About The Book
Title: At The Sharp End of Lightning
Author: Nicholas Bates
Genre: Epic Fantasy / Magical Realism
AT THE SHARP END OF LIGHTNING. The interwoven fantastical tale of family, of loss and sacrifice, of unexpected gifts and coping with disability and new abilities set against the backdrop of climate change occurring across parallel worlds. In Oceanlight, Yalara Narika, a winged Sea Sprite, searches for her lover over immense seas only to find catastrophe and realization that her world is in turmoil. Meanwhile in the safe suburban normality of North Wales, Einion Morgan Alban, a restless youth afflicted by a disease of the blood, is nearly murdered by a man in a white suit. Yalara and Einion must discover the causes of their near-deaths and their as yet unrevealed connections as they both face upheaval to their lives and their worlds. Book One of the OCEANLIGHT series.
Title: At The Sharp End of Lightning
Author: Nicholas Bates
Genre: Epic Fantasy / Magical Realism
AT THE SHARP END OF LIGHTNING. The interwoven fantastical tale of family, of loss and sacrifice, of unexpected gifts and coping with disability and new abilities set against the backdrop of climate change occurring across parallel worlds. In Oceanlight, Yalara Narika, a winged Sea Sprite, searches for her lover over immense seas only to find catastrophe and realization that her world is in turmoil. Meanwhile in the safe suburban normality of North Wales, Einion Morgan Alban, a restless youth afflicted by a disease of the blood, is nearly murdered by a man in a white suit. Yalara and Einion must discover the causes of their near-deaths and their as yet unrevealed connections as they both face upheaval to their lives and their worlds. Book One of the OCEANLIGHT series.
NR Bates was born in London, grew up in Wales, and lived in Canada and Bermuda. He shares his life with his wife and his house with seven cats, one dog and the subtropical wildlife of lizards, wolf spiders and ant colonies that seek out a better life indoors. He is an oceanographer and scientist, and has published more than one hundred and thirty scientific papers on ocean chemistry, climate change and ocean acidification. He is a Senior Scientist at the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences and Professor of Ocean Biogeochemistry at the University of Southampton, UK. His novels focus on epic fantasy and magic realism, and inspired by his deep love of the ocean and environmental sciences. He has also recently published a small book of short-stories set in Paris, entitled “The Fall of Icarus (The Elevator, The Fall of Icarus, and The Girl)”.
Links
Amazon link: http://www.amazon.com/At-Sharp-End-Lightning-Oceanlight/dp/0993190529/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1430471705&sr=8-1&keywords=NR+bates
Website: nrbates.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/NR-Bates/1536689869946441
Twitter: https://twitter.com/NRBatesAuthor
Links
Amazon link: http://www.amazon.com/At-Sharp-End-Lightning-Oceanlight/dp/0993190529/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1430471705&sr=8-1&keywords=NR+bates
Website: nrbates.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/NR-Bates/1536689869946441
Twitter: https://twitter.com/NRBatesAuthor
Interview
1. Did you always want to be an author?
I started writing short-stories, poems and song lyrics as a teenager and continued since then mostly writing non-fiction i.e., scientific papers. In my mid-twenties, I got serious about a scientific career and thus focused on communicating science to the community of oceanographers. But I could not bury creative writing forever and I felt impelled to resume writing fiction a few years ago.
2. Who are your top five fictional characters?
Steerpike from Gormenghast (Mervyn Peake); Larry Darrell from The Razor’s Edge (W. Somerset Maugham); Lyra Belaqua from His Dark Materials (Phillip Pullman); Hana from The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje); Grace of Alias Grace (Margaret Atwood)
3. How many hours a day do you spend writing?
At the moment I am not writing at all as I’m writing science papers and really busy with my other (real) career. I have to admit that this is so frustrating as I’ve got the final, very minor edits of my third book “ The Gathering Places” to finish and half way through the first draft of another book. I would love to write fiction full-time but it's such a difficult road being an independent author. It would be a daunting prospect at the moment as I’m writing and publishing for the love of writing and publishing. I happy with that but one day it would be wonderful to break even!
