Holly Hook's Blog, page 4

Here’s the first chapter of Twisted…

Chapter One  

My very first tornado touches the grass of the plains.

I stand next to the van, mouth dropping open, heart pounding.  It’s the moment I’ve been waiting for, saved money for, begged my uncle to book us for the Wild Weather Storm Chasing Tours for.

Uncle Cassius swears next to me, equally in awe.  It barely cuts over the wind rushing towards the distant funnel.  Waves of grass bow down to the twister, whipped down by the surrounding air flying in to feed it.  The perfect white cone stands out against the coal sky, slim and graceful.  A skirt of dust spins around its base, signaling its dance through a field a few miles away.

“Beautiful!”  Kyle, our storm chaser guide, snaps a photo for his website.  He steals a glance at me and smiles.  He’s all enthusiasm, joy that we’ve found our prey. “Don’t worry.  We’re safe.  It’s heading to the east.  It’ll pass no closer than a couple of miles to our north.”

I want his job someday.

“I’m not scared,” I said, but my shaky voice betrays me.  Who am I kidding?  Kyle’s an experienced chaser–twenty years–but this is a real tornado.  In person.  Live.  I never realized it would be this intense, this breathtaking.  A hollow feeling fills my stomach like I’m plunging down the first hill of a roller coaster.

The tornado curves, almost like it’s leaning to the side for a better look at something.  At us?  It’s a silly thought, one that makes me laugh.  The thunderstorm spins slowly above it, low and menacing.  Thunder claps.  It’s enough to remind me that the storm in front of me isn’t just beautiful.  It’s a predator, entrancing like a cobra and ready to strike.

Good thing there’s no houses or buildings in its way.  Only farmland stretches from horizon to horizon.

“Allie.  Forget your camera?”  Uncle Cassius slaps me on the arm, smiling.  It’s a tense smile.  So I’m not the only one with some nerves going.

Camera.

Yes.  Duh.

I pull it out of my pocket and fumble with the slim case, fingers hunting for the button.  The camera zings to life.  Behind it, the tornado looms a bit larger, gaining strength and racing across the ground.  More dust kicks up around the perfect white of the twister.

“Now I can really prove to everyone at school how crazy I am.”  I give Uncle Cassius a nervous chuckle.  The camera trembles in my hands as I catch the tornado in my view, click, and seal it in my memory forever.

I’m having the most insane summer vacation of my entire high school.

I lift the camera for another shot, backing up to squeeze the tornado into the viewport.  I click another picture and lowered the camera again for another look.

My heart jumps.

The tornado looms larger, taller.  Kyle holds his hand up to his face, squinting for a better view.  Even Uncle Cassius goes quiet, stiffening and taking a step back towards the tour van.

All at once I understand.

The tornado has changed course.

Kyle turns.  Real fear widens his features.

“Get in the van,” he shouts.

* * * * *

The one big thing I can recall from those first ten seconds is the roar, like a distant train growing closer.  The wind whips my hair back, trying to pull me back out of the van.  It feels like the twister’s right behind me already, coming down for the kill.

I slam the door on it.  The funnel’s much bigger behind the glass, so much that I can’t see the top of it anymore.

Uncle Cassius snaps on his seat belt next to me.  Kyle starts it up, punches the gas, and gets us back on the road to nowhere.

I toss my camera to the floor.  My hands fumble with the seat belt.  The van speeds up, slamming me into the seat.  The specter of the tornado closes in, whipping across the field towards us.  I’ve heard of tornadoes making sudden turns like this but I never realized it could happen this fast.  It rips across the field, coming straight at us.  My heart beats on a runaway course.  My mind locks into overdrive.  I feel like that news crew they always have on tornado shows, that one that survived by hiding under that overpass.  Will Kyle make us get out and climb under one?  They’re actually bad places to hide.  That news crew got off lucky.  Kyle knows better.  He’s been chasing storms longer than I’ve been alive.

Only green and yellow spreads out ahead.  No shelter for miles.  Worse, no ditches.  The radar on Kyle’s laptop is covered in ugly red and orange blotches like Nebraska has sores.

A hole of panic opens up inside me and for the first time, I regret coming on this vacation.

“Can’t you go faster?”  Uncle Cassius leans forward in his seat, gaze hard, arms trembling.

Uncle Cassius never loses his cool.

Ever.

Not even when I accidentally set his Persian rug on fire when I was seven and broke my arm at the age of nine.

Outside, the tornado grows so close that I could only see the bottom half of the funnel.  The van bounces along every speed bump on the highway, every uneven spot.  My stomach heaves.  I’m going to be sick right here.  It’s my stupid fault we’re in this mess.

“I don’t understand.”  Kyle punches the gas harder, making the van jump.  He turns his head like Linda Blair in the Exorcist, eyes widening.  “The tornado should not be moving this way.”

