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Guest Blog Today: Steven Harper, THE HAVOC MACHINE, and Many Kinds of Love
(I meant to post this yesterday, and then got ghastly ill, which knocked it clean out of my head. Clearly time to learn if I can now post in advance on LiveJournal! Serious apologies to Steven (![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
spiziks), because this is a wonderful little post. THE HAVOC MACHINE, by Steven Harper, is the fourth novel in the exciting steampunk Clockwork Empire series. Please enjoy Steven's talk about, well...the love interest isn't always just one person.)
I did say steampunk, didn't I?
You know the trope: the hero has to have a love interest. In adventure fiction, this is a subplot. In romance fiction, it's the main plot. Usually the hero (let's assume it's a straight male) starts off not getting along with his eventual lady love, or he can't be with her for some reason, but through the course of the story, he comes to realize he can't live without her and/or they overcome the obstacles so they can be together. Dab your eyes with a tissue.
When I started writing THE HAVOC MACHINE, I created Thad, my protagonist, and Sofiya, a prominent female character and his eventual love interest. However, as the book progressed, I realized the two of them had zero romantic chemistry for each other. Nada. Zip. What's more, I didn't really want to force the issue.
Meanwhile, another character showed up.
His name was Nikolai, a little boy who attaches himself to Thad and forces him into the role of father, a role Thad has no interest in playing.
I quickly realized that this relationship was the actual center of the story, and I pushed it hard. Nikolai relentelssly pursues Thad, forcing him to confront a growing desire to be a father and face fears Thad has been avoiding for years. Sofiya realizes early on what's happening, and she gleefully plays a sort-of matchmaker, much to Thad's consternation.
The entire plot rather mirrors my own relationship with my adopted son Maksim, though unlike Thad, I embraced fatherhood and our growing relationship. I layered in everything I knew about father-son bonding in adopted households, and during the final scenes of the book, I was openly weeping. In a good way. I don't like tragic endings.
I sent the book to my agent, and she emailed me a few days later. "You made me cry!" she complained.
"Where are you?" I wrote back.
"Chapter four."
"Uh oh," I replied. "Keep those hankies handy."
A while later, she wrote another email full of swears about how I'd made her cry in public over the final chapter.
A hero can have more than one kind of love interest.
In a world riddled with the destruction of men and machines alike, Thaddeus Sharpe takes to the streets of St. Petersburg, geared toward the hunt of his life….
Thaddeus Sharpe’s life is dedicated to the hunting and killing of clockworkers. When a mysterious young woman named Sofiya Ekk approaches him with a proposition from a powerful employer, he cannot refuse. A man who calls himself Mr. Griffin seeks Thad’s help with mad clockwork scientist Lord Havoc, who has molded a dangerous machine. Mr. Griffin cares little if the evil Lord lives or dies; all he desires is Havoc’s invention.
Upon Thad’s arrival at Havoc’s laboratory, he is met with a chilling discovery. Havoc is not only concealing his precious machine; he has been using a young child by the name of Nikolai for cruel experiments. Locked into a clockwork web of intrigue, Thad must decipher the dangerous truth surrounding Nikolai and the chaos contraption before havoc reigns….
spiziks), because this is a wonderful little post. THE HAVOC MACHINE, by Steven Harper, is the fourth novel in the exciting steampunk Clockwork Empire series. Please enjoy Steven's talk about, well...the love interest isn't always just one person.)I did say steampunk, didn't I?
You know the trope: the hero has to have a love interest. In adventure fiction, this is a subplot. In romance fiction, it's the main plot. Usually the hero (let's assume it's a straight male) starts off not getting along with his eventual lady love, or he can't be with her for some reason, but through the course of the story, he comes to realize he can't live without her and/or they overcome the obstacles so they can be together. Dab your eyes with a tissue.
When I started writing THE HAVOC MACHINE, I created Thad, my protagonist, and Sofiya, a prominent female character and his eventual love interest. However, as the book progressed, I realized the two of them had zero romantic chemistry for each other. Nada. Zip. What's more, I didn't really want to force the issue.
Meanwhile, another character showed up.
His name was Nikolai, a little boy who attaches himself to Thad and forces him into the role of father, a role Thad has no interest in playing.
I quickly realized that this relationship was the actual center of the story, and I pushed it hard. Nikolai relentelssly pursues Thad, forcing him to confront a growing desire to be a father and face fears Thad has been avoiding for years. Sofiya realizes early on what's happening, and she gleefully plays a sort-of matchmaker, much to Thad's consternation.
The entire plot rather mirrors my own relationship with my adopted son Maksim, though unlike Thad, I embraced fatherhood and our growing relationship. I layered in everything I knew about father-son bonding in adopted households, and during the final scenes of the book, I was openly weeping. In a good way. I don't like tragic endings.
I sent the book to my agent, and she emailed me a few days later. "You made me cry!" she complained.
"Where are you?" I wrote back.
"Chapter four."
"Uh oh," I replied. "Keep those hankies handy."
A while later, she wrote another email full of swears about how I'd made her cry in public over the final chapter.
A hero can have more than one kind of love interest.
In a world riddled with the destruction of men and machines alike, Thaddeus Sharpe takes to the streets of St. Petersburg, geared toward the hunt of his life….
Thaddeus Sharpe’s life is dedicated to the hunting and killing of clockworkers. When a mysterious young woman named Sofiya Ekk approaches him with a proposition from a powerful employer, he cannot refuse. A man who calls himself Mr. Griffin seeks Thad’s help with mad clockwork scientist Lord Havoc, who has molded a dangerous machine. Mr. Griffin cares little if the evil Lord lives or dies; all he desires is Havoc’s invention.
Upon Thad’s arrival at Havoc’s laboratory, he is met with a chilling discovery. Havoc is not only concealing his precious machine; he has been using a young child by the name of Nikolai for cruel experiments. Locked into a clockwork web of intrigue, Thad must decipher the dangerous truth surrounding Nikolai and the chaos contraption before havoc reigns….
Clockwork Empire Blog Tour:Katharine Kimbriel and Many Kinds of Love
no subject
You just grabbed me by the throat. Now I have to ask you, do they need to be read in order? I need to read this book, but should I read the second one first?
Damn you. I don't have time for this right now!
But I will make time.
no subject
no subject
THE HAVOC MACHINE is a standalone in the Clockwork Empire, so you can read that at any point.