Guest Post by Kassy Tayler + Giveaway: Signed Copy of Ashes of Twilight

Today I have Cindy Holby aka Kassy Tayler for a guest post. Read on and I find out why she wrote a dystopian story! Stick around for a giveaway later.

Why Dystopian?  I didn’t set out to write a dystopian novel.  I just knew I had a story to tell.  A lot of it had to do with my family history. You see I come from a long line of coal miners.  My roots are in West Virginia and both my grandfather’s worked in the mines.  I remember my mother’s father telling me about my Uncle.  He came home from the service and tried to find a job.  My grandfather said they went everywhere within an hour driving distance, trying to find him a job.  There was none to be had except in the mines.  My Uncle knew, in his heart, that if he went into the mines he would die.  Still he had a wife and child to support and another baby on the way so he took the job.  And he was killed in a mining accident just a few months later. 

For my Uncle, the coal mine was a world without hope.  A bleak future.  Dystopia.  My grandfather’s story about him always stuck with me and I wanted to convey his desperation and thus the world of the dome, and Wren MacAvoy came to life.

The fact is we live in a wonderful world. But a lot of us wonder if it came down to live or die, would we be able to survive?  Are we strong enough to make it?  Would we make the right decisions to keep on living?  Escaping to a dystopian world gives us a chance to imagine what we would do were we in the same situation.  It gives us a chance to save the world.  

About the Author:

Cindy Holby first became published in 2002 with her historical western Chase The Wind.  Since that time she has written eleven historicals, three sci/fi romances, one time travel,  four young adult novels and two short stories. Some have even won awards.  Her latest release is Angels End, from Berkley, the first book in a new historical western series.  This November, Ashes Of Twilight, the first book in her highly anticipated steampunk dystopian series will be released from SMP under the pen name Kassy Tayler.  Cindy lives in NC with her husband Rob, her doxie Cody and two cats, Cisco and Dax.  She also works with the humane society and has a blog about rescue titled Authors For Animals. 

Follow Cindy: Website1 | Website2 | Twitter

Giveaway: Signed Copy of Ashes of Twilight

Wren MacAvoy works as a coal miner for a domed city that was constructed in the mid-nineteenth century to protect the royal blood line of England when astronomers spotted a comet on a collision course with Earth. Humanity would be saved by the most groundbreaking technology of the time. But after nearly 200 years of life beneath the dome, society has become complacent and the coal is running out.  Plus there are those who wonder, is there life outside the dome or is the world still consumed by fire? When one of Wren's friends escapes the confines of the dome, he is burned alive and put on display as a warning to those seeking to disrupt the dome’s way of life. But Alex’s final words are haunting. “The sky is blue.”  What happens next is a whirlwind of adventure, romance, conspiracy and the struggle to stay alive in a world where nothing is as it seems. Wren unwittingly becomes a catalyst for a revolution that destroys the dome and the only way to survive might be to embrace what the entire society has feared their entire existence.

Rules:

Follow Fragments of Life

Open to US residents.

Ends on Nov 30, 2012

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