Hello,
I'm Harper Kingsley, and this is the final stop on the Heroes & Villains
blog tour. I've talked about Tetris, Ninja Turtles, Megamind, Lord of the
Rings, and of course, Vereint and Warrick.
Heroes
& Villains, Allies & Enemies, and All That Remains cover the three main
periods of Vereint's life. Each is a standalone novel that follows Vereint and
Warrick's relationship as it evolves and grows. Everything begins with
Vereint's failure to be a superhero.
In
a world populated by a mix of normal people and people possessing amazing
abilities, every kid dreams of growing up to wear a cape. The only question is:
Do they want to wear the cape as a hero or as a villain?
Vereint
has always wanted to be a hero. From the minute he gained metabilities, he
started planning his move to the city. He had dreams of being like his hero
Blue Ice. But the reality of superhero life and the mockery of the public sees
his Starburst cape permanently packed away for the black kato mask of Darkstar.
His dreams of saving the world are retired for dreams of living well and being
happy.
Is
it a crime to have great power but to choose not to use it to help? To see
catastrophes happening and choose to sit back and watch TV? To hear of terrible
cruelties and choose to look away? To stand by while a bank is being robbed by
a group of guys that bought rayguns off the Internet?
To
some, Darkstar isn't just a villain because he robs banks and steals whatever
he wants. He's a villain because there's so much he could do to help people and
he doesn't. Because he is too powerful, too terrible, and it's too easy for him
to lose control.
Heroes
& Villains is about the love between Vereint and Warrick. The animosity
between Blue Ice and Starburst. The dirty pleasure of Blue Ice and Darkstar.
And how the most powerful man on the planet picks up followers when he doesn't
even want them.
"As
Darkstar wills, the Darksters follow."
I've
had a lot of fun working on this series. There's something great about writing
characters with superpowers. Anything can happen because these are people with
inhuman strength and speed and a lot of them can fly.
I
like writing vampires and shifters, magic guys that can fold time and space,
and all kinds of amazing characters doing amazing things. Yet at the end of the
day, superheroes will always hold a big chunk of my heart.
Which
is why I've made Vereint the centerpiece of Heroes & Villains. There's just
something about someone so powerful living in a crappy apartment surrounded by
neighbors that are sure he's some kind of drug dealer or petty criminal. He's
that weirdo in apartment 221B. Sure, he's really good looking, but there's
something suspicious about him. He's a little shifty around the eyes.
Vereint is incredibly powerful and
he's always believed that powerful people should use their gifts. It's just
that sometimes he wants to be a normal guy, and that's how Warrick makes him
feel. When they're not destroying buildings or arguing in the middle of a super
battle, they have conversations and cuddle on the couch. They're two men on
opposite sides that sometimes look very much the same.
Heroes
& Villains was fun to write, and I hope people enjoy reading it. Thanks for
following the tour.
----
I'm
giving out an ebook copy of Heroes & Villains at the end of this blog tour.
You can earn five entries by following the tour and answering the question
after each post. Make sure to leave your email address so I can contact you if
you win.
I'll
be using Random.org to pick a winner the morning of August 19th.
Answer
the question in the comments: Do you have any "super human"
abilities? (I personally can solve word finds faster than the computer can keep
up. It's the power of nerd vision.)
----
All Vereint ever wanted was to be a
superhero, fight alongside the other great heroes of the city and beat down the
villains that plague them. There's just one problem: he sucks at it, at least
according to the other heroes and the majority of the city. Instead of the
greatness and glory of which he dreamed, Vereint spends his days alone,
exhausted, and depressed.
When the mockery and derision finally go too far,
Vereint decides he's reached his limit. If he's never going to be good enough
to succeed as the hero Starburst, maybe it's time to try the role of villain
instead …
