Project and content management for Contemporary Authors volumes
WORK TITLE: Crosstown
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: http://www.lorencooper.com/
CITY: Cedar Rapids
STATE: IA
COUNTRY: United States
NATIONALITY: American
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Married; children: has daughters.
EDUCATION:Holds an M.F.A.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer.
AVOCATIONS:Reading, brewing, martial arts, technology.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
Loren W. Cooper is a writer based in Cedar Rapids, IA. He has released several self-published works, including The Lives of Ghosts and Other Shades of Memory, The Gates of Sleep, A Slow and Silent Stream, A Separate Power, and Chains of Ghosts: Resonance in Language, Story, and the Brain.
In 2017, Cooper released Crosstown. In an interview with a writer on the Tena Stetler website, Cooper explained how he became inspired to write the book. Cooper stated: “A horror scene done badly made me want to write a scene I felt more appropriate. The story grew far beyond that, but that’s the first seed.” Cooper discussed the book’s protagonist in an interview with a contributor to the Supernatural Central website. He stated: “The main character, Zethus, is a working sorcerer and a Master of the Ways of Possibility. He lives on the edge of CrossTown, a place where all of the possibilities inherent in roads come together. Zethus knows how to manipulate those possibilities to cross between realities, but he is also a working sorcerer, which means he earns his living by handling hostile spirits for folks who can’t deal with them. As a sorcerer, Zethus has a Legion of Spirits he has built over time.” When Zethus’s master, Corvinus, mysteriously dies, Zethus is determined to find out who was responsible. What he uncovers puts his life in danger. Zethus focuses on the case Corvinus was dealing with just before he died, believing that it may hold the key to his murder. He finds that the case is connected to powerful forces. If Zethus keeps pushing for answers, he may pay a hefty price. Meanwhile, Corvinus’s life’s work is in jeopardy, as shadowy agents are being sent to destroy it.
In an assessment of CrossTown in Kirkus Reviews, a critic suggested: “This book attempts to tackle some provocative ideas about the nature of power but lacks the suspense needed to keep the reader interested.” However, a reviewer in Internet Bookwatch called the book “expressly and unreservedly recommended” and “a ‘must’ for the personal reading lists of all dedicated fantasy/mystery fans.” Kim Anisi, contributor to the Readers’ Favorite website, described the volume as “a story that not only entertained, but also tickled the brain a bit.” Anisi remarked: “If you are after an unusual setting, a story that keeps you engaged on every page, and a main character that is hard to put into any classic category, then this book would be a good choice.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Internet Bookwatch, February, 2018, review of CrossTown.
Kirkus Reviews, September 1, 2017, review of CrossTown.
ONLINE
Loren W. Cooper website, http://www.lorencooper.com/ (May 29, 2018).
Readers’ Favorite, https://readersfavorite.com/ (April 30, 2018), Kim Anisi, review of CrossTown.
Supernatural Central, http://supernaturalcentral.blogspot.com/ (December 26, 2017), author interview.
Tena Stetler website, http://www.tenastetler.com/ (May 29, 2018), author interview.
Meet Loren W. Cooper
Loren Cooper lives in Cedar Rapids with his wife and daughters. He's been publishing books since about 2000. He has an MFA with a teaching emphasis. He loves reading, writing, brewing, martial arts, technology, and his family. CrossTown is his sixth published book.
QUOTED: "A horror scene done badly made me want to write a scene I felt more appropriate. The story grew far beyond that, but that’s the first seed."
Interview with Loren W. Cooper Author of Crosstown
Happy holidays to all! Give a big welcome to Loren W. Cooper, author of Cross Town a SyFi Fantasy.
Have a seat and grab an insulated mug. I’ve got hot chocolate, hot cider and coffee. Choose your pot, they’re labeled. Pick your choice of a Snicker-doodle, Chocolate Chip or Peanut butter cookie from the plate. Yep, I baked them myself. Lets find out a little about Loren and see what CrossTown is all about. Thanks for joining us!
