Hi everyone! Today I am very excited to welcome the awesome Aleksandr Voinov to Joyfully Jay! Aleks is here as part of his Incursion blog tour to tell us more about the book and offer a great giveaway. Welcome Aleks!
Thanks for joining me on the Incursion virtual book tour! Feeling lucky? I’m giving away three prizes to commenters on any of the blog tour stops. Comment on this post (feel free to ask questions!) and you might win! The first winner will receive a $25 Amazon gift certificate and a swag bag with assorted magnets, wrist-bands, and other goodies. Two more lucky winners will receive swag bags as well. I ship internationally and will draw the winners from all commenters after the tour is over. Deadline for entry is 7/15/12. Please include your email address in your comment so that I can contact you. Enjoy!
Excerpt
I have an EXCLUSIVE excerpt for you today! On the Riptide site, you’ll find an excerpt with the beginning of Incursion: http://www.riptidepublishing.com/titles/incursion
After that, Kyle encounters the band of space mercenaries, and the excerpt I’m bringing you today is about their first meeting. Let me know what you think!
* * *
Behind the final door was the brain of the ship. Some of the casings that held instruments and wires in place had been screwed loose, and cables were dangling everywhere, creating a scene that looked like a technical interpretation of Tamene’s southern jungle. And the man in the middle, half-hidden behind panels and rewiring cables and running programs off a number of diagnostics screens jury-rigged to the main power outlet, fit right in. Broad-shouldered and tall, he didn’t belong in a pilot seat, but that was undoubtedly his role. He probably got a lot of shit for it, like Kyle had at the Academy.
“Grimm, this is Kyle. He wants to travel with us to Ganesh,” Winter said.
“Anyplace that can fix me up,” Kyle corrected.
Grimm stepped out of the mass of wires until the tattoo on his face was visible. Blue-black whorls and twirls covered the left side of his face from hairline to chin, exaggerating his features while blurring them at the same time. The pattern indicated he was not only from Tamene, but the southern lowlands of the antipodean continent, near the ocean. The fiercest of the tribes, the one that took pride in going into battle first and returning last.
“Mother of Light,” Kyle said under his breath.
Grimm hesitated, then near-bowed. “Father of Darkness,” he completed.
Kyle didn’t know what to say, and Grimm seemed comfortable with the lull in the introduction. When the silence dragged on, Winter cleared her throat. “You guys know each other?”
Grimm waved his hand. “You want to explain, Kyle? I’m just tracking a wire I had somewhere around here.” He grabbed a handful of cables and lifted them to demonstrate.
“We’re both from the same planet. Even the same continent.” Kyle peered over at Grimm, but the man just gave him a nod and continued skinning a wire with a too-large knife. “But he’s a warrior.”
“Our Grimm? Really?”
“Don’t sound so surprised.” Grimm twirled two cables together between his dirty fingers. “I didn’t get the tattoo in a drunken stupor.”
More like a holy trance, but Kyle wasn’t about to talk about that. “Yeah, he’s warrior caste.”
“These days I’m mostly handy with a tool belt. And I fly this slingshot bauble, too.” Grimm wrapped insulation tape around the bared wiring and tested the area with a thumb. “That should hold.”
“What the fuck are you doing here anyway?” Winter asked. “This looks like . . .”
“I’m just improving performance. That should give us three percent more on the thrusters, and a good fifteen-point-five percent on the shield in the front. Figure we never know when we’ll need it.”
“You said you were going to hook up the second life-preserving system.”
Grimm glanced to the side, where parts were neatly stacked and completely untouched in a corner. “I’ll do that next.” He wiped his hands on an oily rag, then ducked under a strand of cables.
Blurb
Fighting with your back to the wall is all well and good—as long as you’ve chosen the right wall.
When the local authorities ask Kyle Juenger to hunt a shape-shifting Glyrinny spy, he can’t refuse. After all, he can use the reward to replace his paralyzed legs with cyberware, and maybe even to return to his home planet. Besides, he hates the morphs—those invasive, brain-eating monstrosities whose weapons cost him his legs.
Kyle’s best lead is the Scorpion, a mercenary ship armed to the teeth. Grimm, the Scorpion’s pilot and captain, fascinates Kyle. He’s everything Kyle lost with his legs, and he’s from the same home world. He’s also of the warrior caste—half priest, half savior. But Grimm’s been twisted by life as a merc, and Kyle’s stuck undercover as a criminal on the run.
