Guest post: An Excerpt from GOTH TOWN by Jesse Giles Christiansen

GOTH TOWN by Jesse Giles Christiansen

PROLOGUE

JAKE RAYNER is the only one, other than Samantha Bryant, who had the vision.

He’ll never forget the first time it happened. He was out for a walk in the woods by himself, a practice highly discouraged by the Overseers.

He was always surprised at how little everyone questioned the rules of the Overseers. Many of them seemed so ridiculous. Then again, they owed everything to them. There would have been no life here at all, if not for them.

That afternoon the hazy air was happy and it seemed to seep into everything. Jake was reckless to allow it to seep into him. His feet, his legs, his fingers, even his thoughts, were reckless.

I know they’re going to find me. I just know it. Then they’re going to hook me up to the Recalibration Machine again.

But that day he didn’t care about a single thing. He was mad with life. Life was mad in his veins. Life was livid in his veins. 

Everything spoke to him. The birds’ songs were like shrilly operas stuck in fortissimo. The creek sneaking along by his side crackled and popped the way a long-asleep radio wakes up hungry and eager to play. The wind in the pines moaned softly like a lonely lover. 

Then it happened.

He felt dizzy at first, his head so light he thought it might float away. Something surged inside him that could have been swallowed lightning, rising, writhing, and climbing up to his head.

The memory came.

Memories were demons; they were even more forbidden than being all alone; they were not allowed to even start. When they went in for their weekly screening, any evidence of memories prior to the Anti-Emotion Movement was immediately erased. It was for their own good. Really. They had to believe in the Overseers. They gave them everything, and asked for so little in return. The Overseers picked them up after the Great Fog.

He just stood there and could not stop the memory. Oh, it was so warm. That swallowed lightning curled up, balled up in his head and took to nuclear fusion, forming a miniature sun to melt all the work of the entire Overseers’ brilliant technology.

But what an afternoon it was.

The first flash was of shiny boxes wrapped in fancy bows under a tree that someone had stuck in a living room. What a bizarre image. Why would someone put a perfectly good tree in a living room? Perfect madness. Perfect madness, indeed. And the poor, poor tree.

The tree was wrapped with winking lights, and as he stood there, letting this memory take root, he could see the pines around him dressed the same. They were beautiful, and he overflowed with the urge to take all the pines in the forest, shrink them down, and put them into everyone’s homes.

Ridiculous. Utterly ridiculous.

He heard footsteps, and the beautiful, horrible, absurd memory vanished. The memory vanished like the scent of a woman riding with you on a train—a woman you know you will never see again.

He waited for the Goth Town Police to arrest him. And he cherished those seconds as the taste of a curious and wild memory remained for a few seconds on his lips. Those few seconds were more blissful than the rambunctious air that crept all through the forest that afternoon and shot rays of perilous hope into everything. In those few seconds, he tried to chase the echo that was home to that taste. That scent of a woman on a train. He tried to return to it with the desperation of a legless man waking from a Boston Marathon dream.

But at least the taste was there when they handcuffed him.

At least the flicker.

A gray haunt … at least … 

Jesse Giles Christiansen is an American author who writes compelling literary fiction that weaves the real with the surreal. He attended Florida State University where he received his B.A. in English literature. He is the author of Pelican Bay, an Amazon #1 list bestseller, outselling Old Man and the Sea by Hemingway. One of Christiansen's literary goals is to write at least fifty novels, and he always reminds himself of something that Ray Bradbury once said: "You fail only if you stop writing."

Amazon link: http://www.amazon.com/Goth-Town-Jesse-Giles-Christiansen-ebook/dp/B00P8QFUTW

Web Site: www.jessegileschristiansen.com
Blog: www.jgchristiansen.wordpress.com

Twitter:https://twitter.com/JesseGilesChris

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/jesse.gileschristiansen.7

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5261095.Jesse_Giles_Christiansen

Guest Author Jesse Giles Christiansen and his GOTH TOWN Character Interview

Today's special guest post is from American author Jesse Giles Christiansen, and he has a great blog tour lined up for his newest release, GOTH TOWN. Welcome, Jesse! :-)

Character Interview: Inside the Mind of GOTH TOWN’s Founder, Lord Gothly

  

JGC: Why Christmaslessness around the whole world? Isn’t Goth Town enough?

LG: Ha-ha. Your thinking is so limited. What a lousy physicist you would have made! My grandfather’s vision was to not just stop pesky, debilitating emotions in one small place, but everywhere. You see, Goth Town was only the testing ground, so to speak. The world is suffering from omnipresent locusts. Oh, you cannot see them, dear fellow, but they are just as devouring. Tell me, would you stop global locusts in only one place?