I have a few questions for your Loren, lets start with what defines you as an author? As a person? Are they one in the same?Always try to set the bar a little higher. Choosing when and where that is appropriate can be difficult, but I’d say it is the same as an author and as a person.
What inspired this particular story?A horror scene done badly made me want to write a scene I felt more appropriate. The story grew far beyond that, but that’s the first seed.
What secret do you use to blast through writer’s block?Work on more than one thing at a time. If you’re slowing on a project, turn to a different project.
Who is your favorite character of all of the books you’ve written and Why?The White Wolf and permutations of that character, the acerbic wolf-spirit, crop up again and again. That character archetype runs deep for me, obviously, so I’d probably say he’s my favorite.
What inspired you to write?I’ve loved stories and storytelling as long as I can remember. Eventually I had enough stressors I turned to writing as a release, and then it became something more.
How long have you been writing? Over 20 years.
Did you tell friends and family that you were writing a book? Or did it take a while to come out and tell friends and family you were a writer?I was through my first mss before I let anyone see a few of the first pages. After that I had a few regular readers.
Do you see yourself in your characters? Absolutely. Not just the main character. All those voices are facets of our own personality as writers.
What do you want your readers to take away from your books?The best fiction entertains and informs, enlarges our world to some extent. If I succeed there, I have succeeded completely.
Where do your story ideas come from? If they come to you in the middle of the night, do you get up and write them all down?I will jot down lines, images, ideas at any time of the day or night if it captures me.
Do you find it easier to write from a male or female point of view? Why? My main characters tend to reflect my perspective, within limits, so male is generally the primary point of view, but the world is a better place for having strong women in it, and so are stories, whether the main character or not.
Why do you write what you write? Contemporary, paranormal, suspense, etc. I write my interests, which tend to be history, mythology, and science and technology. F/SF is a natural follow on to that.
If writing is your first passion, what is your second? Martial Arts.
What do you like to do when you are not writing? Martial Arts, spend time with family, cook, motorcycle, read.
You’ve got a time machine, a cloak of invisibility, and one hour. Where would you go, and what eavesdropping would you do? It’s a where and when, of course—and such a tight timeline. I’d probably like to go back and see Stonehenge being built and used. Probably wouldn’t understand the language but could get a slice of insight into use and building techniques.
CrossTown is the crossroads of possibility.
A little about CrossTown:
Zethus is a sorcerer―a self-described spiritual thug for hire. He makes his living in CrossTown, a place where the manyworld hypothesis of modern physics manifests itself, where possibilities and probabilities overlap.
Caught up in a web of intrigue as he investigates the death of his master, Corvinus, and pursued by agents that want to erase all knowledge of Corvinus’ work, Zethus discovers that the key to his master’s murder lies in the last project he had pursued before his death. The roots of this project lie deep in the past, at the origin of CrossTown’s fractured reality.
Once he understands the stakes, Zethus must make the dangerous journey to the cradle of history. The price he must pay to find the answers he seeks will threaten everything he holds dear―including his own humanity.
“Beware the road outside your front door, for it is all at once old friend and passing stranger.” –CrossTown
“A sorcerer explores the frontier of theoretical physics.” Publisher’s Weekly
BN Amazon Thrift Books Wal-Mart Target
A peek between the pages of CrossTown:
Roads and streets run like veins and arteries through the beating heart of CrossTown. Each runs through all manner of distant and not-so-distant possibilities.
There’s a theory in modern physics that posits a universe for every decision we make. Each time we choose, right or left, high or low, vanilla or chocolate, we split into separate universes. A vanilla me here, a chocolate me there, a rocky road with pistachio me somewhere else, and some poor lactose intolerant me further down the line. The dominant me is my subjective reality. In CrossTown, the probable mes collapse into the dominant wave, but all those wandering Ways continually wash other alternate lives, lives meant to be lived in CrossTown, up on its jagged shores.
The names of roads are choices; the turning and branching of roads are choices; roads are physical manifestations of their builders’ decisions…
Everywhere, every place and every time where man or something like him has lived, roads run into one another, branch, disappear here and reappear over there as if they were quantum tunneling. They run, meet, part, cross again, and form a bewildering Mandelbrot set of linked probabilities.
