About the Book

Book: Laser Trap

Author: Frank DiBianca

Genre: Thrillers/Suspense

Release date: June 7, 2022

Laser Trap is a multi-layered Thriller/Suspense. Quincy University engineering grad students Dan Butler and Lana Madison are trying to unravel their mutual confusion about how attracted and attractive they are to each other, when Dan’s lab laser unexpectedly begins to produce unheard of amounts of brightness and power in its laser beam, making it a candidate for super-weapons.  StarWay Labs, an organization of criminal scientists, has been conducting research on this same phenomenon for two years, but without success. When they learn of the discovery at Quincy U, they kidnap Dan and demand he replicate his work in their secret lab.

Lana, alarmed at Dan’s disappearance, forms a high-tech team of friends to help the authorities rescue him. They make remarkable breakthroughs in tracking him down while the criminal cadre at StarWay pushes Dan close to his breaking point. The life-or-death question is whether the authorities can rescue Dan before he succumbs to his captors’ savagery.

Laser Trap is a story of love, danger, cruelty and faith that takes place on a university campus and in an invisible laboratory.

Click here to get your copy!

About the Author

Frank DiBianca is a former medical physics and biomedical engineering teaching and research professor. He has written numerous novels and short stories in the suspense, romance and sci-fi genres. His first traditionally published novel is LASER TRAP (A QUINCY U SUSPENSE), Iron Stream Fiction (2022), a mystery and romance laden suspense. Frank and his award-winning wife, Kay, are both full-time writers who assist each other in their manuscript development.

More from Frank

The Seven Biggest Surprises in my Laser Trap Journey

1. The Time It Would Take to Complete the Manuscript. The first words of a romantic short story entitled The Love Coach that would eventually become the thriller/suspense novel Laser Trap were written on June 29, 2009, almost exactly thirteen years before the book was released on June 7, 2022. (I’m not superstitious.) The prolonged manuscript completion time included periods of learning how to write modern fiction, turning to several other writing projects, such as a 120,000-word sci-fi novel entitled Centaur about the threatened collision of a monstrous deep-space planetoid with the Earth, and many other writing-related detours.
2. Learning a New Language: How to Write Modern Fiction. When I began this writing journey, the fiction I’d been reading was largely from the nineteenth century, including Jane Austen, Anthony Trollope, Wilkie Collins, The Brontës, and Charles Dickens. I’d never heard the literary expressions “third person close narrator, point-of-view, show-don’t tell,” and many others. My first editor, Mel Hughes, took me by the shoulders, figuratively, and patiently showed me the ropes via several manuscript rewrites based on “footser” notes of recommendations (she said humorously I was shooting myself in the foot). Would I ever learn modern fiction techniques?
3. The Genre Switch Late in the Game. The book would likely not have been published by Iron Stream Media (ISM) absent two crucial people/occurrences. I met Karin Beery, Managing Editor, Guiding Light Women’s Fiction, LPC, at a writers’ conference in 2019. She liked my preliminary book proposal and asked me to send her a polished proposal when it and the manuscript were complete. A year later, I did that. Karin’s queue was filled, but she passed my submission on to colleague Darla Crass, Managing Editor, Lamplighter Mysteries and Suspense, LPC. Darla offered to publish the book on condition I would collaboratively rebalance the story toward more suspense compared to romance. With much joy and a twinge of trepidation, I signed the contract and the jaws of Laser Trap snapped shut—most auspiciously.
4. The Number of Editors Involved. Editors are essential, but having a novel edited through multiple drafts is expensive. I expected that one or two editors would be needed. I ended up with seven. Here’s what they focused on and [who paid them]: 1) Mel Hughes -developmental editing [FD]; 2) Barbara Curtis -copy editing/proofreading [FD]; 3) Jeanne Leach -book proposal development [FD]; 4) Darla Crass -rebalancing toward suspense [ISM]; 5) Sally Shupe -general editing [ISM]; 6) Denise Loock -editing/proofreading [ISM]; and 7) the publisher’s final review [ISM]. This surprise showed the level of commitment and investment both the publisher and I made in improving and polishing the book.
5. The Effectiveness of a Book Launch Team. Book launch teams were another modern device I was unfamiliar with. Working with my Author Care Specialist at ISM, I received instructions on forming a team and advice about managing one. I was fortunate to enlist thirty friends and family members who agreed to promote Laser Trap. Some of the activities they engaged in were promoting the book via email, social media and word of mouth, in addition to, as appropriate, submitting book reviews to Facebook and Goodreads. Team members were also asked to distribute digitally a two-page summary brochure on the book. The unforeseen effectiveness of the launch team is evident in its contribution to the surprising successes described in items 6 and 7.
6. The Reader Reaction to the Book. The seven endorsements we received for Laser Trap were so gratifying, ISM decided to insert them verbatim in the front pages of the book. The reviews in bookselling and reviewing websites were likewise very positive. For example, over the first seven weeks from release, Amazon’s rating averaged 4.8 out of 5 stars. None of this was expected.
7. Amazon #1 Best-seller Status. However, the biggest surprise of all came when Amazon ranked Laser Trap the #1 Best-selling New Release in Religious Mysteries from two days before release through the next two weeks.

