Pandragon Dan

It's that time again when I host a very exciting guest post from a writer who is keen to post a little something on my blog (I love it when people guest post on my blog!). Today, I'm joined by Andrez Bergen, the author of Tobacco Stained Mountain Goat.

I mentioned this novel in my Top Five Indie Books You Should Be Reading (original link HERE ) and I once again am going to suggest that you go out and read this book! It is by far one of the most entertaining and original reads I've read in a long time. If you love a bit of Blade Runner and Mad Max, mixed with some Japanese cinema and Humphrey Bogart - all blended with Australian slang and humour, then you will love this book!

I was recently contacted by the author Andrez Bergen about his upcoming novel, One Hundred Years of Vicissitude and suggested that he drop by some day and do a post on my blog to let my readers know about it. He pretty much sent me one the very same day! Thankfully my schedule was clear for Wednesday so I automatically made plans to post it.

So I present to you today - the guest post of Andrez Bergen, where he talks a little bit about the thought process behind One Hundred Years of Vicissitude. He is a very intelligent writer and geuninely nice guy that has a wealth of knowledge and I am always interesting in hearing the process behind the creation of a novel. Hope you enjoy reading it!!

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A bit of a background ramble about

ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF VICISSITUDE

by Andrez Bergen

In around 2007, I was fishing about for a concept for a new novel to get my teeth into, preferably something related to Japan since I'd lived here for six years already by that stage.

That was when I read about identical twin sisters from Nagoya - Kin Narita and Gin Kanie - who were born in 1892 and lived to be over 100. I found myself wondering about the relationship of these two women, mirror-image centenarians, and how they might perceive one another.

I’m an old fan of Shakespeare’s Othello - Frank Finlay’s interpretation of Iago in the 1965 film version rocked my socks in high school - and the thought occurred to me that possibly, just possibly, an identical twin living a hundred years with a sibling may harbour feelings other than love and devotion - perhaps baser emotions like envy or hatred might develop. Being Japanese, however, they’d hardly exhibit these feelings to the outside world. Or would they?

At the time I was still working on my first novel, Tobacco-Stained Mountain Goat, and there’s a scene in there in which a geisha is involved. Somehow the two threads connected: identical twin geisha beating out a living for a century. I did a small amount of research into the period around World War 2, and then I shelved the concept, instead breaking my back finishing off Tobacco-Stained Mountain Goat.

Last year I published that novel and began thinking seriously about novel #2.

I’m not sure why, but I picked up the notes I’d made for the twin geisha story, and mixed and matched these with an earlier idea I had for an update of the medieval yarn about Tristan and Iseult. At the same time, I had Tobacco-Stained Mountain Goat sitting in my brain, fresh still, perhaps even hard-boiled, and I decided to make one of the twin geisha the grandmother of a central character in that book, Nina ‘Laurel’ Canyon - she was, after all, half Japanese - even though the link is not fully explored and isn’t essential to the elements of the new novel - which I decided to call One Hundred Years of Vicissitude, in a respectful wink at Gabriel Garcia Márquez.

Somewhere along the line over the following months the Iago-Geisha-Medieval potboiler segued into a deeper tale of love, death, redemption, and poor judgment when it comes to marriage partners. I inducted another character from Tobacco-Stained Mountain Goat - the antagonist, Wolram E. Deaps - and made him the narrator, with the opportunity to thus flesh him out, rather than the principle twin I was developing.

Along the way I took a much-needed trip to Kyoto thanks to the generosity of a group of wonderful students-cum-mates I teach English to, and the novel became a beast unto itself. Some of its ideas and directions came from listening to music, from long walks through back-streets of Tokyo - as well as, of course, the visit to Kyoto - and I was as inspired by my wife Yoko and daughter Cocoa as I was by the cinema of great Japanese film makers like Akira Kurosawa, Satoshi Kon, Kon Ichikawa, Seijun Suzuki, Masahiro Makino, Mikio Naruse, Kenji Mizoguchi and Yasujiro Ozu.

Some manga-ka you might know also get a respectful nod - including Osamu Tezuka - along with actors like Toshiro Mifune, Meiko Kaji and Takashi Shimura.

Thrown into the mix are the Japanese Red Army, the only visit to Tokyo by the Graf Zeppelin, saké, sumo, The Tale of Genji, James Bond, Lewis Carroll, Raymond Chandler, the Brothers Grimm, American comics from the '60s, and the 1945 fire-bombing of Tokyo by 300 B-29s.

