Portals to New Worlds: Book Blast & Interview: Remember The Maelstrom by @JRSinason

Remember The Maelstrom

Josh Sinason

Genre: Sci-fi Romance

Publisher: TWB Press

Number of pages: 40

Word Count: 10,000

Book Description:

A botched investigation into the past triggers a domino effect, thrusting T.I. Agent Amanda West into a race to get home to the man she loves in a future that may no longer exist.

Book Trailer: http://youtu.be/q7SzyIivKXk

Available at Amazon Smashwords TWB Press

“Let’s go, rookie.” I set my blaster on stun. “I want to be home in time for dinner.”

Corporal Winger nodded and drew his gun.

I noticed his hand shake. That should have been my first cue something was wrong. He clutched his gun so tense his knuckles turned white. This was his first op, and it already went way far south way too soon. This was just supposed to be a routine run: bring back a fugitive who had bolted through an unauthorized time portal. We were the closest ship to it. He was just one guy, but he had a gun. Who would have thought things could’ve gone so wrong?

I kissed the scar on my right hand before we chased him through Central Park in the year 2014. It was a silly ritual, but when I found myself far from home, I started to get superstitious. On cold nights, when time, space, and a universe kept me away, I’d look at that scar and think about Parker.

Winger was a hair faster than me catching up with our time jumper. Maybe if I’d been there a second or two sooner I could have stopped him, but I arrived just in time to watch him aim his gun. I was just within view when our jumper pulled in a hostage, a little girl, something that would’ve made any experienced agent hold his fire.

Winger was just reacting on instinct. He didn’t pull back in time, and the guy held the kid in front of him. The scene played out in slow motion. Maybe Winger thought he could make a head-shot on the perp, or maybe he just fired in the heat of the moment; we were both tired. All I knew was, as the girl and our jumper fell to the ground, the look of horror on Winger’s face didn’t last long.

I’d never seen a person fade from existence before, not until that moment. The theory, according to Temporal Investigations, was that one dies before actually disappearing completely. Sheer shock and horror was the killer, like falling off a tall building. But Winger looked me in the eyes the entire time, silently pleading for help as he faded right in front of me. I reached out to grab his hand, but it vanished, and that’s when I noticed my scar begin to ghost.

I didn’t know who that little girl was. Maybe she had invented something that made the Galactic Conferences possible, or maybe she was the grandmother of the grandmother of someone who assigned cores in the Academy, and because she no longer existed in the future, Parker and I may have ended up in different course plans. Or maybe she did something at just the right moment, a move in one direction or another, a decade from now, and things just fell into place for us. It was impossible to tell what could happen without her influence, but I feared something was wrong. I could have lost Parker already without even knowing it.

When I saw that scar on my hand ghost, I knew it was a sign that the time stream was starting to realign. We were briefed on ghosting at the Academy. They told us to run; they said always run back to the ship, flat out as fast as we could. But we all knew the truth. We couldn’t outrun a time realignment. It would be like outrunning the hand of the universe.

The moment I saw that scar flicker, I took off in a dead sprint back to the ship and leaped into the captain’s chair. As the controls came on around me I felt the hum of the hyperspace time bubble curling around the ship like a warm blanket. Then, when I tried to catch my breath, I felt a hot sting in my gut. Our jumper had managed to get off a shot, and as luck would have it, his blaster charge went straight through Winger’s ghosting body and hit me in the stomach. I did my best to breathe slowly, but each inhale felt like razor blades slicing through my chest. I winced and put pressure on the singed and bloody wound then throttled up the engines.

“Well today just sucked, didn’t it.” I looked at the picture of Parker I kept on my dashboard. We had our pictures taken when we were assigned to The Bartlett. Knowing this meant I hadn’t forgotten about him...at least not yet. Then I looked to make sure the hyperspace time bubble had restored the scar on my hand. Yes. I gave it another kiss for luck. Just lifting my arm sent shooting pains through my stomach, but I figured I needed a fair amount of luck right about then, so the pain was worth the effort.

