Thank you for joining us on the Release Celebrations for This is Me., a New Adult Romantic Science Fiction novel by C.E. Wilson (11 August 2016, Live and Love the Fantasy Publications, 454 pages). PREVIEW: Check out the book's synopsis and excerpt below. Read the first five chapters with Amazon Look Inside.
This is Me. is FREE on Kindle Unlimited and Kindle Owner's Lending Library.
Author C.E. Wilson will be awarding a $10 Amazon gift card to a randomly drawn winner via Rafflecopter during the tour.
Synopsis | Teaser | About the Author | Giveaway
Synopsis
A-SISTAnthropomorphic Sentient Individualized Servile uniT
Rogan is a robot. More specifically, he is an Asist – a personalized humanoid servant that provides protection, assistance, and companionship for a lonely young woman living on her own in the city. Chloe is trying to get her big break, singing at bars and clubs all over the city at night while she pays the bills as a substitute teacher during the day. Ever since she activated him many months ago, Rogan has been her beautiful, dependable, obedient, dead-eyed security blanket.
One morning she is shocked when he disobeys a direct command in an attempt to please her and his dull artificial eyes flash a hint of something new. Is this the result of the adaptive Asist servility programming or is Rogan actually thinking? Can a robot think? Can a robot feel?
As Chloe struggles with these thoughts she is blindsided by the singular Niven Adams, a handsome, confident man with the voice of an angel who is everything she’s ever wanted in a boyfriend. He’s the perfect guy for her, except for one problem. Niven doesn’t approve of Asists and takes an immediate dislike to Rogan. As Niven charms his way deeper and deeper into Chloe’s heart, Rogan tries to convince her that he is more than a mass-produced disposable servant.
With Rogan doing everything in his power to prove that his thoughts and feelings are real and Niven trying to persuade her to abandon her robot and have a normal human relationship, Chloe is trapped between the two things that mean the most to her. Does she embrace her relationship with the blond newcomer, or face that her Asist’s feelings may be more than features of his programming?
What really makes a person a person?
Is it a ticking muscle inside their chest, or is it something more?
Teaser: Excerpt
from Chapter One
The stale scent of a long night hung heavy in the air as a young woman in her midtwenties began to grumble. The sunlight wasn’t quite beaming through the window and the glow on the TV flickered quietly in the background. Cigarette smoke and booze clung to her skin like she worked at Coyote Ugly, a familiar musk that greeted her several days every week. A man remained still underneath her, his eyes closed, but not sleeping. He never slept, so the curly-haired woman didn’t even bother to keep her voice low as she stirred.
“Don’t make me get up,” the woman muttered, rubbing her face against the beautiful man beneath her. “I’m positive I could still make it to work on time if you left me alone for five more minutes.”
The body beneath her shook gently before erupting in warm but stiff laughter. “You said that five minutes ago. And five minutes before that, Chloe. You should probably wake up. If you arrive at work on time, which is seven fifteen Eastern Standard Time—”
“I know, I know,” she interrupted. “Please don’t start.”
“You need approximately fifteen minutes to shower, and you need time to fix your hair—”
“I don’t want it to look like a frizz ball.”
“I need to make you some toast.”
“I don’t need toast today.”
“Are you going to get coffee for yourself?” the male asked, carefully moving the woman off him. “Or would you like me to run to the coffee shop and get the usual?”
“Do you remember what the usual is?”
“A grande skinny vanilla latte with two extra shots of espresso and no whip.”
She smirked. “Rogan, do you remember what whip is?”
The young man sat up on the couch, frowning in her direction. “I am afraid that I do not understand. Did I not say the order correctly?” For a brief moment, he thought about informing her of the importance of sleeping in a bed but reasoned that it wasn’t an appropriate time. Chloe hadn’t had her coffee yet, and without it, she was a completely different person. “If I misread your order, I am incredibly sorry. It was not my intention—”
“Rogan, it’s fine.” She smiled before cupping his face in her hand. “You said it perfectly. Whip means whipped cream. It’s loaded with calories. They’re unnecessary and I don’t need them.”
