Spark Rising by Kate Corcino
Publication date: December 15th 2014
Genres: New Adult, Post-Apocalyptic, Science Fiction
Publication date: December 15th 2014
Genres: New Adult, Post-Apocalyptic, Science Fiction
All that’s required to ignite a revolution is a single spark rising.
Two hundred years after the cataclysm that annihilated fossil fuels, Sparks keep electricity flowing through their control of energy-giving Dust. The Council of Nine rebuilt civilization on the backs of Sparks, offering citizens a comfortable life in a relo-city in exchange for power, particularly over the children able to fuel the future. The strongest of the boys are taken as Wards and raised to become elite agents, the Council’s enforcers and spies. Strong girls—those who could advance the rapidly-evolving matrilineal power—don’t exist. Not according to the Council.
Lena Gracey died as a child, mourned publicly by parents desperate to keep her from the Council. She was raised in hiding until she fled the relo-city for solitary freedom in the desert. Lena lives off the grid, selling her power on the black market.
Agent Alex Reyes was honed into a calculating weapon at the Ward School to do the Council’s dirty work. But Alex lives a double life. He’s leading the next generation of agents in a secret revolution to destroy those in power from within.
The life Lena built to escape her past ends the day Alex arrives looking for a renegade Spark.
Two hundred years after the cataclysm that annihilated fossil fuels, Sparks keep electricity flowing through their control of energy-giving Dust. The Council of Nine rebuilt civilization on the backs of Sparks, offering citizens a comfortable life in a relo-city in exchange for power, particularly over the children able to fuel the future. The strongest of the boys are taken as Wards and raised to become elite agents, the Council’s enforcers and spies. Strong girls—those who could advance the rapidly-evolving matrilineal power—don’t exist. Not according to the Council.
Lena Gracey died as a child, mourned publicly by parents desperate to keep her from the Council. She was raised in hiding until she fled the relo-city for solitary freedom in the desert. Lena lives off the grid, selling her power on the black market.
Agent Alex Reyes was honed into a calculating weapon at the Ward School to do the Council’s dirty work. But Alex lives a double life. He’s leading the next generation of agents in a secret revolution to destroy those in power from within.
The life Lena built to escape her past ends the day Alex arrives looking for a renegade Spark.
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Will be found here come release day: Amazon
Kate Corcino is a reformed shy girl who found her voice (and uses it…a lot). She believes in magic, coffee, Starburst candies, genre fiction, descriptive profanity, and cackling over wine with good friends. A recovering Dr. Pepper addict, she knows the only addiction worth feeding is the one that follows the “click-whooooosh” of a new story settling into her brain.
She also believes in the transformative power of screwing up and second chances. Cheers to works-in-progress of the literary and lifelong variety!
She is currently gearing up for publication of Ignition Point and Spark Rising , the first books in the Progenitor Saga, a near future dystopian adventure series with romantic elements, science, magic, and plenty of action.
She also believes in the transformative power of screwing up and second chances. Cheers to works-in-progress of the literary and lifelong variety!
She is currently gearing up for publication of Ignition Point and Spark Rising , the first books in the Progenitor Saga, a near future dystopian adventure series with romantic elements, science, magic, and plenty of action.
Author links:
https://twitter.com/katecorcino
I’d like to think I do, although they do
surprise me sometimes. They’ve also been known to fight back. If I’m not true
to a character, they stop cooperating and the story flow stops until I get back
on track. Alex, my male MC, is a huge pain in the ass and is very, very good at
doing this to me (which should surprise no one who reads Spark Rising!).
What made you decide to end Spark Rising the way you did?
Tell us about Spark Rising.
Spark Rising is a post-apocalyptic adventure set in the southwestern
United States of the future. It’s the story of Magdalena Gracey, a young woman
with the power to create and manipulate the only form of electricity left in
the world, and Agent Alejandro Reyes, a man trained from childhood to be an
elite soldier for the ruling government. He’s sent to investigate a report of
an illegal Spark living in the desert. But Alex has his own agenda. And if the
two of them can learn to work together instead of killing each other, they
might have a chance at sparking a revolution…and love.
What gave you the idea for your main character
in Spark Rising?
I’m not sure I ever really have ideas of
characters. I sort of get lost in a daydream that just comes to me, and they
are there, fully formed. Some are more vocal than others. Some daydreams I jot
down. Some I let go. Lena and Alex grabbed hold of me when I was supposed to be
writing something else and wouldn’t let me let go—which isn’t surprising,
considering the characters of Lena and Alex are two very driven, stubborn,
obsessive characters. They wouldn’t let me forget them even if I tried.
Would you say you know your characters
well?
Where did you get the idea for Spark
Rising?
It just came. I actually sat down with an
old, unfinished classic fantasy manuscript. I was determined to finish it. But
when it came time to write, I found I was jotting notes about a completely
different story—it wasn’t even the same genre. Lena and Alex wanted their story
told.
What was the most difficult part of the
writing process for you?
Editing. Absolutely. I had done beta
rounds. I had revised it five times—heavy revisions where I cut thirty thousand
words. I felt pretty confident. Ha HA! My editor, who is amazing, sent me a
ten-page email shredding it. Having never been through the process, I was
devastated. I printed it out and read it and cried and swore up a storm. And
then I put it away for a week. Once I’d calmed down, I was ready to look at it
objectively and make my revision list and go through it very methodically. But
that first look—oh, that was brutal! It’s also the most important part. You’ve
got to have an editor you trust, and one who is willing to make you cry if it
means your manuscript is better at the end. Someone who tells you what you want
to hear or is afraid to tell you what you need to hear is doing you ZERO
favors.
What inspired Spark Rising?
In the days before the story came, I’d
seen two sets of photos online. The first was an abandoned town in the desert
that was being buried by sand. The second was a series of various city skylines
from around the world showing what the night sky would look like if there were
no lights, no electricity. I was blown away. Because yes, they’re both gorgeous.
But the devastation of that loss of civilization…wow. Even in devastation,
there would be beauty so long as we are the kind of people who have the
capacity to see it. That’s the big "what if?” What kind of people are able
to see the beauty?
Do you see yourself in any of the
characters of Spark Rising?
Hmm. Not much, no. I think Lena has some
of my negative qualities—the bossiness, the tendency to jump to conclusions. As
her story moves on through the greater arc of the series, I think she’ll
reflect a little more of me, as she discovers and fights with her maternal
instinct. Alex has my extreme pragmatism and love of profanity, also not
necessarily good qualities. Jackson? He has too much light in him to be a
reflection of me!
What made you decide to end Spark Rising the way you did?
*laugh* It originally had a very different
ending. By the time I'd made other changes that really were very necessary, the
ending I wrote originally didn’t work. The ending it has now is actually the
third ending written, I think. Those last two chapters changed A LOT.
How
many books long will the Progenitor Saga be?
Originally, I’d planned five main novel-length
books. It may stretch slightly longer, but no more than seven. But they’re
long, and it takes a while to write them, so I also plan to release collections
of related short stories and novellas in between the novels. The shorts are
about secondary characters, or side events, or past events and will all stand
alone. The first collection, Ignition
Point, is already out. In fact, readers responded so well to one of the
characters in Ignition Point that
I’ve written him into the second book. So, if you read it…yes, Ghost does
return!