“Just make it home for dinner.” I clutched the steering yoke tightly. “Just one more trip.” I forced a breath. “Let me see that everything is all right with Parker. Then let whatever changes I’ve made to the future do what they will to me.”

“Some time cop I turned out to be.”

I slammed on the thrusters hard and gunned the engine boosters through the time jump, but the inertia field didn’t have time to boot up, so I felt my ribs crack as my chest slammed against the crash belt and the back of my head bounced off the top of my chair.

I screamed in pain.

In flight school I had experienced what happened without an inertia field. Senior cadets would watch Parker and I train in the flight deck sim. We’d shoot to hyperspace without any problems. But every once in a while the cadets would program in an inertia field glitch just to see how we’d respond to the stress, at least that’s what they told the instructors. It was really a rite of passage made worse by the fact that the simulator didn’t have crash belts, so the only way to go was flying backwards. If it wasn’t for the crash helmets, our brains would’ve splattered against the cold metal exit door.

“Stupid prank,” I said, spitting blood. I was bleeding internally. The scar on my hand ghosted again. The time bubble was weakening already, so I started going over my past, wondering just how much of it I would forget.

I decide to listen to my personal logs and make sure everything was just as I remembered. Hopefully that last ghosting wasn’t a sign that I was too late. The computer accessed my files, starting with my first week studying for the Academy mid-terms.

I remembered that day by the lake on the Academy grounds, fresh in my mind no matter what time jump I was in. The lake was clear blue enough that I could see the incoming spaceships reflected in the surface. I had sat there so often over that first month I could tell how low the ships were flying by the ripples their wakes made in the water.

I sat near a tree, hoping to keep my mind on my introductory engineering midterm studies. Sometimes the Academy felt like a monster looking to swallow cadets whole, but out there, under the shuttles flying by and the transport ships jumping to hyperspace like little daylight shooting stars, the Academy grounds felt peaceful. That day the transports lit up the clouds like purple and red lightning. I listened to the low rumble of the shuttles as I skipped a rock across the water. Then I cracked open a book.

Did you always wanted to be a writer? If not what did you want to be?

There was a long time when I wanted tobe a stand up comic, I actually did it for a few months some time ago but I started writing stories and it hit the spot.

When did you first consider yourself a “writer”?

Probably when I sold my first story a few years ago or when I was asked to read at an event. It was in one of those hipster bars that was a bar and a …something else…and I was followed by a guy who did a twenty minute, nonstop spoken word poem but it was still pretty awesome. I signed autographs and everything.

How long did it take to get your first book published?

I published a few little things in college but I didn’t actually get anything published that made a dime until I was about 28-sih

Do you do another job except for writing and can you tell us more about it?

I’m a copywriter and editor working on digital advertising for a few companies around Chicago. It’s a good job and it’s actually using my English major which is kinda cool.

What is the name of your latest book, and if you had to summarize it in less than 20 words what would you say?

Remember The Maelstrom is out now. It’s a science fiction, romantic comedy. It’s got love, space travel, ray guns and time travel, what more do you want.

You can also check out Vienna Sky from me later this year. It’s a spy novel with a little superhero-ness thrown in.

Who is your publisher? Or do you self-publish?

I’m currently at Eternal Press with Vienna Sky and TWB Press with Remember The Maelstrom out now. I don’t think I have the self publishing gene in me. I need an editor to tell me when I suck. I’m afraid of being one of those self published people who aren’t self aware about their own work. Although I guess I admire that kind of courage too.

How long does it usually take you to write a book, from the original idea to finishing writing it?

I usually bang out a first draft in about two months, one for something shorter. Then I try and leave it for a few weeks and start on something else so I can come back to the second draft a little fresher.

What can we expect from you in the future? ie More books of the same genre? Books of a different genre?

