by Donald
Firesmith
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
GENRE: Science
Fiction (Apocalyptic)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
BLURB:
It’s
August in Alaska, and geology professor Jack Oswald prepares for the new school
year. But when hundreds of huge holes mysteriously appear overnight in the
frozen tundra north of the Arctic Circle, Jack receives an unexpected phone
call. An oil company exec hires Jack to investigate, and he picks his
climatologist wife and two of their graduate students as his team. Uncharacteristically,
Jack also lets Aileen O’Shannon, a bewitchingly beautiful young
photojournalist, talk him into coming along as their photographer. When they
arrive in the remote oil town of Deadhorse, the exec and a biologist to protect
them from wild animals join the team. Their task: to assess the risk of more
holes opening under the Trans-Alaska Pipeline and the wells and pipelines that
feed it. But they discover a far worse danger lurks below. When it emerges, it
threatens to shatter Jack’s unshakable faith in science. And destroy us all…
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
EXCERPT
IN THE PLANE
Once everything was stowed, I followed Mark up the
short stairs and into the lavish interior of the business jet. Unlike the
cramped commuter planes I usually took when flying up to the oil fields, the
Embraer Legacy 500 made first class seem like coach. Either the executive
funding our study was desperate to get us up there, or this was the only
aircraft the company had left to send. Either way, I was happy for the
unexpected upgrade.
Unlike typical airliners, the jet’s eight large
leather seats were organized around four small tables, two on either side of
the cabin. Each table separated two seats, one seat facing the back of the
airplane and the other facing forward. Angie and Jill were seated in the first
row of the plane leaving the second row seats facing forwards for Mark and me.
I’d just sat down opposite my wife when she pointed her finger over my
shoulder. Following Mark had prevented me from noticing the unexpected extra
person seated in the rear of the cabin. With the satisfied smile of a cat
having feasted on canary, there sat Aileen O’Shannon. I wondered whether Angie
and Jill had selected this particular seating arrangement so they could glare
at the weirdly bewitching beauty in the back. Of course, it may have been to
keep Mark and me from being tempted to look at her instead of paying proper
attention to our wives.
I got up and marched straight to the rear of the
plane and said, “I’m sorry, but I never said you could come along on this
trip.”
“You are?” she asked coyly. “Oh, my. You never said
I could not come.” She gave me a stunning smile that I’m sure usually got her
everything she’d ever asked for. “I naturally took your silence to signify
agreement, so I packed my bag and cameras, and here I am. Lucky for you that I
did; you wouldn’t want to get up there only to realize you needed someone to
make a visual record of your discoveries. Besides, I know some of the
discoveries the Russians made that they didn’t publish.”
The co-pilot walked up behind me. “Excuse me, Dr.
Oswald. Can you please take your seat now? We’re on a very tight schedule, and
Mr. Kowalski wants you in Deadhorse as soon as possible.”
I looked up front and saw that the cabin door was
already closed, and the seat belt signs were on. Before I could answer, the
plane began taxiing away from the hangar. Realizing that it was too late to rid
ourselves of the reporter, I turned around and took my seat facing Angie.
“I see we still have Miss O’Shannon with us,” Angie
said with a hint of irritation. “I thought you’d decided we didn’t need her.”
“I did,” I answered as the plane accelerated down
the runway. “But the cabin door was already closed, and we were already
moving.”
“Jack, you’re the leader of this study, and this
plane wouldn’t even be here if it weren’t for you. The pilot would have turned
around if you’d asked him to.”
“You’re right,” I admitted sheepishly, silently
cursing my habit of not questioning authority figures, at least not unless it
involved science.
“Well, what are you going to do about it?”
Suddenly and for no apparent reason, my annoyance
with O’Shannon disappeared, and I felt an overpowering desire to keep her with
us, with me. I twisted around and looked back at her. She was staring back at
me with a knowing smile. God, she looked so mesmerizingly beautiful as her
fingers provocatively played with the top button of her shirt. Of course, she
should come…
“Jack… Jack!”
I jerked back around, my heart pounding as I felt
my face warming. I was blushing from embarrassment and guilt. I was also
confused, unsure of what had just happened.
“Jack, I was talking to you, and you just ignored
me! What’s gotten into you?”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
AUTHOR Bio and
Links:
A
computer geek by day, at night and on weekends Donald Firesmith writes modern
paranormal fantasy, apocalyptic science fiction, action and adventure novels
and relaxes by handcrafting magic wands from magical woods and mystical
gemstones.
A
computer geek by day, Donald Firesmith works as a system and software engineer
helping the US Government acquire large, complex software-intensive systems. In
this guise, he has authored seven technical books, written numerous software-
and system-related articles and papers, and spoken at more conferences than he
can possibly remember. He is also proud to have been named a Distinguished
Engineer by the Association of Computing Machinery, although his pride is
tempered somewhat worrying whether the term “distinguished” makes him sound
more like a graybeard academic rather than an active engineer whose beard is
still more red than gray.
By
night and on weekends, his alter ego writes modern paranormal fantasy,
apocalyptic science fiction, action and adventure novels and relaxes by
handcrafting magic wands from various magical woods and mystical gemstones. His
first foray into fiction is the book Magical Wands: A Cornucopia of Wand Lore
written under the pen name Wolfrick Ignatius Feuerschmied. He lives in Crafton,
Pennsylvania with his wife Becky, his son Dane, and varying numbers of dogs,
cats, and birds.
Links:
Trailer
Book
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/embed/amXuTAlKoX0
Buy
Links: The book is free
Praise
Quotes
“I
enjoyed my time in Firesmith’s world. I did not want to leave. I really got a
kick out of it, and would happily come back for more. Recommended.”
MJ
Kobernus, author of The Guardian: Blood in the Sand
“This
book rocks.”
Barton
Paul Levenson, author of Dark Gods of Alter Telluria
“a
quick, enjoyable read. Full of action and fraught with danger”
Dave
Robertson, author of Strange Hunting, Strange Hunting II, and The Brave and The
Dead
“The
book is an easy and quick read and an action-filled one that you’ll imagine as
a TV series or a movie with no difficulty.”
Olga
Núñez Miret, author of Escaping Psychiatry
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
GIVEAWAY INFORMATION
Donald will be awarding an
autographed copy of the Hell Holes 2: Demons on the Dalton (US ONLY) to a
randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.
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