BooksChatter: ✉ Nighthawks: Children of Nostradamus [1]

Today author Jeremy Flagg takes over our blog to tell us about her/his latest novel, Nighthawks (1 March 2016, Limitless Publishing LLC, 373 pages), a Science-Fiction Dystopian novel, book one of the Children of Nostradamus series.

Guest Post | Synopsis | Teaser | About the Author | Giveaway & Tour Stops

The Birth of The Children of Nostradamus Series

The Children of Nostradamus series, like everything in the superhero world, has an origin story. I grew up in a small town and for a long time was the only comic book geek. When I reached middle school (the combination of several elementary schools) I was introduced to my soon-to-be best friend, Nick Leonard. We shared our love of comics and eventually we decided to write our own. Of course, we were mimicking what we read at the time. We were young, had little voice of our own and wanted to join the world of Marvel and DC. He was the artist, crafting our ideas into beautiful drawings that gave life to our ramblings and I wrote the scripts for our comics.
     We were wannabe Jim Lee’s and Chris Claremont’s. We would never manage to gather ourselves enough to finish a complete issue. Nick developed his team, which focused on the villains, and I kept with my heroes. However, I would keep writing it until the comic split into three and the cast of characters became overwhelming. When our computer died, so did the dream.
     When I moved from my parent’s home into my first house, I found a box with old papers from school. As I sorted through them I discovered an old trapper keeper with sketches and storylines. The scripts were long lost, but I had unearthed what had been an essential piece of my childhood. It would take years of admiring our work before I decided it was time to tell the story. However, this time, without my artist nearby, it was time use my writing skills to tell a new story.
     The story grew up. There were no more idealized heroes. There was no more right versus wrong. There were flawed heroes and justified villains. There are no happy endings, there’s a real edge to what happens. I wanted characters you loved as much as characters you pitied. I didn’t want the only emotional connection to be people with badass abilities winning. I also started weaving this idea of humanity into the characters. What is it to be human? What would you sacrifice if you had to? What is the decision that turns you into a monster? These are the same things I ask myself as I watch the news and see atrocities being committed by people. I want to know the why of each person’s existence.
     Catie Joyce, a high school friend of Nick and myself would be my first beta reader. With the story being far out of her genre she made some interesting observations about the motivation of my characters. She asked these “whys” and pushed me to delve beneath the surface of the characters. While the first book only touches on each of them, it begins a journey. With her suggestions new characters were written into the book and emotions began to emerge.
     The final product took this childhood fascination and brought it into the adult world. The characters are as true to life as can be. I’m looking forward to taking these characters and continue putting them to the test and discovering their souls as the Children of Nostradamus series enters into the second and third books.

Jeremy Flagg