Hey lovelies! It
gives me great pleasure today to host fellow Oregonian M. F. Sullivan and her
new book, “The Hierophant’s Daughter”!
For other stops on her Goddess Fish Promotions Book Tour, please click
on the banner above or any of the images in this post.
Be sure to make it to the end of this post to enter to
win a $50 Amazon or Barnes and Noble Gift Card!!! Also, come back daily to interact with M. F.
and to increase your chances of winning!
Thanks for stopping by! Wishing you lots of luck in this fabulous
giveaway!
The Hierophant’s Daughter
(Disgraced Martyr Trilogy
#1)
by M. F. Sullivan
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GENRE: Sci-fi, Horror, LGBTQ
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BLURB:
By
4042 CE, the Hierophant and his Church have risen to political dominance with
his cannibalistic army of genetically modified humans: martyrs. In an era when
mankind's intergenerational cold wars against their long-lived predators seem
close to running hot, the Holy Family is poised on the verge of complete
planetary control. It will take a miracle to save humanity from extinction.
It
will also take a miracle to resurrect the wife of 331-year-old General Dominia
di Mephitoli, who defects during martyr year 1997 AL in search of Lazarus, the
one man rumored to bring life to the dead. With the Hierophant's Project Black
Sun looming over her head, she has little choice but to believe this Lazarus is
really all her new friends say he is--assuming he exists at all--and that these
companions of hers are really able to help her. From the foulmouthed Japanese
prostitute with a few secrets of her own to the outright sapient dog who seems
to judge every move, they don't inspire a lot of confidence, but the General
has to take the help she can get.
After all, Dominia is
no ordinary martyr. She is THE HIEROPHANT'S DAUGHTER, and her Father won't let
her switch sides without a fight. Not when she still has so much to learn.
The dystopic first
entry of an epic cyberpunk trilogy, THE HIEROPHANT’S DAUGHTER is a
horror/sci-fi adventure sure to delight and inspire adult readers of all
stripes.
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EXCERPT TWO:
VII
The Light Rail
Cassandra’s
absence was not her first discovery. That was her (officially) broken watch,
whose blank face reflected her own bleary one. Then came the porter’s uniform,
folded beside her unconscious body with such tight creases it looked as if it
had been ironed: it smelled like the lavender of the woman who had pinned her
against the cool metal of the train car to multiply the current’s kick. That,
plus the ache in her stiff muscles, meant the woman was no hallucination.
Dominia had escaped Japan, and now had a whole new level of problems. Who was
she? Miki Soto. A card sat atop the uniform, its front embossed with a
black-petaled, red-outlined lotus. Familiar symbol, but one she couldn’t place
in her post-electric haze. She sat up to rub her head and neck with a pained
sigh that turned into suffocation as her hand found the necklace gone from her
throat.
Her
palms were wet with sweat beneath her gloves. She stripped them off to feel
around on her chest, then cried out to confirm Cassandra gone. Up the General
sprang, then back down on hands and knees in search of her beloved’s remains.
No trace.
Dominia
knew where she was: with that same woman who had left the uniform. A disguise
for the train, in exchange for her wife’s body. Cassandra! Oh, poor Cassandra,
forever dying in Dominia’s mind, much as she forever stood in her flowing black
dress, whose lace she smoothed while they waited outside the throne room of the
Hierophant. Telling her, “You look beautiful, don’t worry; you’re so smart and
funny, everyone will love you.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
GUEST POST:
Secrets About My Favorite
Genre
Science
fiction is all about research. That’s it. It’s a little about imagination, of
course—all writing is—but if you pay attention, do your research and connect
the dots between mankind’s latest technological developments and their logical
conclusions, science fiction is not only hilariously easy to write, but
outrageously fun.
Actually—I’ve
been talking about Philip K. Dick on this blog tour a lot, because I’ve been
studying his work very closely since May of 2018 (about the time I wrapped up
draft three of Book II, The General’s
Bride). I hadn’t read much of him before because I wasn’t ready to read
him, but in that month I read Do Androids
Dream of Electric Sheep? and Ubik
back-to-back, then followed that up with the VALIS trilogy…I’ve been doing a
lot of research about him for a series of essays on the blog at
www.paintedblindpublishing.com, but I’ve also been doing it for personal
reasons, because his work really resonates with me.
