Category: Dronefall

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Dronefall

Is Dronefall End Times Fiction?

Dronefall is a six-book series following a young Christian woman wo chooses not to be conformed to the ways of her dark twisted world, but instead to seek out the truth behind its web of lies and manipulation. It’s a futuristic world, but under its trappings of drone-swarmed skies, autonomous surveillance technology and centralized information control, it’s a familiar place.

I most often describe Dronefall as “Christian Futuristic Fiction” to laypeople, because I think that’s a genre everybody can understand without further definition. But at the same time, does that put it in the same genera as Left Behind? Is Dronefall “End Times Fiction?”

How would I classify “End Times Fiction?”

While End Times Fiction is Christian Futuristic, not all Christian Futuristic is End Times. Let’s nerd out about this a bit.

In this diagram, you can see I did something a little controversial. Here’s my logic. I find it easiest to categorize the broader genera of Christian Fiction by their time-periods—their settings on the timeline. Contemporary, Historical, Biblical, Futuristic. But if you think about it, End Times Fiction actually falls under Futuristic and Biblical.

Okay, so this graph isn’t perfect. You could group Biblical under historical, but I think most people who are looking for books would prefer it be its own thing. The events of the Bible occupy a different category in most people’s minds than some random story set in ancient Greece, for example. And in the same way, End Times fiction and Futuristic fiction are different things, in a way. End Times fiction, once again, deals with the events of the Bible.

The Rapture, The Tribulation, the rise of the Antichrist, Armageddon—actually, I would probably more accurately classify End Times Fiction as the intersection of Biblical and Speculative. Because, try as we might, we’re going to have to simply study and speculate to portray the events of Revelation in a literal fiction-story form.

But How Would I Classify Dronefall?

Well, the short answer is, it isn’t End Times Fiction, technically. It’s focused on a smaller scale, and doesn’t try to interpret the events of Revelation. Not because I don’t think we should try, but simply because I didn’t choose to build it around that. Here’s my chart-placement for Dronefall.

Speculative Fiction covers everything from fantasy to sci-fi to horror, in some cases. (Not all horror is speculative, unfortunately.)  There is a growing Christian booklist under all these categories. Futuristic spec fic would be any of these genres set significantly into the future. Dronefall is set in 2043-’44. That’s coming up fast, but it’s still futuristic enough for me.

Then there’s Dystopian. Now, there is, of course debate on what makes a book truly Dystopian. Some argue that it has to be a society that is built on Utopian ideas taken to the extreme to the point of becoming a terrible place to live. If you go with this belief, an apocalyptic story isn’t dystopian, but a post-apocalyptic one could be, if, in the wake of the world falling apart, society rebuilt around a rigid order that, while originally meant to solve a problem, ended up creating plenty more of its own.

The looser definition is just a nasty broken society, typically with too much control by the elites, whoever they may be. Dronefall easily falls under this umbrella.

So, if you ascribe to the second definition of Dystopia, most all cyberpunk would be a dystopian subgenre.   

What is cyberpunk?

When you look up what cyberpunk is, the phrase “high tech lowlife” comes up pretty often. Cyberpunk is a technology-saturated but typically run-down and chaotic world full of hackers, virtual reality, artificial intelligence and, notably crime. Cyberpunk typically focuses on a technologically advanced underworld with complicated confused morals and a lot of gray-area characters. Dronefall’s labyrinthine cityscape, overrun by semi-autonomous drones and fog-breathing trains, creates a fantastic backdrop for the questions and dilemmas Halcyon and her friends have to face.

Bringing Christianity into the cyberpunk world puts a whole new spin on it. While the genera is typically inhabited by antiheros and characters who will do what they can get away with by whatever means they have, the presence of an absolute moral right raises even more questions. Halcyon sees the oppression and injustice in her world and she knows there is a right and a wrong way to fight it. But where to draw the line? And when?

And who’s with her and who’s against her?

Is Dronefall set in the End Times?