He’s right.  It shouldn’t.  But it is.

The funnel reaches the road behind us, twisting harder, kicking up earth higher and higher.  We’ve gotten out in front of it.  I breathe a sigh of relief.  Kyle and Uncle Cassius do the same.  It’ll cross the road and forget all about us.

Kyle lets off the gas a little and the whine of the engine calms some.  “We’re safe now.  That was highly unusual.  I’ve never seen a tornado turn like that in my career.”  There’s a hint of an apology in his voice.

“Well, that was a close one, wasn’t it, Allie?”  Uncle Cassius hugs me from the side.

“Yeah,” I say, willing my heart to slow down.  At least I can think straight now.  Can I even do another two days of this?

Wow, what a dumb idea this was.

But I still can’t resist another look at the storm.  I turn as far as my seat belt allows.

My guts fall out of me all over again.

The tornado’s still on the road, bigger than ever.  It can’t be.

The twister has turned again.  It’s coming right up behind us.  Rolling dust eats the entire highway.  There’s tornado taking up the whole view of the back window.  Dust rips to the sides.  The bottom of its funnel spins with fury, big enough to swallow a house whole.  Its roar screams against the outside of the van, shaking the seat, pushing the whole van to the side.

It’s no longer beautiful.

“Ohmigod,” I say, sucking in a breath.  “Um…Kyle?  Stomp on the gas.  Just saying.”

“I know!” he snaps.  His knuckles turn white on the steering wheel.  The van lurches again but he maintains control.

“Allie, get down!”  Uncle Cassius puts his huge hand on my back and pushes me towards the floor.  The seat belt cuts into my throat.

What good is it going to do?  If the tornado lifts the car–

I’m going to die.

I begged to go on this trip and now Uncle Cassius is going to die too.

The windows shatter with a deafening boom and the wind screams in my ears.  AllieAllieAllieAllie…

I can’t breathe.

We’re floating.

Uncle Cassius shouts something.  Kyle yells.  If I’m screaming, I can’t tell.  The storm’s sucking it right out of me.  Windy hands seize my arms, my legs.

They pull.

My safety belt snaps, whipping against my leg.  I cry out with the sting.  The seat disappears under me.

I’m flying.

The tornado’s ripping me right out of the van.

The world turns to a white and brown roar.  The van’s gone.  I have no time to cry out to Uncle Cassius before the world snaps to black and silence takes the place of all.

Yes, It Will Be a Trilogy

I’ve just passed the 40K mark for Twisted this week.  I’m coming to realize that not everything in the story is going to be resolved in this book, or even in two books.  There’s just too much going on.  So yes, Twisted will be the first book of the Deathwind Trilogy.

I’m very much enjoying the writing of this book and it’s turning out better than I thought it would.  I’ve been fascinated by severe weather, especially tornadoes, since junior high.  (Maybe that’s why only my disaster books have seen any kind of success so far in terms of sales.)  And if you don’t know, I’ve posted the first chapter of Twisted in the backs of all the Destroyers Books.  But don’t worry if you have older copies of the Destroyers books.  I’m going to post the first chapter here this weekend, most likely on Saturday.

 

 

First Teaser for Twisted…

Tonight, I’m going to go ahead and release the first teaser for my Destroyers Series spin-off, Twisted.  This novel takes place a few years after Ancient, the last book of the series.  Although I’m not positive yet, it looks like Twisted might end up being the first book of a trilogy.  I’ll release a part of Chapter One next week, so stay tuned!

Twisted (A Destroyers Novel)

Sixteen-year-old Allie isn’t like other girls.  Instead of spending her summer break sitting around on the beach, she takes the epic vacation of a lifetime.

Tornado chasing.

And she’s not disappointed.  Just a few miles from the town of Evansburg, Nebraska, Allie meets her dream of seeing a tornado.  In person.  She can’t wait to tell her friends back home.  Never mind that her parents are going to kill her.

But her dream soon turns into a nightmare, and a strange event leaves her shocked.  Confused.  When she returns home to Wisconsin, something’s…different.  Allie now bears a curse so awful, it could destroy everyone and everything she’s ever known.

With her best friend, Tommy, Allie must return to the plains to find a way to reverse it.  She enters a world that she had never imagined, where she becomes a pawn in a fight to save the people of Evansburg from her fate…or to destroy them.

Lots of News

I know that it’s been a long time since I’ve posted last, but I’ve been very busy with a lot of projects.

If you look at the top of the page, there is now a way for everyone to get my upcoming book, Twisted, for free when it comes out.  It’s going to be out near the end of the year and takes place a couple of years after the end of the Destroyers Series.  Just go HERE to find out what to do.