Beware the road outside your front door, for it is both old friend and passing stranger.
All those choices, all hooked together, comprise a vast sea of possibility. A knowledgeable traveler can ride the currents in that sea to unimagined destinations…
CrossTown is the crossroads of probability.
About the Author:
Loren W Cooper is the author of four novels, one short story collection and one nonfiction work. He has won the NESFA in 1998 and the EPPIE for Best Anthology in 2001. He is married with two daughters. He currently lives in Cedar Rapids Iowa. Favorite authors include Zelazny, Hammet, Steakley, and Catton. Loren Currently works for Hewlett-Packard.
QUOTED: "The main character, Zethus, is a working sorcerer and a Master of the Ways of Possibility. He lives on the edge of CrossTown, a place where all of the possibilities inherent in roads come together. Zethus knows how to manipulate those possibilities to cross between realities, but he is also a working sorcerer, which means he earns his living by handling hostile spirits for folks who can't deal with them. As a sorcerer, Zethus has a Legion of Spirits he has built over time."
Tuesday, December 26, 2017
INTERVIEW WITH LOREN W. COOPER (Cross Town)
Pooped from yesterday's hoopla? Sit back and relax. We have author Loren W. Cooper in the house today for the Supernatural Central quick chat.
SC: Tell me a little bit about your main character of this book.
LC: The main character, Zethus, is a working sorcerer and a Master of the Ways of Possibility. He lives on the edge of CrossTown, a place where all of the possibilities inherent in roads come together. Zethus knows how to manipulate those possibilities to cross between realities, but he is also a working sorcerer, which means he earns his living by handling hostile spirits for folks who can't deal with them. As a sorcerer, Zethus has a Legion of Spirits he has built over time. One of the themes for Zethus, who was a Classical Greek character at a time when the world was comfortable with slavery, is how his perspective changes over time regarding the enslavement of the spirits.
SC: Speaking of spirits, do you believe in the paranormal and if so, do you have an experience you can share?
LC: If I define the paranormal as “denoting events or phenomena that are beyond the scope of current scientific understanding,” then yes, as the scientific framework is constantly developing. As a Christian, by default I believe in the supernatural. And numinous religious experience is not something measurable within the scientific framework (though brain scan studies and the like can map some of the accompanying phenomena—such measurement does not mean the experience equates to the firing cells). Even within the framework of science and philosophy, Jung's ideas around asynchronous events have always been very interesting. Jung's mystical slant offended Freud, but there's more humanity in Jung's theories, and inherent to the nature of asynchronous events is the fact that they oppose synchronous measurement. Things like quantum tunneling and quantum entanglement are measurable and predicted within the framework of modern physics, and yet they were outside the comprehension of classical physicists. Michelson famously said “it seems probable that most of the grand underlying principles have been firmly established and that further advances are to be sought chiefly in the rigorous application of these principles to all the phenomena which come under our notice...” This was at a dedication speech for Chicago's Ryerson Physical Laboratory in 1894. Einstein had yet to hit the scene. So, are there things beyond the scope of current scientific understanding? Undoubtedly. One of the darkest frontiers is the human mind.
SC: .What titles are you working on now that you can tell us about?
LC: Actually, I have a complete draft I'm letting sit for rework that is a future history. Central to the story is a science fiction framework that approaches the development of psychic phenomena from a Jungian, asynchronous events perspective. As Arthur C. Clarke has it, any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. The goal of that story is to blur those lines.
SC: Thanks for stopping by. Let's take a look at your book now.
CrossTown
Loren W Cooper
Genre: Fantasy/SF
Publisher: Red Hen Books
Date of Publication: Nov 14, 2017
ISBN: 978-1939096029
Number of pages: 340
Word Count: 95000
Cover Artist: Red Hen Staff Artist
Tagline: CrossTown is the crossroads of possibility.
