Please help me welcome Author Michelle Muckley to Kayla's Place today!
Michelle is the author of a new novel called Identity X!
If you like sci-fi thrillers, grab your copy today!
Identity X
by Michelle Muckley
Sci-Fi Thriller
Released TODAY!
Happy Release Day, Michelle!
Synopsis vis Goodreads:
Ben Stone has one aim;
discover the cure for genetic disease. He watched his father die and
promised himself that it would never happen again, especially to his own
son. After his appointment as lead researcher in Bionics Laboratories
he begins his desperate research. It takes four years, but he succeeds.
He discovers NEMREC, a serum able to reconstruct DNA and cure the
diseases that have driven him. It should be the beginning of a new
future, but by changing the face of the world, he has unwittingly
destroyed his own.
After arriving at his laboratory to find that
it has disappeared, he is sucked into a world of conspiracy and
betrayal. The Agency wants NEMREC and will do anything to get it,
believing it to be the most powerful scientific discovery in decades.
But it wasn't just NEMREC that they wanted. The Agency wanted Ben dead,
but somehow he survived. His best friend, his wife, and Ami, the
beautiful scientist who he has fallen for at work all offer to help him,
but each has a different version of the truth. They all have their own
agenda, only one of them wants what he wants, and in a world where you
are already dead, how is it that you are supposed to survive?
Grab Your Copy:
I was born in the town of
Warwick in 1981. It is a small historical town in the heart of England,
and Ι was the fifth child born into a family of boys. I developed a huge
interest in the written world from a young age, and with more than a
little help from Roald Dahl found quite the taste for anything gross and
gory. Book club at primary school only proved to increase my love of
escaping into the world of a book. Whilst six years at secondary school
did little to quell the romantic notion of one day sitting in my
mountain cabin and smoking a celebratory cigarette as the first novel
was born, somewhere within those six years the dream of becoming a
writer got put on hold. Still resting quietly in the background were
those long and lingering desires to once again rediscover those old
aspirations to write.
About six years ago, with the smouldering
embers of a childhood dream sparking uncomfortably underfoot there was
what can only be called an epiphany. Who is it that actually becomes a
writer? It's the people who write. It's the people who actually do more
than say, 'I have a dream'. Whilst this may sound simplistic, it was the
revelation I needed to sit down and type Chapter One. The first book,
The Loss of Deference was no longer just a fantasy and slowly became a
workable manuscript. It was then sent out in eagerness before it was
properly edited and therefore it was duly returned, and along with it I
collected a nice set of standard rejection letters. Six years later,
having uprooted from England to settle on the southern Mediterranean
shores of Cyprus, the dream to publish the book once deemed nothing more
than a pipe dream is now a reality. I am still working as a part time
scientist, but I am also writing daily. When I am not sat at the
computer typing about the darker side of life, you will find me hiking
in the mountains, drinking frappe at the beach, or talking to myself in
the kitchen in the style of an American celebrity chef. Just think Ina
Garten.
Connect With Michelle:
Welcome to Kayla's Place, Michelle! I'm excited to have you! Thank you for stopping by!
Tell me a little bit about
yourself. What do you like readers to know about the author behind the pages?
Hi there, thanks very much for
having me here. As you know by now, my
name is Michelle. That is my real name,
although you will also find me lurking on facebook under another name as well as
I recently got married. I have been
writing for years, and slowly progressed from ideas on post-it notes to writing
books. In my ‘real life’ I am a
scientist, but I probably spend more time writing now than I do working in my
originally chosen career.
Other than writing, what do you
like to do in your free time?
I am English, but I now live in
Cyprus. It’s a fairly small island in
the Mediterranean and I have been living here for the past few years. I love to hike, and Cyprus is great for that
as it is covered in mountains and valleys.
In the summer though it is too hot, so I usually hang out at the
beach. When I am at home I just relax
with a book, cook, or watch movies.
Do you have any advice to
individuals who aspire to become authors and get their work out there?
