For Lachlan Smith, learning the secret of the apocalypse was the easy part.

Welcome to one of the September 5th stops on the blog tour for Locksmith’s War by Paul Briggs with Goddess Fish Promotions. Be sure to follow the rest of the tour for spotlights, reviews, more author guest posts, and a giveaway! More on that at the end of this post.
Please note that this post contains affiliate links, which means there is no additional cost to you if you shop using my links, but I will earn a small percentage in commission. A program-specific disclaimer is at the bottom of this post.
Author Guest Post
For me, one of the hardest things about writing — something that often stops me in my tracks for days or weeks — is the scenes that are necessary for the story, but that I don’t have a clear vision for. “THIS HAPPENS and then THIS COOL THING HAPPENS and then THIS AWESOME CHASE HAPPENS and then THIS FUNNY CONVERSATION and then THIS EPIC FIGHT… oh wait, this other thing needs to happen too.”
This happened less often when I was writing Altered Seasons: Monsoonrise, simply because the structure of that novel meant that characters would often drop out of the story for months of lives, and even when they were at the center of the action there was no expectation that every important event be covered. If anything, a lot of them were glossed over. But in Locksmith’s War, the action is more or less continuous. Almost nothing is skipped over.
Just finding the right point of view from which to describe these scenes can be hard. If it’s the main character, how does this scene fit in with the rest of his or her character arc? If it’s a side character, am I jumping back and forth between too many different perspectives? Am I at risk of confusing the readers? And if I find this scene tiresome to write, is the reader likely to enjoy it any better.
But if I force myself to start writing the scene anyway, sometimes I come up with a idea that makes it enjoyable to write. Those are moments that I treasure.
About the Book

Locksmith’s War
by Paul Briggs
Published 4 July 2022
Secant Publishing LLC
Genre: YA Science Fiction
Page Count: 320
Add it to your Goodreads TBR!
For Lachlan Smith, learning the secret of the apocalypse was the easy part.
Ever since Locksmith found the portal to the future, he has been wondering who or what was responsible for the empty, uninhabited world he found.
Now he knows—and now he has to fight them.
He thought he had fifteen years in which to prevent the extinction of the human species.
Now, he has only hours.
When the portal is stolen by a cabal of dangerous fanatics, his mother and many of his friends are trapped on the other side. Now the enemy is after him, and the only way to thwart their genocidal plan is to retake the portal and hold it—at both ends.
With very little time left, a handful of allies who don’t trust each other, almost no chance of success and the survival of humanity itself at stake… Locksmith is going to war.
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Excerpt
Then a shot rang out
Then a shot rang out. Chips of wood fell around her.
Crouching lower, Erin could see where the bullet had gone through the door and the opposite wall. A few seconds ago it would have done the same thing, in spite of her torso being in the way.
And it was too late to pretend she was already dead or wounded, so it was time to get out of the way. She fired back through the door — scary how much easier it was to do that when you couldn’t see who you were shooting at — and then ran for the hall.
Erin turned… and froze in place, one foot poised a few inches above the first stair. The stairs were pieces of wood, neither soundproof nor (as she’d just seen) bulletproof. The moment she set foot on them, the guys directly underneath would know exactly where to shoot, and she would have only the vaguest idea of where to shoot back. There was no way she could make it to the top of the stairs alive.
Oh… and Luther was going to run into the same problem coming down the stairs. Or maybe not. If the portal was indestructible, he could use it as a shield — put it facedown on the stairs and sort of surf on it. On second thought, no. If they fired through the stairs and the bullet went through the portal, it might hit Lock. Luther would have to put it on the stairs face up and stand on the edges.
Either way, Erin had no idea how she was supposed to explain to Luther that his survival now depended on his ability to replicate a stunt from a Lord of the Rings movie.
About the Author

In addition to writing books, Paul Briggs has worked as a newspaper editor, court reporter’s assistant, and audio transcriber. In his spare time (when he has any) he sometimes performs in community theater, most recently taking on the roles of Bottom, Petruchio, Macbeth, Rosalind, and Richard III in a Shakespeare compilation. An Eastern Shore native who grew up in Chestertown, Maryland, Paul earned a BA in English from Washington College and a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Maryland – College Park.
He is the author of several short plays, including the award-winning The Worst Super Power Ever and The Picture of Health. He is also writing the sequel to his 2018 science fiction novel Altered Seasons: Monsoonrise, which vividly imagines the dislocations that follow when the Arctic Sea ice finally melts and the Chesapeake Bay is drowned by the effects of climate change.
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Giveaway Alert!
One randomly chosen winner via rafflecopter will win a $50 Amazon or B&N gift card.
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Thanks for hosting!
Thank you!
(Sorry about the typo. I meant to write “months of their lives.”)
I liked the excerpt.
Congratulations on your release of Locksmith’s War, Paul, great guest post and excerpt, your book sounds like one that my nephew will love to read! Good luck with your book and the tour!
Thanks for sharing it with me and have a spectacular week!
intriguing
Sounds like a really good story.
I hope everyone had a great Labor Day
Thank you for sharing your guest post, bio and book details, I have enjoyed reading about you and your work and I am looking forward to reading Locksmith’s War and I think that my teen-aged grandchildren will enjoy the story as well
Thanks for the excerpt and giveaway. 🙂
Wow sounds good makes me wonder if everyone gets back to the present.
Have to buy this for my grandson. -he will love it.
Do you have a favorite space to do your writing?
I can write anywhere. I usually do my writing in the bedroom or living room.
I hope everyone had a relaxing weekend
Thanks for the excerpt!
What is your favorite fall activity?
Do you prefer pumpkin flavor, apple or neither?
If we’re talking pie, pumpkin if it’s freshly made. Otherwise apple.
Do you have a favorite ice cream flavor?
Do you have any weekend plans?
The book sounds like a wonderful read. I love the cover.
Thanks! Secant Publishing hired a company in Lviv, MiblArt, to do the cover, plus the two covers for the re-released first books. They kept working even when their country came under attack!
Happy Friday!
Do you prefer warmer or cooler temperatures?
Do you prefer to be inside or outdoors?