Last year,I published my first E-book entitled The Hench Woman's Handbook,which has been pretty well received and has encouraged me to spread my wings a little more on this front. So,today,I launched a new online series that also has superhero themes combined with a young woman's coming of age story.
The Chronicles of Copper Boom is about a girl named Penny Slater who was born with incredible powers yet is terrified about them being discovered by others. When we first meet her in Party Overkill,she's managed to contain them for most of her life but an unexpected guest at her stepsister's birthday party forces her to come out into the open.
His name is Kingston Cobre,a former military man who was turned into a snake like being,thanks to a secret government experiment,and his unusual looks come in handy when seeking refuge from the law after a botched robbery. Kingston is mistaken for the entertainment hired for the party and doesn't hesitate to play along with the confused hostess and company. Penny,however,quickly realizes that a true danger is in their midst and must decide what to do about it.
To paint the picture a bit broader,here's a small sample(told from Kingston's point of view):
Anyway,as that whole heist went straight to hell in a handbasket,my main priority was me but since one of the other geniuses that I was with brought a portable flame thrower with him to rob a diamond expo(moron is too good of a word for that jackass, glad he got twenty to life from the judge), my overcoat was fried like a cheap piece of bacon which made my getaway that much harder.
Not that I burn too badly these days, but a big man like me attracts plenty of notice to begin with and being covered in scales with a face like Lord Voldemort doesn't help you blend into the crowd too good there. Plus, I got these extra body parts which I tend to wrap around my shoulders and waist, kind of like a pair of suspenders and a belt. If you have a coat from the Big and Tall store and a hat to match, it works but that wasn't my lucky day for damn sure.
So, I'm running down the street in broad daylight in the middle of uptown, trying to find a good sidestreet or a decent alley to duck into. Those damn buildings were stacked together tighter than those newspaper piles you always find in one of those hoarder houses , I swear. All the damn stores had huge glass windows in the front, which made the idiots inside look like snotty goldfish, and there were security cameras all over the place, too many for me to knock out all at once.
....While I was running, I was using my snake limbs to knock stuff over and make it harder for the cops to catch up with me. Took down a couple of mail boxes, plus a few of those plastic stands where folks wait for the bus but my big lucky break on that route was a fire hydrant that I caught at just the right angle and popped off like a cheap champagne cork. The water spray from that baby gave me enough cover to duck into the first open door that I spotted.
It was some kind of fancy apartment building and if the doorman was on duty, I sure the hell didn't see him. I headed right for the elevator and pressed a button without looking before the doors shut. During my ride, I took a quick inventory; coat and shirt gone, my duffel bag of guns empty from a small rip on the side that I meant to sew up tearing open at the worst possible time, a pocketful full of gems that hopefully were worth something on the black market and at least one blade tucked into my right boot.
Not my best equipped set of circumstances, true but I've had worse. The elevator stopped at Floor P, which I took to be the penthouse. When I got out into the hallway, there were three doors for me to choose from and I was planning to use the tried and true method of selection that most people learn at their grandpa's knee,"eenie, meanie, minie, mo".
Before I could even start, the door in the middle swings open and this snotty looking woman in a wine colored pant suit pops up. "I thought I heard the elevator! Do you know how late you are? I pay good money for..." She stopped bitching for a moment and craned her frosted blonde head around like a cartoon character. "Where are the rest of you? I specifically ordered three entertainers to arrive all at the same time and I paid extra for Princess Pony to be here by now!"
Lucky for me, I'm not bad at improvising when the situation calls for it. "Sorry for the delay, ma'am, but the traffic's been terrible today. Real bumper to bumper out there, plus a couple of the side streets are closed due to.." She cut me off quick. "I don't care about your petty pedestrian problems! My little Tiffie has been asking for Princess Pony since dawn and she is going to have Princess Pony!!" From what I could smell off her breath, this lady had been downing martinis since dawn. Her eyes looked a little bloodshot there.
"Well,ma'am,Princess Pony is on the way but unlike me, her costume doesn't allow her to climb out of a car stuck in traffic and walk the rest of the way without messing it up. She and my fellow, uh, entertainer are doing their best to get here and if I can use your phone, we can get a progress report on their whereabouts." I had no idea who Princess Pony was supposed to be but if this tipsy broad was dumb enough to let me in, I was willing to do a song and dance number for her brat.
My inspiration for Copper Boom comes from two young heroines,one from DC Comics and the other from Marvel. In the 1990s,the X-Men had an animated TV series that featured Jubilation Lee,aka Jubilee,as a major character. She had been introduced into the comics via The Uncanny X-Men and is still around in one form or another.
Jubilee was a logical choice to highlight for the cartoon show,since her spunky attitude and colorful outfits made her instantly likable. Her plasma bomb abilities were rather formidable and if not for her bonding with such unlikely mentors as Wolverine and Gambit,she might have been easily turned to the dark side:
The second muse is from Teen Titans,which I originally was introduced to in the Mark Wolfman/George Perez era with the comic book in the 1980s. Tara Markov joined the group of young superheroes using the name Terra and despite her wisecracking ways,became a solid member of the team. She didn't win everyone's trust but her amazing earth shifting powers were a great asset and soon enough,Terra was officially accepted.
Unfortunately,she happened to be a double agent,sent to spy on the Titans and betray them to her partner in crime,Deathstroke. Despite appeals from her former friends, Terra's cold hearted nature and lack of restraint regarding her powers lead to her ultimate demise. A more sympathetic version of her appears in the Cartoon Network series that aired from 2003 to 2006. Even when slightly mellowed,Terra was able to pack a massively muddy punch:
Both of these girls were gifted with extraordinary abilities and powerful allies,yet one became a superhero and one a villain. Each had the opportunity to go either way with encouragement from good guys and bad. What made the difference? It's an old trope,granted,however I still think it's worth exploring and I hope that my readers will agree and follow me on this journey.
Right now,The Chronicles of Copper Boom is only available at Smashwords at $0.99(the upcoming chapters will also be at that same price)and will soon be up for downloading at other online retailers. As with The Hench Woman's Handbook,we have a Copper Boom Facebook page that will be updated with new release details and themed videos such as Warrior Woman of the Week and Memorable Mentors. Our first Memorable Mentor is Magneto,who takes any opportunity to encourage young folks into embracing evil:
Thanks for listening to my spiel and please feel free to give me your feedback on Copper Boom,every little bit helps me to become a better writer. My goals are realistic enough not to expect to become the next J.K. Rowling or Stephanie Meyer but I wouldn't exactly turn that deal down either if luck was my lady that night:
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