Getting back to this question. Yes. Am I going to end by having all the characters Raptured out to escape their problems, so I don’t have to solve them? No, don’t worry. I wouldn’t do that to you. But people within the story aren’t afraid to talk about it.

Oddly, out of the Christian Dystopian books I’ve read, there’s very little to no mention of Jesus’s return, or the hope of Earth’s redemption ultimately being in His hands. I’m not sure why. It’s not natural for a Christian cast to not look for hope in the future that way. I want to bring that discussion back into the story.

Because when it gets dark, God shows up.

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Dronefall

A Travel Guide to the World of Dronefall

Readers know, even in the era of fancy collector’s editions and aesthetic bookshelf setups, at the end of the day, a book isn’t just a product—it’s a destination.

If you’re looking for somewhere to go, I have a recommendation for you. I’ve discovered a new place and time—a rare one, not overcrowded with tourists and hyped-up by reports from all your friends who went last summer without you. The world of Dronefall is something new, fascinating, and full of rich detail you’ll want to come back to for a second look.

So, what have you got to look forward to? What does 2040’s Budapest, with its historic architecture and drone-swarmed skies, have to offer the traveling reader?

Well, there’s more than I can tell you in a blog post, but let me give you my top recs for things to do on your first trip to the world of Dronefall.

7 Things You Must Do When Visiting Cyberpunk Budapest in the 2040’s

  1. Travel by “Blindworm” (jumping off not advised)

You won’t have much choice on this one, since the automated hydrogen train system has all but replaced any other form of transportation in the city. Still, you’ll find “Blindworm” travel extremely smooth and hassle-free. Coaches are comfortable and usually kept immaculately clean, and each one is furnished with both a speaker-system and an HD digital screen to keep commuters informed on the upcoming stops.

  On the outside, the trains are sleek beautiful—white and silver, and always breaking out billows of fog through the “gills” of their water-vapor exhaust system. Their haunting wails can be heard echoing through the city from far away.

2. Drone-watch

    In case you haven’t heard, most major cities in the world of Dronefall are ruled by drones. They watch the streets at all times, from all angles, constantly pacing along their preprogramed grid-lines. Aside from surveillance, drones are also utilized for basically everything else that could possibly be done by a UAV. Drones run deliveries, make repairs, put out fires, clean windows, and handle search and rescue operations all day and all night.

      They come in a dazzling variety of models, and at night, their lights make streetlights redundant in busy areas. From an apartment balcony or rooftop bar, you can watch them flowing by like a river of colorful fireflies. But don’t get too nosy about where they came from and where they’re going. Tracking drones is illegal.

    3. Ask random people on the street what Ambassadors of Humanity is doing

    This one’s a bit tongue-in-cheek, but you can actually do it if you’re brave enough, I suppose. Mostly, it’s just going to get you a lot of weird looks. With all the public support for the elusive organization in Budapest, you’d think somebody might be able to tell you something about exactly what they do. Nobody can.

      They can’t even tell you why the Ambassadors are buying up the whole city, bit by bit. It seems like people would want to know. It seems like they would be asking. But they don’t ask. Maybe you shouldn’t either. Disregard this one, if you want.

    4. Visit the Barracks Café at midnight

    Let’s move out of the bustle of the heart of the city a bit. There’s a sort of run-down neighborhood between District 3 and District 4 on the Buda side of the river. This is where it’s at, secretly. The locals here will tell you the cool kids hang out at a place they call the Barracks Café. It’s called that because of the rather unaesthetic building that houses it, which sort of looks like some kind of military housing.

      Inside, however, you’ll find a surprisingly vibey place to chill, lurk and consume caffeine at all hours of night. It’s a lot like some of the city’s famous ‘ruin bars,’ but instead of serving the nightlife crowd who’s off work for the day, they typically serve the crowd that is just starting their work as the sun goes down. Don’t be intimidated by this crowd. They keep to themselves.  