If you were to stop all emotions, wouldn’t you stop all thinking, too? Memories?

Ha! Not so dull-witted as I expected! Of course, you boldly assume that thoughts and feelings are hopelessly tied together. How erroneous you are, dear fellow! Yes, thoughts breed emotions, but there are pure thoughts that have no emotions. No sappy, disabling memories … just those of truth and unequivocal existence. What bliss they are! They flow like the quiet symphony that accompanies the swift movements of logic. They walk like barefoot women through Times Square! Only 33 days left!

How do you plan to accomplish such a feat?

Again, such limited thinking! I would not expect someone like you to understand dark physics, especially one who thinks in such two-dimensional terms. Accomplish. Ha-ha!

How could the world exist without fond memories?

We define fond quite differently, let me assure you. Take this hideous, pitiable thing called Christmas, for example. Is it fond? Really? The primary components of Christmas are love and giving. Yuck! It turns my stomach to event think of such things! Do love and giving make the world a better place? Do they save the environment? Allow for interstellar travel? Do they keep one warm at night? No! I shall tell you what they do. They make the world stronger rather than weaker. One day the world will see that they have had it all quite reversed. They will thank me! To love someone is to erase his or her purpose and individuality. To give to them keeps them from fending for themselves. Do you not see? Christmas is really not good for the world. My grandfather believed it was the root of the failure of humanity.

GOTH TOWN has already sold over 100 copies, and it’s not even Thanksgiving yet. How do you feel about that?

I am so tired of hearing about this book. I am positively sick with it! You see, this is the pathetic sentimentality that I am trying to save everyone from. Do you not see how pitifully absurd the notion is? As if a book is going to stop anything. A hundred you said? Ha! How many stars are there? How much dark energy can we siphon from a black hole? Take your books and burn them; perhaps they might warm a small group of Christmas urchins!

You seem very emotional. Isn’t that a contradiction?

You seem to have an extremely impoverished sense of time. You promised fifteen minutes. I have work to do. The Global Re-Constitution Device must be ready on Christmas morning. I bid thee adieu!

Jesse Giles Christiansen is an American author who writes compelling literary fiction that weaves the real with the surreal. He attended Florida State University where he received his B.A. in English literature. He is the author of Pelican Bay, an Amazon #1 list bestseller, outselling Old Man and the Sea by Hemingway. One of Christiansen's literary goals is to write at least fifty novels, and he always reminds himself of something that Ray Bradbury once said: "You fail only if you stop writing."

Amazon link: http://www.amazon.com/Goth-Town-Jesse-Giles-Christiansen-ebook/dp/B00P8QFUTW
Web Site: www.jessegileschristiansen.com Blog: www.jgchristiansen.wordpress.comTwitter: https://twitter.com/JesseGilesChrisFacebook: http://www.facebook.com/jesse.gileschristiansen.7Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5261095.Jesse_Giles_Christiansen

Stairway to Heaven: Remembering Those We've Lost at Christmas

Today my article on remembering loved ones and grieving during the holidays is featured at the National Crime Writing Month blog.

Holidays are particularly difficult for anyone who has lost a loved one. I hope my words are of some small comfort.

Please read my article: Stairway to Heaven: Remembering Those We've Lost at Christmas

Merry Christmas and may your holidays be filled with GLEE!

Merry Christmas and the best in 2009!

I wish you all the very best in the New Year, and I hope you have a wonderful holiday with family and friends.

~Cheryl Kaye Tardif
http://www.cherylktardif.com/

ACE Update #3 - Cheryl Kaye Tardif in the Times-Herald (GA)

W. Winston Skinner wrote about me and the Alliance for Children's Enrichment (ACE) in the Times-Herald, a Georgia newspaper.

But first, I have to share the lovely poem, written by Jan Taylor at ACE. She actually sold it to Hallmark years ago and it was on a greeting card. This is reprinted with permission.

Life's Perfect Balance

If all the days were sunny,
and the skies were always blue
except for maybe now and then
a rainbow's tinted hue.
Then life would be quite boring,
not too interesting at all.
Because for every Spring that comes,
there has to be a fall.
For each success...
a failure,
for every day...
a night,
for every moment of sadness,
there's another of pure delight.
And if we're able to accept
whatever comes our way,
we'll find a perfect balance
in our lives from day to day.
~*~

What great sentiments!

It was my publisher at Kunati Books who first pointed out to me that there was another article about me, Whale Song, Jan Taylor and the Alliance for Children's Enrichment in the Times-Herald. Reporter W. Winston Skinner follows this amazing story in his December 2, 2007, article titled 'Canadian author responds to wish on ACE Christmas list'.

