Categories
Angels and related matters Asuntos angélicos Lanzamiento Muestra de escritura video

#Asuntosangélicos2. Dimensiones de Greg, a la venta mañana. Y un video y una muestra.

Hola a todos:

Mañana será publicada la segunda novela en mi serie juvenil Asuntos angélicos 2. Dimensiones de Greg. Y se me ocurrió que para recordároslo, le dedicaría un post individual.

Primero quería compartir un video que preparé, que aunque lo incluí en un post la semana pasada, como estaba al final de todo, creo que pasó desapercibido. Así que hoy lo pongo al principio.

Un fragmento de la novela:

El viernes me pareció ver a un tipo al que no había visto nunca antes, de pie delante de mi casa. Cuando salí echó a andar hacia mí, o eso me pareció, pero Seth pasó en coche y se ofreció a llevarme y yo accedí. Cuando volví a ver al mismo tío esperando a cierta distancia cuando Sylvia, Lorna y yo salimos de la escuela, no supe qué pensar. Creí que desaparecería durante el rato que íbamos a pasar en la biblioteca. Y no le vi cuando salimos de allí o de camino a la parada de autobús. Pero tan pronto como arrancó el autobús, le vi de pie en la acera al otro lado de la calle.

El tío aquel me estaba empezando a asustar. No se lo había contado a Lorna y Sylvia porque ¿qué podían hacer ellas de todas maneras? Sylvia empezaría a hablar de acoso, como siempre, y Lorna se preguntaría si era un buen candidato para una relación amorosa. Aunque, para ser justa con ella, de hecho no. Era alto, muy delgado, pálido, con pinta de Goth, con un vestuario nada impresionante… No, no era de los que Lorna consideraría un buen candidato a novio. Y por lo menos debía tener veinticinco años o más. ¿Por qué nos estaba siguiendo? O, mejor dicho, ¿por qué me estaba siguiendo a mí?

El hombre misterioso que sigue a Pink
El hombre misterioso que sigue a Pink

No es que me asuste fácilmente, en mi opinión, pero empecé a andar más deprisa. Estaba oscureciendo y aún me quedaba un trozo para llegar a mi casa, y aunque el vecindario era seguro… Él también aceleró. “No te asustes. ¡No te asustes!” me iba repitiendo mentalmente. No me funcionó demasiado bien. Estaba a punto de echar a correr cuando el tipo ese gritó:

—Pink… ¡Pink!

Vale, eso era raro. ¿Cómo narices sabía cómo me llamaba?

—Pink… —yo me había parado. Me alcanzó—. Soy yo. —Le miré. Yo…

—¿Quién eres exactamente?

—Me siguen gustando las trufas Lindt.

—¿G?

Él sonrió y asintió.

El G original
El G original

—Me pensaba que te habían hecho ir de vuelta… a casa. No me di cuenta de que simplemente te iban a dar otro cuerpo.

Se encogió de hombros.

—Yo tampoco. No, me han dado otra misión.

—Ya veo. ¿De nuevo aquí?

—No exactamente.

—¿Entonces dónde?

—Dallas.

—¿Cómo? Está lejos. ¿Tienes el día libre, o está tu protegido por aquí, o qué?

—¿Libre? No tenemos tiempo libre.

—Tenéis un contrato de mierda, entonces.

Él se rio y se encogió de hombros.

—No está tan mal considerando los tipos de contratos que mi jefe suele ofrecer —dijo. Ahora me tocó a mí sonreír.

—Así que, ¿qué haces por aquí?

—Quería ver cómo estabas.

No empecéis todos… “Oh, qué mono” porque estamos hablando de un demonio.

—Estoy bien. Gracias.

—Me alegro. ¿Se está cuidando bien de ti Dashiell?

—Podrías preguntárselo a él. Nunca he tenido muy claro que es lo que pensáis conseguir vosotros siguiéndome todo el rato. Me has dado tantas versiones distintas de la historia… Y Dashiell… Es mucho más estricto y dedicado exclusivamente a la misión de lo que lo eras tú.

Suspiró. Su nuevo cuerpo le daba un aspecto más vulnerable.

—Echo de menos estar conectado contigo.

Ahora estaba llevando las cosas demasiado lejos.

—Si haces memoria, la tal conexión se rompió hace tiempo. Debería irme. Se está haciendo tarde.

—Te acompaño a casa.

