Author: Paul Markun
Publisher: Portfolio
Publication Date: June 13, 2014
Pages: 454
ISBN: 978-0-9914862-0-5
Format: Paperback / PDF /
eBook
Genre: Thriller
Purchase The Book:
Book Description:
An anonymous donor creates a prize for One
Billion Dollars to inspire social entrepreneurs to promote world change.
Lionel Lane, an idealistic entrepreneur, partners with his brilliant
ex-girlfriend Maxine Gold to turn around his struggling San Francisco-based
company Double Vision Beverages to compete for the Big Disrupter Award.
With the help of a venture capitalist and an eccentric financier, Double
Vision expands into energy drinks using the pure water from the mountains of
Telluride, Colorado. Talented 21-year-old extreme skier, Reddi Christiansen, becomes
the face of their quest for the youth market.
One by one the leading competitors in the Big Disrupter fall victim to
unexplained tragedies. The police are mystified. The prize for social good
becomes a death trap, but too rich to resist. Desperate for protection, Lionel,
Maxine and Reddi enlist a former Navy SEAL cyber guru. The faster they race
towards the approaching award deadline, the more the escalating dangers threaten
to spin them off a cliff.
Book Excerpt:
Telluride, Colorado
Reddi
Christiansen’s work clothing was in a heap at her feet. She peeled off her bra
and underpants and threw them on top with relish. A breeze came through the
open windows and she shivered, her long red ponytail shaking down her back. Crap, she forgot to close the curtains.
“Wolfie,
scare them away,” Reddi whispered. Wolfie stretched her long frame, pushing her
huge chest and front paws forward, extending like a telescope. Her deep howl
rumbled the old glass panes in the one room house.
Reddi
laughed and rubbed her fingers through Wolfie’s fur. Turning her back to the
windows facing the quiet street, she pulled on her stretch shorts, hopping from
one foot to the other. She tugged her sports bra and tank top over her broad
freckled shoulders.
“Fine,
we’re respectable now. You ready to run to the top of the pass?”
Wolfie
jumped up. The fur covering her one hundred twenty pound frame was snow-white.
She sat and cocked her head to the side, tuning her vertical ears towards Reddi.
The black markings around her curious blue eyes created a theatrical mask on
her white face. She was a Wolfdog. Part Arctic wolf, part Siberian husky, and
every bit Reddi’s best friend.
“Okay,
get your leash.” Wolfie sprung over and picked up her leash, swinging it like a
lasso. Then she pranced and juked side to side, with motion as fluid as
mercury.
“Save some for 13,000 feet,
darling,” laughed Reddi. The old door creaked as it opened. Wolfie rushed onto
the weathered front porch, leaping over a hand-drawn railing. As she landed she
spun about, kicking up a dusty cloud in the dirt street.
Reddi rolled her mountain bike
into the bright sun, the warmth feeling glorious on her skin. She slipped on
her riding shades and pulled her ponytail out the back of her helmet. She
glanced down the row of cribs along her street. Each was small with simple wood
framing, former bordellos where madams entertained during the town’s boomtown
mining era.
A mahogany-tanned guy with a
shock of curly black hair was loading a hang glider on his truck. She waved. “Hey,
Crazy Jack.”
He paused, balancing the kite
with one hand on the rack. “Heading up, Reddi?”
“Yeah, me and Wolfie. To Imogene
Pass.”
He shoved the kite on the rack
and walked towards her, thick calves below his baggy shorts. “Good news. The
new demo skis from Volkl came in. Your comps. Maybe come by the ski shop after
your ride?”
“Whoohoo! For me? Really?” With
a quick crank she glided over, standing on one pedal. Wolfie playfully circled
them.
“I promised. No way a skier like
you should have to buy skis. This winter fifty people will come buy a pair from
me, because they saw you on them.” His face crinkled in a smile around his
mountaineering sunglasses, which made him appear a decade younger.
“You’re the best.” She threw her
arms around his shoulders and squeezed, her six-foot frame a half-foot taller
than his.
Reddi knew Jack often had free
deals for her. But she didn’t realize how special he believed her to be. He had
watched her outcompete the boys in adventure sports since she was eight. Then
she blossomed. With the face of an unaware movie star, from the cliff-launch
cheekbones, perfect complexion to waves of red hair. He smiled at her like a
proud uncle.
She shook her bike handlebars,
like Wolfie wagging her head. “When should I come by your shop?”
“Whenever. After your ride or
after work. I’ll be there.”
“See you then. So excited, Jack!”
Reddi beamed a megawatt smile, feeling like a kid at Christmas. She launched up
the dusty street with a hard push and a wheelie, whistling at Wolfie.
Crazy Jack couldn’t help but
admire the muscular arms pulling on the handlebars, and the sculpted hips and
calves cranking effortlessly. “One hell of an athlete,” he muttered, shaking
his head.
In
six blocks Reddi and Wolfie had passed through town and reached the former
mining road that would lead them to the top. She called, Wolfie ran closer, and
she grabbed the leash and stuffed it into her Camelback. She started the timer
on her sport watch and immediately increased her pedal speed. The air smelled
like spruce trees. She breathed deeply and pushed herself to break her personal
best. As she rode she dreamed of being an Olympian.
About the Author
Paul Markun grew up an entrepreneur and dreamer, starting with his first
paper route at age nine in the Canal Zone of Panama.
Living in
Telluride, Colorado, he started four companies with best friends before he was
24, including Fly By Night Builders, The Illusions Company, High Country
Trekkers–you get the idea; great names, cool ideas, not much income.
He moved
to Silicon Valley, got more education and tech experience, and started SoftIRON
Systems and Fullspeed Networks, and rode the wave of the late 1990s to success.
He sold SoftIRON Systems to the Williams Company (WilTel), a Fortune 300
company. In 2001 his company Fullspeed was acquired by Callisma, which
became Pac Bell and then AT&T. You know them, right?
In the
first decade of the 2000s, he joined fellow entrepreneurs to lead
marketing for Netcordia, which later IPO’d as Infoblox (NYSE:BLOX). He
also ran marketing for Sitecore, a web software company, growing it 10 X from
an $8 million fledgling niche provider to an established global
corporation. Paul continues to be involved with emerging companies to this day.
Paul met
his wife Rachel, an attorney, when he was 18 and she was even younger at the
University of Chicago. Their fountains of inspiration are their two sons and a
daughter.
A
passionate story teller, he turned his energies to writing about topics and
characters close to his own heart. His first novel is The Big Disrupter.
Connect with Paul Markun:
My Review:
The world is full of competition. Especially when One Billion Dollars is at stake. I really enjoyed all of the lingo about running a business and promoting a business. The ideas were fun and interesting to read about. Lionel and Maxine made great partners because they knew each other. As the bodies started to pile up, I was curious to find out who the killer was. The author did a great job making the book believable with all the cyber lingo, and I liked who he picked to be the donor. The ending was good, and I liked how the plot was finished. I am giving this book a 4/5. I was given a copy to review, however all opinions are my own.
Contest
Giveaway
Author Paul Markun will be giving away a $100
Amazon Gift Card during the virtual book tour.
Terms & Conditions:
§ By entering the giveaway, you are confirming
you are at least 18 years old.
§ One winner will be chosen via Rafflecopter to
receive the prize.
§ This giveaway begins July 1 and ends on
September 30, 2014.
§ Winner will be contacted via email on October
1, 2014.
§ Winner has 72 hours to reply.
§ VOID WHERE PROHIBITED.
Good luck everyone!
The Big
Disrupter Tour Page
Thank you for hosting the virtual book tour event. - Kathleen Anderson, PUYB Tour Coord.
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