    5. Go Roof-topping in District 3.5

    But if you strike up a conversation, you might want to ask for these people’s recommendations on the best roof-topping spots in the area. Large stretches of housing and business properties in District 3.5 are abandoned. If you’re into scaling buildings and free-running while enjoying beautiful Budapest nightscapes, you should take the opportunity to go roof-topping in this neighborhood. (3.5 is mostly unwatched by drones, so do what you can get away with!)

      From one location on a roof toward the edge of the residential area, you can get a fantastic view of the airport where, very occasionally, one of the huge space-planes from the world’s only commercial Exoliner airline will take off or land.   

    6. Seek out secretive Christian communities

    If you can find them, some of the most welcoming places in the whole city are the ones the authorities will likely warn you to stay away from. Though not technically illegal, Christianity is no longer socially acceptable to mainstream culture in the West. This has forced believers to form quiet communities where they can live and worship God in peace from the privacy of their homes.

      Barred from the city’s many beautiful historic churches, they have formed their own house-churches, where they gather weekly in supportive thriving groups of friends and family. Though they tend to be close-knit, they always welcome visitors.  

    7. Sneak out at night—who knows what you’ll see

    The fact slips by many people who stick to normal routines, but the city isn’t even the same world at night. If you thought 2040’s Budapest was a little strange during the day, wait until after midnight. Things come to life and start to wander around, hunting. Drones fly low and lurk by windows. Mysterious sirens echo through empty streets.

      Be careful. Nothing is safe when everything is anonymous. But don’t you wonder…?

    Ready to Book Your Ticket?

    Lucky for you, I’m paying your fare if you decide to sign up for my email list within the month of October ’24. If you join what I’m calling the October Club—my exclusive pre-release book club for the newly rewritten Dronefall, you will get the ebook free before anybody in the general public has access to it. I know. Not fair. But you’re invited.

    Sign up here!

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    Dronefall

    My Reason

    I’m done being nice. I’ve been trying to write this post for days, trying to make it a manifesto, a story, an extended bio—but it wasn’t happening. Because it was supposed to be a rant. It was always going to be a rant.

    Over and over throughout my time working on the Dronefall Series, I’ve found myself asking the question, “All this for a made-up story? All this for a cheap paperback? Why?”

    Why?

    I absolutely love Dronefall. I love my characters, my setting, the twisted trajectory of the plot. But man, why do I put up with a process that’s hurt me so much? All that doubt and exhaustion, all that overwhelm and discouragement and raging sense of futility. It’s gotten worse and worse. I could have dropped everything like a lot of would-be authors do. I could have gotten married and moved to a new town and started a family and left this whole little non-sequitur phase of my life behind.

    But I didn’t. And I think I finally know why.

    God could have given me any calling. Anything He wanted me to do I could have done, and He would have used my work for the good of His world. But God made me a dystopian author.  Dystopian authors write what they write because they see things in the world that too many people don’t notice. We want to open people’s eyes to the reality they live in and give them the strength to fight it.

    We’re also just generally full of rage. That’s probably funnier to people who know me in person and probably think I’m one of those people who aren’t even capable of getting mad. It’s not the kind of rage that drives a person to blast their horn in traffic or go around picking fights on the internet, though. It’s something that keeps you awake at night and leaves your mind screaming, “this is wrong! This is wrong! God, please tell them this is wrong.”

    And God answers back, “You tell them.” And so, you go out like the disciples to find that one kid in 5,000 who packed lunch that day. Here’s what I’ve got. I’ve got a weird knack for writing made-up stories. I have no idea how this could ever work, but stranger things have happened.

    A Voice of Dissent

    This society claims to care about our voices. The benevolent media gods look down and see those of us who struggle to be heard. They elevate the ones they deem worthy and bask in the applause they get from doing it. But it’s all a show to distract from all the other voices they stifle in the dark.

    Because they don’t want anybody to think people like us exist. Particularly millennial and gen z Christians. We’re at the age where we’re starting to have some serious influence on the culture. They tried really hard to mold us and shape us into what they wanted the future to look like. The audacity of people like us even existing. It’s bad news for the Enemy.  We’re proof there are cracks in the reality liars have tried to create.

