Hey! It's the middle of the month. How is your COVID bingo card coming along, dare I ask?
What a world, hey? Let's escape for a few moments with Nicholas Conley, who has graciously stopped by for a quick little get together. Welcome, Nicholas!
SC:Tell
me a little bit about your main character of this book.
NC:
There are two of them. Billy Jakobek, the character we first meet, is a
mysterious figure: quiet but intense, a boy with powerful psychic abilities
which render him unable to speak, touch, or look at other people without
overpowering them, as well as overpowering himself. He comes from a Jewish
background, with his grandmother being a Holocaust survivor. The other main
character is Natalia Gonzalez, the daughter of Guatemalan immigrants, a
creative soul who longs to escape from the oppressive world she’s been born
into. Whereas Billy is reserved and careful, Natalia is assertive, creative,
and always challenging the status quo.
SC:
Okay, a boy with psychic abilities…some would consider this paranormal. Do you believe in the paranormal and if so, do
you have an experience you can share?
NC:
Well, I’m Jewish, both by blood and by practice, so I certainly have a
spiritual side. And that sense of a bigger, unknown, and fascinating universe
is something that motivates much of what I do. As a Jewish person, I believe
strongly in the notion of tikkun olam – repairing the world – and I believe
that, essentially, every positive, constructive action that every person makes
helps in constructing a better universe. So, I definitely believe that there’s
more to this world, and universe, than we realize, and I always keep an open
mind when it comes to anything I encounter.
SC:
Well, the world certainly needs a little repairing right now. What titles are
you working on now that you can tell us about?
NC:
Currently, I’m funneling all of my creative passion and energy into Knight in
Paper Armor. I’ve been working on this book for a long, long time, and it feels
deeply moving to finally see it meeting the world. That said, there always has
to be something around the corner, right? So, yes, I have a pretty good idea of
what my next few projects are, and I’ve done a number of drafts for them. One
of them is massive in scope, and the other is smaller and more intimate, so
it’ll be interesting to see which one makes it out the gates first.
SC:
No doubt! Thanks for chatting with us today, let's take a look at your novel
now.
Knight in Paper Armor
Nicholas Conley
Genre: Dystopian
Publisher: Red Adept Publishing
Date of Publication: September 15, 2020
ASIN: B08CLSSX8Z
Word Count: About 113,000
Book Description:
Billy Jakobek has always been different. Born with strange and powerful psychic abilities, he has grown up in the laboratories of Thorne Century, a ruthless megacorporation that economically, socially, and politically dominates American society.
Every day, Billy absorbs the emotional energies, dreams, and traumas of everyone he meets—from his grandmother’s memories of the Holocaust, to the terror his sheer existence inflicts upon his captors—and he yearns to break free, so he can use his powers to help others.
Natalia Gonzalez, a rebellious artist and daughter of Guatemalan immigrants, lives in Heaven’s Hole, an industrial town built inside a meteor crater, where the poverty-stricken population struggles to survive the nightmarish working conditions of the local Thorne Century factory. Natalia takes care of her ailing mother, her grandmother, and her two younger brothers, and while she dreams of escape, she knows she cannot leave her family behind.
When Billy is transferred to Heaven’s Hole, his chance encounter with Natalia sends shockwaves rippling across the blighted landscape. The two outsiders are pitted against the all-powerful monopoly, while Billy experiences visions of an otherworldly figure known as the Shape, which prophesizes an apocalyptic future that could decimate the world they know.
Excerpt:
“So,” Roseanna
said, “according to my superiors, young Billy came to the attention of Thorne
Century due to his long medical history.” She opened her folder and riffled
through. “Dozens of child therapists, doctors, prescriptions, treatments… wide
range of disease symptoms and ailments as well as wild mood swings but no
evidence of any physical illness or precise mental disorder. The word
psychosomatic is bleeding from these papers. I don’t buy it.” Roseanna leaned
forward. “I think it all fits a certain pattern.”
“The doctors
don’t understand.” Tzeitel bit her lip, paused, then spoke again. “Neither do
his parents, though I love them. No. They merely say that he imagines things.
Hallucinations, they claim.” She glanced at her frail grandson still shivering
in the humidity. “I disagree. He often gets sick, but the sickness comes not
from him.”
“Can you
explain?” I think she gets it.
“As a baby, he
constantly changed personalities, like this”—Tzeitel snapped her fingers—“depending
on who held him. Smiling or shrieking, it flipped constantly, and whenever he
cried, all of us cried with him for no reason. Not like a normal baby. His
brother was not like this, either.”
“I see.”
“It was not so
extreme when he got older. But when others are sick…” She knotted her fingers.
“He goes to them, touches the place it hurts, and the pain goes away. It goes
inside him, instead, until it fades. Very strange.” She frowned. “When people
are sad? He walks into a room, makes himself smile—poof, no one is sad anymore,
except he becomes sad. Sometimes, I catch him sneaking out across town to help
people who are troubled.” She eyed him. “I don’t like it when he does that,
though it is very nice of him.”
“He senses things?”
“Doctor, my grandson
has a gift. Yes, he senses things. He feels things. He does things to people…
things that, perhaps, the world is not ready for.”
Despite the
heat, Roseanna felt chills. “I believe you.”
About the Author:
Nicholas Conley is an award-winning Jewish American author, journalist, playwright, and coffee vigilante. His books, such as Knight in Paper Armor, Pale Highway, Intraterrestrial, and Clay Tongue: A Novelette, merge science fiction narratives with hard-hitting examinations of social issues. Originally from California, he now lives in New Hampshire.
No comments:
Post a Comment