[Plotting About] Next Big Thing Blog Hop

So there’s this amazing little meme called the Next Big Thing Blog Hop, and I was tagged by Montilee Stormer of Montilee Stormer.com and this is her entry.
This is simplicity itself: each tagged author blogs answers to the same set of questions about their current work in progress and then passes the torch to some other great authors who will do the same.
Because this fell over the Christmas/Yule holidays, I couldn’t ask around first, so this is as much a surprise to them as it is for me. Sorry guys (not really). Here then is what I have in store for 2013.
What is the working title of your next book?
Where Weavers Dare
Where did the idea come from for the book?
The idea started from a half finished NaNoWrimo novel in 2009 with a colorful cast of characters set in a universe I’ve been writing about since High School.
So during a writing course I took in Providence in 2011 I decided to write a prequel to all that, my own Avengers Assemble-type of story that can spitball into an ongoing series. And I’ve been plotting about with it ever since using Rhody Writing Group for feedback.
What genre does your book fall under?
Science Fiction.
What is the synopsis or blurb for this book?
The age of gods walking across the stars is over.
The ambers of the last great war have cooled to nothing.
The myth of Houses filled with Mages, mechanical mecha and Star Carriers that used defend and protect entire galaxies is just that. The Houses have moved closer to the inner coils of the galaxy. Leaving the outer coils to either fend for themselves or die.
It is in one of these outer coils where something is moving across the desert plains of Stuk’s Hollow. Whispers of the night lighting up as bright as day and reports of missing workers have doubled. The law is afraid and does nothing. The people of the Hollow lock their doors at night, spin up their defense wards and sleep with their weapons under their pillows for death has come to their planet.
A Specter of Death has been seen, one using a human skull as a mask. It commands over a group of diggers. They work all hours of the night and day out beyond where the law’s fingers cannot touch.
They have found something powerful. They will repair it. They will keep it. No one will stop them this time.
Unfortunately, someone has found them. Fell out of the sky. A Weaver. Not a Mage. Gone for ten years they said but he’s alive.
Spencer Cross has returned.
What actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?
Spencer: Wilmer Valderrama
Melinda: Chloe Grace Moretz
Thomas: James McAvoy
Jainey: Sigourney Weaver
Augie: Michael Fassbender
Charles: Mads Mikkelsen
Louis: Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Rey: America Ferrera
Lauren: Marisa Tomei
Layla: Aisha Tyler
Amara: Elizabeth Mitchell
Talia: Meagan Good
Zi: Albert Finey
Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
I want to self publish but I want to see it on shelves too…if the Agency doesn’t pan out then self published.
How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?
I’m still working on it but let’s say 2+ years. Now let’s never speak of it again.
Who or what inspired you to write this book?
Indiana Jones, Star Wars, Star Trek, Alien/Aliens, Buffy, Angel, Terminator, Batman, Firefly, Mass Effect, Bioshock, Doctor Who, Archer, Fringe. I figure if Stephanie Meyer, Hugh Howie, Amanda Hocking and others did it then so can I.
What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?
God’s War/Infidel/Rapture, Tanya Huff’s Valor Series, Leviathan Wakes, Elizabeth Moon’s Vatta Series.
What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?
I hope the mixture of magic, technology, myth and adventure.
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And since I have to now tag people…
Allow me to introduce to you:
Lindsay
Jennifer Basile
Christy Sherman
Andy Affleck