It’s weird because I’ve only recently started writing more genre heavy stuff, a lot of what I’ve shopped around would be considered literary fiction. But most of the stuff I like is genre so I guess I’m getting into that. Remember The Maelstrom is sci fi and Vienna Sky (Coming Soon) is a bit of sci-fi so I guess that’s where I’m focusing on but I have some dramatic hopefully in the pipeline.

What genre would you place your books into?

It’s a hard science fiction, with a little bit of a 40s rom-com thrown in.

What made you decide to write that genre of book?

Well, everything I write is kinda influenced by those kinds of movies but I’ve always been a science fiction guy in my free time.

Do you have a favorite character from your books? And why are they your favorite?

I try my best not to have a favorite character but sometimes it sneeks in. In Malestrom I do really like Parker. He knows what he wants even if it seems crazy to the rest of the universe. I never meant to write him like that but it just happened.

How long have you been writing?, and who or what inspired you to write?

I’ve been writing since my high school creative writing class. I had a great teacher.

Do you have a certain routine you have for writing? ie You listen to music, sit in a certain chair?

I don’t really listen to music when writing. My favorite place to write is the couch with my coffee table.

Do you read all the reviews of your book/books?

I try to, I try to encourage people to review my stuff so it’d be a little disingenuous if I didn’t. Although sometimes I know I shouldn’t.

Do you choose a title first, or write the book then choose the title?

Titles change a lot in my work. Although Remember the Maelstrom came pretty easy. It has a nice ring to it and invokes a lot of the vibe of the story without being too on the nose.

How do you come up with characters names and place names in your books?

Sometimes I just flip through my dvd shelf and grab something good. Although for Remember The Maelstrom I chose West because it sounded kind explorer-ish.

Are character names and place names decided after their creation? Or do you pick a character/place name and then invent them?

I tend not to spend a lot of time on names. If I don’t have something off the top of my head I’ll just use something as a place holder. I don’t like to use fictional places. I grew up reading Marvel Comics and one big thing there is they take place in the New York and Chicago not Gotham and Metropolis.

Do you decide on character traits (ie shy, quiet, tomboy girl) before writing the whole book or as you go along?

I usually hit upon a lot of the character traits as I go. I think a big mistake is to try and write draft one, chapter one with what you think are fully formed characters and try to illustrate all that right from the start. That’s how you end up with a bunch of quirks instead of a character.

Are there any hidden messages or morals contained in your books? (Morals as in like Aesops Fables type of "The moral of this story is..")

I think there are, Remember The Maelstrom is about being happy where you are instead of trying to find happiness in where you want to be. Vienna Sky is about using the things you can do to help people.

Which format of book do you prefer, eBook, hardback, or paperback?

I’m mostly a paperback guy but I’ve been switching to Ebooks slowly but surely.

What is your favorite book and Why? Have you read it more than once?

White Noise by Don Dellillo is one of my all time favorites but I haven’t read it in years. So much happens in that book that I feel like I could read it again and find something new. There isn’t a lot of filler in that book.

Do you think books transfer to movies well? Which is you favorite/worst book to movie transfer?

The problem with a lot of film adaptations is that the books tend to get so much into the characters heads that it makes it hard to illustrate all that is going on. I just read about how people tried to adapt Kavelier and Clay into a movie and there is just too much internal conflict to make that work right. I haven’t seen the Mysteries of Pittsburg movie but I’ve heard bad things and I’d imagine they had the same problem.

I think the most successful is probably the Jeremy Irons adaptation of Brideshead Revisited.

Your favorite food is?

I love Indian Food. In Chicago I’m surrounded by awesome Indian Restaurants.

Your favorite singer/group is?

Lately I’ve kinda been into ChVrchs. They’re not usually my type of music but they’re solid. I have a lot of Collin Hay on my spotify mix recently.

Your favorite color is?

I love writing about a midnight blue sky.

Your favorite Author is?

Don Dellilo, I feel like every time he writes something new he plays with narrative but never lets that get in the way of character development.