Q&A, Excerpt and Giveaway: Worlds Collide (Sunset Rising #2) by S.M. McEachern

Description:

In a desperate attempt to escape execution, Sunny O’Donnell and Jack Kenner find a way out of the Pit and into a world still believed to be toxic with radiation. Under the brilliant sun for the first time in their lives, they not only discover that the earth has healed from nuclear war, but there are people outside the Dome.

In Worlds Collide, the second book of the Sunset Rising trilogy, Sunny and Jack must continue a life of subterfuge in order to stay alive and find a way to free the Pit. But in their attempt to save the urchins, they uncover the horrifying truth about President Holt and the evil he could unleash on the world.

AUTHOR's INTERVIEW

2014 has been a big year for your writing career. Can you tell us a bit about that? 

Yes, it has been big a year for me. For one thing, I published the second book of the “Sunset Rising” series, entitled “Worlds Collide”, last March. I was happily surprised when it rocketed up the Amazon ranking chart and maintained a spot in the top ten Amazon action and adventure romance bestseller list for months. That in turn attracted new hybrid-publisher Vook to ask me about acquiring the Sunset Rising series. After a few phone calls, many emails, and a lot of deliberation, I signed with Vook. I’m very happy I did. 

I’m also working on the third book of my series, tentatively titled “New World Order”, which I plan to release in January 2015. 

You do a lot of world-building in the series. What’s your process for creating a post apocalyptic world? 

In a nutshell, research and imagination. I love research because not only does it give me a good, solid foundation to begin my stories, but it also ignites my imagination. It’s kind of like taking what is and projecting what can or could be. So I read a lot of non-fiction articles and I also reach out to experts, most of whom have been really happy to help me. Dr. Bergren of the National Institute of Nanotechnology and Chris Kratt of the Wild Kratts have been two super helpful resources. I’ll be doing an interview with Chris this weekend, talking about what a post apocalyptic creature world might look like, and will have it up on my blog by September 18th if you’re interested in checking it out. 

Is your third book the last one of the “Sunset Rising” series? 

The series was named for the heroine, Sunset O’Donnell (Sunny), and the first three books are told from her point of view (spoiler alert: there’s another person sharing the story in book 3!). But as I said above, I’ve gone to great lengths to create a new world. I can definitely see more books told from other characters points of view as they reinvent their civilization and explore a post nuclear earth. And with recruiters, scorchlanders, and northerners out there, who knows what they’ll find… 

EXCERPT

With a start I woke, sensing something different. Disoriented, I looked around the room. It was dimly lit in a foreign way—as if someone turned half a light on. In the Pit, the lights were either on or off. There was no in-between. A sliver of yellow filtered through the slit in the curtains and fell across the bed. I put my hand into the stream of light. It was warm.

After a night spent clinging to the side of the mattress, my muscles were stiff. Slowly I stretched out my limbs and felt Jack beside me. At least I had stayed on my side.

Quietly, I rolled off the bed and padded to the window to look outside. The top of the sun was barely visible above the mountains, but already its fingers were reaching out and stealing the darkness from night. It was already too bright to tolerate and I reached for my sunglasses on the bedside table. Jack was awake, his blue eyes quietly regarding me. 

“Want to see your first sunrise?” I asked.

He left the bed and came to stand behind me and I pulled the curtains open wider. In the backyard a bird was singing, heralding the arrival of a new day. I searched the trees for the creature but couldn’t see it. Then it flew to another tree, flashing its red wings. Another bird joined it and together they chirped, their throats pulsating.

Jack’s arms circled my waist. “Amazing,” he whispered against my ear.

I relaxed into him, resting my head against the side of his. As the rising sun caressed my face, the warmth of his bare chest gently pressed against me. It probably wasn’t a good idea considering our no-romance agreement. But it was the single most beautiful moment of my entire existence and I was loath to give it up. I put my hands over his, holding him there. 

