#BookBlast Unseasonal War by David Englund

David Englund is a storyteller (science fiction author) and teaches economics at North Dakota State University.  His first two titles, Upsetting the Tides and UNSEASONAL WAR are available on Amazon.  Camouflaged Encounters is due out in late 2014 and the fourth and fifth books are in progress. Facebook, Blog, Amazon.

David will be awarding a digital copy of Unseasonal War to a randomly drawn commenter at every stop during the tour. Here's a list of all the stops, be sure to enter at every one!

Blurb:

Clark Jackson’s travels, for the first time, put him in touch with an intriguing species remarkably human-like. He becomes instantly fascinated with the Fronents and envious of their advanced technology. Striving to befriend them and learn more, his uncontrolled enthusiasm forsakes the use of appropriate caution and suspicion. Could their cold reception be a byproduct of their war with a vile species in this corner of the universe, or something else?

The magnificent splendor of an unexplored galaxy, new species to encounter and the adrenalin rush of space battle feed Clark’s awestruck hunger for exploration and adventure. Unfortunately, the more he learns the more he questions; including the wisdom of his entangled involvement in their war.

Meanwhile, back home in Des Moines, Iowa, Clark attempts to maintain an inconspicuous lifestyle to avoid attracting the attention of a certain relentless federal agency. His girlfriend’s own secret, however, could unravel it all.

**Even though the book is the second book in the series, it IS standalone

 

Excerpt:

Mouth chomping, the alien swayed his head back and forth, then back and back again.  His eyes darted from left to right, unblinking.  He took a step in Clark’s direction, stopped and sniffed anew.

 Maybe invisibility isn’t . . . good enough.  What to do?  No shape to fight.

Clark inched his way along the wall from his seated position.  Slowly, quietly, he distanced himself from the curious pursuer.  The sound of marching echoed in the hallway.  He wanted to avoid the hard gaze of the vile creature, but Clark’s head would not move.

No, no, no.  Stay away.  Nothing here.

The tenacious searcher took two steps forward.  Fingers flexed open and closed and opened and closed.  Nostrils flared.  Eyes continued searching while chomping persisted.

Clark inched along faster, less concerned with noise than distance.  His pulse quickened and despite his best efforts, sweat began to gather on his forehead.  His stomach lurched.  Breaths came in shorter, quicker gasps.  The sound of stomping feet eased slightly as did the smell of reptiles and leather.

One final sniff caused the soldier’s eyes to narrow, more determined to locate the foul smell.  He looked over his shoulder to see his comrades moving on without him.  A moment of indecision, and then renewed focus brought the hunter a step closer to Clark.

Small drops of sweat fell to the floor.  No longer attached to his body, a thin trail became visible as he continued backward.  Clark looked at the floor.

Gasp!

The creature followed Clark’s path.  He stepped onto the drops of sweat as he made his way toward the rear door.

Amazon

#BookBlast Seventeen by Mark Diehl

Mark D. Diehl writes novels about power dynamics and the way people and organizations influence each other. He believes that obedience and conformity are becoming humanity’s most important survival skills, and that we are thus evolving into a corporate species. Diehl has: been homeless in Japan, practiced law with a major multinational firm in Chicago, studied in Singapore, fled South Korea as a fugitive, and been stranded in Hong Kong. After spending most of his youth running around with hoods and thugs, he eventually earned his doctorate in law at the University of Iowa and did graduate work in creative writing at the University of Chicago. He currently lives and writes in Cape Elizabeth, Maine.  
Author’s Website 

a Rafflecopter giveaway   

What kind of writer am I?

I would characterize myself as a Post-Objectivist fiction writer, the first and only, so far as I know. Objectivism was Ayn Rand’s philosophy, based on the idea that true morality came from individual pursuit of personal goals. She asserted, therefore, that the only system that could be truly moral was a laissez-faire capitalist one with full respect for individual rights. Ayn Rand was brilliant, but she didn’t have the vantage point we do now.  

In Rand’s day, humanity was trying to figure out how much a role government should play in markets. It looked like the world was being unzipped and falling into halves. On one side were state-planned economies, with their collective farms and military parades. On the other was the capitalist model, with our sleek, efficient, market-driven economies. 

Growing up in Russia, Rand had seen Communism first hand. She realized that giving the state so much control was stifling to individuals, and she showed in her books how state oppression could extinguish a society’s innovative abilities. When Communist societies began collapsing, it seemed to prove that Ayn Rand had called it: We had the better system, and it was better because it encouraged and rewarded the individual. 

Here’s the thing, though:  

Multinational corporations now dwarf most of the world’s governments, but we still treat them as if they’re individuals. Recent Supreme Court decisions have upheld corporate “human rights” like privacy and free speech, meaning, among other things, that they are protected from surprise safety inspections and they can spend unlimited sums to influence elections. They own most of the world’s available resources and are run for one purpose only: the generation of short-term profit. They demand efficiency, planning, and discipline, they reward unity and conformity, and they have even less respect for human uniqueness than their government counterparts. Big business is not an alternative to big government so much as it is the new totalitarian structure eclipsing it.

The truth is that BOTH models stifle the individual, either through the forced altruism of Communism or the cutthroat uniformity of corporatism. Step out of the party line, the Communists shut you out, just like corporations do to whistleblowers. What Ayn Rand thought was the antidote to Communism was just a different kind of poison. If either the government or big business is able to rule on behalf of itself, the individual is shut out. The so-called left and right wings are just flying us toward control by the same elites, either way. What we see now is that either side can be equally dehumanizing. 

The only way free individuals have a chance is if they all decide to wake up and become aware. In order for unique, independent people to continue to exist, we must develop into an informed public with actual power and the desire to keep it.

Here’s the same idea, boiled down:
In the jungle, the biggest gorilla takes as much as he wants. It’s natural. Our problem is that through the creation of corporations and governments, we now have immortal gorillas who continue growing forever. Our situation is no longer natural.

Blurb:

Most of the world's seventeen billion people are unconscious, perpetually serving their employers as part of massive brain trusts. The ecosystem has collapsed, and corporations control all of the world's resources and governments. A bedraggled alcoholic known as the Prophet predicts nineteen year-old waitress Eadie will lead a revolution, but how can she prevail when hunted by a giant corporation and the Federal Angels it directs?

The old man wrung his hands, looking Hawkins up and down. Hawkins scrolled through some text and found the name again: Stuckey. Another gee-whiz dimwit citizen, eager to please. Stuckey’s eyes went back up, from Hawkins’s acid-resistant all-traction black shoes, to his flexible, abrasion-proof gray uniform – cut in the old-fashioned suit style with lapels – to his perfectly Gold complexion and salt-and-pepper, closely-trimmed hair.

Excerpt:

“Never had a Federal Angel in my place before,” Stuckey said, though Hawkins barely heard him.  The Agent was closely observing the movements of a young, redheaded waitress setting plates on a table. As she leaned over, the girl kept her knees pressed tightly together, as her panties were clearly exposed with every bend of her waist. “I wish I could help you more; dropped that danged computer in a pot of soup when it was all going on – corporate’ll be furious, of course, but you’ve gotta tell ‘em so you can get the information you need. I hope my blunder doesn’t slow down your case, though. God’s will, right? God to the President to you, the Federal Angels. Geez. I never thought I’d actually meet one of you.”

Amazon