In Clinton D. Harding's debut novel
Our Monsters, Jon Graves and his friends escaped their parents and the military, leaving behind the only home they'd ever known, the small town of Carpenter. But their freedom is short lived as they find themselves in more danger than before they left Carpenter.
Bad Monsters—the second book The Our Monsters Chronicles, released March 2014—picked up where its prequel ended. Jon and his friends are on the run and hunted and by General Mauser and his military dogs. Jon can practically feel them breathing down his neck, as the jaws of the military dogs snapping at his heels.
Blood is spilled, friendly and not, and now Jon must answer his friends' questions sooner than later, or risk one of those friends dying. He's just not sure he's the person to be deciding their fates or if he, Alice, and George are fully prepared to walk away from their normal lives.
A farm in northern California may serve as salvation to this scared, but brave, group of teenagers. However, can they trust the inhabitants they find there, who themselves have a history with Carpenter? If Jon can talk his way past the shotgun in his face, he might just discover what he and his friends need; answers about the history of Carpenter, the hybrids, the powers the teens borrow from their hybrids and who are the true monsters. In all this confusion and danger, Jon may also find a young woman who can help heal the wounds left by Mikaila when she left him and the group.
Pick up "Bad Monsters", the second installment in The Our Monsters Chronicles, is now available and can be found in e-book and paperback form at major online retailers:
Amazon|
Barnes and Noble|
Smashwords
When Clinton D. Harding is not busy wrestling and taming wild Scottish Terriers in wilderness of Oxnard California, he's using a magic pen he pulled from a stone to craft new worlds filled with fantastic beasts and evils that need fighting. He is also the author-publisher of The Our Monsters Chronicles, a YA series of novels that combines fantasy/sci-fi elements with horror chills.
Clinton is giving away the first novel of his series,
Our Monsters to a random follower!!!!
Rules to apply
1- You much be a GFC follower
2- for an extra entry tweet this giveaway
and lastly to enter: leave a comment with your email address and a random winner will be selected on April 19th :) Good Luck!
Author Review:
I remember the first notes I wrote concerning Alice Armstrong... "George’s girl, a hotty, and a real snot! A high school boy’s wet dream." Alice was meant to be the Prom Queen. The head cheerleader. Completely self-absorbed. The queen bee in high school who rules over a hive of dutiful, frightened lick-spittles. She is contrasted by Mikaila, a fellow cheerleader with a sunny disposition, a good heart, a person who she sees the good in every person. Alice groans when her boyfriend—football captain and all-state jock George—drags her with him when he hangs out with Jon and Russell, both nerds who are into science fiction, fantasy, roleplaying games, and who wouldn't know the difference between a homerun and a touchdown! George's buddies are below Alice's notice and they're not worth her time. She has no problem showing her contempt.
This is what I mean for the reader to believe. But it's not the truth about Alice. The truth is hinted at to the reader in a particular passage in "Our Monsters". This is the point when Jon and George go to pick up Alice before the group's planned raid on the military base holding their hybrids captive.
FROM "OUR MONSTERS":
Jon’s words trailed off as Alice reached for the tout and showed him her face.
Angry red coloring flared across her left cheek. Not an artificial blush from makeup, but what would be a nasty looking bruise tomorrow. Already a sickly yellow was appearing along the edges of the trauma to Alice’s flesh. Her eyes were also puffy and bloodshot. She’d been crying.
Alice is a cracked, broken Barbie doll. All her outward harshness, her mean-girl persona, her need to sit a throne with dedicated worker bees she can control, is all a mask to hide her inward pain. The source of Alice's pain is never revealed in "Our Monsters". However, in the final chapter of the book, Alice does show her dedication and attachment to the group of "misfits" she's become a part of, defending Jon against the annoyed pestering of a bus traveler who is sitting behind him, Bo, and a grieving Isis. This is the real Alice.
"Bad Monsters" is the book the reader truly meets Alice. Events in this sequel humble the head cheerleader. She backs the group of teenagers and hybrids into a corner, and action that threats to reveal their secret to oblivious local sheriff deputies who could turn the group into the military. It is during this time that Alice lays her soul bear to Jon and the reader. Sorry no spoilers, you'll need to read "Bad Monsters" to find about Alice broken past and whether her actions have betrayed her new found family.
I had always meant for Alice to have more depth to our soul. I knew a few cheerleaders when I was attending high school. Most were not sleeping around with the entire football team. These girls were not dumb either. Most enrolled in advanced placement classes. They were sweet girls too. True, the girls were part of an exclusive, members-only popular clique but they weren't bad people. I wanted Alice to present a cliché but an onion cliché.
When Alice was younger, stuff happened forcing her to construct an armor around herself, to protect herself. A lot of people—most—will not approach the hottest, most popular girl in school. Especially those at the bottom of the social ladder. Those in the highest high school court will also be afraid of displeasing the queen and will tiptoe around her to stay in favor. This is what Alice wants. She doesn't want to experience pain so she hurts people before they have a chance to hurt her. Likely, outside her little high school court, life is painful enough for her so she lashes out at the people weaker than herself. She wants the attention but is afraid of the curtain dropping on her scene. She doesn't want her spotlight to burn out but she doesn't want people so close that the spotlight reveals the pain hidden behind her makeup. Pain. Loneliness. Alice is trying to avoid both and she'll use her assets to keep any more barbs from piercing her skin.
While I enjoy writing Mikaila and Devonne (the new girl in the misfit group), who are sweet and fun, Alice is the most interesting in the cast. She keeps me on my toes. Her tongue is whip-lashing quick and sharp, her actions are ostentatious and without limits. She's a high-speeding Lamborghini on curvy roads. Anything can happen. Disaster. Thrills. I'm interested in what happens with Alice.
Will she crash or make it around the bends in one piece? I want to find out. I hope you want to know. If you do, go and purchase a copy of "Bad Monsters" today.