I’m not sure how long we stood together at the window, but our fragile bond was broken when a guard stood up and stretched. We hadn’t noticed him leaning against the back of the house. Jack dropped his arms and stepped away from me. I shivered from the cool air that rushed in to take the place of his body heat.

*******

The drops soon gathered speed and turned into a downpour, as if someone had turned on a showerhead. It made a drumming noise against the hard-packed earth, which came as a surprise. I had no idea rain made a sound. 

Everyone on the training field carried on as though there wasn’t a storm in progress. Dena continued with her tour. It wasn’t until a flash of light lit up the sky that Dena said it was time to go inside. The unexpected flash was blinding, but it was the booming noise that followed that sent me careening into Jack’s side. For just an instant I wondered if it was an attack. 

Jack’s shoulders shook with barely concealed laughter. I shot him a look. “As if you’ve ever been in a storm,” I said. 

The trek back up to the courtyard was a little trickier on wet ground. As we went, the lightning became brighter and the thunder louder. Jack’s sunglasses weren’t much protection. I never thought I’d be relieved to go back inside a mountain again, but I was. 

Pausing inside the entranceway to shake the water off, I took in the big empty room—what was once the lobby of the hotel. The grotto was made entirely of stone tile with high arched ceilings. The ghostly outlines of bygone furniture hinted that the hotel was once quite grand, but now crumbling tiles and dark stains ground into the stone had robbed it of its beauty. I rubbed the toe of my boot against one of the dark spots, wondering what it was. 

“Human misery is a stubborn stain,” Dena said. “A lot of skeletons were found here, the floor darkened by their decay.” 

A shiver went down my spine when her meaning registered. How many people had sought refuge here after the war, only to die a slow horrible death? Were they from the valley? Were they the same people who had been turned away from the Dome by the bourge? The stains of decay were everywhere. For a moment I closed my eyes against the mental image of what they must have had to clear out of here in order to reclaim this building. 

Behind me the door opened and a few people entered the lobby. They glanced in our direction and continued to the far side of the room. 

“The entire hotel is built inside the mountain, hidden to the outside world,” Dena said. 

I watched the small group open the bags they carried and spread out blankets on the floor. 

Jack pointed to the artificial lighting. “You’ve made your own light?” 

Dena smiled. “It’s not nuclear science. It’s just a filament.” 

Jack looked a little embarrassed by his question. I had thought the same thing until Jin-Sook had corrected me. As much as I professed that these people weren’t heathens, I still made assumptions about them, as though they wouldn’t be as smart as we were. But as we walked through the reclaimed ruins, I was reminded of the ingenuity of the human spirit. As someone who came from the Pit, this was not something I should’ve forgotten.

Note from author: 

Thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to talk about all the exciting things happening with the “Sunset Rising” series. For anyone who hasn’t read the series, the first book “Sunset Rising” is on sale everywhere for just 99 cents from September 16-24, 2014. I also have seven satellite stories (short stories based on the series) posted on my blog you can check out here: http://smmceachern.com/category/satellite-stories/ The first six stories were written in between books one and two; the seventh story is more recent and picks up between books two and three. I always love to hear from readers, so if you do check out the series, please feel free to get in touch and let me know what you think!

Goodreads ** Amazon ** Barnes&Noble ** Kobo ** iTunes

About the author:

S.M. McEachern was born in Nova Scotia, Canada. She attended Dalhousie University in the 1990s where she earned an Honours Degree in International Development Studies. She worked in the field of International Development for several years, specializing in ocean development.

"Sunset Rising" is S.M. McEachern's first novel. She says the idea for the story first came to her in the 1990s when she researched a Bio-Dome experiment in Arizona for an academic paper. The thought that the world might one day need a Bio-Dome to escape a global catastrophe set her imagination into overdrive. And the ethics behind such an idea formed the backdrop for Sunset Rising.

Her goal in writing the novel is to entertain the reader with an interesting plot and colourful characters.

Website ** Goodreads ** Facebook ** Twitter