Tom Hobbs's Blog, page 18

Gifted, A Donovan Circus Novel

[image error]

 

 

 

 

 

Even in a world of freaks, being a Firestarter is considered a dangerous Gift.

Lucy was born with the ability to create and control fire. She longs to leave the human world for one filled with Earthshakers, Transporters, and Chameleons, to name a few. When she rejoins the circus, it’s everything she hoped it could be—new friends, a potential love interest or two, and a place where she can be herself.

When troupe members begin turning up dead, however, Lucy is suspected of foul play. She must not only prove her innocence but also realize the full extent of her power. To find the real murderer, she must uncover the truth behind her father’s fiery legacy while figuring out whom to trust within her new circle. Little does she know the history of the Donovan Circus and its enemies might actually destroy the entire gifted world.

Every Child

[image error]

 

 

 

 

 

Every Child is a fascinating account of endurance, struggle, romance and love lost, existing after seventy-two years of contemplation. It is written from the memories of the authorRuby Diana—who became Ward of the State as an infant and placed in Foster Care. She remained in the State System until she turned eighteen.

Every US state, every Social Worker, every Child Care provider, every parent, should find Every Child not only fascinating, but used as a guideline for caring for all children who do not have a voice.

Every child must, and should be, protected at all times. Divorce or separation can no longer be an excuse for not loving, caring, and providing for a child. Parents’ have an obligation to support, love, and genuinely care for the children they produce. When they cannot do this, then their children have the right to be adopted after a certain amount of time passes; not sent from foster home to foster home.

A truly remarkable, engaging story, Every Child keeps the reader wanting to know what happens to this child along the way.

KISSED BY AN ANGEL

[image error]

 

 

 

 

 

Kristi Harrison loved her job as a flight attendant for Worldwide Airlines until a crash killed her fiancee and her best friend. Unable to deal with survivor’s guilt, she escaped to a friend’s beach house in Florida were she hoped to find the one thing that had eluded her for the past six months…peace.

When nightmares drove her from her bed, she sought the quiet of the moonlit beach. It was there that Scott Sanders, driven by his own midnight demons, first met her. He was living in his own hell, trying to deal with a plane crash in the jungles of Vietnam that has taken his best friend and RIO…while Scott was the pilot.

They had both been kissed by the angel of death and survived. Together they learn how to forgive without forgetting and how to move forward and learn to celebrate life.

REVIEWS:

Romantic Times 4+. “The strong plotting, the rich characterization, the intense emotional atmosphere are all simply outstanding. Bravo!”

Romantic Times Special Achievement Award of “Series WISH Hero for Cmdr. Scott Sanders” Best hero of the year.

Waldenbooks Lovenotes Recommended Book

USA Weekend Recommended Book

NOTE FROM AUTHOR: As I wrote Kissed by an Angel, the character of Kahuna kept bugging me to give him a book of his own which became Phantom Angel. While writing that book, I realized I wasn’t quite finished with the Angel series and Angel of Mercy was born. These three books sprung full-blown out of my subconscious and practically wrote themselves. I felt like I was merely a conduit for the characters who were desperate to have their voices heard.

As I have put my other books up on Kindle and other ebook formats, I have updated them to present day. But the Vietnam War was a vital element in the Angel series, so I kept these three books in that timeline…not quite historical…but not quite current either. I believe they are strong, complex stories that will remain timeless about a subject and a generation that cannot and should not be forgotten.

The Spook House

[image error]

 

 

 

 

 

 

After seeing God and then the Devil, Jacob Abrams makes a decision: No more drugs. Fresh out of high school, Abrams decides to join the Army, thinking it would be a good new beginning. He’s wrong.

After some serious screw-ups, Abrams gets transferred to a base in the middle of nowhere where he is trained to do dangerous house-to-house searches. As a final exam, he and his team are ordered to sweep and clear what appears to be a stereotypical “haunted house.” Trapped inside, he realizes to his horror why he and these men were chosen for this mission – The Army expects no one to get out of this house alive.

Shattered (Donna Harp Series)

[image error]

 

 

 

 

 

After the grisly discovery of a mutilated body, the small community of Greenville is held in the terrifying grip of a serial killer.

Author Jason Denton immediately falls under suspicion, and while Sergeant Underwood is determined to prove his guilt, no matter how he has to do it, the relatives of those being killed aren’t so keen to wait for justice.

Caught in the middle is Donna Harp, a young constable partnered with the sergeant. She isn’t convinced the author is guilty, and is determined to catch the killer, whoever he may be, but is she being swayed by Denton’s charm?

A VILLAGE IN TERROR, A KILLER ON THE LOOSE, AN AUTHOR LOOKING FOR HIS NEXT BESTSELLER. IS THERE A CONNECTION?

Includes the bonus short, Lauren’s Nightmare, and a preview of my scifi adventure, A Brother’s Debt.

 

CONNECTED

[image error]

 

 

 

 

 

 

Brief Synopsis

CONNECTED is a speculative fiction thriller with touches of science and philosophy, which reached No.1 in Amazon UK’s Bestseller lists for both Thrillers and Science Fiction within 5 days of release.

Beginning with the funeral of a renowned classical violinist in a sleepy rural hamlet in the Lake District, a former theoretical physicist tries to make sense of his brother’s suicide. Across the country, a university student, enjoying the unexpected attentions of an enigmatic seductress, is disturbed when his best friend falls to his death from the thirteenth floor of a neighbouring campus tower block.

