In an earlier survey to pick the title for Episode IV of Capital City Characters, the respondents managed to produce a tie. As you can see by Sarah’s expression in the illustration below, she is not a happy clone!
Until the title is finalized, it won’t be possible to proceed with the cover design or interior production files to be made so the novella telling Sarah’s story can be published.
What you see above is a snippet from the digitized version of the original hand drawn sketch of Sarah by the illustrator for the story, Sadie Rose du Vigneaud.
To participate in the vote to pick the title for Sarah’s story, please click on the link to Survey Monkey to cast your vote.
During late winter or early spring of 2020, the first of what will be a spin-off series based on characters and locations of the Inspector Thomas Sullivan Thriller series will be released. Written as novellas and priced accordingly, each book in the series is meant to provide a short, entertaining read while filling in the back history of prominent secondary characters.
The first release in the series is Friends in Low Places. This noir style work tells the story of Joe Maynard, the slightly eccentric owner of Joe’s, the unofficial office of both Sully and Father Nathan.
Future releases in the series will include Dolls, Dames, and Danger, a story of what happens when three somewhat naive young women head out for a night on the town. When the town is Capital City, it’s not always a good idea.
This story focuses on Sarah, Katrina (Sully’s adult daughter), Jennifer (Markeson’s beautiful cyborg), and a band of bounty hunters.
Other characters to be featured in the series in future releases include Father Nathan, Bagley, the reporter, and Sully himself.
The sixth installment of the futuristic neo noir Inspector Thomas Sullivan series is now available from Amazon!
Crime Noir Thriller From The Future by K.C. Sivils
From the Amazon description:
A mysterious summons to another world.
News no man wants to hear.
Old acquaintances from the past, some of whom Sully would prefer to have never seen again.
A job that pays too well to turn down.
In the hot, gritty streets of the run down industrial district in the city of New Paris, Sully must race against time to find a kidnap victim and the truth in the City of Broken Lights.
For fans of Hardboiled Noir From The Future – Don’t miss City of Broken Lights!
Settling on the name of a novel can be a challenge. Sometimes the title just comes to you, other times you change the working title as the novel progresses, and still other times the title is what inspires the story.
In the case of City of Broken Lights, the latest edition to the Thomas Sullivan Hardboiled Noir From The Future series, the title is a play on noir conventions of storytelling.
The city the story take place in, New Paris, is a play on the actual nickname of the actual city of Paris, The City of Lights. Like any major city, the real Paris or New Paris 500 years in the future, there is a grimy underbelly that people would prefer to ignore. Like any other city, past, present, or future, the people who live in these neighborhoods are a mixed lot. You’ll find some bad characters, quite a few who are “grey,” with the remaining largely being good people trapped in circumstances beyond their control.
The name New Paris works with two common themes in the noir style stories. One is the duality of man, humanity is capable of both good and evil, light and dark, but the most common character trait is to be grey, a mixture of both. Throughout City of Broken Lights characters appear who are varying shades of grey. Some were once good and are now bad. Others are bad but have moments of light, where the character’s remaining good shines.
Many of the people in New Paris are victims simply because they live in the city. Other’s a victims because of poor choices they made and still others are victims because of the actions of others they cannot control. Tragedy simply enters into their life and in classic noir fashion, there is nothing the character can do to stop tragedy from striking.
The Private Investigator is often the protagonist in a noir story. This convention is used frequently because the P.I. can be both good and bad, light and dark. His intentions are good, but if necessary to achieve his goal or to save the victim, the P.I. can and will break the law.
Sully, and his partner Sarah, are unique in many ways, not just because he’s part cyborg and she’s a clone. Both are officers of the law who from time-to-time work as private investigators. Sarah is prone to going where she wants and ignoring the fact a search warrant is required. Sully has no qualms about beating information he needs out of someone, nor does he think twice about pulling the trigger if it means saving the life of someone he thinks deserves saving.
