Twinfinity:
Nethermore
Volume
1
by Chris
Podhola
Genre: Young Adult,
Paranormal,Urban Fantasy
Date of Publication: May 26, 2014
ISBN: 978-1499625035
ASIN: B00KGZ41CM
Number of pages: 411
Word Count: 107,000
Cover Artist: Llpix.com
Book Description:
Whitney Leighton has a
secret. She is both blind and deaf but
that’s not what she’s trying to keep hidden.
Her secret is that she can both see and hear through her twin brother Tommy. They call it piggybacking because she can
shift her consciousness into her brother’s mind.
Whitney’s not the only one with a
secret; Tommy has one too and it’s Whitney that he’s keeping it from. His secret is that Whitney isn’t who she’s
supposed to be. He has dreams of her,
but in his dreams she has tattoos, battle-scars on her face, and a formidable
look of determination. If Tommy’s dreams
come true then Whitney is in serious trouble and so is everyone else. The simple Whitney that is, doesn’t stand a
chance against the evil that exists in his sleep, and the world will be thrust
into chaos.
The teen twins end up at Camp
Tumbling Waters and Lake Amicolola where something is waiting for them. Something as dark as Whitney’s vision and as
insane as Tommy’s dreams and IT needs Whitney to escape the prison that IT
calls … Nethermore.
Available at Amazon
If you could have any superpower what would you choose?
If only I could fly! What a wonderful way to see the world, no planes, with their waiting lines and searches, no satellites, with their limited views, no cameras of any kind, keeping me boxed into the view that is given; just me, with my own perceptions, hovering from above, seeing what I want to see, instead of what is shown to me.
Tell us your most rewarding experience since being published.
Just knowing that I have something out there for the world to see and that it will always be out there no matter what happens. I have something in print, there are copies sitting on someone’s shelf, on their coffee table, or on their night stand. I have shared a piece of myself and it is a rewarding feeling to know that there are those out there that think enough of it to spend their hard earned money on it.
Please tell us in one sentence only, why we should read your book.
Because sometimes blind and deaf isn’t an obstacle.
Favorite food?
Stuffed cabbage (or peppers). If it’s made properly I can eat it for a week at a time.
What book are reading now?
I’m currently re-reading “The Gunslinger” series by Stephen King. It’s a series that I come back to every now and then because it is such an amazing story.
What’s your favorite season/weather?
I live in Michigan and I live here because I like the change of seasons. I love summer. I love being able to enjoy the heat, no matter how hot it gets, to feel the sun pointing it’s sharp tongue against my skin, but by August or so I’m ready for a change. I want to wear a jacket and to see the leaves turn to their mystical colors. By November I want an icy blanket and to see my breath in the air to remind me that I’m still alive. By spring I want to stand in the rain with my shirt off and to feel sky fallen tears wetting my skin.
What was your favorite children's book?
One of my favorite series of all time; Harry Potter, but if you don’t consider that a children’s story then I would say “A Cat in the Hat” by Dr. Seuss.
Beach or Pool?
Definitely a pool. I’m terrified by large bodies of water. You can’t see what’s beneath the surface.
What is one book everyone should read?
All of them! *wink*
If I had to pick one I would say “Lord of the Flies” by William Golding. It really is a must read.
Any other books in the works? Goals for future projects?
I am currently working on a prequel to Nethermore, called Twinfinity: Quest for the Prim Pockets. I am writing it in installments and posting it on my website (twinfinitynethermore-novel.com) as I complete it. I originally intended this to be a short story, but it has grown into much more. Once Prim Pockets is finished I will begin working on Volume 2 of the Twinfinity series.
This excerpt is from Chapter 10 of Twinfinity:
Nethermore. In it the main character,
the blind and deaf Whitney Leighton, is preparing to make a physical statement
to her summer camp peers. They are all
gathered at the obstacle course located in Camp Tumbling Waters and the group
is divided. Half of the campers blame
her for the recent troubles in the camp, and the other half believe that she is
the solution to those problems. Whitney
knows that she needs to prove a point to all of them in order to unite them.
Whitney had been
a little surprised by how clearly her course could be directed through her
imagination and memory. Every step, and
every move had been based on what she remembered from when she was piggy-backed
with Kat, but she had been able to lay everything out in her mind with near
perfect clarity.
She had been
sitting on the bench brooding over her conversation with Kat. She was mad all right, but little Mike had
changed her mood. She couldn’t see the
fear in his face, and she couldn’t hear if he had said anything, but she had
seen his shadow approach the wall and she had waited with anticipation for his
shadow to ascend into the air. She might
not be able to see it with her eyes, but she would have still felt pride for
him as he succeeded. She could see that
climbing it was important to him, and Kat had insinuated that it was so
important that he had spent a year trying to get himself ready for it. His body appeared to be weak and frail and
Whitney had searched Kat’s mind for an explanation for that.