Me daba una sensación muy rara el tener a G andando a mi lado, pero sin parecerse para nada al que solía ser. Muy extraño.

—¿Cómo están Lorna y Sylvia?

—Bien. Bueno, más o menos. Lorna ha decidido que ha llegado la hora de encontrar a su hombre perfecto, y Sylvia decidió ir a por ello y diseñó un programa de ordenador para ayudarla. Y creó un perfil e incluso una especie de retrato digital. Y se parece algo a Dashiell, así que ahora Lorna cree que él podría ser su hombre perfecto. Y él no ha sido de gran ayuda.

Dashiell
Dashiell

—¿Qué ha hecho?

Le conté a G su idea de crear una tapadera para mantenerse en contacto conmigo haciendo que todas le ayudásemos en su proyecto.

—No deberían haberme apartado de tu caso —se quejó.

—Oh, estoy segura de que ella estará bien. Lorna es dura de pelar.

—¿Y Sylvia?

—No estoy tan segura sobre Sylvia. Se está comportando de forma rara últimamente. Nos dijo que puede que hubiera conocido a alguien pero no quiere contarnos ningún detalle. Y siempre parece estar distraída. Creo que algo se cuece, pero por algún motivo no quiere hablar de ello. Estoy preocupada, aunque normalmente suele tener los pies en tierra.

Él se acarició la barbilla, que en su cuerpo actual era muy prominente.

—Veré si puedo descubrir algo.

—Estoy segura de que debes estar ocupado con tu misión, sea lo que sea. No quiero que te metas en líos con tu jefe por no hacer tu trabajo y mezclarte en asuntos humanos.

Se encogió de hombros.

—A mi “jefe”, como insistes en llamarle, le gustan los líos. Le hacen superarse a sí mismo. Siempre consigue encontrarle un lado ventajoso a algo que a primera vista parece haber salido mal.

—Muy emprendedor. Suena a spin doctor.

—¡Desde luego!

Sonreí y le miré atentamente. Sí, daba una sensación muy rara, porque aunque, por supuesto, la voz tampoco era la suya, e incluso el acento era diferente —un deje sureño lento y pausado que el G de antes no tenía— a mí me seguía sonando como él. O quizás solo era mi mente gastándome una broma.

—Parece que tu misión no te tiene muy ocupado. Supongo que no puedo saber de qué va.

Él hizo una mueca. Le había tocado un punto sensible.

—Es un aburrimiento. Se supone que tengo que hacerle de niñera a un niño pequeño, tiene unos siete u ocho años, porque a uno de nuestros analistas se le ocurrió sugerir que tiene el potencial para convertirse en un tipo peligroso en el futuro, un líder letal y chiflado de las masas, o un supervillano, o un cerebro criminal… Algo así. Si te digo la verdad, hasta ahora es un niño la mar de aburrido, ni siquiera es particularmente malo o travieso. Quizás Sylvia debería venir a trabajar con nosotros. Sus programas puede que nos resultaran más útiles que nuestros métodos de investigación. Revisando historias, leyendas, libros antiguos, observando las estrellas… Supersticiones tontas si quieres mi opinión.

Me hizo reír.

—Nunca hubiese creído que eras un escéptico, cuando mostrabas tanta pasión por la profecía esa que tiene que ver conmigo.

—Bueno, es mejor no arriesgarse. Y es una profecía muy famosa y de buena reputación, no un puzle de unir los puntos.

Le miré intentando adivinar la verdad.

—Pero de todas formas no importa, porque en realidad no se refiere a mí. ¿No?

—Por supuesto.

¿Se sonrojó? A mí me lo pareció, pero no estaba segura de lo mucho que el cuerpo huésped mostraría las emociones reales del demonio. ¿Tenían emociones de verdad? Yo no le creía. Me preguntaba si volvería a  creerle alguna vez.

Pink
Pink

—Por supuesto que confío en tu discreción con respecto a mi misión.

—De todas formas no conozco ningún detalle. Y no me veo yendo a matar al niño ese solo por si acaso.

—Te sorprenderías de lo que llegan a hacer algunas personas.

—¿Cómo te llamas ahora? —le pregunté.

—Peter Pratt. —No sé qué cara debí poner, porque añadió— Eh, no lo escogí yo.

—No me acostumbro a la pinta que tienes ahora.

Se miró de cabeza a pies.

—De nuevo, no lo escogí yo. Aunque supongo que los humanos tampoco escogen su aspecto, a menos que sean muy ricos con cirugía plástica y ese tipo de cosas, pero incluso con eso hay límites.

