Delerium by Susan Kaye Quinn: Launch Announcement

Technically, the debut of Susan Kaye Quinn's new Science Fiction/Future Noir series doesn't launch until tomorrow, but the links are live, and as one of Susan's critique partners, I've had the pleasure of reading the first three episodes in this serialized tale. I could go on for a while about it, but I'll just let the book speak for itself.

The Debt Collector by Susan Kaye Quinn

From the author of the bestselling Mindjack series comes a new future-noir serial, The Debt Collector. The first episode, Delirium, launches tomorrow (3/20).

What’s your life worth on the open market?

A debt collector can tell you precisely.

Lirium plays the part of the grim reaper well, with his dark trenchcoat, jackboots, and the black marks on his soul that every debt collector carries. He’s just in it for his cut, the ten percent of the life energy he collects before he transfers it on to the high potentials, the people who will make the world a better place with their brains, their work, and their lives. That hit of life energy, a bottle of vodka, and a visit from one of Madam Anastazja’s sex workers keep him alive, stable, and mostly sane… until he collects again. But when his recovery ritual is disrupted by a sex worker who isn’t what she seems, he has to choose between doing an illegal hit for a girl whose story has more holes than his soul or facing the bottle alone—a dark pit he’s not sure he’ll be able to climb out of again.

Contains mature content and themes. For YA-appropriate thrills, see Susan’s Mindjack series.

Delirium is approximately 12,000 words or 48 pages, and is one of nine episodes in the first season of The Debt Collector serial. This dark and gritty future-noir is about a world where your life-worth is tabulated on the open market and going into debt risks a lot more than your credit rating. You can find out more about the series at the Debt Collector website and facebook page. The Debt Collector newsletter is a special list just for episode releases. 

Early Praise for Delirium

 “The street-smart science of LOOPER meets the cold, just-the-facts voice of DOUBLE INDEMNITY in this edgy, future-noir thriller that will have you holding your breath, looking over your shoulder, and begging for more.” —Leigh Talbert Moore, author of The Truth About Faking, The Truth About Letting Go, and Rouge

“Do you owe more than your life is worth? No worries. A more deserving person than you can benefit from that excess life—and someone else will get paid with it. Enter the Debt Collector.” —Dianne Salerni, author of We Hear the Dead, The Caged Graves, and The Eighth Day (HarperCollins 2014)

The first three episodes of Debt Collector will be released a week apart, starting Wednesday 3/20. The remaining episodes will release every two weeks. Delirium can be found on: Amazon, Barnes&Noble, iTunes, Kobo. Or add it to your TBR on Goodreads.

Susan Kaye Quinn is the author of the bestselling YA SF Mindjack series. Debt Collector is her more grown-up SF. Her steampunk fantasy romance is temporarily on hold while she madly writes episodes to keep Lirium happy. Plus she needs to leave time to play on Facebook. Susan has a lot of degrees in engineering, which come in handy when dreaming up dangerous mind powers, future dystopias, and slightly plausible steampunk inventions. Mostly she sits around in her pajamas in awe that she gets make stuff up full-time.

Michael Offutt's Slipstream Blog Tour

Morning, readers. Before I hand the reins to Michael, I just want to say a few things about my friend. He jumped on the scene (or at least I discovered him) about a year and a half after I started blogging. Right from the get go, Mike was shocking, honest, and even occasionally highly opinionated. But I learned to love him for who he was pretty quickly. We bloggers are part of such a wonderful community, and especially within the writing/book blogging community, many of us are close friends. But Mike has always ridden a wave of his own making. He's not afraid to tell the truth, and he's not afraid to say what he really feels, and I really respect him for it.

Now, I asked him to talk about word count today, because it's kind of my bane. This blog is yours, Mike. Take it away:

I’ve known Matthew for some time now. Aside from being my gossip partner, I get the sense that Matthew (like myself) goes to war with word count. I remember reading a post he did on Jessica Bell’s blog where he said he trimmed his novel down to 300,000 words, and I compare this to my own episode of cutting where I trimmed SLIPSTREAM from 180,000 words to 120,000 words. After I cut 60,000 words from the manuscript, what I had left was bare bones (this was really hard to do). I feel fortunate to have found a traditional publisher willing to put it out there for the world to see. But yeah…I hate the word count monster. I guess I just have too much to say, and I think really big. Sometimes those kinds of ideas take room to come to fruition. The only trouble is, when you are an unknown, traditional publishers don’t like fat novels.

Recently, I’ve been working on the sequel. It’s at 150,000 words and might end up at 160-170,000 words by the time I’m finished.

I’m facing the word count monster again. But having published one book at 120,000 words might give me the writing chops that my publisher might let me slide in with 150,000. Oh well…word count monster I have faced you and defeated you before! I shall do it again!

So aside from Matthew and I, are there any others out there who war with word count? Care to share your stories?

I have a contest for the release of my book.  I will pick one random person who comments on this post to win a $5 Amazon Gift Card and a SLIPSTREAM jeweled spider (the same person wins both prizes). The jeweled spider really sparkles in the sunlight. I hope whoever wins it really likes it. Also, please make sure that your email is linked to your signature in some way J. And yes, the crystal spiders play an important role in my book.

Rules:

1)      Mark my book “To Read” on Goodreads.

2)      Comment on this post.

3)      Tweet this post if you have twitter. You don’t have to sign-up for twitter. It’s the “honor” system. 

That’s it. I will choose a winner on Saturday, May 19^th.  And thank you, Matt, for having me on your fine blog.

You're welcome, Mike! And here's where you can find slipstream:

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

Goodreads

And here's a pretty thing: