Book Blitz & Giveaway: Love on the Run by Dean C. Moore

Love on the Run

by Dean C. Moore

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BLURB:

Husband and wife thieves are on a mission. Just not the same one. He’s out to pay for her cancer therapy–at any costs. She’s out to humanize him, and make him less of a self-absorbed jerk.

The fast-talking, fast-acting, adrenaline seeking duo pick up a few on-again off-again sidekicks along their way, despite staunch protests from Zinio. But with all they’re up against–not the least of which being one smart, hound-dog of a lady detective–the question is: Can love conquer all?

“The story is smart and funny.”  R. D. Hale, Sky City: The Rise of an Orphan

“For the booklover that doesn’t like having his or her time wasted.”  Jack Heath, Remote Control

“This would make a brilliant movie or TV series.” Demelza Carlton, Ocean’s Gift

“Reminded me of The Thomas Crown Affair, down to the whip-cracking humor, the snazzy plot turns, and the character dynamics between the leads and the hotshot female detective on their tales.” Rhys Jones, The Whispering Void

“Only if you want an action packed read with fully developed and interesting characters.”  Victor Longshanks, One Big Problem

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EXCERPT:

Zinio pointed to the underwater sewer line emptying into the ocean.  Delaney nodded and swam up it ahead of him.

Each time she saw a vertical shaft leading up to street level, Zinio shook his head no, and pointed to further down the tunnel, or left here, right there.

They were nearly out of air when Zinio grabbed her and pointed upward.

Changing into street clothes that didn’t really look anything like their style—down to the funky hats to frustrate overhead surveillance cameras—they emerged out of the manhole.

Sauntering down the street a ways, he walked them inside a motorcycle shop, and bought them a pair of racing bikes.  

Outside the shop, the street racers were zooming by them on their motorcycles.  Zinio handed her a number, printed out in the store.

“How did…?”

“I didn’t really.  But when I told you to lose the tail, I had to account for the fact that it might take a while.  This race is West coast to East coast.  Perfect camouflage.  Beats the hell out of any other form of travel they’re likely to be tracking.”

“And if we’d landed in San Francisco?”

“There’s a cruise ship that gets us back to New York.”

“How could…?”

“You watch QVC late at night to clear your mind.”

“They have great deals on diamonds!  Okay, not as good as your after hour specials, but…”

“I watch Johnny Mnemonic.  The memory guy?”

“Unbelievable.”

“What?”

“That you’d pass up the shopping channel for that.”

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Interview

Where are you from?

Trinidad, an island in the Caribbean.  I remember when I was older, asking my dad, “What is Trinidad known for?” 

He would say, “It’s basically a landing strip for the U.S. during wartime.” 

“Dad, come on.  We’ve got to be known for something besides that.”

“The island’s chief economy is oil.  However, it’s believed that we’re just tapping a Venezuelan oil vein and the proceeds rightfully do not belong to us at all.”

“Dad…” 

“We have the best carnival in the world.” 

“You mean that drunken orgy that goes on for a couple of weeks?  Where people do unspeakable things to one another that they can get away with doing because they’re wearing masks and, well, because Lent is around the corner; they can fast to repent for their sins then?”

“It’s not like that.  The natives spend all year on the costumes.  Their creations are a sight to behold.”

Honestly when we’re not busting each other’s chops about our island heritage (which we’re actually rather proud of), we’re reminiscing about our colorful childhoods.  His war stories are epic.  And one of these days I owe it to both my parents, for having the foresight to bear me in such an island paradise, to write about it. 

What inspired you to write this book?

Love on the Run was my way of coming up for air from all the sci-fi and paranormal fantasy novels I typically write in which all kinds of superhuman powers are on display.  I thought I’d tackle the real world for a change, the here and now.  While the story is no small departure from my workaday fare, it was enormous fun to write.  Zinio and Delaney, the husband and wife thieves, rob from banks and casinos and from the rich to give to the poor, in their urban take on Robin Hood and Maid Marian and their merry band of sidekicks.  As one reviewer said, “the only thing flying faster than the bullets is the one-liners.”  Needless to say the tone of this comedy-drama remains light throughout.  But there are some deep themes lending gravity to their situation. 

