Welcome everyone! We’re going to do something a little different today. Instead of just talking about my books, I want to introduce you to one of my writer friends.
Do you love gay science fiction with a romantic subplot? I have a treat for you! My friend, author/artist Michael Philips, has written a fantastic gay space opera that’s a must read. It’s an “own voices” book with a unique plot, a main character you’ll love, and great writing. The steam level is different from mine, it’s a clean read, but the story has all the feels. Check out my exclusive interview with Michael and an excerpt from Beyond the Empyrean below.
FEATURED AUTHOR:
27th century metahuman Heliodore ‘Hel’ Brand is a genetically engineered warrior who has the physical strength and endurance of a demigod. Like many of his fellow metahumans, his immense gifts are wasted in the mines of Gehenna for one of the oligarchs of the Maia system, Mairon Salai. When it is discovered that he is a Starsong savant, one of a few who can hear the singing of the Empyrean Gate, he is forced to embark on a dangerous series of missions that may provide the necessary clues to open an entire faster-than-light network. Hel may be heading for either a trap or some of kind of enlightenment, and this leaves him to navigate a precarious game with only his passions to guide him—including his love for an oligarch‘s son.
The stakes are the fate of an entire star system. Hel must solve the mystery of Starsong, escape Mairon’s influence, and fight as a rebellion soldier to free the miners, but all he really wants is to see Marcus again.
Interview with Michael Phillips:
What sparked the genesis of Beyond the Empyrean?
The original idea came to me in early 2018 when several inspirations collided at once. I had a rather sexy fantasy about a genetically enhanced character in an Andromeda episode, and then I read Call Me By Your Name and Ready Player One in the same month. All of those banged into each other and fused into a new molecule: a gay genetically enhanced MC, a romance subplot, and a race for something that will stop an oligarchy from controlling the star system.
What were your goals in writing this book?
Primarily, to just write a great SF novel, but also to bring a gay male SF character into the mainstream. But still a SF novel that everyone, except perhaps toxic fanboys, could enjoy. I wanted it to be published by Big 5 and queried for over 3 years, but I guess it's still too gay for them right now.
I understand you did your own cover art. (You’re a professional artist when you’re not writing, right?) What went into that process?
Yes. My experience with graphic design goes back to the early 2000s at least, so I always design my own. If there's something I can't create myself, I use licensed elements. In addition to my writing, I oil paint. My main subject is wildlife and I tend to be very detailed and reference only real animals from wildlife rehabilitation centers that I've photographed myself.
Do you design covers for other authors?
Yes, on a case-by-case basis. I've done the covers and interior layout for a friend of mine's book series, and I have some clients on Upwork. I'm a little slow with book covers. I work very organically and take my time sculpting it to perfection, which isn't the most profitable approach. Hopefully, I'll eventually learn to do it faster.
What’s something no one has asked you about Beyond the Empyrean or one of its characters that you would like others to know?
The prime concept of Starsong in Beyond the Empyrean came from trying to come up with something that multiple teams could be in a race for, something every team could potentially collect like the keys in Ready Player One, but something that isn't part of a simulation, something tangible—i.e. part of the real world—and yet not tangible. The first thing I thought of was music. Everyone can hear it at the same time and retain their own "copy" in their memories.
Tell me why it’s so important to have LGBTQ representation in science fiction?
Well, LGBTQ representation is important in every genre, of course, especially today when LGBTQ rights are once again under fire in many states, but science fiction has been oddly lacking in gay male characters, especially in the mainstream. (Read this B&N article here.) My goal is to redress this with Beyond the Empyrean, which puts a gay man front and center. I believe, however, that his story will still have tremendous mainstream appeal.
What do you read when you’re not writing?
Until recently I always read non-fiction and my own genre, SFF. Recently, however, I'm making good on an old and until now unrealized goal: learning another language to fluency. So, almost everything I've read this past year has been in Italian. I've improved to at least a B1 reading level and can work my way through C1 material with the dictionary on my Kindle. For example, I read La Fabbrica di Cioccolato, which is the Italian version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Next year will be French.
Excerpt from Beyond the Empyrean:
I spent the better part of the next hour looking no doubt like the proverbial farmer come to town, inevitably rubbernecking in all directions, so much so that I at first scarcely noticed the glares of the dome-dwellers. Almost all of them were so small that it was like walking among children. They appeared to have no common ethnicity, and human complexions of all kinds were on display. They were a beautiful people, small, slender, and delicate with amiable features and smooth skin. Most wore shiny silk-like fabrics, draped lightly upon them, far from the sharp, tailored gray suits that the execs wore, and many had tall elaborate hairstyles they piled atop their heads amid hats and headdresses made of shining metals and gem-like accoutrements. Some of them had hair almost as tall as they were. This was a deep contrast to my own clothes, which were the same as always, utilitarian and functional, a sleeveless shirt, sturdy black canvas pants with a thick belt, boots. I never liked my arms wrapped up. Everything was always too tight for my body.
