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Albert Camus

Don't walk behind me; I may not lead. Don't walk in front of me; I may not follow. Just walk beside me and be my friend.

Thursday, November 7, 2019

into a terrifying future... The Call of Death by R.J. Garcia

"Garcia’s writing is incredible!! You are grabbed right from the first page and taken for a thrill of a rollercoaster ride!! The characters are endearing, frustrating and some are plain evil." - Donna, Goodreads


Description:

Release Date: November 5th, 2019

Fourteen-year-old Hannah Priestly crashes into a terrifying future. She wakes up in her dorm room now knowing the name of an infamous serial killer, Norman Biggs. He will attack her in the future unless she and her three male friends can change fate.

Hannah is a suntanned, obsessive-compulsive California girl dropped off at an English boarding school by her celebrity mother. Hannah has difficulty understanding algebra, let alone her increasingly dark visions. 

Rory Veer is Hannah’s smart, easy-going and romantically challenged friend and school crush. 

When Norman Biggs unexpectedly appears in Rory’s reality, terror is set in motion. It is Rory who must acknowledge a past he has denied if the mystery is to be unraveled.

"The mystery of it pulls you along, with Garcia’s vivid descriptions painting each scene. The nail-biting climax and the conclusion are believable and satisfying. Recommended for readers who love murder mysteries and teenagers escaping death!" - Cristina, Goodreads

GUEST POST
From Short Stories to Novels
By R.J. Garcia
The reason I write is different from most writers. Then again, every writer’s journey is unique. My mom used to tell me bedtime stories, but not the stories from picture books or Mother Goose. No, she told me stories crafted in her own imagination. I think this planted a seed for me to become a storyteller.

I began writing short stories on cheap notebook paper at a fairly young age, probably ten. They were bad and hard to decipher. Not only was my vocabulary limited but I have dyslexia. I still felt good when my brothers would read them.  By age twelve or thirteen I read the book, The Outsiders by SE Hinton, after which stories took on a deeper meaning and I knew I had to write. I started reading more and my writing slowly improved. As I read more and more books, I discovered many protagonists who like myself didn’t quite fit in. It was like I found my people, even if they were only fictional. I could even create my own world as a writer. As a kid being bullied, I finally had control and a means to escape.

Mulling it over I don’t feel a short story is necessarily a steppingstone to bigger things. They are awesome on their own.  I sat down and let the story shape itself. Short stories can sometimes be written and read in one sitting. Writing, even reading a novel takes much time and commitment. I heard that when you write a short story you look at someone else’s life, but when you write a novel you live another’s life. This sums up the difference pretty well.

Honestly, I flirted around with the idea of penning a novel for years. I just didn’t do it. I was a mentor for teens in foster care and writing child summaries from home. Some of the amazing kids I worked with and their tragic backstories inspired me. It happened, I committed and became a little obsessed with finishing my first two novels, Nocturnal Meetings of the Misplaced and The Call of Death. Writing in the middle of the night, or whenever I could find a spare moment. I’ve always had longer stories inside my head and finally found the words and confidence to tell them. According to the great Maya Angelo, “When the muse is convinced, I’m serious she says, ‘Okay. Okay. I’ll come.”  

About the author:
R.J. Garcia is a wife and proud mom. She earned her MSW and worked with foster children and as a school social worker. Writing has been her other great love. She has published several non-fiction pieces. She has been writing short-stories for as long as she can remember. To her amazement, those short stories became novels! 

Author's Giveaway:
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3 comments:

Bridgett Wilbur said...

Great cover.

Anonymous said...

The cover art seems appropriate for the book. Good job.

Amy Woolard said...

Wow! This sounds like an edge of your seat book! I love what I have read about this one!