    The last thing they want is the generation that’s taking up the torch to keep carrying the light of Christ. That light exposes too much. And it’s too dangerous to the antichrist’s agenda.

    I wrote these six books because when you write, nobody can talk over you or tell you to sit down and shut up. The books are going to just keep existing and people just have to deal with it. Whole countercultures can be born from art. I have something for the people who are ready to see what’s happening. Or, if you already see it, I want you to know I see it too. You’re not crazy, and you’re not alone.

    The Reason

    And we won’t quietly fade into the background while the world crumbles. The Truth won’t be mocked, shamed and silenced when the light is needed most. We need young adult Christians—not just hidden away in their own little circles only to be seen by those in their community and the occasional passing scoffer—but also those who aren’t afraid to step out and exist boldly and brightly in the world at large. Jesus will never be irrelevant, obsolete or a thing of the past. He goes ahead of us into the future, no matter how bleak it looks. I hope Dronefall makes a point of telling everyone that.

    I don’t know how much sense I’m making. I just know I care intensely about my generation. We won’t be lost. God hasn’t forgotten us. I want my work to awaken the courage for us to live like we haven’t forgotten Him. Because you haven’t, have you?

    It’s because I know people like you exist that I haven’t given up yet.

    Please Join Me

    The rewritten Dronefall One still doesn’t have an official release date. But if you want to be a part of this, please join my email list. It’s the absolute best way to stay up-to-date on the progress and get all the backstory on what goes on. Plus, there’s the comic I made, which gives you a unique preview of the first chapter of Dronefall. You’ll get to download that when you sign up.

    Thanks for reading my rant. I hope, when you get to read the books in the near future, it will all be worth it.

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    Author Interview Character Interview Dronefall My Books new release Nightstare Q+A

    Answering Questions Nobody Asked About Dronefall Four

     The release of the fourth book of the six-book Dronefall series is fast approaching. Finally. Whether you’re new to Dronefall, a longstanding reader who’s been with me from book one, or a casual bystander who might have stumbled across this post by accident, I want to treat you to a quick self-interview to answer the questions that may or may not be going through your mind right now.

    So, let’s start with a couple of basic things for the newbies here.

    What inspired Dronefall?

    I’d done a lot of novel-writing prior to starting the Dronefall series, but I hadn’t ever ventured into dystopia before. Neither had I delved too deep into fiction with more explicitly Christian content. I was in a place in my life and growing awareness of the world around me that made me think it was high time. And looking back over the years I’ve been working on the project, I can’t help but think I was right.

    I actually wrote a whole three-part series here on Stardrift Nights telling the story of how I got inspired to take on Dronefall. If you’re interested in a more in-depth answer to this question, definitely check that out. (part one, part two, part three)

    Who is Halcyon Slavic?

    Halcyon Slavic is my main character. A young twenty-something left to her won devices by a society that has isolated and estranged her for reasons she doesn’t know for certain. In the beginning of Dronefall she finally drops out of mainstream society entirely to live with her Christian friend in a rough part of the city who happens to be a drone-sniper.

    Everybody has their own reasons for making a lifestyle out of shooting down the city’s surveillance drones. The deeper Halcyon gets into the netherworld of hackers and trackers and sharp-shooting thrill-seekers in cyberpunk Budapest, the more she realizes something is up. Things are not what they appear, some somebody somewhere behind all those flying cameras seems to have a problem with her. If you want to learn more, check out this two-part interview I did with her. (part one, part two)

    And now, we get to questions about book four, Nightstare. Firstly…

    What took you so long?

    Boy, I don’t really know. There won’t be another gap this long between books in the series, I promise. I really wouldn’t do that to you after you’ve read Nightstare. That would be terrible.

    I think part of the reason this book took me so long is because I had a major growth spurt as a writer while I was working on it. I’m probably still too close to the project to see it, but I bet some of my readers are going to notice there’s something stronger about book four, whether or not they can put their finger on just what it is. I hope it makes for better reading.

