Monday, August 25, 2014

TWINKLE by SJ PARKINSON

http://fireandicebooktours.wordpress.com/2014/07/16/science-fiction-book-tour-giveaway-twinkle-by-sj-parkinson-73114-82814/

Today we are presenting Author SJ Parkinson, writer of SciFi, 
with his latest book, Twinkle, now touring with 
Fire and Ice Book Tours.  
Mr. Parkinson is offering a very generous Giveaway
during this tour, so make sure you add your name to
the list for a chance to win.  In as much as this is obviously not
marketed as a YA Fantasy, I was so intrigued by the idea of this
story, I decided to read it myself.   I'll be adding my personal
review of the book today as well, so be sure to read further to get 
another opinion of this work…which by the way is worth
the read (I mean the book, not necessarily my review..ha ha).
So enjoy, and as always, please leave us a
comment so that we know you were here, thx PLP.


Virtual Book Tour Dates:  7/31/14 - 8/28/14

Genres: Science Fiction



Blurb:
The richest man in the world wants to celebrate the July 4th holiday as never before. In a bid to get into the record books, a global fireworks show is staged from orbit. Satellites drop pyrotechnics into the atmosphere, thrilling everyone from the Arctic to the Antarctic with their rich colors and massive explosions in every time zone.

The next day, people around the globe begin to lose their sight. Governments crumble, society degenerates, and infrastructure falls into chaos. Humanity finds itself stumbling in the dark and losing all hope.


A few fortunate individuals retain their vision. Attempting to deal with the growing despair around them, they come together to discover the true purpose and origin of the affliction. They race to find a cure before the world is subjugated under an invading power.




Excerpt:
Keith Hurst’s secure telephone rang, waking him from a sound sleep. He opened his eyes and looked at the LED clock on his nightstand. It said 3:12. As national security advisor to the president of the United States, middle-of-the-night calls were common. His staff did their best to filter out the less important matters until his morning brief, but there were times when an emergency forced sleep into second place.
Hurst grabbed the handset by the second ring. He had to wait for the encryption to handshake before he could say, “Hurst.”
“Good morning, sir. This is the night watch officer. We have several NSA intercepts from the following countries: India, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, and Russia all placing their militaries on high alert. We’ve had sporadic reports of multiple air, car, and rail accidents, resulting in thousands of deaths. Many radio and television stations have gone off the air in those countries.”
Hurst snapped on his bedside light and sat up. “Accidents? Do we know the cause?”
“No, sir. The strange thing is, NSA claims many of the foreign military units that were signaled never acknowledged the alert. There also appears to be a major communication disruption with U.S. CENTCOM units in Afghanistan and our embassies in the aforementioned countries.”
“Are the comms being hacked, or is there some sort of natural phenomenon like sunspot interference?” Concerned about the call, Hurst looked at the empty space beside him. His wife had left him several years before, directly because of the election campaign and the late-night calls.
“No, sir. Not that we can see. The circuits are up, and the phones are ringing, but no one is answering.”
Hurst swung his legs out of bed. Has someone come up with a way to simultaneously disrupt communications with American bases, embassies, and headquarters, or is this some sort of terrorist attack? “Does NRO have anything on overhead imagery?”
“No, sir. No major troop movements in the CENTCOM area. In fact, NRO reports minimal movement overall.”
“I’ll be in the office in thirty-five minutes. I’ll want everyone in for an early brief for the president. Get the joint chiefs and SECDEF up to speed. Warn the Secret Service that we may be moving POTUS with short notice. If this is an attack, I want to stay ahead of it. See if we can get drone surveillance of any U.S. bases in Afghanistan ASAP. We need answers.”
“Yes, sir.”
Hurst hung up and hit the bedside crash button to summon his protection detail. This was no time for subtlety. He needed to be in the White House as soon as humanly possible.