He had an
accident when he was younger--a tragic accident that had broken many bones and
left him in a wheel chair for years. He
was just getting to the point that he could walk again. And, according to Kat’s memories on the
subject, climbing that wall was his motivation—his driving force. It was the thing that he talked about last
year that inspired him to work so hard in his recovery. He wanted to do it, but he was afraid.
Like she was
afraid.
He backed off
and someone else was approaching the wall in his place. She didn’t want to sense someone else
climbing the wall. She wanted to sense
him doing it, and she didn’t think it was right for everyone else to just shrug
it off.
When she first
got up from the bench and started walking toward the group her intention was to
find a way to convince Mike to make his climb.
She was only vaguely aware of the clarity with which she could visualize
her course. She could see every clump of
dirt, every stone that could make her stumble, and she could even remember
seeing a Twix candy bar wrapper as she walked by it.
Her mind was
more focused on how to convince Mike to make his climb. By the time she got there she had figured it
out. She would lead by example.
It was after Kam
had put the safety harness onto her and attached the safety line onto the clip
on the back when she knew she had to take it off. It was doing its job. It was making her feel safe. There was no danger. The spotters were trained to make sure that
she wouldn’t be injured if she slipped.
It was crazy, but she didn’t want to feel safe. She wanted every handhold and every foothold
to be risky and she wanted to feel the danger of it.
Most of all she
wanted to rely on others to catch her if she did fall.
She had been
playing it safe all of her life and for once she wanted to leave safety behind
her. She had never let herself rely on
anyone but Tommy—who she depended on vigorously for help in almost everything
and she was done with that too.
She had chosen
the members of her net the way she did because she wanted to show everyone that
she trusted them even if they didn’t really trust her. She didn’t just want to convince Mike to make
the climb. She also wanted to find a way
to bring the group back together again.
She had divided everyone, and so she’d have to be the one to link them
back together again.
She was a couple
of levels off of the ground when the idea of the teambuilding element began to
form in her mind. The concept was simple
enough. You had to trust in the members
of the team to catch you if you fell backward into them. That teambuilding element was about a three
foot drop into the arms of your team.
What if someone did it from the top of the climbing wall? It was a scary idea, but if that didn’t make
an impact on the crowd than nothing would.
Whitney ascended
the wall. Despite her nearly perfect
memory of every hand and foothold her fear was a very tangible and real
thing. Slipping off and falling was
still extremely dangerous even with the group below her because she might not
be able to control how she landed and a broken leg or arm or even both was a
probability.
She reached up
and grabbed the next handhold, brought her leg up, and hauled herself up
another level. She had made it halfway
up and she could feel her nervousness increase with her height. She was about fifteen feet off of the ground,
and her limbs began to betray her. She
was getting tired and her muscles were beginning to tremble despite her desire
to remain steady and calm. She was no
athlete and it was beginning to show.
This was stupid
she thought to herself.
If she fell from
that distance and they didn’t catch her she may or may not break a limb.
Just do it now
her mind begged.
And she knew she
could. She could steady herself, lean
back, and fall into the arms of her safety net.
She could do that safely and no harm would come to her. Her point would even be made pretty clearly.
But wasn’t
Erik’s speech, as corny and predictable as it was, about just that? Wasn’t it about pushing past your fears even
though they sometimes seemed like an impenetrable wall?
She could make
her leap from that point but if she did wasn’t she still relatively safe? If so then was she really making her
point? Wasn’t her point to go beyond
safety and to leap when the outcome wasn’t predictable?
She reached up
for the next grip-hold and brought herself up to it. Her nerves began to betray her even
more. She had never been this tired
before in her life. She had already
exerted herself beyond exhaustion and she knew, from that very moment, that she
needed to start training her body for more endurance. She was never again going to let herself tire
out this easily. So much for being lazy,
because she knew that those days had to be over.
She was three
quarters of the way up but her muscles were aching and she was losing her
breath. On top of that she wasn’t sure
if making it to the top was even going to be possible. No matter how bad she wanted to get there.
She sucked in a
deep breath, gathered her determination, and made two more handholds in quick
succession. Her fingers began to throb
and go numb. Her leg muscles were
screaming at her to stop and her arms felt like rubber bands stretched out to
their maximum.
The only good thing
was that she only had three levels to go.
The author is a 43 year-old
United States Air Force veteran of the first Iraq War. This is his debut novel in the Twinfinity
urban fantasy series. He was born and
raised in south-eastern Michigan and served his country in California, Germany,
and Turkey.
2 $50 Amazon gift cards
5 free kindle copies
3 free paperbacks
5 comments:
I also enjoy this series by Stephen King. Great cover!
Thank you for the compliment, fellow King fan, on the cover. It was done through LLPix.com and I'm very please with it.
I've always been fascinated by twins, so this new take on them has me dying to read it! :)
I feel the same way. I think, subconsciously, it's why I chose a pair of twins as the main characters, and it's this unique and special relationship that has made writing it so much fun.
Thank you for this excellent opportunity to be a part of your site! It was a wonderful experience.
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