An asteroid on a collision course with Earth. Twins from another planet sent to stop it.
With a vibrant art movement, thriving music scene, and culture of change, 1960s Manhattan is pulsating with energy. Twins Mark and Jason appear human, but they have been given powers beyond anyone’s imagination. The city embraces them and they dive headlong into all it has to offer.
As the time for them to fulfill their mission grows near, the twins sense that something is wrong. Have they been sent to Earth to save it or to be eliminated? With the fate of both planets in the balance, and everything they’ve grown to love on the line, can Mark and Jason unravel the truth before time runs out?
If you enjoy a tantalizing journey into Manhattan in the 1960s, aliens among us, and rogue AIs, you’ll love Soteria: The Crisis Forge.
About the Author
Roberto Arcoleo was born in New York City, Queens to be exact, into a working-class Italian-American family. Roberto’s father was a hardworking, grumpy, and reserved restaurateur, his mother a warmhearted, talkative hairdresser.
Roberto was a bit of both. He grew up in Astoria in a two-bedroom ground-floor apartment with one younger brother, his parents, and an invalid grandmother. His early years were tumultuous and confused. Roberto never felt that he fit into the molds that were laid before him. His early extended family home life was chaotic, and his teenage years were worse. After the Catholic grammar school, he continued on to a Catholic high school. He hated them both.
As a teenager, Roberto felt more and more apart from his surroundings. He withdrew into his own world. To onlookers he seemed full of bravado, but he was timid and reserved at heart, always feeling out of place. He started lashing out at the world with violence as mark of distinction. He found a home within street gangs and hard drugs at fourteen. Roberto started living on the streets at fifteen, but was soon taken in by a schoolteacher uncle who lived on Long Island. His uncle held him captive from his own devices until he graduated high school. Later, in college, he studied psychology hoping to find answers. Still troubled, he didn’t find the answers he needed in the text. He gave up his clinical ambitions for more underground alternatives. The same uncle gave him his first camera, and he discovered photography.
Under a name other than Arcoleo, he obtained recognition as an artist. He received his MFA from Brooklyn college and later saw his art reviewed in the New York Times. Roberto’s work has been acquired by major collections. Among them Brooklyn Museum, the Chrysler Museum, the Museum of Fine arts in Houston and the Museum de l’Eysee, Lausanne Switzerland. He was the first artist working in photography to be given a one-person exhibition at the Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art; he was awarded a stay at the American Academy in Rome; and his work is presently in the National Gallery of Art.
He always had an urge to write and his late mother was always asking for his first novel. He told her he had to wait until he was called from a special place.
Mercy DeSimone and I met through social media. She and I are both the youngest of six!
Author Bio
Mercy DeSimone is the pen name of a corporate refugee who decided
that life was meant to be more fun. She now works in the Beauty industry where
she is finally able to indulge her love of lipstick and rainbow hair colors. A
self-professed champagne snob, cocktail enthusiast and overall Queen of Useless
Trivia, she is fluent in Schoolhouse Rock and indulges her caffeine addiction 5
shots of espresso at a time.
When not writing and listening to music, she can be found whipping up cocktails and contributing pins to her Pinterest boards for FoodPorn and Great Wines For Wine Snobs On a Budget.
Tell us about yourself.
As the youngest of 6, I’ve always been a voracious reader. To this day I have an
obsession with Dr. Seuss. I don’t remember being read to as a child, but my
mother and some of my siblings were also obsessive readers. I do remember my
sister passing books down to me after she had grown too old for them (she’s 10
years older), some of which, like A Tree Grows In Brooklyn, became
lifetime favorites. I also remember stealing my mom’s racy romance novels when
I was 12.
I love to cook, and music holds a huge place
in my heart. My employees often say they can track me by my incessant humming
to some internal soundtrack.
My idols have always been authors, chefs and
musicians. In a perfect world, I would have my own talk show where I’d invite a
great chef to cook for us, my favorite musician to play for us, and we’d all
sit down with one of my favorite writers for great food, music, and
conversation.
When did you know you wanted to be an author?
I never consciously said ‘I want to be an
an author’. I always considered myself more of a storyteller and thought I
should have my own talk show or be a DJ. In a previous job, I used to do events
around the country where I would speak to small audiences and come back with
funny stories, and people would say you should write a book.
Even now, my coworkers occasionally say ‘let’s
write a book’ about something funny or strange that happened with our
customers. When someone says, ‘you can’t make this stuff up’, I laugh.
Well apparently you can -because one day my co-writer on our first book
challenged me to write something with her, based on a funny Facebook thread
that went viral. After that, I decided I can do this. There are stories to
tell, and I have a voice. Now it’s time to see if those stories resonate with
others the way I hear them in my hand.
What genres do you like to read? Are these the same genres you write in?
I grew up reading historical romance, then high
fantasy, PNR and urban fantasy. I also love Contemporary romance. My first
co-write was Contemporary romance and my new book is sci-fi romance. I guess in
the end, I pretty much read anything, but I like stories that are more
uplifting, and I think that carries over into what I want to write.
Is your book for adults, young adults or children?
My first books were definitely adult with
some steamy and explicit sexuality. My new sci-fi romance is also 18+ but is
more of a medium burn. As a Reverse Harem writer, we seem to automatically get
pegged as more adult writers because the choice of multiple, consensual
relationships are outside of everyday norms.
What is your current release or project?
My new book baby , Spectral Vibrations, is
my first solo full length book and releases this month. If all goes as
hoped, it’s the first of a three book arc in a sci-fi romance. I’ve also
started another RH Contemporary Romance, as well as a techno thriller. The
techno thriller is way outside of my wheelhouse, but it was brought to me by a
friend who is not a writer. He really needed someone to give life to the story
in his head and I said I’d give it a shot, but it’s not a sexy book and is more
about the action and conspiracy vs. the relationships. We’ll have to see
if I can slip some romantic longing in there somewhere.
