A fellow author with Aponte Literary Agency, Debby Herbert, recently invited me to participate in a Goodreads Interview process with other writers. Not yet on the bookshelves, I was asked to offer a sneak peak at my latest project, a unique dystopian tale where humankind stands on the cliff of extinction.

What is your working title of your book?

Lasty

Where did the idea for the book come from?

The idea germinated from a discussion with blog partners about unique dystopian futures, prompting me to research endogenetic retroviruses and tie it to the human genome.

What genre does your book fall under?

Young Adult, Dystopian Science Fiction

Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?

I rarely think of live actors in my stories.  Part of the joy in reading is taking an author’s narrative and invoking my own imagination in people, places, and things. I tend to apply the same principle to my characterization, choosing to allow my readers formulate their own concept of who the character is.

What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

After a human endogenous retrovirus wipes out 95% of the human population and renders survivors unable to procreate, a teenage boy struggles with the notoriety of his mysterious birth.

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

I am represented by Victoria Lea, Aponte Literary Agency

How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?

About six months. First drafts are easy, it’s the subsequent editing and rewrites that take more time.

What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

Children of Men, The Handmaiden’s Tale, The Postman

Who or what inspired you to write this book?

I was discussing dystopian scenarios with my shared blog group, and I fronted an idea of a unique virus that could wipe out the human race within two years. The concept haunted me for days, prompting a desire to sit down and pen the tale.

What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?

It is a cautionary tale of humanity’s excess that triggers a hidden genetic code and sets the stage for human extinction.

Lasty is the story of seventeen-year-old Ryan Townsend, one of the last children born on Leap Day, February 29, 2052. Raised within the strict confines of his religious mother, Ryan is fed up with the notoriety of his mysterious birth. No one will tell him why the watchful eye of an autocratic government monitors his every move. As a Lasty, Ryan is an outcast in his home town, his only desire, to escape to the solitude of recovering woodlands, away from the world’s eyes.

It all changes when on a winter hike, he stumbles on a wolf pack about to tear a girl to shreds. Life-hardened and on the run from Australia, trouble follows Penny McGuire wherever she goes and Ryan’s feelings for Penny drag him along for the ride. Ryan struggles to overcome years of repressed angst at the hands of his Directorate handlers, fanatic Apostolate intolerance, and his own confidence issues to rescue Penny from a militant gang of rovers. This time, he must turn to the very organization that tormented his youth to save her, not knowing she bears a secret that may pull humans from the precipice of extinction.

Be sure to visit these great authors for the next big thing.

Raine English

Raine is a Daphne du Maurier Award Winner and Golden Heart® Finalist. She writes contemporary and historical romance novels infused with magic and the paranormal.  Her book, Tin Angel, is available now.  Coming soon, Date with a Vampire.

Raine began her career as a journalist, but writing romance novels was her passion. She enjoys writing both adult and young adult contemporary romance infused with elements of magic and the paranormal, along with eerie Gothic historical novels. When not behind her computer, you can find her reading, usually something involving the supernatural. She lives in New England with her family, two dogs, and a mischievous cat.  You can visit her at www.RaineEnglish.com.

Keena Kincaid

Reader’s Crown Finalist for Ties that Bind (2010) and Enthralled (2011), Keena honed her writing skills as a newspaper reporter and editor. Career honors include writing awards from the Society of Professional Journalists, Gannett newspapers and the Associated Press. When she switched to public relations, she began writing fiction. When not working or writing romance, Keena regales her niece and nephews with stories of quick-thinking ladies, mathematically challenged knights, and ill-mannered dragons that chew with their mouths open.

Her books are available at Amazon and Wild Rose Press.   Visit her at http://www.keenakincaid.com.