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Jun
23 2010 | ||
Today’s guest is Jess Granger, who writes fabulous futuristics for Berkley Sensation. I’m always so excited to be able to recommend futuristic authors to people and Jess is one whose name comes up all the time. I love her writing. To get a taste of it, head over to her website to the Beyond The Shadows page to read the excerpt there.
Hi everyone!
I’m very excited to join the Take You To Another World Contest. The timing made me laugh because I just drove from Minnesota back to Ohio yesterday to return from a wedding. I don’t know about you guys, but really long car trips can be both fun and torture at the same time. I didn’t travel a whole lot as a kid. I think the longest trip I can remember was down to Disneyland. That was about an eight hour car trip, and it seemed like it lasted seventeen lifetimes. In college, I crossed the country several times. It was always an adventure, but an exhausting one.
Now as an adult, I enjoy the time when I’m not at the wheel to think about my writing and sleep. Sometimes boredom can do wonders for your creativity. On this trip I had the chance to muse a little about my two protagonists in Beyond the Shadows. If traveling across five states is a long haul, imagine traveling across five galaxies. In the beginning of Beyond the Shadows, Cyn and Yara embark on one heck of a road trip, complete with boredom and the crazy thoughts that follow when all you have to stare at is one other person; someone you don’t know, don’t trust, but find yourself irritatingly attracted to at the same time.
Here’s the blurb…
A man of deception. A woman of justice. Will their fragile trust be strong enough to prevent a war?
Commander Yara knows perfect leadership requires perfect control and discipline. She has spent years living without the distraction of caring for anything—or anyone. It’s a sacrifice she’s willing to make. Yara has honed herself into the perfect heir to the Azralen throne, but a bloody coup could destroy everything she’s worked so hard for. She must return home to prevent war. Unfortunately the only ship available belongs to an Earthlen trader with no regard for authority—especially hers.
Cyn is a rebel, driven to protect those suffering at the hands of the Elite leaders of Azra. Using his alias to manipulate the lovely but icy commander onto his ship, he has to keep her from Azra long enough to ignite the revolution. But when he awakens a vibrant and feeling woman beneath that icy exterior, he gets more than he bargained for—love. He must find a way to convince Yara to join him, before they get caught in a web of deception that could tear their world apart.
These two characters couldn’t have been further apart, so it was immensely amusing to stick them in close quarters and watch the sparks fly.
Today’s Question to win a signed copy of Beyond The Shadows: So, how about you guys? What’s your favorite thing to do on a long road trip? Any outrageous stories? I’d love to hear them.
Happy Reading!
Jess
June 23rd, 2010 at 7:05 pm · Link
Usually on road trips that take longer than 2 hrs, I sleep.
The craziest road trip story is probably one my family took right around freshman yr in high school. We were coming home from visiting my grandma & my brother & I were bored. We were reminiscing about our drive back cross-country from being stationed in Hawaii when I was a kid (you can imagine the looks a car w/ Hawaii plates gets when driving through the Midwest in early November…lol) & the sign that we put in the window (“Sorry, no grass skirts today. Too cold”). This got my brother, the smarta$$, going & he put a sign in the back window that said “Hostages on board”. The next one said “Help, she has a gun”. When my mom realized what he was doing, she freaked & told him to take them down before she got pulled over. As she said this, a state trooper drove up along side of our car & jokingly made a gun out of his hand. After that, we noticed all these cop cars along the highway & at all of the exits. As we were driving through this REALLY small town (where they roll up the sidewalk @ 9PM), we notice an unusual amount of cars parked on the side of the road. We get home, unpack the car, & start to settle in for the night when there’s a knock at the door. My dad opens the door to see the Sgt of the Watch & the Officer of the Day standing there (we lived in base housing). They had received a report of hostages in our vehicle & asked to search our quarters. My dad went to tell my mom & brother that the MPs had to search our house. When they cleared the house ending up in my brother’s room, he told them that although there weren’t any hostages, if they waited about 20 minutes, there would be a murder. I thought my mom would KILL him, she was so embarrassed!
June 23rd, 2010 at 7:42 pm · Link
I have a crazy story, which happened on the first night of a three day road trip I went on with my sister, aunt and grandma.
We thought we would stop at this town just outside of Jacksonville, Fl. It was already dark outside and my Grandma couldn’t remember which exit was our exit – until we passed it, of course. So we got off at the next exit. We ended up in this tiny town (and we still don’t know the name of it) so we drove around trying to find the way back to the Interstate. We even followed a Wal-Mart truck! But the truck just went to Wal-Mart. We turned around and after an hour we finally found our way back.
The rest of the trip went smoothly but we still laugh about that one night.
June 23rd, 2010 at 8:03 pm · Link
I do not really go on car trips any more but I typically read in the car.
June 23rd, 2010 at 8:58 pm · Link
I like to sing in the car. Turn the radio up high and sing loud.
June 23rd, 2010 at 10:11 pm · Link
No outrageous stories at least not that happened to me. But we always make sure to have the right snack foods and playlists of great singalong songs.
June 23rd, 2010 at 11:07 pm · Link
I have the tendency to sing to techno songs that play on the radio with my friends. The first ten minutes of a road trip with my friends usually entail the windows down, sunroof open, and the radio blasting as loud as it can go (so that poor pedestrians can’t hear our horrible voices)
June 24th, 2010 at 12:04 am · Link
No outrageous stories, sorry 🙂 but for a long trip I always prepare huge pile of CD to keep me company, there’s nothing like a good music to make your trip enjoyable
June 24th, 2010 at 2:59 am · Link
I don’t drive and Ido get terribly travel sick so I sleep most of the time.