Book Description:
Zethus is a sorcerer―a self-described spiritual thug for hire. He makes his living in CrossTown, a place where the manyworld hypothesis of modern physics manifests itself, where possibilities and probabilities overlap.
Caught up in a web of intrigue as he investigates the death of his master, Corvinus, and pursued by agents that want to erase all knowledge of Corvinus’ work, Zethus discovers that the key to his master’s murder lies in the last project he had pursued before his death. The roots of this project lie deep in the past, at the origin of CrossTown’s fractured reality.
Once he understands the stakes, Zethus must make the dangerous journey to the cradle of history. The price he must pay to find the answers he seeks will threaten everything he holds dear―including his own humanity.
“Beware the road outside your front door, for it is all at once old friend and passing stranger.” –CrossTown
“A sorcerer explores the frontier of theoretical physics.” Publisher’s Weekly
BN Amazon Thrift Books Wal-Mart Target
Excerpt:
Roads and streets run like veins and arteries through the beating heart of CrossTown. Each runs through all manner of distant and not-so-distant possibilities.
There's a theory in modern physics that posits a universe for every decision we make. Each time we choose, right or left, high or low, vanilla or chocolate, we split into separate universes. A vanilla me here, a chocolate me there, a rocky road with pistachio me somewhere else, and some poor lactose intolerant me further down the line. The dominant me is my subjective reality. In CrossTown, the probable mes collapse into the dominant wave, but all those wandering Ways continually wash other alternate lives, lives meant to be lived in CrossTown, up on its jagged shores.
The names of roads are choices; the turning and branching of roads are choices; roads are physical manifestations of their builders’ decisions…
Everywhere, every place and every time where man or something like him has lived, roads run into one another, branch, disappear here and reappear over there as if they were quantum tunneling. They run, meet, part, cross again, and form a bewildering Mandelbrot set of linked probabilities.
Beware the road outside your front door, for it is both old friend and passing stranger.
All those choices, all hooked together, comprise a vast sea of possibility. A knowledgeable traveler can ride the currents in that sea to unimagined destinations…
CrossTown is the crossroads of probability.
About the Author:
Loren W Cooper is the author of four novels, one short story collection and one nonfiction work. He has won the NESFA in 1998 and the EPPIE for Best Anthology in 2001. He is married with two daughters. He currently lives in Cedar Rapids Iowa. Favorite authors include Zelazny, Hammet, Steakley, and Catton. Loren Currently works for Hewlett-Packard.
QUOTED: "This book attempts to tackle some provocative ideas about the nature of power but lacks the suspense needed to keep the reader interested."
Cooper, Loren W.: CROSSTOWN
Kirkus Reviews. (Sept. 1, 2017):
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Cooper, Loren W. CROSSTOWN Red Hen Press (Adult Fiction) $16.95 11, 14 ISBN: 978-1-939096-02-9
A story of murder and revenge set in a world where anything is possible.Zethus is a sorcerer for hire in CrossTown, a place where the world's infinite possibilities are all available to those who know how to walk the branching Roads to alternate realities. With the help of his Legion of captured spirits, he takes on jobs like banishing troublesome ghosts for pay. But he should have known that a job that offered one golden hour just for meeting with a mysterious messenger was too good to be true. The job tangles him up with the world of Faerie, setting a remorseless hunter on his trail. And then there's the bounty the Whitesnakes' cult has placed on his head. Oh, and the little matter of his mentor, Corvinus, being viciously murdered. Sorting out this whole tangle of plots and double-crosses, not to mention saving his own skin, will take Zethus on a journey through the darkest and wildest Ways in CrossTown--and require him to confront some uncomfortable truths about himself. The atmosphere is one of hard-boiled mystery, but the reader isn't given enough information soon enough to make any educated guesses about the identities or motivations of any of the bad guys. The result is a plot that feels like one thing after another rather than a logical progression toward the truth. This book attempts to tackle some provocative ideas about the nature of power but lacks the suspense needed to keep the reader interested in hearing them.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Cooper, Loren W.: CROSSTOWN." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Sept. 2017. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A502192194/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=e3e8900a. Accessed 17 May 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A502192194
QUOTED: "expressly and unreservedly recommended."
