Interview-Micki Miller Author of The Darkest Sum
Give a warm welcome to Micki Miller, author of The Darkest Sum released on August 2, 2017!
Pull up a chair, grab a drink of your choice from the cooler, a Chocolate Chip or Peanut Butter cookie from the plate, and let’s find out a little about Micki and The Darkest Sum.
Micki, tell us what inspired this particular story?
I lived most of my life in Las Vegas and I’ve seen these concrete storm drains. I stood just inside one of them. They’re dark, and creepy, and I found it easy to imagine all kinds of things going on in there. For a long time, I had a story hovering at the edge of my mind, but I could never get it to work. Then I learned the sad fact that some homeless people have made the storm drains their place to live. From that moment on, my characters went from being a part of the background of the story, to being its heart and soul.
What secret do you use to blast through writer’s block?
I don’t really get anything so severe as writer’s block. I get stuck, often. When I get really stuck, I go and brush my teeth. It seems to give me a fresh start. So, if you come over and my breath is very fresh, you’ll know it’s been a tough day of writing.
Good to know Micki.
Who is your favorite character of all the books you’ve written and why?
Liz Linden in The Darkest Sum, without a doubt. She’s about as down and out as a person can be. Nobody would guess her a person with anything above a bleak future, much less a person able to save the world. But beneath her tough exterior, her heart is noble and her will is strong. Liz is far more capable than she realizes. I think that’s probably true of many of us, and I love seeing her develop and represent the possibilities.
The Darkest Sum, hmmm… sounds ominous, tell us about the story.
The embodiment of the world’s evil has but a single fear-one homeless girl.
Twenty-two-year-old Liz Linden and her nineteen-year-old brother Jacob have lived in the storm drains that run under Las Vegas for almost one year. There are many others living in the makeshift camps. She does her best to make their concrete camp into a home until she can save enough money to get them out of the tunnels and into an apartment.
Of late, her wish to get out has become desperate, as she’s come to realize something else is down there, the offspring of malice and hypocrisy. It lives, it grows, and if not stopped, it will fully exist. It is the total of all of mankind’s evils-The Darkest Sum.
How about a peek between the pages of The Darkest Sum?
The air in the tunnel was thick and dank, and as black as a shadow’s shadow. Our single flashlight was woefully inadequate. Darkness encased my brother and me while its offspring prowled the concrete corridors searching for us. I’d been fighting for survival my whole life, but never before had I so thoroughly felt it.
Over the next twenty or thirty minutes we made several turns and while I tried to keep my bearings it became more and more difficult. The water rose again.
I had an unreasonable, albeit powerful urge to turn around and run back the way we’d come. It’s possible, as Jacob had argued; it would have been suicide, but maybe not. Maybe we would have made it through and been long out of there.
As the cold water buried more of me, creeping upward faster than I was brave enough to acknowledge, that sounded more and more promising.
In all the months we’d lived down in the tunnels, I had never experienced claustrophobia. That was something for which I had neglected to be grateful. However, with us being so far in, with the water threatening to shrink the tunnel to nothing but a concrete box without air and no known way to escape, our home of almost one year might well have been a tomb.
In order to go on and not allow terror to overcome me I did what I always do when I feel close to surrendering to my circumstance. I focused on my brother. Though in all fairness, it was Jacob who’d taken control. He led the way, he held my hand, and although he was afraid too, he kept his fears from me as I had always kept mine from him. I don’t know if that made me feel better or worse.
I hadn’t a clue as to what was going on outside. Even if the rain had stopped, the water in the tunnels would continue to rise. It was the place where the town shed its’ unwanted excess.
Every so often I made a request to Jacob that we stop for a moment to rest. I didn’t need to. My legs were strong from all the walking we’d done since becoming homeless and even with the water resistance, I hadn’t yet tired. What I needed to do was to listen without the noise of our sloshing through the water.
I didn’t hear the sound of something swimming. Maybe, like us, it was walking on actual legs.
About the author:
Micki Miller has lived most of her life in the fun city of Las Vegas. For ten years she and her husband spent several months of the year traveling the country in an R.V. She was fortunate enough to see every state in this marvelous country. Then they moved to the beautiful state of Michigan, where she learned about layering clothes and boats don’t have brakes.
Micki’s Social Media haunts:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Mickimillerwriter/
Twitter: @millermwriter
Instagram: miller.micki
It was wonderful having you with us today, Micki. Please feel free to stop by anytime. Good Luck with The Darkest Sum.
Views: 427
Posted in Authors' Secrets Blog and tagged Dystopian, Micki Miller, Paranormal, Science Fiction, The Darkest Sum, Urban Fantasy by Tena Stetler with 28 comments.
Interview with Susannah Sandlin Author of Illumination
Give a warm welcome to, author of Illumination, fifth in the Penton Legacy releasing tomorrow, July 11th, 2017! Reserve your copy today!
Pull up a chair, grab a drink of your choice from the cooler, there’s fresh lemonade in the pitcher on the counter. Choose a Chocolate Chip or Peanut Butter cookie from the plate, and let’s find out a little about Susannah and Illumination!
Susannah, who is your favorite character of all of the books you’ve written and why?
