I am stoked to be hosting a stop on the blog tour for THE LIGHT: HOUSTON TEXAS by Joe M. Solomon! I have an excerpt to share with you today check it out and enter to win the giveaway below!
About The Book:
Title: THE
LIGHT: HOUSTON TEXAS
Author: Joe M. Solomon
Pub. Date: June 11, 2019
Publisher: NES Publishing
Formats: Paperback,
eBook
Pages: 538
March Madness has begun and college basketball
playoffs are heating up, not that Robert Walker—a graduate student from
Texas—particularly cares. He has decided to skip classes for the day, sleep in,
and get some rest. Unfortunately, a brief spat on the phone with his fiancée
makes that impossible. Hoping to take his mind off of it, he scans through TV
channels in search of entertainment and instead finds one news report after
another that warns of violence erupting in the streets.
People are randomly and savagely attacking one
another all along the East Coast from Maine to Florida. Some speculate it may
be related to strange lights that have appeared in the sky above the outbreaks.
Before any solid conclusions can be drawn, however, the brutality spreads,
sweeping across the country until it hits Houston, then proceeds on to the West
Coast. Robert, a handful of classmates, and a few others manage to survive the
first wave and find themselves in the midst of civilization’s blackest hour, surrounded
by pandemonium, bloodshed, and masses of people who have been stripped of their
humanity. Hours later, as those strange lights continue to dominate the sky,
the vicious horde undergoes a new transformation.
There is no escaping the horror. Unable to reach
his fiancée by phone, Robert sets out to find her, joined by a small ensemble
of fellow survivors. The thirty-five miles they must cover are fraught with
danger, and their terror grows with each step they take as they witness the
genesis of a new Earth. Can they find a way to stop it? Will they even survive
it?
Now on to the interview!
Hey Joe!! First I want to say welcome to Two Chicks on Books I’m glad
you could stop by for a chat! THE LIGHT: HOUSTON TEXAS sounds AWESOME and I
can’t wait for everyone to read it!
Thank you for the interview. I’m happy to be here celebrating the big
release.
For the readers:
can you tell us a little bit about the THE LIGHT: HOUSTON TEXAS and the
characters?
In The Light:
Houston, Texas, a handful of college students find their worlds turned upside
down when mysterious lights abruptly appear in the sky and dramatically change
(for the worse) anyone who looks up at them. Chaos and violence erupt. But this
is only the beginning. And these students, boasting a variety of personalities
and backgrounds, will have to work together to survive.
What are you
working on now?
I am working on an anthology that will include sci-fi,
suspense, and horror stories, some with humor mixed in. I am also working on my
next novel, which will follow the anthology.
Were any of the
characters in the book inspired by people from your real life?
No. They are a combination
of personalities I have rattling around in my imagination: What if you insert
this attribute into this deranged person or vice versa?
Who was your favorite
character to write? What about your least favorite?
Anthony was my favorite
character to write. I wanted him to be horrible, awful, just a terrible person
no one could root for. At the same time, I didn’t want him to be too terrible since everybody has a
little goodness in them. However, if something unfortunate happened to him, I
wanted readers to cheer.
My least favorite character to write is one who presents one face when
you meet the person, but secretly possesses a nefarious motive. I know it is a
simple character. We’ve all met people like that, too. But I hate writing characters
like that. In Anthony’s case, he at least proudly proclaims that he is a snake
so you know exactly what you’re getting.
What is your
favorite passages/scenes in THE LIGHT: HOUSTON TEXAS?
This is an early scene in which Robert and Alex (Alexandria) are trying
to wrap their minds around the chaos that has erupted, chaos that spilled into Robert’s
studio apartment in the grad house. They are just coming out of hiding. Robert had
sought refuge in a closet while Alex hid in a bathtub with a torn shower
curtain thrown over her.
* * *
“Not good,” Robert told her softly. He stood slowly, the movement
inspiring a moan.
“Are you okay?”
With an almost catlike grace, she hopped out of the tub. “Are you?” she
asked.
Robert gaped.
“Four years of high school basketball,” she said. “But you know that.”
He nodded.
“You want to turn that off?” Alex pointed at his cell phone. “Might
need the juice later.”
“Oh. Yeah… yeah,” Robert said almost as an
afterthought, then nodded toward the next room. “I guess we should go out
there, huh?”
“I guess.”
“Okay. I have to officially say this: I’m scared shitless. I know I’m
the guy, but—”
“What, are you crazy?” Alex interjected. “This isn’t about opening a
door or picking up a check on a first date. This is the end.”
