Author & Book Information
ravenswoodpublishing@gmail.com
TITLE OF BOOK: Nikolas Thime: The End Of My World
CLASSIFICATION: Fiction
AUTHOR’S REAL NAME: Rick Harrison
AUTHOR’S PSEUDONYM IF USED: Rix Roundtree
EMAIL (for RAVENSWOOD website―This should be a valid email address you don't mind having listed publicly on our website and others.): rusTdollarix@aol.com
GENRE: Mystery, Suspense, LGBT, Science Fiction, Action-Adventure, Courtroom drama
DEDICATION: Dedicated to Mr. Bob Madison of Dinoship Publishing who taught me that pages chocked full of non-stop action cannot hide a non-existent plot, one dimensional characters and a lack of character development.
BLURB FOR BOOK (No more than 150 words―to be used wherever we list your book―This is a brief synopsis of the story, like you find on the back cover of books.):
Nikolas Thime: The End Of My World, is many genres including thriller and science fiction, but at its core it is a simple murder mystery. It’s the story of the murder of the Native American presidential candidate Henry “Hank” Ironhorse and Linda Wetzel, cosmetics company owner and President of the Daughters of the American Revolution, who is accused of his murder. Linda Wetzel’s arrest leads her to Nikolas Thime, the best criminal defense attorney in Washington DC. Proving his client Linda Wetzel innocent of the Hank Ironhorse murder becomes a very difficult task for Nick as his client harbors dark secrets. Nick Thime must navigate his client’s sea of secrets to expose the true killer of Hank Ironhorse, for if he doesn’t, not only will Linda Wetzel’s world come to an end, but quite possibly his own, as his past present and future could be obliterated from the timeline.
KEYWORDS THAT YOU THINK ARE APPROPRIATE FOR YOUR BOOK:
Mystery, Suspense, LGBT, Science Fiction, Action, Adventure, Courtroom drama, Murder, Whodunit, Thriller, Native American, Gambling, Casino, Organized Crime, Motion Pictures, Addiction
AUTHOR BIO (please also attach a picture of yourself as a .jpg to the email for the pages we'll set up for you on the web):
A former member of the United States Coast Guard and a graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University Rix Roundtree has lived in Virginia, North Carolina, Washington DC, New York City, Miami and San Francisco. A lover of the arts, ancestry and history Rix has worked as a Washington DC tour guide and a tour guide for the Historic Berkeley Plantation located in Charles City County Virginia. Rix worked for the prestigious history, patriotism, and preservation organization the Daughters of the American Revolution as a member of the DAR Museum staff. Rix was a member of the film crew for the 2011 blockbuster film Transformers 3: Dark Of The Moon. In 2003 Rix began writing music reviews and a blog called “Life Is Music” for the entertainment website The Electrogarden Network. He became a published author in 2013 with the released of his non-fiction self-help book titled “The Older You Get, The Dumber You Get: Stories for my Daughters.”
ONE LINER FOR PRESS RELEASES (No more than 25 words. An even BRIEFER story synopsis.):
Nikolas Thime: The End Of My World. An engaging, exciting, suspenseful, humorous, intricate, character driven, stimulating, sci-fi, mystery, thriller, whodunit, courtroom drama, time travel adventure.
REVIEWS/QUOTES (Include Reviewer’s name and Website―This should be for the work you are currently submitting ONLY. If you have no reviews for this work, that's all right.):
N/A
ATTACH 2 GUEST POSTS (These are posts you write about your writing process, how you came up with the idea for your book and your characters. they should each be anywhere from 500 to 1000 words in length. These will be used by the bloggers who will help us promote your book. This is mandatory):
How Rix Roundtree Came Up With The Ideas For His Book And Its Characters:
I love classic films from 1930 through 1966 and I look to them for inspiration. They can be westerns (Garden Of Evil), film noir (D.O.A.), dramas (The Damned Don’t Cry), or sci-fi (The Thing From Another World). It is these sci-fi films from which I get my greatest inspiration, specifically sci-fi B-movies from the 1950s. There are two specific 50’s sci-fi films that motivate me and they are the classics When Worlds Collide and The Earth vs. the Flying Saucers. I do not watch these two films in their entirety, I only watch the narrated introductions. The narrated intro of When Worlds Collide is, “Through telescopes men of science constantly search the infinitesimal corners of our solar system seeking new discoveries, hoping to better understand the laws of the universe.” The intro of The Earth vs. the Flying Saucers goes, “Since biblical times mankind has witnessed and recorded strange manifestations in the sky and speculated on the possibility of, visitors from another world.” For whatever reason, these two pieces of narration start my creative juices flowing.
