Please join us with authors Zachary Pieper, Suvendu Tripathy, and Robert Williscroft.
Zachary Pieper, author of “The Garden of Lies” – Some lives are defined by a single choice. Selected at a young age to be trained as a warrior for an Empire he detests, Dalj, a wolf shifter, must rally his pack against heavy odds in the Festival of the Hunt. As Dalj plans his path to victory, he must navigate an unsteady alliance with a rival pack led by Amnis Lupine, the eldest daughter of a noble house; while also seeking to expose the foul play of his lifelong enemy, Aryan Anathema. To win the hunt, Dalj must take down the Behemoth of the plains, the Mighty Kerrapane before either of the other packs, or else he will never be awarded entry into the legendary Trial of War. However… Little does Dalj know, that while he hunts for glory, a rebellion plots in the shadows to overthrow the Shaman Empire; and they want Dalj’s help to do it. Approached for help by a mysterious girl named Angel, Dalj is asked to join The Forgotten, a rebellion of people immune to the mental manipulation of the shaman, who seek to expose the grand conspiracy the shaman have fed to the populace. They must find a way to awaken the brainwashed masses, and overcome the shaman’s godlike powers before they are eradicated. Will Dalj join them? Or will he succumb to darkness and mindlessly serve evil?
Suvendu Tripathy, author of “The Crepe Jasmines” – An exploration of the lives of people on the edge of society, their dreams, and their desires. A poor brahmin man from a remote village in Odisha treads the world of rural India as his academic pursuits lead him through the greatly changing times of the 1970s and 80s. From the life of the son of a small farmer to the fast-paced, big city life of a college student, Partha Sarathi Panda comes face to face with the judgments of his religion, his economic status, and, eventually, of the society at large.
Robert Williscroft, author of “Slingshot: Building the Largest Machine in Human History (The Starchild Trilogy Book 1) – The setting is the day-after-tomorrow. Technology has advanced, the web is more pervasive than ever, but human ambition and greed remain unchanged. In Slingshot Alex Regent, Margo Jackson, and Klaus Blumenfeld reach for the stars as they blend their skills to create the world’s first space launch loop, backed by major software money. Environmental fanatic Lars Watson with his team of young eco-terrorists is funded by opposing international interests, who will go to any length to halt the project. Reporter Lori Kutcher indiscriminately applies her own personal skills to ensure it is she who reports the unfolding events to a watching world. With a cast of 69, Slingshot takes you from Seattle’s world financial district to the ocean bottom at 5,000 feet off Baker Island, to the edge of space 80 km above. You play with dolphins and battle sharks. You fly and sail and dive, you work and play and love across the vast panorama of an Equatorial Pacific being put to leash to serve humanity’s surge into outer space. While its accurate science and precise engineering will appeal to hard science-fiction buffs, Slingshot’s major focus is the grand journey, the opening of outer space to the common person by men and women who loom larger than life as they work, play, and love.