Blade of Echoes: Inside the Novel (Part I)
- Max the Ronin that Writes
- Aug 15
- 7 min read
What's up y'all.
I'll be honest here...I'm a mixture of excited and also nervous as I write this.
The words I'm about to spill here are brush strokes...a teaser if you will...
For the wrestling fans out there is is kinda a shoot....a promo.
To get you all to 'buy in' to something that I've bled on the pages for.
240+ Pages of grit, triumph, failure, death, grief, and overcoming the craziest of obstacles...all intertwined with love, loyalty and a Cyberpunk City sitting inside a war torn country that labeled itself as 'the patriotic standard of the world' for centuries.
A blip on the radar of the body of time itself which hangs in the balance.
At the heart of all of this...is my first ever completed (DRAFT) novel in over 20 years: Blade of Echoes.
I've promised some inside scoops about the novel for quite some time! So here we go! Lets start with the Premise.
The Premise of Blade of Echoes (So Far)
This novel will be the first in a Trilogy entitled Death Before Dishonor or DB4D. I've been teaching myself about novel writing, or rather, finding ways to enhance my novel writing as I've progressed through the draft process.
I've played around with nearly a dozen premises and decided on:
"A disavowed war veteran gets a second chance at life to champion the "free world" with a weapon forged through time, while possibly sacrificing everyone he cares for to defend it."
This may still need a bit of work, but it highlights the story's energy in the best way. The main protagonist, Deimos Moon goes through the story facing a significant series of challenges we'll talk about later. But, none more difficult than the personal battle he fights within: battling grief, simmering rage, and doubt on many personal fronts. Of course the outside world wants to test him so much that he's given a second chance, with a cost that forces him to further evolve in combat.
Good luck homie, shit's about to get real.
The "World" Itself: The Divided States of America
I had fun with this! I wanted to dive headfirst into a Cyberpunk Dystopia of sorts. So I created New Rekks City, built upon the ruins of the former city that never sleeps. Wait...NYC is gone? What happened? Why though?
The answer? The Transcontinental War that drew the final line between what is now known as the Divided States. Each side of the War spawned by overzealous politicians in an already fragile democratic system, had its own armed forces.
The chaos started with the President being assassinated and the Vice President stepping down for his decline in health. Given the line of succession, the Majority Leader of the House of Representatives became President. The interim President verbally came to blows over what was deemed an overly aggressive military operation with the U.S. Armed Forces Central Command (CENTCOM) Commanding General (CG), whom vowed not to budge on his strategy. As such, the good General was relieved from duty and later forced into retirement.
This leads to the former General targeting the President for his inadequate policies including his handling on foreign entities and governments, which sparked people to get behind the General to run for office.
Presidential elections come round. Votes are cast away and rigged. A split decision between the three candidates resulted in two recounts that ended in a dead heat. Sound familiar doesn't it? The third recount declared the former interim President as the disputed victor when details of the former General's misconduct surfaced. The former General vowed upon seceding that he would fulfill his promise to cleanse the cage of the country...until he turned up dead at his home, a video of their disagreements led to the President himself becoming a possible person of interest.
I have a whole backstory on this (that perhaps I can turn into its own series), but in a nutshell, this broke the divide of the country wide open and the organization known as the Legion of Ethos would disrupt the country in non conventional ways focused on the military, digital, and infrastructure targets. This would lead to the collapse of cities across the country and displaced millions of Americans in the process.
The Birth of New Rekks City: The Iron Cyber City
Enter New Rekks City, a new state of the art Cyber city Development that would become a haven to preserve life and jump start the mark of the digital dynasty of billion-dollar/war-bonds investor, philanthropist, and aspiring savior Marcus Rekks II.
All starts out promising in the honeymoon years for the Cyber city divided up into 13 distinct districts. Multiple corporations banned together to develop top of the line infrastructure and housing. Refugees and businesses started moving in to bolster the stand alone economy, which developed its own currency and foreign exchange markets. A political government concept was ratified, standing up the Iron Administration (Corporate Democracy with each Corporation having a percentage of decision power) and establishing Marcus Rekks II as the inaugural Mayor.
Supply and demand took a toll on the NRC initially as many items required imports from the war-torn areas until agriculture and manufacturing plants were established. This would cause massive hikes on taxes and fees.
