Thank you for joining us on the first day of the Virtual Book Tour for Mortal Thoughts, a by TJ Park (22 February 2016, Impulse Australia, 80 pages). This is the first novella in the Unbidden series, a serialised terrifying supernatural crime thriller in five parts, where each new episode is published weekly - episode four is on sale today!
PREVIEW: Check out the book's synopsis and excerpt below, as well as details of the other volumes in the series, including the omnibus.
Read the first chapter with Amazon Look Inside.
Mortal Thoughts is on sale for only .99!
Author TJ Park will be awarding a ecopy of Mortal Thoughts to three randomly drawn winners via Rafflecopter during the tour.
Please do take part: comment on our post and follow the tour where you will be able to read other excerpts (☀) and reviews (✍).
Synopsis | Teaser | The Series | About the Author | Giveaway & Tour Stops
Synopsis
The heist is cursed from the start. Doug Mulcahy and his gang hijack a mining plane and a fortune in black opals - gemstones with a rep for being unlucky.Following a brutal shootout on a remote airfield, the hijackers flee in the crippled plane only to crash-land soon after. Shaken and battered, they stagger through the outback until they stumble upon a strange little house and an ethereal woman.
Taking the woman hostage, the thieves wait for her husband to return with his truck. But it all goes to hell when a rogue gang member forces himself onto the woman.
The house is drenched with blood, the husband returns, and the men realise nothing in this place is as it seems. And the horrors are only just beginning...
Teaser: Excerpt
The one-room office was a tight fit, shaped into narrow corridors by desks, radio equipment, kitchenette, filing cabinets and an antique photocopier. A wall-mounted fan oscillated back and forth, achieving little more than shifting the hot air around. Occasionally, for no discernible reason, it emitted a loud, ripping fart.
There was a small, lifeless waiting room glimpsed through a partition door, crammed high with sagging cardboard boxes. Neck explained that a delivery was overdue to be collected. Normally the boxes would be left undercover outside, he told Doug, but thieving had worsened lately. Doug readily sympathised.
There was one other notable feature of the office, and since entering Cutter had barely taken his eyes from her: a young, pretty woman sitting at the corner desk laden with paperwork. She wasn’t introduced, and after initially looking over the visitors, went back to working on her computer and fussing over a stray twist of hair, picking at her clothes, brushing her bared skin self-consciously. Whenever she glanced back up at Cutter, he answered her increasingly shy looks with an unwavering smile.
Duckbill scanned Doug’s clipboard while Neck directed the young woman to scroll through old emails, looking for any sign of the order.
The sound of the whirring, farting fan rose sharply for a moment before its pivot began to slow, the dusty blades becoming visible in their cage, slowing to a halt.
“Great,” said Neck. “Open the windows will you, Sonya?”
“They are open.”
“Open them wider.”
It was through the windows they heard it first – the distant droning of an approaching plane.
Duckbill bumped into Doug and Cutter in his rush to get outside.
“No-one’s due this morning,” Neck muttered for everyone’s benefit. “Sonya, get them on the radio. Ask them who they are and their flight plan.”
Doug spied Sonya rolling her eyes as she went to the radio.
The droning dropped to an abridged roar as a low-flying plane buzzed the building. Its shadow flitted past the windows.
“No, let me,” Neck insisted, elbowing Sonya aside.
Duckbill came back, stopping in the doorway. “It’s circling.”
Neck turned from fussing with the radio, his cheeks and Adam’s apple a heated pink. “Get that truck out of the way!”
“Sure,” Doug said congenially, “right after you sign the invoice.”
Neck clicked the radio repeatedly. “It’s not working!” He ducked under the desk. “For god’s sake … don’t tell me it’s not plugged in!”
“Maybe it’s blown a fuse,” Duckbill suggested.
Neck stood again, rubbing his ear furiously having clipped it on the edge of the desk. “Does it look like it’s in trouble?” he asked Duckbill as he reached for a mobile phone lying nearby.
“From what I could see, it’s flying fine,” Duckbill said.
Doug was closer to the mobile. Reaching to pick it up for Neck he bunted it away instead. It slipped down between the wall and desk.
“Whoops. Sorry.”
Neck pushed past Doug and Cutter, heading outside, glancing down at Doug’s nametag. “Just get out of the bloody way… Russell.”
The plane’s engine noise began swelling again. Duckbill skipped aside as Neck passed through the door. Doug looked over at Sonya, shrugged and gestured, “Ladies first,” yet she declined to exit until he and Cutter went ahead. Doug wasn’t offended. It wasn’t about him. It was Cutter. He made anybody nervous.
