I am thrilled to be hosting a spot
on the NETHER AFTER by Jodi L. Cox Blog Tour hosted by Rockstar Book Tours. Check out
my post and make sure to enter the giveaway!
About The Book:
Author: Jodi L. Cox
Pub. Date: August 19, 2023
Publisher: Spirit Gate
Studio
Formats: Hardcover, Paperback,
eBook
Pages: 216
Find it: Goodreads, https://books2read.com/NETHER-AFTER
In a world of darkness and danger,
where secrets lurk in every shadow, one young
necromancer is determined to uncover the truth and rescue his lost mother. Meet
Faust Thaed, a courageous 15-year-old trapped in the treacherous realm of the
Nether After. Haunted by the memory of his beloved mother, taken captive by the
enigmatic Leiche Guard, Faust's journey becomes a relentless quest for answers.
As he navigates the eerie landscapes, he finds solace in the company of ghosts,
drawing upon their arcane powers to fuel his necromantic abilities.
Faust's path is fraught with
unimaginable perils. From harrowing encounters with ravenous poltergeists to
facing off against bloodthirsty monsters and cannibalistic predators, every
step brings him closer to the truth and the menacing soldiers of the secret
police.
Thrills abound as Faust's clandestine
adventure unfolds, his fate hanging in the balance as he battles not only for
his mother's life but also for his own. Every choice he makes, every spell he
casts, could tip the scales toward triumph or catastrophe.
Will he rescue his mother from the
clutches of the Leiche Guard? Or will his magical powers consume him, leaving
him forever trapped in a realm of despair?
The Nether After awaits-will you dare
to enter?
Top 5
favorite scenes and why.
There is
a fight in the Zeppelin that happens between Faust and a spy over a carpet bag
full of photos.
That scene I felt was when my story started
defining itself in its actual genre. I
imagined this elaborate battle where airplanes were being dropped from the
Zeppelin, and the hangar is opened. People are being sucked out of hangar bay
and Faust ends up falling out of Zeppelin on a falling airplane and needs to
cast a split-second spell to teleport himself back aboard the ship. I see that scene like a movie in my head. It
felt this moment Faust took on the role of Indiana Jones and became that
larger-than-life hero I wanted him to be.
My next
favorite scene is when the Zeppelin goes berserk when they try to teleport the
dirigible from Ris Norsing to Xeno. This
was based on the Philadelphia Experiment, also known as “Project Rainbow.”
So, the
following is a mix of quotes from Military.com and Navy.mil.
“The
Philadelphia Experiment is one of the most grotesque military urban legends
ever — and it has endured as an infamous World War II conspiracy theory.
According to legend, on Oct. 28, 1943, the USS Eldridge, a Cannon-class
destroyer escort, was conducting top-secret experiments designed to win command
of the oceans against the Axis powers. The rumor was that the government was
creating technology that would render naval ships invisible to enemy radar, and
there in the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, it was time to test it out. Witnesses
claim an eerie green-blue glow surrounded the
hull of the ship as
her generators spun up, and then, suddenly, the Eldridge disappeared. The
ship was then seen in Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Virginia before disappearing
again and reappearing back in Philadelphia.
The legend
states that classified military documents reported that the Eldridge crew were affected by the events in
disturbing ways.
Some went insane. Others developed mysterious illnesses. Some disappeared,
never to be heard from again. Others still were said to have been fused
together with the ship, still alive but with limbs sealed in the metal. “
So, the
military says yes, there was a piece of secret technology that they were using
to mask radar, but none of this happened.
It was just some radio frequency stuff. To me, what makes this
interesting is that you can go to Military.com or Navy.mil, and they still feel
the need to address the “hoax”. Even
though multiple witnesses did come forward claiming they were a part of or even
seen the events happen. It stays as one
of the big black marker redacted documents in the military.
When
Faust is looking at the Pagoda with the vultures flying around it.
One of the things almost every literary agent
will tell you is to never put any abuse that will happen to the main
character. It can happen to your side
characters but never the main ones. If
it does happen it needs to be off-page or insinuated.
I’m sorry I
don’t agree with sugar coating this because when you lose a family member, like
Faust has a lot of times, people resort to substance abuse. Living with those individuals who have
substance abuse is extremely hard.
