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Today, JC De La Torre visits SciFiChick.com to discuss Atlantis and more about his upcoming book…

Atlantis Rises
By JC De La Torre

I’ve always loved the story of Atlantis. From when I was a little boy, you’d see Atlantis featured in comics and cartoons as this strange realm with mer-men, mermaids and flying vehicles. B-Movies had them rising from the depths for revenge against man’s pollution of the worlds oceans. Even a pair of dueling superheroes, Aquaman and the Submariner hailed Atlantis as their home (Submariner was always cooler, if you asked me).

As I grew and began an interest in writing, I was in the Star Wars age – Empire Strikes Back was the first major movie I ever saw and Atlantis faded into a distant memory. In my early teen years, I wrote space operas, creature features (Stephen King was/is a major influence), and apocalyptic fiction – Atlantis never really entered the picture. It apparently didn’t figure in anyone else’s either. Sure, your kooks and weirdos who wrote long narratives about where they believed Atlantis could be but Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Avalon series and Clive Cussler’s Atlantis Found were really the extent of good Atlantean sci-fi/adventure/fantasy literature.

As I grew older, my interest in ancient history grew. I loved reading about ancient cultures, myths and legends. My rediscovery of Atlantis came by reading a non-fiction (or semi-fictional, depending on how you view the subject matter) novel by an author named Herbie Brennan called the Atlantis Enigma that introduced me to the true mythology of Atlantis and the theory of ancient astronauts. As I researched Atlantis, I grew interested in Greek mythology as a method of distribution for my own ancient astronauts fiction. Similar to the way Stargate used Egyptian deities posing as gods called the Goa’uld, I used our known Greek mythology, combined it with the ancient Sumerians’ stories of the Annunaki (another Brennan inspiration) and even sprinkled in Jesus Christ. I threw it all in a pot, stirred until I came up with a wild tale about a devastated widower who was greeted by the Greek god Hermes and set on an Indiana Jones-meets-Clash of the Titans type adventure.

I spent a year and half promoting the book, then took some time off. Amazingly, since Ancient Rising was published in 06, there have been sixty-one books dealing with Atlantis . Atlantis was a major story theme (and spinoff) for shows like Stargate. The lost continent seems to be on everyone’s mind these days.

While my first novel focused on the Greek gods and Atlantis, the next in the series Rise of the Ancients – Annuna (coming July 31st) focuses on the Annuna (another name for the Sumerian Annunaki), the rise of the gods on Earth, and how Atlantis fell.

Most experts don’t believe Atlantis existed saying it was an allegory created by the Greek philosopher Plato to be a cautionary tale that warned of the terrible consequences of excess – a Sodom and Gomorrah for Macedonia, if you will.

Others believe there was a real continent known as Atlantis and that it may have already been found in Akrotiri (Santorini Island, Greece), the Bahamas, Antarctica, or even South America.

What is so attractive about the lost world of the Atlanteans? Simply, it’s the idea that an empire can rise to the heights and be leveled in a blink of an eye. Some suggest that Atlantis’ impact can be seen in similar structures throughout the world. Pyramids in South America, Egypt and Cambodia that all seem to have similar genesis – yet are cultures that never interacted with each other. Not to mention ancient battery-like devices and other contraptions centuries before experts believed such sophistication existed. It had to come from somewhere – and that’s what makes Atlantis so intriguing to science fiction and fantasy authors.

Get used to it folks, as with the upcoming Percy Jackson movies bringing the Greek gods back to mainstream and Dreamworks optioning Scott Mitchell Rosenberg’s comic mini-series Atlantis Rising the gods and their mythic lands are about to take over.

JC De La Torre is the author of the Rise of the Ancients series. The latest installment, Rise of the Ancients – Annuna, hits major retailers everywhere July 31st. Visit http://www.jcdelatorre.com for more info.

Rise of the Ancients – Annuna Release Date: 7/31/09

Synopsis –
The latest two books of the Rise of the Ancients series are combined into one action packed novel. Book II – Ancient Destruction picks up where Ancient Rising left off as Dan Ryan and Prometheus battles Zeus, Poseidon and the other Gods as they race to a secret location that could be the catalyst to saving mankind. While the battle wages on, we learn the origin of man, the rise to power of the Gods, and the fall of Atlantis. Finally, in BOOK III – Rise of the Annuna – Ryan must go through Heaven and Hell, face his own internal demons, and convince the Annuna to join in a climactic battle with humanity hanging in the balance.

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I have a giveaway copy of Rise of the Ancients – Annuna , by JC De La Torre for one lucky winner!

Contest is open to U.S. residents. To enter, just fill out the form below. To increase your chances, enter daily!
Contest ends August 14. I’ll draw names on August 15, and notify winners via email.

Good luck!

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