Welcome to the Fall and Rising blog tour!

A warm welcome to author Sunny Moraine joining us today at the blog tour for Fall and Rising!

Fall and Rising is a story I’ve been trying to make happen for some time. On finishing its predecessor Line and Orbit, I knew Adam and Lochlan’s story couldn’t be over. I knew, in fact, that it was just beginning. In Fall and Rising I wanted to continue to explore their journey, as well as the ways in which their tumultuous meeting and the battle that followed have affected the people they love. In short, this was a world I wanted to return to. I’m very pleased that I was able to do so, and I’m very excited to share the result with you.

On this tour I’ll be talking about the process of writing the book and what it taught me about writing in general, the trials and tribulations of passing through the world of the story, some of the tools I used to put me into a place where I could tell that story, and some of why I wanted to write it at all. I’ll also be giving away a signed copy of the print edition of the book, along with a set of two hand-made (by me) agate, copper, and glass beaded bracelets inspired by the world of Fall and Rising. Additionally, you’ll have a chance to win one of two e-copies!

Every comment on this blog tour enters you for the giveaway. Entries close at midnight, Eastern time, on September 5th. Contest is NOT restricted to U.S. entries. Don’t forget to leave your email so we can contact you if you win!

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I love writing with music. Sometimes it’s necessary. I don’t have many strict requirements where my writing environment is concerned – relative quiet and a comfy seat and a beverage do me just fine, though I especially love writing outside – but music is often a component. Some of it is because it serves as a distraction from the actual world and helps me find what I think of as “the door” that opens into the story I’m telling. But a major part of it is also mood-setting and inspiration.

It’s actually not uncommon for me to create playlists for my stuff that function almost as a film soundtrack. I find it difficult to write when listening to music with lyrics/vocals – I “hear” my writing as I do it and external voices make it feel like I’m trying to listen to two conversations at once – so for the most part my writing music is instrumental, and frequently drawn from actual film scores. I also love electronic artists, and there are a particular few I return to again and again, who I find reliable door-finding-helpers. Fall and Rising would almost certainly not have happened without their help. Here are a few of them, as recommendations. Maybe you’re a writer and you work similarly to me. Or maybe you just like this kind of music, and you might enjoy some of these artists.

• BT. This guy has served as a producer/collaborator for a number of other artists (notably N*Sync, among others, but his solo stuff is just fantastic, and he’s probably my favorite musician right now. Has been for a while, in fact. His work is often dancey regarding beats and rhythm, but he combines that with beautiful melodies and creative composition. He also has more complex, almost modern classical work that works especially well as writing music for me. My favorite album of his – my favorite album ever – is This Binary Universe, which I recommend highly. These Hopeful Machines is a close second, along by his soundtrack for the film Monster.

• Jon Hopkins. I actually discovered him opening for Coldplay – they worked with some of his stuff for their album Viva La Vida – and he’s wonderfully lovely and strange. His music is eclectic, from driving beats to more dreamy and atmospheric songs, to what almost amounts to melodic noise. One of the things I love about him is that regardless of what I’m writing, I can usually find something of his that fits it perfectly, whether romance or science fiction or fantasy or horror, or just weird. As far as his albums go, I recommend Insides, as well as Late Night Tales. He has also collaborated with King Creosote to produce some beautiful music.

• Marconi Union. Stranger and often more vaguely ominous compositions, though they also make simply meditative music, stuff very suitable to quiet, deep writing. They’re an excellent match to a lot of my more experimental short fiction. Albums: Distance (featuring the stellar track “Sleepless”, which I use a lot) and Beautifully Falling Apart.

• Tycho. A recent discovery for me. Somewhat like Jon Hopkins, but with a style very much his own. Also quite atmospheric – really more along the lines of Marconi Union in some ways. His music makes me think of driving or flying or train journeys – anything involving speed. His album Awake is one of my very favorites.

• Solar Fields. Very dreamy with a huge range of emotion. Joyful, thoughtful, generally intense, even angry. He’s another one where I can almost always find something that works for anything I’m writing, and he’s a go-to for science fiction in particular. During the writing of Fall and Rising I depended on him a good bit. Albums: Movements and Leaving Home.

• Public Service Broadcasting. This is a very recent discovery that I owe to my husband. They’re somewhat unusual for this list in that their music does feature voices – they sample audio from radio and television broadcasts in order to match their music to a specific theme or historical event. But the music itself is primary enough that I don’t find the vocal aspect distracting at all. My favorite album of theirs – my favorite album as I write this – is The Race For Space, which is a concept album telling the story of the moon landings, from Kennedy’s 1962 speech declaring the country’s intention to go the moon to broadcasts from the astronauts of the Apollo 17. My particular favorite song is “Go”, which chronicles the landing of Apollo 11 using dramatic audio taken from communications between the astronauts and mission control during the final hair-raising minutes of powered descent.

Those are at least a few of the selections I’ve found particularly useful. But there’s a lot more out there. Fortunately as a writer I’m spoiled for choice. Check these people out! You won’t be disappointed.

***Book Blurb

Adam Yuga is on the run. Three months ago, a miracle saved him from the deadly genetic illness that threatens the entire population of his former home, the Protectorate. Now he and his lover Lochlan are searching for a way to heal his people. When they receive a mysterious coded message promising hope, they make a desperate grab for it, and are imprisoned—by the very race they want to save.

On Lochlan’s distant homeship, a young pilot named Nkiruka faces an agonizing choice: stay with her lover Satya and live a life of happy obscurity, or become the spiritual leader—and the last and only hope—for the Bideshi. Nkiruka doesn’t want to lose Satya, but worse, she fears she lacks the strength to carry anyone through the coming storm, let alone her entire people.

Threads of chance and destiny draw the three together. With the fates of civilizations in their hands, they prepare for a final conflict that might be their only chance for survival—or that might destroy them all.

Buy Links:

Riptide

Amazon

Sunny Moraine’s short fiction has appeared in Clarkesworld, Strange Horizons, Nightmare, Lightspeed, Long Hidden: Speculative Fiction from the Margins of History, and multiple Year’s Best collections, among other places. They are also responsible for the novels Line and Orbit (cowritten with Lisa Soem), Labyrinthian, and the Casting the Bones trilogy, as well as A Brief History of the Future: collected essays. In addition to authoring, Sunny is a doctoral candidate in sociology and a sometimes college instructor; that last may or may not have been a good move on the part of their department. They unfortunately live just outside Washington DC in a creepy house waith two cats and a very long-suffering husband.

Connect with Sunny:

• Website: sunnymoraine.com
• Goodreads: goodreads.com/Sunny_Moraine
• Tumblr: dynamicsymmetry.tumblr.com
• Twitter: @dynamicsymmetry
• Facebook: facebook.com/sunny.moraine