The Story Behind Seraph Rising
Guess who has a new book coming out soon?
If you guessed George R.R. Martin is coming out with the sixth novel in his A Song of Fire and Ice series, guess again.
(Seriously, Mr. Martin, are you EVER going to publish that book?)
No, I’m the one who’s coming out with a new book. It’s called Seraph Rising. It’s scheduled for release on May 22, 2021, but it’s already available for pre-order on Amazon HERE. Check it out.
Seraph Rising is my first superhero novel that’s not in the same universe as my other three series, the Omega Superhero, the Sorceress Super Hero, and the Superhero Detective series. The book revolves around seventeen-year-old Maddy Madison, aka Seraph, who is the sidekick to a superhero team. When that team is wiped out in an apparent accident, the burden of protecting her city falls on Maddy’s inexperienced shoulders.
I don’t want to say much more about the book’s plot in order to avoid spoilers. I will, however, discuss how the book came to be.
The graphic artist who worked on the covers for several of my other books on his own initiative created covers for a superhero trilogy and put them on sale on his website in late 2019. Since premade covers for superhero books are rare (the superhero book genre is a niche one, meaning I have to custom-order most of my covers), I snatched the three covers up even though I had no plans at the time to write a new trilogy. I’ve been sitting on those covers since then.
Seraph Rising uses the first of those three covers. If people like Seraph Rising, I’ll use the remaining covers to publish the other books. If people don’t enjoy Seraph Rising and/or the book doesn’t sell well, it will be a one-off and the other two covers will go to waste. Except, that is, for me looking at them from time to time to admire how cool they are.
Before starting to write, I stared at Seraph Rising’s premade cover for a while to figure out what the book would be about. The cover features a costumed young woman staring heroically into the distance while standing upside down on a bridge with skyscrapers as a backdrop.
“What are her powers so that she can stand upside down on a bridge?” I asked myself. “Maybe she can stick to any surface. Maybe she can repel from them too, giving her the ability to fly.”
When I realized I was basically reinventing Spider-Man’s daughter May Parker (aka Spider-Girl), I started over from scratch. I’ve never been sued by Marvel, but can’t imagine it would be a fun experience.
So those are NOT Seraph’s powers. I’d tell you what they are, but I’d be getting into spoiler territory again. So I’ll keep her powers a mystery for now.
But brainstorming her powers and knowing what Seraph looks like based on the cover led me from one idea to another until, BOOM!, I had a full-fledged plot.
Seraph Rising is a fun, action-packed book with heart. I hope you all enjoy it.