First Chapters: Red Hot Sky by Gordon Gumpertz

Hello there! If you are new here, you might want to subscribe to the RSS feed for updates on this topic.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

CreateSpace (October 12, 2011)

Action/Adventure Fiction

Chapter 1

Ben Mason pulled on a ski jacket and watch cap and walked out of his Arlington apartment into the bitterest ice storm he could remember. Head down, he forged his way to his aging Chevy Blazer. He set the defrost on max and inched through the whiteout, finally reaching the lab in Falls Church at 7:35 p.m.

His lab partner, Shorty, six-foot-five Bertrand Short, stared at rows of rolling numbers on his computer screen. “Worried you wouldn’t make it.”

“Test run’s still scheduled for midnight, right?”

Shorty clicked an icon on his screen. “Nobody’s said otherwise.”

“No ice storm’s bad enough to keep me away. This could be the most crucial night of our lives.” Ben pulled off his watch cap and ran fingers through his black hair, then draped his parka on a coat rack.

Shorty finally looked up, the light catching glints of red in his thatch of blond hair and the two days of stubble. “Jesus H. Christ! You look like you been set on by a pack of hungry coyotes.”

Ben stretched his wiry six-foot body. “I was working the speed bag at the gym, and this pro came in looking for a sparring partner. I got lucky and knocked him down with a left hook. Big mistake.”

“About as smart as goosing a rattlesnake. No headgear?”

Ben poured coffee and wrapped his hands around the warm mug. “Forgot, and he tagged me a couple times.”

Shorty said, “You oughtn’t to go around messing with those pros. You mighta boxed in college, but you’re too damn old and too damn slow now. You’ve come in more than once with those blue eyes of yours closed down to slits. One a these days they’ll knock out what little brains you got left.”

“Keeps me in shape. And I’m okay.”

“Glad to hear that, because Secretary Flagler’s been trying to get you.”

Ben called on the secretary of energy’s private line. “Sorry, Mr. Secretary, I got tied up.”

Flagler’s voice sounded tinny on the speakerphone. “Beeson’s gunning for you.”

“Doesn’t surprise me. Did you explain?”

“He won’t listen. Wants to get you and Dr. Short up there before his committee on a fishing expedition. Anyhow, expect a call from the senator himself.”

Ben massaged his sore temple. “What’ll I say?”

A pause. The lab was after-work quiet. Flagler wheezed, “Try not to antagonize. He has a lot of power and could hurt us.”

A half hour later, Ben and Shorty were looking at the florid face and angry eyes of Senator Marcus Beeson on the other end of a videophone connection.

“I’ll tell you straight away I’m pretty damn mad. You two are making me late for a New Year’s Eve supper with the vice president and his wife.”

Ben tried to sound respectful. “Sorry your evening is messed up, Senator, but I don’t understand how we ….”

“Well let me tell you. I found out this is the night you’re planning to run that damn fool experiment. I’m telling you not to do it. If you do, you and Dr. Short will be called before my committee.” Bushy black and white eyebrows slanted up. Each word was accompanied by a rap of knuckle on desktop. “And I’ll have the FBI investigate you for violating national security.”

“This was all cleared by Secretary Flagler,” Ben said.

“I’m flying to London with him in the morning. I’ll damn soon find out if he’s part of this conspiracy. Or just gullible. Grabbing control of all ten of our country’s new supercomputers at the same time undermines national defense. Christ, who do you guys think you are?”

Ben said, “The secretary and I met with the directors of the national labs involved. They understand the importance of the experiment. And we’re asking for time only between midnight and five. They all agreed on midnight January first because it’s the time of lowest demand.”

Beeson’s jowls swayed as he shook his head. “If they did, they’re a bunch of misguided fools. The whole cabinet’s called to complain. Defense, homeland, intelligence, treasury, interior, health, everybody. Just exactly what is it gives you priority over the military and every other department in the government?”

Bertrand Short spoke, his twang straight Oklahoma. “We’re tryin’ to find out what the greenhouse effect’ll do to our future climate, and that’s why we built this here global warming computer model. But like I told Ben, we need a computer the size of Texas to make it work.”

Beeson’s eyes narrowed. “I don’t know what you’re really trying to pull, but I intend to get to the bottom of it, and when I do there’ll be hell to pay.”