Jobs became more difficult for average citizens to qualify for as city continued to become more technologically advanced. Crime spikes and criminal elements soon banded together to acquire resources they could not afford through traditional means. Turf wars would begin between competing criminal elements and the Iron Administration would launch an aggressive anti-crime campaign to quell the violence. The Mayor was almost assassinated in broad daylight via terrorists, which resulted in the establishment of martial law and the request for U.S. military presence in three of the 13 districts.
Racism was also becoming problematic as reports surfaced of increased illegal targeting of specific racial groups. Municipal Police Forces (MPF) were de-funded to save face, but many of the disgruntled officers stood up separate militia groups, became bounty hunters, or joined cartels and criminal elements determined to undermine the Iron Administration.
Black markets soon became the norm. Acquisition Contractor and Bounty Hunter markets also expanded for access to quick cash under the radar of a diminished law enforcement agency.
The more things change, the more they stay the same. I wanted to show that the struggles we face today are evolved in the future, placing us at the brink of which we would never fathom: the end of everything as we know it.
Deimos Moon: Disavowed and Left for Dead (Almost)
Blade of Echoes is told through the point of view of my main protagonist Deimos Moon.
Deimos, to me has always been a fascinating name, who's origin ties into one of Mars' moons and Greek mythology as the personification of terror and dread prior to battle. However, Deimos personality in the story is anything but...until you mess with his peace and those he cares about.
Its no secret that there is an absence of colored (trying to eliminate black from my vocabulary courtesy of Miss Morsel LOL) representation in novels, let alone the Sci-Fi and Thriller genres. I always wanted my main to represent the skin I was born with, and so I remained true to the vision in his conception.
Though he was raised New Rekks City, he has roots from the Caribbean and the Bayou. A military veteran with over 10 years of experience as a Forward Operations Intelligence Technician or FOINT, credentialed as an Military Intelligence Warrant officer midway through his career. His career would come to an end abruptly while on a mission to retrieve a high value target in the midst of the ongoing war. His entire team wiped out with a heavy munitions strike after they were led into an ambush. The strike confirmed to have been covered up by his superiors which made Deimos come to blows with his commanding officer and getting an Other than Honorable Discharge from the U.S. Army: a death sentence when wanting to gain civilian work.
To make matters worse, his marriage crumbled because of his dedication to duty, honor, and country. His ex-Wife divorced him on grounds that he was a good man, but an absent husband and father even when he was home with them. With a heavy heart he had to start his entire life over from scratch, with the drive and determination to get back on his feet and be present for his children as much as he possibly could in the process. Its been a mountain to climb with plenty of storms and obstacles, but each video or phone call to his kids gives him a jolt of positivity he needed to keep pushing forward.
Desperate to make ends meet, he becomes an Acquisitions Contractor, an off-the-books gig where he receives mid to high profile jobs to retrieve items of high importance to anonymous clients that paid handsomely for the items seized. Using Dark Web Black-site credentials, Deimos receives recovery jobs, reviews the details and remain discreet from authorities at all times. His military background with SPEC OPS and Intelligence proved valuable in the transition as he has been mildly successful within his first few months in the business. He also tells his tale and promotes Mental Health on his own up and coming Podcast initiative.
Despite his success his big break comes when he's sent into one of the Military Armament Strike Group (MAGS) bases to retrieve a mysterious package. This discovery pushes the story into full gear and forces Deimos to make a choice with each having dire consequences. Follow through with the acquisition and put the fate of the world at risk, or listen to the voice in his head telling him to abandon the mission and keep the package for himself as he can use it to make a difference.
That package is....The Blade of Echoes.
I don't want to give much else away at the moment as there is SO MUCH going on in the story itself!
I hope this little bit of a tease gets you hyped and wanting to dive right in! I'll definitely reveal more as time goes on since you all are my people (and I need to start marketing this anyway as I finish up the next wave of beta reads and revisions).
Speaking of, special shout out to my BETA READERS out there reading V2 of the novel as of this writing! I've gotten great feedback so far and I am excited to hear how you all feel as you get to the end!
Writing is hard work...but damn it...I love my works!
Until next time y'all, stay tuned and lets be #WRITEntangled.
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