VBT – THE HIEROPHANT’S DAUGHTER

The Hierophant’s Daughter
(Disgraced Martyr Trilogy #1)
by M. F. Sullivan

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GENRE: Sci-fi, Horror, LGBTQ

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BLURB:

By 4042 CE, the Hierophant and his Church have risen to political dominance with his cannibalistic army of genetically modified humans: martyrs. In an era when mankind’s intergenerational cold wars against their long-lived predators seem close to running hot, the Holy Family is poised on the verge of complete planetary control. It will take a miracle to save humanity from extinction.

It will also take a miracle to resurrect the wife of 331-year-old General Dominia di Mephitoli, who defects during martyr year 1997 AL in search of Lazarus, the one man rumored to bring life to the dead. With the Hierophant’s Project Black Sun looming over her head, she has little choice but to believe this Lazarus is really all her new friends say he is–assuming he exists at all–and that these companions of hers are really able to help her. From the foulmouthed Japanese prostitute with a few secrets of her own to the outright sapient dog who seems to judge every move, they don’t inspire a lot of confidence, but the General has to take the help she can get.

After all, Dominia is no ordinary martyr. She is THE HIEROPHANT’S DAUGHTER, and her Father won’t let her switch sides without a fight. Not when she still has so much to learn.

The dystopic first entry of an epic cyberpunk trilogy, THE HIEROPHANT’S DAUGHTER is a horror/sci-fi adventure sure to delight and inspire adult readers of all stripes.

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EXCERPT

Excerpt One:

I

The Flight of the Governess

The Disgraced Governess of the United Front was blind in her right eye. Was that blood in the left, or was it damaged, too? The crash ringing in her ears kept her from thinking straight. Of course her left eye still worked: it worked well enough to prevent her from careening into the trees through which she plunged. Yet, for the tinted flecks of reality sometimes twinkling between crimson streaks, she could only imagine her total blindness with existential horror. Would the protein heal the damage? How severely was her left eye wounded? What about the one she knew to be blind—was it salvageable? Ichigawa could check, if she ever made it to the shore.

She couldn’t afford to think that way. It was a matter of “when,” not of “if.” She would never succumb. Neither could car accident, nor baying hounds, nor the Hierophant himself keep her from her goal. She had fourteen miles to the ship that would whisk her across the Pacific and deliver her to the relative safety of the Risen Sun. Then the Lazarene ceremony would be less than a week away. Cassandra’s diamond beat against her heart to pump it into double time, and with each double beat, she thought of her wife (smiling, laughing, weeping when she thought herself alone) and ran faster. A lucky thing the Governess wasn’t human! Though, had she remained human, she’d have died three centuries ago in some ghetto if she’d lived past twenty without becoming supper. Might have been the easier fate, or so she lamented each time her mind replayed the crash of the passenger-laden tanque at fifth gear against the side of their small car. How much she might have avoided!

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AUTHOR Bio and Links

M.F. Sullivan is the author of Delilah, My Woman, The Lightning Stenography Device, and a slew of plays in addition to the Trilogy. She lives in Ashland, Oregon with her boyfriend and her cat, where she attends the local Shakespeare Festival and experiments with the occult. Find more information about her work (and plenty of free essays) at https://www.paintedblindpublishing.com

Author Links:

Blog: https://www.paintedblindpublishing.comhttps://www.paintedblindpublishing.com
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/TheRealMFS
Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/M.-F.-Sullivan/e/B013DDEQVE
Goodreads Author Page: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/14199461.M_F_Sullivan

Buy/Review Links:

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Hierophants-Daughter-M-F-Sullivan/dp/0996539565
NetGalley: http://netgal.ly/AYYlKV
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/42921564-the-hierophant-s-daughter
Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-hierophants-daughter-m-f-sullivan/1129918390
Hardback: 978-0-9965395-6-2
Paperback: 978-0-9965395-7-9
eBook: 978-0-9965395-8-6

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RAFFLECOPTER GIVEAWAY

One randomly chosen winner via rafflecopter will win a $50 Amazon/BN.com gift card.

Enter to win a $50 Amazon/BN GC – a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Interview

What is the sweetest thing someone has done for you?

Hah, I don’t know. I’m not much of a romantic outside of my writing style. My boyfriend took me to New York two years ago, then we drove over to Ohio to visit my family—that was very sweet, very kind. And a whirlwind trip—eleven plays in eight days, I think? M. Butterfly was the best by far, but I also loved the off-Broadway production of A Clockwork Orange. It was really in-your-face and a very challenging production on an emotional level; the actors playing the Droogs managed to make me feel a little unsafe as an audience member, and I think that’s the highest praise I can give a play.

How would you spend ten thousand bucks?

Marketing the hell out of The Disgraced Martyr Trilogy! You’d see a big ad in the New York Times for a few days, at least. That would probably cost all ten thousand!

Where do you get your best ideas?

Listening to music just about anywhere, especially while doing dishes or going to the gym. Also, thinking about tropes I’d like to explore/revive, or thinking about works of art which disappointed me and how I would have done them better.

What comes first, the plot or characters?

Characters. Organic characters will write the story for you and I can’t stress that enough. They wrote this story for me! Especially Miki Soto, the Japanese prostitute—she’s a very plastic character, I think most readers will agree, and I feel like I had no say in anything about her. She just appeared in the work and stayed in the work, and slowly revealed herself as, just, this absolute gem of a character, both as a person and a plot device. If you have a bunch of really natural, strong-willed fictional characters and fall into the flow with them, they’ll just build a rapport off of one another and reveal the plot to you, one dialogue or interaction at a time.

What does your main character do that makes him/her special.

General Dominia di Mephitoli is the former Governess of the United Front—that’s essentially President of the United States. She’s widely known in her world as one of the most dangerous living martyrs, and she’s one of Earth’s most formidable fighters, with 1000 battles to her name. But as she runs around with her weird friends—Basil, the sapient dog, René the Franco-Japanese professor of English, and, of course, the aforementioned Miki Soto—it becomes apparent that Dominia’s quest to resurrect her wife has further-reaching implications. Especially when Dominia discovers what’s really going on with Basil, and that there’s no limit to her own abilities—or reality.