Because they don’t know what they are doing most of the time, and as a
teenager in this situation, you must become an adult fast.
I believe if
we don’t address this kind of thing in fiction and non-fiction and it stays
taboo, how the heck are people going to learn to process the situation in a healthy
manner? Or better yet realize they are not alone in their suffering?
So, after
Faust has an argument with his dad, he runs out into the rock garden; mind
racing in a panic attack. He takes a moment to center himself. Unlike our world, the Nether After sky is in
constant twilight. Faust starts watching
the souls of the dead entering a vortex in the sky.
The souls in
the vortex have been gathered by the vultures who are swarming around a
pagoda. The birds keep on trying to
enter the pagoda. The ones who don’t have souls or a purpose just ram into the
pagoda's magical barrier and are left standing around, stunned, not knowing
what to do. This is the moment where
Faust unconsciously realizes he needs a change in his life and that everything
he’s doing up until now is not helping him resolve the feelings of loss and
abandonment he’s experiencing. This
scene is also illustrated.
I wasn’t
sure I was going to talk about this. I debated on leaving this out, but I think
maybe I should tell the truth about why some of the scenes in my book are as
graphic as they are. So, I think one of
my most powerful scenes is not my favorite. It’s the one I hate the most.
So, there is
a scene where an old woman named Flossie is on Faust’s soul-harvesting
dossiers. Faust goes to harvest her
soul, but he is upset about the way she is being treated. She’s strapped down to a bed, and she can’t
breathe. She’s been left alone to basically die.
Well, I went
through something similar, which truly scared the death out of me.
In 1997 I
was in San Antonio, Texas, at Lackland Air Force Base. I had just turned 18 in
April and was gun-ho to go out and save the world after High School.
Things did
not go as I had planned. During my enlistment, I was repeatedly hazed, I was
physically assaulted, and harassed.
During the peak of my boot camp, I came down with a bad case of
tonsillitis from being forced to run in the rain in over 100-degree heat in
Wool BDUs going from hot and wet to air conditioning and soaking wet. (I was in the winter uniform because my
sergeant took away my summer uniform.)
Well,
anyway, I was running a fever and the Drill Sergeant decided to grab me and
whip me around to face him. I guess he had said something; I didn’t
respond. I ended up puking on him. I ended up in the hospital after that.
Things took
an even worse turn at the hospital.
While there, I was strapped down to a bed same as Flossie. I was drugged
with morphine, which made me feel like I had spiders crawling up and down my
arms. Being strapped down, I could not
release myself because my arms and legs were cuffed to the bed. I ended up being sexually assaulted by an
unnamed person I had never seen before.
I never felt so alone and abandoned in my life.
I had no one.
I was
threatened when I returned to active duty.
I was told that if I talked, I would end up in the desert in an unmarked
grave, and no one would ever be able to find me. As a reminder, I was told I had to carry a
rock with me everywhere I went in my right hand. It had to sit on my tray when
I ate, and it had to be under my pillow when I went to bed at night. I was told the purpose of the rock was to
remind me that “Rocks don’t fly in the air force; they get buried in the
desert.”
So, the
scene with Flossie is extremely important to me because it was me writing
through my trauma.
Most of the
details, the rain, the buckets, and the hospital being in poor shape, were part
of the exercises I had to write while going through Military Sexual Trauma
therapy for PTSD with the VA.
So that
whole scene pretty much was me dealing with shit that happened in real
life. Why it’s my favorite and most
hated because it hurts me to read it, I used to cry all the time, and I
couldn’t talk or deal with my feelings when I came home. I couldn’t return to
normal, no matter how hard I tried.
Now I feel
like I own my experience. I’m not afraid to tell people what happened to me. If
anything, I want to warn people. That
the military I still love and respect has a lot of internal issues going on it,
that they like to keep quiet.
I feel
during that scene, Faust maybe freed Flossie and me at the same time. I have walked away from the situation,
learning something about myself. I can use all the horrible things that
happened to me to make myself stronger.
My last
favorite scene is when Faust is with Carol, and they are floating paper
lanterns on the water.
This is
another one of those bittersweet moments.
It’s about saying goodbye and learning how to move on. If you read the above, you realize I had a
chapter in my life that desperately needed to end. This moment gives Faust and Carol a chance to
say goodbye and accept what has happened to them. For Faust, he realizes he was never alone in
his quest, and he could have relied on his family more. He only felt alone
because of the choices he made to do things on his own.
