Decoherence
By
Liana Brooks
Single
or Series: 3rd
and last book in the Time & Shadows trilogy
Length
of Book: 400
pages/ 87,000 words
Genre: Science
Fiction
Author
Bio:
Liana Brooks writes science fiction and sci-fi romance for people who like fast ships, big guns, witty one-liners, and happy endings. She lives in Alaska with her husband, four kids, and giant mastiff puppy. When she isn’t writing she enjoys hiking the Chugach Range, climbing glaciers, and watching whales.
*****
Blurb:
Readers of Blake Crouch's DARK MATTER and Wesely Chu's TIME SALVAGER will love Liana Brooks' DECOHERENCE--the thrilling, time-bending conclusion to the Time & Shadow series!
Readers of Blake Crouch's DARK MATTER and Wesely Chu's TIME SALVAGER will love Liana Brooks' DECOHERENCE--the thrilling, time-bending conclusion to the Time & Shadow series!
Samantha Rose and Linsey
MacKenzie have established an idyllic life of married bliss in Australia, away
from the Commonwealth Bureau of Investigation, away from mysterious corpses,
and—most of all—away from Dr. Emir’s multiverse machine.
But Sam is a detective at heart,
and even on the other side of the world, she can’t help wonder if a series of
unsolved killings she reads about are related—not just to each other, but to
the only unsolved case of her short career.
She knows Jane Doe’s true name,
but Sam never discovered who killed the woman found in an empty Alabama field
in spring of 2069. She doesn’t even know which version of herself she buried
under a plain headstone.
When Mac
suddenly disappears, Sam realizes she is going to once more be caught up in a
silent war she still doesn’t fully understand. Every step she takes to save Mac
puts the world she knows at risk, and moves her one step closer to becoming the
girl in the grave.
*****
Excerpt:
“Decoherence (n): a
period of time when all iterations collapse and there is only one possible
reality.”
~ Excerpt from Definitions of Time by Emmanuela Pine,
I1
Day
247
Year
5 of Progress
Capitol
Spire
Main
Continent
Iteration
17—Fan 1
… three. Rose stood and peered through the frosted, warped glass of
the conference room as the speaker turned away. It didn’t matter which
iteration she was in, Emir was predictable. She had seven seconds to do a head
count. She didn’t need that long.
A
quick head count was all it took to confirm that the einselected nodes she’d
been sent to assassinate were where they belonged.
Every
iteration had nodes, people or events that kept that variation of human history
from collapsing. Dr. Emir had created a machine that allowed people not only to
move along their own timeline, but at critical convergence points, it allowed
them to cross between realities. But the Mechanism for Iteration Alignment’s
greatest ability was the one that allowed Dr. Emir and Central Command to steer
history by erasing futures they didn’t want.
Rose
knelt beside the door, did one final sweep for alarms, and nodded for her team
to move in. It was her job to cross at convergence points, kill the nodes, and
collapse the futures that no one wanted.
One
look at the version of herself watching this iteration’s Emir with rapt
fascination was enough to make Rose want to snip this future in the bud.
Chubby was the first thing
that came to mind. Rose’s doppelganger was enjoying being at the top of the
social pyramid and probably gorging on whatever passed as a delicacy here. The
squared bangs with a streak of riotous red only accented the corpulence and
lack of self-control the inferior other had.
Even
with a heavy wood door between them, Rose could hear that this iteration’s Emir
was hypothesizing things the MIA was never meant to do. Everyone with half a
brain knew that decoherence didn’t combine iterations, it crushed them. Only
the true timeline, the Prime, would survive decoherence. Planning to welcome
and integrate doppelgangers into the society was pure idiocy.
The
techs sealing the door shut gave her the high sign.
Rose
nodded to her hacker.
“Cameras
locked. Security is deaf and blind, ma’am”Logan’s voice was a soft whisper in
her earpiece. He was a genius with computer systems, a fact that had saved him
when they collapsed I-38 three years ago. “We have a fifteen-minute window.”
Is there a message in your novel that you want
readers to grasp?
