Evolved VBT

Blurb:

Humanity has spread to the far reaches of space with The Golden Door, a planetary colonization monopoly, selling off every desirable and not so desirable planet to desperate settlers.

Each new world comes with new challenges, and to meet that challenge the children are evolving.

When Pieter, and other gifted children like him, become the target of government research they must fight not only for their lives but the future of their kind.

NOTE: The book is on sale for $0.99.

Excerpt:

His gut roiled and something dark and cold escaped from inside him. Words that frightened him to say,

“I could kill you,” he hissed.  What he considered doing was against everything he believed. To kill was to violate the fifth commandment and would damn him for all eternity.

“I don’t doubt you could. But if you do you will never leave this room alive and your entire family will be killed. Is that what you want?”

Pieter paused while their eyes locked. Something feral had been awakened in him. “Nyet.”

“Good. That’s settled. We’ve made arrangements to hold you in a secure place, and in a way that will protect our people. You understand the necessity for this, Pieter?”

“Da.”

“Good. I’m glad we had this chance to talk. Someone will be along soon to move you to your new room.”

Never Underestimate the Power of a Good Villain

So, you dreamed up a great hero. Strong, confident, handsome (or beautiful as the case may be). He's smart to the point of being freakishly brilliant, stronger than Atlas, faster than Hermes and so on an so forth. How are your readers going to know how hot digity awesome the hero is without an equally awesome villain. I learned very early on that a hero is only as good as the bad guy (or girl).

No one is going to admire a hero who fights off a hoard of renegade Girl Scouts pushing knock off cookies. That being said a villain should appear unstoppable up to the climax of your story where your hero finds a way to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. I have employed demigods, tortured souls twisted by circumstance and power mad bureaucrats convinced they are following God’s will to save mankind from a mutant menace. However, it is crucial to remember that evil does not see him or her self as evil. Hitler saw himself as the savior of his people.

Conversely not everyone we consider a hero actually is. Andrew Jackson is widely heralded  as the hero of the battle of New Orleans and a populist President. But it should be noted that he was also the architect of the Trail of Tears and the American Holocaust. His treatment of the Native American population became the blueprint for Hitler's Final Solution.

Good Guy- Bad Guy there are endless shades of gray and it is the writers job to paint them that way. The writer must look for an underlying motivation that drives their desire for revenge, conquest and destruction or for peace and unity. Remember the most important element is to find a balance between the forces at war in your story.

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Don’t forget to visit the other stops on the tour.

Author Bio and Links:

Archer Miller emerged from the East Texas hill country and set his sights on finding the life of which few of his contemporaries dreamed. In 1974, he migrated to Boulder, Colorado to enroll at the Naropa Institute – now known as the Naropa University, a tiny Liberal Arts college founded by the renowned Tibetan Buddhist scholar and lineage holder, the Ven. Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche (1940-1987). Rinpoche was enormously influential in spreading the teachings of Tibetan Buddhism to the West.

Archer earned a degree in herbs and creative writing. He was a four-year Letterman on the Varsity Competitive Meditation Team.

After graduating in 1978, he took a year off to hike the Jack Kerouac literary trail. He became a top freelance gun-for-hire with dozens of ad agencies across the south and southwest. As a way to deal with the proliferation of Disco, he took up Zen Archery.

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