Danita Minnis

https://goddessfishpromotions.blogspot.com/2024/12/standard-tour-kinetics-by-nathaniel.html

Nathaniel Koszer will be awarding a $10 Amazon/BN gift card to a randomly drawn winner.

 

Author Interview Nathaniel J. Koszer

1. How did you choose your genre? What made you write this book?

Pardon the cliché, but this was absolutely a case of “I didn’t choose the genre or book, they chose me.”  As a child and young adult, the thought of being an author never once crossed my mind. I always enjoyed science fiction as a reader/watcher, and one of my favorites as a teenager was “The Matrix”. In that movie, AI driven robots have enslaved all of humanity and trapped their minds in a virtual simulation of late 20^th century earth while the machines use human body heat and electric synapses to supply the power they need. That last concept, body heat being used as a power source, stuck with me. Year after year I thought that eventually, some writer or director would run with the idea of humans using that power for themselves and create a new and brilliant story with it. Finally, at 28 years old (nine years ago), I got tired of waiting for someone else to explore that idea more and did it myself.

2. Writers write what they know, and must observe the world. Are you a first born, middle or last child and how does this shape your view of the world?

This is a more complicated question for me than it is for many. I have one younger biological sister, so by one definition I am an older sibling. However, I also have two stepsiblings who are about 12 years older than me and have known since I was like six, so I also have reason to say I’m a middle child. I tend to make an active effort to be empathetic and see an argument from both sides, so maybe having been from two worlds of siblinghood has enabled that.

3. Where is your favorite place to write?

My mom’s house in upstate New York, and my family goes there for Thanksgiving every year. One of the bedrooms in that house used to have the desk, bed, and dresser from my bedroom as a kid (it was my mom’s furniture in law school before it was mine). A few years ago I did NaNoWriMo and woke up at like 4am on Thanksgiving to work on my project before the craziness of that day started. I was in that room with my old furniture by sheer coincidence, but it felt so right! It was so quiet, so dark, and so comfortable. I wish I could recreate that scenario more often.

4. How do you feel about killing your darlings, and what do you do with the remains?

This may be the hardest part of writing from an emotional perspective. There have been some lines, characters, and plot points I’ve had to edit out over the years that have really been a struggle.

Ultimately though, my thoughts from question 2 above come into play here. When I kill a darling, it is because an editor or trusted reader has told me it needs to go, and provided a reason why. Even if I don’t like it, I can usually see why they feel that way and see that editing that portion of the story will make the overall book better.

The remains don’t usually get used ever again, but since you’re asking, below is a cut line from my first book, Latency. It was my favorite line in the whole story but was part of a chapter that was cut entirely:

“You mean she like, knows how to make a bomb?” Edgar asked.

“No,” Naren replied. “I mean that for all intents and purposes, she is a bomb.”

5. You are introduced to your favorite author. Who is it, and what is that one burning question you must ask them?

Michael Crichton, who wrote Jurassic Park, was my favorite author growing up. Everyone knows that Jurassic Park became a movie that made breathtaking amounts of money, but a surprising number of his lesser-known work were also turned into films. I would be interested in picking his brain on how he got that book-to-film machine working so consistently in the hopes that something similar could happen for my own novels.

6. Inquiring minds want to know…tell readers something about you that no one knows.

Let me tell you all about the one and only time I technically stole something.

I have had pet fish for a very long time, and decades ago decided that I wanted to get a new betta (bettas are those pretty fish with long fins and fun colors that pet stores keep in individual tiny bowls instead of the big tanks). Most bettas cost about $3. When I went to the pet store there was one gorgeous betta that I really wanted, but it was some very expensive hybrid or exotic kind that was $15.

I had very little disposable income at that point in my life, so I was standing there in the fish aisle wracking my brain on what to do. It was then that I noticed the bar code to scan the fish was on the lid, which could easily be popped off and replaced with another. I took one look around to make sure there were no employees watching or cameras pointed at me. Then with surgical precision, swapped the $15 lid for a $3 one. I then paid for my fish, just like any “law abiding citizen” would.

