Isle of Savages
T. Briar
Genre: New Adult Action Suspense Thriller
Publisher: MuseItUp Publishing
Date of Publication: June 13, 2017
eBook ISBN: 978-1-77127-926-0
ASIN: B07195LTB8
Number of pages: 220
Word Count: 59,400 words
Cover Artist: Eerilyfair Design
Tagline: Eleven souls are shipwrecked on an island teeming with sub-human cannibals. Who will survive to tell the tale?
Book Description:
On July 20, 20— a charter school’s sponsored sail from San Diego to Hawaii hits a reef during a violent storm. Sixteen souls abandon ship. Nine students, along with the hated captain and first mate, wash up on what they believe is a deserted island.
Separated into three groups by circumstance and mutual distrust, treachery and death lurks for all. Over the course of a single day, one student betrays all the others. Another drowns. Two others get ambushed by a great white shark. And, like falling dominoes, the captain, first mate, and six students fall prey to a tribe of bloodthirsty cannibals.
In the face of almost certain death, who will escape from the isle of savages to tell the tale?
Excerpt:
Date: July 20,
20—
General
Location: Pacific Ocean
Definitive
Longitude and Latitude: Unknown
Through
strangled, sputtering coughs, Eric Kovac’s eyelids flickered open to stark
darkness. He lay face down in receding wave-wash, naked except for a pair of
board shorts, drenched to the bone. A tortuous grittiness seared the tender
linings of his mouth, nose, and throat; pain wracked his body, inside and out.
As he struggled to make sense of his peril, the sound of crashing waves
thundered. A sudden rush of warm saltwater buried him underwater.
Choking and
coughing violently, he forced himself up onto his hands and knees, stomach
clenching in excruciating spasms as he vomited up great bouts of saltwater.
Although the purging left him weak—on the verge of blacking out—it cleared the
irritating sand from his breathing passages. Survival instinct, more than
cognizant reasoning, sent him crawling up the shoreline. After only a few feet,
his battered body could go no further and he collapsed onto wet sand while his
feet and legs still lay in the incoming tide.
The sound of
crashing waves slowly returned, and with it, the recognition of something new.
Wind buffeted his body from all directions…storm-washed, freshly cleansed wind.
Beneath the dizziness threatening to overwhelm him, he had only one coherent
thought.
What happened to
me?
For the life of
him, he couldn’t remember how he’d come to be on this beach, hurting and
possibly grievously injured. Despite the horrendous pain, he rolled over onto
his side to lift himself on an elbow and scan the darkness for clues.
In the edge of
the surf, a dark silhouette resembling the shape of a human body floated, the
incoming and outgoing surf pushing and pulling at it. It was a tossup as to
which would win the tug of war.
Instantly, the
memory of the ship’s boom careening into his forehead materialized out of
nowhere. In something akin to shock, distorted memories of the chain of events
leading up to the blow that had laid him low flitted through his mind…
The storm had
come out of the northwest late yesterday evening, the leading edge blue-black
and roiling. It’d chased after them relentlessly, finally howling down on their
sixty-foot blue water cruiser in the middle of the night, crackling long
streaks of lightening that were blinding in their frequency and intensity.
Fierce winds and towering waves tossed the yacht to and fro as if it were a
toy. Deafening claps of thunder reverberated through the vessel to drown out
the terrified shrieks of the sixteen students cowering below deck. Then,
without warning, when only the tiniest tendril of hope remained, the yacht ran
into something, cementing their fate—
About the Author:
Always striving for pulse-pounding action, sitting-on-the-edge-of-your-seat suspense, and hair-raising thrills, T. Briar’s mainstream thriller writing places courageous heroes and heroines in the fight of their lives against the elements, hostile surroundings, morally bankrupt villains, and any other obstacles T. can think of.
But be warned, once the wheels are set into motion with the first sentence, it’s a twisting, turning journey to the end to see who lives and who dies. And make no mistake, someone’s going to die. Some will even die badly. That’s just the way it is when fighting for survival under perilous conditions. The only question is: Will it be the heroes and heroines, or the villains?
T. Briar’s target audience is New Adults who boldly step up to meet life’s challenges with the confidence of youth urging them on.
Please checkout T. Briar’s page at http://thomasbriar.com to find out more about T. and his thriller writings.
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Interview
Where are you from?
South Georgia. Where the mosquitoes are almost as big
as the rattlesnakes and cottonmouths. Got a few panthers in the area too.
Haven’t seen any bears yet, though I’ve heard a couple have been sighted passing
through.
Tell us your latest news?
The release of Isle of Savages! Only waited a little
over a year. I can hardly believe it’s finally published. It’s coming out in
print too. My first. Can life get any better? I don’t think so.
When and why did you begin writing?
Wrote sporadically as a pre-teen, wrote sporadically
as a teen, and I wrote sporadically as a new adult. Finally got down to
business in earnest when I turned twenty-three. Some years have passed since
then, but this is still the most fascinating job I’ve ever had.
When did you first consider yourself a writer?
It took me a few books. Don’t really know why. Maybe
it was because with each new book published, I could see how much progress I
was making in the writing. It’s always been about improving the writing for me.
That’s the most important thing of all.
What inspired you to write your first book?
Always wanted to and just thought I could.
Do you have a specific writing style?
Suspenseful. Should there be any other kind? For the
record, I don’t think so. At least not for me.
How did you come up with the title?
The working title for Isle of Savages was The
Survivors. Somewhere around the middle of the book it finally dawned on me that
since the story is about a group of kids trying to survive an island teeming
with bloodthirsty savages, it was the more appropriate title. Now that I look
back on it, I should have thought of it first.
Is there a message in your novel that you want
readers to grasp?
Certainly not. I was preached to enough growing up
that if I never hear another sermon it will be too soon. Besides, I didn’t
start writing to get into the preaching business. I simply want to entertain
readers. Nothing more.
How much of the book is realistic?
It’s a work of fiction. There’s not a shred of truth
to it. Nor did I base it on anything factual. Neither did I borrow any elements
from any living or dead person’s story. I made it all up on my own.
However, having said that, human nature hasn’t
changed in thousands of years. Nor do I believe it will ever change. People are
just people. Some are innately good, always wanting to help others and never do
anyone harm. While others are just plain horrible, always looking for an
opportunity to exploit everyone else for personal gain.
As for the savages, who can really say with any
authority what’s out there yet to be discovered? I like to think that they
could exist, somewhere in world.
Are experiences based on someone you know, or events
in your own life?
Maybe the very beginning of the story when Eric
first wakes up. See, I have personally experienced waking up laying face-down
in the dirt, disoriented, hurting beyond belief, while also struggling for
every breath. But hey, on the plus side, I didn’t die or suffer any long-term
injuries from that accident.
What would you like my readers to know?
If you decide to step onto the Isle of Savages,
tread cautiously. Or there will be savages coming for you. And though they are
small as children, they’re cunning, fast, and immensely strong. Oh yeah, watch
out for the captain and first mate too. They will want to sell you to slavers,
if they don’t kill you first.
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