4. Do you have a dream cast for your book?
Hmm. That’s a very difficult question. I was asked this question at one of the last tour stops…and I hedged my bets. I thought Benedict Cumberbatch would make a great villain Fimafeng, but, I’d also have a fondness for seeing Andy Serkis in that role… not in his Gollum/Smeagol CGI disguise. I’d want to have very strong female actors playing Yalara and Helia, the two Sprite heroines. I’d like to be in the casting call, and I’d see the essence of Yalara, Helia or Einion in the right actor.
5. Which book would you have with you on a desert island?
On desert island discs you usually get a choice of nine songs, a must-have book, and an essential. So, let me turn this question upside down and choose nine books, one record and an essential.
The books (in no particular order): • Gormenghast (Titus Groan, Gormenghast and Titus Alone counts as one!) by Mervyn Peake; • The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton; • His Dark Materials by Phillip Pullman; • The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje; • The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir; • Under Milkwood by Dylan Thomas; • One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez; • The Life of Pi by Yann Martel; • The Handmaids Tale by Margaret Atwood
The song (that’s a difficult one): Atmosphere by Joy Division,
but my alternative choices would be Sharon van Etten (I Don't Want to Let You Down), Burial or London Grammar!
The essential: A companion…my wife and soul mate. But perhaps she might not want to be deserted on the isle with me for eternity J
I started writing short-stories, poems and song lyrics as a teenager and continued since then mostly writing non-fiction i.e., scientific papers. In my mid-twenties, I got serious about a scientific career and thus focused on communicating science to the community of oceanographers. But I could not bury creative writing forever and I felt impelled to resume writing fiction a few years ago.
2. Who are your top five fictional characters?
Steerpike from Gormenghast (Mervyn Peake); Larry Darrell from The Razor’s Edge (W. Somerset Maugham); Lyra Belaqua from His Dark Materials (Phillip Pullman); Hana from The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje); Grace of Alias Grace (Margaret Atwood)
3. How many hours a day do you spend writing?
At the moment I am not writing at all as I’m writing science papers and really busy with my other (real) career. I have to admit that this is so frustrating as I’ve got the final, very minor edits of my third book “ The Gathering Places” to finish and half way through the first draft of another book. I would love to write fiction full-time but it's such a difficult road being an independent author. It would be a daunting prospect at the moment as I’m writing and publishing for the love of writing and publishing. I happy with that but one day it would be wonderful to break even!
4. Do you have a dream cast for your book?
Hmm. That’s a very difficult question. I was asked this question at one of the last tour stops…and I hedged my bets. I thought Benedict Cumberbatch would make a great villain Fimafeng, but, I’d also have a fondness for seeing Andy Serkis in that role… not in his Gollum/Smeagol CGI disguise. I’d want to have very strong female actors playing Yalara and Helia, the two Sprite heroines. I’d like to be in the casting call, and I’d see the essence of Yalara, Helia or Einion in the right actor.
5. Which book would you have with you on a desert island?
On desert island discs you usually get a choice of nine songs, a must-have book, and an essential. So, let me turn this question upside down and choose nine books, one record and an essential.
The books (in no particular order): • Gormenghast (Titus Groan, Gormenghast and Titus Alone counts as one!) by Mervyn Peake; • The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton; • His Dark Materials by Phillip Pullman; • The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje; • The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir; • Under Milkwood by Dylan Thomas; • One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez; • The Life of Pi by Yann Martel; • The Handmaids Tale by Margaret Atwood
The song (that’s a difficult one): Atmosphere by Joy Division,
but my alternative choices would be Sharon van Etten (I Don't Want to Let You Down), Burial or London Grammar!
The essential: A companion…my wife and soul mate. But perhaps she might not want to be deserted on the isle with me for eternity J