Tell us about the key characters
In Spectral Vibrations, our characters
live on another planet called Krysalis. Our FMC is Tanzy. She’s a
scientist, a Violet, and an Empathic Healer. Orphaned at a very young age, she eventually
bonded to her best friend and fellow scientist, Laz. He’s a Blue aura, and also
helps lead their science team.
We also have Titan, a politician with a Yellow
aura who is appointed to oversee Tanzy and Laz’s science team when their leader
is murdered. Jasper is a Red Warlord who acts as a ceremonial guard for the
leaders of Krysalis, and has a particular interest in Tanzy. Finally, on Earth
we’re introduced to Dixon who is a widower and former army contractor, who
literally stumbles across Tanzy in the desert when she crashes to Earth.
Tanzy is a smart but simple girl who is driven
by her love of science and discovery. She’s not particularly ambitious, and she
has no desire for power. When she gets thrust into the middle of a power play,
she’s a bit disoriented but she’s not naive, and she shouldn’t be
underestimated. If forced to play the game, she will make it a point to not
only learn, but excel at the game.
7. What is your blurb or synopsis of the book?
In the mood for something different? Here’s a quirky
little RH space oddity… 🔜 Coming soon to a
Kindle near you!
In a galaxy far away, a supernova changed a world forever. Energy became the daily fix, sex became currency, and children were a thing of the past. How do you create a future when you can’t move beyond the present? They say you can’t hear a scream in space… but some of us can feel the pain.
Deep
Space
Auras
Good
Vibrations
Karma
Chameleons & a Squeazel
Houston,
we have a problem. Did you get all that?
All I ever
wanted was to be a Scientist; what I never anticipated was becoming an Empathic
Healer. Luckily, my bondmate, Laz, has always been my center. As a Duo, we have
power, but someone believes that we can be more.
WHERE WORLDS
COLLIDE…..
The day I crashed to Earth, a secret buried in the past became an
opportunity for our future. What happens when power is suddenly up for grabs,
on a world where the color of your aura determines your path, and your
vibrational frequency determines your strength?
Could
the ruling Spectrum soon be a thing of the past? Only if I can create a
Spectrum of my own – with the sexy men who keep hovering in my orbit, hoping to
anchor their frequency to mine..
️ Duos, Triads and
Quartets, oh my! It’s a cat and mouse game in outer space. What color is your
aura?
️ Share an excerpt
“Come on, take that pretty face of yours in
there and give her vibration something to spark at.” I can’t help teasing him,
even though I know it’s cruel, considering the obsession he’s had with her for
so long. We’re not usually competitive, but it would be hard to stand by now
and watch her bond with Jasper when I can’t have her myself.
Growling low in his throat, Jasper gives me a
disgusted look before turning toward the door and stopping abruptly again.
“What is the goal?”
Shrugging my shoulders, I wave him on. “Just
find out what’s she’s up to. Either get her to finish, or find out why she’s
hesitating. We need to end this charade so we can move on.”
Rolling his eyes, Jasper punches the door
release before heading down the hall. Facing the screens again, I watch Tanzy
lounge on her stool, feet swinging as she hums to herself. I can’t help but
smile at her unaffected sense of serenity as she waits… for what, I can’t
imagine.
At the hissing of the door lock, she suddenly
straightens and turns toward the computer as if she’s been studiously
researching all this time. Her docile smile freezes for a moment when she sees
Jasper; clearly she was expecting Marin. But she recovers quickly, eyes darting
back down to her page before acknowledging his presence.
“Are you finished?” Jasper asks her as he stops
at the edge of her table, feet planted and arms crossed over his broad chest.
“Almost. I just need to cross-check this one
result,” she says slowly, drawing out the words and squinting at the screen,
making a good show of being engrossed in what she’s doing. “There,” she says
satisfaction evident in her face, “that should do it.”
Turning her gaze back to Jasper she stares at
him innocently. “What are you doing here? Is Marin on his way, or do I need
to call him? I thought there wasn’t a time limit.”
She throws question after question at Jasper to
keep him from asking questions of his own. I have to admit, it’s a good tactic,
but she doesn’t know my friend. He’s like a boulder – silent, massive, and
impenetrable.
Finally discomfited by the silent, unyielding
expression on his face, she starts to fidget, twisting the cup in her hand awkwardly,
as she waits for him to speak. Peeping up under her bangs at him as if
assessing his mood, I find myself watching her carefully, wondering what’s
going through her mind. If I hadn’t been watching so closely, I probably would
have missed it; the small arc of energy that sparked from her hand toward
Jasper as she raised it to push away from the table. Leaning heavily on the
console, I push my face closer to the observation screen, searching for another
sign.
Do you have a favorite scene?
It’s always easy to go for the sexy scene, and I
do love one where she finally gets to explore sex closer to the way we
understand it. But I believe my favorite is probably a flashback and what
I like to refer to as the “Bambi” scene. If you’re a Disney fan, you
instinctively know what that’s going to be about.
What advice would you give a beginner?
Stop comparing and just keep going. It’s so easy
to get caught up in what other people are doing, and feeling like you’re not
measuring up to more prolific writers. This has to be about YOUR journey. I
fall in and out of love with my book over and over during the process of
writing. The trick is to always end when you’ve found your passion for the
story. No matter how discouraged you feel on certain days, be willing to put
words to the page even if they’re nonsense. There’s always a kernel of
truth or magic in everything you write. You’ll never know if you don’t allow it
to happen.