It is really important as a writer to
practice your craft. By this I mean
write consistently, and do it as frequently as you can. Ideally I think you should write each day,
even if it’s only for a short while, but sometimes this isn’t practical. Reading is just as important, and I love to
do it. It is like research and for me if
I am not reading I feel my writing is more sluggish.
From a practical point of view for
somebody who wants to test their skills in the world of publishing, the best
advice is to polish whatever you want to publish to the point when you cannot
possibly stand to read it anymore, and until you believe it is as good as you
can possibly make it. Then make a choice
between traditional and self publishing, and just go for it. And whichever you choose, make sure you are
tough enough to stand rejection and criticism.
I have experienced both, and it is essential to ride through it if you
want to succeed. Professional writers are
after all, the amateurs who didn’t give up.
I heard that recently. I can’t
remember who said it, but I think it sums up the journey perfectly.
Why did you choose the sci-fi
thriller genre?
I have always loved the thriller
genre, for reading and movies. Horror
too. So for me when I decided to write,
it was a natural decision to write in this genre. The sci-fi element is something that creeps
in because of my love of science. It
must be the two halves of my brain coming together!
If you had to choose another genre
to jump into, what would it be?
Well, I see all these people doing
well in the romance and erotica genres and think maybe I should get a pen name
and give that a go, but it would be so awful people would think it was a
comedy! But I would love to write a
really great horror novel. I can remember
reading books that scared me senseless as a child and a teenager. I would love to create something that scared
people like this.
Who are your role models with
regards to life as an author & your writing? Have you met them yet?
I read the book On Writing by
Stephen King this year and it was great.
It’s a really great book for anybody who loves Stephen King’s work, or
who wants to be a writer. I keep his
advice in my head when I am writing and so he is kind of my distance
mentor! I also met a very kind writer
on line who was so helpful at the beginning of my career. She took the time to offer me lots of advice
and I still follow it. She is doing
really well under a pen name and I am really happy for her success.
Identity X is scheduled to be
released September 24! Congrats! How long did it take you to write &
finalize it?
The first draft took two months,
the editing process at least another six.
Will it be part of a series or a standalone?
My initial plan was stand alone,
but it seems to lend itself well to a sequel and so far with the earliest
readers there has been a call for it.
What are the first five words that
come to your mind when you think about Identity X?
Betrayal, disbelief, secrets,
lies, understanding.
Where did you get the idea behind
the plot for Identity X?
There was a question in my head. What if everything I knew was a lie? From that I got Identity X.
Introduce us to the main
characters.
Ben Stone is our main guy. He is good looking, tall, blond hair, smart,
funny. Need I go on? But he has a big problem. His past.
His father died when he was young from a genetic illness, and the
thought of passing this illness onto his own son has sent Ben into a spin. He is a scientist working on a cure. He thinks that it is the best day of his life
when he finally makes it happen, but he couldn’t be further from the truth. He wears a black suit too, so this picture
for me is the obvious choice!
Hannah is his wife. She too is beautiful, and loves their son
Matthew very much. She has a lot of
anger towards Ben because he is sacrificing their life together in order to find
the cure for genetic disease. Their
marriage is in crisis, and she is hurt that he seems oblivious. But Ben is not the only one with secrets, and
the Hannah he thinks he knows might not be the only version of his wife.
Do you have a favorite scene that
you’d like to share a tiny bit about? Just a teensy little excerpt or quote?
“Because you are already dead,
Ben. There are no options left for
you. They will kill you. They will not stop until they do. They have hundreds of these men, and each one
of them will die before they give up their duty,” she said, looking at the body on the
floor, “and four of them are standing next to me right now.”
Oooh, Identity X sounds like a great novel! I'm so glad that you were able to stop by & share more about it with us! I wish you all the best & hope your career (both as a writer and a scientist ^_^ ) take you far!!! Thank you again for stopping by & chatting with me for a bit!!!
