On the cut-throat streets of Tarkis, orphaned teens like Rath end up jailed … or dead. So when the shadowy Janus Group offers Rath a chance to earn riches beyond his wildest dreams, he seizes it. But the Janus Group is as ruthless as the elite assassins it controls.
On the cut-throat streets of Tarkis, orphaned teens like Rath end up jailed … or dead. So when the shadowy Janus Group offers Rath a chance to earn riches beyond his wildest dreams, he seizes it. But the Janus Group is as ruthless as the elite assassins it controls. Rath will have to survive their grueling, off-world training, and fulfill all fifty kills in his contract before a single cent comes his way. And ending so many lives comes with a price Rath can’t anticipate. It’ll certainly cost him what’s left of his innocence. It may well cost him his life.
GUEST POST
The Story Behind Rath’s Deception
Rath’s Deception started as a short story - I honestly don’t remember where I got the idea, but I liked the concept of an elite assassin struggling to complete a final kill as part of his contract with a sinister organized crime syndicate. I wrote it in a day or two (this was some years ago), and submitted it to a few Sci Fi magazines…and got polite rejection letters back. Oh, well!
[Cue “passage of time” montage – I serve four years in the Army, including a year as a platoon leader in Iraq. I come home and write a book about my experiences – Combat and Other Shenanigans, a humorous take on the war memoir genre. Somehow, it makes the NY Times bestseller list. So I get serious about writing again...wake up call answered!]
Even after so many years, the sci fi assassin story still grabbed me for some reason, this concept of a weary killer who is forced to kill for others, and what he might do to get out of that contract. And without really trying to, I was making up new threads to the story in my head – in the shower, on the train in to work, etc. I realized this new, expanded story had some really awesome possibilities, so I just started writing it (note to self: outline first next time, dummy!). And it really flowed – I got into that magic writing zone that sometimes happens, and really lost myself in it. A few months later I looked down at the word count and saw I had a novel partly finished – hooray! Except I also knew that the story I was telling was only Act One – Rath’s Deception was headed for a hell of an ending, but the really big climax (and some unexpected twists) couldn’t happen in this first novel. At that point, I stopped and stepped back, and actually wrote the final chapter of Book 3. It felt weird, but it REALLY helped me, as did outlining the rest of the trilogy.
From there it was just about filling in the final blanks – writing Books 2 and 3, and working with my editor to get them balanced nicely, all polished up, all loose ends snipped, etc. I’m an indie author, so actually getting it published is a pretty simple affair (thank goodness). I think the hardest part has been having Book 1 finished for the last month or so, but sitting on it until Books 2 and 3 are ready to go, too. I’ll be releasing them over the next two months, so folks don’t have to wait long to see how it all ends.
And speaking of endings…here’s the end of this post! Thanks for having me!
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About the author:
When he’s not writing or spending time with his lovely wife and daughter, Piers works as a strategy consultant in New York city.
His latest book is the sci fi/thriller, Rath’s Deception.
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