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As a teen, I was the misfit of every conversation. I didn’t know how to engage people and had issues making and keeping friends. Although I made an A in almost every class, the idea of getting up and going to school scared me, for many reasons. There were bullies at school… drugs, weapons, gangs, and that was all in a small-town school. I cringe to think of what went on in the larger schools.
This was before the Internet was widely used. Yes, we had all those horrible things before the Internet! Without this great escape to digital media, games, and information, I built my own worlds. When the books I read disappointed me (this was the nineties, before there was a YA section overflowing with books like Twilight), I turned to making my own stories. I’d dream up a new world to disappear into whenever I could block out the pain of real life.
I soon found keeping my daydreaming habit a secret wasn’t easy. I never told a single soul in that high school out of fear someone might think I was certifiable.
At times, I wondered if I could be.
My notebooks burst with characters, but I didn’t have the patience to complete a full story. I still read almost anything I could get my hands on, but I began to study the pages of each book and with each ‘the end’ came my own thoughts on how the story should have ended. In my mind, I could rewrite the characters to be the people I imagined them. During this time, I also spent a great deal of time drawing charcoal sketches of anything I imagined.
At twenty-nine, I finally started my first book – the first story I always promised myself I’d write. After struggling for two years, I wrote three other books and then came back to finish the first. I know people often say you should hide the first book in a dark drawer for eternity.
But I’d made myself a promise, for better or worse.
As a child, the family joke of me being adopted always resonated with my deep need to belong. I wasn’t adopted (at least I don’t think so), but I told myself and anyone who would listen that one day I’d write a book about a girl who is. She’d be special in many ways I wasn’t while exploring the questions that came with not knowing what happened to her parents.
At thirty-six, after the death of my grandmother, I decided life was shorter than I’d ever realized. It was time to publish and I didn’t want to go the route of a decade of rejection letters from agents. I’d heard the horror stories from other authors. I wasn’t looking to make a fortune on writing – just wanted to reach people.
So, I researched what it would take to self-publish a book. As an engineer, I wanted to make a plan and set reasonable goals, but I also worked a full-time job. By day, I programmed robots and PLCs in a manufacturing plant. By night, I turned my first book into a five-book series.
I didn’t care how many books sold. At the time, I believed that if one person in the world discovered my stories and enjoyed, I’d accomplished my goal. I’d published a book with the intent to reach people. Now I had.
It took seven years to prepare my first book for publication. It took four months for the second and three for the third. After realizing people were reading my books and giving honest feedback, I kept going. My latest book, Fear Justice, is my ninth.
After completing the first series of books, I wrote a spin-off series with some of the same characters. At the end of the spin-off, I connected the two series. My third series, The Fear Chronicles, also has connections to the other books, but I wrote Fear Justice so that anyone could enjoy the story without having read my other books.
Seventeen-year-old Rena Mason counts the days until she can leave for college. Every night her father drinks himself to sleep, leaving her to care for her younger brother. When her father is kidnapped by terrorists, her dreams of freedom become a nightmare.
Stunned that her father has a history with these terrorists, Rena knows she must run or be their next victim. She learns the tough guy at school has a reason to look after her – he’s working for a government agency with the same goal as the terrorists: find a woman who disappeared eighteen years ago. Time is running out since only this woman’s special gift can save the world from a looming nuclear attack.
Rena can’t trust anyone, especially not the stone-cold agent she’s falling for. Can they save the world before Rena’s feelings trap her in an agent’s fight for justice?
Fear Justice contains elements of fantasy, sci-fi, and paranormal, with a clean romance. It’s the first book in an exciting new series called The Fear Chronicles.
Enjoy an Excerpt
He smiled and held out a hand. “I’m Tony and no, I’ve never thought of myself as a nice guy.”
Staring at his outstretched hand, I hesitated. “Rena.”
Tony moved his hand closer and his eyes took on a look of intensity, as if daring me to shake his hand.
“What’s with the gloves?” I asked.
“Skin allergies. What’s with the hesitation?”
“Hesitation?” With defiance, I reached forward. “I’m not afraid of you.”
“What are you afraid of?”
As his hand gripped mine, my breathing sped and I fought to control my voice. Our skin wasn’t even touching. Hiding my feelings with Robbie had been easy, but this was… weird. “Why are you worried about who I date? You don’t even know me.”
“I know your name is Rena Mason. We’ve got physics together.”
A twinge of guilt caught me off-guard. “I haven’t noticed you before.”
“My dad taught me to blend in with my surroundings, like camouflage.”
“He was a hunter?”
“Not exactly, but he did teach me how to shoot before he left.”
“Left?” The instant his words were out, I felt a connection to him. It was a sadness that welled from deep inside, the knowledge that we were alike in a terrible way.
About the Author:C.C. Bolick grew up in south Alabama, where she’s happy to still reside. She’s an engineer by day and a writer by night—too bad she could never do one without the other.
Camping, fishing… she loves the outdoors and the warm Alabama weather. For years she thought up stories to write and finally started putting them on paper back in 2006. If you hear her talking with no one to answer, don’t think she’s crazy. Since talking through her stories works best, a library is her worst place to write… even though it’s her favorite!
C.C. loves to mix sci-fi and paranormal—throw in a little romance and adventure and you’ve got her kind of story. She’s written nine books including the Leftover Girl series, The Agency series, and The Fear Chronicles.
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