All you need to do is write a review for any one of my books that’s on Amazon.com or Barnes and Noble and sign up for my newsletter.  Then fill out that form and I’ll get your email address.  You’ll be added to my list to get Twisted when it comes out.  And the review you write doesn’t have to be 5 stars if it’s not your honest opinion.  It just needs to be a review!

Right now, the book I need reviews on the most is my Destroyers Omnibus.  If you’ve bought the Omnibus or read the entire Destroyers Series, you can review this book.  The Omnibus is just a collection of all five Destroyers books.  You don’t need to buy it if you’ve already bought the other books in the series.

If you’re interested in getting the Omnibus, it’s available on the Amazon sites, Kobo and Barnes and Noble for $8.99, which is cheaper than buying the whole series by 3 dollars.  I’m fighting working with Smashwords to get it into the Apple store as well, but it’s taking a while due to them not wanting to accept the cover that I have for the other sites.  Hopefully, they’ll take this one, though I won’t know for a few days:

New Upcoming Books and Progress Bars

This week, after taking a little bit of time off from intense writing, I’ve started two new books.

The first, Evolve, is the beginning of a new series, and I’ve only started writing the first chapter.  The idea is so new that I’m not even sure where the story is going to go, but I have a very vague idea.  I’ll have more ideas on this book as I progress through it.

As for the second one…

Twisted is based on a strange dream that I had two nights ago.  When I woke from this dream (which was about one of the disasters from the Destroyers Series) I just knew that I had to turn it into a novel.   It’ll be taking place some time after the end of the Destroyers Series, but it will be in the same universe.  The concept will be a bit different, but there will be a reason for this, of course.  I’m already about 3 chapters in after about a day of typing, with the first two chapters being events from my dream.  A break must have done me good, because I am very enthusiastic about this book and ready to go again.  I expect I’ll have it done fairly quickly depending on edits and re-writes.

I have to warn you, though: the dream was pretty weird.

Also expect an omnibus for the Destroyers Series to come out later this year.  As soon as I learn how to put all five books together and make a decent table of contents, I’ll get one out.

Ancient (Destroyers, Book Five) Now Released

Sorry about posting this so late in the day, but my work won’t let me out until 6PM.  The book just went live on Barnes and Noble and Amazon.  Links are below.

With the insane goddess Andrina on the loose, Janelle and her friends have no choice but to seek out Huracan, the ancient Mayan god of storms, to combat her. But their solution could lead to more problems than they ever anticipated… Told from the point of view of five different characters, this is the conclusion to the Destroyers Series.

Barnes and Noble

Amazon

Ancient (Destroyers, Book Five) Nearing Completion

At last, I’ve started on the climax for the fifth and final Destroyers book.

I’m perhaps a week from writing the final sentence of the series.  Of course, I’m also editing as there is still much to do in that department.  That’s where the bulk of the work lies.

It’s been different working with the points of view of five different characters.  Ancient will certainly be the most complex book of the series.

In other news, the entire Destroyers series will be getting new covers, hopefully at the time that I release Ancient.  I have hired Robin Ludwig Designs for the makeover, which promises to be excellent.  I’ve seen the general idea of what the new covers will be, and have to say I am very impressed.  If you want to check out some of their great work, it’s here: http://coversbyrobin.deviantart.com/gallery/41584233

If you want to know exactly when Ancient is released, you can sign up for my mailing list HERE:

http://wordpress.us6.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=8696a40cb388cfc9f1421d292&id=2e2b7ac94d

2:20 Now Available

2:20 is now available at all eBook stores with the exception of Apple and Kobo, but those will be coming very soon.

When a date to the dance goes wrong, Julia learns that her past may not be what she thought. The mystery deepens when Simon shows up and claims they shared that past together–in another time–and warns that a powerful force wants to send her back. Julia finds herself growing closer and closer to Simon as she works to unravel her true past. Unfortunately, both he and the truth may kill her.

Amazon.com

Barnes and Noble

Smashwords

2:20 is Finally Done!

With much help from the Flint Area Writers’ group, I have at last wrapped up the edits for 2:20.  I will begin submitting it at midnight, with the hope that it will become available later on tomorrow.

If you haven’t signed up for my newsletter yet, be sure to click the link in the upper right hand corner of the screen and do so!  You’ll get a notice every time I release a book.

I will also post purchase links here as they become available, which is likely to happen tomorrow evening.

Release Dates

 

Okay, so both books won’t be out at the exact same time, but they’ll be pretty close.

The actual writing of 2:20 is done, but there is still much editing to do.  I’ve been focusing on that for the past few weeks.  I’m also still writing Ancient, which is mostly done but will need more editing than I can do in the next couple of weeks.  I hated to push the date back, but I don’t want to put out a book that’s not ready.  As this is the end of this series, I want to make sure everything is tied up nicely…sort of.

(There just might be more books about the Tempests and Outbreakers and other walking disasters in the future.  Did I mention that just now?  Oops.)