Route 66 and other strange things

So hey. I drove about a thousand miles last weekend in Nevada, Arizona, and California. Some of it on Route 66, some of it through the Mojave Preserve in the deepest pitch black I've ever seen because google maps did not send me back the way I came. I now know why people see UFOs in the desert.

I found this in the ground at the Hoover Dam. If you know anything about it please tell me so I can turn it into something weird and/or sinister.

Liz and her husband Marine Sergeant Steve were kind enough to spend a day with me and set me straight on a whole bunch of stuff.  Including what is actually in an MRE - Meals Ready to Eat.

And man oh man, Ceasars Palace is a strange place at 6:30 in the morning. This is the view from my hotel room of the Garden of the Gods

And this, my friends, is a little place on the 93 called Nothing, AZ and the reason I drove about 600 miles there and back. That's it, that's almost all there is in Nothing, AZ. 

It was so much better than I expected but you'll have to read books 2 and/or 3 to find out why.

Vegas was Natasha in room service at Caesars, the star map at the Hoover Dam, 29 Palms Marine Base, 

Call Box 95, The Denny's in historic Wickenburg, Roy's in Amboy CA, the aliens in the UFO that did not select me, and the guy in front of me waiting to turn into Caesars who opened his car door, puked all over the road and then proceeded to drive up to the valet parking at Caesars so he could start his night. 

In other words: excellent.

Vegas? Hell yeah.

Hey. So, I'm one third of the way through second draft of Acceleration, the second book in the trilogy. I've decided some up close and personal research is needed, so I'm off to Vegas in a couple weeks. Plus, Hoover Dam!

The right way to start a day

Hey. This is the first thing I saw after fumbling for my phone when the alarm went off this morning:

I finished External Forces and it is now my favorite book! 

It came from someone who requested a Read4Review TWO days ago.

That is the right way to start a day. Just saying.

My Book - FREE this weekend, grab it!

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5 star reviews all over the place!

My book, in a bookstore

And there it is. My book, on a shelf, in a bookstore.

House of Riordan

So hey. Today was release day for House of Hades, Rick Riordan's latest in his demi-god series. My son has been counting down the days so I went to my very cool local bookstore to pick it up for him. Dude in the store was not into YA books, he had to look the book up! Eventually he pulls it out of the shipping box and I race across town. Well, I live in Toronto so you can't actually race anywhere if you are in a motor vehicle. I make it just in time for school lunch hour and my son and a friend come tearing over to get the book. The boys in his class(grade 7)were all jealous that he got a book for lunch. Now how cool is that?
"I'm almost finished," he just said sadly. "I guess I'll read it another 4 or 5 times and then I'll have to wait another year!"

And the future keeps catching up to my book...

Monsanto exec wins World Food Prize

Ta Da! Indigo Grandview Corners in Surrey BC is first bookstore to stock External Forces. Big Box o Books now on it's way.

Reviews

I've been slowly accumulating reviews (if not sales), all of them good so far. Yay. What has impacted me the most is the depth and thoughtfulness that so many of them have.They really read my book. And then thought about it. A lot. Writing the second draft of book 2 will be harder in some ways now. People read every word. Who knew?

4 stars - I was at the edge of my seat, cried a few times, even a few gasps. That is how you truly know that you have a good book in your hands .

5 stars - Can I just say WOW.

5 stars - ...enticing and thrilling.

4 stars - If Divergent and Partials got together, EXTERNAL FORCES would be the result.

5 stars - LOVED it!

4 stars - This was an amazing book.

4 stars - A great YA dystopian debut with a combination of action and romance.

4 stars - ...a truly gripping tale. The first night that I started reading, I stayed up far beyond my usual bedtime...

3 stars - Did I like the book? Yes. Were there still things that confused and troubled me? Yes. I do want people to read it so we can talk about, though, which is always a good sign.

Contest winners from Goodreads

Books all packaged and ready to go to contest winners

EXTERNAL FORCES BOOK TRAILER