When and
Why, I Wrote the Book.
The concept
of the book, which is Faust searching for his mother was another real point I
drew from my own life. During the time
frame I was writing I was also searching from my own biological mother. I
wasn’t sure if she was alive or dead. I didn’t know a thing about her. So,
Faust questions and inner conflict was a lot of my own. I think more importantly was When I wrote the
book though versus Why?
So, I wrote
most of this story while my husband was going through Chemotherapy. He would go
in; they would hook him up to the IV and he’d fall asleep while they administer
the medicine. At the same time, I lost
both my grandfather.
After that
happened, I was worried I was going to lose my husband too.
If you have
ever gone through cancer rehabilitation as a primary caregiver, you are always
confronted with death while sitting in the chemo room. It makes you think
constantly about the people around you, your family your own life everything.
The worse
thing is you become so hyper-vigilant about death; you are waiting for
something horrible to happen every second of the day. So, every time my husband stopped breathing
from snoring while he slept, I want to wake him up. I wanted to be there every second, to get him
water, to give him anything he needed. I was smothering him. Finally, the nurse
told me I needed to find something to do and let the poor man rest. So, I started to type away on my laptop in
the chemo room, three days a week for length of the treatment and multiple
hours a day. When my husband ended up on a feeding tube and couldn’t swallow,
food anymore I thought this was it. I’m going to lose him.
Well, guess
what? I was wrong. My husband is alive and well, defied all odds, and has been
cancer-free for quite a few years now.
I realized
when writing you can’t sit around waiting for things to change on their own.
You also
don’t have to do everything at once and shoulder all your burdens by yourself.
I felt if I could write a story and bring those two messages to just one person
that, my book would be a success.
About Jodi L. Cox:
Jodi Cox is
an American dieselpunk author born on April 10, 1979 in Union City,
Indiana. She graduated from Simon Kenton High School in 1997. Later she went on
to graduate with a BFA from the College of Mount Saint Joseph, now known as the
University of Mount St. Joseph in Cincinnati, Ohio.
After
college, Jodi started writing for Citybeat magazine. Later she went on to
become a pioneer in internet graphics and website development. After spending
nearly ten years writing for everything from tax websites to poetry, Jodi began
developing the world of the Nether After, unbeknownst to her that steampunk and
dieselpunk was turning into a literary genre.
Jodi enjoys
all things speculative fiction, but has a pension for the weird and unusual.
She describes herself as a comic book snob. She is often found
with a stack of Japanese and American graphic novels in one hand and a cup
of coffee in the other. She enjoys drawing and painting, as well as
writing. Her hours not spent on writing are devoted to geeking out over
new computer hardware, or the latest video games. She loves ripping into
electronics to see how they work, as well as cooking and developing new
recipes.
As a
writer Jodi has been writing steampunk, dieselpunk, and fantasy of
all types. She has even dipped her toe into science fiction.
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Giveaway Details:
1 winner
will receive a $10 Amazon Gift Card courtesy of Rockstar Book Tours, International.
Ends September 12th, midnight EST.
a Rafflecopter giveawayTour Schedule:
Week One:
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8/28/2023 |
Guest Post |
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8/28/2023 |
Interview/IG Post |
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8/29/2023 |
Excerpt/IG Post |
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8/29/2023 |
Guest Post/IG Post |
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8/30/2023 |
Review/IG Post |
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8/30/2023 |
IG Review |
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8/31/2023 |
Review |
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8/31/2023 |
Review/IG Post |
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9/1/2023 |
Review/IG Post |
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9/1/2023 |
Review/IG Post |
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9/1/2023 |
IG Review |
Week Two:
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9/4/2023 |
Review |
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9/4/2023 |
Review |
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9/4/2023 |
Review/IG Post |
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9/5/2023 |
Review/IG Post |
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9/5/2023 |
IG Review |
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9/6/2023 |
IG Review/LFL Drop Pic/TikTok Post |
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9/6/2023 |
Review/IG Post |
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9/7/2023 |
IG Review |
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9/7/2023 |
Guest Post |
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9/8/2023 |
IG Review |
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9/8/2023 |
Review/IG Post |
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