Hell Holes: What Lurks Below
by Donald Firesmith
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
GENRE: Science Fiction (Apocalyptic)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
BLURB:
It’s August in
Alaska, and geology professor Jack Oswald prepares for the new school year. But
when hundreds of huge holes mysteriously appear overnight in the frozen tundra
north of the Arctic Circle, Jack receives an unexpected phone call. An oil
company exec hires Jack to investigate, and he picks his climatologist wife and
two of their graduate students as his team. Uncharacteristically, Jack also
lets Aileen O’Shannon, a bewitchingly beautiful young photojournalist, talk him
into coming along as their photographer. When they arrive in the remote oil
town of Deadhorse, the exec and a biologist to protect them from wild animals
join the team. Their task: to assess the risk of more holes opening under the
Trans-Alaska Pipeline and the wells and pipelines that feed it. But they
discover a far worse danger lurks below. When it emerges, it threatens to
shatter Jack’s unshakable faith in science. And destroy us all…
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Excerpt One:
IN THE PLANE
Once everything was stowed, I followed Mark up the short
stairs and into the lavish interior of the business jet. Unlike the cramped
commuter planes I usually took when flying up to the oil fields, the Embraer
Legacy 500 made first class seem like coach. Either the executive funding our
study was desperate to get us up there, or this was the only aircraft the
company had left to send. Either way, I was happy for the unexpected upgrade.
Unlike typical airliners, the jet’s eight large leather
seats were organized around four small tables, two on either side of the cabin.
Each table separated two seats, one seat facing the back of the airplane and
the other facing forward. Angie and Jill were seated in the first row of the
plane leaving the second row seats facing forwards for Mark and me. I’d just
sat down opposite my wife when she pointed her finger over my shoulder. Following
Mark had prevented me from noticing the unexpected extra person seated in the
rear of the cabin. With the satisfied smile of a cat having feasted on canary,
there sat Aileen O’Shannon. I wondered whether Angie and Jill had selected this
particular seating arrangement so they could glare at the weirdly bewitching
beauty in the back. Of course, it may have been to keep Mark and me from being
tempted to look at her instead of paying proper attention to our wives.
I got up and marched straight to the rear of the plane and
said, “I’m sorry, but I never said you could come along on this trip.”
“You are?” she asked coyly. “Oh, my. You never said I could
not come.” She gave me a stunning smile that I’m sure usually got her
everything she’d ever asked for. “I naturally took your silence to signify
agreement, so I packed my bag and cameras, and here I am. Lucky for you that I
did; you wouldn’t want to get up there only to realize you needed someone to
make a visual record of your discoveries. Besides, I know some of the
discoveries the Russians made that they didn’t publish.”
The co-pilot walked up behind me. “Excuse me, Dr. Oswald.
Can you please take your seat now? We’re on a very tight schedule, and Mr.
Kowalski wants you in Deadhorse as soon as possible.”
I looked up front and saw that the cabin door was already
closed, and the seat belt signs were on. Before I could answer, the plane began
taxiing away from the hangar. Realizing that it was too late to rid ourselves
of the reporter, I turned around and took my seat facing Angie.
“I see we still have Miss O’Shannon with us,” Angie said
with a hint of irritation. “I thought you’d decided we didn’t need her.”
“I did,” I answered as the plane accelerated down the
runway. “But the cabin door was already closed, and we were already moving.”
“Jack, you’re the leader of this study, and this plane
wouldn’t even be here if it weren’t for you. The pilot would have turned around
if you’d asked him to.”
“You’re right,” I admitted sheepishly, silently cursing my
habit of not questioning authority figures, at least not unless it involved
science.
“Well, what are you going to do about it?”
Suddenly and for no apparent reason, my annoyance with
O’Shannon disappeared, and I felt an overpowering desire to keep her with us,
with me. I twisted around and looked back at her. She was staring back at me
with a knowing smile. God, she looked so mesmerizingly beautiful as her fingers
provocatively played with the top button of her shirt. Of course, she should
come…
“Jack… Jack!”
I jerked back around, my heart pounding as I felt my face
warming. I was blushing from embarrassment and guilt. I was also confused,
unsure of what had just happened.
“Jack, I was talking to you, and you just ignored me! What’s
gotten into you?”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
AUTHOR Bio and Links:
A computer
geek by day, at night and on weekends Donald Firesmith writes modern paranormal
fantasy, apocalyptic science fiction, action and adventure novels and relaxes
by handcrafting magic wands from magical woods and mystical gemstones.
A computer
geek by day, Donald Firesmith works as a system and software engineer helping
the US Government acquire large, complex software-intensive systems. In this
guise, he has authored seven technical books, written numerous software- and
system-related articles and papers, and spoken at more conferences than he can
possibly remember. He is also proud to have been named a Distinguished Engineer
by the Association of Computing Machinery, although his pride is tempered
somewhat worrying whether the term “distinguished” makes him sound more like a
graybeard academic rather than an active engineer whose beard is still more red
than gray.
By night and
on weekends, his alter ego writes modern paranormal fantasy, apocalyptic
science fiction, action and adventure novels and relaxes by handcrafting magic
wands from various magical woods and mystical gemstones. His first foray into
fiction is the book Magical Wands: A Cornucopia of Wand Lore written under the
pen name Wolfrick Ignatius Feuerschmied. He lives in Crafton, Pennsylvania with
his wife Becky, his son Dane, and varying numbers of dogs, cats, and birds.
Links:
Trailer
Book Trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/embed/amXuTAlKoX0
Buy Links:
The book is free
Praise Quotes
“I enjoyed my
time in Firesmith’s world. I did not want to leave. I really got a kick out of
it, and would happily come back for more. Recommended.”
MJ Kobernus,
author of The Guardian: Blood in the Sand
“This book
rocks.”
Barton Paul
Levenson, author of Dark Gods of Alter Telluria
“a quick,
enjoyable read. Full of action and fraught with danger”
Dave
Robertson, author of Strange Hunting, Strange Hunting II, and The Brave and The
Dead
“The book is
an easy and quick read and an action-filled one that you’ll imagine as a TV
series or a movie with no difficulty.”
Olga Núñez
Miret, author of Escaping Psychiatry
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
GIVEAWAY
Donald will be awarding an autographed
copy of the Hell Holes 2: Demons on the Dalton (US ONLY) to a randomly drawn
winner via rafflecopter during the tour.
Thanks for hosting!
ReplyDeleteThanks for promoting my book.
ReplyDelete