WHY NOT?

I love this book.  It was my debut novel.  It is my baby.  But I will be the first to admit that it isn't perfect.  Am I proud of it?  Darn right!  But if I were to make it big, I think I would prefer it to be off of one of my coming novels.  And let this book just be my little pride and joy.

* WHO SHOULD NOT READ YOUR BOOK?

A few reviews have stated that my book seemed to be pushing some sort of agenda.  Honestly, it is just a book.  But if you can't handle thoughts that don't support prisons and society control...don't read this book.  But if you can: Read away!

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