"a 'must' for the personal reading lists of all dedicated fantasy/mystery fans."
CrossTown
Internet Bookwatch. (Feb. 2018):
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2018 Midwest Book Review
http://www.midwestbookreview.com
Full Text:
CrossTown
Loren W. Cooper
Red Hen Press
PO Box 3537, Granada Hills, CA 91394
www.redhen.org
9781939096029, $16.95, PB, 340pp, www.amazon.com
Zethus is a sorcerer and self-described spiritual thug for hire. He makes his living in CrossTown, a place where the many world hypothesis of modern physics manifests itself, where possibilities and probabilities overlap. Caught up in a web of intrigue as he investigates the death of his master, Corvinus, and pursued by agents that want to erase all knowledge of Corvinus's work, Zethus discovers that the key to his master's murder lies in the last project he had pursued before his death. The roots of this project lie deep in the past, at the origin of CrossTown's fractured reality. Once he understands the stakes, Zethus must make the dangerous journey to the cradle of history. The price he must pay to find the answers he seeks will threaten everything he holds dear--including his own humanity. An impressively original and deftly scripted novel by an author with a genuine flair for imaginative and narrative driven storytelling, "CrossTown" is an expressly and unreservedly recommended as an addition to community library Science Fiction & Fantasy collections, and a 'must' for the personal reading lists of all dedicated fantasy/mystery fans.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"CrossTown." Internet Bookwatch, Feb. 2018. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A530828919/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=9f3fd69e. Accessed 17 May 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A530828919
QUOTED: "a story that not only entertained, but also tickled the brain a bit."
"If you are after an unusual setting, a story that keeps you engaged on every page, and a main character that is hard to put into any classic category, then this book would be a good choice."
CrossTown
by Loren W Cooper
Fiction - Fantasy - General 340 Pages Reviewed on 04/30/2018Buy on Amazon
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BOOK REVIEW
Reviewed by Kim Anisi for Readers' Favorite
Science fiction, fantasy, comedy and adventure meet in CrossTown by Loren W Cooper. This unusual genre mix introduces readers to Zethus, a sorcerer who lives in a rather special place. While his world is kind of like our world (you even get to meet some famous people like Vincent van Gogh and Caesar), life there is very different. In his reality, possibilities are endless and each of your decisions leads to the creation of another alternative reality. For example, in one reality, you buy chocolate ice cream; in the other you decide to go for a cheesecake. From that moment on, both versions of you continue to live their own separate lives. This means that there are countless ways history could have run its path. And it's not only the history of Earth's usual inhabitants: Zethus also has to deal with redcaps, fairies, gods, magical storms and other unusual beings. When Zethus takes on a job that promises an incredibly high payment, he puts off seeing his master Corvinus, who had called him to meet at his earliest convenience. If Zethus had only known what his new employer was up to, and how his delay influenced Corvinus's life... Soon Zethus finds himself on the run from one of the most feared characters known to humankind. And he also has to find out what he can do to save everything and everyone he holds dear.
You don't get much of a break once you start reading CrossTown by Loren W Cooper. The first few pages put you in the middle of some sort of "exorcism" that Zethus performs. It is a good chapter that introduces the skills of the protagonist and some of the facts about the world he lives in. A warning in advance: this is not a book you can rush through. You need to take your time and focus on the story, otherwise the rather clever mix of genres might leave you a little confused. After all, on one page you deal with fairies and gods, and then there are suddenly little spider-like robots with the most modern technology all over the place. It all makes sense, but only if you don't daydream while reading! I actually enjoyed that you needed to pay attention and couldn't just halfheartedly read the pages. It was a story that not only entertained, but also tickled the brain a bit. The plot and the world of Zethus are both certainly mind-boggling at times, but in an enjoyable way. I didn't see the end coming, and was rather happy about being surprised as many authors are far too predictable. If you are after an unusual setting, a story that keeps you engaged on every page, and a main character that is hard to put into any classic category, then this book would be a good choice!