    What did you learn while writing Nightstare?

    A ton. I’m getting deep into all my characters at this point in the series. I’ve been studying all I can about character-driven storytelling and learning to plot in a much tighter but more holistic way than I ever have before. I’ve learned to love the second act. That’s a giant leap in my development.

    I actually feel really confident about my pacing and character arcs, now. I think I can guarantee the second half of the series will be even better than the first half. Things really start to pick up in Nightstare.

    What makes Nightstare so momentous?

    Book four is huge in the scheme of things. A lot blows up in this book. (Figuratively and literally.) Things are starting to tie together, even as things fall apart for the characters. We’ve officially hit the big midpoint of the series, and from here, everything is just going to escalate. I’m really excited for it.

    This would be a really smart time to catch up on the series, if you’re not up to date yet. The first three books are all available on Amazon, and all ebooks are temporarily 99c each. They’re also available in paperback and on Kindle Unlimited, if you’ve got a subscription for that.

    So, keep an eye out for updates. We’re getting really close to liftoff, here. 

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    Dronefall My Books

    Dronefall Halftime Tour Wrap-Up

    This post is a bit late but there you have it: my first-ever attempt at running a blog-tour for my books. Once again, many thanks to the wonderful bloggers who volunteered to collaborate with me for this event. If you missed it, here’s the roundup:

    Feb 3rd: Nicki Chapelway at Myths, Magic, and Madness (spotlight)
    Feb 4th: SHINE at hauntingghosttown (interview)
    Feb 5th: Bree Dawn at The Long Voyage (interview)
    Feb 7th: Oceane McAllister at Oceane’s Writing Rambles (interview)
    Feb 8th: Elizabeth at Elizabeth’s Corner (interview)
    Feb 9th: Nicole Dust at Legend of a Writer (interview)
    I also want to take the opportunity to thank my readers and friends and followers who have supported me up until this point in the adventure of writing and publishing the Dronefall Series. I hope you had some fun learning a bit more about me, and about Dronefall and the story behind it. 
    I’m really excited to move on to the second half of the series. I promise, if you’ve gotten this far, it only gets better. All those crazy clues I’ve been scattering all over the first three books are about to start exploding, and all those odd little hints at subplots are going to start expanding and weaving into the main narrative. Your patience will be rewarded.
    I thought now would be a good time to give you some updates on my progress on book four, Nightstare. 
    My current word-count for Nightstare is 93,118. (My anticipated final word-count is ~120,000, making it the longest Dronefall book yet, and bypassing End of the Saros as the second-longest novel I’ve ever written.
    I’m a couple of pages into chapter nineteen, which is tentatively titled “Clearing the Sky.” Nightstare will ultimately be twenty-two chapters long, if I don’t cut or add anything too drastic.
    After finishing the first draft, I’ve got a few edits I know I have to make before going on to my alpha and beta readers. I’ll be seeking a small army of beta readers when the time comes, so stay tuned. I might call on you. 
    Oh, and two more quick announcements: I have an Instagram now. @albuehrerauthor. And the Dronefall series is now on Kindle Unlimited! You’re welcome. 

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    Dronefall My Books The Birth of Dronefall

    The Birth of Dronefall: The Story

    I’ve had a lot of dreams like this: Who are they? We don’t know. What do they want? Can’t say. But they’re peeping at the windows, and we’ve got to hide.

