About the Book

Book: Steal Fire from the Gods

Author: Clint Hall

Genre: Science Fiction

Release Date: November 7, 2023

The Human Alliance knew the war was over when the machines started using magic to cast fire, shake the ground, conjure storms, and part the seas.

We fought back anyway.

22-year-old soldier Gunnar Graves lost his faith and his family when a platoon of AI-driven war machines—led by an android fire mage— destroyed his unit. Forced to live in a machine-controlled village and hiding a dark secret, he spends his days trying to learn elemental power so he can take his revenge. After years of failure, his ability ignites when he least expects it.

On the run and hunted by the war machines, Gunnar discovers that an ancient, life-based strength has awakened to help humanity fight back. Joined by the other life mages, Gunnar is thrust into a mad world of android overlords, cyborg clans, and evil forces bent on his destruction.

To protect his newfound family, Gunnar must discover the truth behind a power he doesn’t understand and wage a war he doesn’t believe they can win.

 

Click here to get your copy!

 

About the Author

Clint Hall is a storyteller, speaker, and podcast host. He has been writing stories since middle school, where he spent most of his time in class creating comic books. (Fortunately, his teacher not only allowed it; she bought every issue.) Known for instilling a sense of hope, wonder, and adventure, Clint’s work has been published across multiple anthologies and magazines. Find him at ClintHall.com or “The Experience: Conversations with Creatives” podcast, available on all major platforms.

 

More from Clint

When I first heard the song See A Victory by Elevation Worship, I assumed the lyrics, “You took what the enemy meant for evil and You turned it for good,” were pulled verbatim (translated, of course) from the Bible, probably one of Paul’s letters.

Despite not knowing exactly from where they came, the words stuck with me. It’s inspiring to believe that God can take the terrible things that have happened to us – or even because of us – and use them to bring about something beautiful.

When I looked them up, I found that the lyrics are actually a derivation of what Joseph said to his brothers years after they sold him into slavery. “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.” (Genesis 50:20 NIV)

Placing the words within the context of a story makes them even more impactful for me. It’s astounding to think about Joseph’s faith and spiritual maturity to not only offer forgiveness in this moment, but also to recognize the immense benefits that have arisen from such a horrific injustice against him.

It wasn’t until recently that I realized how much this passage is related to my book. That’s the funny thing about writing stories. You often don’t know what they’re about until you’re done.

Steal Fire From The Gods is the most faith-based story I’ve ever written. It’s also the darkest and certainly the weirdest. It’s an action-packed book in which AI has discovered the secrets of elemental magic and used that power to overthrow humanity.

But that’s just the concept. This story isn’t about magic robots. It’s about a person undergoing a crisis of faith. And you could hardly blame him.

Gunnar Graves and his family did everything the right way. They were faithful, devoted, and kind. They prayed, studied God’s Word, and followed His laws. Then, they were decimated. As a result, Gunnar is angry at God and even at his late parents for their blind faith that – from his perspective – ultimately failed them all.

Gunnar spends much of the story trying to harness magic for what he believes is a righteous cause. But despite his altruistic intentions, it eludes him, causing him even more anger and frustration. How could an all-powerful, all-loving God place such an awesome power into the hands of oppressive machines instead of mankind?

To make matters worse, Gunnar and other characters in the story have secrets that I won’t spoil in this blog. Suffice to say there are aspects of who they are and what they have done that would cause most people to cast them out if the truth became known. So instead, they hide themselves from God and other humans. More separation. More shame. More darkness.

It often feels that way for believers. In our weakness, we can simultaneously be angry at God for what we perceive as injustice – getting what we don’t think we deserve, or not getting what we think we do – while also being convinced there is something about us that will prevent us from ever connecting with His love, joy, and peace.

But there is always hope. God often reminds us of His presence by not only saving us from our circumstances but also using our weaknesses as tools to create wonderful outcomes. Paradoxically, good comes about not in spite of evil, but seemingly because of it.

As believers, we understand this is not a function of necessity. To bring about this good, God did not need evil to occur. But He will use it to demonstrate His ability to turn the enemy’s own weapons against him.

These occurrences wouldn’t make sense outside the knowledge that there is an all-powerful, all-loving Father. That reminder of His presence – that He must be with us because otherwise, such good springing from such evil would be impossible – is in many cases a greater blessing than the good itself.

But He will not force these blessings upon us. We are free to choose whether we will trust and accept them. We do so through faith, selflessness, and surrender.

That’s where we find the power. That’s where we find goodness. That’s where we find hope.

That’s what I want readers to take away from this book.