Me limité a asentir.

—Ya sé que me has dicho que no es como en las historias y las pinturas y todo eso, pero ¿qué aspecto tienes de verdad? No cuando adoptas un cuerpo humano sino…

—No tenemos cuernos, ni una cola y un tridente y no somos de color rojo. No tenemos un aspecto físico como lo entendéis vosotros. Somos una energía espiritual. Algo parecido al show de luces que usa Azrael. Aunque en su caso es una luz brillante. En el nuestro… es oscuridad, como si fuera un agujero negro. No es realmente un agujero negro pero sí una especie de vacío, como la ausencia de luz, por explicarlo de alguna manera.

Los dos nos quedamos callados. Estábamos muy cerca de mi calle. Se paró.

—Será mejor que me vaya ahora. Cuídate. Y no se lo digas a Dashiell. No es una visita oficial y no creo que le hiciese mucha gracia saber que he venido.

—Adiós.

Él me cogió la mano derecha entre sus dos manos, me dio un apretón y se fue. Había sido una visita muy rara. Y sospechaba que no sería la última.

Antes de que se me olviden, los enlaces al libro:

Asuntos angélicos 2. Dimensiones de Greg
Asuntos angélicos 2. Dimensiones de Greg

Amazon:

http://rxe.me/YHZI2X6

Apple:

http://apple.co/1G17Sao

Kobo:

http://bit.ly/1HBXIK6

Nook:

http://bit.ly/1M4YV0G

Y, como sé que os gustan, os dejo un video, probablemente la canción más famosa que habla de ángeles en los últimos años.

Gracias a todos por leer, ver y oír, y ya sabéis, si os ha interesado, dadle al me gusta, comentad, compartid, y haced CLIC!

Categories
Angelic Business Angels and related matters Book launch video Writing samples

#AngelicBusiness 2. Shapes of Greg, out tomorrow. A sample, a video and some songs.

Hi all:

Tomorrow, the 15th of July, the second book in my YA trilogy, Angelic Business, ‘Shapes of Greg’ will be published.

Just last week, author and friend Hans Hirschi posted this amazing review of the whole trilogy. I have to thank him for his kindness and I’m pleased to see it made such an impact on him. Here is the link. Don’t miss it.

http://www.hirschi.se/blog/angelic-business-trilogy/

I shared the video last week, but putting it at the end of the post I think most people missed it. If you didn’t, I’m sorry, there it is again:

 

I leave you a longer sample, when Pink meets and old acquaintance, although she doesn’t quite realise it at first:

On Friday, I thought I saw a guy I’d never seen before standing opposite my house. When I came out he started walking towards me, I thought, but Seth went by driving his car and offered me a lift. I accepted. When I saw the same guy waiting at a distance when Sylvia, Lorna and I came out of school, I didn’t know what to think. I thought he’d disappear while we were at the library. And I didn’t see him when we came out or on the way to the bus stop. But as soon as the bus left, I saw him standing on the pavement on the other side of the road.

I was getting a bit freaked out by that guy. I hadn’t told Lorna and Sylvia because what could they do anyway? Sylvia would start talking about stalking, as usual, and Lorna would wonder if he might be relationship material. Or to be fair no, not, actually. He was tall, skinny, pale, Goth-like looking, dressed to not impress…No, not what Lorna would consider relationship material. And he must have been in his mid-twenties at least. Why was he following us? Or rather, why was he following me?

The mysterious stalker
The mysterious stalker

I don’t think I scare easy, but I started walking faster. It was getting dark and I still had a bit of a way to go before getting home, and although the neighbourhood was safe…He also accelerated. “Don’t panic. Don’t panic!” I kept telling myself. It didn’t quite work. I was seconds from running when the said guy called out:

“Pink…Pink!”

OK, now that was weird. How on earth did he know my name?

“Pink….” I had now stopped walking. He caught up with me. “It’s me.” I looked at him. Me…

“Who are you exactly?”

“I still like Lindt truffles.”

“G?”

Original G
Original G

He smiled and nodded.

“I thought you’d been called back…home? I didn’t realise they were just going to give you another body.”

He shrugged.

“Neither did I. No, they have given me another mission.”

“I see. Here again?”

He blushed, extremely noticeable as he was now so pale.

“Not exactly.”

“Where then?”

“Dallas.”