So, several beneficial surprises that came during the development and release of Laser Trap have significantly boosted the quality and stature of the book.

I extend my deepest gratitude to the many people who contributed to my novel, especially my author-wife, Kay, and I’m eager to see what happens in the upcoming months.

Interview with Frank

Share something your readers wouldn’t know about you.

I wrote my first “published” story, a sci-fi entitled The Unknown Element, when I was nine years old. A fourth-grade classmate had started a student newspaper and asked me to contribute something. When all the teachers said they didn’t understand it, I knew I was off to a career in nuclear physics!

What has been your favorite part of the publishing journey? 

Reading the improved version of Laser Trap after each of seven editors provided me with their recommendations and corrections. I had engaged three editors and my publisher, Iron Stream Media (ISM), provided four more! The book had been entitled The Love Coach before one of ISM’s imprints, Iron Stream Fiction, contracted it providing I would rebalance it from a suspenseful Romance to a romance- and mystery-laden Suspense. I owe a great debt of gratitude to those dedicated and talented literary professionals.

Does one of the main characters hold a special place in your heart? If so, why?

Actually both of them, Dan Butler and Lana Madison, hold special places in my heart, but Lana’s is a bit warmer, so I’ll focus on her.

Lana is a remarkably courageous heroine, who, as a thirteen-year-old, rushes into a flaming hellhole to drag out her unconscious eight-year-old brother from the fire he had started and suffers major skin damage in the process. Years later, she meets and becomes attracted to Dan Butler, a fellow engineering grad student at Quincy University. Dan has had a longtime difficulty meeting women because of his shyness and insecurity, so he hires Lana as a love coach.

Dan’s PhD lab research results in his discovering an unorthodox way to increase the power of lasers so much they have weapons-grade utility. He gets kidnapped by StarWay Laboratories , a criminal research organization, and taken to their secret location where they force him to divulge his techniques. However, he is unable to reproduce his results there.

Meanwhile, Lana forms a rescue team with four of their friends to assist the authorities, and they make remarkable breakthroughs in the case. The question is: will the FBI get to Dan in time and successfully?

Because of her bravery, intelligence, faith, and devotion to her friend and love interest, I hold Lana first in my heart with Dan as a close second. And I might add, Lana and Dan are largely modeled after my author-wife, Kay Carpenter DiBianca, and myself, respectively.

What were the highlight or key challenges you faced when writing this book?

My main difficulties when I began trying to write modern fiction were threefold. First, I had been attracted to nineteenth century English fiction authors like Jane Austen, Charlotte and Emily Brontë, Charles Dickens, Anthony Trollope, and Wilkie Collins. The then-current writing style was quite different from the modern one. Secondly, I was largely unfamiliar with the modern requirements regarding POV, hooks, tension, showing action, and so on. Thirdly, there was a change or rebalancing in the genre relatively late in the process.

However, I was absolutely determined to persevere until I succeeded in my efforts to become a novelist. There is a line in Kay’s first novel, The Watch on the Fencepost (2019), where her exhausted protagonist, Kathryn Frasier, an avid runner, gasps to her dog, “Never give up, Barkley, we’re almost there!”

I never gave up.

Any current or upcoming projects you’d like to tell us about?

Yes, two projects. The first is a relatively short work of popular theology, tentatively titled God and the Helix, in which a father and mother, both professors, teach their eighth-grade twins how a coil-spring-shaped helix and the individual points in it provide an excellent way to understand both the Infinite and Triune nature of God from a Christian viewpoint. The reader will learn some delightful math concepts along the way. To avoid scaring away the math-challenged folks in my potential readership, I point out that the only math needed is elementary-school arithmetic and understanding the geometrical shape of a coil spring.

The second project is Book 2 of the Quincy U Suspense series. I can’t reveal much about the details of this other than to say that it continues on from the situation at the end of Book 1, Laser Trap, after the battle at StarWay Labs has occurred. I envision a lot of exciting action designed to keep my readers turning the pages instead of turning off the lights (as one of my reviewers wrote).

Blog Stops

Book Reviews From an Avid Reader, November 12

The Write Escape, November 12

Debbie’s Dusty Deliberations, November 13

Texas Book-aholic, November 14

Inklings and notions, November 15

Mary Hake, November 15

deb’s Book Review, November 16

Ashley’s Clean Book Reviews, November 17

Locks, Hooks and Books, November 18

Truth and Grace Homeschool Academy, November 19

Because I said so — and other adventures in Parenting, November 20

Betti Mace, November 21

Gina Holder, Author and Blogger, November 22 (Author Interview)

Lily’s Book Reviews, November 22

Blogging With Carol, November 23

For Him and My Family, November 24

Pause for Tales, November 25

Giveaway

To celebrate his tour, Frank is giving away the $35 Amazon gift card and a paperback 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/228ab/laser-trap-celebration-tour-giveaway