The message throughout the
Time & Shadows series is that CHOICES MATTER. Every choice has a
consequence. Even the small choices matter. That’s the running theme, and I
hope it’s something readers can use in their lives.
Was there an Author who inspired you to write?
Joss Whedon, actually. I
grew up watching Buffy and the first few novels I wrote really cued off his
style of Found Family themes. When I was working towards publication I found
myself reading and rereading his interviews about writing. He was writing for
screen, not print, but his advice really resonated. Especially the bits about
embracing your weirdness. Quirks are what make authors unique, and we need to
keep our weirdness to write great things.
How did you come up with the characters in your
books?
The characters in DECOHERENCE
are all from the previous Time & Shadows books. I don’t think I added to
many new names. This is the third book in the trilogy and there’s a real sense
of coming home and things falling into place in DECOHERENCE. All the chickens
have come home to roost.
What are your current projects?
Novellas… I usually aim to
publish one novella and one novel a year and I got off track. The Time &
Shadows trilogy was acquired in a 3-book deal and published very fast, by big
press standards, so I have these novellas I’ve been meaning to polish and
publish just languishing in the wings. Now that the trilogy is done, they’re
going to get some attention. I know my Even Villains fans are excited, and I’ve
been teasing a new SFR for a couple months now.
I also have plans for more
novels but that side of my career is in that hush-hush
pitch-to-the-agent-and-pray-the-editors-like-it stage, so there’s not much I
can say about it yet. Look for a 2017 announcement.
Do you see writing as a career?
I do. Writing is my main focus
right now. This is where my energy and time goes. The bulk of my income comes
from book sales. I have contracts. I’m not yet a household name, but I do feel
like this is a career and I’m here for the long haul.
Do you ever picture yourself and one of your
heroines? If so, which one?
Sam would be the obvious
choice since she’s the hero of the Time & Shadows series, but I think I
feel closer to Ivy Clemens. Ivy is a clone in a world where clones are hated.
She’s had a rough life, no real childhood. Ivy works hard and rarely gets
credit for it, but she’s a good person with a wry sense of humor.
Ivy is me at 18: headstrong,
sure of herself, and so painfully naïve at times but willing to work for
everything she wants. I love her.
Do you have a favorite heroine/hero from one of
your books? If so, who?
Mac is my not-so-secret
favorite in the trilogy. He’s a combination of some good friends and my
husband. It’s easy to get into Mac’s head because, when his back is against the
wall, he only has one True North. His goal is always going to be protecting
Sam, and getting back to Sam. He doesn’t have any doubts. Sam is his
everything.
What kind of research do you do for your books?
For the Time & Shadows
series I read up on quantum physics and time travel. I promise, I keep the
technobabble to a minimum. But I wanted the series to be grounded in the
theoretical and not the impossible. Who knows, maybe one day I’ll get a time
traveler to review my book. J
What is the hardest part of writing your book?
The hardest part of
DECOHERENCE was finding an ending that was emotionally and logically
satisfying. This is hard to talk about without giving away the ending, so bear
with me. The end of a trilogy needs to fulfill several requirements; it needs
to wrap up the story so long time readers feel the ending was good, and it
needs to be a book that new readers can pick up alone and still enjoy the
ending.
I rewrote DECOHERENCE three
or four times and bounced several ideas off my editor before finally settling
on the ending I picked. There were other options, but I think this ending if
the one that gives us the most emotional closure.
If you could say
anything to your readers what would it be?
THANK YOU!!!! No one gets to have a career as a writer
without readers. To keep publishing, and to keep having publishers publish my
books, I need readers. They are the magic ingredient to publishing and I love
them! *blows kisses*
What is your favorite
Genre and why?
Science fiction has always been very important to me. I’m an
optimist and I think anything that shows humanity with a bright future is to be
encouraged. I love the diversity available in SF. I love how much freedom there
is when I write SF. I love fast ships and big explosions. It’s a wonderful,
huge, monstrous genre that everyone should embrace.
Do you prefer to
write alone or do you like to collaborate with other authors?