7. You are stranded on a deserted island with only a back pack for company. What three items are in your survival pack?

A spool of rigid wire so I could make fishing hooks, a big plastic water jug, and an old school mechanical pinball set to play over and over so I don’t get bored or go insane.

8. If you could have one super power in your existence, what would it be?

There has always been a debate in my head whether I would prefer to fly, or teleport. If I absolutely had to choose one, it would be flight because it seems more fun, but man oh man would teleporting be convenient!

9. Favorite snack?

Cheez-Its, and I didn’t even have to think about this answer. I love cheese and I gravitate towards savory snacks over sweets. It must be the original flavor of Cheez-Its though. Every time a new flavor comes out, I try it hoping for the magic of the original to be born again, and every time I am sorely disappointed (no offense to anyone out there who likes the new flavors, you do you!)

10. Indy 500 – Do you know how to get where you’re going or do you drive the speed limit?

Funny enough, my job outside of writing is in the vehicle safety world. So, I am obligated to say I will drive the speed limit under any and all circumstances.

KINETICS

Nathaniel Koszer

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

GENRE:  SciFi

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

BLURB:

After stoking rebellions across the globe, six super-powered LO-ECs dealt a massive blow to the military by disabling their worldwide communication tower. But in doing so, they suffered grave injuries, and Spidre, the world leader, will not let them rest. As he desperately clings to power, there is only one course of action for the LO-ECs: hide and heal, then finally bring the fight to Spidre’s front door.

Breaching Spidre’s force field will require splitting up and launching simultaneous surprise attacks all over the world. And in some of these places, the military is the least of the LO-ECs’ concerns. They’ll also face legions of robots controlled by an eccentric oligarch, guerilla outfits led by their own super-powered LO-ECs, and the ever-present threat of being discovered and bombed into dust by a world leader with nothing left to lose.

If their power is enough to survive all of this, the reward for the LO-ECs is a confrontation with Spidre at his compound, complete with all of the secrets and plans he has amassed for the last twenty years.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Excerpt:

“So how do you feel? And I need you to be honest with me,” Symon asked.

“No pain. Honestly. Not from the jaw, not from my arm and not from the ribs,” Nadine replied.

Symon sighed. “Okay, I believe you. You are cleared for takeoff,” he said with a smirk.

As soon as Symon uttered those words, Nadine took to the air and screamed at the top of her lungs. She started doing laps above Heinz field, circling ever higher and farther outward.  From the second Nadine had learned to fly, every takeoff had been for a purpose: fighting Spidre’s peacekeeper soldiers, saving Edgar so she could confess her love, escaping an ambush, playing her part in bringing down the Net Tower and crippling the military’s communications. Add to that an additional six weeks of being grounded due to injuries from the net tower assault, and it all made this into a moment of complete ecstasy for her. She hoped to follow this celebratory flight with a celebratory fight, but when she looked south, where the peacekeepers had decided to attack today, she could see them in retreat at the hands of Edgar, Naren, and Victor.

As much as she wanted to get involved, she knew that if they had it under control, then strategically speaking she was more useful waiting at Heinz field in case another attack came from somewhere else. Spidre’s army had tried this strategy many times while she was recovering, and on a few occasions they’d almost succeeded. So she descended back to the field, toward a lonely orange glow at the northeast corner. It was Sera. She was awake but lying down on a mattress with a bunch of pillows propping up her back.

“Glad to see you didn’t forget how to fly!” Sera joked as Nadine landed next to her.

Nadine chuckled. “I spent 26 years trying to get off the ground. You are all lucky I ever came back down.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

AUTHOR Bio and Links:

Nate grew up in Brooklyn NY, but now calls the Bronx home along with his wife and their sons. Nate grew up on all things sci-fi. Partly due to his chronic illness, Nate always had a special place in his heart for the X-Men, and especially the invulnerable Wolverine. This was heavy inspiration for his first novel, Latency a superhero sci-fi story which released March 5, 2024. His second novel, Kinetics, will release on March 4, 2025.

Website: https://natekoszer.com/

BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/natejklol.bsky.social

Twitter: https://twitter.com/natejklol

 

 

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 a Rafflecopter giveaway