    I was researching for a project in college when my interest in drones and mass-surveillance solidified. I started to conjure up a future where drones ran the world. They dominated the airspace, delivered the packages, cleaned the chimneys, kept the peace, and few questioned it. This was a world that believed constant surveillance was the only way to protect the public. But in the end, humans still had to call the shots. Someone had to decide who was a threat.
    For my main character, I picked out a cynical young woman who believes she’s irrelevant and invisible to society—until someone behind a monitor (or is it just an algorithm?) seems to target her as a threat. So, she takes off and joins her only friend in a neighborhood full of Christians that have their own reasons they wish they were invisible.
    I don’t know. A story about a gang of people who hunt surveillance drones just sounded kind of fun to me. There was just enough escapism in the sci-fi concepts to pull me in. I wanted to write a dystopia, but I didn’t really want it to be a non-stop bummer story. The fact that so much of my thematic material was going to hit a lot of readers close to home made me want to make an effort to try to add some contrasting material—explosions, fascinating technology, unusual settings, vibrant characters, and even a decent bit of humor, if I could really pull all that off.
    Most importantly, I wanted to give something great to Christian readers. I never meant Dronefall to be an evangelism tool. Life goes on after you get saved. It isn’t easy, either. I wanted to write as a ministry to other Christians, like me, who wanted to step back from the chaos and confusion of life and see life’s spiritual battle from a new vantage-point. I wanted to show them people they could identify with in a world rougher and scarier than their own still standing up for the things we believe in.  
    I don’t think the goal of Christian dystopia is to be alarmist or get everyone dreading the future. Instead I want to make Christians aware of the direction the world is headed around us. Because no matter how it looks, it’s a good direction. It’s God’s plotline. You’re a hero in his story and a part of the most thrilling and magnificent epic imaginable. 
    If you read the Dronefall series, you’re going to start recognizing elements of it in the world around you. But I hope, beyond the pain the state of history gives you, you’ll discover a sense of exhilaration. Now is the time to stand up, speak out, and shine brightly with the truth of Jesus Christ. This is what you’re on earth for.      

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    Dronefall My Books The Birth of Dronefall

    The Birth of Dronefall: The Seeds

    Through the heart of my Alma Mater’s main campus runs a railroad. A slow freight drags through a few times a day, typically, covered in weathered graffiti. Whistle wailing and detuned bell chiming, it shakes the library where I lived most of my college days.

    As a student, I wore a lot of dark eye-make-up and went around with my backpack slung over one shoulder, which was bad for my back. I was there for academics only and typically sat in the back of the class avoiding participation. I made good grades and no friends, but I didn’t really care. I had an idea for a new book.

    The idea was born under vaguely hostile conditions. The vagueness, in fact, was part of the inspiration. As it turns out, mainstream society, even in my small town has some kind of a problem with Christianity. There were a few occasions when this was very obvious, but most of the time it was just subtle enough to make me wonder if I was imagining it. Maybe I just have that “Christian Persecution Complex” they talk about. That weird paranoia that evangelicals have where they suffer from delusions that the world is out to get them. No idea where such absurd thoughts would come from.

    And yet, why did so many professors feel the need to use their classes as platforms to spread their anti-Christian beliefs? In Ethics, Christianity was an outmoded faulty guide to right and wrong, in Logic God was impossible and ridiculous, in History we watched a video on the Scopes trial that took up a disproportionate amount of class time and portrayed Christians as truth-hating loonies. I learned that Christianity was an enemy of art, science, progress, personal responsibility and free thought. It promoted racism, sexism, slavery and fear and hatred of other cultures.

    And it wasn’t just on campus. I remember one incident in particular on a chat-group on Goodreads. It was one of those groups where sophisticated adults have sophisticated discussions about world events. There was a thread about Islamic terrorism. Almost immediately, the topic was hijacked and changed to a slightly different subject—the increasingly relevant problem of “Christian terrorism.” Someone mentioned the Crusades and how it was probably “in their DNA” by now.

    Everywhere I looked, I could see the true face of Christianity being hidden from the world and a grotesque caricature replacing it. Christians are told to keep their religion to themselves or else they’ll be discriminating against those with other beliefs. But Christianity isn’t going to be forgotten. If God’s people keep their heads down the rest of the world will have no problem building a hideous strawman in the void.

    How long will society emphatically deny that they have a problem with Jesus Christ, his truth, and his followers? How long will the post-Christian world insist Christians are delusional for noticing the world is hostile to them and their God?

