UNSETIC Files special preview/extra – Brigid, Tim, and AJ after the end of Bering Songs and Silence

UNSETIC Bering Songs and Silence tiny imageIf you haven’t read Bering Songs and Silence, you might want to stop reading right here and now and go do that before moving on.  Of course, folks who are currently reading The Man Who Made Monsters over at LP Loudon’s site will already know that something must have happened in the aftermath of Bering Songs and Silence, which is the story of the first mission for UNSETIC that Brigid O’Connell and Tim McConaway embarked on together.

Spoilers (and a preview of an upcoming piece, Lost and Found) below the cut.

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Theme music – The UNSETIC Files and The Lost Angel Chronicles

Every writer has their little things that they do to jar loose their creativity, things that help them get into particular characters or remind them of particular characters. In this, I’m absolutely no exception. Music is something that I use when I’m writing to sink me into the right mindset to get rolling.

Now, I don’t have set playlists for specific projects (if I did, I’d have a ridiculous number of playlists), but I do have absolutely massive playlists for the specific universes I work in. I started doing this back before iTunes got rolling, in the days of Napster and AudioGalaxy and other free music sharing resources that may or may not exist anymore (yes, I’m old enough to remember the days when the dorm networks at GVSU were legally full of scads of free music for download–we used to share entire folders of music on the campus networks for our fellow students to snag). Writing to music has become part of my process and over the years certain songs have begun to relate to specific characters–sometimes overall, sometimes for isolated period of their lives and stories. I’ll often say to my friends (those who are familiar with my work and the characters in it) “You know, this is a Tim song” or “This song totally reminds me of The Measure of Dreams” and “I could see Bryn singing this song at the top of her lungs in the shower.”

Don’t laugh. It’s happened.

On that note, at various points in time I’ve put together much smaller, tighter collections of music at the behest of one of my first readers (Jen Willard reads pretty much everything UNSETIC and Lost Angels as I’m working on it–and considering that Reece Bailey and Kate Berkshire wouldn’t exist without her, I’m totally okay with this) to listen to while she’s reading.

What you see below are two of those playlists. Some of these songs correspond to a particular character or pairing. Others just seem to especially fit the universe of the UNSETIC Files and the Lost Angel Chronicles. There’s one or two that correspond to characters and projects that as of this writing will be unfamiliar to anyone stumbling over this post but may make a lot more sense in the future.

Volume I

Name Artist Additional Notes
Carry You Home James Blunt
Breaking Inside Shinedown
Airplanes (feat. Hayley Williams) B.o.B
Building a Mystery Sarah McLachlan Hadrian’s theme
Crack the Shutters Snow Patrol Tim and Kate’s theme
Second Chance Shinedown
Firework Katy Perry Kate’s theme
Live Like We’re Dying Kris Allen
Hanging By A Moment Life House
Hallelujah (Vancouver Winter 2010 Version) k.d. lang
Welcome to the Black Parade (Radio Edit) My Chemical Romance
The End of the Innocence Don Henley
Awake (Live) Josh Groban
If Today Was Your Last Day Nickelback
Landing In London 3 Doors Down Jim and Bryn’s theme
Shattered (Turn the Car Around) O.A.R.
Time After Time Quietdrive

Volume II

Name Artist Additional Notes
Broken (New Version) Lifehouse Tim’s theme
Iridescent LINKIN PARK AJ’s theme
So Close Jon McLaughlin Michael and Jade’s theme
Toy Soldiers Martika
Shooting Star Owl City
All Through the Night Cyndi Lauper
Mercy OneRepublic Tim and Brigid’s theme
Glitter In the Air P!nk Brigid’s theme
All We Are OneRepublic
Clocks Coldplay
For You Calling Scott and Sierra’s theme
From Where You Are Lifehouse
Not Meant to Be Theory of a Deadman
Nothing Left to Lose Needtobreathe
Seasons of Love Rent
Secrets OneRepublic Michael’s theme
Shadow of the Day LINKIN PARK
Taste Lorna Vallings

If you’ve read any of the UNSETIC Files or Lost Angels books, I’d be interested to hear your feedback on these choices–are there songs on this list that you don’t think fit?  Are there songs that are missing?


The first three books of the UNSETIC Files (Bering Songs and Silence, Between Fang and Claw, and The Measure of Dreams) and the first book of the Lost Angel Chronicles (What Angels Fear)are available where ebooks are sold.

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Snippet Sunday – UNSETIC Files: Truth Will Set You Free (WIP)

This week’s snip is from a current work in progress with a slightly different flavor from other books in the UNSETIC Files series…at least to start.

UNSETIC Files Truth Will Set You Free-1000Homicide detective Ryce Marshall returned from what was supposed to be a routine trip across the state line with amnesia–almost all trace of her past erased. Her quest to restore her fragmented memory will put her on a collision course with an FBI investigator that’s fallen down a rabbit hole so deep, he may never climb out again.

Jesse Stole’s mother was the daughter of a capo in the Mancini crime family. He and his younger brother have tried to escape that legacy, but Jesse’s been sucked back into the shadowy world of organized crime–all in the pursuit of law and order. His only saving grace is the woman he fears he’s lost forever.

