Saturday 15 June 2013

All Author Blog Blitz


Rita Carla Monticelli
Welcome Rita Carla to my blog. Tell me where did you get your ideas for your book?

It all arose from an image that formed in my mind. There was an astronaut who wandered alone in the Martian desert in a pressurised rover. She was willing to know more about this beautiful and lethal planet. I wondered where she was going, why she was alone, when would she run out of her air and water reserves. Was she maybe sacrificing herself to go where nobody has ever been?

From this idea came the story of Anna Persson, a Swedish exobiologist, crew member of the Mars colonisation mission Isis. Who, one day in the morning escapes in secret from their commune and penetrates this red desert.
Deserto rosso” (translation: Red Desert) starts from this apparently inexplicable act. What Anna is not aware of is that Mars has an incredible discovery in store for her. A mystery hidden in the depth of the biggest canyon of the Solar System: Valles Marineris. 

Can you tell me about the novel?

This novel involves the reader, drawing them in them to experience the feelings of an anti-heroin struggling for her survival in the hostile Red Planet. The setting is described with the technical-scientific exactness typical of hard sci-fi.
Thirty years have passed since the Mars exploration mission Hera, whose crew died in mysterious circumstances. This failure and the politic issues resulting from it slowed down NASA in its run to conquer space. But now, it’s time for a new mission, called Isis. This time the five crew members will be travelling over 400 million kilometres not on a return trip, for they are destined to become the first colonisers of the Red Planet.
Anna Persson, a Swedish exobiologist is among the crew. Anna opted for this mission in the hope of starting a new life away from Earth. But an unexpected discovery on Mars awaits her, a key to a mystery hidden in the depth of the Valles Marineris.
It is also the story of normal human beings. They have to face situations that are beyond both their range and expectations. The crew are forced to live in a limited space within an enormous desert and dangerous planet and without any conventions and control from Earth. They each show their true nature, until death visits this small community, thus upsetting forever, its difficult balances.
Packed with adventure, action, science and emotions, Deserto rosso, makes a great read not just for sci-fi fans but for all readers.
 
This novel is different from other novels, can you explain this?

Deserto rosso” is a science fiction serialised novel, made up by four episodes. What makes it different from a normal novel split in four parts is, each episode is written and published before I start work on the next one. It is an experimental project in which, even if a general plot already exists, its details can change because of feedback from the readers. This makes it particularly interesting, allowing for continuous interactions between my readers and I. It avoids those silent periods between the releases of two books.

Between the two releases, the readers are kept up to date on the various stages of the book production. This is possible because the story of each episode is not self-conclusive. This way, the reader wants to know what happens next and therefore they tend to interact with me during the months of waiting. They may even influence the events - maybe only details - which will be narrated in the following episode.

Explain further please?

I’ve already published three episodes in Italian.
The first one, the pilot, is Deserto rosso - Punto di non ritorno, (Red Desert - Point of No Return).
This is a novella (approx. 21,000 words),
which allows the reader to imagine themselves among the dust and rocks of Mars, its enormous flatlands and insidious canyons, half way between the urgency to explore and the desire to survive. But it is also the story of a selfish woman that, at the same time, is lacking self-confidence. Despite her controversial choices, without regret she stubbornly continues to go on. Even risking her own life, she demonstrates to herself and to others that her life was actually destined to have a bigger purpose. Her dark side emerges by means of her memories. She faces without fears the unknown of a cursed planet, which somehow continues to take away the lives of those trying to discover its secrets. Filtered by her erratic emotions and her deeply rooted prejudices, the events are shown to the reader. Thus involving them in an alternation of past and present by means of a gradual crescendo that drives them to the epilogue, from which the rest of the novel will derive.

The second episode is Deserto rosso - Abitanti di Marte, (Red Desert - People of Mars) which is a short novel (approx. 45,000 words), and the third one is Deserto rosso - Nemico invisibile, (Red Desert - Invisible Enemy), which has got the size of a full-length novel (approx. 74,000 words).

The whole project started on June 7th 2012 with the release of the pilot and will end on September 30th 2013, when the finale will be published.
The series will be published in English, with the title Red Desert, in late 2014. 
 
Author’s biography
Technical, scientific and literary translator, web copywriter and biologist, Rita Carla Francesca Monticelli is an Italian independent author. She has been writing fiction since 2009.
Her latest release is ‘
Deserto rosso - Nemico invisibile’, the third in a science fiction, serialised novel set on Mars, titled Deserto rosso. Her work is enjoying much success in Italy.
Deserto rosso will be published in English, with the title Red Desert, in 2014.


Her English blog is: http://ladyanakina.blogspot.com
Her website (in Italian) is: www.anakina.net
Deserto rosso is available on Amazon, Kobo, iTunes, Google Plus, Smashwords, Barnes & Noble, Sony Ebook Store and Diesel Ebook Store.
 
Book trailer of the pilot: http://youtu.be/94nut4gtoII
Thank you Rita for taking the time to talk with me.

 

 

 

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