Maggie Blackbird

Today, author Mia Frances is guesting. She’s talking about her latest release Tribes, a post-apocalyptic, dystopian, dark romantic suspense. Check out the sale. And don’t forget to enter the Rafflecopter giveaway.

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The first book I ever wrote, THE COLONY, was a recurring nightmare I had about the aftermath of a nuclear war. Reports of a world on the brink of disaster on the nightly news, all the doom and gloom, was causing night terrors. I thought it might help if I  wrote down what I could remember of the dream. I thought it would make it less frightening. Once I got it down on paper and read it, I was surprised… it made quite a story. I began to expand and embellish it. I majored in anthropology in college and polyandry, the form of polygamy where one woman has several husbands, always interested me. I set the story in the Catskill Mountains on the day bombs start dropping and the civilized world ceases to exist. There are scores of men out hunting and fishing that day, but precious few women. The ones that survive are kept as chattel. It didn’t sell right away, but I lucked out because I’d sent the manuscript to a publisher who was also a book packager. He liked my work and contacted me about a contract he had with a publisher to produce a number of science fiction books. Each book had to be 200 pages and  I only had 30 days to complete each one. I had no idea what I was going to write about, I just sat down and wrote, working 15 to 16-hour days. I have no clue how I came up with a plot about cannibalism in outer space, but I did,. The result was The Ark , my first published book. The same company later published The Colony and the next book in that series, The Land.

I’m very visual. I take pictures of buildings and scenery and refer to them as I work. I have folders of faces clipped from magazines for my characters and folders of pictures and articles about plants and animals, Anything to get the gears turning. 

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Title: Tribes
Series: N/A
Author: Mia Frances
Genre: Post-apocalyptic dystopian, Dark Romantic Suspense

A dark, gritty post-apocalyptic tale of love, loathing, & survival!

Blurb:  Alex, her sisters, and their kids are on their way to her camp in the Adirondack Mountains for the Columbus Day weekend when the unthinkable happens. A voice on the radio warns the country is under attack! Greeted by guns and bullets when they try to seek shelter, they’re forced to hide in a cave to wait out the fallout.

After two weeks in their dank hole, Alex wakes up one morning to discover her sisters gone. They’ve taken the rented minibus and returned to the city to search for their husbands, leaving Alex to care for her 7 nieces and nephews. It’s an arduous 35-mile hike through the mountains to her camp…a journey through hell!

Society is devolving. The strong: looters, murderers, and rapists; preying on the weak. The small hamlets and villages they pass through have become killing fields, as survivors battle each other for the few remaining supplies. Above them, the skies are growing darker every day, blocking out the sun. Temperatures are plummeting. Winter is coming early.

Along the way, Alex rescues two starving orphans whose mother was murdered by marauders. In her struggle to keep the children alive, Alex stumbles on a hidden cache of food only to discover it’s guarded by a man who’ll haunt her nightmares. Half guardian angel, half demon. Both barbarian and benefactor. A strange mixture of brutality and gentleness, cruelty and caring. A man named Wolf!

This book contains explicit, non-consensual sexual scenes, spankings, and elements of power exchange, which may offend or trigger some readers. If such material offends you, please don’t buy this book. For readers ages 18+.

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Alex was trying not to hate them for what they’d done. But it was hard! She told herself she should pity them for their stupidity and cowardice. Unable to cope with reality, it was easier for them to retreat into their fantasies: where the dead were alive and the world was as it once was; or, better still, the saved were carried away in the rapture on heavenly escalators bound for eternal paradise. The past belonged to Victoria and the future with its promise of a glorious hereafter to Cat. But Alex? Alex could find comfort in neither. She was stuck here in this living hell, overwhelmed by the shit, and the stench, and the responsibility! How could they do this to her? They were her sisters; yet they’d betrayed her. Worse still, they’d betrayed their children. Narcissistic bitches! Cunts! Alex sat in silence, listening to the strained sound of her own breathing, stoically resigned to her fate.

“What do we do now?” Deana asked, plaintively.

Without saying a word, Alex got up, and walked from the cave. There was nothing to say. No words of hope. No reassurances that all would be well. The truth was they were going to die; their existence would come to a miserable end. It was only a matter of time.

Alex wanted to feel alive again, breathe fresh air, see the sky, let the wind blow through her hair, marvel at nature’s beauty, before those simple pleasures were taken from her. She wandered over the rocks, peering into the crevices. They reminded her of the world, the way it was now: barren and pockmarked. Alex stared across the river to the place where the minibus had been parked.