Finally, there's the homage to my grandfather Les, an Australian soldier in New Guinea during World War 2, a man I barely knew but cherish the memory of all the same.

The novel will be published through new publisher Perfect Edge Books in around August this year. The publisher has been incredibly supportive from the moment they got whiff of the project, and this will in fact be their first publication.

Fingers crossed that the whole caboodle works for others outside my own headspace.

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Not sure about you guys but I'm looking forward to reading it already! Anyone who makes references to Kurosawa is ok in my books!

A huge thanks to Andrez for taking the time to post on this blog and I hope you'll all join me in wishing him luck for the new release. Be sure to also check out his blog at this LINK . Please do leave a comment

Want to host a guest post on this blog? Send me an email at PandragonPublishing@gmail.com to discuss.

Until next time!

Pandragon

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Being a reviewer on the website Read2Review , I’ve had the chance to read the works of some truly talented writers. Don’t get me wrong, I do like to settle down with a good book now and then, writing by one of the mainstream authors – but I have a special affinity for indie authors, probably because I am one myself.

Indie authors used to get painfully overlooked in the days before – but thankfully these days, readers are more open to trying new things. With technology advanced in such a way that people can release their books dirt cheap – or even give them away for free, readers are able to discover hidden gems and new talent. What I love about indie authors is the way that they can put out the story the way THEY intended to, without any input from a publisher or agent. And I think this is great.

Whilst I always go into a review with the purpose of being unbiased, I do occasionally find authors that I just fall in love with and books that I find are just so effortless and enjoyable to read. Therefore, in a slight change to my usual Top Five Tips, I’m going to showcase the five indie novels that I think you should be checking out. I’ve tried to mix and match the genres a little so that I don’t talk about the same thing, so there should be something for everyone here. Some of these authors are published through small publishing companies – but for the sake of argument I am including them as indie authors (because indie authors doesn’t necessarily mean self published in my opinion, any author that is published through a lesser known publishing house can be considered indie).

So, here we go. These are the five books and authors that I think you should be checking out. I’ll also include a few links to check them out yourself.

1. A Ranger’s Tale by Mysti Parker

Ok, I’ll admit it – I’m somewhat of a fan boy of Mysti Parker. She’s kinda like my writing idol at the moment! When I first read A Ranger’s Tale, I honestly didn’t think I was gonna like it – but I did. In fact, whereas I hardly read romance books before, I have a greater appreciation of them thanks to this novel.

A Ranger’s Tale is an Adult Romantic Fantasy set in the world of Tallenmere, a world where elves are the main race and the centre for the characters. A Ranger’s Tale is set around a high elf called Caliphany and a half-elf called Galadin. Cali lives a sheltered life, but longs for something more, whereas Galadin is trying to escape his tortured past. Their paths meet and fireworks start to sparkle.

In many ways, A Ranger’s Tale uses a lot of fantasy tropes that have been used before – but the good thing about it is that Mysti Parker doesn’t go out of her way to make it overly magical and over the top, but rather creates situations that we ourselves would find ourselves in. The characters are brilliantly crafted and have real emotional depth, so we can sympathise with them and their plights. I think this is because the chapters are told in a POV way so we can see what the characters are thinking and feel their thoughts. A bold move but it works well.

I love the character of Cali – she’s a very strong heroine and I think that female readers will love her for her feistiness and vulnerability. Galadin is equally well rounded and likeable. The other character of mention is Jayden, a wood elf that has the hots for Cali. Even though he does start off a little sinister, I must admit I did feel sorry for him at the end.

In order to make Fantasy work, the world and characters must feel realistic and relatable. And A Ranger’s Tale does this brilliantly – the characters are beautifully crafted and the world of Tallenmere is realised enough to believe that it does exist. And Mysti even grants us some backstory of the world in her blog and Facebook and this is great. I love hearing about the history of fantasy worlds and their creation – makes me appreciate the story more.

The next book in the series, Sereyna’s Song is out very soon and I can’t wait to read it. But until then, let me just say one more thing about A Ranger’s Tale. It’s a fantastic book – even if the ideas have been done before, Mysti has found a way to use them so that you don’t care that you’ve seen this before. Her characters are brilliant, the romance is genuine (if a little steamy at times) and the story just sucks you in so that you have to keep reading. In short, read it!

Amazon.com (Kindle)

Amazon.com (Paperback)

Amazon.co.uk (Kindle)

Amazon.co.uk (Paperback)

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2. Airion – Return to Zire by J.S Council

For those wanting a Fantasy/Sci-Fi with a more young adult edge, I suggest checking out Airion – Return to Zire.

