MARCH 25, 2013
SOUL MEANING BOOK TOUR: BONUS MATERIAL + RESEARCH + GIVEAWAY WITH THE LOVELY WENONA AT THE CREATIVELY GREEN WRITE AT HOME MOM!
After here’s the 8th stop on Day 5 of the Soul Meaning Book Tour with Wenona Napolitano, freelance writer, port, and author of The Everything Green Wedding Book. This woman has not one, not two, but three blogs! Go check them out, they are full of green, eco-friendly goodies and wonderful craftwork!
www.creativelygreen.blogspot.com
www.everythinggreenweddings.blogspot.co.uk
www.santafortheholidays.blogspot.co.uk
Hello and thank you for having me here!
Today, I would like to share bonus material from the research that went intoSoul Meaning, the first novel in my supernatural thriller series Seventeen. These extras will hopefully give you an insight into what was going through my mind when I was writing the book!
Enjoy!
1. Lucas’s Glock 17
Although he hates violence, this is Lucas Soul’s favorite gun by far. Designed by Gaston Glock and manufactured by Glock Ges.m.b.H. since 1982, its use has been widely adopted by police and military forces around the world, including the British Armed Forces from 2013. A third of the way into writing Soul Meaning, I ended up changing the guns I had given to Lucas and his human partner Reid Hasley simply because I wanted them to be able to share magazines during one particular fight scene.
2. Lucas’s daisho
The katana is the longer blade, with the shorter wakizashi below, each with its own lacquered scabbard. The principal reason I chose this weapon for Lucas is because I made become the apprentice to Miyamoto Musashi, the author of ‘The Book of Five Rings’ and the founder of the Hyoho Niten Ichi-ryu, the ‘Two Heavens as One’ or ‘Two Swords as One’ style of swordsmanship. Musashi was a ronin who lived during the Japanese Edo period and was reputed to have been the best samurai in the world, undefeated in battle. The other major influence for choosing Japanese blades comes from my fascination with action mangas and animes, particularly Bleach.
3. Lucas’s Hayabusa
This is one of three motorcycles owned by Lucas. The word Hayabusa translates to Peregrine Falcon in Japanese. This Suzuki sports bike has been hailed the fastest production motorcycle of the 20th century, with a recorded top speed of 194 mph; this is close to the velocity achieved in a stoop or vertical hunting dive by the bird of prey it was named after. Lucas’s Hayabusa is midnight black.
4. Reid’s Chevy
Reid’s 1987 Chevrolet Monte Carlo. He got it from the Boston PD when he resigned as a Homicide Detective. It has a police radio scanner that comes in handy during their stake outs. Seriously though, he should negotiate a raise with Lucas.
5. One of Lucas’s many cars
This is Lucas’s Dodge Viper SRT10, although his is blue. People who know me well are aware of my fascination with nice cars. Don’t bother asking me about their specs or what’s under the hood, I’m all about the curves, the angles, the sleekness, the general Va-va-voom of these manmade beasts. Very much like his creator, Lucas likes his cars fast. This comes as a rather nasty surprise for Reid. It’ll take a long time for the poor guy to recover from that trip to New York…
6. Pierre Vauquois’s Jaguar XK120 roadster
When I took the story across to Europe, I immediately visualized Lucas and Reid driving around Paris in a vintage vehicle. Although I originally intended to put them in a classic Citroën 2CV, I felt it would not do justice to their characters, and chose the Jag instead. Also, I wanted a faster and sexier ride for the chase scene in Gif-sur-Yvette. This is the car that Lucas virtually destroys in France. The Citroën still made it into the story though!
7. Zurich Hauptbahnhof
Having never been to Zurich, it took me days of research to be able to visualize the interior of the Hauptbahnhof station, as well as the layout of the roads around it. These were crucial factors in writing that epic fight and chase scene, especially when I moved the action to the Bahnhofstrasse. I hope the descriptions made for vivid reading!
8. Lucas’s favorite beer
I made the original Stiegl beer Lucas’s favorite drink because it would have been around at the time the Ottoman Empire tried to capture Vienna again in 1683. It’s a miracle he managed to fight the Ottoman Army at all…
9. The Bastians’ C40 Clipper
The is the military Boeing aircraft the Bastians use to get Lucas out of Germany. I originally wanted to give them a Boeing C-17 Globemaster or the Lockheed C-5 Galaxy with its nose and aft doors, but a larger military aircraft would have limited the number of private or abandoned airfields they could use, and would have seriously stood out.
10. The Halo Drop
I had so much fun researching the HALO (high altitude low opening) jump. For one thing, I also learned about the HAHO (high altitude high opening) jump. I picked the HALO because it has the cooler name of the two (seriously, who’s gonna pick the HAHO? It sounds like some kind of garden maze or something to do with suspicious dwarves!). Also, the HALO has the longer free fall, with that super sweet terminal velocity of 170 mph. I knew I wanted this for the final battle scene, although having Lucas and Reid learn the finer points of HALO jumping in one day is, realistically speaking, impossible! Now, imagine doing this in the dark, with night vision goggles! I have the perfect song for it on my September 18 2012 News post.
These extras are also available under the Bonus section on my website. Look out for upcoming bonus material from King’s Crusade, Book 2 in the series Seventeen!
Happy reading, writing, and blogging!
AD Starrling