Love Bytes says hello and welcome to author Kristoffer Gair joining us today to talk about new release “Revenant: Falling Awake II”.
Kristoffer talks to us about star wars ;), shares an excerpt and there is a giveaway to participate in!
Welcome Kristoffer 🙂
My Empire Strikes Back
The original Star Wars is one of my favorite trilogies. I grew up with them, and even saw all three films during their original theatrical run. Star Wars: A New Hope (before the film was actually given the additional A New Hope title) sets the story up. And being this is a trilogy, the second film then needs to establish just what the heroes are up against in order to conclude everything in the third. Perhaps the films follow a trilogy formula, but they do so very well…despite the damn Ewoks. My novella, Falling Awake, established a story and I’ve come to think of the second book in the series, Falling Awake II: Revenant, as my version of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back.
This isn’t to say I’ve written anything remotely as popular as the original Star Wars trilogy. I haven’t. But I’m following the trilogy formula…minus the damn Ewoks. Major plot points in The Empire Strikes Back include character revelations, what the bad guys are willing to do to get what they want, and who it is they want. Their cards are exposed to viewers and we see just how good their hand is. The trick will be how all these plot points play out in the third film.
Falling Awake II: Revenant presents a couple of character revelations of its own, and the bad guys have some of their cards exposed. We don’t get to know them intimately, but we know enough about them to understand they’re up to some serious nasty things. We also get to know a couple of the good guys. They’re flawed, some more than others, yet they are the only ones who stand between what is and what could be.
I know, I know. This is the perfect place to list some spoilers, but I’m not going to. I will say I was uncomfortable with several of the things Andrew, the main character, went through while trying to find out more about why his friend was killed fourteen years earlier. The journey for answers comes at a price, and one he doesn’t anticipate, and hopefully avoids so many of the clichés out there readers might expect.
Now, the end of The Empire Strikes Back gives us a glimpse of the aftermath and the gearing up for what the future will bring, only we have no idea how the story will unfold. I had a little fun doing this same thing in Falling Awake II. We know what could happen, but we don’t know if it will, or how. And that may be what little fun I had because the story, in keeping with the trilogy formula, sets up a great deal of darkness.
Will the Jedi return? We know the answer to that question, even if there are Ewoks. Will my characters prevail? Well, you first need to see what they’re up against. Are you ready for that? I wasn’t.
He jerked the car over to the side of the road, his only rational thought being gratitude he hadn’t seen any other cars on the street. Andrew shifted the gear into park, opened the door, stumbled out and over to the side in front of the vehicle, and fell to his knees. He looked up, studied the sun in the sky, mesmerized as if he’d never seen its light before, leaned forward, and vomited. Anything unlucky enough to still be in his system came out his mouth. His throat burned with bile and… Noise. Screams? No. They were wails, excruciating, chilling wails. But from where? The house?
If so, something there wasn’t human. An animal? Must be. How could a human being make such a mournful, chilling sound and for so long? So very, very long. He breathed in, and the noise subsided. He breathed out, and the furor began anew. Anguished howls poured out of him. Not some poor creature. Him. Wail after wail, sorrow, vomit, and tears, collecting now below with the other sorrow and tears throughout the years. There may once have been resounding silence in the area, but any still existing had been extinguished by the sound of a twenty-four-year-old suddenly terrified out of his mind for no rational reason.
Oh, no, you don’t. You’re not getting off this easy.
There was a rational explanation up the street; Thomas’s house. The place Andrew saw in his dreams. The place he couldn’t escape…because he’d caused what happened there. Lives ended because of him, ended tragically, horrifically. He wasn’t merely responsible for Thomas’s death, but also for those of Thomas’s parents. The responsibility had been his and his alone, and the memories of their aftermath were his, and the police who’d found the bodies.
The deep, body-wracking sobs continued, his heart crushed in an unseen vice. Every breath screamed injustice, horror, and hopelessness. No one should live like this. No one should know their demons so intimately.
Title: Revenant: Falling Awake II
Series: Falling Awake Book 2
Author: Kristoffer Gair
Publisher: Self-published
Release Date: June 19
Length: 90,000 words
Genre: Paranormal Thriller
Synopsis:
Andrew O’Donnell’s childhood friend, Thomas, was murdered when they were ten years old. Nightmares and guilt have plagued Andrew ever since. And he believes himself responsible for delivering Thomas into the very hands of the men who committed the atrocity.
Now, fourteen years later, Andrew is driven to uncover the mystery of what really happened to Thomas, the reason behind the brutal abduction, and whether the assailants—who were never caught—have set their sights on someone else.
Even the help of an unlikely ally may not be enough to stop the darkness, the threat of what it will do to them in this life…or the next.
Author/Blogger Kristoffer Gair grew up in Fraser, MI and is a graduate of Grand Valley State University. He currently lives with his husband in a suburb of Detroit.
Official Website: www.KageAlan.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/kristoffergair
Twitter: www.twitter.com/kristoffer.gair
June 19 – Mirrigold: Mutterings & Musings (https://mirrigold.com/)
June 20 – Outrageous Heroes of Romance
June 21 – Love Bytes (www.lovebytesreviews.com)
June 22 – Queer Sci Fi (https://www.queerscifi.com)
June 23 – Celticlady’s Reviews (http://www.celticladysreviews.blogspot.com)
June 24 – My Fiction Nook (http://myfictionnook.com)
June 26 – Book Lovers 4Ever (http://www.bl4ebookblog.com/)
June 27 – Life at 17 (https://lifeat17.wordpress.com)
June 28 – Dawn’s Reading Nook (https://dawnsreadingnook.blogspot.com)
Congrats on the new book! thank you for the post.
My pleasure. =) Am hoping readers enjoy it as much as they did the first.