NBtM Virtual Book Tour and Giveaway - In Between: Stories of the Eververse by Darby Harn

Welcome to my stop on the NBtM virtual book tour for In Between: Stories of the Eververse by Darby Harn. This book tour was organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. On my stop, I have an excerpt from the book as well as a lovely guest post from the author. There's also the tour wide giveaway for a chance to win a $25 Amazon or Barnes & Noble gift card. Be sure to visit the other stops on the tour for more content. Enjoy!

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Title: In Between: Stories of the Eververse

Author: Darby Harn

Publisher: Fair Play Books

Publication Date: May 6th 2022

Print Length: 421 pages

Genre: Speculative Science Fiction

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Telepathic wolves. Zombie gangsters. Sentient houses. Just another day for Kit Baldwin.

Fifty years after an alien ship crashed in Break Pointe, the only protection in a strange new world is Great Power, a corporation of superhumans. If you can afford them. Most people can’t.

Enter Kit Baldwin, a young woman who helps people to help people. Except her power is the alien’s power, and she may be more of a danger to her city than she is a help.

This collection of stories and novellas follows Kit's journey in a series that's been called 'the next logical step after Watchmen.'

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EXCERPT:

Bloodback

The sky bruises over The Derelicts. I didn’t know what to expect when I started defending the city a few months ago, but I figured full moons would mean less criminal activity.

So far, my most effective super power is being wrong.

The thief runs through the wreck of the alien ship. I hold my position, hovering in the night. Used to be I put on a big light show and scared the daylights out of them soon as they snuck in through the breached hull. That got old.

Now, I let the ship do the work for me. A gauntlet of maroon shards scarps the strange cave of the ship. Bird bones crunch under his boots, hard as rocks. Never a good idea to run here. A gasp caroms around the gutted candle of the interior as he trips and plunges headfirst into a narrow crevice of specious crystal.

Lucky for him, it’s not that deep.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Darby Harn studied at Trinity College, in Dublin, Ireland, as part of the Irish Writing Program. He is the author of the sci-fi superhero novel EVER THE HERO. His short fiction appears in Strange Horizons, Interzone, Shimmer, The Coffin Bell, and other venues.

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GUEST POST:

- Which character from your book do you think you are most like and why?

I’m certainly most like Kit Baldwin, the main character of In Between: Stories of the Eververse. I didn’t set out to draw any parallels, but I’ve had numerous people tell me Kit and I share similar personality traits. Her compassion and consideration for other people is something I aspire to. Kit represents the best of humanity and though she’s a superhero in name only, she is a real hero and I hope a positive role model for people. The thing Kit and I most share is the fact that we are both autistic.

I discovered I was autistic later in life, about five years ago. I learned this around the time I began writing the first book in the Eververse series, Ever The Hero. Kit became a way of working out this discovery. I always process aspects of my life on the page and Kit became my avatar in many respects. I had internalized a lot of ableism growing up ignorant of my autism for so long. Kit reflected this in ways I regret now but were and are honest to the experience of discovering the truth about yourself.

Kit is obviously autistic in the first book to readers who recognize autistic traits but it’s not until In Between: Stories of the Eververse that she begins to acknowledge this. Her journey echoes my own in many ways. I struggled for a long time to accept and understand this part of myself and it’s only recently that I have felt comfortable speaking about it. One reason I did is that I began to see the value in Kit as a positive representative for autistic characters in fiction, of which there are too few.

Autistic people often get tagged with being unempathetic or robotic. That is not my experience personally or of other autistic people. If anything, autistic people such as myself and others I know are hyper-empathetic, to the point they take steps to insulate themselves from experiences that may overwhelm them. They are hyper-perceptive in many cases and a greater awareness of others leads to greater empathy.

Kit contains a universe of empathy within her. It doesn’t always register in neurotypical ways. Her life experience taught Kit not to speak or react for fear of being misunderstood, and this gives off the impression of her being distant. She’s anything but. Her actions and words reveal a woman of deep feeling and limitless compassion for those in need. One of the joys of writing these stories is discovering Kit’s capacity for kindness. Every story challenges her. Every new circumstance puts pressure on her. She struggles to navigate the twists and turns of being responsible for a city of people but she never struggles to maintain her compassion.

I’d like to think Kit and I share this in common. One thing I know we do share is that we are always fighting for the better and to be better.

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GIVEAWAY:

Darby Harn will be awarding a $25 Amazon or Barnes & Noble gift card to a randomly drawn winner via Rafflecopter. Good luck!

(All the Ups and Downs is not responsible for this giveaway, its entries, or the prize. Goddess Fish Promotions and the author assume all responsibility over this giveaway.)

a Rafflecopter giveaway