Q & A with Ian Thomas Healy

Title:  Day of the Destroyer

Series:  Just Cause Universe #3

Author:  Ian Thomas Healy

Published:  March 13, 2013 by Local Hero Press

Page Count:  316

Read It & Reap:  2014

Description:  A CITY IN DARKNESS
FOUR LOST SOULS SEEKING A LIGHT

July 13, 1977 - The lives of four super-powered people become irrevocably intertwined when the lights go out in New York City, plunging their world into chaos. The superheroes of Just Cause, grown soft and complacent without any supervillains to challenge them, must overcome their personal demons as well as uphold the law in a lawless land of rioters, arson, and murder.

Lurking in the darkness, like evil incarnate, is the one thing that could bring the world's greatest superheroes to their knees: the force of anarchy and vengeance known as Destroyer. 

Q & A with Ian Thomas Healy

Q:  Tell us a little bit about your heroes in Day of the Destroyer.
A:  Day of the Destroyer follows the storylines of four different characters during 22 hours before and during the NYC Blackout of '77. Not all four of the characters are heroes! But their stories do cross over one another and eventually all converge in the climax.

The "heroes" are the members of the team Just Cause, which has found itself to be an army without anyone to fight. They've beaten all the supervillains, and thus the organization is starting to rot from within. Some of the heroes are unfaithful. Others are drug addicts. And when the disaster strikes, these are the ones who must rise up to help save the city.

Q:  What makes your superheroes stand out?
A:  My superheroes are not collections of powers. I have always written superheroes as "real people" first, who just happen to have certain exceptional abilities. I treat superpowers as special effects; the real story is in the characters and their relationships.

Q:  What was your favorite scene to write?
A:  Ooooh, that has to be the moment that one of the heroes of Just Cause, named Pony Girl, first confronts the Destroyer battlesuit. It's in the middle of the Blackout, and Destroyer is tearing apart a tenement in Harlem and burning the street, and Pony Girl is the only thing standing in his way.

Q:  This is book three of the Just Cause Universe series. Is it imperative that your readers follow the books in order, or could this be read as a standalone?
A:  No; all the Just Cause Universe novels are related, but each one is a distinct, stand-alone work. You can come into the series with any novel (or even some of the short stories which are available as ebooks). I would hope that eventually, readers will check out the entire series.

Q:  What do you see as influences on your writing style?
A:  Comic books and movies have been a great source of inspiration to me. Some writers especially stand out: Alan Moore, Frank Miller, Mike Resnick, Alan Dean Foster. One of my biggest influences on my writing style would have to be my dear friend, best editor, and coauthor Allison M. Dickson.

Q:  What do you see as the biggest challenge for indie authors and what have you been doing to overcome that?
A:  The biggest challenge is to Get The Word Out; to make our books discoverable. I've found that far and away the best method is to release a lot of quality material. It's imperative that you're not releasing junk. Write good stories, take time to edit them (and have them edited), and make them the best you possibly can before releasing them into the market. People will remember you as someone who writes good books, and they'll look for more of your work. When you have a lot of it, and release more regularly, they'll keep coming back. And hopefully, they'll tell their friends.

Q:  What do you do to unwind and relax?
A:  I'm a big fan of my local hockey teams, the Denver Cutthroats and the Colorado Avalanche. Since neither of them are playing again until October, I'm enjoying spending time with my kids during their summer break.

Q:  What book are you reading now?
A:  Seven Wonders, by Adam Christopher. It's been taking me awhile to get through it because (a) I'm a slow reader and (b) It's not as good as I'd hoped it would be.

About the Author:  Ian Thomas Healy is a prolific writer who dabbles in many different speculative genres. His superhero novel Deep Six: A Just Cause Novel was a Top 100 Semi-finalist in the 2008 Amazon.com Breakthrough Novel Award. He’s a seven-time participant and winner of National Novel Writing Month where he’s tackled such diverse subjects as sentient alien farts, competitive forklift racing, a religion-powered rabbit-themed superhero, cyberpunk mercenaries, cowboy elves, and an unlikely combination of vampires with minor league hockey. He is also the creator of the Writing Better Action Through Cinematic Techniques workshop, which helps writers to improve their action scenes.

His goal is to become as integral to the genre of superhero fiction as William Gibson was to cyberpunk and Anne Rice was to urban fantasy.

Ian lives in Colorado with his wife, three children, and a plethora of housepets. When not writing, which is rare, he likes to take road trip, enjoys watching football and hockey, and listening to or playing music. His ebooks can be found on Smashwords, Kindle, Nook, iBook Store, and other online retailers.

You can find Ian online all over the internet. Besides on Goodreads, he is on Facebook as Author Ian Thomas Healy and Local Hero Press, on Twitter as @ianthealy and @LocalHeroPress, and on his website http://www.ianthealy.com/. 

His Amazon profile page (amazon.com/author/ianhealy) shows the most up-to-date listing of all his works.