I’ve never had the opportunity to co-author anything so I’m
not sure I can give a fair answer here. So far, I love writing alone inasmuch
as any book is ever written alone. DECOHERENCE has the input of beta readers,
my agent (Marlene Stringer), my editor, a line editor, and even suggestions
from other author friends who I went to with plot problems. I did all the
typing, but there was definitely some group think going into the creation of
DECOHERENCE.
Do you ever get
writer’s block? If so, how do you get through it?
Yes! I run into writer’s block frequently when I’m on a
deadline because I’m pushing, and pushing, and pushing to meet that deadline,
and all that pushing is draining. When I hit the point where I can’t write any
more, I walk away from the computer and refill my creative well. Sometimes I
paint, or go to a museum, or go hiking, or just do some yoga, but the goal is
to completely break from the writing process and not consciously think about
it.
It usually takes a few days of completely ignoring the book
before I’m able to come back, see what the problem is, and get back to writing.
And that’s part of the process.
When you are reading
a book, who is your favorite author?
I have so many favorites! Right now I’m reading DARK MATTER
by Blake Crouch (amazing opening scene). Pratchett’s Discworld is my comfort
read. I enjoy Nalini Singh’s PsyChangeling world and anything by Ilona Andrews.
I have BREATH OF EARTH by Beth Cato on my nightstand waiting for me to wrap up
the DECOHERENCE tour, and this fall I’m looking forward to reading NEMESIS by
Anna Banks.
Do you come up with
the cover or does someone else do it?
DECOHERENCE was published by HarperVoygaer, which is a
HarperCollins imprint. I was filled out a form and sent them a rough idea of
what I wanted, and then their artist created six different covers to choose
from.
With THE DAY BEFORE there was only one cover. With
CONVERGENCE POINT we tossed around three ideas. So having six to choose from
for DECOHERENCE was wonderful, but also very hard. There were several very nice
covers that my editor and I both liked, but ultimately decided against because
they either looked too much like someone else’s cover, or because they didn’t
look good next to the rest of the covers in the series.
If DECOHERENCE had been a standalone, the cover would have
been different.
If you could change
anything in your writing what would that be?
Honestly? I think I would have waited to query THE DAY
BEFORE. That first novel I sent out… looking back I see all my newbie flaws. At
the time I thought the book was perfect, now I see things I want to tweak. So,
if I knew everything that was going to happen going forward, I think I would
have waited just a little bit longer and given THE DAY BEFORE a little more
attention before I queried it.
What book if any
would you want to be made into a movie?
DECOHERENCE would make an awesome movie! But I’d really love
to see EVEN VILLAINS FALL IN LOVE or EVEN VILLAINS GO TO THE MOVIES as a movie.
We have so many superhero movies, my villains would fit right in.
Who would you want to
play the hero/heroine?
I could see Melissa Fumero from Brooklyn Nine Nine playing
Sam. Bonnie Wright (Ginny) for Ivy maybe? And then, I don’t know who I would
cast as Mac. Maybe your readers can suggest someone to play the ME who was once
a former US Army Ranger? Brown hair, hazel eyes, a little over six foot? Got
any suggestions?
Everyone uses
computers, tablets, phones and no one uses handwritten form or typewriters,
what do you prefer to use?
Waterproof keyboards! I snack while I write so waterproof
keyboards are a must! In my office I have a Logitech keyboard, and when I’m out
and about I have a folding Microsoft Bluetooth keyboard. They both click and clack. They both are
washable. Some of the letters are missing on the keyboard in my office, but
that’s okay.
Is there a ritual you
do every time before you begin your book?
I pick three antagonists and plan out four plot twists.
That’s it. Once I have those, I can write a book.
What do you do when
you finish your book and turn it in to the editor?
Start working on the next project. I know people who like to
take a mini-vacation or have a party, but I don’t take breaks. I hand the book
to my editor, and the next day I’m working on the next project that’s coming down
the pipeline because there is always a story waiting to be told. And I’m
happiest when I’m writing.
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