Tuesday, June 10, 2014

WIN THE RINGS by K.D. VAN BRUNT





Today we're bringing an Urban Fantasy from
K.D. Van Brunt,  Win The Rings, 
a  book tour from Goddess Fish Promotions.
This has an interesting story line from the little
I've read, which is why I'm sharing it with
you today.  The author is also hosting a generous
giveaway of 2 Amazon/B&N gift cards.  One 
for 50 and the other 25, to two lucky
commenters.  So get your name in the hat
and follow along with the tour for more 
chances to win. We also have an Interview 
with the two lead characters, Gray and Nia, 
so make sure you read through for this
insightful peek at the world inside
Win The Rings.
And as always we love comments here,
just to show us you stopped by if for
nothing else, thx, enjoy the tour, PLP.  


*SORRY FOR ISSUE WITH PIC,
BUT STILL SHOWS MOST

BLURB:

Jace has been the property of the U.S. Army since they found out about her when she was five, and now she has become one of its most valuable weapons. But Jace is not the only one of her kind. Gray is one too, but with the help of his sister, he has spent most of his sixteen years hiding from the Army.

Now, the Army has found out about Gray and they cannot allow him to roam free. Operating on the theory that it takes one to catch one, Jace is sent out with a special ops squad to hunt Gray down. But Jace is not the only one pursuing Gray, and the competition is after her too. What ensues is a desperate chase through city after city as duty and honor collide with love and sacrifice.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Excerpt:
            
I’m sitting in a Starbucks near Fenway Park in Boston with one hand wrapped around a warm caramel macchiato and the other scrolling through websites on the iPad Nia bought me with some of our loot.  We’ve relocated to a HoJos near Fenway Park, where we plan to stay for a week before relocating to another place.
           
On a whim, I Google my name, something I haven’t done in a long time.  In the past I’ve never really dredged up anything remotely interesting.  This time, though, I’m surprised at the number of hits—the full spelling of my first name is Grayson, and Jesus, there can’t be many people with that oddball name.  As I’ve complained to Nia before—my God, what were Mom and Dad thinking?  I’ve spent my life wishing I had a bland name like Jack or John, anything but Grayson.  What does it even mean?  The son of Gray, like the color? 
            
Sighing, I skim down the list of hits and there it is.  I see me—Grayson Edward Price.  I tap the entry and I’m redirected to the website for the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.  I gasp.  I’ve never seen this before.  On the screen appears a picture of me when I was five.  The page has my date of birth, a physical description, and couple of sentences on my story.  It says I was kidnapped by my sister.  I read the next sentence and freeze, unable to breathe—I was reportedly seen last year in Dallas.  Yes, we were in Dallas for a month before moving onto Houston, but who would recognize me in Dallas?  Nia is going to freak over this.
            
Nia let me go out by myself today, mainly because she’s feeling under the weather, and she knows there’s few things more boring and depressing than being confined to a hotel room with a sick person.  But if I show her this reported sighting, I can kiss good-bye to ever going out alone again until I’m like thirty-seven.  As I’m grappling with this dilemma I overhear two boys talking at the table next to me.
            
“Come on Parker, we’ve got ten minutes to get back to school before lunch ends,” one boy says.
            
“Nah, I’m skipping,” the kid named Parker says.  “Let’s hang out at my place.”
            
“Can’t, I got too many UAs,” the other boy says, before screeching back his chair to leave.  Parker pulls out his phone to make a call, but fumbles it and the phone clatters to the ground by my foot.  I pick it up and hand it to Parker.
           
“Thanks man,” he says to me. 
           
“You’re welcome.”  On a whim, I hold out my hand.  “I’m Gray.”
            
“Parker.”  He takes my hand, and I give him a firm shake just long enough to acquire him and pull through everything in his pockets.
            
I have an idea; something fun I can do to salvage this day.  After Parker leaves the store, I head for the bathroom to check out what I got.  Parker Birch, I discover, is a seventeen-year-old junior at Fenway High School down the street.   He doesn’t have a girlfriend—bummer, but he seems to be relatively well liked at school, at least that’s what he thinks.  He’ll do.   That seals it.  I’m going to spend the afternoon going to high school.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Interview with Gray and Nia


1. You’ve been everywhere.  What’s your favorite city?  

Nia:   I think I’d say LA is my favorite.  I love the weather, the beaches, and the sprawl.  And Gray and I have a good track record there too—nothing really bad ever happened to us.