Now, I actually gave this author a bit of a hard time in my review, given that the version I was given to review had a lot of spelling mistakes and formatting issues – but these have now been corrected so I can now concentrate on the book as it is. And it’s a very entertaining book indeed!

The novel is set around 2 twins, Kobi and Rali, that thought they had a pretty simple life on land. Just before their 14th birthday, the twins are separated and dragged to the underwater land of Airion – where they find that this is their true heritage. Now stuck in a war between two nations, the twins discover that they have a higher purpose – and secret powers that they soon discover will shape the world.

It’s a very exciting story, filled with colourful characters and some very impressive fight scenes. Reading this, I actually imagined that this would work well as a Manga/Anime. And given that the author lives in Japan that would be a great idea. Also, J.S is one of the hardest working and down to earth people I’ve had the pleasure of speaking to, via guest blogs and interviews and I was worried that she would find my review a little harsh. But she took the comments with grace and dignity – that is the sign of a good author!

Do please check this novel out. It’s an exciting read and one that I do recommend. In fact I am looking forward to reading the next book in the series as the first one left me wanting to know more. The content isn’t too violent either, so younger readers will be able to enjoy this as much as adults.

Amazon.co.uk

Amazon.com

3. CASTLES: A Fictional Memoir of a Girl with Scissors by Benjamin X. Wretlind

Now, I’m not usually a fan of horror if I’m being honest. Main reason – I just don’t find a lot of them very scary. Most of them seem too heavily of blood and gore for their scares and honestly, that just doesn’t do it for me. Horror needs to have an atmosphere, to build up the tension and terror, not just have loads of body parts everywhere.

With Castles, it has no problems. Yes, there is a fair share of blood and disgusting images – but that’s not the focus of the book. The main focus is around the central character, Maggie, and the journey she takes. Living in a trailer park in an almost apocalyptic atmosphere (with constant thunder and dust storms), the book chronicles Maggie’s descent into madness as she starts off an innocent young girl and then transforms into a psychotic killer.

That being said, you actually can sympathise with Maggie a little as she goes through a lot of trauma in her life, ranging from an overbearing and overly protective mother to abusive spouses and boyfriends. Her only consolation is the spirit of her grandmother, who advised Maggie to “clean up her messes”. Acting as a kind of guardian angel for her, Maggie finds inner strength to gather pieces for her “Castle”. Unfortunately, this means bad news for those who end up crossing her!

Castles did what no other horror book I’ve read has done – disturbed me long after putting the book down. And that is what a good horror should do. I think that it’s because this book is told entirely from the POV of Maggie that she’s almost trying to justify her actions as the right thing. This makes her even creepier as she seems utterly desensitised to her actions. Whether you think she’s a victim or a villain is left up to the reader to decide.

Castles has a great atmosphere, a psychological terror and a main character that is both monstrous and innocent at the same time. If you want a great horror read then look no further than this one. Although I doubt you’ll ever want to use scissors again afterwards!

Amazon.com

Amazon.co.uk

Smashwords

4. Tobacco-Stained Mountain Goat by Andrez Bergen

Humphrey Bogart, Blade Runner, Mad Max, Jap-Anime, Australian Humour, Film Noir – these are just SOME of the things I could use to describe this novel but it wouldn’t do it justice. This book is all these things and more!

From the title alone, you could almost expect to be reading a sort of obscure comedy – but you couldn’t be further from the truth. Instead, we get a post-apocalyptic city that is bleak and unfriendly. With the threats of “Deviants” ever present in the last remaining city, it’s up to our hero Floyd to find a way to save the day.

Thing is, Floyd doesn’t care about that. All he wants to do is to drink himself stupid and forget his tragic past – which is the result of his job as a Seeker. Constantly referencing obscure and classic films, Floyd tells us his story in his own way – through good old Aussie slang! He’s both humorous and depressing, but thankfully the author treats the main character with enough respect to know when to take it seriously and when to have fun. And because the book is written with the Aussie sense of humour and style in mind, it adds a fresh new look to a subject that has otherwise been done to death.

You wouldn’t think that a novel could fit in so many themes and references without being convoluted, but Tobacco-Stained Mountain Goat blends it all nicely like a perfect set of ingredients to make a fine whiskey. Not once was I ever bored when reading this book and really wanted to know what was going to happen to the main character. Hands down this is my favourite indie book that I’ve read so far and I highly recommend this to anyone who wants a unique science fiction read.

Amazon.co.uk

Amazon.com

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