Thursday 17 November 2016

Book Spotlight & Giveaway: Highway Thirteen to Manhattan by Kourtney Heintz



Highway Thirteen to Manhattan
The Six Train to Wisconsin Series
Book Two
Kourtney Heintz

Genre: Paranormal and Suspense

Publisher: Aurea Blue Press

Date of Publication: 11/1/2016

ISBN: 978-0989132688
ASIN: TBA

Number of pages: 420
Word Count: 94,000

Cover Artist: Creative Paramita

Book Description:

His secrets almost killed her. Her secrets may destroy them both.

Kai is recovering from a near-death experience when she realizes something isn’t right. Her body is healing, but her mind no longer feels quite like her own. Her telepathic powers are changing, too. She can’t trust herself. The darkness growing inside of her pushes her to use her telepathy as a weapon.

Oliver clings to the hope that he can save their marriage, even though he was the one who put her life in jeopardy. As his wife slips further and further away from him, he becomes increasingly obsessed with bringing the man who ruined his life to justice.

The sequel to The Six Train to Wisconsin is a genre-defying tale of love and consequences. Once again, award-winning author Kourtney Heintz seamlessly weaves suspense and paranormal intrigue into a real-world setting, creating characters rich in emotional and psychological complexity.


"Family secrets, paranormal suspense, and romance collide in Heintz's fascinatingly original tale. A compelling read that will keep you guessing and haunt you long after the last page is turned." -Gretchen Archer, USA Today Bestselling author of the Davis Way Crime Capers


Grab Book One for Free October 1- December 1

The Six Train to Wisconsin






CHAPTER 1

Kai

Like most daughters, I loved my parents, but right now, I wanted them anywhere but here. Hospitals are always hard, but my parents managed to make it harder. My head was already pounding from all the thoughts and emotions coming at me. Not just from the patients and their families and the doctors and the nurses, but also from my mother and father. Instead of shielding their thoughts and trying to make it better for me, they let their emotions crash into me.
My mind wasn’t strong enough for all this. Neither was my body. Tubes eviscerated my right hand. A giant bruise blossomed beside the newest IV line. A cast wrapped around my left wrist. My broken pinky finger had been set and taped to my ring finger. The back of my head was held together with stitches. Beneath the blanket, my body was covered in bruises.
I didn’t feel any physical pain because of the medications the doctors pumped into me. They said I needed it to recover, but it made my body feel like it wasn’t mine. And the steady drip of opiates didn’t just steal my physical pain; it left me unable to form the psychic shield I needed to protect myself from the misery swirling around me.
Mom sat in the chair closest to my bed. She wore one of her flowing peasant blouses and faded jeans. Her hair was pulled back in a messy bun, and light brown strands slipped loose to hang around her face. The corners of her hazel eyes were pinched with worry.
Her hand hovered over my arm, unsure where to touch me—if she should touch me. Finally, she laid her hand gently on my thigh. “You just need to rest here for a few more days.”
She was wrong. I needed to get out of here. Away from all these thoughts as soon as possible. “I want to go home.”
Mom shook her head. “You need to let the doctors help you.” Like they did last time.
Her thoughts slammed into my brain. She thought hospitalization was the solution to everything.
Please. Look at what’s happened to you. You can’t go home until you’re better,” she said. I can’t lose you. I won’t let that happen.
I didn’t know how to reassure her. Yes, I’d almost died, but being here was hurting me more than it was healing me. I swallowed all the words I wanted to say and hoped for Caleb to come back soon. My brother would know how to talk to Mom, how to make her understand.
The doctor came in to check on me and Mom’s agonizing fear rose up. Don’t let her have brain damage.
Dad patted Mom’s shoulder. He looked like an older, surfer version of Caleb. Both were tall and muscular with curly blond hair. Dad’s hair was a darker blond streaked with platinum from decades in the sun and salt water. His eyes were greener than Caleb’s, but like Caleb’s, they were rimmed with purple bruises. When Dad smiled, sun lines radiated from his eyes and cut across his cheeks. But I hadn’t seen them since he’d arrived at my bedside. Instead, waves of exhaustion rolled off him and rippled over me, right before I heard his thoughts. I can’t go through this again, watching you slip away.
My younger sister Naomi lounged in the chair in the corner as far from me as she could get. She had Mom’s light brown hair and thin frame and Dad’s green eyes and height. She looked nothing like me and only distantly related to Caleb. Her long legs looped over the armrest as she flipped through a magazine. Thanks for ruining Christmas break. I’d rather be anywhere but here.
I felt the same way.
At least Oliver was gone for the moment. Mom had convinced him to go home, take a shower, maybe even sleep. I couldn’t bear his guilt; it was so thick it choked me.
Oliver. My husband. God. I’d never loved and hated someone so much at the same time. I still couldn’t believe he’d called my parents. He knew how bad they were at handling me. How could he have thought that having my family here would be good for me?
Bitterness frosted my thoughts. I was in a hospital, bruised and battered. I’d almost died. That’s what Caleb had said. He was the only one willing to tell me the truth. Oliver had said it was bad, but he wouldn’t say how bad. He couldn’t bear to admit what happened to me.


About the Author:
Kourtney Heintz is the award-winning and bestselling author of The Six Train to Wisconsin (2013), the first book in The Six Train to Wisconsin series. She also writes bestselling young adult novels under the pseudonym K.C. Tansley. Heintz is a member of the Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, Romance Writers of America, and Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. Heintz has given writing workshops and author talks at libraries, museums, universities, high schools, conventions, wineries, non-profits organizations, and writing conferences. She has been featured in the Republican American of Waterbury, Connecticut; on WTNH’s CT Style; and on the radio show, Everything Internet.

