Jack Chaucer's Blog - Posts Tagged "frozen"

Here's my first stab at a book blurb for my upcoming novel, "Nikki White: Polar Extremes," the third book in the Nikki series ...

NIKKI WHITE: POLAR EXTREMES
By Jack Chaucer
Coming in 2017

When Nikki Janicek sprints from the 200-degree sauna out into the 100-below darkness wearing nothing but bunny boots, at least she's not alone.
She already has survived months of solitary confinement, a forced swim with sharks and a scary journey to the South Pole. Now she's a member of The 300 Club, an exclusive group of people on the planet who have endured a 300-degree temperature swing in a matter of seconds.
It's all part of her training for a six-person, one-way mission to Mars.
Nikki wants to go, but not with The Bridge -- a space-obsessed company that abducts, controls and violates people.
She wants to take a stand.
She wants to free her father, her former lover and herself.
And she'll do it with the help of the young man who shot her seven years ago.
It's a previously inconceivable alliance, bonded by polar extremes.

The sea gulls taunted me with their freedom.
They had it and I didn’t. And they could fly anywhere, but no, they had to show off, shrieking at me as they cruised alongside the boat.

-- the opening lines from my upcoming novel, "Nikki White: Polar Extremes" (Nikki #3) ... final edits are under way!!

“Why Antarctica?” Thomas asked.

Peter gazed at him like a lost sheep that had returned to the flock, and seemed to relish the question for a moment.

“Because she’s like an alien world,” he said. “Because parts of her are cold and dry like Mars, and because whatever baggage you arrive there with will be blown away forever. Antarctica will change you … for the best. She’s the perfect reboot for the soul.”

Excerpt from Nikki White: Polar Extremes (Nikki, #3)
... coming 3-24-17... when the sun sets at the South Pole for six long, dark, frigid months

“Wake up sleeping beauty over there. You two have 10 minutes to strap on your full winter gear and meet me at the beer can exit,” Willem said.

“Speaking of beer cans, she’s pretty wasted,” Thomas pointed out.

“I’m not worried about that. Antarctica will sober her up in a fucking hurry. And we’re about to find out in the next couple of hours whether you two belong here or in a body bag! Now get moving!” he shouted.

-- from the upcoming YA-NA-sci-fi novel "Nikki White: Polar Extremes" (Nikki, #3)

CHAPTER 24: SHOCK
Nikki
February 20, 2020

One thing you learn pretty quickly at the South Pole, especially after coming inside from the outside, is to reduce your static charge as you walk around the station. If you don’t regularly touch something metal, the next door knob you grab will give you a serious, painful shock.

Then there’s the other kind of shock: the one when you turn a corner and see two people embracing who you never could’ve imagined doing so.

I slowed myself to all but motionless when I saw Thomas, of all people, hesitantly hugging the sobbing sea hag, Ina, in the hallway outside the communications room — one of several places Willem had denied us Martian trainees/abductees access to for obvious reasons.

“What happened?” I asked.

“ISIS,” Thomas said, barely even looking at me as Ina stepped back from him and wiped her wrinkled face with a shriveled-up tissue.

It was just stunning for me to see her show a vulnerable side for once.

“What about ISIS?” I asked.

“Double suicide bombings in Berlin and D.C. at the same time,” Thomas said.

Ina resumed sobbing and stumbled down the hall, her normally sturdy frame crushed inward from grief.

“Her twin brother got killed in Berlin,” Thomas added when she was out of earshot. “She said Peter emailed the station to let her know.”

“And she turned to you for comfort?”

He shrugged and looked down. He seemed embarrassed, an equally rare sight.

“She was just bawling and I was the first person she ran into. I asked her what was wrong and she told me. It’s hard to understand her, but I’m pretty sure she said thousands killed.”

I shook my head and tried to reconcile the irony of a former wannabe mass killer being the messenger at a time like this, but I could not.

With or without us, the cruel world we left behind carried on just the same. More senseless killing, every minute of every day, somewhere.

For a brief moment, I appreciated the isolation of Antarctica, even beside the likes of Thomas.

“And what do you think of ISIS?” I heard myself ask him without thinking.

He smirked, like he knew something no normal person could appreciate.

“Today is 02-20-2020 … that ain’t no coincidence. What’s your twenty? Two twenty — two locations they bombed at the same time. Fucking towel heads got a way with numbers and shit,” Thomas said before walking down the hall and leaving my head spinning.

I guess all killers think alike.

"I hate the way The Bridge shuffles the deck like we’re a bunch of playing cards. I also hate the way they switch out who’s dealing. It used to be Virgil trying to control me and Adam and Bill. Then it was David. Then it was Peter, who also flipped the Thomas card over on the table just to screw with me.
Now it’s Willem’s turn as dealer, with an assist from Ina and the cold, isolating bitch that is Antarctica."

– Nikki in Chapter 21: Card Trick from the novel “Nikki White: Polar Extremes” (Nikki, #3), coming 3-24-17

Request the ARC and I shall approve you, my Goodreads pals!

Best,
Jack

https://s2.netgalley.com/publisher/ti...