And this was the moment it slowly began to dawn on me—the inevitable feelings of separation, uniqueness, freakishness. The stares of my admirers and critics were peering, probing, angry, fascinated. A miner like me must have looked like a barbarian to them. I was an outsider now, and this produced a feeling I’d never harbored before, despite my barren life. One woman with pale skin and a tall hat stuffed with enormous feathers stared hard and mumbled, “What is he doing here?”
She wore a bright gold lapel pin in the shape of a star over a crescent moon, certifying her as a Monger, someone who owned an expensive shop catering to the oligarchs. They saw themselves as mini-oligarchs and pretended to be above everyone else. She pressed the lapel pin and started speaking in her Q-com.
I ignored her and walked on, focusing on Marcus. All throughout my visit, I felt as though he was giving me a chance to see things that I’d never have the chance to see again, and I thrilled at every opportunity to do anything with him, even seeing Mongers in person for the first time.
In the Altus City Hall of Permanent Bacchanalia Exhibitions, the art displays constructed for each Annual Moonlight Festival of Bacchanalia were preserved. These were sometimes gigantic paintings that reached to the curve of the dome, sometimes sculptures made of pure silver or agate or gold—one was a ten-meter tall statue of Kosmas made out of marble—and sometimes they were absurdly unrealistic, like an entire mansion made of folded paper. That last exhibit had been built for exploration; the moon’s light gravity allowed the paper to be folded thickly enough to support human weight, but I was still too heavy to go upstairs. A sign at the staircase read: “Patrons over 100 kilograms strictly prohibited.” The accompanying cartoon showed an anthropomorphic figure falling through a floor.
The back of the mansion had an entire labyrinth also made of paper, so we decided to explore that. There, the tiny delicate papers were all painted and carefully folded as to look like leaves and branches, and the labyrinth looked almost like real shrubs at first glance. It was surrounded by an illusory projection that created a rolling landscape full of grasses and flowers under a bright sky. Inside that labyrinth, we had some privacy.
Marcus’s face slowly broke into a boyish grin. “I’ve been here many times before. The maze is based on an algorithm that you’re supposed to solve in your head. I used to explore it regularly when I first came back from university. I’d make my way to the center and almost no one could ever find me. There’s a gazebo. I’d sit there and work out my equations in private.”
“So, it’s a labyrinth for geniuses?” I asked.
“Yeah. You want to see if you can find me?”
And before I could answer he took off running. I gave chase, but he was athletic, and within seconds, he turned a corner and disappeared. I chuckled under my breath, knowing that I’d never outsmart him, so I turned towards my superior senses. I could hear his slightest rustling and sense his body heat.
Nevertheless, whenever I got close, he somehow managed to get away. I’d hear a papery rustling in the hedge, and then I’d hear him laugh as he escaped once more, always barely out of sight. We chased through the paper hedges many times, and always I would get close only to lose him again. Finally, I lost track of him for a long while until, abruptly, with my keen hearing, I heard him breathing on the other side of a wall. So I surprised him by leaping clear over to the other side, landing right next to him. We were in the center of the labyrinth, and the gazebo was behind us. He had been leading me there all along.
I grabbed him by his shoulders before he could escape again, “Got you!” I shouted, laughing. He stood there without resisting for a moment, laughing freely in return, his eyes gleaming at me. I wanted to kiss him right then and there, but his expression changed abruptly, and a fleeting glimpse of joy passed across his face before fading.
He turned away, glancing down at his feet. His voice turned solemn, and he backed from my grasp. “I want to take you one last place, Heliodore,” he said. “It’s my favorite place in the whole city.”
I cracked a confused smile but said, “Well, lead on then.”
MY UPCOMING BOOK:
I’ll be sharing the cover of Carillon’s Corpus with you soon. The book (fingers crossed) will release in mid August!
In my last newsletter, I encouraged everyone to enjoy the sun. I was having swiss cheese brain and neglected to add to stay cool if you’re somewhere where the temperatures are soaring. The fires around the globe are heartbreaking. Please stay safe, wherever you are!
Always love,
Sionnach
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