Father Nathan, a man with a murky past of his own, usually serves as Sully’s conscience, helping the cynical cop to see what is just and good. Both men live by a moral code not recognized by society. Sully seeks justice and truth. Our good Father lives by God’s teachings, an ever more difficult task as humanity expands into the galaxy and turns its back on what was once the basis of human society in western civilization.
Like any good hardboiled noir hero, the two friends souls are darkened by the shadow of shades of grey. Threaten an innocent individual, break the law, or live in an unjust manner, Sully has no qualms about giving the individual a beating, shooting them, or destroying their lives. More restrained than his lawman friend, Father Nathan has a pair of fists and knows how to use them. Threaten one of his flock of disadvantaged and lost souls and see what happens.
Sarah lives in constant conflict, both internal and external. Her very existence is against the law. For reasons ranging from harvesting her internal organs to her original owners tracking Sarah down, she has reasons to be wary. Naive at times due to her actual, chronological age, Sarah is very aware sexual predators are attracted to her because of her looks and the vulnerable air she possesses as an outcast from society.
Internally, Sarah struggles with anxiety and doubts about her humanity because she is a clone. Anxiety she in part deals with by exploring faith in Father Nathan’s parish church.
Like Sully and Father Nathan, the beautiful clone has a good heart. Cross Sarah, threaten Sully, or reveal you’re a sexual predator, and the darkness in her heart emerges. Never challenge a clone who has the ability to hide in plain sight to a fight!
Just as the three main characters of the series are shades of grey, many of the characters of City of Broken Lights reflect the shadows cast upon their own lives. Many are the broken streetlights in New Paris, reflecting the imperfections of the rich and powerful as well as the poor and downtrodden. Even where the lights shine brightly, the shadow of wrongdoing is cast.
Crime noir as a genre examines the darkness of humanity, the cruelty of the human existence, and the haphazard way the innocent are caught up in events not of their making. Often the end is not a happy one.
Death comes to many in the noir genre and the cast of characters in City of Broken Lights is certainly not spared this fate. Nor are the human institutions of government, politics, community, and the church. Even the institutions of humanity take part in the struggle between good and evil, light and dark.
Playing “what if” can be a lot of fun and most of the time it’s harmless. So why not try your hand at picking a cast of actors to play the characters in my Thomas Sullivan stories?
The basic premise is some producer with deep pockets and no affiliation with Fox (Browncoats will understand) has bought the rights to my stories.
The only limitations on casting are:
1) The actor/actress has to be alive.
2) They have to physically be able to represent my description of the character – no 5’8″ actors being cast as Sully or Father Nathan for example.
3) The use of makeup, etc, to make the actor/actress resemble the character is not only fine but most likely necessary.
To see who I would cast (if you didn’t read the post in the last Inspector’s Report) just click here.
To enter the contest send me an e-mail with your list of characters and who you would cast to play them. Be sure to include BRIEF explanations of why that actor/actress is the best fit for the character.
Deadline: March 31st
Prizes: 1st Place will receive a signed paperback copy of an Inspector Thomas Sullivan Thriller of your choice. 2nd Place will receive two Kindle editions of their choice. 3rd Place will receive one Kindle edition of choice.
Judging: I will make the final choice and all decisions are final.
The winners will have their cast selections posted in a future edition of The Inspector’s Report, my author’s FB page, and my website.
The fifth installment in the Inspector Thomas Sullivan Thriller series, Death’s Cold Touch, will be released soon! The ebook version will be available from Amazon, Kobo, iBooks and other ebook retailers.
Available on Pre-order from Amazon!
Book description:
Nothing lasts forever.
Certainly not in Capital City on the frozen planet Beta Prime.
Inspector Thomas Sullivan wanted nothing more than dull, routine days of police work. Sullivan’s young partner Sarah wanted to leave her past behind and forge a new life for herself, free from fear.
