Welcome to the 2023 ARIA Author Showcase and Giveaway Event! 

  

  

How to enter – Comment on the daily showcases to enter the daily Giveaways. Comments close one week after the initial Showcase post. GRAND PRIZE drawn on Dec 8th (1 -$250, 1 -$100, or a 1 -$50 Amazon gift card. One grand prize pp) – For every showcase you post on, you automatically gain one entry to the grand prize. 30 Authors = 30 entries.    

A.Keith will be at the Rhode Island Author Expo 

On to the Showcase! 

 

What name do you like to write under? A. Keith Carreiro 

Where do you call home? Swansea, MA 

What genre(s) do you write? Mostly sci-fi, fantasy for prose fiction. I do academic writing as well and I also write poetry. 

What genre(s) were you drawn to when you were younger? Was there a reason that genre(s) appealed to you the most? I was drawn to history, the Bible, biographies, science fiction, fantasy, adventure, mysteries. I loved to read. Still do. 

What were some of your favorite books growing up? Why? Some of my favorite writing was Ben-Hur (Lew Wallace), books by Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, T.H. White, books about collies by Albert Payson Terhune, the Tarzan series written by Edgar Rice Burroughs, anything about the American Civil War and World War Two, stories about King Arthur, the Hardy Boys Mystery Stories, Edgar Allan Poe's work, Walt Whitman, and many more. Reading these stories was a phenomenal experience for me. It brought me out of my daily life and plunged me into different worlds, and the lives fully lived in them. It made me appreciate what I had in life, the power of the mind, and allowed me a front row seat on the storytellers' imaginations and their first-hand realizations of peace and war, goodness and evil, and the full gamut of the human condition. 

What are some of your favorite books today? I've been extremely fortunat The same mentioned above but I have a wide reading appreciation for academic writing in many different disciplines, such as philosophy, religion, history, geography, sociology, psychology, anthropology, astronomy, physics... I have a solid collection of sci-fi, fantasy authors, as well as books about and by visual artists, composers, poets, and musicians. These authors have influenced my writing because of the power of their imagination, their skill in writing and the mastery they demonstrate in their craft. They gave me the courage to create my own stories and they helped inspire me to participate in the mystery and wonder of storytelling. 

What inspired you to become a write? Growing up, I was surrounded by great storytellers in my family. I enjoyed listening to people in the literary and performing arts. Movies, plays, poetry, and music were constant companions. I felt inspired and encouraged to create my own stories. 

 

 

The Penitent: Part 1 

A baby is born and placed in his dead mother’s arms… 
When the funeral shroud is cast over her, his father names his son Pall. It will soon become a name that strikes a shiver of fear into the hearts of those who hear it in combat. 
 
A lone survivor on a battlefield many years later, Pall dazedly recovers from the wounds of war. Despite the dead cast about him, everything he looks upon is unfamiliar to him. Wandering away from this scene of carnage, he encounters John Savage, a giant of a man who puts Pall within the sight of Savage’s seven-foot, nocked longbow. 
 
What ensues from this deadly encounter is an elusive journey for truth. Yet, while it is haunted by a ravening demon that is out to destroy Pall and John, the vision and prayers of a startlingly beautiful young woman protect them from afar. 

Tell us a little about how The Penitant came to be. Did it start with an image, a voice, a concept, a dilemma or something else? I classify this series as a Christian–based sci-fi, fantasy, spiritual thriller. The idea for "The Immortality Wars" originated in May of 2014. I wanted to write a story that had an epic sweep to it. In casting around for ideas, I thought about what would happen if I had the power to go back in time to our American Revolution and take key figures of that era with me 238 years into their future and into my present. I wanted to take individuals, such as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin and John and Abigail Adams, to Times Square in New York City, to Tokyo, Paris, Shanghai and London. What would be their reactions to, and how would they perceive, their surroundings that they now found themselves in while visiting these twenty–first century cities? How would people from the eighteenth century, people who knew fire only for light and heat and horses for transportation, interpret what they were now seeing? Arthur C. Clarke’s quote came to mind: “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic” [Profiles of the Future, 1961 (Clarke’s third law)]. Accompanied by such an incredible cast of historical figures, I saw myself fill with pride about the sophistication I had attained over them from a scientific point of view. Hubris is such a dissatisfying drink of saltwater for the ego to take. I then saw myself, in turn, taken into the 26th century. I was no longer on earth but on an exoplanet surrounding a nearby star in this part of the galaxy. I now had a beginning hold of an idea for a story. As I fleshed out the conception of the story further, I also needed to configure the kind of world I saw. What was the level of scientific sophistication like? Did the people of this time solely lean on science for answers to the nature of life and death? Did faith in spiritual matters play a part of their lives? Did war still occur? It became an intriguing thought experiment. In thinking it through as thoroughly as possible, I discovered that this story is ultimately about the battle between faith and disbelief, as well as how hope and cynicism clash against one another in the human spirit. In the arc of development in the main character of Pall Warren, can the ultimate basis of truth within a fiction be found. In his quest for meaning, can virtue be used to combat and overcome evil? 

