Cyberpunk/Urban Fantasy Fiction
Release Date: July 23rd, 2025
Publisher: Acorn Publishing
If you make a deal with the Devil, don’t forget to read the fine
print.
Three operatives find themselves on the run after a corporate sabotage job
goes awry. Now, their predatory employer, a heavyweight weapons-tech firm,
wants its elite A-team dead at all costs. Jon is a smooth-talking
charmer. Friedrich is a hacker prodigy. And Guion is the ice-cold tactician
who keeps them all in line.
Backs against the wall, the men strike separate infernal pacts to stay
alive. They vanish into the urban badlands of New York’s Five Hives,
vowing to lie low and figure out why they’ve become targets.
Meanwhile, Jon suspects there’s an insidious evil possessing his
friends, and he wonders if they all got more than they bargained for.
Amid an escalating war between local gangs and the firm’s private
shock troops, the fugitives uncover a conspiracy that threatens to destroy
everyone they know and love. But can they stop the destruction before their
inner demons seize control?
Interview
What is the hardest part of writing your books?
The biggest issue that has plagued me is volume. Too many characters, plot threads, themes, things I want to address. I either drown in it or develop a story that’s spread too thin or is gargantuan. The best thing I ever did for myself is break the writing process down into smaller and smaller pieces. Not only did this make the daily tasks of the process more manageable and something I’d do more consistently, but it also slowed me down and gave me the time to consider if I needed everything I was dumping into the mix. Now, I’ll notice when something is interesting but not the best fit and file that away for another story better suited for it.
What are your most played songs?
Whoo… this has the potential to be a really long list. Okay, let me pare this down. Off the top of my head I think the top contenders (for now) are:
Now We Are Free by Hans Zimmer
Bismark by Sabaton
Sonne by Rammstein (both the original and the instrumental/piano versions)
18 and Life by Skid Row
One More Time Around by The Lonely Ones
Three Six Five by Shinedown
Shelter by Solitary Experiments and Mono Inc.
Only for the Weak by In Flames
Do you have critique partners or beta readers?
I tried a beta program for Daemones Ex Machina but it fell apart for various reasons. It left me with one person, who I now consider my first reader. He sees the draft before anyone else. Not the first draft; that’s rough enough for me to see where it needs work all on my own. After that, though, he’ll savage it for me.
What book are you reading now?
Haitian Vodou: An Introduction to Haiti's Indigenous Spiritual Tradition by Mambo Chita Tann
How did you start your writing career?
I don’t remember ever not writing. I was forever interrupting my mother’s bedtime stories with my own takes on what should happen next (my father sidestepped that by reading me his medical textbooks instead). The first time I can remember really sitting down and planning a story was in 6th grade when two different classes gave me two very different stories to write, and I went to the wall with both of them. I submitted one to Highlights magazine at the urging of my teacher and earned my first rejection letter from it. After that, I was always scribbling in a notebook until my father bought me a typewriter (I wouldn’t own a computer until college), at which point I’d bang on the keys after finishing my homework.
Tell us about your next release.
I’m at a crossroads right now. I was considering trying to shape up one of those old fantasy books, but I was convinced by a friend and fan that I should let that go and concentrate on cyberpunk, which she insists contains a fire my fantasy doesn’t.
So, okay, cyberpunk. With magic because I like what that does to the story. Different cyberpunk this time though, and different magic too.
On one hand, I’ve got 38 pages of research and discovery writing done for the next book. I miss writing and I’m eager to get back to it. On the other hand, I’m researching what it takes to produce an audiobook of Daemones Ex Machina, which I’d really like to do. I’m going to do both of these. I just haven’t figured out the rhythm of how to juggle them both yet.
About the Author
At the age of four, Russell Anders started telling stories, often
interrupting his mother during bedtime reading to ask, “Then what
happened?” She always answered, “You tell me,” and his
imagination conjured fantastical tales of dragons and dinosaurs.
He gravitated toward a career as a technical writer and writing coach for
software companies. He also briefly served as a columnist for Dragon
Magazine. One of his favorite hobbies includes tabletop role playing,
especially as the game master. And yes, he's as cruel to the characters in
his games as he is to the characters in his books; his players love him for
it.
Russel lives with the constant canine companionship of whip-smart but goofy
Sigurd, an English Mastiff (the best breed ever).
Daemones ex Machina is his debut novel.
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Im looking forward to checking this book out. Thanks for sharing.
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