Guest Blog and Giveaway! Featuring Sarwat Chadda (U.S. Canada)

I haven't had the chance yet to read the "Devil's Kiss" series by Sarwat Chadda-- but I sure want to now. this post speaks to me. We've talked many times about how monsters need to be monstrous, and my guest author today actually gets it. Read on for a glimpse at Sarwat's newest book and a chance to win a set of the first two books in the "Devil's Kiss" series.

~SQT

OLD SCHOOL MONSTERS

Let’s face it; but bad guys are more fun. They get the best lines, the best outfits and the best accessories. Red-coloured lightsabers mean business. Double-headed red-coloured lightsabers mean it’s Jedi sushi time.

I know things go in trends and right now we’re in the carrying sharing monster state of affairs. You know exactly who I mean.

Enough already.

But there are old-school frights to be had, if you know where to look. The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan, for example, gives you zombies like the good Lord intended; shambling, infected, out to eat your brains.

I love monsters because they’re monstrous. They don’t play by human rules because they are inhuman. Dark angels have a contempt for mortals, vampires who see us as nothing more than blood-sacks and werewolves that just like to kill. There is no mortality in nature, so why should there be any in supernature?

I love werewolves. I love the rage and the conflict they embody, the restraints of humanity verses the freedom of the beast. Here’s an example from Chapter Two of Dark Goddess:

The Old Grey, snout and teeth red from its kill, moved warily in front of Pelleas, searching for an opening past his deadly steel. Behind it the Big Red had finished its own murderous work. A woman wearing a blood-washed dressing gown leaned against the coarse brick wall. Her eyes bore only the dimmest life. The Big Red seemed to be holding her up, its right paw pressed against her chest. Then it slowly pulled out its talons, each one coming free of her body with a wet, sticky slurp. The woman slid gently down the wall.

Dark Goddess is about the Beast Within, recognising the monster within us. My heroine, Billi SanGreal, is a warrior and all warriors must do terrible things for the greater good. But who knows what that greater good is? My monsters, the werewolves and their goddess, the ancient witch Baba Yaga, are trying to save the world. Baba Yaga has seen the damage humanity has done to the planet and realises the only way to save it is to rid it of mankind. As Old Grey, the leader of the werewolves asks “What species has prospered under the man’s dominion? Not one.”

We love Dracula because he’s so uncanny and weird. He has his own rules, but not ones that worries about humans. There’s a creepy dread about him, we don’t know quite what he is or what he can do. He creeps down walls, summons blue fires from nowhere and has the company of wolves. He slaughters with abandoned but hunts with a lover’s obsession. Alas since him vampires have become steadily defanged. They’re just superheroes who need to tank up on blood like some Pac Man, before launching off on their next escapade. They’ve become known to us, we know what they can do and what they can’t. What sort of monster is that? Monsters grew out of our fear of the shadows, the places unseen. Shadows change shape, they distort our perception, and are without real dimension. Shine a light on it, the shadow is destroyed. So is the mystery and the shiver you get when staring into the blackness.

What fun is there in knowing everything? We, as humans, revel in the wonder of the unknown. We are awestruck by what we don’t understand and can’t explain. Monsters embody that awe, and the more mysterious we keep them, the greater is our passion.

~Sarwat Chadda


You're interested now aren't you? I know I am. Just add your information to the form below to enter (all information is guaranteed confidential and will be discarded once contest ends) and I will randomly pick one winner by Thursday March 3rd. No multiple entries please-- all multiple entries will be discarded (allowances will be made for mistakes requiring a double entry). Open in United States and Canada only (Sorry! I'll try to add an international contest later).

Good luck!

Devil's Kiss
There's Nothing To Fear But Fear Itself....And Billi SanGreal.
As the youngest and only female member of the Knights Templar, Bilquis SanGreal grew up knowing she wasn't normal. Instead of hanging out at the mall or going on dates, she spends her time training as a soldier in her order's ancient battle against the Unholy.
Billi's cloistered life is blasted apart when her childhood friend, Kay, returns from Jerusalem, gorgeous and with a dangerous chip on his shoulder. He's ready to reclaim his place in Billi's life, but she's met someone new: amber-eyed Michael, who seems to understand her like no one else, effortlessly claiming a stake in her heart.
But the Templars are called to duty before Billi can enjoy the pleasant new twist to her life. One of the order's ancient enemies has resurfaced, searching for a treasure that the Templars have protected for hundreds of years — a cursed mirror powerful enough to kill all of London's firstborn. To save her city from catastrophe, Billi will have to put her heart aside and make sacrifices greater than any of the Templars could have imagined.

