Ordinary
Ordinary Series Book 1
by Starr Z. Davies
Genre: YA Sci-Fi Dystopian
Fans of Powerless, The Testing, Hunger Games and the Maze Runner will crave this world of iniquitous
secrets, intrigue, and desire to find a place in society.
Divinic. Somatic. Psionic. Naturalist. Who will you be?
Having a superpower is ordinary. Your Power determines your job, social class, and future
success.
But Ugene doesn’t have a Power. The only thing special about him is that he isn’t special at all. Ugene is
Powerless.
So when the most prominent biomedical research company in the city offers Ugene a solution, he jumps
at the possibility to be ordinary. All he has to do is agree to allow them to use him in their research. But
the longer he stays at the research facility, the more he realizes something isn't right.
Friendships are forged. Trust is broken built and broken. And everything Ugene thought he understood
and believed is called into question.
Who can Ugene trust in his search for answers? What is he willing to sacrifice for Powers?
STARR Z. DAVIES is a Midwesterner at heart, and lives in Wisconsin with her husband and kids. From a
young age, Starr has been obsessed with superheroes like Batman and Captain America, which inspired
her novel, ORDINARY. If Starr had a superpower, she would be an Empath, because she is an
emotional sponge and easily relates to how others feel.
While pursuing a degree in Creative Writing from the University of Wisconsin, Starr gained a reputation
as the “Character Assassin” because she has a habit of utterly destroying her characters both
emotionally and physically.
In her free time, Starr loves watching Doctor Who or anything with superheroes, reading books (duh!),
writing about her favorite fantasy stories (Song of Ice and Fire, Mistborn, The Wheel of Time), and
staring out the window as she dreams up more stories. Oh, and sometimes she steps out the
door.
GUEST POST
HOW DO YOU SELECT THE NAMES OF YOUR CHARACTERS?
Mostly, I let the characters just tell
me what their names are. When I was creating Bianca’s character,
for example, I asked what her name should be and almost immediately
she gave me the answer. Ugene is named after a guy I met years ago,
Eugene Powers. I loved the name and thought it had a lot of punch. I
wasn’t sure how I would use it until I started planning this book.
It seemed like the obvious choice for this character. Ugene isn't
anything like the guy I met, though.
WHERE DID YOU GET THE IDEA FOR THIS
BOOK?
One night my husband, step-son, and I
were creating a bunch of crazy “what if” scenarios and we would
build on them. Ordinary started with the question: “What if a boy
lived in a world where everyone had a superpower but him and the only
job he could get was delivering flowers by bicycle?” It made us
laugh, but it was probably another six years before I realized that
there was actually a book hiding in there. Obviously a lot has
changed between that first question and the final book, but the basic
question remains the same: what if you were the only person without a
superpower in a world full of supers?
HOW DID YOU GET IN TOUCH WITH YOUR
INNER VILLAIN TO WRITE THIS BOOK? WAS THERE A REAL-LIFE INSPIRATION
FOR HER?
I actually wrote a short story from Dr.
Cass’s point of view to get a deeper understanding of her
motivations. Readers can download it from my website for free. To me,
Cass represents everything wrong with corporate America and the shady
practices of big pharma. While I may have taken things a few steps
farther than reality, the basis remains the same. Cass is brilliant
and she knows it, so she games the system to benefit herself and her
research company—even if it means revoking the rights of the lower
class citizens for her own gain. Fear-mongering and corporate greed
are her primary driving forces. The rich get richer and the poor
suffer. I don’t feel like the theme is in-your-face, but the
threads are definitely there if you look.
WHAT DID YOU EDIT OUT OF THIS BOOK?
A lot! The original version was very
different. There was a Blindsight test where the subjects had to
survive a test against each other in the dark; a Healing Hands test
where Ugene was set in front of a guy with a pipe in his gut and
Ugene had to get it out and heal the man before he died—that was
probably the most memorable. One of the guys in my writer’s group
wasn’t too happy that I cut the scene, but it was out of place in
the revised version.
DO YOU WANT EACH BOOK TO STAND ON
ITS OWN, OR ARE YOU TRYING TO BUILD A BODY OF WORK WITH CONNECTIONS
BETWEEN EACH BOOK?
I’m a huge fan of epic sagas. All my
favorite fantasy books are epics. Even the superheroes I grew up
worshiping are sagas, revised, rebooted, and linked through the
multiverse. So yes, I am building a larger body of work. In Ordinary,
Ugene lives on Cante Road, which is the surname of the hero in
another series I’m planning. If my readers pay attention, they will
notice little subtleties linking all my books in a multiverse.
However, not all my books will take place on the same world.
WHAT IS THE FIRST BOOK THAT MADE YOU
CRY?
I’m an emotional sponge, so a lot of
stories have gotten me going, but the first one I really remember
losing control of myself while reading is Robert Jordan’s "A
Memory of Light." The ending of that fourteen-book saga ripped
at my gut and it took me so much longer than it should have to finish
because I had a hard time seeing the pages through my tears. I ugly
cried. A lot. But I also learned a lot from that ending.
Particularly, how to give your characters a perfect ending even if
it’s brutal.
WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE
UNDER-APPRECIATED NOVEL?
I feel like the "Slated"
series, by Teri Terry, is seriously under-appreciated. The world is
fantastic, the characters are all rich and unique, and the ending is
unexpected – which is a hard thing to pull off as a writer. I would
put "Slated" in the higher ranks of YA books alongside
"Hunger Games", and definitely above the "Divergent"
and "Maze Runner" series.
WHAT ARE COMMON TRAPS FOR ASPIRING
WRITERS?
That’s a tough question because there
are so many. Distractions. Marketing, for sure. But for me, the
hardest challenge to overcome was editing while writing. Don’t do
it! I find I’m much more efficient when I edit and revise after the
first draft is completed because often, something will happen late in
the book that could have an affect on the beginning. Aspiring writers
need to stop editing themselves to death or their book will never be
completed.
WHAT ARE YOUR FUTURE PROJECT(S)?
Right now, the sequel to Ordinary is
almost complete and I expect it to be available in June of 2020.
After that, I have a massive epic fantasy series to write. I’ve
already completed a series of short stories that will be the
foundation for the first books. Right now, the plan is a five-book
epic series with a follow-up five-book series that takes place 100
years after the first. But we will see how these actually fall into
place. I'm also doing research for a historical fantasy based on late
15th Century Mongolia.
WHAT IS YOUR PREFERRED METHOD TO
HAVE READERS GET IN TOUCH WITH OR FOLLOW YOU (I.E., WEBSITE, PERSONAL
BLOG, FACEBOOK PAGE, GOODREADS, ETC.)? Sign up for my newsletter,
follow my social media pages. I’m probably the most active on
Facebook, so that’s the best place to start. I encourage reviews on
GoodReads, BookBub, and Amazon, and I try to respond as much as I
can. I also welcome readers to email me directly. I love hearing from
them. Links for all of them can be found on my website,
starrzdavies.com.
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