Mortal Thoughts
Available NOW - only .99!
The Series: Unbidden
[2] | [3] | [4] | [5] | [1-5] |Click on the book cover to Look Inside the book on Amazon and read an excerpt.
Killing Swine [2]
Fleeing bizarre and brutal events at a strange outback house, the remnants of Doug Mulcahy's gang are set upon by unnatural forces that destroy their latest getaway vehicle.
Posing as victims of an accident, the men take refuge at a remote homestead owned by the warm and welcoming Clarkson family. But the powers aligning against the gang have followed them to the property, turning placid dogs into savage beasts, infecting livestock with disease, and giving rise to wicked portents and apparitions across the farm.
Far worse is in store for the Clarksons when their guests reveal themselves and take control. But even the worst thieves and killers, no matter how desperate and cornered, could not reckon on the evil pursuing them.
[Published 1 March 2016, 67 pages]
The Sleeping and the Dead [3]
A terrible, malignant power grows in strength on the Clarkson property. At nightfall the assault begins, trapping innocents alongside hardened criminals. A beast stalks them; a "Familiar", a monster capable of inhuman savagery, a creature of darkness that kills with pleasure and without remorse.
But an unknown force prevents it from entering the house where the gang have taken refuge. For tonight, at least, the survivors have reached an uneasy truce. But the peace could explode at any second and leave more bodies in the wake - that is, if they're not all dead before dawn. [Published 7 March 2016, 74 pages]
Rarer Monsters [4]
The Familiar launches an all-out assault against the Clarkson home, shaking the building to its foundations and raining down bizarre and bloody horrors on the survivors trapped inside. Desperate to save themselves, the captives scatter, forgetting all bonds of love and loyalty in a panicked race for survival. The Familiar stalks each in turn, slaughtering them one-by-one, growing ever stronger, ever hungrier, ever more depraved.
Only Doug Mulcahy refuses to lie down, fighting to save what little of himself he believes deserves to live.
[Available to pre-order; published 14 March 2016, 62 pages]
Sleep No More [5]
Dawn reveals the extent of death and destruction wreaked upon the Clarkson property. The ground is soaked with blood, the survivors torn apart with losses too shocking to fathom. Doug Mulcahy gathers his share of the precious opals and makes one final bid to escape. The Clarksons will have to fend for themselves. But with escape in sight, Doug hesitates. Perhaps the Familiar can be beaten, if Doug can unlock the dark secret of its origin.
Clues point back to the strange little house, the murdered woman and her vengeful partner. It's time for Doug Mulcahy to face his demons, in a terrifying showdown back where it all began...
[Available to pre-order; published 21 March 2016, 84 pages]
Unbidden [1-5]
The heist is cursed from the start. Doug Mulcahy and his gang of career criminals hijack a fortune in black opals - gemstones with a rep for being unlucky. They certainly seem to be for Mulcahy, judging by the horrific accident that cuts their escape short. Then there is the strange house where they take refuge and the even stranger woman they take hostage - until a rogue gang member takes more than just her life.
Now, with even more blood on their hands, the fleeing thieves are forced to make a final stop. Posing as weekend hunters, they besiege a remote homestead inhabited by an innocent family. But the powers aligning against the gang have followed them to the property, giving rise to wicked portents and apparitions.
Not even the worst thieves, no matter how desperate and cornered, could reckon on the evil pursuing them. And the horrors are only just beginning...
[Available to pre-order; published 1 April 2016, TBC pages]
About the Author
TJ Park is an Australian novelist and screenwriter. He was raised on a steady diet of Stephen King novels, British science-fiction television, and the cinema of John Carpenter and Sergio Leone. Not much else is known about him. That's just the way he likes it.Follow TJ Park:
Giveaway and Tour Stops
Enter to win one of three eCopies of Mortal Thoughts – a Rafflecopter giveawayRemember to comment to win!
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Follow Mortal Thoughts's tour at:
Mar 14: BooksChatterMar 15: Writer Wonderland
Mar 16: Rogue's Angels
Mar 17: Writers and Authors
Mar 18: Two Ends of the Pen
Mar 21: Sharing Links and Wisdom
Mar 22: Natural Bri ✍
Mar 23: Lisa Haselton's Reviews and Interviews
Mar 24: Long and Short Reviews
Mar 25: T's Stuff
Mar 25: The Cerebral Writer
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