The Blue Effect
Renegade
Heroes
Book
One
Rose
Shababy
Genre: Adult Urban Sci-fi/Fantasy
Date of Publication: September
8th, 2014
Cover Artist: Regina Wamba
Book Description:
Blue
Brennan is jaded and bitter despite her pinup girl looks and quick wit. Night
after night, she scours the Seattle club scene looking for someone or something
to fill the emptiness inside.
When
she meets the mysterious Kasey, her world stops… literally. He claims she has the ability to control time and stuns
her even further when he reveals his own gifts.
Blue
is inexplicably drawn to Kasey and reluctantly enters his world filled with a
new breed of humanity. They’re misfits like her, blessed or cursed with
powerful abilities, struggling to hide their differences from the rest of
society.
Then
the group discovers
a nameless, faceless sociopath with nightmarish powers; and he’s coming for
Blue. She’s left reeling when they discover her gifts are the key to defeating
his terrible evil and saving them all.
Now she must race against the clock to harness her own powers and save
her new friends. Can she be more than a renegade? Can she be a hero too?
“How
do you do that?” I asked, finding my voice. I looked around the dance floor, at
all the people frozen like 3D photographs. It didn’t make sense that I wasn’t
scared by the situation at hand, but fear didn’t factor into my emotional state
at all. I also wondered what it would be like to walk through the crowd and
note all their bodily contortions and facial expressions, but I held back. At
the moment I was more interested in hearing what this man had to say. “How did
you make everything stop?”
“As
to how I do what I do, I can only tell you that I do it. I know someone that
can explain the how better than I. As to this,” he waggled a finger toward the
still figures in the room, “this is all you. I can only help you … amplify what
you had inside you to begin with.”
It
was my turn to laugh, but it was humorless and harsh. “What are you talking
about?”
“You
have felt different all your life, no?”
“Sure.
But doesn’t everybody?” I answered with an eye roll and looked around the room
again. “Look at these morons. They’re all playing dress up, hiding their real
selves from each other. But the truth is they’re desperate to find someone to
love them. Hoping they’ll be important to someone, anyone, because they sure as
hell don’t feel important to themselves. Hoping they’ll actually matter. Hoping
that someone can take away the emptiness they feel every time they look in the
mirror.”
He
shook his head. “You are talking about yourself, not them. And they are not all
like that. They are not the lifeless paper dolls you think they are, not even
the ones trying so hard to stand out. And neither are you.”
His
words confused me, and I felt myself growing angry. “Who are you?” I didn’t
like the things he made me feel anymore, and I longed for the simplicity of the
liquored-up daze I’d enjoyed earlier. I wanted to run away from him, but in the
same moment I realized that nothing could have made me turn away from this
strange man.
“My
name is Kasimir Korsak. My friends call my Kasey. I would very much like to
include you in that group.”
I
shook my head. “If you know so much about me, you would know that I don’t have
friends.” I put as much disdain into the last word as I could. I might want to
find out more about the things that were happening, but that didn’t mean I
trusted him. “Besides, what possible reason do I have to believe anything you
say?”
His
eyes were still steady on mine when he spoke. “You already trust me, Blue. You
do not want to admit it because I am a stranger, but deep down you believe me
because you hear truth in my words. You look around the room and see truth. You
are different. Special.” He held out his hands, palms up in a gesture of
openness. “You are like me, only you have not learned how to use your abilities
yet.”
Abilities?
I gaped at him. What the hell does that mean?
We
stood in the strange, echoless silence, neither of us taking our eyes off the
other. I wanted his words to be true. I wanted the differentness I’d always
felt to be something special, wanted it with an urgency that pierced through
the numbness. In the few moments I’d spent with this man I’d felt more emotions
than I’d felt in years.
The
realization finally brought forth fear, but it also brought excitement, and I
wanted more. If his words were true, and he and I were alike, maybe that meant
I actually belonged somewhere.
“I
can show you if you let me.” He smiled again and as we stared at one another,
thoughts that weren’t mine raced through my head.
Give
me a chance to show you. There are others like us. You do not have to be alone
anymore.
“Why
should I?”
“What
are your options?” He smiled. “Someone once said, ‘I may never be what I want
to be, what I ought to be, but how will I know unless I try?’ That is all I am
asking you to do, try.”
