Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

Dumb motherfuckers cannot understand a consequence that most 4 year olds have fully sorted out.

The arc of the moral universe does not bend itself. it is up to us to bend it.

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

Anne Laurie is a fucking hero in so many ways. ~ Betty Cracker

This year has been the longest three days of putin’s life.

I like political parties that aren’t owned by foreign adversaries.

I have other things to bitch about but those will have to wait.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

This really is a full service blog.

You cannot love your country only when you win.

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

I really should read my own blog.

Roe is not about choice. It is about freedom.

Michigan is a great lesson for Dems everywhere: when you have power…use it!

One way or another, he’s a liar.

White supremacy is terrorism.

People really shouldn’t expect the government to help after they watched the GOP drown it in a bathtub.

The Giant Orange Man Baby is having a bad day.

“But what about the lurkers?”

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

You are here: Home / Authors In Our Midst / Creature NYC – Writing DRAINED!

Creature NYC – Writing DRAINED!

by | 46 Comments

This post is in: 

A couple of you have asked whether and how authors might fight fit (!) into the Artists in Our Midst series. The answers are sort of, not exactly, and yes.  I hope that clears everything up!

If you’re an author and you want to talk about your writing or your books – or even focus on just one book as we are doing today – by all means please contact me about doing one of these posts.

They will be tagged as Authors in Our Midst, and we will be featuring those posts along with the Artists in Our Midst posts.

Hello, Balloon Juice readers!

My name is Marc (aka Creature_NYC) and, as this is the best community on the internets, it is my absolute honor to be speaking with you all directly. I have been lurking, and very occasionally commenting, here since right after John’s “conversion.” [Hi, John. I love you, man. Your compassion inspires!] For you real old timers, you may remember the name “Creature” from the liberal blog State of the Day.

Well, Creature wrote a book and I wanted to share it with you all.

Creature NYC – Writing DRAINED!

The book is called DRAINED and it’s a young adult, dystopian thriller set in a near-future New York City. DRAINED follows the path of high school senior Casey Parker and her best friend, Jennifer, as they investigate why Jennifer’s boyfriend has gone missing. It’s got an oppressive political party in charge, it’s got brainwashing, some spy craft, a whole lot of thrills, and a great female friendship at its core. As a warning, there is some strong language (used more quippy than offensive) and a very tame sex scene. Thankfully, it’s gotten some good reviews.

As some background, I’ve been working on the book for many years and, without saying how long (for some reason it’s embarrassing), I’ll say the very first kernel of the idea that would become DRAINED came soon after the birth of the Tea Party as I tried to imagine them taking over NYC. But it wasn’t until after Hurricane Sandy hit that my setting and theme came into focus. Let’s just say that by 2048 climate change and the greedy politicians in charge have made a mess of my beloved downtown Manhattan.

Creature NYC – Writing DRAINED! 1

I hope you all will give it a look and spread the word if you like it! My website is acrichewrites.com (with an Indie bookstore buy option there) and if you want to read a Q&A with yours truly, I just got written up by another old-school blog, EV Grieve.

Thanks, everyone, and special thanks to WaterGirl and John for making this possible.

Reader Interactions

46Comments

  2. 2.

    WaterGirl

    This is the first of our Authors in Our Midst featured as part of the Artists/Authors series.  In case you have missed any of the others, there is a link for them under Featuring in the sidebar. (That shows up after the comments on mobile.)

    If you are an author, you can write about just one book, as Marc has done here, or write about all your books, or a set of characters that show up in a number of books, etc.  The content of the post is up to you – within reason, of course!

    Please send me an email message if you are in interested in either the Authors or Artists series.

  3. 3.

    creature_NYC

    Hello, WaterGirl and Ballon Juicers! I want to thank WaterGirl and John again for allowing me to post about DRAINED. I’ll be around in the comments, if anyone has any questions. Happy Sunday and I hope you all are safe and well.

    -Marc

  4. 4.

    jeffreyw

    A couple of you have asked whether and how authors might fight into the Artists in Our Midst series.

    I have no opinion on what the rules should be but I will volunteer to hold their coats.

  9. 9.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Purchased and downloaded! I look forward to reading Drained.

    Now … how about that dinosaur story from first grade, eh?

  14. 14.

    Major Major Major Major

    Congrats! And you shouldn’t be embarrassed no matter how many years it took you to finish a book and successfully publish it. You wrote a book and people are reading it! Most people don’t even finish the first part.

    WG, I have a short story that’s important to me coming out in October but I’ll do my own post.

  18. 18.

    sab

    I am intrigued. Would your book make sense to anyone who is not very familiar with NYC? Everything I know about NYC I learned on Law and Order.

  19. 19.

    creature_NYC

    @Major Major Major Major: Many drafts. If pushed, I’d say three major drafts. At point there was a prologue that I cut and incorporated into the main story, and two different middles and endings. The major turning point came after a developmental edit. The notes were so spot on that they elevated the book from okay to great (I think ?) and it all just clicked.

    Overall, it was a long, slow slog, but worth it.

  23. 23.

    HinTN

    @creature_NYC:

    A tension-filled dystopian crusade for freedom, no matter the personal cost.

    Alrighty, then. Plus, I’m a sucker for a “tame sex scene” anytime!

    Congrats

  24. 24.

    creature_NYC

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: Hi, Dorothy! Thank you. The reviews have been a fun part of this. While there have been some so-so ones, the good’s are so good that it floors me. Realizing the story and the characters were connecting with people was/is very satisfying.

  29. 29.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    DRAINED is now on my kindle.

    And, Fellow Jackals, if you enjoy this book and have time, a review is always a good thing. For one thing, Amazon uses the sheer number of reviews as a basis for inclusion in their promotion–all that “if you liked this, you may like this” stuff.

  34. 34.

    Evap

    Congratulations , the book sounds great.

    I wrote a math book during the pandemic, publication date is late October.  It’s a research monograph, so not of interest to anyone here.  I must say, I still can’t quite believe I wrote a book! The cover is already on the Springer (publisher) website and on the Barnes and Noble website.  What a feeling!

  37. 37.

    TaMara (HFG)

    @NotMax: Only because the Writers’ posts were all-encompassing – writing group, new authors, Q&A about writing…

    Thanks WaterGirl! for taking over while I continue my extended break (where I really am focusing on my third book and also personal blogging).

    Congrats to creature NYC!

  40. 40.

    PaulWartenberg

    Short story writer here, currently working on another submission to the Strangely Funny anthology series. I got a 2020 story “War of the Murder Hornets” in their latest edition (volume 8) available in print and ebook on Amazon.

    I’m also a member of the Florida Writers Association, which does an annual Royal Palm Literary awards, and for 2021 I submitted that murder hornets story for short fiction as well as four of my blog articles for short non-fiction… and I heard back from the judges last week that I didn’t get a single one past Semifinalist stage. /cries

    How goes your work, y’all.

  46. 46.

    Debbie(Aussie)

    Very late to the thread.but want to let you know the book sounds great and is on my iPad for future reading. Congrats on the reviews?

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