June 27, 2012

Gone at Zero Hundred Tour: Review, Guest Post and Giveaway!


Gone at Zero Hundred 00:00
Author: CR Hiatt
Genre: YA/Action Adventure
Release Date: March 30, 2012


Blurb:

"Their lives are in the hands of two 18 year-olds..."

Sydney Marie McSwain - a tomboy who yearned for a father.

Cody Beck - a wannabe filmmaker, wisenheimer and flirt.

Jaden White - the star who led the high school hockey team to two championships, and was now on the A-list for NHL scouts.

Sydney Marie McSwain loves her mom, Anna - a private investigator in the coastal city where they live - but they had a major issue between them. Anna refused to give Sydney the identity of her father. On the day of her high school graduation, they were battling it out, once again. An hour later, Sydney, Cody and Jaden were at the local café, and watched as Anna was gunned down.

Faced with immediate responsibility, Sydney and Cody agreed to take over the agency, only they changed the name to McSwain & Beck. At the same time, Sydney convinced Sutter Beach Detective, Ace Carter, to help her track down her father.

Then out of the blue, a model walked in and hired them to follow her step-brother. While Cody was busy editing a trailer to solicit new clients, Sydney settled into her lemon-yellow pickup to do surveillance, and wound up staking out a secret club called The Devil’s Door whose suspicious members wore the tattoo of a devil.

That same night, Sydney received a call from one of her mom’s former clients, but the client was gunned down at the location where they agreed to meet. The mysterious discovery of a DVD revealed the possibility that teenagers were being abducted, only nobody reported them missing.

On the hunt for the victims, McSwain & Beck were chased by men in ski masks, nearly gunned down by a members of a drug cartel called the outlaws, Sydney’s precious pickup was broken into; then the step-brother they were hired to follow, was found dead and Sydney was the number one suspect.

If things weren’t bad enough already, they had to figure out how to crash a red-carpet Mardi Gras bash being held on a private cruise ship, before it sailed off into the sunset, where they just might meet the devil, himself.

Now, the clock was ticking…

And time was running out…

How was she ever going to find her father, now?  


Watch the Book Trailer: 






For more info on the book, check out these sites:           Goodreads              Facebook


Review:

Gone at Zero Hundred 00:00 is a fast paced action-adventure story that follows Sydney McSwain and Cody Beck - collectively called McSwain and Beck throughout most of the novel - as they escape the hands of sinister madmen and fight their way to finding Sydney's father, among many other trials. The story is action packed and full of intrigue, but it all seemed really far-fetched to me - even though it's a fiction book. The characters seemed like typical teenagers who were trying to face the world and handle problems on their own, but they again seemed far-fetched and pretty cliched. 

The novel takes the reader to various settings and into several sketchy situations, which leaves you wondering what will happen next and how will McSwain and Beck possibly make it out of there? It's a fun and easy read, if a bit over-the-top in some departments. I recommend this book to fans of action/adventure fiction as well as young adult novels with a fast-paced narrative.






What is a normal writing day like in the life of writer, CR HIATT? 

Ah, you just had to ask that one didn’t you? LOL

I am afraid I have become a creature of habit when it comes to the days I plan to write. I started the pattern once I realized what worked for me, and now, I do not deviate from the schedule. 

My day starts off with breakfast: two poached eggs, raisin toast, strawberries and a bottle of Dasani water. That is the one constant that remains the same. I have found that if I eat a healthy breakfast, (especially protein) I am able to concentrate better throughout the day. Food really does impact the way we think and feel.

Once nutrition is out of the way, I fit in some exercise. Living by the water, I make walk/jog the path along the two-mile stretch, or try some Yoga. Then, the fun begins - I make my presence known on social media outlets. Since we all come from different time zones, I like to thank all my friends and followers who might have RT’d or mentioned me while I was catching up on my beauty sleep. I use Hootsuite, so I can easily sign on and catch up on Twitter and Facebook status updates. I put some time in on Twitter, RT’ing fellow authors, musicians, actors or independent films, and I support the military. It feels good to promote others. I chat for a few minutes, and catch up on those that I’ve become close with. Then, it’s time to get busy. 

If the weather outside is crappy (still chilly in the spring), I make sure the TV is on - tuned into news, an action flick, NCIS or music. I don’t know why, but I need noise. If I already have a draft I’m working on, I will open it, read the last few paragraphs of what I worked on before to refresh my memory; then start typing. 

If I’m creating a new product, I type a logline: one or two sentences with beginning, middle and end. Ideas come to me all the time. When I’m jogging, cycling, or standing in line at the grocery store, so chances are I’ve already been reworking the ideas in my head, over and over, again. 

From the logline, I plan out my locations (whether real or imagined), characters and analyze the plot details which make up a draft synopsis. From that brief outline, I can then write a 100 - 120-page screenplay which I will then use as an outline for a new novel.
When I am engaged in that process I don’t stop, except to grab a quick snack and bottle of water, which will be nibbled on while I’m writing. That’s because I get so caught up in creating the scenes, and planning out the action, fight scenes, car chases, explosions, and all the fun that my stars (characters) inevitably run into. In fact, I have been known to get snappy with the person who interrupts me when I’m in the zone. So tread carefully. :)



About the Author:
CR HIATT is a writer of screenplays and an author of YA action-mystery novels. The daughter of a military veteran, CR grew up in a small town where she became an All-American athlete. CR knew early on that she wasn't cut out for the nine to five type of job - her tendency to day dream about adventures often got in the way. But, being the daughter of a Navy Veteran she also knew one had to do what was necessary to be secure, so she disciplined herself to push those dreams aside and settled on working in the entertainment legal field. When those dreams invaded her world once again, CR finally gave in and set out to write her own adventures. What the heck, right. If you can't live 'em, you might as well write about them. The McSwain & Beck series are works of fiction, only based on real life events. Gone at Zero Hundred 00:00 is the first in the series, and available now. Fireworks on the 4th will be released in late June, just before the 4th of July holiday season.

Connect with CR:





Enter to win an ebook copy of Gone at Zero Hundred 00:00! Contest is open INTERNATIONALLY!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

No comments:

Post a Comment