Q&A about BLENDING TIME and FIRES OF NEW SUN

Here's some Q&A about my books, THE BLENDING TIME (2010) and its sequel, THE FIRES OF NEW SUN (Jan. 2012), [Book-3 of the series is due out end of 2012].

Q: How did I choose the future world in the books?
A: I started with the premise of climate change. Glaciers and icecaps are melting so seas will rise and ocean currents will change to produce new weather patterns. Lowlands will be inundated; some regions will have increased rains and floods; some will become dustbowls. By 2050 countries will go to war for basic resources. Governments break down. Basic infrastructures (electricity and communications) fail.

Q: What's it like in 2069 when our 'heroes' turn 17--the age for their govt assignments?
A: The are from the Pacific Northwest which is drying up. California and Mexico are now vast deserts. The great battles and plagues are over, but many people are forced to emigrate from this wasteland of North America.

Q: Why do they go to Africa?
A: Atlantic currents have changed and Africa is getting more rainfall. Even the great Sahara is shrinking. Africa has lost millions due to the wars and plagues. To top it off, radiation from a giant sunflare has bombarded Africa and parts of the Indian subcontinent. Chromosome damage has caused sterility. Jaym, Reya, and D'Shay are being transported with hundreds of others to help rebuild infrastructure and marry into the population in hopes of reversing the recessive chromosomal damage (sterile African + non-affected "Blender" = children) .

Q: What is THE FIRES OF NEW SUN about?
A: Our Blenders must overcome bands of mercenaries (Renegades or 'Gades) run by warlords who lingered in Africa after the Pan-Af Wars. Africans and Blenders (including Reya, Jaym, and D'Shay) have joined to form a fighting force called New SUN. New SUN has 3 bases in the Blue Mts of Chewena, E. Africa and must take on the 'gades to survive. The 'gades are determined to wipe out the smaller forces of New SUN. The fate of Africa hinges on the success or failure of New SUN.

New Reviews of THE BLENDING TIME

Here are clips of recent reviews (pretty good!):

The Blending Time by Michael Kinch will be reviewed in the November 1, 2010 issue of Booklist [circ. 24,150].

The Blending Time.

Kinch, Michael (Author)

Oct 2010. 288 p. Flux, paperback, $9.95. (9780738720678).

Set in a dystopian future in which young heroes and heroines are pursued and harassed by corrupt government officials, Kinch’s first novel calls to mind Suzanne Collins and Cory Doctorow. It’s 2054, and plagues, devastating pollution, and predetermined (and deadly) jobs are the norm. Seventeen-year-olds Reya, D’Shay, and Jaym meet during a sea voyage to Africa, where they are to become “blenders,” creating offspring with native Africans (who can no longer reproduce with each other). Each blender encounters horrific experiences, including rape and attempted murder, but all find sympathetic allies and make their way to the underground resistance movement. While this debut title lacks the tight construction of Collins’ Hunger Games series, Kinch’s depiction of the many different landscapes is a nice distinction. Determinedly multi-ethnic, fast-paced, and with plentiful gore and violence, the book will draw reluctant readers who enjoy action and adventure. Sequels are definitely in order, as the protagonists are left hanging on several cliffs. — Debbie Carton

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The Blending Time by Michael Kinch is reviewed in the Sept 15 issue of Kirkus Reviews

THE BLENDING TIME
Author: Kinch, Michael

A well-realized, harsh dystopia provides the setting for this exciting debut. Sometime in the late 21st century, three 17-year-olds face a future dictated by their corrupt global government. All might be sent to work on the “canal,” a death sentence, so they take measures to get any other job possible. The three wind up in Africa, where they are supposed to marry local people and produce offspring—the entire population of the continent has been sterilized by an intense solar flare. One finds herself captured by the “gades” (presumably short for “renegades”), bandits who raid the back country and keep captured women as sex slaves. After some hair-raising adventures, the other two boys find themselves battling the “gades” as well. Kinch invents a plethora of abbreviated jargon that heightens the credibility of his awful future world. His three main characters will easily convince readers that they’re real, distinct people. Full of action, this is a compelling, realistic and exciting thriller for more mature young readers. (Science fiction. 14 & up)

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NEW YORK JOURNAL OF BOOKS (ONLINE)

Friday, October 1, 2010

The Blending Time by Michael Kinch

(Flux, October 1, 2010)


...This is not a book for the tenderhearted, because it doesn’t flinch at showing us how an already terrible situation could continue to get worse, and how that situation affects real people who are stuck in the middle of it. It’s brutal and enraging, and yet The Blending Time makes the reader simultaneously happy not to be there, and uncomfortably aware that events like those that occur in this book are actually happening now.

Yes, The Blending Time could easily be the start of a series. This is Kinch’s first book, and it’s a rough one, but a good one. He’s certainly a name to follow.

Reviewer Samantha Holloway is a freelance writer and editor, and is working on her first novel. Her most recent short story is in Fiction International’s FREAK issue and an upcoming anthology, and her academic work has appeared in The Essential Science Fiction Television Reader, and at various conferences.

My new (and first!) YA novel

My YA novel, The Blending Time, will debut in early October 2010 by Flux Books. I am new at blogging, so forgive the underlining and whatever other garbage falls out of my posts.
It took me years--eons--to learn to write a decent manuscript, so this may be my 15 minutes of fame. Beneath the image I've posted an excerpt from Amazon's listing. Get your friends to rush out and buy dozens of copies! It's not a bad book, if I say so myself. (Blush). I'd be curious how many of you like dystopian fiction (where the near future is really messed up and people have to survive).

Congratulations on turning age seventeen. You are now ready for placement by the Council government.

"For kids in the year 2069, turning seventeen means they’re ripe for Global Alliance work assignments that range from backbreaking drudgery to deadly canal labor. Trying to survive in a desiccated world that’s been ravaged by plagues, AIDS III, and environmental disasters, three “s’teeners” from very different backgrounds think they’ve gotten lucky. Jaym, Reya, and D’Shay are chosen to be among thousands of blenders whose task is to help repopulate Africa after a solar flare left its people sterile.

But the continent itself—roiling with civil war and mercenaries intent on crushing the blending program at any cost—poses the gravest danger of all. Separated, the three friends struggle to escape horrific situations, somehow reunite, and reach a camp in the mountains that promises salvation from the harsh and threatening world."

"Shocking and unrelenting--Kinch delivers a blistering, no-holds-barred tale of a dystopian future that feels all too real"

(Arthur Slade, Governor General Award-winning author of The Hunchback Assignments.)