Tasked with the nigh-impossible task of getting a dangerous new drug off the streets, Agent William Scarborough uses every resource at his disposal in his fight against the syndicates distributing the drug. When he tumbles down a rabbit hole into the supernatural, he’ll drag Stole and Marshall down with him.

Whether any of them are ready for it or not.

Snippet below the break!

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Snippet Sunday – UNSETIC Files fragments

This week’s snippet Sunday is a little different.  You see, there are characters and ideas that gnaw at the back of my brain and won’t go away until I get them down on paper. This is the case with the characters you’re going to meet in this week’s snippet–a pair that don’t have a solid place in the UNSETIC universe beyond knowing that they’re there and doing things.

Two vaguely connected scenes in chronological order below the break.


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Snippet Sunday – UNSETIC Files: The Measure of Dreams (WIP)

The snip below is from the UNSETIC File The Measure of Dreams–the tale of Alisa McConaway and Kate Berkshire and their hunt for the two men they love.

The Measure of DreamsWhat would you do if someone offered to give you the most important men in your life back after you’d lost them?

AJ McConaway lost her brother and her fiancée during Operation: Iraqi Freedom on the same day within hours of each other.  Ten months later, she learns everything she thought she knew about their disappearance was wrong.

Kate Berkshire knew that something strange had happened back in June of ’07 when her lover and his best friend vanished from the cockpits of their planes.  She knows because she found one of the downed craft with no trace of its pilot, ejected or otherwise.  When an old friend offers her the opportunity to bring them home again, she jumps at the chance without realizing the magnitude of her choice.

Now, both women have to decide if they’re willing to brave the pathways between worlds.  Someone–or something–that walks those pathways has taken Mat O’Brien and Tim McConaway from them.  How far are they willing to go to bring them home again?

Is it worth the world?

Snippet below the break.

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Snippet Sunday – UNSETIC Files: Between Fang and Claw

This week’s snip is from one of the UNSETIC Files novellas currently available as ebooks.

UNSETIC Between Fang and ClawIt all starts with a secret–-one that former Ambassador Richard McCullough refuses to reveal to his eldest son.  Sometimes, even secrets kept for the best of reasons lead to unintended consequences…

James McCullough returns to England for the first time since joining the FBI, a last-minute speaker added to the roll for a conference at King’s College.  When he runs into old flame Bryn Knight outside of Heathrow, plans for a quiet, low-key trip are quickly dashed.  Lunch at a local pub leads to his recruitment into a shadow organization dedicated to protecting the world from all the things humanity isn’t quite equipped to understand yet, from vampires and psychics to ghosts and aliens and everything in between.

There’s a war brewing in London. Bryn and her parents are on the front lines and James is right there with them–-but is it a fight he can hope to survive?

Snippet below the break.

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Goals update – March

It’s been a busy year so far, both for me as a writer and at my day job!  January and February brought a major project which resulted in thirteen hour days at the office.

Sufficient to say, I did little beyond working and sleeping on weekdays (and keeping up with Awakenings and Legacies of the Lost Earth).  Things are starting to change now, slowly but surely, but a new month means a reassessment of goals.

Let’s start with the old goals:

  • When All’s Said and Done completed by mid-year, published by end of year
  • Legacies of the Lost Earth: The Last Colony edited and published by end of February
  • Epsilon: Redeemer completed by mid-year, published by end of year
  • UNSETIC Files: In the Beginning – at least two collection stories completed by end of January and published as ebooks by end of March.
  • Awakenings:  War Drums available as ebook and in print by end of June.

A few of these things happened.  A few totally aren’t going to, and a few are still goals within reach.

Fulfilled goals:

UNSETIC Files: In the Beginning – at least two collection stories completed by end of January and published as ebooks by end of March.

Goals within reach: **

When All’s Said and Done completed by mid-year, published by end of year.

Awakenings:  War Drums available as ebook and in print by end of June.

Epsilon: Redeemer completed by mid-year, published by end of year.

** I probably will only be able to do two of the three if I manage all three.  Awakenings: War Drums is actually going to be only about half as many posts from the serial as I thought it was going to be…but that’s because the thing is already monstrous at this point and I’m still not done yet.  So what I thought was Book Two is actually going to be Book Two and Book Three.

lastcolony-2-10001500…yeah, no:

Legacies of the Lost Earth: The Last Colony edited and published by end of February.

  • I just ran out of time on this one, in part thanks to the thirteen days of thirteen hour days over the course of three weeks at the office.  I’ll probably be able to get this together sometime in the near future, though.

And now for some neat indie author news…

So last week (March 3-9), Smashwords ran a promotion where authors could offer their books with site-wide coupons for 25, 50, 75% off and free.  I listed What Angels Fear and Bering Songs and Silence each for free and Epsilon: Broken Stars, Awakenings: Book One, and Between Fang and Claw at 50% off.  While I only sold one copy of the 50% off ebooks (Awakenings: Book One), I did sell nine copies of What Angels Fear and sixteen of Bering Songs and Silence.

Why is this so cool?

Both are series openers in the same universe.  That’s why it’s wicked cool.

We’ll see if the giveaway of those stories leads to future sales down the road.  We can only hope.

 

Stay tuned next week to learn from my experiences as an indie author.  New snippet on Sunday!