Featured Author & Giveaway: Beau Schemery

Beau Schemery and his robot sidekick quietly fight crime and mediocrity in North-Central Pennsylvania. Beau is attempting to complete six lifetimes in one: he’s been a comic writer/illustrator, an actor and a playwright, as well as an amateur cook and costume-maker. He enjoys sewing, reading and playing the X-Box when he isn’t crafting exciting worlds for the characters in his brain. Beau is currently a vegetarian and hopes to grow up to be a time-traveling squirrel. He would dearly love to meet a dragon and is reasonably sure that Batman could pretty much beat anybody in a fight. You can visit Beau on Facebook or check out his artwork on hedbonstudios.deviantart.com. If you run into him at a comic convention, don’t hesitate to say hello.

Connect with Beau Schemery on Twitter @hedbonstudios or visit his website: http://beauschemery.wordpress.com/.

Q&A with Author Beau Schemery:

1. If you could swap places with one of your fictional characters for 24 hours, who would you choose to be? Why? And what would you do that day?
   
   That’s a tough question. I’ve created a LOT of characters that have yet to see the light of publishing. But choosing just from the ones in my published work? Hm. I guess I’d have to say Jack Midnight from The Seventh of London. He’s got a FANTASTIC wardrobe and an impressive home. I’d probably take advantage of his considerable wealth and throw a crazy party in the Black Chapel. I’d need some help temporally so I could invite my actual present day friends as well as people from Victorian London.


2. Tell us a little about your debut novel, The 7th of London.
   
   Sure. The Seventh of London takes place quite obviously in London during Victorian times. It’s a slightly altered history. There is a wizard named, Fairgate who may have some ulterior motives as the queen’s right hand man. Seven is the main character. He’s an orphan who lives on the streets of the poor side of London. The queen has ordered the city divided into the affluent, Fairside and the poor, Blackside: so named because the abundance of factories insure the air is black with smoke. Technology has taken a slightly unnatural jump forward because of a few key moments, making the story one in the steampunk genre. Children are disappearing from all over Blackside and Seven means to find out why. What he finds is beyond anything he could imagine. It’s a fun book with a lot of action and adventure but it also doesn’t pull any punches. Not all the characters make it to the end of the story.


3. Tell us about your newest release, The Unlikely Hero. Who did the beautiful cover art?
   
   Oh, thank you. Actually, I created the cover art featuring Celestrian, the Lost Unicorn and his guardian, Mother Dragon. If 7th is primarily an action/ adventure, then I believe Hero is an adventure/ comedy. I like to describe it as Tolkien written by the members of Monty Python. It’s very satirical with a lot of in-jokes referencing pop culture, high fantasy and video games. What it boils down to is the alleged last of the Unicorns, who can magically shift to human form, trying to find the rest of his race, if they still exist. Enter Ren, an accountant’s apprentice, who wants nothing more than to be a Hero but knows virtually nothing about how to do that, other than what he’s read in books. He finds out there’s more to it than he could have ever guessed. There’s a lot of silliness along the road but there are some really desperate, dangerous moments as well. It’s an adventure of discovery in more ways than one.


4. The Unlikely Hero is Book One in the Verses of Vrelenden Series. How many books do you have planned for the series? When can we expect the next installments?
   
   I think this is going to be a big one. The sequel is written and in the final stages of editing. It’s called The Last Blade. I think we’re looking at six months between releases, so I think late summer/ early fall but I’m not positive. The third book will be written soon but may end up being two books. I can’t really reveal anything about this next story because I’ve got some seriously wild stuff planned but some of the events will directly lead into a Dragon War series, which will probably be at least another three to four books. I can’t be sure after that.


5. What would you like young readers to take away from your novels?
   
   More than anything I want them to be entertained. If they learn a little something about the world or themselves that would be cool. I’m really just writing books that I want to read and I think I would have wanted to read when I was a kid. Although I’m VERY immature for my age so I think it works. Thanks for having me as a guest today. It’s been great. Please feel free to contact me, I love to hear from readers.

Now Available from Beau Schemery:

The Unlikely Hero: The Verses of Vrelenden, Book One Despite the suspicions Mother Dragon shared with Celestrian before her death, he may be the last surviving unicorn of Vrelenden—though most may simply think him some crazy person with a horn attached to his forehead. Nevertheless, Trian has nothing to hold on to but hope, and he’s about to hang that hope on an unlikely hero named Renwald Mallorian. Ren may have been born an accountant’s son, but he’s longed to be a professional hero for as long as he can remember, and he’s read every book on the subject he could get his hands on. When Trian arrives and hires him to find the last remaining unicorns, Ren jumps at the offer and their quest begins.

But the evil Father Denkham is intent on obtaining the last unicorn and sets a deadly assassin on their trail. If that isn’t bad enough, they’ll face a Vampire, Dragon, bandits, and zombies. Their only hope now is for Ren to prove he’s the hero he always dreamed of becoming—but no book in the world could have prepared him for what’s in store.

The 7th of London After his parents and family die, Seven escapes his factory job. By wits and will alone, he survives in a London divided into the affluent Fairside and the squalor of London’s industrial Blackside, where many struggle to eke their existence out of despair. But Seven has to fight for more than just food and shelter.

All over Blackside, a secret cabal of prominent citizens and the mysterious Mr. Kettlebent are snatching children. Rumor has it a wizard is controlling the queen, and the country’s most notorious villain is the only one who wants to stop him. Seven is determined to find out why.

Hired by the criminal Jack Midnight to steal the evil wizard’s spellbook, Seven soon discovers the mystery runs deeper than he suspected. But events spiral out of control, and it isn’t long before the intrigue sweeps Seven into its deadly current.

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The Unlikely Hero Giveaway!

Beau Schemery has generously donated a free e-copy of The Unlikely Hero for one lucky winner. To enter the drawing, please leave a comment below along with your email address. A winner will be chosen April 22nd.