The Novel Approach is pleased to bring you the final leg of Kismet’s journey on Rhys Ford’s Ink and Shadows blog tour. Sit back, relax, learn a little bit about Kisment, and be sure to click on the Rafflecopter widget below for the chance to win not only a Pestilence Pony BUT ALSO a $25 Gift Card to the e-tailer of the winner’s choice.
Good luck!
First, thank the blogs for having me on this Ink and Shadows tour! Thank you so so much! Secondly, this next part will be the same across the blogs but I wanted to give a bit of a soundbite about the whys of this book.
In the Beginning, there was urban fantasy. Okay, to be fair, the urban fantasy genre didn’t exist when I began to read. Back then, it was pretty much either sci-fi or high fantasy. There were murmurs of urban fantasy—Mercedes Lackey’s elves / bard series, Gael Baudino’s Gossamer Axe, to name a few—but it caught and began gaining traction, a bastard stepchild of magic and an alternative universe.
Urban fantasy was always a playground for experimentation, and I wanted to go off the rails a bit with Ink and Shadows. There had to be a solid footing in the contemporary world and the underbelly of humanity. Or rather, the expression of humanity. When I wrote this book, it was to explore the possibilities of personalities and, okay, play around with the world.
I chose to write about the Horsemen of the Apocalypse and Kismet, the human who changes their world, because I wanted to delve into their being a necessary part of humanity’s existence. Over the course of the tour, I’ll touch on the main characters and components of the Horsemen’s world.
I hope you all like Ink and Shadows, my foray past the shadows.
Kismet
Kismet is a complicated character to write. He is human, yet touched by a slight madness…or at least he thinks so. Struggling with the shadows moving around him, Kismet fell to heroin to maintain an even keel. Tattooing and art drives him, it helps him focus his mind off of the world pushing in on him. It also serves as a means for him to express the insanity surging around him.
He thinks he’s managing fine.
Until one day, something breaks and the shadows come crashing down on top of him.
And that’s when he meets Mal—Pestilence of the Four Horsemen. Sort of.
Kismet’s world is broken apart, everything he thought wasn’t real turns out to exist and suddenly the crazy—the comfortable crazy he’d been living with—isn’t so insane any more. But the world keeps spinning and someone or something is after him.
I wanted to write a human—a flawed human—being thrust into the Horsemen’s shadowy world. To be shoved beyond the Looking Glass, as it were. To find the struggles of humanity played out on a bigger stage, over eons and manipulated by not-quite-people who are as human and flawed as Kismet.
There is an attraction Kismet feels towards Mal and in some ways, Kismet is a hell of a lot older than Pestilence. He’s fought to survive, fought to find his footing and scraped together a fairly decent living for himself, as far as he’s concerned. To have his existence suddenly expanded is overwhelming but he’s a survivor. He can land on his feet.
But it seems like someone is trying to kick Kismet’s feet out from under him…and the Horsemen are the only ones who can save—or damn—him.
Blurb: Kismet Andreas lives in fear of the shadows.
For the young tattoo artist, the shadows hold more than darkness. He is certain of his insanity because the dark holds creatures and crawling things only he can see—monsters who hunt out the weak to eat their minds and souls, leaving behind only empty husks and despair.
And if there’s one thing Kismet fears more than being hunted—it’s the madness left in its wake.
The shadowy Veil is Mal’s home. As Pestilence, he is the youngest—and most inexperienced—of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, immortal manifestations resurrected to serve—and cull—mankind. Invisible to all but the dead and insane, the Four exist between the Veil and the mortal world, bound to their nearly eternal fate. Feared by other immortals, the Horsemen live in near solitude but Mal longs to know more than Death, War and Famine.
Mal longs to be… more human. To interact with someone other than lunatics or the deceased.
When Kismet rescues Mal from a shadowy attack, Pestilence is suddenly thrust into a vicious war—where mankind is the prize, and the only one who has faith in Mal is the human the other Horsemen believe is destined to die.
BUY LINKS: DSP Publications | Amazon
About the Author: Rhys Ford was born and raised in Hawai’i then wandered off to see the world. After chewing through a pile of books, a lot of odd food, and a stray boyfriend or two, Rhys eventually landed in San Diego, which is a very nice place but seriously needs more rain.