Zinio and Delaney’s escapades are undertaken during the height of the global economic meltdown where even the best and brightest suddenly find themselves without work.  Zinio was a risk assessment manager before he had to get more creative with how he earned an income and use those same skills to stay twenty steps ahead of the cops, and one determined lady FBI profiler.  Delaney goes into high gear with her bleeding heart agenda, adding to her list the plight of the disenfranchised elderly, cast to the side and forgotten by friends and family alike, and with no safety net to catch them as gravity pulls them to their inevitable demise with daily, accelerating force.  Her attempts to rescue them from the ennui of suburban living, to boot, compel her to invite the two elderly couples neighboring them to tag along for some of her and Zinio’s jaunts.  Delaney is also dying from cancer, and so the plight of those who must battle debilitating illnesses without any kind of medical care gets center staged. 

I guess Delaney’s concerns mirror my own in these dark economic times as I debate what will become of us all.  But, as with the movie, Fun with Dick and Jane, the social causes don’t get in the way of the fun.  And as with The Thomas Crown Affair, the film with Pierce Brosnan, the really enticing factor is how Zinio and Delaney are going to outrun the hotshot FBI profiler long enough to do any social good. 

But to answer your question in a less roundabout way, I guess you could say my feeling that we need to rethink the social contract spurred this story.  Millions of out-of-work and displaced workers secondary not just to the economic meltdown that rippled outwards from Wall Street, but secondary to increased reliance on robotics, self-help IVRs, websites, and the general rise of automation inspired this story.  I’ll likely turn to writing a non-fiction book soon on the need to create a universal base income for all as part of an expanded list of human rights.  One mathematician worked out that just based on the technological largesse handed down to us from prior generations, each person on the planet could be guaranteed at least $520.00 a month.  And with each new technology invented, over time, that figure more than keeps pace with inflation.  We’d have to also guarantee universal access to broadband internet connections.  But we seem to be taking a big step in that direction with the blimp technology Google is exploring to get the internet to the most remote regions of the globe.  And of course we’d have to add access to free education through PhD level and beyond via the internet…  Like I say, a book is brewing in back of my mind.  Curiously, for the naysayers in the audience, parts of Europe and Africa have already experimented with some of the above ideas with resounding success, finding that they do more to spur the economy for all rather than thwart access to it for any.

Love on the Run may not win over your mind in the absence of such a well-thought out treatise on the matter of expanded human rights, but I’d like to think it’d win over your heart.  The characters are imminently personable, and the on-page chemistry and electricity between Zinio and Delaney is unrivaled.  I don’t think we’ve seen this kind of romantic magic since The Thin Man series with Dick Powell and Myrna Loy.

Do you have a specific writing style?

I guess I’d describe it as “fast and loose.”  I write a mile a minute so that the tremendous energy and excitement is conveyed to the page.  It is only come time to edit that I will change the speed at which my mind is going to make sure the view out the window to what needs polishing and correcting isn’t blurred.  Style-wise though I model myself after my favorite writer, Michael Crichton, may he rest in peace.  While the way my style echoes Michael’s may be more obvious with my sci-fi and paranormal fantasy titles, with Love on the Run the familiar way suspense is created via the narrative structure still comes through loud and clear, along with other stylistic elements that follow me whatever genre I write in. 

Because I was a screenwriter before turning to writing novels, the dialogue driven stories and punchy banter also remain hallmarks of my writing style.

Who are your favorite authors?


Besides Michael Crichton, mentioned above? These days an increasing number of indie authors make the list.  Perhaps that’s because I’ve shifted my reading habits to pay it forward.  If I expect others to take a risk on a new, unknown author, I have to be willing to do the same myself.  I maintain a blog on my website dedicated to indie authors to compel me to keep my reading level high and consistent, where I feature what I feel are some of the best of the best. 

There’s a new renaissance happening in the arts, in general, but perhaps spearheaded by the shifts underway in the publishing world.  The new tools and processes are entirely empowering and help wrest control from the top one percent of writers and hand it over to the other ninety-nine percent, who may have just as much, if not more to say, and are just as talented at getting their messages across, if only their paths weren’t blocked by politics. 

Traditional publishers would like you to believe that only the best of the best make it past their doors, but more often than not, with industry consolidation, that’s the least of their considerations.  They want to make money, and there isn’t much money to be had competing against themselves.  Not when they have most of the top writers under contract already.  So there’s no incentive for them to incur additional marketing expenses to build up a brand name with a new author that’s just going to end up competing with one of their own.  

Industry consolidation may be killing creativity and blocking access to fresh voices within the traditional publishing world, but it’s set loose a tsunami of change in the independent publishing world.  With it no longer considered merely the vanity press option, more and more formerly traditionally published and even bestselling authors are turning away and going the indie route.  In part for greater creative control, in part because if they have to spend so much energy and time marketing themselves anyway, they may as well see more of the financial benefits.  And partly because no one can wait years for a book to go through the acceptance process before it finally gets published anymore, not with the world changing as fast as it is.  

