VBT – IF THE LIGHT ESCAPES
If The Light Escapes
by Brenda Marie Smith
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GENRE: Sci-fi (post-apocalyptic)
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BLURB:
A standalone sequel to IF DARKNESS TAKES US
A solar electromagnetic pulse fried the U.S. grid fourteen months ago. Everything’s gone: power, cars, running water, communications, all governing control and help—gone. Now northern lights have started in Texas—3,000 miles farther south than where they belong. The universe won’t stop screwing with eighteen-year-old Keno Simms.
All that’s left for Keno, his family and neighbors is farming their Austin subdivision, trying to eke out a living on poor soil in the scorching heat. Keno’s still reeling from the the death of his pregnant sister. His beloved Nana is ill, Grandpa’s always brandishing weapons, and water is far too scarce. Desperate thieves are hemming them in, yet he can’t convince his uncle and other adults to take action against the threat.
Keno’s one solace is his love for Alma, who has her own secret sorrows. When he gets her pregnant, he vows to keep her alive no matter what. Yet armed marauders and nature itself collude against him at every turn, forcing him to make choices that rip at his conscience. If he can’t protect Alma and their unborn child, it will be the end of Keno’s world.
IF THE LIGHT ESCAPES is post-apocalyptic science fiction set in a near-future reality, a coming-of-age story told in the voice of a heroic teen who’s forced into manhood too soon.
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EXCERPT
OPENING LINES:
Bright green lights stream and pulse across the northern sky all night now, growing from thin and wispy to bold and fat, expanding, contracting, sending out bands of yellow streamers like they’re partying on ecstasy at some cosmic rave. The lights are pretty, and they’re hypnotic, and they creep me out to the core.
Northern lights every night for two solid weeks in Texas. Halfway to the equator from where they belong. They’re supposed to be a phenomenon tied to the magnetic poles—it’s a scientific fact.
Nothing is right about this. The only explanation I can think of is that the north and south poles are shifting. I don’t know what that means for the planet and the future of its creatures. We don’t have TVs or talking-head scientists to tell us…
The universe just won’t stop f**king with us.
Today, I’m hoeing corn in our front yard, sweat stinging my eyes. It’s blistering hot out here—early December in what used to be high-tech Austin, until the … sun zapped us with an electromagnetic pulse and took our power, our cars, the damned running water. It stopped pretty much everything—everything modern, that is.
It’s been fourteen months, and all the front yards in our subdivision are mini-cornfields now. We grow beans and veggies in the backyards. It’s a desperate attempt to keep us alive when our food stockpiles run out. Don’t know if it will work, but I’m doing my damnedest to make sure it does.
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2018-10-18_Brenda Marie Smith
AUTHOR Bio and Links:
Brenda Marie Smith lived off the grid for many years in a farming collective where her sons were delivered by midwives. She’s been a community activist, managed student housing co-ops, produced concerts to raise money for causes, done massive quantities of bookkeeping, and raised a small herd of teenage boys.
Brenda is attracted to stories where everyday characters transcend their own limitations to find their inner heroism. She and her husband reside in a grid-connected, solar-powered home in South Austin, Texas. They have more grown kids and grandkids than they can count.
Her first novel, Something Radiates, is a paranormal romantic thriller; If Darkness Takes Us and its sequel, If the Light Escapes, are post-apocalyptic science fiction.
Social Media:
Website: https://brendamariesmith.com/
Twitter: @bsmithnovelist
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BrendaMarieSmithAuthor
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brenda_marie_smith/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJlLSnORIyoaygvZ1j49ZKw
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/52206957-if-darkness-takes-us
Buy links:
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Darkness-Takes-Brenda-Marie-Smith-ebook/dp/B07WK9BQHN/
Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/if-darkness-takes-us-brenda-marie-smith/1133374442?ean=9781970137835
BookPeople Austin: https://www.bookpeople.com/book/9781970137835
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RAFFLECOPTER GIVEAWAY
One randomly chosen winner via rafflecopter will win a $50 Amazon/BN.com gift card.
Enter to win a $50 Amazon/BN GC – a Rafflecopter giveaway
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Q & A With …
Do you ever wish you were someone else? Who?
I’d like to be a better version of myself—someone who has aged better than I have, who is more present and more helpful to my loved ones. I’d like to have better health so I could go out and meet more of my readers, have book events, visit friends and family, cook healthy meals, play ball with my grandkids, travel, and host lots of parties, large and small.
What did you do on your last birthday?
I was in the middle of a stylistic edit for If the Light Escapes, and I was on a tight deadline. So, I kept right on editing on my birthday, and postponed the celebrations for two weeks—until the edit was out the door. Then my kiddos came to visit me on the back patio at a distance, and my son and his girlfriend made the family’s 5-generation strawberry cake. It was delicious, I got some lovely gifts, but mostly I enjoyed my kids. And I did get some sweet phone calls and messages on the actual day.
What part of the writing process do you dread?
Ha! All of it? I don’t know if “dread” is the best word, but I do have anxiety over every bit of it from the first word on the page, to the critiques and edits, to the publication and marketing. It’s really a mix of excitement and anxiety that gets me too riled-up for my own good. I’m anxious about my story choices, my word choices, the punctuation, but mostly about my ability to tell a clear and compelling story with the depth I want it to have. Probably the most dread-inducing part is waiting for and receiving the first developmental edit from the publisher and wondering if I will be up to the task. Also, not fond of multi-tasking.
Do you ever suffer from writer’s block? If so, what do you do about it?
I get stumped sometimes on where I should take the story next, or on what story I want to start writing, what to add, what to cut, how to fill a plot hole. I usually make some notes, and then I spend a lot of time thinking, staring out windows, noodling around on the computer, reading other books, watching TV. I find if I take my mind off the problem, the answers usually bubble up. More often than not, I just start writing anyway, realizing that I may have to throw away a lot of it, but it will get my juices flowing.
Tell us about your latest release.
If the Light Escapes is a post-apocalyptic science-fiction thriller and a standalone sequel to If Darkness Takes Us. An electromagnetic pulse from the sun has fried the entire U.S. grid, and these books focus on a family’s struggle to survive without power, cars, communications, or running water in an Austin, Texas subdivision.
While If Darkness was written from a grandmother’s point of view, If the Light is told in the voice of her grandson, 18-year-old Keno Simms. He’s grappling with grief and family turmoil, he has to farm the yards of the neighborhood to grow their food, and outsiders pose threat after threat. His one solace is his love for Alma, and when he gets her pregnant, he vows to keep her alive if he has to die to do it. But nature and militant marauders put his resolve to the test.