Ben said, “Shorty, I mean Dr. Short, is right. Computing power’s what we need, and a lot of it. So I came up with the idea of hooking all ten of the new Quantum Five-Thousands together by satellite to create one massive computing source.”

“Why can’t you get what you need with one or two?”

“Senator, there’s just too much data in the model ….”

Shorty picked it up. “We got historic records and prehistoric measurements of just about everything that’s ever happened to this planet since the ice age. Temperature, humidity, rain, snow, drought, flood, volcanoes, earthquakes. Hour by hour. Every centimeter of the earth’s surface, subsurface, oceans, and atmosphere.”

Ben said, “It’ll take all ten running together to digest that much data and establish the trend lines and push them forward far enough.”

Senator Beeson wagged a sausage finger at the camera. “Your so-called greenhouse research is a waste of taxpayer money. Weather’s getting hotter, everybody knows that.”

Ben said, “Hotter, sure, but more erratic. We just don’t know where this greenhouse thing is taking us. If our computer model works, it’ll show future climate patterns and give us a big advantage in strategic planning. Economic and military.”

Beeson’s scoff sounded like a pig at feeding time. “What are you people really up to? I know a cock-and-bull story when I hear it. This greenhouse stuff is a smokescreen. Something’s going on. I can smell it.” His sausage finger wagged a warning. “You can expect a summons to appear before my committee. Both of you.”

Ben was still seething when he called Secretary Flagler to tell him they’d just been royally reamed out by Senator Beeson.

Flagler said, “I’ll try to calm him down tomorrow. Now let’s review the ground rules. The directors of all ten labs have agreed to give you midnight to five a.m. eastern standard for this test phase. That’ll be you and Dr. Short and Dr. Manet to make sure the hookup works.”

“Dr. Manet’s on an emergency trip to New Orleans.”

“Okay. So just you and Dr. Short will decide if this hookup is viable. All ten computers will be standing by to receive your satellite signal in exactly one hour and twenty-nine minutes. Is everything ready at your end?”

“We’re all set, Mr. Secretary.”

“Give me a report at four thirty in the morning. Call me at home. I’m leaving for the airport at five. Senator Beeson and I are catching an early flight to London for that energy conference.”

Ben walked to the window. Crunch time. The future of the planet might well be at stake, as well as his job as head of the project team and his standing in the scientific community. The ice storm had cleared for the moment. A half-moon spread pale light over Falls Church and the sleet-covered grounds and low buildings of National Science Laboratories. The big dish antennae would be iced over. Would that screw up the satellite link?

If things didn’t work, he’d never get a second chance, probably be demoted to some dead-end job. Maybe the CIA would take him back. He’d left the agency after two years and accepted this job with NSL because his work in the CIA lab was boring. He’d wanted more excitement. Now he had it. Everything was riding on the outcome. Well, nothing more he could do at this point. Just wait.

Shorty fidgeted and went to the john. He opened the window and took in great gulps of fresh air. Finally they were only seconds away from their moment of truth.

Ben pushed the start button. He stared at the panel of ten indicator lights that would confirm connection with each of the supercomputers. All dark. He held his breath.

Shorty hovered over the indicator panel. “We got satellite lag time, but didn’t figure it’d take this long.”

Ben said softly, fervently, as if coaxing dice in a crap game, “Come on, system. Come on!”

A moment later, the first green light blinked on. Lawrence Livermore. After a few more seconds, JPL, Sandia, and National Science Laboratories lit up, followed by a ten-second delay. Then Los Alamos, Oakridge, Brookhaven, and Argonne came on at the same time. All but two were now in the green. NOAA-Princeton winked on. Finally, Cornell. At last, all ten online.

Ben yelled, “All right!” He slapped palms with Shorty.

Shorty said, “We got the power hooked up. Now let’s see if the dang thing works.”

Ben inserted the disk and hit Enter.

A date appeared in the upper right-hand corner. One month from today. A Robinson’s Projection of the earth popped onto the screen. The resolution was amazing. Every feature of the earth’s surface stood out in multihued three-dimensional relief.

“Good lord above!” Shorty said. “Never thought I’d see a grid scale this fine. All that computer power is really doing the job.” He put his coffee mug down with a thunk. “I know it’s only a simulation, but sure as shootin’ looks like the real thing.”

Ben just looked at the display for a few minutes, savoring the beauty of it and the fact that everything seemed to be working. “I’m going to click forward now month by month to look at the rest of this year, then go for year two.” He left each month on the screen for two minutes before moving to the next.

