Hi, lovelies! It gives me great pleasure today to host David
McCracken and his new book, “Fly Twice Backward”!
Be sure to make it to the
end of this post to enter to win a $25 Amazon or Barnes and Noble Gift Card!! Also, come back daily to interact with David
and to increase your chances of winning!
This eBook is on SALE
during the book tour for ONLY $0.99!!!
See below for more details.
Thanks for stopping
by! Wishing you lots of luck in this
fabulous giveaway!
Fly Twice Backward
by David McCracken
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GENRE: Alt-History/Sci-Fi
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BLURB:
You
wake back in early adolescence, adult memories intact, including ones that
could make you very wealthy now. Your birth family is here, alive again, but
your later families are gone, perhaps forever. What has happened, what should
you do about coming problems like violence, ignorance, pollution, and global
warming? You realize one key connects most, the fundamentalist strains of all
the major religions, disdaining science, equality, and social welfare. You see
that there are some things you can change, some you can’t, and one you don’t
dare to.
Fellow
idealists help you spend your growing fortune well--such as an artistic
Zoroastrian prince in the Iranian oil industry, a rising officer in the Soviet
army working to find a way to destroy his corrupt government, a Bahai woman
struggling against Islamic brutality, a Peruvian leader working for a liberal
future, and a snake-handling Christian minister, grappling with doubts,
sexuality, and destiny. They are supported by an ally who develops essential
psychic powers. The group faces familiar-looking corrupt politicians, religious
leaders, and corporate czars, but there is an ancient force in the background,
promoting greed, violence, hate, and fear.
This
exciting, emotional, thoughtful, humorous, and even romantic sci-fi novel
weaves progressivism, music, movies, and literature into a struggle spanning
the globe. Vivid characters propel the action back up through an alternative
history toward an uncertain destination. Experience the unique story and its
novel telling.
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EXCERPT ONE:
Waiting
for breakfast, reading the Sunday paper at the table, I realize Mom’s not
heading for the kitchen: Oh, oh! It’s church day. Mass. Fasting. Acolyting!
What’m I going to do about that?
“Mom,
am I supposed to serve today?”
“Of
course!”
“Well,
I can’t. I have no idea how to do that anymore. I guess we need to call Padre
and tell him I’m sick.”
“No,
David, we’re not playing that game today!”
“Mom,
I hate to say this now, but I have no choice. I don’t know how to serve, so I
can’t do it, and, frankly, I’m not ever going to do it. I’m an agnostic, a
Unitarian, actually.”
She’s
slamming the pots I washed and put in the drainer last night as she puts them into
the cabinet under the counter. “That’s ridiculous. You don’t know enough to be
an agnostic.”
Fortunately,
Dad has come in and heard this exchange.
“Nev,
whether his story is true or not, or he knows enough or not, he has a right not
to go. He was old enough to be confirmed, so he’s old enough to choose. I’ll
serve in his place.”
“Lie
about being sick, on Sunday?”
“Mom,
it’s a temporizer. I can’t reveal to him why I’m not going to today, much less
why I’ll never again do it, and I know you wouldn’t want me to be open about
it. I might not even be here next Sunday.” I chuckle. “Maybe I’ll have fallen
back to age four, with Dad off in the Navy!” What a sharp look I get!
“We
need a few days to sort this out, Nev.”
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AUTHOR
INTERVIEW:
Good morning David!
Welcome to Fabulous and Brunette!
We are thrilled to have you here and can’t wait to learn more about you
and your new book, “Fly Twice Backward.”
Tell us about your book cover and how it came about.
The cover, two eagles ambiguously lifting off or landing, was
the best idea I could come up with showing twice backward, as the title
promised. The execution of it I got done with the help of an artist at Fiverr.
What is your favorite scene in your new book?
I’ll pick when my Soviet general at last is reunited with his
wife, which I made into a kind of dance, as he eagerly approached and she
nervously resisted, torn with guilt over using him and leaving him. I could
have also picked a firefight in Vietnam and a rescue of two women about to be burned
as witches, both involving complex details. Actually, there’s another involving
a discovery in a cave, but it would be too revealing to describe it here.
What has writing this book taught you?
Eventually I can write very well, but I must work very hard to
do it, especially for such a complex novel. Next maybe I should try children’s
books.
What is the craziest thing you’ve done in the name of research?
I drove around in West Virginia to get the feeling of the place of a small but significant part of
the story. I guess I should have faked it, fictionalized it. I also drove
around my boyhood home back in Kentucky to refresh my memory. I would have
loved to have done similar in-place research in Israel, Central America, and
Peru. Sanity and finance prevailed. I might not have come back from Peru, an
incredible place as I came to see.
What are your favorite memories spent at the local library?
Well, my research was done mainly with books ordered from
Amazon, with Amazon Music recordings, and with Wikipedia articles, all while
sitting comfortably at my computer. And going to my kitchen for fuel or
distraction as needed.
How do you overcome writing obstacles?
My main obstacles were getting trapped in the fascination of
researching, and there was a lot, and getting puzzled in writing a passage,
unsure how to bring it off. The researching problem I handled many times by
just stopping, by dropping the unknown that was vexing me or fictionalizing it,
making it up. The puzzled problem I handled by trying to write through it or by
shifting to another passage—sometimes permanently.
Thank you so much for spending time with Fabulous and Brunette
readers and sharing your exciting new book with us! We wish you all the best on your book tour!
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AUTHOR BIO:
David McCracken was
born in Louisville, KY, in 1940. Raised mostly in Winchester, KY, he now lives
in Northern Virginia, with his third and final wife. He has three children, two
stepchildren, and six grandchildren.
After
three years in the U.S. Navy following a lackluster academic start, he
graduated from the University of Kentucky in 1963, in Diplomacy and
International Commerce. He then worked as a Latin American country desk officer
in the U.S. Department of Commerce until he returned to school to earn an M.A.
in Elementary Education in 1970 from Murray State University, having always
been intending to teach. Eventually realizing his children qualified for
reduced-price lunches based on his own teaching salary, he studied computer
programming at Northern Virginia Community College and worked as a programmer
until shifting back into elementary teaching.
He
began working on what became Fly Twice Backward in 1983 and finally
finished it in 2019! At 79, David strongly doubts he'll be doing another novel
of such scope and complexity, but is preparing to work on a children's science
fiction novel with a progressive bent, being a devout progressive in politics
and religion, as well as a lover of learning.
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CONNECT WITH DAVID:
Facebook:
Goodreads Book Page:
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AMAZON BOOK BUY LINK & BOOK SALE INFO:
**The Fly Twice Backward eBook is on SALE during the book
tour for ONLY $0.99!!!**
Amazon:
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GIVEAWAY INFO:
David will be awarding a $25 Amazon or B/N GC to
a randomly drawn winner via Rafflecopter during the tour.
This contest is sponsored
by a third party. Fabulous and Brunette is a registered host of Goddess Fish
Promotions. Prizes are given away by the
sponsors and not Fabulous and Brunette. The featured author and Goddess Fish
Promotions are solely responsible for the giveaway prize.