Gray:  Nothing bad?  What about the time when that drug dealer sicced his Rottweilers on us?  No, give me New York every time.  It’s got it all, and so much crazy stuff happens there that nobody ever notices us.

2. And your least favorite?

Nia:   That’s tough.  Gray has messed up so many times in so many places.  But I think I’d go with Bakersfield.  That one really hurt.  I’ll never go back.  

Gray:  Yeah, yeah.  It’s always my fault.  Bakersfield was tough, and I could never bring myself to go back there either, but I’m going with Spokane.  I’ve only been there once, but more disasters happened there in one twenty-four hour period than any other day in my life.

3. What’s your best memory of your time together?

Nia:  That’s easy.  Christmas week in Minneapolis when I was nineteen and Gray was eight—or were you nine?  Anyway, we stumbled onto a bank robber and managed to relieve him of….what was it, $25,000?

Gray:  I was nine, and it was more like $35,000.

Nia:   Okay, $35,000.  Anyway, Gray and I spent all day every day right up to  Christmas running around playing Santa Claus.  We gave money and all kinds of presents to dozens of charities around town.  It was pretty cool.  One of the families that our donations helped invited Gray and me to Christmas dinner with them.  It was the first real Christmas dinner we had had in years.

Gray:  Yeah, that was pretty cool, except I had to sit next to Grandma at dinner.  She spent the whole time ranting against Wal-Mart for not honoring some coupon she had.  No, for me, the best memory would be a summer we spent in Pittsburgh.  We were flush with cash and we stayed in a hotel near PNC Park, intent on lying low for a few months.  It was a great summer.  Every day the Pirates were in town, we’d go over to the Park and take in the game.  We must have gone to fifty games at least.  Man, I can still taste those Primanti Brothers sandwiches.

4. What happened after you two separated?

Nia:    It’s been tough, really, really tough.  For the first month, Rachel and I stayed on the move.  We first went to Alberta, Canada, got a car, and spend a week driving to Toronto, before crossing back into the U.S. and heading to D.C.  Now, Rachel and I live together in Alexandria, Virginia, where I work in a florist shop.  Most of our free time is spent working on getting Gray out of Cracked.  It’s not going to be easy, but we’ve got an ace or two up our sleeve.

Gray:  Well, hurry it up, Sis.  It’s not exactly a picnic in here.  Yeah, so after Nia and I separated, they brought me straight to Cracked and here I’ve been ever since.  They think they can train me, like I could actually be a soldier or something.  It’s rough, but Jace is helping.

Nia:      Jace?  What do you mean?

Gray:    Forget I said anything.  Look, it’s classified, Nia.  Okay?

Nia:         Oh God, please tell me—

Gray: Nia.  Just, leave it alone.  Okay?

5. Well, we definitely need  a follow up question.  Is there someone special in your life right now—romantically special?  

Silence.

Come on, guys.  Honest answer time.

Nia:       Okay.  Yes.

Gray:      What?  Who?

Nia:        None of your beeswax.  That’s who.

What about your Gray?

Gray: [unintelligible]

Come again?

Gray: Possibly…maybe.  Okay, fine.  Yes.

Nia:         You’ve got to be kidding me?  They kidnapped you.  Is it—

Gray:  It’s none of your damned beeswax.


Okay, that’s clearly a story for another day.  Thank you two for taking the time talk with me.  We definitely have to do this again.
AUTHOR Bio and Links:

Bio:    K.D. Van Brunt has been writing professionally his entire career and has published an extensive list of nonfiction works. Win the Rings is his first fiction book. When not writing, he reads and listens to audiobooks during his daily drive through the sea of gridlock that is commuting in and out of Washington, DC. A long time resident of Maryland, he can often be found tromping around the many civil war battle sites in the area. To find out more about K.D. Van Brunt, including bonus content relating to Win the Rings, check out his website--www.kdvanbrunt.com--and follow him on twitter--
@KDVanBrunt.

Twitter:  @kdvanbrunt
Website:  www.kdvanbrunt.com



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