Debunker: Independence Day by Dennis Anthony Giveaway & Guest Post

Debunker: Independence Day

by Dennis Anthony

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BLURB:

This is the greatest battle ever fought on American soil. History will be changed. Thousands will die. And many of the dead will wander the battlefield in three different centuries, waiting to find their way home.

It’s 150 years later. Enter Francis Trecy.

An alienated outsider, he refutes paranormal claims of other researchers on a popular reality television show. Critics call him The Dark Lord. They call him The Unbeliever. Only a few people closest to him know his secret. Francis sees a lot more than he’s telling.

Before he becomes the accidental star of the program, he falls in love with a beautiful, enigmatic woman who disappears without explanation. In her wake, she leaves behind a procession of ex-lovers, along with suggestions of deceit and betrayal. Finding her becomes Francis's obsession.

His team of mismatched investigators journeys to the most famous battlefield in American history. There he discovers that reality is not at all what it seems. In coming to terms with his relationships and his complicated past, he battles against physical danger and emotional pain. He discovers that longings of thousands of wayward spirits mirror his own.

And he learns that in a world stranger than we can imagine, the human heart remains the strangest thing of all.

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Excerpt 

“Where was this?”

“Culp’s Hill,” Francis said. “Third day.”

The old man nodded. “The Second Maryland lost more than half its men in the space of ten hours.”

“It was a slaughter pen,” Francis said. “We were exhausted after marching more than a hundred miles, but were ordered to make attacks on the second, and then again on the third. The last one was the worst.”

“Where were you?”

“I don’t know. I folded. I fell down behind a tree. I wasn’t hit and I know if I had simply kept moving, I would have . . .”

“Been killed?” Mr. Cobb said.

“Supported my unit,” Francis said. “Some of the boys got about twenty yards from the Union position. Marshall Wilson almost made it, but he caught two in his right arm. ‘I’m bleedin’ real bad, Nate,’ he called to me. He never asked for my help. He just kept talking about bleeding. Hornets were flying close above me and the tree was being chopped apart by all the fire. I was frozen. I couldn’t move. I heard Marshall call my name a couple of more times. He wasn’t mad. At least I didn’t think so. Sometimes I thought he might have been saying ‘hate’ or maybe ‘fate’.”

“What happened next?”

“I tossed my gun away. I knew I wasn’t a soldier any more.”

AUTHOR Bio and Links:

Dennis Anthony has been a newspaper reporter, sailor, military  officer, television news producer, public relations executive and publishing company owner. He and his wife live in Pensacola, Florida, but try to spend as much time as possible at their cabin on

Lookout Mountain in Alabama. Debunker: Independence Day is his first published novel.

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Debunker-Independence-Day-Dennis-Anthony-ebook/dp/B00FFHHREA/

Website: http://www.dennis-anthony.com

Twitter:  @DennisAuthor

Guest Post

The Author’s Mind

Authors are generally identified as either “pantsers” or planners.

The pantser flies by the seat of his pants, usually with the help of a vague plan. Main characters are identified, the primary story arc is kept in mind and key plot points are established, but usually in a fuzzy way.

The planner, by contrast, makes sure all details are worked out and written down before he even begins to work on the actual book. He’s never at a loss for where to go next in the narrative, how to dress his characters or where to set the scene. The great film director, Alfred Hitchcock, would storyboard every shot in a movie before he even began shooting. His presence on the set was almost incidental to the filmmaking process. A classic planner.

I’ve been a planner most of my life. When I worked in an office, I would outline my work schedule for the next day before I went home. I knew how many children I wanted and how far apart they should be spaced. At vacation time, I arranged every stop to maximize efficient use of our time, made sure we were booked into satisfactory accommodations and that we would be well fed.

I know. A little scary.

So you might find it hard to believe that I’m a dyed-in-the-wool pantser. I still overplan vacations, but when it comes to writing a novel, I love nothing more than to paint myself into a narrative corner and try to figure a way out.

Sometimes my noblest character, the man or woman supposed to show the way of righteousness to the less virtuous, says or does something completely unexpected. Something not so good. I love when that happens.

In the novel I’m currently writing, a respectable holy man starts behaving like a pompous twit. I never saw it coming. Frankly, he’s a lot more interesting that way.  I enjoy watching him struggle with challenges in a way that brings about believable change in his character.

In my book, Debunker: Independence Day, an important character turns out to have a history that’s a lot more checkered than I imagined when I started writing about her. This didn’t change the theme or overall arc of my novel, but it added new story possibilities that I hope made the book a richer experience for readers.

Similarly, a humble warehouse becomes an otherworldly passage as well as the focus of magic and character evolution in ways unexpected when I began the book. I enjoyed wrestling with the “how am I going to get out of this?” moments -- and keeping them believable.

The fun of writing for me is believing that my characters are real people, that the places pulse with their own energy, smells and colors. And that these factors drive the story forward in an interesting way.

The poet Robert Frost said “I never started a poem yet whose end I knew. Writing a poem is discovering.”

The process of storytelling is also about discovery. For the reader, yes. But also for the writer.

Giveaway

Dennis will be awarding an eCopy of Debunker: Independence Day to a randomly drawn commenter during the tour.

Follow the tour and comment; the more you comment, the better your chances of winning. The tour dates can be found here: 

http://goddessfishpromotions.blogspot.com/2014/03/virtual-nbtm-book-tour.html