Price of Vengeance
"Liam! What have you done?" Marcus demanded. "You know our teachings on revenge."
Suddenly, irrationally angry, Liam straightened. "How can you defend him after what he did? To you, to Mom, to my birth parents, to everyone we cared about?"
With a howl of despair and emotional agony, Liam dashed forward, through the shade of his father, blindly running into the sewers.
What is the Price of Vengeance? One could understand why Liam is angry. Orphaned at the age of two by a group of giant carnivorous insects called the chitin, he was adopted by High Councilor Marcus and his wife, Lidia, and raised with their older son, Randolf, in New Olympia, the last remaining city on the planet Etrusci.
As an adult, Liam becomes a soldier. After being cut off from the city, he finds that there is an alien intelligence behind the chitin. To defeat it, he must discover who he is and how to use his powers. When Liam discovers that a traitor responsible for his birth parents' deaths has also murdered his beloved foster parents, he might find that the price he has to pay in his quest for vengeance will prove to be an even more unbeatable foe.
BUY LINKS:
About the Author:
Bio:
Kurt D. Springs is presently an adjunct professor of anthropology and archaeology in New Hampshire. He holds a PhD. in anthropology from the State University of New York at Buffalo, as well as a Master of Literature in archaeology from the National University of Ireland, Galway, and a Master of Liberal Arts in anthropology and archaeology from the Harvard University Extension School. His main area of interest is megalithic landscapes in prehistoric Ireland.
Where can we find you?
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INTERVIEW
Tell me a bit
about yourself.
I
am my forties and have a PhD in Anthropology (archaeology focus). I received my
PhD from the University at Buffalo (or SUNY at Buffalo). I also have a Master
of Literature in archaeology from the National University of Ireland in Galway,
and a Master of Liberal Arts in anthropology and archaeology from the Harvard
University Extension School. I received my BA from Saint Anselm College in
Mathematics. I am currently teaching Introduction to Anthropology and
Introduction to Archaeology at Manchester Community College in New Hampshire.
I
also do book reviews for Invincible Love of Reading under Kurt’s Frontier. I
deal mostly with science fiction and fantasy.
When did you
first consider yourself a writer?
I had my first hints of wanting to be a
writer when I was in grade school. I was always complemented on my stories. I
tried to write science fiction in high school, and tried to go professional in
the 1990s with Queen of Thieves,
a fantasy novel that I submitted to several publishers, though it was never
published. That was when I first learned the importance of plotting a novel.
What inspired you
to write your book?
I
originally got the idea for Price of
Vengeance as I was walking home from school when I
was doing my Master of Literature in Ireland. I had this idea of a young
warrior, who did not belong to the culture he was defending being betrayed and
trapped outside the city by people who didn’t like him because of his
background.
When
the economy tanked just as I was finishing up my PhD, I was a bit depressed.
Finding a job I was trained to do had gotten exponentially harder. I found
myself getting very angry. I decided to start writing as an outlet. It was a
way to explore my inner demons.
If you had to
choose, which writer would you consider a mentor?
I
would say, without reservation, the late Andre Norton was one of the biggest
influences on my writing. Of her science fiction novels, my favourites were her
Forerunner
series which blended technology with ESP powers as did many of her sci fi
novels. I was also a big fan of her Witch World fantasy novels.
What book are you
reading now?
I
tend to read several books at a time, especially now that I am officially a
reviewer. Currently I am reading Vampire
Origins—Project Ichorous by Riley Banks and Desperate Pursuit in Venice
by Karynne
Summars. I was told long ago that I shouldn’t
limit myself to reading only in my own genre. I’ve actually found some
remarkably good books in popular fiction, and even romance. I had steered clear
of romance novels most of my life. I was once a Page in our local city library.
Old ladies checking out large shopping bags full of romance novels does tend to
leave one scarred.
What do you like
to do when you’re not writing?
Reading
mostly. I also like to play one of the Halo games on my XBox 360. I also like
to cook.
What time of day
do you write?
There
isn’t any particular time. I usually joke that my most productive times are
when I should be doing something else. I write a bit between classes on
Tuesdays. I also find going to a coffee shop provides a welcome change.
Where do you get
your ideas for your books?
Ideas
can come from anywhere. The most powerful tool in any author’s creative arsenal
is the question “what if…?” I’ve gotten several ideas from The Universe series
on the Science Channel.
If you couldn’t
be an author, what would your ideal career be?
I
would probably be putting more effort to getting an assistant professorship and
getting grants to do my own excavations in Ireland.
What is your favorite tv show?
Mythbusters
at the moment.
. Can you tell us about your upcoming book?
Price of Vengeance takes
place one thousand years in the future. It is set against the backdrop of an
interstellar civil war, referred to as the Rebellion. The planet Etrusci is cut
off from the rest of the galaxy by a mysterious force field. The inhabitants
have been pushed into one last refuge, the city of New Olympia, by giant,
carnivorous insects called chitin. The majority of the story takes place when
Liam is a young adult. He has joined the city’s military and does his part to
hold back the chitin. By training, he is a sniper. When he is cut off outside
the city, he discovers that there is an intelligence behind the chitin. After
getting back into the city, he finds that a traitor has murdered his beloved foster
parents. He is understandably upset by this and chooses to hunt down the
traitor and tortures him to death. However, his actions go against everything
he was ever taught. He has to deal with his guilt while at the same time trying
to stop Azurius, the alien intelligence that controls the chitin. Through it
all, he must learn how to use his abilities of stepping out of time and
dreamwalking.
. Do you have any advice for aspiring authors?
Structure,
structure, structure. Regardless of writing style, a good author needs to keep
control over what he’s doing. I tend to favour writing a tightly plotted novel,
but even an episodic novel should have a good structure. Don’t be afraid to
experiment and don’t be afraid to fail.
.How do you cope with writer’s block?
What
is writers’s block but authors letting life interfere with what they love. When
I find it happens to me, I will work on test scenes for future stories. I will
reread a little to see if I can get the passion back. If all else fails, take a
laptop or tablet and go somewhere else. You’ll be amazed what a change of
scenery can do.
.What was the hardest thing to cut from your manuscript?
I
really didn’t have to cut anything that was too painful in the first book.
It
was actually in Promise of Mercy (my
next book) where I found my hardest cuts to date. I had to change scenes that I
spent a lot of time on. It involved Deirdre (Liam’s daughter) using the threat
of castration to get information from a pivotal character who was working with
the enemy. My mother thought it was too intense for a younger audience. I tried
to rationalise it away. Finally, my brother gave a manuscript to my twelve year
old niece. When she got to that part, she was like “should I be reading this?”
I finally gave in and reworked that part.
Where can we buy your books or visit
your website?
You can buy these
books in a number of places, but to save time here are the main ones:
iTunes: I haven’t
seen it here yet, but they did send it to Apple.
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