Cover Reveal: Grinders by C.S. Boyack @Virgilante #cyberpunk #sciencefiction

Posted on by

Hey, friends—don’t you just love looking at book covers? I do, and always get excited whenever someone I know has a new cover to unveil. Today, I’m delighted to host friend and Story Empire colleague, Craig Boyack, for the red carpet roll out of a sparkly new book cover!

Book cover for Grinders, a speculative fiction novel by C. S. BoyackI’m here to reveal my newest cover and talk a bit about Grinders. This time, I’m tackling a cyberpunk world. It’s one of those worlds where the Internet and being connected too much controls our lives.

One of the things I like about science fiction is the ability to project current events into the future. I call this, “Poking things with a stick.”

I poked a lot of things in this book, but most of them are in passing. Some of them show up in advertisements, which are invasive in this world. Others might just be a news blurb. There are times when I dive a bit deeper, and not everything is negative. Here is a small list of things that show up in the story:

  • Global warming
  • Plastic pollution
  • Helicopter moms
  • Cyber shut-ins
  • The energy crisis
  • New ways for package thieves to operate
  • Police who can’t carry guns until they are five-year veterans
  • Homeowner associations

There are a lot more, and most of them are pretty subtle. Cyberpunk is not known for deep plots, but I wanted one anyway.

Grinders is set about a hundred years in the future, in San Francisco. The main characters are cops assigned to the Grinder Squad. This is the duty nobody wants, and you almost have to screw up to get this assignment.

Grinders exist today, but I ramped them up for this story. These are people who surgically modify themselves, or each other, in basement surgeries, beauty salons, and tattoo parlors. Real world examples are those who implant chips under their skin to allow themselves to unlock doors or start cars without a key. There has even been one who injected dye into his eyeballs in an attempt to see in the dark. In that example, it actually worked but the results were temporary.

My story involves the downside of these modifications, why they’re illegal, and most of them are a bit more extreme than the real world versions. For example, you’ll meet Brandi, who has moth-like antennae implanted into her forehead. They aren’t just cute, they allow her to taste virtually everything. She’s almost like a bloodhound, only using the sense of taste.

Grinder Squad rarely ever does anything, but the new girl on the squad, Jimi, wants to bust a grind shop in the worst way. She feels like it could be her ticket off this crap detail and on to better duty.

One of my silly goals was to release the book in time for Chinese New Year. I’m not going to make it. I still need to finish my final pass, send it to the formatter, and get my promotional posters. It’s going to need a blurb, too.

I targeted this date because in the story, it’s the Year of the Rat. An important part of the story takes place at San Francisco’s annual parade. There are even a couple of rats in the story that play a pivotal role. Aside from that, I was born in the Year of the Rat.

Readers won’t actually care about my silly target date, and it’s more important to give everything the final polish. What I did get in time was cover art. So Gong Hei Fot Choi, everyone, and enjoy the cover. The story will be available before you know it, and I’ll announce that on my blog.

I’m really looking forward to this one! I got a sneak peek of it, and the story is unbelievably imaginative. That’s always the case with Craig’s work, so I recommend keeping your eyes peeled for news of Grinders release. I know I am!

Please help Craig out by using the sharing buttons below!

Connect with Craig at the following haunts:
Blog | My Novels | Twitter | Goodreads| Facebook | Pinterest | BookBub

Biography box for author C. S. Boyack

 

61 thoughts on “Cover Reveal: Grinders by C.S. Boyack @Virgilante #cyberpunk #sciencefiction”

  2. Don’t rush too much, Craig … I still have Serang to read!!! LMAO. And after reading this post, I definitely want to ALSO read Grinders. Perhaps I need to find a grind shop to add an extra set of eyes, lol.

    I love the cover too. Best of luck with this one!

    Mae, it’s great to see Craig here today 🙂

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply ↓

  3. Lisa is off somewhere with Sean Harrington making promotional posters. It will be a few more weeks before I’m ready to launch. Glad you’re interested. I’ve never done a cover release, so I hope it builds some interest.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply ↓

  4. I can’t think of anything more exciting than that first glimpse of a shiny, new cover! Woohoo, Craig! This one is an attention grabber for sure, and just looking at it now and then should keep you all revved up as you get things finalized for your release! (Looking forward to that!)

    Hooray for poking things with a stick! 🙂

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply ↓

  20. Wow, sounds like a cool idea for a story. Love the artwork – very cyberpunk. I like the idea of poking some of the topics you’re not ‘supposed’ to touch in genre; that’s the best way to make writing interesting! Good on you Craig 🙂

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply ↓

I love comments, so please scribble a thought or two!

Please log in using one of these methods to post your comment:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.