I was hoping to coin "Violin Porn," but Reader's Digest writer, Michael Crowley, used it in an article: http://www.rd.com/content/thats-outrageous----internet-violence-trends/ Well, my book is a prime example of "violence porn." Lots of regular, good, high intensity violence. "A Gang of Daggers" Synopsis: A group of high school students discover a magical portal to another world. On earth, these kids are the nerds, dorks, and social outcasts in the clique community. On this other world, they are considered men and can drink, chase women, and kill and get away with it. They decide to form a mercenary group and sell their services on this other world, all while still going to high school and using magic to make their parents oblivious to their injuries and weeks-long disappearances. The boys and girls train in a dojo on earth, and on the other world become an elite fighting force, earning wealth, land, and titles. A big draw for my story is that I write the battles from a first person perspective, choreographing the moves as they fight in one-on-one sparring matches to army-on-army battles and sieges. Unlike other fantasy tales, I focus on the violence and the effect it has on the group. The environment is like Medieval Europe, or better yet, Pre-Roman Europe, a primitive land with petty chieftains barely in control of things. If "Harry Potter" does not interest you, but Braveheart does, "Last of the Mohicans" does, Apocalyptico interests you, the last part of the Lord of the Rings films with the battles, soldiers, armies clashing, war, then you'll like my stuff. If you liked Gladiator and Sparticus, you'll like my stuff. My stuff is not the crazy, over the top, hero like Conan, though. Harry Potter meets The Sopranos, with a bit of NBC's "Friday Night Lights." http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sky-writing/ I'm hoping to generate interest in my book, and a literary agent will pick it up. (So far, I've approached about thirty agencies, and figure I have another forty to go before I can expect a positive response.) I much prefer "Band of Brothers" to all other work. Give me the people, the characters, what is important to them. A lot of fantasy expects to cram an encyclopedia worth of knowledge in the very beginning to a reader. I wanted to let the reader experience the world as the character does, give them information they can handle and get into things. None of this "Fairy king" or "Ogre Godmother." People who like to re-read work, there is a deeper story there, too. I wanted to create a realistic story, drawing on my five years in the U.S. Army. I wanted to give people an experience of people being forged into living weapons. I'm also into "gangs." Gang like behavior, what tv shows like "The Shield" and "The Wire" show us of the gang like behavior. Different movies, too. I listen to Tupac Shakur, DMX, and NWA and it gives me an idea of what is going on. The other reason why my work is "violence porn," I detail out how a guy goes into a fight and show you, step-by-step, how a fight happens, how a person is injured, killed. I want people to read my work. Audiences of 13 and up. People who like war stories. People who hate it when an author glosses over the fight scenes. I'm looking forward to the upcoming film "War" with Jet Li and Jason Stratham. I haven't seen Transformers yet, but so want to. I loved 300 and that makes me think this story as a tv show could work.
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