That doesn’t stop Grimm from coming on to Kyle, or from insisting he’s more than the sum of his past and his useless legs. But Kyle has other concerns—like tracking a dangerous morph who could be wearing anyone’s face. And as if things weren’t complicated enough, Kyle can’t tell if Grimm is part of the solution . . . or part of the problem.
Biography
Aleksandr Voinov is an emigrant German author living near London, where he makes his living editing dodgy business English so it makes sense (and doesn’t melt anybody’s brain). He published five novels and many short stories in his native language, then switched to English and hasn’t looked back. His genres range from horror, science fiction, cyberpunk, and fantasy to contemporary, thriller, and historical erotic gay novels.
In his spare time, he goes weightlifting, explores historical sites, and meets other writers. He singlehandedly sustains three London bookstores with his ever-changing research projects and interests. His current interests include World War II, espionage, medieval tournaments, and prisoners of war. He loves traveling, action movies, and spy novels.
Visit Aleksandr’s website at http://www.aleksandrvoinov.com, his blog at http://www.aleksandrvoinov.blogspot.com, and follow him on Twitter, where he tweets as @aleksandrvoinov.
Thanks for hosting me, Jay. And – one of the mercenaries in the story has your name. 🙂
Hehe, I noticed that one (about Jay) and thought was or wasn’t it intentional? 😀 Either way, love these kind of coincidances!
No, I put that in for Jay as a “nice surprise”. 🙂
Mm, that’s really nice! ^^
Hi Aleks *waves* I want swag >.<
Hi Darien – I’ll put you down for it. 🙂
Gotta love a story that can work in the word “thrusters” in a different context! It looks great.
Isn’t “thruster” just one of the sexiest words alive? I do like the techie-speak (hold-over from “we need to re-calibrate the micron emission of the central tractor beam”-nonsense from Stark Trek, but as a kid, I sat there wide-eyed thinking this was some really advanced science)!
Trix – I’ll need tour email address for the draw.
What an intriguing excerpt and blurb. I love the imagery of the dangling cables and Grimm being like the old TV character of MacGyver with his parts and tools to keep things going or created.
Jess1 – I do like the idea of fixing stuff and jury-rigging things – when I think frontier space exploration, I don’t think shiny, I think of the old MIR, people making do and improvising, and sometimes things get a bit hairy and weird, but that’s part of the risk ad danger and excitement. Human ingenuity fascinates me endlessly, and I adored McGuyver. Who wouldn’t want to be like him. 🙂
McGuyver! I loved that guy.. I think I learned from him that things always can be fixed – you just need to think outside the box! 🙂
Yep. Brain beats brawn every day ofthe week.
The excerpt and blurb look interesting! And I love scifi. Count me in 🙂
Zach – Thank you for stopping by – I’ve put you on my spreadsheet. 🙂
This looks really cool! *looks at bank account*
aaaaww…. I already used up all y book money T__T
the_ebb_ster@yahoo.com
Ebbster – Oh noes! You could subscribe to Riptide’s newsletter – we’re giving away free books for a year and other goodies. 🙂 http://www.riptidepublishing.com/ (Side bar – newsletter). Thanks for commenting!
Oh, Yum! I like Grimm already.
Jadette – He’s *extremely nommy*. I wouldn’t kick him out of bed (not that I could. He’s much bigger and stronger than I am…)
Now the story has had chance to ‘settle’ a little I think I need to read it again – enjoy the imagery without rushing so much to find out what happens next and find some of the details I’ll have missed first time round 🙂
Sarah – That’s a huge compliment, thank you. I do try to put in hints and stuff that people will see much more clearly on the second (or third) read. For me as a reader, that’s half the pleasure. (There are some hints about the crew early on.)
OMG Alex you really named a character after me? I am so excited! No one has ever done that for me. Seriously I am dancing around the room! And my husband got a kick out the character being a mercenary, lol.
Thanks so much for stopping by the blog today. Sorry I am late checking in but we are traveling so my access is limited. But glad you could join us today and I can’t wait to read your story!
And welcome to e dry one else who has stopped by!
Hey Jay – yep, I did. Jay’s a badass (the other Jay). I was looking for some names, and I think you were saying something on Twitter just then, so I did my Evol Chuckle (TM) and put you in and just lay in wait how you’d react when you spot it.
Thank you very much for hosting me. I was a bit tied up at work myself, so I totally get that. Is the travel and everything going well?
Yeah! I like being a badass! Very exciting!
Travel is going well. Days 1-2 were sorted of a blur of getting on and off planes and waiting in airports then running around with. O sleep. But we slept well last night so hopefully we are in the swing of things today.
