Science Fiction / Thriller
Date Published: February 9, 2018
Publisher: SF Productions
For Hayden Cross, a military investigator in the far future, whether his wife faked her death is the question that is probably going to get him killed. Having lost the only job that kept him sane, he has few resources and fewer leads. Oh, and a sadistic crime lord really wants to kill him.
As he fights through an underworld of fanatical rebels, callous bounty hunters, and corrupt cops, each step takes him closer to the truth about his wife’s fate and the oppressive government he once loyally served. On the way he may even liberate a planet and stop a war ... but only if he betrays everyone he loves.
Interview
What is the hardest
part of writing your books?
At the moment, it’s finding time! I’ve always been a
relatively fast writer, but I now have a three-year-old and a lot of demands on
my time, which means I really have to plan to get anything done. Supremacy’s Shadow (my sci-fi thriller)
and Loose Circuit (my free cyberpunk
police procedural) were the last big projects I completed before the little
one, and I’ve since fallen behind on new work. My trick is to essentially not sleep,
doing writing after my little one is in bed. That’s the plan as I power though
my next book.
What songs are most
played on your Ipod?
I actually listen to a legion of existing MP3s with Winamp
(don’t judge) or music mixes on Youtube. Game and movie soundtracks are in
constant rotation, but certain soundtracks get more play than others. About 50%
of Loose Circuit was written while
listening to the Ergo Proxy
soundtrack, for example, while a lot of Supremacy’s
Shadow was written listening to things as varied as the soundtrack from Psycho-Pass, Youtube “Epic Music” mixes
from various artists, and even a bunch of Christopher Franke’s stuff from Babylon 5. While writing, I’m almost
always listening to something.
Do you have critique
partners or beta readers?
I’m fortunate to have no less than two writing groups (one
that meets every two weeks and critiques smaller pieces, and one that meets
every few months and can critique whole novels). I’m also blessed to know a
small network of authors with a huge amount of talent, and comments and advice
from these folks always improves my work dramatically from the first draft. Supremacy’s Shadow has been through eight
drafts and had at least forty people critique it over three years, so it’s a
fairly polished book!
What book are you
reading now?
I just finished reading Anthony Ryan’s The Waking Fire for the Fantasy-Hive’s monthly book reviews (I also
write a column for them titled “Life in the Metaverse”, where I talk about
craziness in virtual reality) and I’m currently reading an ARC of A. Z.
Anthony’s upcoming book Servant of Rage, which
is great. Reading is another thing I have to carve out time for, but it’s worth
it to help out friends and keep my knowledge of genre fresh.
How did you start
your writing career?
I’ve been writing since I was little, but my first “break
out hit” was a 70,000 word Final Fantasy
VII fanfic I wrote in college called Forgotten
Messiah. It was basically just a massive response to my frustration at how
open-ended Final Fantasy VII’s ending
was, so I ended up writing a sequel that wrapped up loose ends. The book took
off on a site called RPGamer.net, and by the time it ended, 400 people had
personally e-mailed me to tell me how much they enjoyed it. That inspired me to
really try to make it as an author (writing my own, original stuff) and led me
to buckle down on my first book, the adventure fantasy Glyphbinder. Supremacy’s
Shadow now gives me four books, officially, though I’ve yet to match those
400 personal e-mails for that first fanfic.
I’m currently writing a sequel to Supremacy’s Shadow titled Supremacy’s
Bounty (you’ll notice a theme there) which is set in the same universe, but
with different characters. I’m incredibly impressed with Marvel’s approach to
its cinematic universe, and I want to do basically the same thing with my scifi
thrillers – write several standalone books in a shared universe, each with its
own awesome characters, and eventually have those characters start crossing
over with each other and appearing in each other’s books.
The central character in Supremacy’s
Bounty is Freyja (a bounty hunter mentioned in passing in the first book)
and her partner/love interest, Jinx, as they end up embroiled in an
interplanetary conspiracy involving human trafficking and illegal research.
Naturally, I’m carrying forward my “grimsnark” approach, so there’s plenty of
sarcasm involved. Also, explosions.
About the Author
T. Eric Bakutis is an author and game designer based in Maryland. He is happily married and shares his house with a vicious, predatory cat and a sad-faced, cowardly dog. He’s been working as a professional videogame developer for over eight years. His first fantasy trilogy, Tales of the Five Provinces, is now complete, and his first science fiction novel, Supremacy’s Shadow, is due in February 2018.
In his spare time, Eric hikes with his lovely wife, little girl, and crazy dog, spends time in VRChat exploring the metaverse, and participates in local events like the Baltimore Science Fiction Society Critique Circle. His first novel, Glyphbinder, was a finalist for the 2014 Compton Crook Award, and his short fiction has appeared in several magazines and anthologies.
You can read his free cyberpunk police procedural, Loose Circuit, at www.loosecircuit.com
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