I am so glad to know that my small efforts are actually helping. It was time worth spending. :)

Go to http://content.times-herald.com/searches.bsp and type TARDIF into the top search (Search the News). You'll see both articles that mention this story.

Also, please consider sponsoring a child this Christmas. It is immensely rewarding and truly puts the meaning of Christmas into the holidays. To sponsor a child through ACE, contact Jan Taylor at cjantaylor@aol.com or call her at 770-254-3339.

Happy holidays!
Cheryl Kaye Tardif

A Christmas miracle

There are times in my life when I have to stop and take a moment to just listen to that "still, small voice". Some of you may know what I'm talking about. That voice that says, "Hey! Listen up! You're meant to do something here. But you won't know what unless you stop and...breathe."

There are times when I am so glad I stopped. This is one of those times.

I've told you about the girl in Newnan, Georgia, who asked for a few things on the Alliance for Children's Enrichment Christmas wish list that was posted in the Times-Herald. I've told you how inspired and touched I was to see that she asked for "Cheryl Tardif books", in particular, Whale Song. I've told you that I decided to sponsor this teen and send her a Christmas I hope she'll always remember. And I believe I've told you that I contacted some other authors on the teen wish list, plus some author friends who aren't.

What I haven't told you is how honored I am to know Jan Taylor, my contact at ACE. Here is a woman who serves her community and "her kids" selflessly and tirelessly. And yet, Jan's own health is seriously declining. I was shocked when she told me she thought she might not make it to Christmas this year, or that it might be her last if she does make it. I was humbled, and continue to be, in the presence (albeit by phone) of this woman.

In an email that she sent out to board members and cc'd to me, she says, "I was quite apprehensive about the Christmas drive this year for several reasons." Jan talked about how low donations were this year, and how many more families they have that need to be helped. I know that this woman has personally cared for and paid for necessities for families. Sometimes for food, heat and electricity, clothing, shelter and prescription drugs. She was so apprehensive this year, worried for her 4000+ families, sad for the kids who will go without food or a Christmas gift.

I am so glad I stopped to listen...to breathe.

After contacting Jan and sponsoring my teen, I decided to see if there was anything else I can do. So I contacted all my author friends, some I knew, some I didn't. Some were on the wish list, some weren't. I contacted my family and friends, book reviewers and as many others as I could think of. I emailed them to let them know that someone (many someones) need help. And they are answering. These authors and friends are also stopping and listening...and helping. And I thank each and every one of them. You are true angels!

ACE still has many more teens and families that need help to get through Christmas and the winter, and I invite you to consider doing a Random Act of Kindness before 2007 is over. Send in a donation, sponsor a child or family...and be part of this Christmas miracle. I guarantee you won't regret it!

In Jan's words, "Christmas is the season of miracles, some small, some large and sometimes, one just needs to be able to recognize them. "

You can contact Jan Taylor at Alliance for Children's Enrichment

8 Carmichael Street

Newnan, Georgia 30263

770-254-3339

770-254-3330 (Fax)

cjantaylor@aol.com

If you wish to sponsor a child, please contact Jan first to see which children are left on the list and to get their real names, especially if you are an author who wishes to send an autographed book.

To read how this miracle began, please read A Christmas Connection.

For the latest wish list, go HERE.

Merry Christmas to you all!

~Cheryl Kaye Tardif

Connecting at Christmas

Some connections may seem tenuous at best. But others appear from nowhere, like the fellow who emailed me out of the blue to ask if we were related. I believe we are all connected. We're connected by past, present and future, by nature, spirit and energy, by hopes and dreams, by fate and faith, by love and light...and caring.

And yesterday, I was reminded again that this world we live in may seem unbelievably large--infinite even--and yet, the smallest of actions can set into motion something that spreads across land and sea, from one country to another, from one heart to another.

It all started with a wish list I saw online. No, wait! Let's go back further.

It started with an organization in Newnan, Georgia. The Alliance for Children's Enrichment (ACE) is responsible for helping the less fortunate families and children of the Newnan-Coweta area. Every year, ACE makes a wish list, with names, ages and gift wishes of children who live at poverty level. The hardest category to fill is the teens. Their needs are sometimes more expensive and they are often overlooked as many people want to help the younger children first.

This saddens me. I have a 17 year old daughter. Christmas is just as important to her now as it was when she was a child. And every child deserves to have something beautiful and colorful to unwrap on Christmas morning. That is the excitement, the thrill of Christmas.

So how did I find out about this organization and their kids?

Read the entire story here.

Cheryl Kaye Tardif, bestselling author of Whale Song (Kunati Books)