Title: ShadowedAuthor: Ken HughesPublished: February 6th, 2012Publisher: Windward Road PressGenre: Paranormal ThrillerSynopsis:
He can hear a whisper a block away… and can't remember why.
Open your mind, to a city where mystery chases up and down office back stairways, turns brother against brother, and plays out on frozen sidewalks where lives may be shattered if the enemy even looks at the ragged man passing by in the crowd—and even that man cannot guess what memory will be next to batter his mind.
Paul was no detective, no thief, only a student trying to get some distance from his father and brother. When he found himself marked by the power to enhance his senses, he had only that treacherous gift and what few tricks he dared to teach himself, to search for some explanation—or at least the chance to give it meaning by exposing a few petty corruptions.
Paul thought if he lived in poverty to keep his existence secret from the world, at least nobody could force him to use that gift as a weapon against others. But just when he thought he was untouchable, the last thing he expected shakes his world and drags him into the perils of his family, his power, and two women who each have a different claim on his life.
As Paul begins to play cat and mouse with enemies he can't even name, he must break every rule that's kept him alive, in every frantic chase and every gamble he makes to break his family free. And all the while, he knows his greatest enemy may still be what lies behind his own secrets.
If you think you know everything a paranormal thriller can do, take a closer look.
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INTERVIEW with Ken Hughes
- How did you start your writing career?
- I’d been obsessed with books, games and comics all growing up. But the real credit goes to my mother: one day she suggested the family try writing something every week, and that was almost the first time I put down actual stories. She must have seen what I wasn’t ready to admit to myself, because after those first words I’ve never slowed down since.
- What is the hardest part of writing your books?
- Fitting in everything that I want. I work out three different levels of how my hero feels about the girl, but by the time I finish just the right way to hint at the first, the story’s rushed on to a different crisis. Harder yet is pinning my villains down; they know better than to let anyone know too much of their backstories.
- You’ve just become President. What’s first on your agenda?
- Climate change. The world’s full of urgent issues, but that’s the one that’s ticking away over every one of us. Plus, its solutions are so hard that by the time we’d saved ourselves from it, the world would be so much more connected that many of the other problems would be easy.
- Is there something unique about your writing style?
- I build each scene around a different kind of suspense. Some are simple conversations where the hero starts to realize his friends don’t see their life quite the way he does; others are high-tension struggles where I pull out all the stops. (SHADOWED includes paranormal powers, amnesia, guilt, betrayal, an abandoned past, two different women wronged, the basic rule of the supernatural turned upside down, a house broken into, a brother in the hospital, and then Chapter Two.)
- What books have most influenced your writing?
- Barbara Hambly was the first to show me what well-plotted, brilliantly delivered fantasy could do, and now Patrick Rothfuss raises the bar for all of us. And of course Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files are the gold standard for what I try to write, a modern setting with high-powered action and suspense.
- What is something people would be surprised to know about you?
- Most writers talk about how strange and colorful their lives have been. I’ve never done any of that, because my idea of fun is finding who’s written the best stories and drawing diagrams trying to capture just how they balanced their plotlines or their sentences to get that perfect mix. (Maybe that’s not so surprising after all.)
Quick Picks
Favorite color: Indigo blue.Favorite season: Fall—it’s the perfect time where it’s always warm enough but with the edge taken off. Plus, the leaves turn bright and the holidays turn dark; what more could you want?Chocolate or Gummy Bears? “There’s everything else, and then there’s chocolate.”Pie or Cake? Pie. (Which comes in chocolate too…)Which game do you prefer Trivial Pursuit or Monopoly? Trivial Pursuit (at least until I have to do the sports questions).Favorite pet? cat or dog? Cat.Fill in the blank.I’d rather be watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
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