    That’s what I wondered in that train-rattled library during my college days.
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    Dronefall My Books The Birth of Dronefall

    The Birth of Dronefall: The Gap

    I think I was thirteen years old when I dropped Return to Harmony on the floor and didn’t bother to pick it back up. I told my mom I didn’t like books that were about quote, “people’s lives and how they feel about them.” I really wasn’t that into the fluffy inner struggles of young ladies and how their bland love interest’s hair smelled.

    When I was thirteen, I liked stealth military aircraft and meteor showers and those little kits where you can hatch things. Honestly, I still prefer those things over reading stories about people’s lives and how they feel about them. I actually have a kit for triops on my desk as I write this. I can’t wait to get it started. Hope it works.
    So, I noticed fairly early that the Christian fiction market was a little lacking. There are quite a few sweet romances out there starring heroines with rather obvious problems who learn rather obvious lessons and get the guy who was rather obviously designed for them. Apparently, this appeals to Christian women. I have no idea what male readers are supposed to pick up. Maybe Christian men don’t read fiction.
    I started writing fiction of my own when I was about that [author name]-dropping age. There was a frolicking joy in the process of invention that I found addictive. Naturally, I leaned toward science-fiction. At last, my inner worlds took shape as real places—planets, alien landscapes full of fantastic geography, bizarre life-forms and near-magic technology.  My teenage adventures in The Stardrift Trilogy saw the first manifestations of my writer’s voice, and on that journey, I learned the dark art of finishing novels.
    I didn’t stop writing after The Stardrift Trilogy. I had a mission—a gap to fill. I wanted to write thrilling imaginative stories that took Christian fiction far outside its stale narrow box. The truth of Jesus Christ isn’t restricted to the tidy easy messages and quick prayers of light inspirational women’s fiction. It’s vast and wild—reaching through all time and space, deeper and wider than any of us could ever imagine. So much unexplored potential was tantalizing to me.
    As I grew up, new facts of life came into my broadening horizon of awareness. The world around me was changing—faster and faster. The future was coming. It was right at the door. It was a strange exotic future, full of horror and hope. I began to realize something about the future. Much of it can be seen in the present. In fact, the closer you look, the harder it is to see the line between the two. 
    I graduated from high school not really knowing what my personal future was going to look like. All I knew for sure was that I was going to keep writing, and keep following God. Eventually, I chose what seemed to be the path of least resistance to me. I was going to study music at the university in my hometown.

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    Dronefall My Books

    Rainchill Cover & Blurb Reveal


    So, remember that, uh…thing that chased Halcyon for several grueling blocks at the end of Lightwaste? Well, you haven’t seen that last of it.

    Dronefall Three, Rainchillis finally in the process of being released. I’ve hit several delays, as usual. I realize I keep telling people “It’s coming out this month,” and not making good on that promise. I’ve got many hundreds of thousands of words worth of novel manuscripts at this point in my career, but I’m still completely baffled by how some debuting indies actually release their books on an exact date which they tell the world a year in advance.

    Actually, I don’t really know how anyone plans anything a year in advance.

    But I will say now, you’ve got less than thirty days to wait for Rainchill. It’s coming! So, I think it’s about time I’ve released the back-cover blurb and the cover. Take a look:

    The Official Rainchill Blurb:

    Sometimes it’s best to let sleeping dogs lie.

    Halcyon Slavic’s brush with the hostility of mainstream society has left her scarred and wary. As the darkness of winter slowly lifts, she only wants to continue her drone-sniping in secret. But dark places are disappearing all over Budapest, and District Three Point Five can’t be spared. Soon, they’ll be under the same oppressive drone-grid Halcyon came to escape from.

    In the midst of the stir, a monster of another kind emerges behind Three Point Five’s back. A canid robot takes the Enclave’s eyes from the sky to the streets. And before they can be certain what it’s come for, it’s made its first kill.