Now, with my creative juices flowing, I’m ready to begin a new book. I decided I wanted to write an apocalyptic end of the world combination murder mystery story. I started research on the topic of apocalyptic world ending and after some research I came upon the Hopi Indian's ancient end of the world prophecy known as the Kachina. I decided to utilize the Kachina for my story and printed out information on this mysterious Native American event.
After my research is completed I need to get out of the house and away from the Internet (from which I collected my Kachina data). To begin, I go to the park (even during the winter months) with a 10 ½” x 8” notebook in which I will write down my ideas and thoughts and my printed out Kachina information. If by chance I don’t have the notebook with me when I get an idea (which is quite often) I write my ideas down on anything I can find. That would be paper napkins, slips of paper, the backs of cash register receipts, etc. Then later I place these pieces of paper inside the notebook.
Character diversity is of paramount importance to me as I want to write a book that everyone who enjoys reading will want to read. By everyone I mean, all races, sexes, ages and sexual orientations. I want the book to appeal to average everyday folks of all educational levels, be they avid or casual readers, blue collar, white collar, entry level workers and even people making minimum wage jobs. I want everyone to feel represented in my book, thus they will feel a connection with the book’s characters. I want my book to have mass appeal and in order to achieve mass appeal the book’s characters must be as diverse as the audience of readers that I want to reach.
Now it is time for me to decide on a (working) title for the book. Originally it was the very simple and straight forward "The End Of The World."
With notebook in hand I now have to decide what type of end of the world story I want to write. Do I want the story to be built on the foundation of an industry, an institution, an organization or a family?
Now as this is also going to be a murder mystery I begin to I think about what type of person I want the alleged murderer to be? What is his or her socio-economic background (rich, poor, middle class, etc)? What will be their race, sex, and age? I have the same questions of the murder victim. Next I have to determine if the alleged murderer has family friends or professional associates.
I must define the personality types of the murderer, murder victim and their friends, family associates. To do this I must determine what kind of child was the alleged murderer, murder victim and their friends, family associates, and how did they evolve into their current personality types. Now I must decide if the murderer, murder victim and their family associates are in business together or are they a family. In either case the next step is to determine how they function as a unit; are they close knit, emotionally distant or dysfunctional.
Next up; how is the murder committed? What will be weapon used to commit the murder? Where will the murder take place?
How does the alleged murderer find Nikolas Thime, the man who will be their attorney and the book’s protagonist? How is the book’s protagonist, Nikolas Thime, introduced into the murder mystery?
I then want to know where everyone resides (geographically), that means, in what locales will the story take place? I love the United States and decide that all locales will be within my country so this book will have no foreign/overseas settings.
I’d already decided I wanted to bring the world to an end, now I must decide how. At this juncture I must look into the various scientific disciplines that could potentially end a world. I am by no means a science whiz and I am not well versed in any of the various sciences, so, again I must do more research. My research leads me to the science of physics and specifically electromagnetic radiation of the cosmic variety. The study of this science will be my biggest challenge because being that I’m no Stephen Hawking, Neil DeGrasse Tyson or even Bill Nye “the science guy” I must take detailed notes and intensely study them over and over again in order to attain a basic understanding of the science in order to apply it to my story in a (somewhat) believable and logical manner. This is important because if I understand the science I will come across as credible and knowledgeable about the subject matter sciences to the readers of my book. Also, while I’m researching I must also research the organization, institution or industry (associated with the murderer/murder victim) I have chosen as well as my chosen locales.