What
I find most inspiring about PKD is his ability to invent devices off-the-cuff,
extrapolating, say, military technology of his day into things we find now. In The Divine Invasion, he seems to predict
not only the Internet, but Google—the world in that book is basically
controlled by a nefarious AI called “Big Noodle”, which is meant to be a sort
of gnostic demiurge in the story. His use of symbolism is very interesting—I
think a lot of Blade Runner fans
would be surprised to discover just how religious Do Androids Dream really is, especially with the concept of
‘empathy boxes’.
That’s
what’s so wonderful about PKD’s stories and the inventions within. When he
needs a plot device, he really
invents a plot device! I find that inspiring. You have to get your mind very
loose to do it, but it’s not unlike being an inventor—you see a need and you
dream up a solution for it. The benefit to being a writer, however, is you
don’t have to put your money where your mouth is! When Philip K. Dick, in the
amazing universe of Ubik, is
describing these people in the post-death suspended animation of ‘half-life’,
we just accept it, because he speaks about it so naturally. It’s all just a part of the world—including the
cartoonish costumes the characters wear, and all their incredible names. That
man was working from a deep state of flow to which I aspire.
Throughout
drafts four, five and six of the Trilogy,
much changed, but I think the greatest change was that Philip K. Dick
encouraged me to be more courageous—and detailed—in my use of technology. That
is the key in science fiction: those little details. The Martian is great because of its scientific validity; but Philip
K. Dick, Gene Wolfe, Ray Bradbury, these are all writers whose works are great
because they are far-flung journeys through futures less improbable than we’d
guess.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
AUTHOR BIO:
M. F. Sullivan is
the author of Delilah, My Woman, The Lightning Stenography Device, and a slew
of plays in addition to the Trilogy. She lives in Ashland, Oregon with her
boyfriend and her cat, where she attends the local Shakespeare Festival and
experiments with the occult. Find more information about her work (and plenty
of free essays) at https://www.paintedblindpublishing.com!
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CONNECT WITH M. F.:
Website:
Blog:
Facebook:
Twitter:
BookBub Author Page:
BookBub Book Page:
Goodreads Author Page:
Goodreads Book Page:
Amazon Author Page:
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BOOK BUY LINKS:
Amazon Kindle eBook:
Amazon Paperback:
Amazon Hardcover:
Barnes and Noble Paperback:
Barnes and Noble Hardcover:
The Book Depository Paperback:
The Book Depository Hardcover:
BAM! Books-A-Million Paperback:
BAM! Books-A-Million Hardcover:
NetGalley eBook:
IndieBound Paperback:
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GIVEAWAY INFO:
M. F. will be awarding a $50 Amazon or B/N GC to
a randomly drawn winner via Rafflecopter during the tour.
**This post contains affiliate links and if clicked and a
purchase is made, I may receive a small commission to help support this
blog. This does not cost you anything,
it just helps pay for all those awesome giveaways on here.**
This contest is sponsored
by a third party. Fabulous and Brunette is a registered host of Goddess Fish
Promotions. Prizes are given away by the
sponsors and not Fabulous and Brunette. The featured author and Goddess Fish
Promotions are solely responsible for the giveaway prize.
Thanks for hosting!
ReplyDeleteM. F. ~ Good morning! Welcome to FAB! It is so great to have you here! Congrats on your new book and good luck on the book tour! :)
ReplyDeleteP.S. ~ I used to live in Ashland as well... Wayyyy back when there was the HUGE flood of '97 that destroyed all of downtown and the National Guard had to come save us lol - you've probably seen the pics in the restaurants if you weren't there for it... And I went to SOU... So missing the food down there lol!!! Please have a burrito from Senor Sams, a slice from Giuseppe's, and a scone from the Black Sheep Pub for me LOL!!! Definitely need to plan a trip back to visit...
Hi Ally! Thank you so much for supporting the tour by hosting! I am really excited about this book and happy to see it getting such a warm reception.
DeleteDid you really! How funny! Yes, I've heard about that flood, I think it was the one where they didn't put down sandbags in time and one of plaza shops had its basement flooded. If you want to plan a visit back, now is a good year~. Don't know how you feel about Macbeth but I for one am very excited to see it on the outdoor stage!
Are any of the characters in the book inspired by people you know?
ReplyDeleteThat's always a complicated question to answer. Every character starts with a seed, a grain of someone real--but the characters who grow up around that seed are always their own individuals.
DeleteGreat cover and awesome giveaway! Thanks for sharing :)
ReplyDeleteHello! Thanks so much for sharing your book with us. Always fun reading about another book to enjoy.
ReplyDeleteSounds like a good book.
ReplyDeleteThank you for hosting.
ReplyDelete