So, without further ado…

Some of my favorite authors from the indie world include a recent find, a man by the name of Alex Grove, whose False Idols can currently only be found on wattpad.  I’ve been helping him to edit it.  But look for it soon on Goodreads and Amazon.  I would hasten to add Ken Magee, author of Dark Tidings, Victor Bruneski, author of Steamburo, One Big Problem, and The McConnell House, R. D. Hale, author of Sky City: The Rise of an Orphan, and Angela Stevens, romance and fantasy author of Lemon Drops and Love, and The Wolf You Feed.

That’s not to say I don’t still read big name authors, but they hardly need me to give them a plug.

Do you have another job outside of writing?

Not currently.  Of course, that may change if I don’t master the marketing skills necessary to get heard above the noise of 400 books getting published a day.  That’s quite a wall obscuring the view to any of my titles I’m asking potential readers to see over.  And up until now I’ve pretty much just thrown my books on top of the largest book pile in the world, namely Amazon, crossed my fingers, and hoped for the best.  That, as it turns out, is about the worst marketing strategy on earth.  Here’s hoping the virtual book tours do the trick, as I’d very much like to continue writing full-time.  I was never a big fan of the whole wage-slave idea.  That strikes me as a human rights violation on par with any other form of slavery.  And I’ve had enough dead end jobs to last a lifetime.  Of course, if I had to do it again, I’d pick something with a lot of downtime that encourages an active imagination.  A night-shift security guard, say.

What are you working on now?

I work on several things at once to minimize downtime.  That way, as I finish the draft of one novel and need to get some distance on it before tackling another draft, I can just move on to editing another book.  The book that’s most like Love on the Run that I’m working on currently is Strays.  It’s a modern day take on Oliver Twist with an out of work teacher taking in street urchins and rehabilitating them, building up their self-esteem, empowering them to chase after their dreams.  Of course, to pay for his dreams of rescuing wayward youth, he has to teach them to steal.  I love a good heist story, and this premise offered a unique way into the genre that was fresh and sufficiently different from the Love on the Run franchise to justify me penning not one, but two crime story franchises. 

To be notified when Strays hits the market, use my “Contact Me” form on my website, and specify the franchise of note, and I’ll happily add you to the list.

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AUTHOR Bio and Links:

I write sci-fi, fantasy, action-adventures and thrillers, or some combination thereof—usually with a strong vein of dark humor.  Though, my works are dramas first; the humor is there to take the edge off as with the Raiders of the Lost Ark, Transformers, and Jurassic Park franchises.

I wrote screenplays for a while, and while enjoying them, I found them a bit confining.  After a while you just need the extra page count to flesh out characters better and do additional world building, especially when considering doing anything epic in scope.  I also took a run at future forecasting and trend tracking, being as I always had my head in the future, things like Alvin Toffler’s Future Shock.  I also relished this, and can certainly see myself releasing a few titles accordingly in the nonfiction area.  But since delving into novels, short and long, I’ve definitely found my home and my voice.  For the first time I feel the restraints have been taken off of my imagination.  I suppose all mediums have their limits, so I may end up doing a mix of things, but I suspect I will continue to spend most of my time with novels.  Series add an additional dimension, allowing for even more depth and development both in the character and world building departments.  But I remain at heart a divergent thinker, so, no surprise, I seem to have more series going than follow up installments at this point.  That too may change over time; we’ll see.  Until then, it may be best to just think of these books as one-offs if you’re fond of my writing style and some of the themes I work with.

My current catalog of twelve books represents a little over five years' worth of work.  I'm currently averaging a couple books annually.  Of my existing franchises with multiple installments, The Hundred Year Clone books can be read in any order, while the 5 books of Renaissance 2.0 must be read in sequence as they form part of a singular story arc (much as with A Game of Thrones.)

I live in the country where I breed bluebirds, which are endangered in these parts, as my small contribution to restoring nature's balance.  When I'm not writing, or researching my next book, I may also be found socializing with friends, or working in my organic garden.

 

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Buy Link:

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Love-Run-Dean-C-Moore-ebook/dp/B00JCH0NZE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1410722263&sr=8-1&keywords=dean+c.+moore

Giveaway 

Dean will be awarding a $20 Amazon GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour

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