Rix Roundtree’s Writing Process:
When I’ve fleshed out my ideas in my notebook and have done all of the required research and have a starting point (which is not necessarily the beginning of the story), I begin writing. Now the book has its official title, "Nikolas Thime: The End Of My World."
I wake in the morning between 4 am and 5 am to begin my writing day at my desktop computer. At 10 am I’m at the public library with my laptop, simply because I want to get away from the house and all the distractions that can occur there during the day. I work at the library for about 3 hours. I’m back home by 2 pm and I’m finished writing for the day as I'm mentally exhausted and my mind can’t handle anymore writing. I do not write after 2 pm because I’ve learned that anything I write after that time is rubbish and I end up discarding it the following morning.
As I write I want to keep the story moving fast, yet I want detailed character development and clear written imagery of locations, settings and the character's appearances ages and attire.
I write in segments (not necessarily in order). After each of the segments are completed I then arrange them in the order in with they need to be placed for clear concise storytelling. I then break the segments into paragraphs. I stitch the paragraphs together with connecting sentences at the beginning and end of each of them. Then I separate these paragraphs into chapters.
There are several personal favorite “must haves” that will be included in the book; one of them is stories within stories (which is my specialty). Other must haves are the use of descriptive newspaper headlines from print, television and electronic (Internet news sites) media to help tell a particular story. I must have pop music lyrics to help with storytelling. For example, I use pop songs that mention in their lyrics "The end of the world." Another must have is a battle between the US Armed forces and the sci-fi end of the world element. The final must have is descriptive images of scenes from classic films. So I must chose classic films with themes that can assist in the storytelling.
After the actual writing (on my desktop and laptop computers) has begun I go back to the notebook to review my ideas. I draw a line through the ideas that have actually been included in the story. This tells me that I have used it (so as to not use it in a future book…I don’t want to be repetitive).
I return to the park with a printed out hard copy of the manuscript to go over it (with a red pen) and work out problems or corners I’ve written myself into. I also check for plot holes and do editing. I return to my desktop PC with the edited/revised hard copy of the manuscript and make the needed changes and edits. I go through this process at least 6 times before I deem the manuscript completed and acceptable.
The end result is an exciting engaging story that combines the action-adventure of Ian Fleming's James Bond 007, with the intrusive busy-body murder mystery detective work of Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple, plus the courtroom antics and classic literary visual style of Erle Stanley Gardner’s Perry Mason, and the descriptive investigative techniques of Patricia Moyes’ Inspector Henry Tibbett all mixed with a dash of the X-Files to create a captivating suspenseful and twisted 21st century end of the world murder mystery that must be unraveled by the book’s protagonist the famed Washington DC gay attorney, Nikolas Thime.
ATTACH A CHARACTER INTERVIEW (This is for works of fiction only. This is an interview that you would do with a favorite character. You'd play the part of the interviewer and interview the character by asking fun questions. These will be used by the bloggers who will help us promote your book. This is optional.)
N/A
BLOGGER EXTRAS (Anything you feel bloggers might like to post. This can be illustrations, graphics, a list of music you listen to while you are writing, or anything at all. This is optional.)
I like to put on my headphones and listen to music while I write and I listen to everything, pop, country, soul, rap, r&b, heavy metal, punk, disco/dance, jazz, classical, rock ‘n roll, vocalist, electronic, ska/reggae but my absolute favorite is Italo. This means that as I write I’m listening to (just to name a few) Modern Talking, Dick Haymes, Betty Everett, Lady Gaga, the Five Satins, Ganymede, Louis Prima, the Smiths, Gloria Gaynor, Def Leppard, the Flirts, Hank Williams, Ultravox, the Ink Spots, Technotronic and Wagner
YOUR WEBSITE: http://www.rusTdollarix.wix.com/rixroundtreeharrison
YOUR BLOG URL: N/A
TWITTER: http://www.twitter.com/roxxit
FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/RixRoundtreeHarrison
MYSPACE: N/A
OTHER SITES: http://nikofthime.wix.com/nickoftime
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