But a man with a cybernetic right eye and two cybernetic hands who came to Beta Prime to escape his past should know better. So should Sully’s partner, the pretty young clone with secrets of her own.
What starts as random murders escalates into terrorism as four serial killers work together to turn the relative tranquility of Capital City into chaos. As the body count mounts, it becomes clear something else is going on.
If a sinister force has its way, the future of Capital City will be destroyed.
On a frozen planet when death comes for you, there is no escaping its cold touch.
For those who’ve read the previous installments in the series, Death’s Cold Touch is a bit different. The story is narrated by Sarah, the clone who is Sully’s partner.
Coming soon is the sixth installment in the series, City of Broken Lights.
Amazon rankings are based on an algorithm. The lower your ranking, based on sales, the higher you turn up in the search results. As you can imagine, the higher a book is on the results, the more sales!
More sales result in even higher rankings. Better yet, consistent sales help the book retain it’s higher ranking.
What has this got to do with Christmas?
In an effort to increase exposure for my Inspector Thomas Sullivan novels, I’m willing to make less per sale now for the increased exposure. So for those who would like to send an inexpensive gift to a friend, the price on all of my Inspector Sullivan novels, Kindle editions, is just .99 cents. This sale can’t go on forever. The prices will all rise to their regular price on December 26th.
If you have friends who would enjoy reading any of the books in the series, please consider gifting a copy! Word of mouth is the absolute best form of marketing or advertising an author cans ask for.
Amazon makes it easy to gift Kindle books to other readers.
The screenshot above is from the purchase options from The Fractured Man’s product page. The “Buy for others” option is how you gift a book to someone.
The above image shows the form that will appear once you click on the Buy for others button. You just fill it in and then click on the Place Your Order button.
The image above will appear to the left of the form you need to fill out to place your order once you click on the Buy for others button. This will allow you to see exactly what you are purchasing for your friend or family member.
The Inspector Thomas Sullivan Thriller Series Box Set: Hard Boiled Noir From The Future
All of my novels will be on sale for .99 cents until December 26th. The Box Set, which contains bonus material consisting of short stories and the first ten chapters of The Fractured Man, will also be on sale for $4.99.
An Innocent Man, the latest installment in the Inspector Thomas Sullivan Thriller series, is available for pre-order on Amazon.
500 years in the future, technology has changed. Humanity has not.
One man’s fate lies in the hands of a team of corrupt prosecutors bent on making their prosecutorial mark for personal gain. Standing in the path of injustice is Inspector Thomas Sullivan and an acquaintance from the past.
Murder, political corruption, greed, and scandal combine for danger in Capital City on the frozen world of Beta Prime. At stake is a man’s life, the very souls of others, and the integrity of the entire Planetary Alliance’s justice system.
Join Sully and his team as they try to free An Innocent Man!
My wife and I spent the morning at the Museum of Natural Science in the Houston Museum District. We ponied up the money to see the International Sherlock Holmes Exhibition. It was worth every dime!
Upon entering the exhibit a member of the museum staff provides you with a small book to record clues you come across. Be forewarned should you visit the exhibit! The minute you set foot in the exhibit, “the game is afoot!”
The exhibit begins with some history about Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, his life and education, and of special importance, the medical professors who trained Doyle. Of particular interest is the photo of Dr. Joseph Bell, the man who taught Doyle how to practice the art of observation.
The display includes several of the original handwritten pages of the classic Holmes story The Hound of Baskervilles. Of the original 178 pages only 30+ pages still exist.
Also on display is a copy of The Strand
The exhibit is filled with displays of artifacts depicting the forensic and scientific knowledge of the times. A trained medical doctor, Doyle was up to date on the latest discoveries and used them to great advantage in the telling of his stories.
If you live in Houston and love detective stories, you’ll want to take in the exhibition. If not, you’ll want to visit the Exhibitions website for details of where the exhibition will appear next. In fact, I suggest visiting the website regardless. It’s filled with more interesting material for fans of the great detective!
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