What a hard question! I’m having a mental battle between Mirren Kincaid from the Penton Legacy series (he’s the hero of book two, ABSOLUTION, but appears in all books in the series)—he’s a huge vampire who was a Scottish gallowglass mercenary in his human life in the early 17th century and likes to pretend he’s a huge badass, but he has a wicked sense of humor and a few secrets few people other than his heroine (and the readers) know. I love him for his complexity. His rival for my favorite is the undead French pirate Jean Lafitte, from my Sentinels of New Orleans urban fantasy series (written as Suzanne Johnson). Lafitte was a real historical figure, of course, and was a pirate in New Orleans in the early 1800s. He was a larger-than-life character in reality (think sober Jack Sparrow, only way more deadly); in fiction, bringing him into modern-day New Orleans, he is SO much fun to write. And yeah, what’s not sexy about a dark-haired, blue-eyed French pirate?
Did you tell friends and family that you were writing a book? Or did it take a while to come out and tell friends and family you were a writer?
When I began writing my first novel, I didn’t tell many people—only a couple of close friends, because I wanted their input. I’d never written fiction before and was really having to feel my way through it. It wasn’t until I got an agent and she sold that book to a publisher (the first in the Sentinels of New Orleans urban fantasy series, written as Suzanne Johnson) that I started telling more people. Now, I’m on book number 20 or so, most under my Susannah Sandlin pen name, and I think it’s all just ho-hum for them. A new book is always exciting to me, though!
Why do you write what you write? Ie. Contemporary, paranormal, suspense, etc.
I write paranormal romance, urban fantasy, and romantic suspense—all of them are similar, with a lot of action and big emotional transformations for the characters (who might be human…or might not). I think I gravitate toward “high concept” stories with big emotional character arcs because I’m fascinated with human nature and how people who are forced to face their biggest fears respond to those challenges. I like to see what happens when people from different backgrounds and cultural mindsets are forced to rethink their belief systems and see them from someone else’s point of view. I think paranormal fantasy and romantic suspense both really play to those ideas. I like to see how people respond when their backs are to the wall and they can either give up, change, or fight. (Yes, I do torture my characters!)
What do you like to do when you are not writing?
I enjoy doing mixed-media art. Give me some graphite, charcoal, acrylic, watercolor, and gesso, and I can keep myself happy for hours. I work primarily in journals and have become addicted to all the wonderful online mixed-media classes out there! It’s a good thing I’m not that talented or I’d never stop painting long enough to write!
Illumination is the fifth book in Penton Legacy, tell is little about Nic and Illumination.
A peek between the pages of Illumination:
“Right then. We have an obscenely large vehicle on the other side of that brick wall,” Cage said. “Archer or Nik should be able to help you over. Once I’m sure you’re in the car and locked up tight, I’ll collect Robin and Glory from the cemetery entrance and we’ll all be on our way back to Penton.”
Shay bit her lip. She had absolutely no reason to go to Penton, wherever the hell it was. Her home and life and work were here in New Orleans. She knew she’d have to be careful, but now that the breeding house was broken up and Jonathan was dead, the vampires and their minions had no reason to come after her. Whatever feelings Shay had nursed for Nik Dimitrou in high school, they were long dead. Gorgeous only took a person so far. Besides, he was a vampire.
She’d wait until they got her out of this cemetery, though, to decline her visit to Vampire Central. Maybe the handsome cat boy would drop her off somewhere. But where? She had no money or identification with her. She didn’t even have the keys to her own apartment or lab.
Maybe a police station. They could come up with a plausible story for her disappearance. Maybe even name Simon as her kidnapper, and the warehouse location. Let the authorities make of it what they would.
Shay was distracted by the sight of Archer leaping to the top of the brick wall behind the Le Boeuf crypt, followed closely by Nik. Her old classmate might be injured and hungry, but that wall had given him no challenge. Shay wasn’t sure she could climb over it without a sturdy ladder on a good day. Today had not been a good day except that she hadn’t died.
Nik reached down and motioned to Shay. “C’mon, let’s get out of here.”
Shay looked at the wall, at Nik, and back at the wall. “I don’t think you can lift me. You’re hurt.”
“Trust me.” Nik grinned, giving Shay a glimpse of an older, even more handsome version of the boy she’d known so many years ago. She’d thought she loved that boy; this man, though….was a vampire. Don’t forget that, idiot.
She nodded, dried her hands on her jeans as much as she could, and reached up toward Nik. He leaned over, wrapped strong fingers around both of her wrists, and lifted her to the top of the wall with what seemed like little effort, setting her down beside him.
“Swing your legs over, and I’ll lower you down the other side. Or I can leap down with you in my arms.” His grin widened, and her heart beat double-time when their gazes locked. Vampire. He’s a freaking vampire. He’s a freaking vampire involved in a war with other freaking vampires. You cannot trust him. Lust, yes. Trust, no.
“Whatever you do, would you please move your arses?” Cage stood beneath them. “I’m getting soaked and—”
A loud pop sounded from the Washington Avenue end of the cemetery, followed by a splintering noise and another pop pop. Shay had lived in New Orleans long enough to recognize the sound of gunfire.
It was wonderful having you with us today, Susannah! Please feel free to stop by anytime. Good Luck with Illumination.
Views: 47
Posted in Authors' Secrets Blog and tagged Illumination, Paranormal, Penton Legacy, Romance, Susannah Sandlin, Urban Fantasy, Vampires by Tena Stetler with 10 comments.
