Electric City Switches Is LIVE!

It’s been my tradition for nigh on ten years now to have a drink and reflect on my newest book the night before it comes out. So, I sit here tonight with a daiquiri, which might be one of the hardest words to type… speaking after my two attempts at writing it now (and I’m a bit of an expert on the subject). And I almost didn’t get to drink tonight due to a cold, which seems to be the theme of this book.

I’ve joked before that I think these book releases are cursed, with this tenth one being no exception. Hell, it might be the bubonic plague of curses.

Electric City Switches has been my hardest book to write, for no other reason than I’m writing in another living culture, specifically a first/ second generation Telugu (Indian) family in the US. I’m about as straight male WASP as you can get, so this was certainly a stretch for me. But it was what the story wanted, so I stretched myself, and tapped all the Indian folks I know for help (who will remain nameless here since it feels cheap to try to tout my authenticity bona fides like a badge of honor for doing the bare minimum).

And it was an eye-opening experience, because the first question everyone I spoke to asked was, “Where in India does their family come from?” which to my WASP-ass was incidental since they were now Americans doing American things in America. Because this was so 100% not my experience growing up, and I did all I could to give this very other perspective the care and attention it deserved. And no matter how much effort I put into it, I don’t feel like it was enough.

It always felt like I was playing dress-up in someone’s family clothes the whole time, which slowed the process something fierce.    

I also lost my father during this book, first to dementia, then entirely when he died. Which is particularly… I don’t know, telling (?) since that’s a plot point in the story itself, as well as being estranged from a father (which we weren’t, but I definitely tapped some daddy issues to write this). Throw in Amazon locking in the release date along with a lot of other mundane release mishaps, this one has less umph going in that even my first book ten years ago.  

But enough bitching. This is now my favorite book, which I also think I say about all of them before they come out. It’s got a rad premise: bomb disposal, but done with magical enchantments. With Corbin, who’s still a novice at this, having to disarm deadly enchantments set by the woman who happens to be his mentor’s ex-girlfriend.

Mud sucks are real things in bomb disposal, by the way. Even if they look very much like that one scene in Heat. You know the one.

Also, this is the most music-influenced one, with the antagonist having been inspired by the Ramone’s song Sheena Is a Punk Rocker, which inspired first the character, then the story.

It also inspired the coded conversation that is Chapter 11: Sheena Is a Punk Rocker, where the two biggest music nerds in history have to pass along information on an open phone line using only band and song names. Which is a moment most of GenX has experienced on a weekly basis.

January comes from an aborted CYOA show I developed nearly 20 years ago, which involved vampires and witch hunters, and also inspired Solrana (named Arana at the time) and the loom from Ghost Stations. I’ll post an original scene between them at some point on the Exchange if I get my ass in gear. She was one of my favorite characters to create, so I’m happy she gets to live again here on these pages.

I’m also pretty proud of the structure, which has Sheena as the McGuffin that everyone is trying to catch as the basic premise. Isaac is sort of our POV for the first quarter/ act, with Corbin being passed off to January for the second, and then reevaluating our McGuffin of Sheena in the third, with Corbin having to use all the lessons he’s learned along the way to deal the finale.

That’s four-act gold, right there!

I’m also proud that every story that’s told in this is told at least two, and sometimes three different ways, from multiple perspectives. Every truth is viewed from many different angles, which is something I hold as a truism in my worldview.

Alright, enough. This daiquiri is getting on top of me, and it’s time for a second.

Go pick up Electric City Switches if you haven’t already. Books one and two are free and discounted at the time of writing this (but probably not at the time of reading, since no one does that; I know since I look at the blog stats).