Rhys admits to sharing the house with three cats of varying degrees of black fur and a ginger cairn terrorist. Rhys is also enslaved to the upkeep a 1979 Pontiac Firebird, a Toshiba laptop, and an overworked red coffee maker.
And at the Starbucks down the street. No really, they’re 24/7. And a drive-thru. It’s like heaven.
My books can be purchased, folded and first chapters read at Dreamspinner Press.
THE GIVEAWAY
Tour Dates:
July 2: Love Bytes | July 3: It’s About the Book | July 6: Sinfully Sexy | July 7: RELEASE DAY! WOOOOT | July 8: Prism Book Alliance | July 9: Joyfully Jay | July 10: GGR Review | July 11: The Blogger Girls
The worse of the Four is between Pestilence and War. They both cause chaos in great scales. Also both of my fav characters.
I guess the scariest of the four horsemen is Death, because it will always get to you at the end. I mean, you can manage to avoid the three others all your life, but Death you cannot avoid (although reading Rhys’ descriptions of the Horsemen has made me see them under a completely different light…)
I have to agree Pestilence and War I think are the most feared of the Horsemen they would bring about so much death and unrest it would be a disaster of epic proportions. It really interesting to have a story with a whole new twist on the Horsemen.
My first reaction is Death. It’s scary on a personal level. War, pestilence, and famine affect large numbers so maybe they are scarier after all.
The only Horseman I have a visceral reaction to is War, for some reason. I don’t know why, but I do. And I always, always picture him as Destruction from Neil Gaiman’s Sandman series. I guess it’s a good thing Rhys decided to make him blonde, because he was going to be in my head, anyway, haha.
I think it is death. You can try and handle the others.
Famine, to me. Though probably not for the purposes of this book, cause she sounded awesome. :)
Famine War and Pestilence each have their own scary thing about them but that’s mostly because we have to in most cases live with and suffer through them. I am most fond of Death because in some cases it can be a release from torment or suffering under the right circumstances. The My Little Apocalypse Ponies are much appreciated though.
I think probably War. Death never really scared me for whatever reason.
Death comes for us all so I will go with Famine. Sadly Famine generally leads you straight to Death, they are interwoven.
How can you pick? They are all a source of nightmare & the threat to everything you love. You hope to the deities that none of them come knocking on your door…well Death will show up one day, but you kinda hope he comes gently😉
I think it’s famine. It’s a terrible, slow way to die. Death at least could be fast.
Hmm. As abstract concepts it has to be death – that absolute unknown finality of everything. As anthropomorphic beings I find it hard to be scared of Death since I’ve been reading Discworld for yonks! In Ink and Shadows I loved everyone and I don’t want to spoiler but I wouldn’t necessarily lay the “Scariest Award” at any of the horsemens’ feet. Just sayin’.
bibliophiloscifi(at)gmail(dot)com
I think Pestilence, Famine, and War are the scariest because all can involve great pain and suffering. Death is inevitable so it is not as scary. In fact you may wish for Death to visit if you are struck by the other three.
I would say Famine, as starving is such a slow and miserable way to die. Also, you would be watching all those around you, family, neighbors, friends, going through the same awful things you are.
They’re all have their bad points but I think Death would be it for me. I mean he’s usually depicted with no weapon so you don’t really see it coming.
Famine. It is so slow, and it is usually a result of war and pestilence. You can survive those Horsemen, famine not so much.
War is the scariest to me because he’s able to be completely ruthless – not that he is all the time but it tends to be his default response when under pressure. Ari doesn’t even blink at actions that would cause someone else to flinch or hesitate.
I have to go with famine because the thought of slowly starving people to death, yup terribly scary stuff, that.
Now I need to think about a cute pony!
I really need to read this book!
Cheers, everyone! Thanks to all of you for stopping by to enter Rhys Ford’s blog tour giveaway. The contest has closed and the winner was just selected. A plague-free Pestilence Pony and $25 e-tailer gift card goes to
waxapplelover
Congratulations to you! I’ve just emailed your contact info to Rhys, so expect to hear from her soon. :)