Which scene, character or plotline changed the most from first draft to published book? The relationship between two protagonists, Pall Warren and John Savage, became a major change as I first intended them to be opposed to one another. Instead, they actually told me that they did not want that storyline to unfold. Despite an initially rough start, they became steadfast friends over the course of the first and third books in the series. 

Which character was the most challenging to create. Why? In the fourth book of the series, there is a character named Chén Liú. It was an interesting challenge to create him and a lot of thought and research went into his identity. He is is one of the greatest beings of his time. His levels of observation, intelligence, memory, physical stamina, fierceness, and combat skills brought him to the pinnacle of his race. He was the first out of one hundred of the most powerful and influential cyborgs to sign the Armistice between humans and “machines in 2455 OET. This group of almost all powerful cyborgs functions as a war, and/or governing, council. It has a variety of names, such as “The Chamber”, “The Enclave”, “The Court”, or “The Tabernacle”. While peace was not reached, an agreement between combatants was hammered out to allow a cease fire to occur. Galactic territories were respectively created and assigned to both opposing sides. These areas were separated by the galactic center and were 65,000 light‒years apart. The humans agreed to living only within the Orion Spur. Liú settled on the exoplanet Aion [Greek, Αἰών] between the first and fourth quadrant on the Carina‒Sagittarius Arm. The machines settled on this spiral arm of the Galaxy, which is directly on the other side of the Galaxy from human settlement. For 107 years since the Armistice was signed, he practiced the calling of fang hsien tao [方僊道], or immortality. He became a member of the fangshi, 方石, meaning “specialists in occult prescriptions”, also known as “recipe masters” and “magicians”. Intense study in these concerns and interests led him to become a daoshi, 道士, or a “specialist in the Way”. Attracted to the dark arts, he became a sorcerer or wu, 吴语, where he acted as an intermediary between spiritual realms and those of the machines and humans alike. The results of his studies and achievements on and off the battlefield created an individual so potent that human beings physically cannot stand near him without being harmed in his presence. He aims to become one of the xian, 西安, or immortals. His devotion and quest for immortality is the only driving force that animates his life. On Aion, he lives at the tip of an archipelago called The Spoke of Eternity (tán dào yŏng héng, 谈到永恒, which is on the Sea of Immortality (Bùxiù Zhī Hâi, 不朽之海. The fangshi lives on an island called Penglai, 蓬莱, or paradise. The islands of Fangzhang, 方章, and Yingzhou, 瀛洲, bracket Penglai. In a meeting with Gedeon Karik and Chén Liú, RM Addison 2560-90’*, called Liú “Proizvoditel’ Voinov” in Russian, or “Warrior Maker”, or “Destroyer”. Liú has an uneasy relationship with Karik through the Azhdaya Cartel. Both have profited from one another. Liú created a cyborg warrior named Zhou the Destroyer. He called this creation his twin brother. Zhou became a champion fighter for Karik. Zhou fought in 3,000 fights. He defeated all his opponents and not once was he touched by any weapon raised against him. When Pall Warren entered the world of The Five Alliances, he unexpectedly faced Zhou as an opponent. Within seconds, at the start of the fight, Zhou was killed. Liú wants revenge against Pall Warren for causing the death of the cyborg’s twin when both were locked in mortal combat during a premiere gambling cartel event. 

What do you like best about being a writer? The freedom to create a story that has bubbled up into my awareness and to see something unseen become real. 

If you could collaborate with any author past or present, who would it be? What would the title of the book be? (If possible) - Give us a one sentence blurb. I think it would be wonderful if I could collaborate with T. H. White. The title of the book would be "The Once and Future Empire". "In our collaborative foray into the realms of science fiction and fantasy, 'The Once and Future Empire' by T.H. White and myself unravels a mesmerizing tapestry of interstellar monarchies, mythical worlds, and the enduring legacy of an empire transcending time, weaving a saga that blurs the boundaries between history, magic, and the boundless expanse of the cosmos." 

You can follow A. Keith Carreiro here - 

https://immortalitywars.com/ 

https://www.facebook.com/akeithcarreiroauthor/ 

https://www.instagram.com/immortalitywars/ 

Other ways to connect with A.Keith 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/a-keith-carreiro-5040aa17/ 

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/15959901.A_Keith_Carreiro 

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/stores/A.%20Keith%20Carreiro/author/B01M28LUP0 

 

1. Keith Carreiro is giving away the first volume of the "Immortality Wars" series, titled, "The Pennant Part 1.”

To enter, comment below. --> If you could travel back in time to grab any historical figure and bring them to the present, who would it be and why? 

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