Inked is proud to announce that we’ve acquired Frank L Tybush V’s sci fi punk novel One Night Only! Live at the Inter-Universe Space Station! It’s Planet Claire! and their epic fantasy novel Dawn of the Betrayers.
One Night Only! tells the tale of how Gabriel stumbles (literally) over an illegal punk concert and an assassination which leaves him holding stolen government information. Now Gabriel must deliver the information to an intergalactic rebel organization before they murder him too. His only opportunity to buy passage off earth is by teaming up with a misfit group of human and alien musicians and win a Battle of the Bands.
Betrayers can be described as a Game of Thrones-style epic with all the queerness and diversity the tomes are lacking. We follow Podrick as he battles rumors of death and betrayal that leave his heart and land in ruin. Even if Prodrick can overpower those who seek his thrown, there may not be a kingdom left to rule.
Frank tells us that they are an endless creator and a huge geek. They have degrees in film and art, spent almost a decade as a creative director for a Baltimore production company, and now is a web-designer and communications specialist for a couple of upstate New York healthcare companies.
One Night Only! will be their first published novel, with Betrayers following shortly after. Their short story will be featured in the upcoming Autumn Nights Charity Anthology out this September. We are super stoked to have them as part of the Inked family, and cannot wait to share their stories with you! In the meantime, Frank can be found on Twitter.
We took a moment to chat with Frank about their writing journey and what they are up to when not writing which is...?
Frank: Too much?
I have an obsession with music–listening, researching new bands as well as the history, and on some days, creating. I used to be in a band in Buffalo and now my spouse and I are working on a new project together.
I also read. A LOT. I am tracking what I’ve read this year, and I just hit 72 books.
Somehow, I also find time to be a gamer. I’m less about competitive gaming and more interested in the art of storytelling. If a game can’t make me feel something or allow me to create (I’m looking at you Minecraft) I don’t want to play it.
And beyond that, I spend a lot of time with my spouse, either doing home improvements or antiquing (when it’s safe to go outside). We’re always looking for absurd art to hang on our walls.
What inspired your books?
I have a passion for art and one type that I really enjoy is text art. I saw a beat-up copy of the PHAIDON published art book, Oh So Pretty–Punk In Print 1976-80, on clearance at my local bookstore and instantly fell on it. It catalogued all the art that grew out of the British punk movement of that era.
What stuck out to me was how they used punk to protest the growing nationalist movement. It showed art from Rock Against Racism shows and such. I thought that was pretty amazing–music as a way of revolution.
I had just finished a whole giant edit with my very heavy fantasy, Betrayers, and I needed a cleanser from all the emotions in that book and decided I wanted to write a fun sci-fi. But I do nothing normal and I decided, why not combine the idea of music as a way of revolution with a future setting?
Does one of your characters hold a special place in your heart? If so, why?
Cash from One Night Only! holds a special place in my heart.
Growing up, I listened to country music because it was what my parents listened to. (Side note: I realized recently that my first big crush on a guy was on Garth Brooks.) But there I was, a wee little thing of 10, who knew nothing about the world, and I heard Garth Brooks’ song “We Shall Be Free” and saw the video, and it was like, wow, maybe I’m not strange for liking both boys and girls. For once, I didn’t feel like a weirdo.
As I got older, I lost my connection to country music. I fell into friend groups where it wasn’t cool to listen to the genre (or most genres at that). And then there was an era in country music where it was hyper-white, hyper-conservative, and I drifted even farther and farther away.
About a decade or so ago, I decided I didn’t care what was “cool” to listen to, and I listened to whatever made me happy… except I didn’t venture back to country. I still had this mental block that if you listened to country, you were conservative, racist, sexist, and homophobic.
Fast forward to 2019, and I see a story about a gay country singer named Orville Peck. I was like, “What? Gay country singer?” I listened to the album, and I fell in love with it. I could love my country music and not betray being queer. Then the floodgates opened when I realized that there were a lot of gay country singers.
I started working my way through other queer singers like Brandi Carlile, Waylon Payne, and Brandy Clark. And for some reason, knowing there were gay country singers who loved the classics, my mental block broke, allowing me to reconnect with the first musical genre I loved. I even went back and listened to all the classics while celebrating the present.
Cash, my gay country guitarist, is truly a representation of my love for country and that yes, it can be queer as fuck, and yes, it can be fabulous, and just because you’ve got a steel guitar and a twang in your voice doesn’t mean that you have to be stuck in a box.
Do you have any more books planned? Are there sequels coming? What can we expect from you in the future?
Oh boy, I have a “to write” pile a mile high. Betrayers is a trilogy, so there will be two more books in that series. I also have a plan for a punk literary novel and a sci-fi horror. Beyond that, I don’t know. I have a half a dozen other ideas just sitting in a folder, but those are my most pressing.
I also maybe have been flirting with the idea of a One Night Only! sequel, but that’s really up in the air. There are some threads that still need to be tied.
What book are you reading right now?
I just started reading Chuck Wendig’s The Book of Accidents, but the last book I finished was Michelle Zauner’s memoir, Crying In H Mart. I know I’m cheating on this answer but Crying In H Mart was fantastic and I had to give it a shout out. One of my favorite books of the year.
What advice would you give to writers who are hoping to query with a small press?
First and foremost, do your research. Not all small presses (or even big presses) are created equal. Some are just plain scams. I know the idea of getting picked up is great, but not at the cost of getting screwed over. Reach out to the other authors the publisher reps. Ask them how they like it. You can get a pretty good idea of how the publisher is from them.
And don’t get discouraged. It’s really, REALLY rare for someone to get picked up with only a couple of queries. The vast majority of authors have to query, refine, and query over and over again before they are picked up.