Shorty studied the screen alongside Ben. Both were quiet, intent.

“End of year two,” Ben said. “What do you think so far?”

“If our model’s right, the world’s in for one mighty big shitload of weather.”

“You see a pattern?”

“Chaos is what I see.”

Ben nodded. “Heat waves, hurricanes, tornadoes, monsoons, ice storms, dust storms, floods, blizzards, droughts. Nonstop. One on top of the other. “Same erratic weather we’ve been having the past few years, only worse.” He tapped the mouse. “Let’s go out one more.”

Shorty’s brown eyes lingered on the screen at the end of year three. “Holy frijoles! Ain’t never seen nuthin’ like it.”

Ben’s smile was a half grimace. “You can drop the country cousin routine anytime.”

“Well, I’m serious, Pardner. Weather’s working itself up into some kind of frenzy. Like the Fourth of July when they build to the grand finale and shoot the works.”

Ben sipped his cold coffee. “Yeah, pretty frantic everywhere.”

“Look at Europe!” Shorty leaned in close. “Monsoon rains melting the snow, rivers busting their banks.”

“Everyplace has something bad going on. Ready for year four?” Ben asked.

“Before we go there, I’d like to say something. What we’re doing has never been done before. Looking into the future has always been the province of the Lord.”

Ben swung away from the keyboard. “We’ll have to make sure it’s a power to be used only to help mankind. Never to harm.”

Shorty patted a hand-stitched Justin boot. “Let’s go to the next year. Don’t think we’re gonna like whatever’s coming, but I got my boots on, so I’m as ready as ever I’ll be.”

Ben launched into year four. He stopped when he got to April. “Hey! Where’d the storms go?”

Shorty scratched his blond chin stubble. “Look, Ben. Pink blotches all over. Big time drought!”

They studied the wide belt of pink patches wrapping around the earth, extending from the equator thousands of miles north and south.

Ben waved a hand at the monitor. “Can this be right? Most of the world drying up?”

“Strangest drought pattern I’ve ever seen. Just about every last speck of wet weather’s moving to the polar regions.”

Ben checked worldwide ocean temperatures and currents, but all the normal indicators of an El Nino or oscillation effect were missing. This was something quite different. He clicked to five years out.

Shorty muttered, “Pink patches remind me of a gal I used to know wore polka dot underpants. But these blotches are humongous. Thousands of miles across.”

Ben ran the cursor up and down the screen. “General drought digging in between the fifty-degree parallels. Scattered exceptions.”

“Go out to years six and seven,” Shorty said. “See if the dang thing’s still there.”

Ben clicked and stared. “What do you make of this?”

Shorty craned his head over Ben’s shoulder. “Whoa there. Spots are a deeper red. Looks like the planet’s come down with a case of the measles.”

“Redder means hotter.” Ben switched to a blowup of North America, then zoomed in to a close-up of the red spot hovering over the plains states. He tweaked the focus and resolution, zoomed back out a little to make sure the boundaries of the area were clearly defined. Shorty hitched his chair up close. They stared at the screen a long time, bodies tense, thrust forward.

Finally Ben sagged back in his chair and looked at Shorty. “As bad as it looks?”

Shorty tucked his red western shirt into boot-cut jeans. He stretched to his full six foot five and bent down to look again. “All I can say is, this’s weirder than a cow with twelve tits.” He put his finger on the spot, then the projected date. “Is that what the simulation is telling us? This is the way things’ll be seven years from now?”

“Exactly. That’s what the model says.”

Shorty’s voice was uneasy. “I know this can happen on someplace like Jupiter. But here? On our own planet?”

Award-Winning Book Publicity Company Since 2007

VIRTUAL BOOK TOUR, BLOG TOUR & BOOK PUBLICITY ENDORSEMENTS: NICE THINGS PEOPLE SAY ABOUT PUMP UP YOUR BOOK

NEW! "Thank you Dorothy for a lovely tour! Thanks so much for the graphics and wonderful trailer!!"Avery Sterling, PRECIOUS BURDENS

"I just wanted to thank you for everything. You ARE the queen. Your are so personable and professional. Your graphics soared beyond. They are beautiful. It was a pleasure to work with you."Jude Hopkins, BABE IN THE WOODS

