Latency
by Nathaniel J. Koszer
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GENRE: Sci Fi Biotech
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BOOK BLURB:
Sera is a LO-EC, a human who gained superpowers as an unintended side effect of a biotechnological breakthrough. Her unique abilities allowed her to survive while others like her, including her parents, were exterminated by a world government fearful of their potential.
After decades of hiding, she meets Naren, another superpowered survivor who has infiltrated the ranks of the military. Together, they form a plan to unite with other surviving LO-ECs, claim vengeance against the forces who murdered their families, and ultimately stoke a worldwide rebellion against the government that wanted them dead.
The entirety of 26th century Earth’s armed forces stand in their way: Soldiers equipped with terrifying weaponry, armies with electromagnetic cannons, merciless bloodthirsty androids, and Spidre, the World Leader with unnatural abilities of his own. The world brought Sera and the other LO-ECs pain and loss, and they’re determined to return it in kind.
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EXCERPT ONE:
In the basement of a skyscraper hundreds of stories high, a constant shaking and groaning accompanied the cacophony of breaking glass and falling bricks from the street above. A man and a woman had spent the night here, fearing those sounds meant their building was on the verge of collapse. Finally, the sun rose and the sounds gave way to stillness. The death of the noises gave life to new fears, in that now the man and woman had to take action.
“Are there any sort of supplies on the cycles?” the man asked. He was bleary-eyed, his face was flush, and even the simple task of standing up seemed to be a struggle.
“I doubt it,” the woman replied, her expression as beleaguered as his. “And you’re sure there was nothing in these boxes?” she continued, glancing around the small storage room.
The man shook his head. “Just lots of cleaning supplies. And we can’t risk going back upstairs,” he replied. “I can’t even hear the big one lumbering around, that has to mean they’re searching another building. We need to move now. We’ll worry about supplies after we get out of New Orleans, and after it feels safe.”
The woman nodded and walked over to one smaller pile of boxes. She pulled them away and the room lit up in an orange glow. The boxes had been covering a young girl, no more than six years old, whose skin had trails of orange light swirling across her arms, legs, and face.
“We need to leave, sweetie. We’re going to find our cycles in the garage, Ok?”
The little girl nodded.
“Do you remember that woman? Alison?” she asked the girl. “Do you remember where she and her friends live?”
The little girl nodded slowly, while the man’s face furrowed with skepticism.
“If anything happens to us, you go straight to her. Do you understand?”
“She can’t go to them!” the man exclaimed in an elevated whisper. “They’re a bunch of fanatics!”
“They are, but they will keep her safe!” the woman responded.
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GUEST POST:
Everyone loves a hero! Tell us all about this genuine character and the inspiration behind their development.
Latency is a science fiction thriller with six(!) protaganists all with unique personalities and superpowers. They all get to show off in their own way throughout the story, but it is one character’s desire for revenge that leads to all six characters finding each other and uniting for a greater cause. That character is Sera, and in addition to causing the inciting incident, she also has the most diverse set of inspirations for her character design and development.
For those who haven’t read Latency yet, it takes place in the 25th century, and focuses on six LO-ECs, humans who have gained superpowers through a malfunction of biotechnology, and are now considered too dangerous for the government to allow to live. Sera is one of the LO-ECs. She can fly, glowing orange swirls of energy visibly ebb and flow within her skin, and she can forcibly expel that energy at will, creating violent bursts of energy that act similar to a bomb blast. She is about five feet tall, skinny, and would be considered African or African American complexion by today’s racial demographics (more on this later).
The initial idea for the character that became Sera is practically ancient history. In elementary school, I was obsessed with superhero teams (think the X-men and TMNT) and created my own characters that I would invent little adventures for in my head. One character was called Firefly, and her powers resembled what fireflies do in real life. She could fly, she glowed, and she had light based powers that could blind people. Over the years, thanks in large part to the Jean Grey’s Dark Phoenix arc in X-Men and Carol Danvers’ run as Captain Marvel, Firefly’s powers became the energy blast they are today. The look and feel of the energy blast is inspired by Dragonball Z, specifically Vegeta’s massive suicide explosion during the Majin Buu story arc. It is a huge blast of energy that launches out in all directions, with Vegeta/Sera in the center of it.
The origin story for Sera’s power and the rest of the LO-ECs was inspired almost exclusively by The Matrix. In that movie, humanity has been enslaved by AI robots, and human body heat and electrical synapses are used as fuel by the machines. I was fascinated by that concept, and always thought it would be interesting to see a plot where humans harnessed that power instead of machines. I waited a long time, eager to see a famous writer or producer think up that plot idea themselves, but it never came to pass. Eventually I got sick of waiting and wrote it down myself, and that became Latency.
Sera’s character design has some inspiration from other science fiction media, but a lot of it was also born out of the story itself. Her height and build came from, ironically enough, the TV show Firefly. In that show there is a female character named River Tam, played by actress Summer Glau. River is about five feet tall, ninety-five pounds, and a relentless, unstoppable hand-to-hand fighter. The size and skill of her opponent did not matter compared to her ferocity. I adored that idea. The concept of someone small, especially a small woman, being by far the most dominant physical force in the storyline was the coolest concept I had ever come across. So, when it came time to write Latency, I couldn’t imagine Sera being any other body type.
She became a black woman through the story writing process itself. Since the story takes place in the 25th century, I figured and research confirmed by that time in history most of today’s races wouldn’t exist. They would have intermingled so much that no one race could be identified. At the same time, I felt it was important for the reader to know that the characters were what we would consider mixed race today. That meant finding a genuine way for it to come up in conversation. The problem was, if everyone on earth had the same skin color, why would skin color ever come up as a discussion topic? My solution to this was to choose one character to have a different skin color, just through random genetic anomaly as a reference point for conversation. With Sera’s skin already being written as having moving, glowing swirls all over it, making her a black woman made for a cool mental image, and with that her current design was complete.
I hope everyone enjoyed reading about the many ways that Sera became the amazing character you will experience on the pages of Latency. If you haven’t picked up Latency already, I hope this exploration of one of it’s badass characters inspires you to do so!
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AUTHOR BIO:
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Nate grew up in Brooklyn NY, but now calls the Bronx home along with his wife and their sons. Nate grew up on all things sci-fi. Partly due to his chronic illness, Nate always had a special place in his heart for the X-Men, and especially the invulnerable Wolverine. This was heavy inspiration for his first novel, Latency a superhero sci-fi story to be released March 5, 2024.
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GIVEAWAY INFO:
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ReplyDeleteI like the excerpt. Sounds good.
ReplyDelete