They were 35 miles from the camp. Sick and weak from hunger, there was little chance they could make it on foot. How could she expect children to endure such an arduous trek when they were starving? Even if they did have the strength to begin the journey, how many of them would survive it? In their present condition, making the trip across the mountains with its exhausting, steep climbs would take them six days at least. Six days of freezing cold nights, of possible rain, and wind. If hunger didn’t kill them, then exposure to the elements certainly would…not to mention the fallout still drifting down from the skies. She drew her knees up to her chest and, placing her arms across them, rested her head, wearily shutting her eyes. Alex was at a loss to know what to do: stay here in the shelter of the cave and starve to death or begin the odyssey through the wilderness on the slim chance that they might somehow survive it? Alex was tired, and weak from hunger. She wasn’t sure she could survive the journey, let alone the kids. Death seemed inevitable.

She lifted her head and looked around, surveying the cliff below. There was something black and tan resting on the rocks. Alex strained to see what it was. It appeared to be a short length of discarded rope. Near it, some 10 feet away, was another piece, thicker than the first. She made a mental note that they might want to retrieve them to use on their trip back across the river. Alex was turning away when she caught sight of movement down below. It was hard to tell, swaying trees and branches were casting shadows on the rocks. Curiosity aroused, she continued to watch the objects. There it was again. She stood up slowly and began making her way over the rocks. Halfway down, she realized they weren’t pieces of rope at all; they were alive. Snakes! Two big ones! What were they doing here? It was cold. Too cold for snakes to be out and about. They should be hibernating, yet here they were. Alex inched her way closer, eyes glued on the creatures. She’d never thought of reptiles as anything but revolting before, nevertheless, she suddenly found her mouth watering, visions of sizzling meat dancing in her head. Though torpid, they looked healthy and well fed. She wasn’t going to turn her back on good fortune. She intended to put them to good use.

Smiling at her prey, Alex picked up a stone and with as much stealth as she could muster, approached them, hoping they wouldn’t notice her and try to escape. The one on the left was the fattest. He’d be first. Clutching the stone tightly in her hand, she crawled to within two feet of him, then, lifting her weapon, brought it crashing down on its head, smashing the skull. Wriggling, even in death, she grabbed it and quickly turned her attention to the other one. Aware of the danger, it was slithering away. Scrambling over the rocks, Alex saw its head disappear into a crevice. Lunging for it, she managed to wrap her fingers around its tail. Tugging with all her might, she extracted the squirming snake from its hiding place and beat it against the rocks until it stopped moving. Today they’d eat! With just her two hands and a bit of luck she’d managed to stave off starvation, at least for the moment. Perhaps tomorrow they’d go hungry, but even that frightening prospect couldn’t dampen her elation. She looked out over the interminable expanse of green, stretching as far as the eye could see. It seemed less foreboding than it had a few minutes ago. Holding a dangling snake in each hand, Alex headed back to the cave, the tiny ember of hope she’d thought extinguished, glowing brightly once more.

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Mia Frances is the pen name of author Mary Vigliante Szydlowski. As Mia, she’s the author of the dark, gritty post-apocalyptic romance, TRIBES; steamy romantic suspense novel, Little Girl Lost; and the erotic romance, murder mystery series: IN HIS KEEPING: TAKEN, IN HIS KEEPING: BANISHED, and IN HIS KEEPING: CLAIMED.

Her Science Fiction/Fantasy works include novels: The Ark (Jarl Szydlow), The Colony (Mary Vigliante), The Land (Mary Vigliante), Source of Evil (Mary Vigliante), and novella, The Hand of My Enemy. She’s also the author of horror novel, Worship the Night; and Dark Realm, the tale of a dystopian world ruled by Satan. In addition, she’s the author of mainstream novel Silent Song. 

She’s also published 11 children’s book: There’s A Mouse In The House,  Are We There Yet?, Little Sowbug & the Big Flood, Ghoul School, Millie Muldoon & the Case of the Halloween Haunting, Millie Muldoon & the Case of the Thanksgiving Turkey-napper, Millie Muldoon & the Christmas Mystery, A Puddle for Poo, Kia’s Manatee, The Duck in the Hole, and I Can’t Talk I’ve Got Farbles In My Mouth.

Her short stories, articles, children’s stories, essays, and poems have appeared in books, magazines, newspapers, and on the web. She’s also a contributor to the Chicken Soup for the Soul anthologies: The Dog Did What?, Volunteering and Giving Back, Merry Christmas!, Mom Knows Best, and Life Lessons from the Dog.

She’s a member of the Authors’ Guild, SCBWI (Society of Children’s Books Writers and Illustrators), SFWA (Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America), and RWA (Romance Writers of America).

Follow Mia: Website | Facebook | X | Instagram | Bookbub | Amazon | Goodreads

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