FABRICATED
Nicole Givens Kurtz
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GENRE: SciFi Mystery
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BLURB:
Cybil Lewis, a private inspector in futuristic D.C., now The District, begrudgingly works with the Territory Alliance agents to track down an escaped violator, Nico Mars. Almost immediately, Cybil is tossed into the District's gritty underbelly of political ambition, drugs, and betrayal. This case will take her and Jane deep into the reaches of The District's notorious Sector 12, where life is cheap and currency is king. When her investigation leads back to those responsible for protecting citizens, Cybil discovers she's in danger. She's reminded once again that everything can be fabricated.
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EXCERPT
If it’s one thing I’ve learned in my nearly forty years is this—trust your gut.
If I had, things would’ve gone much more smoothly.
Who am I?
I’m Cybil Lewis. Private Inspector licensed in The District Territory. July felt like an oven left on high. The sun’s rays rebounded off the pavement, fiberglass, and metal, back into people’s faces. An energy nightmare, certain neighborhoods suffered frequent electrical and computer grid breakdowns, leaving thousands stranded without air conditioning, automatic doors, and other necessities. Bots stopped working. Generators and recyclable batteries helped. Still the more tech-rich you were, the greater the potential for damage.
Venture outside at your own risk. Summer snatched victims into its greedy hands and swallowed them whole. Each year an ever-increasing number of people died because they became trapped in their residences without cool air when the grid responsible for controlling the electric crashed or when the generators melted.
Which was why I was leaning over the air conditioning unit when the doors to my office yawned open. In walked two women, one whom I recognized the moment her sleek, dark blonde hair crossed the threshold. I got up to meet them before they came too far into my lobby. Midwest Territory Alliance Agent Lynn stopped. Despite wearing make-up, pockmarks spoiled her attempt at flawless. Cold blue eyes stared out. She grinned, calculated, and cool.
We had a complicated history due to a shared case not too long ago. She tried to get me shot, killed, and sent to the cradle for violations I didn’t commit. The entire experience left a bad taste in my mouth.
You can imagine my joy at seeing her again.
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Guest Post:
Topic: Did you have a minor character who insisted on playing a larger role in the story. If so, please tell us about it. And if not, please tell me how you get the characters in your head to behave. Fabricated: A Cybil Lewis SF Mystery is a new release in a series of novels, a short story collection and a spin-off trilogy. I’ve been writing Cybil stories since 2003. That’s more than 22 years ago, almost all of my professional 27 years of being an author. Throughout all that time, Cybil has never once behaved. She’s a woman living in the futuristic District of Columbia, now called The District, one of many territories that exist in what was once the United States. It’s science fiction, but the subgenre is cyberpunk noir. By it’s very definition, cyberpunk is “a genre of science fiction set in a lawless subculture of an oppressive society dominated by computer technology.”-Dictionary.com. For this reason, Cybil is hardened on the outside. She follows her own moral compass and direction, which as the author of the series, makes her extremely unpredictable. She’s the protagonist, the main character and she knows it. I’m a pantser, so basically I sit and listen to Cybil tell her story and I record it for her. There are times I have to bribe her to talk to me, to finish the chapter, or to move ahead in the storytelling. It’s literally her story, but sometimes, thinking back, makes her shut down or go quiet. Her wall comes up. To breach that wall, I have to sometimes play music to get her to relax enough to talk to me again. Other times, I use reverse psychology and go visit other characters, like Jane or Daniel. Then she’ll come out and work with me, wanting to set the story straight and to make sure the story I’m reporting is hers. She’s a bit vain like that. Don’t let her know I said that. Please? Cybil and I have known each other a long time. We have an understanding too. She promises to recount her amazing stories, and I promise to write them down to the best of my abilities. As long as she behaves.
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AUTHOR Bio and Links:
Nicole Givens Kurtz has been called “a genre polymath who does crime, horror, and Science Fiction and Fantasy (Book Riot).” They’ve named her as one of the 6 Black SFF Indie Writers You Should be Reading, 30 Must-Read SFF Books by Black Authors, and The Best of the West: 8 Alternative History Westerns (Sisters of the Wild Sage). She’s a two-time Atomacon Palmetto Scribe Award winner. With over 20 years in publishing, She’s written for Pseudopod, Apex, Fiyah, White Wolf, The Realm, Baen, Subsume, and MV Media. Nicole has over 50 published short stories, including her story, “The Way Home,” in Marvel®’s Captain America: The Shield of Sam Wilson anthology from Titan Books. Nicole is the author of the Cybil Lewis and Death Violations cybernoir series as well as the Kingdom of Aves fantasy mystery series.
She has conducted workshops for Writer’s Digest Online, Clarion West online, SAGA, and is the owner of Mocha Memoirs Press. She’s the editor for the groundbreaking SLAY: Stories of the Vampire Noire and co-editor of Blackened Roots: An Anthology of the Undead anthology. Nicole is professional level member of SFWA and HWA. You can find her at www.nicolegivenskurtz.net.
Social Media Platforms
Instagram - @mochamemoirspress
TikTok-@mochamemoirspress
BlueSky-@ nicolegkurtz.bsky.social
Facebook facebook.com/nicolegkurtz
Buy Nicole a coffee at Ko-fi/nicolegkurtz
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GIVEAWAY
Nicole Givens Kurtz will be awarding a $20 Amazon/BN gift card to a randomly drawn winner.
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Thank you for featuring FABRICATED today.
ReplyDeleteThank you for hosting Fabricated today. I appreciate it!
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