Author Interview

• Do you hear from your readers much? What kinds of things do they say?

Thanks for having me on your blog!

As of right now, the book hasn’t been released, but I am hearing from early reviewers. A few have said they identified deeply with specific elements in the story, which means quite a lot to me.

Steal Fire From The Gods is a fun, fast-paced, action-packed story that deals with themes such as struggling with faith. It’s both super weird and super personal. When you create something like that and have people tell you that it meant something to them, it’s very validating.

There’s a lot more that I’d like to say, but I’m afraid it would give too much away. Suffice it to say people are connecting with the story on a deep level. For that, I’m so grateful.

• How do you overcome writer’s block? Do you have any advice for others in finding their process to overcome it?

I subscribe to the Steven Pressfield ideology that the muse favors the working stiff. Even if the ideas aren’t flowing, you can always type something. And if you type enough somethings, the good ideas do have a way of breaking through the block.

Similarly, I like something I once heard Neil Gaiman say about convincing himself that the first draft isn’t important, that the words he’s writing don’t matter. Nobody will ever see his first draft; if the whole thing is terrible, he’ll get rid of it. Of course, writing that feels terrible in the moment is often discovered to have a few hidden gems when you look back on it later.

But you must write something, even if it’s silly or nonsensical.

However, this doesn’t mean you have to write every day. I believe in taking periods of rest. You do, however, need a lot of self-awareness and self-honesty to determine whether you are taking a much-needed rest period or avoiding the work out of fear. If it’s the latter, you have to get back to it.

The writing doesn’t have to be good; that comes later. At first, it only needs to get done.

• Do you read the genre you write? Why or why not?

I do read sci-fi, but not exclusively. A few years ago, I was concerned with taking all the advice about reading the “right” books and keeping up with everything that’s going on in your genre. While that is good advice, over the past year or so, I’ve instead focused on the books that I want to read and allowed my curiosity to guide me.

Of course, this often includes science fiction, but I don’t hold myself to any standard. I’m an embarrassingly slow reader, so the notion of keeping up with what’s going on in the market is a fool’s errand for me.

Instead, I try to ensure that I’m taking in stories that fan the flames of my creativity and nurture my soul, regardless of the genre.

• How did you come up with the title for your book?

For a long time, the book had a different title that was pretty straightforward. I won’t say it here because it’s a minor spoiler (which was even more reason to change it), but the title was boring.

Steal Fire From The Gods is an idea that came to me one day. Of course, it’s a phrase I had heard several times in my life from people referencing the Promethean legend, but I had a moment of clarity in which I realized it was the perfect thematic phrase for my story.

• What’s your favorite writing snack, drink, and/or music?

For snacks, I’m boring. I’ve almost always got a cup of coffee and a Yeti filled with water. I don’t tend to eat much while I’m writing.

As for music, I have several writing playlists, but one album is essential to me – A Thousand Suns by Linkin Park. When that album came out, my wife and I listened to it for the first time on a road trip to visit her parents. The circumstances were perfect; we were driving at night in a gentle rain, enjoying each other’s company but not talking because we were so enveloped in the music. It’s a thematic album, not precisely a “concept” album, but each song leads into the next.

We listened to that album all weekend while driving around Gulf Shores, AL. That was also the weekend when – after knowing my entire life that eventually I would be a writer – I decided to start working on my first book.

Usually, when I’m writing, I can’t listen to songs with lyrics. They’re too distracting. But A Thousand Suns is different. It puts me in the perfect place for the type of stories I want to tell.

Blog Stops

Texas Book-aholic, November 14

Artistic Nobody, November 15 (Author Interview)

Exploring the Written Word, November 15

Becca Hope: Book Obsessed, November 16

Guild Master, November 17 (Author Interview)

Book Reviews From an Avid Reader, November 18

Through the Fire Blogs, November 19 (Author Interview)

Wishful Endings, November 20

Beauty in the Binding, November 21 (Author Interview)

Locks, Hooks and Books, November 22

Debbie’s Dusty Deliberations, November 23

Simple Harvest Reads, November 24 (Author Interview)

The Lofty Pages, November 24

Blogging With Carol, November 25

Labor Not in Vain, November 26

Fiction Book Lover, November 27 (Author Interview)

Giveaway

To celebrate his tour, Clint is giving away the grand prize package of a $50 Amazon gift card and signed copy of the book!!

Be sure to comment on the blog stops for nine extra entries into the giveaway! Click the link below to enter.

https://promosimple.com/ps/29094/steal-fire-from-the-gods-celebration-tour-giveaway