Pestilence

by Rhys Ford

First, thank the blogs for having me on this Ink and Shadows tour! Thank you so so much! Secondly, this next part will be the same across the blogs but I wanted to give a bit of a soundbite about the whys of this book.

In the Beginning, there was urban fantasy. Okay to be fair, the urban fantasy genre didn’t exist when I began to read. Back then, it was pretty much either sci-fi or high fantasy. There were murmurs of urban fantasy—Mercedes Lackey’s elves / bard series, Gael Baudino’s Gossamer Axe, to name a few—but it caught and began gaining traction, a bastard stepchild of magic and an alternative universe.

Urban fantasy was always a playground for experimentation and I wanted to go off the rails a bit with Ink and Shadows. There had to be a solid footing in the contemporary world and the underbelly of humanity. Or rather, the expression of humanity. When I wrote this book, it was to explore the possibilities of personalities and okay, play around with the world.

I chose to write about the Horsemen of the Apocalypse and Kismet, the human who changes their world, because I wanted to delve into their being a necessary part of humanity’s existence. Over the course of the tour, I’ll touch on the main characters and components of the Horsemen’s world.

I hope you all like Ink and Shadows, my foray past the shadows.

Oh! And as a giveaway! Enter to win Pestilence’s Horse! That’s right! A black pony of your very own!

Pestilence

Ah, Mal. Pestilence is the newest Horseman and overwhelmed probably describes his situation the best. While none of the Manifestations know their origins or how they died, there are usually clues as to when they came from—personality traits and knowledge of the times. Mal is definitely a child of the current century, intrinsically aware of new technologies and shifting societies where the other Horsemen have had to adapt to the changes around them.

Unfortunately, Mal’s differences create conflict in the well-oiled Horsemen machine. War and Min are very judgmental of their new younger “brother” whereas Death is having to mentor Mal heavily on the concept of consequences. Mal’s heart is in the right place. He’s the most eager and earnest of the Horsemen but he does wield a lot of power and where humanity is concerned, a light touch is often best.

Licking his wounds from some spectacular failures, Mal is still eager to prove himself. He is probably the most human of the Horsemen, settling into a new existence with a whole bunch of knowledge but an opaque amnesia of how to be a person… or even what kind of person he wants to be.

With the others’ strong personalities, Mal struggles to find his place…and wonders what the world is like outside of the Veil, outside of their bubble. As the Veil begin to thin around them, wraiths begin to feed on their hapless victims and Mal is thrust into the fray. A skirmish brings him into contact with a human, a delectable, broken young man who sees him. Actually sees Mal through the Veil.

And that’s where Mal’s troubles truly begin.

About Ink and Shadows

Kismet Andreas lives in fear of the shadows.

For the young tattoo artist, the shadows hold more than darkness. He is certain of his insanity because the dark holds creatures and crawling things only he can see—monsters who hunt out the weak to eat their minds and souls, leaving behind only empty husks and despair.

And if there’s one thing Kismet fears more than being hunted—it’s the madness left in its wake.

The shadowy Veil is Mal’s home. As Pestilence, he is the youngest—and most inexperienced—of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, immortal manifestations resurrected to serve—and cull—mankind. Invisible to all but the dead and insane, the Four exist between the Veil and the mortal world, bound to their nearly eternal fate. Feared by other immortals, the Horsemen live in near solitude but Mal longs to know more than Death, War and Famine.

Mal longs to be… more human. To interact with someone other than lunatics or the deceased.

When Kismet rescues Mal from a shadowy attack, Pestilence is suddenly thrust into a vicious war—where mankind is the prize, and the only one who has faith in Mal is the human the other Horsemen believe is destined to die.

Available at: DSP Publications & Amazon

About Rhys Ford

Rhys Ford was born and raised in Hawai’i then wandered off to see the world. After chewing through a pile of books, a lot of odd food, and a stray boyfriend or two, Rhys eventually landed in San Diego, which is a very nice place but seriously needs more rain.

Rhys admits to sharing the house with three cats of varying degrees of black fur and a ginger cairn terrorist. Rhys is also enslaved to the upkeep a 1979 Pontiac Firebird, a Toshiba laptop, and an overworked red coffee maker.

And at the Starbucks down the street. No really, they’re 24/7. And a drive-thru. It’s like heaven.

Find out more about Rhys on her Blog, Facebook, Twitter or her books can be purchased, folded and first chapters read at Dreamspinner Press.

Rhys has graciously offered up a chance to win Mal’s iconic Dark Horse!!

The giveaway starts now and ends July 17, 2015 at 11:59 p.m. To enter, just click the link below!

Rafflecopter Giveaway

Please be aware that the only way to enter the giveaway is to click the Rafflecopter link above. Any comments on this post will not count towards entering the giveaway, except to verify your Rafflecopter entry.

Good luck!