Robert nodded and took another nervous deep breath. “Yeah. Yeah.” He
expelled it. “The Doors.”
Her brow crinkled in confusion. “What doors?”
“The Doors. Jim Morrison. This is the end. You know.”
“The Doors.” Watching him with an eagle eye, she added, “Right. Right.”
What kind of
research did you have to do for the story?
I had to research various aspects of NASA, learn about SOFIA (The
Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy), nuclear submarines, military
compounds, and detailed mapping of certain parts of Houston that Google Maps
don’t really show, as well as surrounding areas.
Who is your
ultimate book villain?
Pinhead from The Hellbound Heart
by Clive Barker.
What inspired you
to write this story?
I always begin with, “What if. . . ?” From there I plug in different
ideas, and this was the result of them.
Lightening Round
Questions
What are you
reading right now? Or what do you have on your TBR that you’re dying to read?
Cell by Stephen King.
HG Wells’ Complete Short Stories.
What Hogwarts
House would the Sorting Hat place you in?
I’ve never read Harry Potter, so I have no idea.
Twitter or
Facebook?
Facebook
Favorite
Superhero?
Man of Steel version of
Superman
Favorite TV show?
On the air now: Modern Family.
Sweet or Salty?
Salty
Any Phobias?
No
Song you can’t get
enough of right now?
“Duality” (Slipknot)
2019 Movie you’re
most looking forward to?
Endgame on dvd
Thanks so much Joe for answering my questions! I can’t wait for
everyone to read THE LIGHT: HOUSTON TEXAS!
Thanks again for the interview. I hope your readers will enjoy the
story.
About Joe:
Joe Solomon earned
both master’s and doctoral degrees from Rice University and is a writer, a
director, an independent filmmaker, and a composer. His first novel—a supernatural thriller
entitled The Darkness: Giger, Texas—reached #2 on Amazon's Best Seller list and
is available in paperback, ebook, and audiobook. His next novel—The Light:
Houston, Texas—will release June 11, 2019. He has also completed a collection
of short stories that arose from the macabre and will release next year.
An award-winning
screenwriter, Joe has completed seventeen screenplays and nine stage plays. He
has also been very active in the independent film industry, directing four
short films, one feature film (post production), and six music videos. His
screenplays have won Best Screenplay at the Mediterranean Film Festival
(Cannes, France), been Official Selections at the Beverly Hills Film Festival,
been a Finalist in the American Movie Awards, won the Final Draft Screenwriters
Award, won the Screenwriting Showcase Award, reached the Second Round in The
Sundance Feature Film Program, and been a Finalist in the Scriptapalooza
Screenwriting Competition. His music videos have won Best Music Video at the
Honolulu Film Awards, the Silver Remi Award for Creative Excellence at the WorldFest
Houston International Film Festival, won the Maple Leaf Award at the Canada
International Film Festival, been an Official Selection of the International
Filmmaker Festival of World Cinema—Milan, been an Official Selection of the
Switzerland International Film Festival, won Best Director—Music Video in the
Honolulu Film Awards, and been a Finalist in the American Movie Awards. They
have also been Official Selections of many additional international film
festivals.
Giveaway Details:
4 lucky winners will receive a $20
Amazon Gift Card, International.
Tour Schedule:
Week
One:
6/4/2019- BookHounds- Interview
6/5/2019- Book Sniffers
Anonymous- Excerpt
6/6/2019- Simply Daniel
Radcliffe- Review
6/7/2019- Tyto Forest- Excerpt
Week
Two:
6/10/2019- fictitious.fox- Review
6/11/2019- Lifestyle of Me- Review
6/12/2019- The
Tired Buyer- Interview
6/13/2019- Burgandy Ice- Excerpt
6/14/2019- Two Chicks on Books- Interview
Week
Three:
6/17/2019- Pacific Northwest Bookworm- Review
6/18/2019- A Dream Within A
Dream- Excerpt
6/19/2019- Owl Always Be Reading- Guest
Post
6/20/2019- Adventures
Thru Wonderland- Review
6/21/2019- Bookbriefs- Review
Week
Four:
6/24/2019- Smada's Book Smack- Spotlight
6/25/2019- Don't Judge, Read- Interview
6/26/2019- KayBee's Bookshelf, A
Literary Blog- Spotlight
6/27/2019- A Gingerly Review- Review
6/28/2019- PopTheButterfly Reads- Review
Week
Five:
7/1/2019- Reads & Reviews- Review
7/2/2019- Jaime's World- Excerpt
