Thursday, February 09, 2012

Guest Post by SJ Kincaid + Giveaway: Insignia ARC!

Hi everyone! Today I have Shelley. You may know her as SJ Kincaid. She’ll be posting today for Dystopian Domination 2, Part 2: Apocalypsies and Debut Authors. Hope you enjoy the post!



Thanks for inviting me to guest post! My debut novel, INSIGNIA, comes out in early July. It's about a teenaged videogamer who becomes a government weapon in a futuristic world at war.

There's a reason I write futuristic YA. In seventh grade, I came across a novel called "Legacy" by Susan Kay. The book followed Elizabeth Tudor, Queen of England, from her birth to her death, and ignited my interest in  Renaissance England. I went onto major in European History, and this interest in the past is one of the reasons I gravitate to stories set in the future.

This isn't as contradictory as it might sound.

A clichéd but accurate saying about history is this: "Those who don't know the past are doomed to repeat it." Human history is replete with situations where individuals and civilizations make the same mistakes over and over again.

Why don't we learn? One reason might be that people really haven't changed. We modern humans have the same cognitive capacity nowadays as those villagers who burned witches at the stake hundreds of years ago, and the crazy emperors of Ancient Rome. Physiologically, our brains are a constant.

But technology is not.

Futuristic – or as people call it – ‘Dystopian YA’, is exciting to me as a writer because it liberates me to use so many incredible tools. On one hand, I can draw from history, and mirror those situations that have happened to people already, but on the other hand, I can consider possibilities where those situations might resolve in a fundamentally different manner than they do in our current world, simply due to new aspects I can introduce in the story. Technology changes everything.

Futuristic stories enable new manifestations of old situations. We all know of survivor’s guilt, but what of its new form in Suzanne Collins’ THE HUNGER GAMES, when Katniss faces off with a bloodthirsty hound with her late friend’s eyes? That’s a new way of presenting something classic, something old.

People are fascinating. Futuristic YA, Dystopian YA, YA sci-fi… Whatever you’d call it, it enables a new means of exploring just how fascinating people are. That’s why I love writing it, and that’s why I love reading it.

Giveaway: ARC of Insignia by SJ Kincaid


"More than anything, Tom Raines wants to be important, though his shadowy life is anything but that. For years, Tom’s drifted from casino to casino with his unlucky gambler of a dad, gaming for their survival. Keeping a roof over their heads depends on a careful combination of skill, luck, con artistry, and staying invisible.

Then one day, Tom stops being invisible. Someone’s been watching his virtual-reality prowess, and he’s offered the incredible—a place at the Pentagonal Spire, an elite military academy. There, Tom’s instincts for combat will be put to the test, and if he passes, he’ll become a member of the Intrasolar Forces, helping to lead his country to victory in World War Three. Finally, he’ll be someone important: a superhuman war machine with the tech skills that every virtual-reality warrior dreams of. Life at the Spire holds everything that Tom’s always wanted—friends, the possibility of a girlfriend, and a life where his every action matters—but what will it cost him?

Gripping and provocative, S. J. Kincaid’s futuristic thrill ride of a debut crackles with memorable characters, tremendous wit, and a vision of the future that asks startling, timely questions about the melding of humanity and technology."




a Rafflecopter giveaway



S.J. Kincaid was born in Alabama, grew up in California, and attended high school in New Hampshire, but it was while living beside a haunted graveyard in Scotland, that she realized that she wanted to be a writer. Her debut, Insignia, comes out in July of 2012!

Connect with Shelley: Twitter | Goodreads | Site



26 comments:

  1. I'm not sure why I love dystopians so much... I think because they make me so very thankful for the world we live in, they make me think a lot and hope that things never get that bad on the planet we're using.

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  2. Thanks for hosting! I love YA, a little bit of all YA. Why? Because I am a reading lover and it makes me smile to see (and read) all the great options for books that are out there now for young adults! With so many amazing authors and types of YA stories, every kid will be able to find that one book that could make them a reader.

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  3. just ignore my entry :) didn't realise it's US only until I've scrolled down :)) too early in the morning!

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  4. I love reading the dystopian/sci-fi YA because of the escapism it offers. I enjoy the adult versions of the genre, too, but YA is usually more fast-paced.

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  5. Dystopian YA seems to keep me interested ..like to see how the characters take on the new world.

    Thanks for the chance to win this book.

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  6. I love futuristic and dystopian novels in general because they are so imaginative and thought provoking. Real life can be pretty dull.

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  7. I love futuristic YA because I love all gadgets in sci-fi! but I like how even in an awesome world the human condition doesn't change. People still struggle to live a good life.


    Ning @ Reading by Kindle Fire

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  8. I want new ideas! The best thing about this genre for me is all the different concepts.

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  9. I seriously love military sci-fi adventure - actually I just re-read Elizabeth Moon's Vatta series. LOVE.

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  10. I love that even though it's futuristic, there's an air of realism.

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  11. I love them because they take you into a new world which I have most of the time never imagined!

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  12. I have always loved watching sci-fi tv shows and movies (Star Wars and such). I guess it only makes sense that I love sci-fi books, too. I think I like all the new places/worlds that can be discovered.

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  13. I love that blending of the familiar with the possibilities of the future. Can't wait to read this book.

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  14. I love reading 'futuristic YA, dystopian YA, YA sci-fi', etc. since the stories are so different from one another. With these types of books, you're less likely to read novels that seem to repeat themselves and always revolve around the same theme. They tend to be more original and the author spend so much more time in creating their worlds.

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  15. I love reading dystopian because is they always bring something new, new plots, new rules, new lives and a different society, authors create a new world out of nothing! That imagination is priceless! :)

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  16. I'm more to sci-fic because it is fictional and exciting, it usually has basis in science, making it more real.

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  18. I love Science Fiction book because first, the subject of Science is always my favorite. If you would ask me, it the subject I'm good at school. Not only that, Science Fiction have this different excitement for me.

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  19. I love to read them because they make me think about what I would do if I lived in a world like that!

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  20. You can delete my entries! For some reason I thought it was international.

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  21. Thanks again for the invite to guest post, Precious, and thanks for the responses, everyone! Looking forward to seeing who wins!
    -SJ

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  22. I agree with Von @ Mr. Book Wonder1 Science has always looked super cool and was the only subject I was good at. The sterile enviroment and the white walls always looked furturistic and made me feel refreshed. Sci-fi was my first favourite genre and I don't think I'll ever stop loving it.

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  23. i love to read all about how things could be in the future and all the things that could go wrong. these books always keep me interested because there's always something new and usually not good happening and i have to know why things have become the way they have in the world. thanks for the giveaway : )

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  24. I love YA and I love sci fi so combining the two just makes it a perfect read!! I think The HUnger Games were the books that really sold me on dystopians.

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  25. I agree with Lexie; The Hunger Games is definitely what got me started on dystopian. But I've read so many that at this point, I really need a dystopian that doesn't have the same plot as everything else: the government you're supposed to believe in is actually screwing you over. I've seen that way too often.

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  26. Thanks for the great giveaway!!! and I do love Dystopian books. I've never read hunger games but the book that got me into the Dystopian theme was Delirium.

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