Thanks again for stopping by!
Yep, it’s usually the second sdayof a vacation when you have arrived and can let your hair down. Hope you’re having a brilliant vacation. 🙂
Sounds very interesting. Can’t wait to find out what happens next.
katsrus(at)gmail(dot)com
Sue – make sure you’re checking out the (much longer) excerpt on the website here:
http://www.riptidepublishing.com/titles/incursion
Thank you. I missed that the first time. Very good excerpt. Sure left me wanting to read more to know what happens.
Considering the trip to the Sector Headquarters was very much inspired by my job interview… Yep, we have some riciculous levels of security here (though no red carpet or weapons platforms, I made THAT up). 🙂 Thanks for stopping by!
Hi Aleks!! Love the excerpt! Can’t wait to read the book!
morris.crissy@gmail.com
Hi Crissy – Thanks! There’s much more on the website here: http://www.riptidepublishing.com/titles/incursion. Let me know what you think! (I keep F5ing the Goodreads webpage for the story…)
Loved this read! Excellent world and character building 😉
*hugs*
Kassandra
sionedkla@gmail.com
Thanks, Kassandra! I live to entertain (and chuckle evilly, everty now and then, but that can be combined).
Incursion is a fantastic story. I know I’m going to have to read it again. 🙂
alyssa (at) alyssalinnpalmer.com
There *should* be enough “easter eggs” in there to not make a second read toooo boring. 🙂 Damn, and following our discussion, I’d love writing something with a similar feeling like Dune. Or maybe crusades in space…
Hey, it was as interesting and goood on the second read!! 😉
P.S. Saw Dune only once many years ago, but I’m still …. impressed. So, yes please, something with a feeling like Dune would be awesome! 😀
Hello, again, Aleks. I just looked at your tour schedule and realized that you’re also over here. 🙂 I like the excerpt. Gorgeous description of the facial tattoo! I’m picturing Maori type warrior.
Val – That’s exactly the inspiration. In my mind, Tameneans are Maori, though I made the culture up (that is, it’s a tribal culture with a warrior caste, but the rest is fiction). I actually took the name “Tamene” from a Maori dictionary – the meaning is “Be Assembled”. I thought that fit the story shockingly well.
How cool is that? 😀
I *knew* I’d bought the Maori dictionary in NZ for a good reason. 🙂
Oh, be still my heart! I must have this book but alas payday isn’t until the 19th. Getting paid once a month is a real bummer but I live with it because I like being retired.
Nancy – I work full time and only get paid once a month. It’s not fair, is it? 🙂 Thanks for stopping by. 🙂
Also, you forgot your email address. 🙂
Aleks I can get it to you if Nancy doesn’t check back in.
Great, thanks!
Oopsie, I see it but I guess you don’t. ocanana@gmail.com
Please count me in…I really like the sound of Grimm. Thanks!
chellebe at comcast dot net
Michelle – Thanks for commenting. You are on my spreadsheet. Good luck on the draw!
Ooh, I’m loving this already! Must read more!!! *studies bank account…* Somehow I’ll manage this. LOL
Ashley: There might be a good coupon off on ARe, or maybe you’ll win the AMZ certificate. 🙂 Thanks for commenting.
Hi Ashley – I’ll need your email address – Thanks!
I bought the ebook. I enjoy the story but wish it was a little longer coz there are a few instances I wish I could know more about why and how. Overall, it’s a good buy!Maybe another prequel or sequel to this.
Hi Monica – Thanks for weighing in. It’s always a bit fo a challenge to decide how much cool stuff to put into the book (there’s loads going on in the background that Kyle never gets to see) and when I’m just being self-indulgent and slowing down the action to show off my Cool Ideas (TM). So, in a way, I do rely a bit on readers filling in some details, or speculating, but that’s really my invitation to readers to work this through in their own minds and make up their own stories of “what exactly happened”. Although I’m not ruling out to revisit the characters or the world – it was great fun and once I have an idea for a plot, I’ll definitely get on it. 🙂
Monica – I’ll need your email address. 🙂
I must admit, every time I read the word thruster in a story, I start to giggle. Particularly when the author then uses the word thrust to describe other certian activities. Man, I just love that word. Anyways, thanks for the excerpt, it was great finding out how they met. Thanks for sharing!
tiger-chick-1(at)hotmail(dot)com
Yes, it’s very very suggestive. 🙂 (In German, “to thrust” is “stossen”, but thrusters can’t be translated as “Stosser” or “Stossantrieb”, sadly.