My Review of Twinkle

WOW!  So now that I got that off my chestthis story grabbed my attention immediately.  It never slows down for a minute.  It's suspenseful, articulate, emotional and visual.  I actually think this would  make a terrific movie, it seemed more suited…here's what I mean.
The beginning is exciting because we kinda know what's coming so we want to get there already to find out what's going to happen after the fireworks.   However, for me, it got a bit jumbled at first, even though it moved forward.  There is a LOT of military speak and a lot of players spread across the globe with a lot of action surrounding them.  So I tended to have to remind myself who was who at first…sort of like an espionage movie.  Then it starts to sort out into four specific groups, I believe it was,  and it becomes much easier to follow along with each.  As a matter of fact I enjoyed that the author stayed with each individual side story for just the right amount of time, I never got bored,  they flowed perfectly (loved the character names by the way).  But I have to say that the specific detailed military language became the one bump in the road for me.  
There was so much of it at times I kinda glazed over a bit.  I have no clue about this world and it's a challenge to read so much of it and not lose momentum in the action.  That's why I feel this would make an amazing movie (besides the fact that it's a cool and interesting premise that hasn't been done before, just watch the video, it's awesome).  When you're watching someone on a sub repeat all his commands from his superior it's not as obvious, it's part of the whole scene in front of you.  However, reading it took some of that high energy away for me at times…not always, and not to the detriment of the story, so don't read that the wrong way.  I still couldn't wait to get back and read the next day, the story had my full attention.
Although I will add that I was a smidge disappointed that the last quarter of the story didn't take us to a different place than it did..only a little smidge though.  Either way, a really good read and I would recommend it to anyone who loves a good, suspenseful, action packed, unique plot, great characters, SciFi, epic intrigue and believable story.
My thx to SJ Parkinson for giving me this digital book to read for my honest review.  Now everyone, go, click on the Amazon button and get your own copy, you won't be disappointed!

Buy Links:





About The Author:
Mr. Parkinson was an Air Force avionics technician, a decorated veteran of the Persian Gulf War, and several United Nations peacekeeping missions. He has lived overseas in numerous countries and travels extensively. His novels have been praised for their realism and have sold in fourteen countries, winning multiple international awards.
“I don’t incorporate overt sex, profanity, or extreme violence in any of my writing. I prefer the story to be the main focus and want my novels to be accessible by all.” -SJ Parkinson



Author Links:


Giveaway:
One Lucky Winner Will Win All 3 Books in The Legionnaire Series and Another Lucky Winner Will Win Two Science Fiction Books – Twinkle and Predation – By SJ Parkinson.
The giveaway will run the length of the tour. Open internationally. Enter through Rafflecopter.



a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thursday, August 14, 2014

Tuesday, August 12, 2014

REMINDER: links for author blog tag today, Wed the 13th

Just wanted to remind everyone that the three authors listed in "Up Next" on our blog book tag are linked below…easy access for you to visit them and find out "how I write?"

Kristen Taber…YA Fantasy Author.

Stephanie Greenhalgh…Fantasy Author

Enn Kae…Urban Fantasy,  SciFi, Dystopian Author SORRY, ENN KAE DIDN'T GET TO POST HIS TODAY…STAY TUNED FOR DATE..HE ALREADY SHARED HIS ANSWERS WITH ME, SO I KNOW HE HAS IT…SORRY FOR ANY INCONVENIENCE…THX PLP

Monday, August 11, 2014

Bookworm for Kids Review: Benjamin McTish and the Wizards of Coranim by June...

Here's a terrific review for book two!!  The tweet reads…Book Two is even better than Book One..a big Thumbs up!!  Yay for Benjamin!





Bookworm for Kids: Benjamin McTish and the Wizards of Coranim by June...: BENJAMIN MCTISH AND THE WIZARDS OF CORANIM Benjamin McTish Series Book 2 by June M. Pace New Leaf Publishing YA/MG Fantasy ...

Tuesday, August 5, 2014

The Writing Path Blog Tour from IC Publishing

I was invited by my SteamPunk buddy over in the UK, Josh Stanton to be a part of this author book tag tour.  He received his invite from fellow author Andrew Knighton.  You should click on both these links and see the answers to the four questions we are all answering.  At the end of my four answers will be a couple links to the next authors I wish to introduce to you, if you haven't already met them…so enjoy!

Here we go…How I write….

 HOW DO I START MY 
WRITING PROJECTS?
       
       Well considering I only have one writing project, which is my YA Fantasy/adventure Series, I will have to defer to what happened with this.
       I really didn't know what I was doing and just started writing.  Literally.  I pulled what I thought was an intriguing sentence from the air and began writing a story around it.  I had the characters in mind and a basic plot, but that was about it.  It really wasn't the best way to begin.  By the time I began writing book two, I had fully developed characters that I could write without hesitation.  So ingrained in my visual mind's eye, I  could hear their voices and the dialog flowed.  I had a more solid foundation of the story formed in my mind and little surprises popped up which allowed me to go into areas I hadn't thought of, which also brought more action and suspense to the story.  The second book came out of me so effortlessly it made me rethink some parts of the first book.
      Now I had a deeper understanding of my story and some loose ends that finally made complete sense.  I may have to go back at some point and change up some of the first book to allow for a better continuity.  Or I could just leave it alone and realize that this story, along with the characters, are ever growing and evolving.  It's fantasy, it's magic, it's fun…so maybe best to leave it alone and finish up with book three.