As each tries to unravel the mystery behind the apparent suicides, they are drawn into an obsessive search for a computer-generated fractal video sequence, with startling effects on human consciousness, and which might just pave the way for discovery of the ultimate Theory of Everything.

However, they are not the only ones to have seen the potential of this mind-altering video, and soon find themselves in a desperate race against time with gangsters from the shadowy worlds of sex, drugs, cyber-crime, and massively multi-player on-line gaming.



Science Content

Although, as the reviews testify, CONNECTED has been enjoyed by many with no background in computer science, Mandelbrot Fractal geometry, string theory, quantum physics or brain science, those with some interest or knowledge in these areas seem to have particularly enjoyed the book.

One reason for this appears to be that most of these references are actually based on fact. Of course, some readers have preferred to skim these sections, and claim that this did not detract from the story. Others have appreciated the scientific detail and fidelity, and some have even thanked the author for explaining such things in a way that enabled them to learn something new.

Philosophy, Science and Religion

Although CONNECTED is mostly enjoyed as a fast-paced mystery thriller, it is also, to a limited extent, about the inevitable conflict between science and religion. The two main male protagonists happen to be atheist, and some of the dialogue explores the different thoughts and attitudes concerning some of life’s deeper questions. These include the origins of the universe, the nature of consciousness, and whether there could be life after death. Again these philosophical references to faith and atheism are few, and mostly quite short, but all are crucial to the story.

Setting and slang

CONNECTED is a contemporary novel, set entirely in England. As the story unfolds through two converging plot threads, the action switches between a fictitious village in the Lake District, the University of Essex in Colchester (an old Roman town about 60 miles north-east of London), Bracknell (a newer suburban town some 40 miles west of London), and North London.

Consequently, there is some British slang and occasional use of bad language (e.g. a few instances of the F-word etc.) in keeping with the age and background of the characters.

Why Connected?

Years ago, while the author was at university, a fellow student had a breakdown and was admitted to the local psychiatric hospital. A few, who knew him well, went to visit and reported that he’d subsequently lost the plot and was gabbling incomprehensibly of having found the answer to life, the universe and everything.

While most people seemed consumed with sadness and pity at this, the author’s first thought was, “What if he really had discovered some universal truth?” Although never seriously believing that he had, it was on that day that the seed of an idea lodged in his young brain – a seed that years later would germinate into the drafting of the first three chapters of CONNECTED from a cabin in the French Alps.

For more details, please visit the author’s website.

Tollesbury Time Forever (FRUGALITY – Book 1)

[image error]

 

 

 

 

 

 

Winner of the 2012 IBB Best Overall Book Award and Best Psychological Fiction Award



Tollesbury Time

Nothing is real

And there’s nothing

To get hung about

sing the children…

In September 2008 I accompanied the police as they entered a house in Tollesbury. I was a psychiatric nurse at the time. The owner of the house was one of my patients. He had not been seen for two weeks – neither had his wife or his son.

What I saw that evening will stay with me forever. On the walls of the lounge, in tiny, neat black writing, were thousands and thousands of words. The torch beams picked them out as if they were groups of well-ordered flies. The words continued up the stairway, onto the landing walls and into the main bedroom. I had been in the house before and had seen some of the writing upstairs. Still I was mesmerised.

What you are about to read are the words that I saw on those walls…

Tollesbury Time

Nothing is real

And there’s nothing

To get hung about…

ARAM (Deliverance Trilogy)

[image error]

 

 

 

 

 

Aram is a man who wants to start his life over but he must deal with his haunting past, a lost wife and son and a discontented clan. He must accept the choice he has made in a new wife and face a mysterious beast which pursues him through a dangerous terrain. While keeping his people safe against all odds he encounters a new land beside a beautiful lake and there he finds his first real sense of security and joy. Unexpectedly, he finds that he is in the midst of a battleground where an innocent clan is about to be annihilated and he must decide if he and his people will become involved. In the greatest battle of his life he must face his haunting past, turn a young pagan from his father’s evil ways, and forge a new hope for future generations.

Swan

[image error]

 

 

 

 

 

 

From the beginning Madeline’s life was a narrative of disappointment and broken dreams. Plump, plain and past her sell by date, happiness and hope were no longer part of her vocabulary. But one day like a bolt from the blue, destiny delivers a massive dose of compensation in the form of David Powell, her strange and elusive neighbour. From the moment they meet, Madeline is plunged into a world of excitement and intrigue where nothing is what it seems. This classic reversal of fortune tale reminds us that ultimately life is a mystery, perfectly able to demolish and reconfigurate even the most hopeless situations.

The Last Confession

[image error]

 

 

 

 

 

 

A New York mobster on his deathbed. A priest struggling to make things right. A policeman facing a tough choice. THE LAST CONFESSION is a great Mafia tale of betrayal, revenge and justice.

The bonus content includes the prologue and the first four chapters of ARCTIC WARGAME, the first book in the wildly popular Justin Hall spy thriller series. It also includes the prologue and the first four chapters of TRIPOLI’S TARGET, the second book in this series, which came out in October 2012. Both thrillers hit the Amazon’s Top 10 Best Sellers lists in 2012 and 2013.