Kourtney resides in Connecticut with her warrior lapdog, Emerson, and three quirky golden retrievers. Years of working on Wall Street provided the perfect backdrop for her imagination to run amok at night, envisioning a world where out-of-control telepathy and buried secrets collide.

You can find out more about Kourtney and her books at: http://kourtneyheintz.com






***

Do you plan everything or just let the story flow?
I start off with storystorming. It’s kind of like a Choose Your Own Adventure Book unfolding inside my mind. I create the setting, the characters, the conflict, and then I map out the plot. It’s like a decision tree that I follow to its conclusion. If I don’t like where I end up, I go back and try another set of choices. I spend a month or so playing with the story inside my head.

After I storystorm, I create a 3-5 page synopsis to guide me. It lets things change but provides a direction to the story, so I don’t meander way off and end up cutting tons of chapters. I plan a lot, and then the story takes me unexpected places. I’d say I’m a plantser.


Do your characters ever want to take over the story?
Yes and they do. Sometimes I sit at the keyboard flabbergasted at what just happened because I didn’t see it coming and yet the characters are doing it. It happened often in Highway Thirteen to Manhattan.


What is your favourite food?
Austrian. You might notice it plays a big role in The Six Train to Wisconsin series. I wrote that after a trip to Austria, where I indulged in all the foods that Oliver loves in the books.

Are you a morning person or a night owl?
Night owl. I can work until 3 a.m. no problem. Getting up at 7 a.m. feels like a shock to the system. I stumble around and grunt at anyone who dares to speak to me. I really don’t like to be spoken to until after I’ve had my coffee and breakfast.


Where do you dream of travelling to and why?
Hawaii has always been on my travel list. Oddly, I’ve been to Thailand, but not Hawaii. I love beaches and the ocean and islands. I don’t know why, but they fascinate me. So also, the Maldives.


Do distant places feature in your books?
Yes. But not as the actual setting of the story. I use my travels to give my characters richer backstories. So Oliver and Kai spent a summer abroad in Austria and went to Venice once. Kai’s family went surfing in Kata Noi and she mentions how her brother’s eyes remind her of the color of the water there.

Do you listen to music while writing?
Absolutely. I usually have a couple albums devoted to each book. So for Highway Thirteen to Manhattan, it was mainly Sarah McLachlan’s Afterglow and Birdy’s Fire Within with The Civil Wars Poison and Wine song too. When I’m revising, I prefer no music because sometimes it’s the music and not the words on the page that are inspiring the emotions inside me, and I want to make sure it’s my words that stir readers since they won’t have the same soundtrack playing as they read.

Could you tell us a bit about your latest release?
Highway Thirteen to Manhattan is all about love and consequences. In the second installment of this paranormal suspense series, Oliver and Kai must deal with the aftermath of her abduction and his lies. And they’re forced to confront the consequences of Kai’s own sins of omission.

What have you learned about writing and publishing since you first started?
Enough to fill a couple books, actually. I have a huge respect for what the big publishers do. It’s a tremendous amount of work to be an indie author. The writing is actually the easiest part and it is by no means easy. The promoting, the event coordinating, the social media—those take a very different skill set and can be draining to an introvert.


Is there anything you would do differently?
Of course. I was very stubborn with my cover design concept for book 1 in this series. I wish I had redone it earlier because I don’t think it helped readers grasp what the book was about.

Who, or what, if anything has influenced your writing?
The Harper Connelly series by Charlaine Harris taught me that it’s okay to write flawed characters. Her Sookie Stackhouse series inspired me to write my own version of a telepath. I love the language of Alice Sebold’s and Alice Hoffmann’s books. I wanted to give this story a little literary bent. I like an element of mystery and suspense in my stories. The darkness and the suspense in the Mara Dyer trilogy by Michelle Hodkin definitely influenced how I handled this installment of the series.


Anything you would say to those just starting out in the craft?
Enjoy this time. Much like childhood, you will outgrow it and it will never be like this again. When you start out, there are no hard deadlines and no promo pressures. You get to take your time with a story. You get to play so much more in the beginning. So play with your characters and plot. Try different things. Write twenty drafts. It’s all time well spent because you are gaining experience and knowledge.

What are three words that describe you?
Focused, efficient, and creative.

What's your favourite book or who is your favourite writer?
Favorite book would probably be Wuthering Heights. I just loved that story so much. It had everything that makes a book great to me—a love story, a gothic setting, paranormal elements, and suspense.

Blurb of your latest release or coming soon book:

His secrets almost killed her. Her secrets may destroy them both.

Kai is recovering from a near-death experience when she realizes something isn’t right. Her body is healing, but her mind no longer feels quite like her own. Her telepathic powers are changing, too. She can’t trust herself. The darkness growing inside of her pushes her to use her telepathy as a weapon.

Oliver clings to the hope that he can save their marriage, even though he was the one who put her life in jeopardy. As his wife slips further and further away from him, he becomes increasingly obsessed with bringing the man who ruined his life to justice.

The sequel to The Six Train to Wisconsin is a genre-defying tale of love and consequences. Once again, award-winning author Kourtney Heintz seamlessly weaves suspense and paranormal intrigue into a real-world setting, creating characters rich in emotional and psychological complexity.


List of previous books if any
The Six Train to Wisconsin (The Six Train to Wisconsin Series Book 1) by Kourtney Heintz
The Girl Who Ignored Ghosts (The Unbelievables series Book 1) by K.C. Tansley


Tour Giveaway

5 signed copies shipping to anywhere in the world

And

Kourtney’s Giveaway open from October 1-December 1 - prizes include naming a character in her next book, Butternut gift basket, and a $50 Amazon gift card. Enter on her Facebook page: http://gvwy.io/bwh02f9

a Rafflecopter giveaway








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