Today
I have a special excerpt from the supernatural thriller, Marionettes, by Kerry Alan Denney.
During
his virtual book tour, Kerry will be awarding a $20 Amazon or Barnes and Noble
(winner’s choice) gift card to a lucky randomly drawn winner. To be entered for
a chance to win, use the form below. To
increase your chances of winning, feel free to visit his other tour stops and
enter there, too.
Colleagues
and readers have dubbed Kerry Alan Denney The Reality Bender. The multiple
award-winning author of the paranormal thrillers Dreamweavers (Juju Mojo Publications, August 2015) and Soulsnatcher (Juju Mojo Publications,
April 2014), the post-apocalyptic sci-fi/ horror thriller Jagannath (Permuted Press, February 2015), and numerous short
stories published online and in anthologies, Kerry blends elements of the
supernatural, paranormal, sci-fi, fantasy, and horror in his work: speculative
fiction at its wildest and craziest. With joy, malicious glee, and a touch of
madness, he writes reality-bending thrillers, even when the voices don’t compel
him to. His protagonists are his children, and he loves them as dearly as he
despises his antagonists... even when he has to kill them.
On July 24,
2015, Jagannath became a #1 Amazon
bestseller. On March 31, 2015, Soulsnatcher
won 2nd Place as 2014 Book of the Year in The Drunken Druid’s International
Book Award competition. Jagannath and
Soulsnatcher each received a rave
blurb from New York Times bestselling author James Rollins.
Kerry lives
in Stone Mountain, Georgia with his golden retriever Holly Jolly, a veteran
professional Therapy Dog, where he is currently writing his next supernatural
thriller... and deciding who to kill in it.
Be on the
lookout for Kerry’s new post-apocalyptic/ paranormal thriller A Mighty Rolling Thunder, coming
December 3, 2016 from Burning Willow Press.
A little
bit about Marionettes:
Resuscitated
after he drowns and dies in a flood, David Flint discovers he has returned from
the other side with an uncanny ability: He can “jump” into people’s bodies and
minds, and control their thoughts and actions.
David believes it's a gift, and
wants to use it to help people. Then four members of a ruthless drug ring
savagely attack his fiancée and leave her in a coma, and David tries to use his
new power to destroy the whole ring. But the ringleader, a voodoo priest known
as the Zombie Master, is a formidable man with a deadly secret: He has the same
incredible ability as David.
When the two human marionette
masters clash in a brutal bloody showdown, using the ring’s members as their
puppets, David discovers he’s battling for much more than his life—he’s
fighting to rid the world of an evil human abomination.
Marionettes illuminates the greatest
achievements of the human spirit and the darkest corridors of our minds, and
answers the age-old question: What are the consequences of absolute power?
Excerpt from Marionettes:
My head was turned sideways, and I struggled to push myself
into a sitting position only to find another sadistic little swordsman was
trying to slice his way out of my gut.
“Let me adjust your bed. Take your time, sweetie,” the angel
said. She used the bed’s controls to raise it so I could sit up.
The combination of the brutal swordsman in my gut, the
vicious little bastards in my throat, and jackhammer-man in my head made me
want out of this bad dream. That’s when things got mega-weird: I found myself
inexplicably staring down at… me. My face was slack, my features drooping, and
my open eyes looked empty and barely aware.
It scared the hell
out of me, dream or not.
I saw the angel’s delicate hands gently adjust my shoulders
and brush strands of my long dark hair out of my eyes from her perspective, as
though her hands were mine.
I’m Cynthia, a nurse, I realized. I have two kids—Johnny and
Leah—and a doting husband named Paul who is a wonderful father to our children.
I want more than ever to help my patient, David Flint—the subject of much
gossip among the second floor nursing staff—to be well and whole again.
“Little pieces, David,” Cynthia said, feeding ice chips from
a spoon to the bedridden zombie who looked like me. I worried about the slack
look on my face. “Let them melt in your mouth.”
Cynthia knew about Karin’s tragic death, and felt sorry for
me at the same time that she felt hopeful for my continued recovery. This
screwed with my mind, and because pity is something I can’t tolerate, I found
myself jerked out of Cynthia’s perspective and back into my own.
I felt the cool, soothing comfort of the melting ice slide
down my throat and wash away some of the little swordsmen. Take that, you
bastards. But the pleasant sensation triggered a darker, nasty memory of
brackish waters involuntarily swallowed recently.
My body shook with spasms as the memory rose to the surface
of my mind and hit me like a sledgehammer blow crushing my skull. The surrounding
dark waters engulfed me, and I panicked.
“Can’t… breathe,”
I rasped, grabbing Cynthia’s arm. “Save me.”
“Oh honey, you’re remembering, aren’t you?” Cynthia took my
hand and set the cup of ice chips on the rotating bedside table.
“Drowning,” I
croaked, squeezing her hand. “Save me.”
“No, David, you’re not drowning. You’re in the hospital,
safe and alive, and I’m right here with you.”
“Don’t leave me.”
“I’m not going
anywhere.”
I looked up into her kind eyes, and saw worry etch lines in
her brow. I suddenly remembered the razor-sharp chunk of glass penetrating my
gut as I submerged beneath dark waters, unable to stay afloat any longer. That
was when I gave in to the merciless deluge, seeing Karin’s face before me as I
drowned.
Links:
Website | Amazon author page | Twitter | Goodreads | Facebook | Google+ | Amazon | Goodreads book page
Kerry’s
short stories:
Thanks for hosting!
ReplyDeleteIf you weren’t a writer and could choose any job, profession, or career, what would you do and why?
ReplyDeleteDo you write every day? Do you have a word goal for each day you write?
ReplyDeleteInteresting story. Enjoyed the blurb and excerpt.
ReplyDeleteCan't wait to read this one! Thanks for sharing :)
ReplyDeleteAwesome giveaway and I am appreciative of you giving us the chance to win
ReplyDeleteFascinating and interesting excerpt.
ReplyDeleteThanks Lisa for hosting me and MARIONETTES today!
ReplyDeletethanks for the chance to win :)
ReplyDeleteThanks Mai T., Peggy, Marcy, Victoria, James, MomJane, and Lisa.
ReplyDeleteMai, "If I weren't a writer" doesn't really apply, because I am what I am: a writer. However, if you mean if I COULDN'T be a writer what would I be, here is my answer:
I would be a quantum physicist so I could invent an Inter-dimensional Teleportation Chamber so I could teleport myself to an alternate universe where I CAN be a writer. :)
Peggy, generally yes, I do write every day. However, I have to take a break once in a while! I love taking my Golden Retriever Holly Jolly — who is a professional Therapy Dog — to the park to hike and play tennis ball fetch when my brain is overloaded with too much writing and story creating. Plus, about 50% of my writing time is spent editing my work, which I consider of major importance for ANY writer.
I set more of a “time” goal for my writing than a word count: To me, it’s more important to capture the scene, drama, story arc, and current action properly and in an irresistibly captivating way that makes my readers compelled to keep on reading than it is to achieve a set number of words. No matter how many words we writers write, they MUST develop the plot and characters and move the story forward at all times, with no superfluous action or drama. I believe that too many writers focus too much on quantity rather than quality. I always focus on quality versus quantity: the story must come out of my head and onto the “pages” in a compelling way that engulfs the reader in my stories, and “puts” them right into the action as if they’re experiencing it themselves.
I hope everyone will pick up a copy of MARIONETTES, and happy reading to all!