Saturday, June 24, 2017

Audiobook Blog Tour with Author Interview and Giveaway: Solitude by Dean M. Cole

Author: Dean M. Cole

Narrators: R.C. Bray, Julia Whelan

Length: 8h 50m

Publisher: CANDTOR Press

Genre: Sci-Fi

Release date: April 3, 2017

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Synopsis:
Earth's last man discovers that the last woman is stranded alone aboard the International Space Station. If you like action-packed novels, you'll love the electrifying action in this apocalyptic thriller. Can humanity's last two unite? Separated by the gulf of space, the last man and woman of the human race struggle against astronomical odds to survive and unite. Army Aviator Vaughn Singleton is a highly intelligent, lazy man. After a last-ditch effort to reignite his failing military career ends horribly, Vaughn becomes the only human left on Earth. Stranded alone on the International Space Station, Commander Angela Brown watches an odd wave of light sweep across the planet. Over the next weeks and then months, Angela struggles to contact someone on the surface, but as she fights to survive aboard a deteriorating space station, the commander glimpses the dark underpinnings of humanity's demise. After months alone, Vaughn discovers there is another. Racing against time, he must cross a land ravaged by the consequences of humankind's sudden departure. Can Vaughn find a path to space and back? Can Angela - the only person with clues to the mystery behind humanity's disappearance - survive until he does?
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 Click on the image below to hear an excerpt:

https://soundcloud.com/dean-m-cole/solitude-sample-chapter-7/s-Nz8py


Author Interview:

1.  What does your writing process look like? Do you know the whole story when you start?  Or do you just start writing and go with it (seat of the pants writing)?  If you plan it out, how do you do that?  Outline, notecards, post-it-notes, etc.?
  • I’ve written books as a pantser and as a plotter. Lately, I am plotting my work. I tend to fall down fewer rabbit holes when I’ve outlined the entire plot. However, this is not a rigid process. The outline is a living document that helps me stay focused, but if I run into a snag or unforeseen problem as the story develops, it’s easy enough to go back and edit the outline.
2.  How do you come up with your ideas for your stories?
  • I come up with a “what if” idea and then try to see where it goes. For instance, with Solitude, I asked myself, “What if I woke up tomorrow to discover every living being on the planet had disappeared? Once I came to terms with the loss—if that’s possible—what would I do? With all of the tools and toys of humanity left lying around, what trouble could I get into?”
3.  How long have you been writing?
  • I began toying with writing while I was in the Army. During Desert Shield and Desert Storm, I would send handwritten snail mail to my family members back in the States. After the war, I returned home and was amazed to hear my family members raving about the narrative of my writing. Up to that point, I had never considered myself as having that skill set. I had been an avid reader my entire life, so I decided that, if I could be an Apache attack helicopter pilot, surely I could write a book. I mean, how hard could it be? Well, after 20 years of toiling—and not finishing anything—I realized it was extremely hard. However, I kept working at it and finally finished one. It wasn’t very good, but it was the best writing lesson of my life.
4.  What tips do you have for aspiring writers?
  • When working on your final draft, before moving on to the next scene, have your computer read the text out loud. It will highlight clunky sentences and expose repeated head words, and unlike your lying eyes, it won’t supply missing words or overlook duplicated ones.
  • Use a developmental editor. They are expensive but worth it. The lessons you learn will give you a great start and improve your writing.
  • Spend the money for a proofreader and a professional cover.
5.  Some favorites:
Books/authors/genres
  • The Expeditionary Force series by Craig Alanson
  • Wool by Hugh Howey
  • Hell Divers by Nicholas Sansbury Smith
  • Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
Movies/TV Shows
  • Mr. Robot
  • Guardians of the Galaxy
  • Stranger Things
  • Rogue One
Music
  • Metallica
  • Willie Nelson
  • Waylon Jennings
  • Static X
Food/Writing snack
  • Beer… Because beer!
Social Media Site
 

About the author:
Author, world traveler, and combat pilot turned commercial helicopter pilot Dean M. Cole writes from locales as remote as Equatorial Guinea and as romantic as Paris's Champs-Elysées with his trusty sidekick and beautiful wife, Donna. A combat veteran, he flew Apache Attack Helicopters in the US Army's First Cavalry Division. License to kill revoked by the government, he traded in his attack helicopter for one of the transport ilk. When not weaving tales of alien apocalypse and redemption, he spends his days flying terrestrial aliens in IFOs (Identified Flying Objects) known as helicopters. No longer authorized to dispatch aliens he settles for dropping them off at oil rigs around the globe. On the six months of time off his paying job affords, author, biker, and fellow Sci-Fi geek Dean M. Cole travels with his wife, builds airplanes and custom choppers, and writes his next tale of the apocalypse.
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About the Narrators:
From an early age Audie, Earphones, and SOVAS Voice Arts Award-winning audiobook narrator R.C. Bray despised reading. Truly hated it with a passion. And audiobooks? Even worse. Those were for people too lazy to read (not to be confused with those like himself who didn’t want to read to begin with). R.C. eventually got older and wiser (he was always good-looking) and eschewing his capricious convictions fell head-over-heels with reading. Not just to learn words like “eschew” and “capricious” so he could use them in a bio line, but because someone was actually going to give him money to do it. Note: R.C.’s gorgeous wife and three beautiful children begged him not to make this his official bio. Clearly he misunderstood
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Julia Whelan is an actor, writer, and audiobook narrator. She is perhaps most well known for her acting work on ABC’s Once and Again and her award-winning narration of over 200 audiobooks (including Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl). Her debut novel is forthcoming. After a healthy career as a child actor, Whelan attended Middlebury College and Oxford University, graduating with a degree in English and Creative Writing.
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Giveaway: $20 Amazon Gift Card

2 Winners⎮Runs June 14th-July 5th⎮Open internationally



Blog Tour:
  Jun. 14th: Spunky-n-Sassy  
Jun. 15th: Avid Book Collector  
Jun. 16th: Brian's Book Blog  
Jun. 17th: CGB Blog Tours  
Jun. 19th: The Bookworm Lodge  
Jun. 20th: Read Day and Night  
Jun. 21st: Shh I Am Reading  
 Jun. 23rd: Book Reviews By Jasmine  
Jun. 24th: Lisa Loves Literature  
Jun. 25th: Buried Under Books  
Jun. 26th: Lomeraniel  
Jun. 27th: Lilly's Book World  
Jun. 29th: Joshua Gayou  
Jun. 30th: Book Lover's Life  
Jul. 3rd: Ronelle Antoinette  
Jul. 4th: Dab of Darkness
  
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