Hi
lovelies! It gives me great pleasure today to host Alexander Charalambides and
his new book, “K.I.A.”! For other stops
on his Goddess Fish Promotions Book Tour, please click on the banner above or
any of the images in this post.
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 Alexander and to increase your chances of winning!
Thanks
for stopping by! Wishing you lots of
luck in this fabulous giveaway!
K.I.A.
by Alexander Charalambides
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GENRE: Thriller/NA
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BLURB:
Hildegard
lives in a real-life dollhouse, surrounded by prop houses and actors who play
friends, teachers and foster parents. Only one man ever seemed real, and after
his disappearance, she’s had enough playing along. As Hildegard makes her final
preparations to run away from home, a swarm of black clad soldiers appear,
controlling the police and swarming across her home town. She can evade them
for now, but after learning their mission, she decides to play along one last
time, following them to Truman Academy, a lonely building on a freezing
aleutian island. Hildegard knows it for what it is: just another prop, but not
everyone feels the same way. Through the hell of endless drills and marching,
Hildegard befriends the stealthy Grace and bloodthirsty David, and enlists them
in an effort to unravel the plan of the man called G and his monstrous
menagerie of inhuman soldiers.
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EXCERPT ONE:
“Bacteria
again,” David says. “A biological weapon?”
“I
don’t know.” Islet slurps the last of his soup. “I only sequenced part of it, and
they keep the different teams apart.”
“Is
that what they’re going to launch from the Silo?” Grace asks.
“You
knew?” Islet asks.
“We
found out about the Mobile Silo a while ago,” I say. “We saw blueprints for it,
orders for parts, too.”
“Well,
that’s what they’ve been doing for days now,” Dr. Islet says. “Hauling down the
tanks of bacteria, assembling missiles.”
“They’re
going to launch.” Grace stands up as she says it.
“Right,”
I say. “There’s not going to be any placement in special forces. Or
graduation.”
A
few students stand up, like Grace. A few gasp. Most don’t seem surprised. “If I
had to guess, I’d say that once they launch, they won’t need us. It’ll be a
massacre.”
“You
think so?” Islet pushes his glasses back up his nose. “It could be, we’ve been
getting weapon shipments with the missile parts and replacement components for
the Mobile Silo.”
“Stop
saying we,” David grunts. “Unless you’re with them.”
“No,
no, I’m not.” Islet waves his hands back and forth. “You’re right.”
“We
have to stop them,” Grace says. I can’t help but tally up the numbers. At the
very least the baggers outnumber the students two to one. Almost certainly
more, not counting KU Giant. Then there’s the equipment discrepancy, and the
differences in energy from eating and sleeping. I know there are vehicles, too,
I’ve seen plenty of personnel carriers and jeeps with mounted guns, as well as
the helicopters that are always coming and going.
“Uh,
Hildegard,” Grace says. “We were sort of hoping you’d come up with something.”
I
only wanted to find out what happened to Cooper. To be honest, I think I might
already have lost my chance. It can’t be my priority anymore. By the sound of
it, it’s not just the students that are in danger.
“There’s
only one way we can get enough supplies, weapons, and bodies to stop the
launch.”
“Okay,”
Grace says. “What’s that?”
“This
should be good.” David leans back on the walls of the cabin. All the students
stare at me.
“We
have to take over the school.”
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GUEST POST:
Evolution of My Writing Habits and How I've Grown Into a Better/More
Experienced Writer
To
discuss how my writing’s developed, and continues to develop, I have to begin
by talking about how I started.
Thankfully,
that won’t take very long because the majority of people who write
professionally get started in the same way.
I was encouraged to write in school, and then stuck with it because it
was fun. I think even people who pick up writing later in life can trace it
back to early encouragement.
Not
everyone gets the same education, at least, beyond grammar and spelling, but
education in writing beyond school is usually having enough analytical ability
to understand and emulate the writers you admire and the best parts of the
stories you love. As I consume more and more storytelling, I try to analyze the
what and why of the stories I like, as a result my understanding increases and,
I hope, my writing improves.
Being
really specific, I studied creative writing at university level, which gave me
a great foundation to build on. After I graduated I read two really good books
I’d recommend to any aspiring writer; Stephen King’s On Writing, which lays out the patterns and habits you need to be
productive, and John Truby’s The Anatomy
Of Story, which is so insightful and comprehensive it transcends genre and
medium.
Naturally,
my writing has changed a lot. The contrast between my first book Black Blade and my second, K.I.A. is pretty obvious. Moving from
one to the other I made a conscious attempt to streamline my descriptive
language. I feel like the atmosphere of
the latter suffered and doesn’t have as much depth as I’d like it to.
My
approach, as it stands now, focuses on writing as a vehicle for plot, and pins
potential success on the story I tell, rather than the language. Not that I try
to avoid rhythm, metaphor or atmosphere, but they take second place.
Not
everyone really likes the idea of language being secondary, but I think it has
its place, so anyone who is thinking of writing, I’d suggest you give it a try.
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AUTHOR BIO:
Alexander Charalambides was
born in London and grew up in Berkshire in the UK.
He
studied Creative Writing, and graduated from the Open University.
As a
freelance writer Alexander enjoys storytelling just as much as editing and
analysis, but often takes time off to enjoy wind surfing, do the sickest of
motorcycle flips, wrestle with deadly animals and lie about his hobbies.
In
2008 he moved to the USA and now lives in New Hampshire’s beautiful White
Mountains with his family and two dogs, Gwynne and Gimli.
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CONNECT WITH ALEXANDER:
Website:
Blog:
Newsletter:
Facebook:
Twitter:
Goodreads Author Page:
Goodreads Book Page:
Amazon Author Page:
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BOOK BUY LINKS:
Amazon Kindle:
Amazon Paperback:
Barnes and Noble:
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GIVEAWAY INFO:
Alexander will be awarding a $25 Amazon or B/N
GC to a randomly drawn winner via Rafflecopter during the tour.
**This post contains affiliate links and if clicked and a
purchase made I may receive a small commission to help support this blog. This does not cost you anything, it just
helps pay for all those awesome giveaways on here.**
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.