"THANK YOU for all of these graphics!!! That was a valuable added perk of working with you on the VBT! Thank you for all the work you put into those, and into the organization and follow-ups on the tour itself. It's been a pleasure working with you, Dorothy!"Allyson Rice, The Key to Circus-Mom Highway

"Oh, awesome!! Thank you so much! You ran such a lovely tour. Those images are great, I look forward to using them and will miss seeing the regular postings on Twitter ;-).
I really appreciate your steadfast and ongoing support. It means a lot!!"Palmer Pickering, MOON DEEDS

"Just wanted to send you a quick note to say thank you again for the amazing blog tour and to tell you that we will be adding the tour to Mark's author website in the next few days. We will of course be recommending your company to other authors we know. And when Mark's next book is out, we will use your services again." Kirsten Grenside on behalf of Mark Grenside, FALL OUT

"Thank you for all the great, creative, work you have done on behalf of my book. You are
a special lady, as a kind hearted woman and a professional."
Maria Andrade, DEFIANCE AND REDEMPTION

"Everyone did an excellent job. The blog pages were beautiful, and the trailer was so clever and funny. Thanks for sending these lovely "souvenirs" from my tour. I will be able to use all of these posts on Twitter. I enjoyed this so much and look forward to my next tour!"
Irene Woodbury, HONEYMOON ROULETTE

" I am delighted with the results of my recent tour with Pump Up Your Book. Dorothy is meticulous and professional, presents beautifully laid out pages, maintains constant contact with the client, and gives more than expected value for money. In a nutshell: you get what you pay for and more on top! I will certainly be using Dorothy’s services for my other Regency romance books.”
Arabella Sheraton, THE LORD BLACKWOOD REGENCY ROMANCE SERIES

"Thank you so much for The Shadow of Atlantis tour. I've really enjoyed all the posts and seeing my book being promoted. I will definitely come back to you with another of my titles!"
Wendy Leighton-Porter, THE SHADOW OF ATLANTIS

"Thank you so much for the great job on the book tour! Pump Up Your Book was a driving force in the launch of THE PILATE SCROLL!"
M.B. Lewis, THE PILATE SCROLL

"Thank you ever so much - it was a fun tour. I will continue singing your praises to my fellow authors. And grateful for the images, I will put them to continued use."
Kathleen Shaputis, HIS KILT DROPPED HERE

"I appreciate you and your hard work. Thank you for creating these awesome images for my book and allowing me to use them. I am very thankful to have them!"
Joni Ankerson, TO KILL OR BE KILLED

"Thank you for an Amazing Virtual Book Tour for Son of a Soldier! I really appreciate all the work you put into it!"
Aiken Brown, SON OF A SOLDIER

"Thanks so much for getting ANNA INCOGNITO out there and reviewed and shared with so many people. It was great to see it on so many twitter feeds!"
Laura Preble, ANNA INCOGNITO

"Thank you so much for such a fantastic tour! You did an amazing job getting it together so quickly, and I couldn’t have been happier!"
Lena Gregory, GRAVE CONSEQUENCES

"Thank you so much Dorothy! I appreciate your hard work. Love the graphics!"
Jennifer Chase, FLOWERS ON HER GRAVE

"This has been one of the best things I’ve done as an author. Not only am I getting the word out about my books but I’m learning about my own work and my readers along the way. I love it!"
Elysia Strife, A PROMISE IN ASH

"Today my blog tour ended, with another great review which made me end the tour with a big smile! What a fun way to end this incredible 4-week tour. I will surely miss it. I want to thank you for arranging it so well and for being there for me whenever I needed. Thank you!!!"

Miri Leshem-Pelly, SCRIBBLE & AUTHOR

"I think you did an excellent job last time, thank you!"
Shami Stovall, KNIGHTMARE ARCANIST

"Just wanted to thank you for the book tour. :) You did a great job. :)"
Suzanne M. Hurley, THE TEDDY BEAR EYE CLUB

"I just wanted to thank you for a wonderful virtual tour in August for Brimstone and Water. I was very happy with the amount of attention given to the book and to me. I am mentioning it to friends on line that haven't gone to the site yet to be sure and take a look. Thanks for all your work."
Sharon House, BRIMSTONE AND WATER

"Thank you for running my book promotion for BlackJack. I am so pleased with the reviews that came in and appreciated all you did. My sales have improved from being around 800,000 down to the 200,000 on Amazon and hopefully dropping still. I will definitely be contacting you for a promotion again."
Christine Donovan, BLACKJACK

