Welcome
back to the Weird, the Wild, and the Wicked. I have the honor of hosting paranormal
science fiction author Jason McKinney for the beginning of his blog tour with a new release. Jason shares my love of the fantastic and lycanthropic, and his new release, Dog World, is just the thing to get us all howling. Plus, he’s offering one lucky commenter
an
autographed copy of Dog World and two
runners-up will receive an e-copy.
Welcome, Jason. Thank you for
being with me today.
Thank you for having me, Siobhan. I’m very pleased
to be featured on The Weird, the Wild and the Wicked. From what my wife and a
few others have told me, I’m a big unbalanced package of all three. :)
LOL. She’s a lucky lady, then. What
started you on the path to becoming an author?
One night, ten years ago, I was about to read my son
a bedtime story, when he asked for an all new adventure instead of a
traditional tale. I was half asleep when I began, but I was able to come up
with a story based on my wife’s albino German Shepard, Teddy. I’m told I spent
a half hour telling the tale, but being so out of it then, I barely remembered
it. The next day my wife, Tabitha, suggested I write it out. I looked at her and
said, “What story?” She then recounted what I’d told Christopher the night
before and needled me again to put it to paper. A year later I did just that. I
ended up writing five tales titled Sheriff
Teddy’s Mysteries, and I hope to get those released soon.
That’s awesome! What a great dad
to do that. J
Congratulations on your new
release on Dog World. Introduce us to
the main characters and premise of your story.
Dog
World is the first in a werewolf apocalyptic series. The
protagonist in charge, Karl Vance, has been plotting to make werewolves the
dominate species since the bubonic plague outbreak in 14th century Europe. Over time he’s cultivated contacts while amassing
an army and wealth to make his goal a reality. In the end the invasion of Iraq
proved to be the perfect beachhead to initiate his final solution to the human
question.
There is no singular lead character in Dog World, but there is a core group of
characters made up of diverse individuals. Captain Paul Demarti and Major Omi
Kunpai are the heart of the group while Specialist Gloria Tan, Sergeant Cameron
Mitchell, and Chief Warrant Officer Brenda Walinski are my strong female cast.
Demarti is the level headed communications executive
officer stationed at one of the attacked forward operations bases and Kunpai is
a no-nonsense, tell-it-like-it-is Marine infantry officer sent to investigate
loss of communication with Demarti’s post.
Tan is a communications soldier under Demarti that
survives the initial attacks and becomes a hardened lycan hunter while Mitchell
is a human sympathizing lycan who initially wants nothing to do with either
side.
Now Walinski is my personal favorite as well as a
favorite to Dog World fans. She’s an
Apache helicopter pilot that becomes injured after her squadron is decimated at
Demarti’s base. What makes her fun is the injuries she sustains in her
helicopter’s crash that causes her to have extra personalities living in her
head afterwards.
I can say she’d be my favorite,
but I’m a sucker for helicopters. Did anything in particular inspire this
story?
The inspiration for Dog World was a short story I scribbled 13 years ago. It was about
an American infantry platoon doing maneuvers in Ireland
when they encounter something they could never have imagined. Their maneuvers
turned into a fight for their lives and those of a small village against
marauding werewolves. I stuck that story in the drawer that we writers exile
things to when we don’t think they’re good enough. Tabitha, however, loved it
and urged me for years to do more with it, but I shrugged her urgings off,
convinced that it belonged in “the drawer”. Then we saw the movie Dog Soldiers and she brought up my old
story. She kept saying things like, “See that? There’s a market for your story.
That movie’s a hit” After I finished my last Sheriff Teddy I finally decided to drag the idea out and turn it
into Dog World.
What made you choose lycans
(werewolves) over other paranormal creatures?
Werewolves scare me and I mean, they really scare
me. I’ve loved Lon Chaney, Jr’s The Wolf
Man since I was a kid, but it was seeing Silver Bullet as a ten year-old that truly made me fearful of them.
Everett McGill was delightfully scary as the lycan villain. He set a tone for
me that only Dog Soldiers has
followed. I read Cycle of the Werewolf
years after seeing the movie and it scared me to the point that I loved the
emotion. It also doesn’t hurt that werewolves as a whole get the crap end of
the stick when it comes to the majority of media, and I wanted them to be the
ones on top for a change.
I always cheer for the
werewolves. J
What other projects are on the horizon for you that we’re likely to see?
I’m currently working on the sequel to Dog World titled Dog ‘Verse and a werewolf zombie mash-up titled Werewolves of the Dead. I’m also
finishing up proof reading my Sheriff
Teddy books for release. My manager *cough, cough, wife* would like to see
those in circulation.
Thank you for joining me today,
Jason, and we look forward to all your upcoming releases!
And thank you for having me aboard, Siobhan. It’s
been a pleasure and an honor to be on your site, and to be grilled in such a
fun way. :)
Jason is graciously giving away a signed copy of Dog World to one lucky commenter, and two copies of the ebook to two other commenters. All you have to do is is leave a valid email address or Twitter handle so we can contact you if you win. The giveaway will run from Monday, May 14th until 8:00 pm PDT Thursday, May 17th. The winner will be announced here on the blog on Friday morning.
Here's the blurb to Dog World:
As the war in Iraq gathered momentum in 2003, a separate,
secret conflict took shape between humans and lycanthropes, or lycans – biped
wolves that consume human flesh. Galvanized by the growing human conflict
across the globe and intent on seizing the opportunity, the werewolves launch a
full-scale assault on humanity, decimating the population and changing the
course of history. Captain Paul Demarti, a U.S. soldier on the front lines in
Iraq, is among the survivors of the attack and now leads a small band of
determined fighters hoping to preserve the human race. As borders between ally and lycan blur, paranoia and anxiety mount.
The group learns they must trust one another and work together in order to
survive. Hope dwindles as the conflict continues and the humans must decide
what they are willing to sacrifice in order to create a future for their kind. Readers craving a compelling story
coursing with humor will relish sinking their teeth into Jason McKinney’s
furiously fast-paced and viciously fanged Dog
World.
If you’d
like a copy of Dog World, and can't wait for the giveaway, you can
find it at:
If you'd like to find out more about Jason McKinney, you can find him on:
EXCERPT
The top of his
dark flesh grew darker, new hair sprouted all over. Its flesh had the
appearance of rapidly flowering, perverse new forestation, growing over barren,
pain clotted land.
His uniform
ripped, and the sound forced Zellar to try to move away. She became tangled in
her own wobbly feet, and fell to the floor. She desperately scooted away from
the terror filling her mind, body and soul. She struggled to get to the door as
quickly as she could force her mangled body. Escape and evasion thinking gave
way to panic. Her thoughts didn’t extend past getting the fuck out and
surviving to the next minute. Retreat was her only plan and she had no idea
where safety might be found.
The building was
empty. No one showed up around a corner to investigate the commotion. Zellar felt
that she was alone in ways she didn’t want. She paused, watching, too terrified
to move.
Taylor stomped
to Zellar and grabbed her by the throat, lifting her off her feet.
She felt his
claws growing into her neck. She could feel one touching a throbbing artery.
The artery pulsed under the pressure before the claw pierced it.
Thanks so much for stopping by and happy reading! :)