Dark Goddess
New enemies, new romance, and new horrors,
Billi's back, and it seems like the Unholy just can't take a hint.
Still reeling from the death of her best friend, Kay, Billi's thrust back into action when the Templars are called to investigate werewolf activity. And these werewolves are like nothing Bilil's seen before.
They call themselves the Polenitsy - Man Killers. The ancient warrior women of Eastern Europe, supposedly wiped out centuries ago. But now they're out of hiding and on the hunt for a Spring Child — an Oracle powerful enough to blow the volcano at Yellowstone — precipitating a Fimbulwinter that will wipe out humankind for good.
The Templars follow the stolen Spring Child to Russia, and the only people there who can help are the Bogatyrs, a group of knights who may have gone to the dark side. To reclaim the Spring Child and save the world, Billi needs to earn the trust of Ivan Romanov, an arrogant young Bogatyr whose suspicious of people in general, and of Billi in particular.
Dark Goddess is a page-turning, action-packed sequel that spans continents, from England to the Russian underworld and back. This is an adventure of folklore and myth become darkly real. Of the world running out of time. And of Billi SanGreal, the only one who can save it.

**Contest Closed**

Guest Post & Giveaway: Featuring a signed copy of "Messiah" by S. Andrew Swann

If you're a fan of science fiction, there's a good chance you're familiar with S. Andrew Swann. I first became familiar with him when I got the first book in his Apotheosis Trilogy, Prophets,  back in 2009 (and promptly hosted a giveaway for this very-interesting book) and since then I have seen excellent reviews pop up for both Prophets and the second book in the series, Heretics over at SF Signal; as well as a recent podcast featuring today's guest author. So when I was asked if I would host a guest blog and giveaway for S. Andrew Swann-- it was a no-brainer. This one is for all of you clamoring for a good sci-fi series to get into.

~SQT


He calls himself Adam and he believes himself to be God. He descends toward Earth in the midst of a cloud of thinking matter that was once part of a solar system surrounding Xi Virginis, a solar system that he had disassembled molecule-by-molecule. The cloud orbits the earth, descending and coalescing into thousands, ten of thousands, hundreds of thousands of
dropships simultaneously crashing into every population center on earth. One burning teardrop of living metal blows through the dome of St.Peter’s and begins consuming the Vatican, and Adam walks out of the maelstrom and into St. Peter’s square. He places his hands on the pope’s shoulders and asks, “Do you choose to serve me?”

That’s pretty much where my novel, Messiah starts, with the end of the world. It’s a fitting send-off to a series of books where I have repeatedly indulged in my penchant for blowing stuff up. Messiah is the final book in the Apotheosis Trilogy, which is itself the third trilogy in the Moreau/Confederacy universe, a series that started with a limited nuclear war in Asia before the first book even began, and has followed through with a genocidal interstellar conflict, worlds ravaged by runaway nanotchnology, colonies with near light-speed projectiles fired from orbit, the destruction of entire star systems, and the explosive annihilation of a network of about ninety wormholes across several light years.

The Apotheosis Trilogy is, quite literally, the singularity as Armageddon.

The universes I create, in most every case, are in the process of either emerging from the chaos of the old order’s collapse, or are on the cusp of descending again into that chaos and collapse. If you’re writing against the wide swath of history— real or invented— these are the times that are the most fun to write about. However we may desire it in our own lives, in fiction, stability is boring. I much rather write about stuff blowing up, burning down, or otherwise going to pieces. And many times at the end of my stories, the carefully structured status quo is in far too many pieces to reassemble in anything remotely resembling the original.

In the end, to survive, my characters must face the fact that they can’t save the world— the old order. At best, they have a hand in forming the new order, which is just as transient. However much you fight it, things change, and they will always change.

Society collapses, but individuals continue.

S. Andrew Swann is the pen name of Steven Swiniarski. He’s married and lives in the Greater Cleveland area where he has lived all of his adult life. He has a background in mechanical engineering and— besides writing— works as a Database Manager for one of the largest private child services agencies in the Cleveland area. He has published 19 novels over the past 15 years with four more coming over the next two years.

Messiah: Apotheosis: Book Three

The last stand against the self-proclaimed God, Adam, has retreated to the anarchic planet Bakunin-a world besieged by civil war. Humanity's last hope lies with Nickolai Rajasthan, a Moreau who believes that the human race that created his kind is already damned beyond redemption.


Just add your information to the form below to enter to win a signed copy of "Messiah" by S. Andrew Swann (all information is guaranteed confidential and will be discarded once contest ends) and I will randomly pick a winner by Tuesday February 8th. No multiple entries please-- all multiple entries will be discarded. Signed copy open in the U.S. only. BUT because I love you guys... I have an extra copy of "Messiah" that I am going to open up to worldwide entries. So that means there will be TWO winners of this contest-- one copy signed by the author, which will be for U.S. entries only -- and a non-signed copy for worldwide entry.

Good luck!