"You’ve been a joy to work with, and I’d do another tour with you in a heartbeat. Overall, it was an excellent experience and a good value. I’ll be sure to look you up when it’s time to release my next book."
Michael Allan Scott, GREY DAZE

"Just wanted to thank you for putting together a great tour for You Won't Remember This. I think the author was pleasantly surprised and overall very pleased."
Bacon Press Books

"Dorothy, thanks so much for another great VBT!!! The Twitter-Party was a new feature this time that I particularly enjoyed. I will continue to recommend PUYB to my writer-friends, because you are simply the best!!!"
T.M. Wallace, WINTERGARDEN

"Thank you for a great blog tour for my “Depression and Your Child.”
I’m in the middle of my third book and will definitely call on you again when it’s time to market it."
Deborah Serani, DEPRESSION AND YOUR CHILD

"Your hard work and professionalism hasn't gone unnoticed. When I release my next novel(s), I will definitely use your service. I have already recommended you to several authors."
Ashley Fontainne, GROWL

"Thanks for a very good experience with Pump Up Your Book. Fighter Pilot's Daughter has sold out of the first printing (still available as POD on Rowman & Littlefield's site, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, etc.). My editor at R & L says there's a very good chance the book will come out in paperback in the summer. He asked me "Did you hire a publicist or something?" I told him about you, and he was impressed."
Mary Lawlor, FIGHTER PILOT'S DAUGHTER

"You are amazing Dorothy and I love what you do to get the spirit of our books out to the world. Thank you!"
Lee Papa, TEMPLE OF ALL KNOWING

"I can't believe the response this book is getting! I am so very thrilled that she liked it!!! You are THE BEST, Dorothy, for hooking up this amazing tour with all these stunning reviews! This was the book I was going to keep under my bed forever and ever and now WOW. I can't believe this is happening. It's like a dream come true!"
Madeline Wynn, DAUGHTER OF THE FALLEN

"Just wanted to say I'm appreciating your tweets so much. This is really helping my book sales, and I'm telling writer friends about you."
Mary Lawlor, FIGHTER PILOT'S DAUGHTER

"Thank you SO much!!!! I had a blast on the tour and appreciate all the time the bloggers and reviewers spent promoting Ash to Steele:)"
Karen-Anne Stewart, ASH TO STEELE

"When it comes to looking for a virtual book tour coordinator, Dorothy Thompson of Pump Up Your Book Tours is simply the best. I have tried several virtual book tour coordinators and have even set up a book tour on my own, but none of them were as successful as my tours with Pump Up Your Book Tour, which has the combination of expertise and experience needed to get the author the results they need. On this latest tour, TWELVE TO MURDER made it up to number three on Amazon! Thank you, Dorothy!"
Lauren Carr, Best-Selling Mystery Author of Mac Faraday, and Lovers in Crime, Mysteries

"Thank you again for all of your help and support for my recent book tour. You were so supportive and responsive, and I enjoyed working with you. It was a great tour and I really enjoyed it, especially when my book hit the top 100 in the two subcategories! That was awesome! Thanks for "pumping up my book!""
Monique Roy, ACROSS GREAT DIVIDES

"Thank you for another amazing tour, Dorothy!! I loved the sites I had an opportunity to visit and the people I met along the way. I even made a few new friends and found wonderful supporters that I'll never forget - I promise! The exposure you gave my book was absolutely unbelievable, and I can't think of a better way to welcome and expose an author's new creation to the literary world. Happy New Year to all your readers and may your success continue to grow. "
Kaylin McFarren, BURIED THREADS

"Thank you for a great virtual book tour. I thought it went really well and it was great to have a wave of PR that flowed through the two month period of my book release. I'm working on my next book - and will definitely reach out to you when it comes time to market! You were a delight to work with and really made me feel looked after. As I've mentioned before, I just don't know how you do it all."
--Deborah Serani, DEPRESSION AND YOUR CHILD

"I just wanted to let you know how wonderful I felt my book blast went for Be Careful What You Wish For in the month of August. So many emails and contacts that I would never have gotten. The publicity was just phenomenal!"
--R.K. Avery, BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR

"Just wanted to touch base with you and extend a huge thank you for the wonderful and successful book blast you arranged for Love Vindicated for me. I was very happy with your services and will be passing your name and brand along to some writer friends with a stellar recommendation. Again thanks and I look forward to working with you again in the future."
--Lila Munro, LOVE VINDICATED