    The drone-snipers are forced to face a new reality. Three Point Five is changing. Chaos lurks around every corner. The police won’t lend their aid. And the Christians are stalked by their most deadly threat to date: They’re called hellhounds.

    Now, the cover isn’t actually the Official Final Cover, but this is more or less the design and the feel you’re going to get, probably plus a couple of small changes. But I couldn’t keep it a secret any longer, so here it is.


    Rainchill is book three in the Dronefall series, and I’m excited to announce that, due to recent reconsiderations, it will be the third of six Dronefall books. Yes, I’ve been telling you five all this time, but as I write book four, I’m realizing that I’m going to need more room, so I’ve expanded. The Dronefall series is now plotted as a sextet.

    I can tell you want hints about the content of Rainchill beyond what you’ve got. I’ll be cryptic, but I see no reason to keep any rumor-fodder from my theory-loving readers. Here are some whispers you may have heard:

    ·         Somebody ends up with a major injury

    ·         A couple of characters prove to have…complex loyalties

    ·         The first fatality of the series occurs

    ·         It becomes apparent that the dynamics between a certain two characters is going to be dangerous in the future….

    Well, there you have it. There’s more to come on the subject of Rainchill, and the Dronefall series in general within the next several weeks before publication. Subscribe if you haven’t already!

      And also, if you’ve read any of the Dronefall books, or have any intention of doing so soon, I highly recommend you go here and sign up for my email list, and the free Guide to the World of Dronefall that comes with it. The guide is just my little attempt to help you get oriented in the rather complicated world where Dronefall takes place. There are a lot of forces in play, and the guide is a resource I created so that you can have all the facts in one place. It’s bound to enrich your reading experience.

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    Dronefall My Books Snippet

    Lightwaste Excerpt

    So, I promised you an excerpt. Here it is. it comes from Dronefall Two, Lightwaste, chapter Four: A Maze of Questions. She has been back at her old school campus, the place where she was raised, seeking answers to the mystery of her inaccessible legal identity files. Her success has not been great, and she is now bound back for District Three Point Five. She’s being careful that no one traces her back to her new neighborhood and has just jumped off a train and landed in an embankment that turns out to be alongside an old churchyard.

    The song she sings to herself is part of the same song Reveille is singing in the end of Dronefall. Without really meaning to, I’ve introduced a new verse of this song with each new Dronefall book. We’ll see if it actually turns out to be five verses long.

    Anyway, here’s your excerpt:

    A black wrought-iron fence materialized from the crisscrossing shadows of the branches and she paused to stare beyond it. At this point, she realized she was in a graveyard. She could see the ancient monuments outlined in the orange light like the skyline of a sleeping city. There was no good way to climb or vault the fence, so she made her way around it, eyes always inward toward the silent garden.

    “Oh, would you stay awake and watch with me, ‘til we hear the trumpet sound?
    You’ve always been my faithful friends, is there faith left to be found?
    You know those weary wanderers you’ve been putting underground?
    They’ll all be up and watching, when they hear the trumpet sound.
    They’ll be back up and walking….”

      She stopped and her eyes anchored on the silhouette of a cross: a crucifix, two meters high. The church looming in the background had been ravaged and purged. “Faith is for everyone,” said the sign on the door. That meant all the ancient Christian art and distinctive features had been torn down or sealed in glass cases with a lot of commentary alongside so as not to hurt anyone’s feelings. But not here in the cemetery.

      “It meant something to those people,” she remembered her tour guide saying in the Second Stage History of Western Religion fieldtrip. So did the church, she imagined. Times had changed, the guide said. Humanity was beginning to mature. And the old spiel would begin: at first man believed everything was a god, because they couldn’t make sense of the world any other way. Slowly, it evolved to more specific deities, then to one god—and this strict dogmatic view had a strong hold on people fearful of death and damnation, and had many negative effects on history and human relations. Now, at last, we were beginning to see the truth, and one day, we will live in harmony.

      And we will leave the body of Christ in the graveyard where we wanted it in the first place.

    Remember, the eBook is still just 99c

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