“What? That’s quite far. Are you off today, or is your charge around here, or what?”

“Off? We don’t get time off.”

“You have a rubbish contract then.”

He laughed and shrugged.

“Not so bad as contracts go with my boss,” he added. Now it was my turn to smile.

“So what are you doing here?”

“I wanted to see how you were.”

Don’t you all go… “Oh, that’s sweet,” because we’re talking about a demon here.

“I’m fine. Thanks.”

“Good. Is Dashiell taking good care of you?”

“You could ask him. I’ve never been clear about what your lot are trying to achieve following me around. You’ve given me so many versions of the story…And Dashiell…he is more strictly business than you were.”

He sighed. His new body gave him a more vulnerable appearance.

“I miss being connected to you.”

Now he was taking things too far.

“If you remember the said connection was severed a long time ago. I should be going. It’s getting late.”

“I’ll walk you home.”

It was a very weird sensation to have G walking next to me, but looking nothing like he used to. Weird.

“How are Lorna and Sylvia?”

“Fine. Well, sort of. Lorna has decided it’s time she finds her perfect man, and Sylvia went all out to try to design a computer programme to help with that. And it produced a profile and even a digital portrait kind-of-thing. And it looks a bit like Dashiell, so now Lorna thinks he might be her perfect man. And he hasn’t helped much.”

“What has he done?”

Dashiell
Dashiell

I told G about his idea of a cover to keep in touch with me by getting us all to work on his project.

“They shouldn’t have taken me off the case,” he complained.

“Oh, I’m sure she’ll be all right. Lorna is a tough cookie.”

“And Sylvia?”

“I’m not so sure about Sylvia. She’s acting quite out of character these days. She told us she might have met somebody but won’t talk about it in any detail. And she seems preoccupied. I think there’s something going on, but for some reason she does not want to talk about it. I’m a bit concerned, although she’s usually very down-to-earth.”

He rubbed his chin that in his current body was quite prominent.

“I’ll see if I can find something out.”

“I’m sure you must be busy with your mission, whatever that is. I don’t want you to get into trouble with your boss for not doing your job and messing up with humans.”

He shrugged his shoulders.

“My “boss” as you keep saying, likes trouble. It’s what he thrives on. He can always find an advantageous angle in anything that at first sight seems to have gone wrong.”

“Very entrepreneurial. He sounds like a spin doctor.”

“You can say that again!”

I smiled and looked at him closely. Yes, it felt very wrong, because although of course, the voice wasn’t his either, and even the accent was very different —a Southern drawl the previous G didn’t have —to me he sounded like himself. Or maybe it was my brain playing tricks on me.

“Is your mission not keeping you very busy then? I assume I’m not allowed to know.”

He cringed. I’d touched a raw nerve.

“It is a bore. I’m supposed to be babysitting this young boy, he’s 7 or 8, because one of our analysts has come up with the suggestion that he has the potential to become a very dangerous guy in the future, some deadly and crazed leader of masses, or a supervillain, or master criminal…Something like that. To tell you the truth, so far he’s a very boring young child, not even particularly bad or naughty. Maybe Sylvia should come and work for us. Her programmes might be more useful than our research methods. Going through stories, legends, ancient books, looking at the stars… Hocus-pocus if you ask me.”

I had to laugh.

“I wouldn’t have taken you for a sceptic, after all that passion about the prophecy I’m involved in.”

“Well, one can’t take chances. And it is a very well-known and accepted prophecy, not some paint-by-numbers style of analysis.”

I looked at him trying to get to the truth.

“But it doesn’t matter anyway, because it’s not really about me. Isn’t that right?”

“Of course.”

Did he blush? He seemed to, but I wasn’t sure how much the host-body would show a demon’s emotions. Did they really have emotions? I did not believe him. I wondered if I would ever believe him again.

“Of course I trust your discretion with regards to the mission.”

“I have no details anyway. And I can’t see myself going to kill the young boy just in case.”

“You’d be surprised what some people might do.”

“Not really,” I thought. Instead I decided to try a different line of conversation. I was also curious.

“What name do you go by now?” I asked him.

“Peter Pratt.” I don’t know what I must have looked like, because he added: “Hey, it wasn’t my choice.”

“I can’t get used to how you look now.”

He looked at himself.

“Again, not my choice. Although I guess humans don’t choose how they look either, other than very rich people with plastic surgery and things, but even with that there are limits.”

I nodded.

