Guest Author Kelly Meding

Don’t you enjoy finding out about “new to you” authors?  Well…..Stephanie, from Simon & Schuster, is back again today so that she can introduce us to another author.  Welcome Ms. Kelly Meding !!

 

NAME

A native of the Delaware seashore, Kelly Meding lives in Maryland, with a neurotic cat that occasionally meows at ghosts. After discovering Freddy Krueger at a very young age, Kelly began a lifelong obsession with horror, science fiction, and fantasy, on which she blames her interest in vampires, psychic powers, superheroes, and all things paranormal. When not writing, she can be found crafting jewelry, enjoying a good cup of coffee, or scouring the Internet for gossip on her favorite television shows.
Connect with Kelly at these sites:

http://kellymeding.com/wordpress/?p=3 https://twitter.com/KellyMeding

GUEST POST

Thank you so much for having me here to chat about my new release, TEMPEST, and the evolving dynamics of villains.

TEMPEST is the third book in my MetaWars series with Pocket Star.  The books are set in a world where superheroes are real.  Meta-powered humans once brought the United States to the brink of disaster with their battles, and they killed each other to near-extinction.  During the final deciding battle, the remaining heroes and villains suddenly lose their super-powers.  The villains are locked up on ManhattanIsland, which is turned into a giant prison.  The surviving heroes, however, are all children between the ages of ten and fifteen.  These confused, orphaned kids are put in foster homes.

Fast-forward fifteen years, and the now-adult former heroes-in-training receive their powers back as suddenly as they lost them.  The imprisoned villains (called Banes) receive theirs back, as well, and one of the questions these former bad guys have to consider is: do we break out and go back to being bad, or do we stay put and allow the authorities to deal with us?

The first book in the series, TRANCE, chronicles how the survivors band back together to stop an old enemy intent on murdering them all.  Banes are viewed as threats, period.  This is all Teresa and her five fellow heroes know them as.  The Banes killed their parents and mentors.  They caused havoc around the country.  This view holds fast until the end of the novel, when one Bane lends a hand, and Teresa begins to wonder if some of the Banes have truly reformed.  This confusion leads to conflict within the group, especially from Renee and Ethan, who have very strong and personal reasons for hating the Banes.

In the second book, CHANGELING, the Banes are less present, because a different enemy is attacking Teresa and her team.  This enemy comes from an unexpected direction, and they aren’t Meta at all.  It gives Teresa more to consider about Meta unity, and the possibility of all Metas uniting against this new, equally super-powered threat.

This possibility of change was one of the big building blocks of TEMPEST.  I used this book to really explore the hero/villain dynamic of the MetaWars world.  The book’s narrator, Ethan “Tempest” Swift, can manipulate the air.  He uses it to fly, to create manageable cyclones, and can make a targeted wind drill to blast holes in solid rock.  And at the start of the book he’s keeping two big secrets from his teammates–one of which is the fact that his father is one of the Banes imprisoned in Manhattan.  And he’s the same Bane who murdered Ethan’s mother.

When Teresa asks for volunteers to go into Manhattan and search for some missing prisoners, Ethan jumps at the chance to get onto the island and confront the man he knows only as Jinx.  Having this conflict in place gave me a chance, as an author, to explore family dynamics, and the notion of what makes a man a “villain.”  Is it only his deeds, or is it what he also holds in his heart?  Jinx is more than his label as a bad guy, and Ethan is confronted with these layers head-on as he gets to know other Bane prisoners.

Villains are most dynamic when they are more than just their dastardly deeds.  The HBO series “Oz” is probably one of the best examples of hero/villain dynamics out there.  The good guys do bad things.  The bad guys might not be as bad as you think.  A character you sympathize with at the start becomes an irredeemable scumbag by episode ten.  I absolutely love this series, and I highly recommend it (if you don’t mind a lot of f-bombs being dropped on you).

ABOUT THE BOOK

The third novel in Meding’s MetaWars series focuses on an X-Men-like group of young people with superpowers who must find a way to work together when the public doesn’t trust them and the government wants to control them. When Ethan “Tempest” Swift accepts an assignment in Manhattan, the island suffers an unexpected assault. Forced to side with old enemies to uncover who’s responsible, Ethan begins to question his place in defending a world that sees him as its enemy. Charlaine Harris, author of the True Blood books, called the first book in the series “a fast-paced adventure that rocks along to a very tense climax.”

BOOK DETAILS:

Publisher: Pocket Star (April 22, 2013)
Sold by: Simon and Schuster Digital Sales Inc
Language: English
ASIN: B0092PY5WS

PURCHASE LINKS:

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DISCLAIMER
I received a copy of this book, at no charge to me,
in exchange for my honest review.
No items that I receive
are ever sold…they are kept by me,
or given to family and/or friends.
ADDENDUM
I do not have any affiliation with Amazon.com or
Barnes & Noble. I am an IndieBound affiliate.
I am providing link(s) solely for visitors
that may be interested in purchasing this Book/EBook.

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