         HOW DO YOU CONTINUE YOUR 
                                     WRITING PROCESS?
                                               By not forcing it.  A lot of my author friends get really down on themselves when too much time goes by without writing.  It happens.  Life happens.  If you're a writer, you write.  I rarely have to push myself to sit down and do my work.  I treat my writing like a job.  I attempt to keep to my routine, however, things come up sometimes and it goes all eschew…it's okay.  I like to get up early and write, when it's quiet.  Or sometimes I'll do the late afternoon, again, quiet.  I am a creature of habit so I do prefer to stick to my own self enforced schedule, so early morning, tea, candle lit, couple hours of fantasy.  It seems to take longer in between books to get back to my routine, which is what I  have experienced with this last book.  After weeks of editing, re-reading, going over every detail, the business, the printing process, the cover, ect., when it's finally out there and getting a little promotion, it's just nice to take a break for a minute.  Although this last book ended with such a twist that I couldn't wait to get started on book three.
       However,  even though book three took off without a hitch, with a  HUGE shocking, in your face surprise which got super exciting for me, along came the next chapter…and I stalled.  If I don't have a clear idea of where my characters are supposed to be and why,  then it's utter torture to figure it out.  So I  stop and regroup for a couple days, tossing possibilities around in my noggin, and write a physical outline with arrows pointing from one group of characters to the others and the timeline.  Then I can get back to the story, then it flows and makes sense.


HOW DO YOU FINISH
 YOUR WRITING PROJECTS?
       
 I actually don't have a specific thing I do.  Like Josh, he evidently eats cake..nice!  Maybe that's what's missing, a little celebration of shorts.  I think I'm going to have to give this some serious consideration.  It only seems appropriate to do something "special" at the end of the writing journey…so I'll have to get back to you on that one…somewhere around November, when I plan to be finished with this third book.

                                         INCLUDE ONE CHALLENGE 
OR  ADDITIONAL TIP      
                                             THAT OUR COLLECTIVE 
COMMUNITIES 
                COULD HELP WITH OR 
BENEFIT FROM.

Write for yourself.  Do it for the love of writing.
Once you get too involved with other people's opinions or
ideas on how things need to be done, or better yet, you base your 
work on what someone else thinks, you're done.  The reviews 
on Goodreads are just that, people, ordinary people who read 
books and punch in a number.  A lot of them don't even read 
the book, they can rate your book based on the blurb…?
Figure out who your market is and find them.  
Address them.  Get your feedback from them.  
Then take all that with a grain of salt and do what 
you love to do…write.

             
UP NEXT...
       
So I hope you enjoyed getting into a bit of the mind set behind writing.  Here are a couple other authors you will enjoy very much.  Remember they won't be up and running until next Wednesday, August, 13th…you can come back here and click the links to their sites and post.

First is YA Fantasy Author Kristen Taber who was featured on here at PLP with a Guest Post and Spotlight of her first three books back in April…nice post, check it out.  Kristen spent her childhood at the feet of an Irish storytelling grandfather, learning to blend fact with fiction and imagination with reality. She lived within the realm of the tales that captivated her, breathing life into characters and crafting stories even before she could read. Those stories have since turned into over a hundred poems, several short tales, and five manuscripts in both the Young Adult and Adult genres. Currently, Kristen is completing the five-part Ærenden series from her home office in the suburbs of Washington D.C.

Next is Fantasy Author Stephanie Greenhalgh, who you may remember from an interview we did back in January of this year…GREAT interview by the way. Even though she currently lives in Las Vegas, Stephanie Greenhalgh is a Midwestern girl through and through. As an avid reader and learner, literature and school are more of a passion than a hobby. This two time UNLV graduate has four published short stories: "Betula's Angst", "Duality", "Angel 101", and "The Twistedly True Nightmare of Ruby Hood", all featured in anthologies. Her first novel, "The Twistedly True Tale of Ruby Hood", was released in October 2013. And her first self publication, "If the Silver Slippers Fit..." debuted January 2014.

And last but not least author of Zeek and the Hoodies, The Cull, and working currently on his third, Enn Kae who gave an astounding interview back in Feb.  I'm going out on a limb and including his name here in hopes that by next week he'll be on board. Enn Kae was born in a small town in the north-west of England to immigrant parents. When he was 11, his family moved to live in Scotland. At the age of 21, after graduating with a Masters in English from Dundee University (he also studied at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for a year), he left Scotland to live in England. He lived and worked there until 2012 when he left the damp isle for political and spiritual reasons.