“I know you’ve told me it’s not like in the stories and paintings and all that, but what do you really look like? Not when you take up a human body but as…”

“We don’t have horns, or a tail and pitch-fork and we aren’t red. We don’t have a physical appearance as you’d understand it. We are spiritual energy. A bit like the glowing light performance that Azrael puts on. Although in their case it’s that kind of bright light. In ours…it’s a darkness, a bit like a black hole. It’s not really a black hole but it’s that void, an absence of light, I imagine if I had to explain it.”

We were both quiet. We were very close to my street. He stopped walking.

“I’d better go now. Take care. And don’t tell Dashiell. This is not an official visit and he might not appreciate my coming here.”

“Bye.”

He squeezed my right hand in both of his and then left. It had been a very strange visit. And it would not be the last.

Pink
Pink

Before I forget, I’ll better leave you the links to the book, just in case:

Angelic Business 2. Shapes of Greg
Angelic Business 2. Shapes of Greg

Amazon:

http://rxe.me/YHZ21O2

Apple:

http://apple.co/1AE2MQR

Kobo:

http://bit.ly/1eFYYVB

Nook:

http://bit.ly/1AGqNHn

And as I know you enjoy them, I thought I’d leave you a song with Angels. Probably the most popular song with angels of recent years:

Thanks for reading and watching, and you know, if you have enjoyed it, like, comment, share and of course, if you fancy it, CLICK! 

Categories
Angelic Business Angels and related matters Blog Tour Book launch Help!

I need help with my new #YA series. Anybody for a #blogtour post in June?

Hi all:

You know I’ve been pestering you all about my new YA series ‘Angelic Business’ and asking questions about marketing to try and put a plan together. OK, I’m not sure it’s a fully-fledged plan, but I’ve decided a few things.  As I’ve written already the three novels, I will put them in Amazon in pre-order this weekend (with about a month in between the releases of each part), at low prices to begin with and then they’ll go up. I might later on make the first one free (either temporarily or permanently, but we shall see). I haven’t yet decided on the KDP Select thing. Might try initially (I haven’t had any of my novels in Select for a while) but…

I want to give a go at having somebody organise a blog tour for me at some point, but I think it’s probably best to wait until  the first novel is out already. So here it goes. I’ve seen people organise an unofficial tour for their books, and I thought I’d ask if any of you could share a post about ‘Angelic Business 1. Pink Matters’ some time in June. I haven’t set a date for the release yet (I’ll do this weekend) but it should be around the 24th or 25th of June. I will create an html post that just needs to be copied into the blog. I am not planning on making it too long or elaborate. If I can manage to get my wits about me I might try and create a book trailer of sorts, but otherwise it will be the cover, description, link, and perhaps a bit of a sample…

I had already asked if anybody would want to have a look at the book and had a couple of replies. If anybody has the time and feels up to it, do let me know and I can provide it in any format (although it will be a draft version and home conversion so…). But if you can just fit the post somewhere…

I’ve been saving a few appearances in blogs to try and time them up with the release, so I’ll be a bit busy but…

Oh, the cover of the first book was featured in this guest post, by the wonderful Sally Ember but of course, I also had to share it with you. Thanks to my friend Lourdes Vidal for her creation.

Angelic Business 1. Pink Matters
Angelic Business 1. Pink Matters

I’ve updated the description so…

You are Pink, not the prettiest girl, but smart and with plenty of resources. What do you do when your best male friend offers to have sex with you, because he thinks you’re a lost cause? You plot your revenge with your two best female friends, of course!

It seems you’re in luck when a new and mysterious student appears. And, to top it all, he seems interested in you too. He could take part in the plan. But then, he seems to have a plan of his own… He insists he’s not just an ordinary boy. And what seemed so easy to begin with, gets more and more complicated when Heaven and Hell come knocking at Pink’s door.

PINK MATTERS is the story of Pink, a 17 year old girl, good student, articulate and smart. What she has never been the centre of attention or made the top ten of the most popular and attractive girls at school. When two guys, both claiming to be angels, insist that she is, indeed, ‘special’, fight for her attention and help and tell her she is the key to the future of the universe, she can’t help but ask: Why me?

And now, as a treat, I thought I’d leave you this:

Thanks so much for reading, if you’re interested in featuring a post, I’d be eternally grateful, so please, just leave me a comment and contact me here or wherever, and of course, if you’d like the book, let me know, and share, like, comment… and may the angels be with you!