His dark eyebrows knit together, creating lines on his forehead. “Whip is whipped cream?”
“Yes.”
“Which you see as unnecessary?”
“Yes.”
“You see whip as unnecessary because it is loaded with calories which you do not need, correct?”
She smiled, pulling her hand away from his face. “Yes, Rogan. You’ve got it all down.”
“Why do you say that you do not need them?”
Chloe reached out and set his hand on her stomach. He didn’t blush, not that Chloe ever expected him to. Rogan never blushed or grew embarrassed over physical contact. His light-green eyes fell to her taut stomach as she made his hand rub the area.
“Feel this?” she asked, trying to suck in what she considered a pooch tummy. “That wicked little bump is the reason I don’t need extra whip.”
“I am afraid that I still do not understand the logic,” he said, frowning as though upset. “I want to know.”
“You always want to know everything,” Chloe said. “Can’t you figure it out?” she asked, using her fingers so Rogan could gently pinch her tummy.
Her stomach wasn’t thick by any definition, but there was a hint of something other than washboard abs. She wanted Rogan to reach the conclusion on his own. He appeared to be deep in thought, no doubt searching his memory for the necessary answers.
“Whip,” he said softly, still allowing Chloe to guide his hand. The rings on his hand clanked quietly against each other and the words tattooed on his knuckles shifted as he tried to focus. He had to figure this out. “Whip has calories.”
“Good,” Chloe said. “Remember why I don’t like calories?”
“Extra caloric intake will make your body seem less ideal?”
“Yes!”
Rogan’s face lit up as he continued to process the information. “So, when you say that you do not need the whip, you are saying that you do not want the extra calories to detract from a physical form that you find to be ideal?”
“You got it,” Chloe said, leaping into his lap and giving him a hug. “In other words, whip makes me fat.”
“Fat?” Rogan repeated. “Chloe, you could not become fat with your activity and caloric intake at your current rate. At least not based on the pictures that you have shown me depicting fat.”
“You’re too nice for your or my own good.” She smiled before planting a kiss on his cheek. “I guess I do need to wake up now. The school called a few hours ago giving me my assignment, after all.”
“I recorded it,” Rogan said. “General music, ninth, tenth, and eleventh grades.”
“Yes. Good subject, tough kids.”
“The kids like you,” Rogan said. “Did you not tell me that they think you are cool?”
Chloe frowned as she shifted away from him and took her hair out of her ponytail. Dark-red curls fell around a young face the color many would describe as a perfect tan. “I did, but you don’t have to point it out.”
“I am sorry.”
“No, Rogan. Don’t be sorry… It’s all right. You’re trying your best.” She glanced away from him, trying to hide her discomfort in the moments when Rogan didn’t seem human. Acting on instinct, she reached up, pulled one of her burgundy strands free from the cluster and tentatively sucked on the end.
Rogan. He didn’t have a last name.
He was exactly what Chloe had been looking for after she’d finished college. Tall and fit, with tattoos that added interest to his otherwise pale skin. She loved him for his light-green eyes and bluish-black hair. Rogan even could dress himself thanks to Chloe, always clad in skinny, dark denim jeans and fitted button-downs with the occasional vest or V-neck sweater thrown over top. She loved his strong jaw, the way he smiled, and how little wrinkles appeared on his forehead when trying to figure things out.
Of course, she was supposed to love everything about him.
He wasn’t human, after all.
[...]
This is Me.
Available NOW!
About the Author
C.E. Wilson was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, grew up in Millersville, Pennsylvania, and has been living in Pittsburgh since 2009. For the first few years living in Pittsburgh, she was an English teacher. Her first book, "Oath of Servitude," was published in 2012. In 2013, she quit teaching to be a full time author and hasn't looked back since.
She loves spending time with her daughter and husband.
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