"Thank you so much for all your hard work in putting together the virtual book tour for The Sixth Power. I appreciate it so much."
--Carol Nicolas, THE SIXTH POWER

"Thank you SO MUCH for such a great blog tour!"
--Sandra D. Bricker, ALWAYS THE BAKER, FINALLY THE BRIDE

"Wow - you are absolutely fantastic. Can't believe how lucky I was to find you :)"
--Jo Sparkes, THE BIRR ELIXIR

"I just wanted to let you know that tonight Steven Manchester's Twelve Months became The Story Plant's first #1 Kindle bestseller. This couldn't have happened without you. Barb's cover is an absolute showstopper, Sue's copyediting boosted the overall work, Jackie's proofreading kept all of us honest, and Tracee Gleichner's blog tour started what has become an avalanche of great reviews."
-- Lou Aronica, STORY PLANT

"Blog tours have been the most effective promotion I’ve done. Dorothy Thompson and her company Pump Up Your Book are the greatest. I’ve spent money with other promotion companies that advertised packages then didn’t deliver the service they advertised, inflated their audience and reach and point blank falsely represented themselves. Dorothy has been a Godsend, and by far, her services are the best promotional endeavors I’ve invested in thus far."
-- Alicia Singleton, DARK SIDE OF VALOR

"I didn't realize that there is a place on amazon that you can see your stats for foreign sales; mine are really good and I believe it is your tweeting service. I think I might have found the key to successful self-publishing when I found Pump Up Your Books."
-- Suzanne Jenkins, PAM OF BABYLON SERIES

"Dorothy Thompson helped promote my book, Gringos in Paradise: Our Honduras Odyssey. Taking part in it was so much easier (and less expensive) than the travel schedule I was hving to keep doing on my own. She set up everything, coached me through my part, and I found my book and I promoted it all over the Internet. It definitely increased my book sales."
-- Malana Ashlie, GRINGOS IN PARADISE

"Dorothy was not only a lot of fun to work with but she helped me get the word out about my book. I would recommend her to both debut and experienced authors."
---Deborah Woehr, PROSPERITY: A GHOST STORY

“Dorothy is a firecracker promoter. She is skilled at finding the most visible placements in promoting your book with unmatched enthusiasm.She is creatively talented and a wonderful person to have on your team.”
--Kathy Holmes Eckardt, REAL WOMEN WEAR RED

“I invested in a three month virtual book tour with Pump Up Your Books promotions for my noir thriller, Moonlight Falls. Not only did the marketing campaign work wonders for spreading the word about the new novel, in the very last month, on the very last day of the tour, Moonlight Falls became an Amazon Kindle bestseller!”
–Vincent Zandri, MOONLIGHT FALLS and THE REMAINS

“I’m so pleased every day when I look at Google Alerts and see our titles all around the blogosphere, so thanks for that!”
–-World Ahead Media

“This has been a wonderful experience. Dorothy Thompson and her whole team are very committed to each author, take each author’s tour very seriously, and work towards maximum exposure in the right places. This is the best book promotion expenditure I’ve made in terms of return on investment. I highly recommend Pump Up Your Book Promotion.”
--Phyllis Zimbler Miller, MRS: LIEUTENANT

"I used Pump Up Your Book promotions a few months ago for my novel, Nephilim. My publisher is a great person, but when it comes to promotions, she encourages authors to do that on their own. Enter Dorothy Thompson at Pump Up Your Book. I had 8 reviews of the book and was featured as a guest author every day of the week at various websites during the month that I used her company. Amazing! She secured everything for me which was really nice and I didn't have to do anything but write a few blogs or answer interview questions. I would use Pump Up Your Book again in a heart beat!"
--Mary Ann Loesch, NEPHILIM

Visit here to find out what others have to say!

Follow Us!

Click on image to see who’s touring in November!

Book Mockup Graphics for $49!

Click on image to find out more!

PUYB Book Trailer of the Week

The Death of the Kremlin Czar by Jorg H. Trauboth

Question of the Day

How do you make sales happen for you?

A lot of hard work! I sponsor a lot of on line parties, festivals and contests. Book sales don’t magically happen, believe me. An author has to work hard to earn her readers. And then she has to work hard to keep them by giving them something they’ll enjoy reading. I try hard to make my books worth a reader’s time.

-- Sheila Roberts, Author of Winter at the Beach