“Who
said that?”
He
grinned wider. “A superhero.”
I
rolled my eyes. “You’re kidding, right? This isn’t a fucking comic book.”
Dream Cast for The Blue Effect
I love comic books. And graphic novels. And noir fiction. I
like my bad guys bad, and my good guys badder. I dig it when the stories are
campy and the one-liners are cheesier than limburger.
Let’s not forget
about all the movie adaptations. There’s nothing like seeing what you love on
the big screen. The heroes are hero-ier. The bad guys are evil-er. The carnage
is carnage-ier.
X-Men? You bet.
Gauardians of the Galaxy? Pure awesomeness.
Kingsmen? Drool.
Sin City? I nerdgasmed all over the place.
As an author, my work reflects my loves, although nothing
would make my world complete like seeing my guys and gals on the big screen.
Who would play these finely crafted characters, you ask?
Well, I’ve narrowed it down a few, lucky individuals (if any
of these actors read this, gimme a call, we’ll talk):
Blue Brennan - Scarlett Johannson is a total
bombshell. With long red locks, she embodies Blue’s look and has the acting
chops to pull off the brash, mouthy attitude of Blue.
Kasimir Korsak - This one was actually easy to come
up with. Anton Yelchin is a little young, but I can’t think of any young actor
that looks more like Kasey than he does. He’s a great actor too. A little aging
makeup and he’ll kill as Kasey.
Avery Anderson - This one was easy for me as well.
From the very beginning, I had an image of Avery in my mind, and it was the
very delectable Channing Tatum. I think he’d be able to play the character just
fine!
Esme and Valentina Love - The twins were hard. Part
of the problem I had was due to the whitewashing of Hollywood (this is actually
a thing, Google it if you’re curious), and the lack of truly dark-skinned
African-American actresses. The top African-American actresses are all pretty
pale, and it was important to me that the girls be the gorgeous Nubian
princesses they are, but there’s this whole perception that light is right.
Thanks Hollywood.
I finally settled on Lupita Nyong’o. She won an Oscar for 12
Years A Slave, and I have little doubt
she could pull off playing two very different characters. Not to mention she’s
a stunning ebony goddess. I mean, look at her. Rawr.
Ashton Gray - I had a little trouble finding someone
to play Ash until I ran across this picture of Chad Michael Murray and I knew
instantly that I’d found my guy. In fact, I laughed out loud when I saw his
picture and realized who he was, although you’ll have to read the book to find
out why it was so amusing. I’m not super familiar with his body of work other
than some things he did as a teenager, but he has the look and he’s been in the
business long enough that I’m sure he could pull off the easy breezy hippie
persona of Ash.
So there you have it, my dream cast for The Blue Effect. If
you’ve read the book and have different actors in mind, I’d love to hear from
you. Production hasn’t started yet, so there’s still plenty of time for
recasting!
About the
Author:
Rose Shababy and her family
reside in eastern Washington State. Rose grew up in the Northwest but swears
she’s going to move to warmer climates someday. She’s claimed this for over 20
years, however, and has yet to move more than 75 miles away from her mother.
Rose has a deep love of all
things Star Trek and yearns to travel the heavens, as well as an intense desire
to be bitten by a radioactive spider.
Unfortunately she sucks at
science and math so she hasn’t been able bring her dreams to life, instead
living vicariously through books, comics, television and film. She hopes to
someday make a million dollars so she can afford to buy her way to the international
space station, but she’d settle for being able to fly around the world and leap
tall buildings in a single bound.
Rose also loves to cook and
worked for years in a gourmet Italian grocery and deli where she learned to
hone her skills. She prepares culinary masterpieces for her family, but
fervently wishes the dishes would wash themselves. Especially now that her
dishwashers/children are nearly grown and only one still lives at home.
Rose likes to use her free time
wisely. For instance, she likes to daydream, will often read for hours until
she falls asleep on the couch with an electric blanket and a warm tabby cat
curled up on her hip, as well as spending cozy weekend days watching Syfy
movies like Sharknado and Mega Piranha with her husband.
If Rose were a cartoon animal,
she’d prefer to be a wise old owl or a sleek and sexy jaguar, but in reality
she’d probably be a myopic mole with coke-bottle glasses.
