Author Paul Byers On Tour With Arctic Fire And A Giveaway

It’s my pleasure to be a part of author Paul Byers’ Premier Virtual Author Book Tour for his thriller, action adventure, ARCTIC FIRE.

The book, published by Fortress Publications, is available in print and eBook format. It’s a available to purchase at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Thanks to Paul and the lovely Teddy at Premier, I have a copy of ARCTIC FIRE to giveaway to a lucky reader. Please see the end of the post for the details.

Here’s a brief synopsis of ARCTIC FIRE:

    Wealthy entrepreneur Nigel Cain has devised an efficient new way to bring the earth’s most precious resource to the masses – clean water – by transporting massive man-made icebergs from the frigid arctic and delivering them literally to the doorsteps of millions.
    Gabriel Pike works at a small engineering firm that has been awarded the task of giving the final safety approval to pilot the first gigantic block of ice into New York harbor.
    A consummate showman, Cain has built a fabulous 5-Star hotel and casino high atop the iceberg so his celebrity guests and media elite can cover this spectacle from beginning to end. Pike is whisked away from his work-a-day world and dropped into the lap of luxury where he’s expected to simply rubber-stamp his inspection.
    A brutal winter storms ravages the iceberg and exposes structural inconsistencies and hidden agendas that fill Pike with serious doubts about the true intentions of the project.  But a grisly double homicide on the ice puts the inspections on the back burner and sends Pike’s life spiraling out of control when he’s accused of being the jealous murderer in a lover’s triangle.     But Pike soon discovers that there is far more at stake than just his life. He uncovers a conspiracy more heinous than anything he could have imagined – a plot that will level a city, change the political face of America, and whose shockwaves will be felt around the world. Fate rests in his hands – if he can survive long enough to take action…

Paul joins us now to tell us how ARCTIC FIRE came to be, as well as a bit he learned while writing this story.

Originally, I was looking to write a book that I could turn into a series. I know that as a reader I like to follow characters that I enjoy and sometimes one adventure is just not enough, both in the scope of the story and in the development of the characters.

For ARCTIC FIRE, the stakes had to be high but the world has already been threatened by aliens, nukes and terrorists so I was looking for a more creative way to take over the world. I was also looking for a main character who wasn’t ex-special forces or James Bond or a bored millionaire playboy. I wanted an ordinary man who found himself thrown into extraordinary circumstances.

As a writer, I see story ideas everywhere, newspaper articles, radio, television shows, and things I find on the internet. Not all ideas are good of course or can be expanded into book but I saw two shows on the History Channel that piqued my interest. One was on WWII and the other was on mega disasters. I took those two concepts and combined them with today’s headlines and developed the plot for ARCTIC FIRE.

Having forged my main character and laid the foundation for the story line, I set about writing the book. When I write, I don’t usually plot and outline my stories; I tend to let the stories write themselves. I have a beginning and ending in mind but the middle is usually pretty open. For example, I was in a part of the book where I thought I needed a little action so I started to write a storm scene. What started out as filler grew and expanded until it became a major catalyst for events and revealed the true nature of the threat.

ARCTIC FIRE is a great story with great characters, but the book did not become the first story in a series I was hoping for. There is sequel in it, (probably my next project) and maybe one more story after that but I don’t see this as an Alex Cross, Dirk Pitt or Lincoln Rhyme type series.

Satisfied with the story, I started the editing process, and here is where I’ll admit that I dropped the ball. They say that a good story is not in the writing but in the rewriting. While I am pleased with the way the story and characters turned out, the mechanics is where I feel I fell short.

I rushed the book to get it published and in doing so I didn’t deliver the best product I could have. I ended up having to go back and doing things later that should have been done in the first place. I disappoint myself and my fans. Since then I have corrected the problems and have learned to be more patient.  

For me, I find that writing is a continual process of learning. Learning the process of putting words on paper, of editing those words so they tell the right story, formatting those words so that others can enjoy them and learning how to become better at the very process of writing those words.

Paul, thanks so much for joining and giving us a look at how ARCTIC FIRE came about. I think you’re right about writing being a continual process of learning. If we don’t continue to learn, our writing becomes stale.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR……

Paul grew up in Oregon on the shores of the mighty and mysterious

Columbia River, and spent endless hours daydreaming on the beach in front of his house, making up stories about the ships from exotic ports all over the world that steamed up the river – what secret cargo might they be carrying; did they harbor spies who were on dark and exciting missions?


Later in adult life, he moved to another mysterious and provocative city – Las Vegas, just outside the famous Nellis Air Force base. After work he would sit on his porch and watch the fighters take off and land, igniting his imagination with visions of secret missions and rich speculation about what could possibly be hidden at Area 51.

After moving back to his native Pacific Northwest, Paul worked for the Navy and took every opportunity he could to speak with veterans from WWII to the Gulf War, listening to them swap stories and relate the experiences of a lifetime.

So it is this combination of a passionate love of history, a vivid “what if” imagination, and a philosophy of life that boils down to the belief that – there are few things in life that a bigger hammer won’t fix – that led Paul to become a writer of exciting, fact-based action-thrillers. His greatest joy is leaving his readers wondering where the facts end and the fiction begins.
For more on Paul and his writing, visit his website and find him on Facebook and Goodreads.

GIVEAWAY DETAILS:

This giveaway is for one eBook copy of ARCTIC FIRE. The giveaway is open international.

To enter, just send me an e-mail (mcbookshelf@gmail.com) with the subject line, “Win Arctic Fire.” Your message should include your name and the email address you’d like the eBook sent to. And, just so you know, I don’t share any of this information with anyone other than the publisher/tour promoter nor use it for any other purpose. The deadline to enter this giveaway for a chance to win an e-copy of ARCTIC FIRE is 8 p.m. (EDT) on Thursday, Sept. 26.

Follow the Tour:

So Many Precious Books Sept 2 Review & Giveaway
She Treads Softly Sept 4 Review
Books, Books, & More Books Sept 5 Review
Books, Books, & More Books Sept 6 Interview & Giveaway
Cheryl’s Book Nook Sept 9 Review
Butterfly-o-Meter Books Sept 10 Spotlight
Butterfly-o-Meter Books Sept 11 Guest Post
My Shelf Confessions Sept 13 Review
My Shelf Confessions Sept 13 Interview & Giveaway
Room Without Books is Empty Sept 16 Review
A Book & a Lattee Sept 17 Review
Green Mountain People Sept 18 Review
Romance & Inspiration Sept 19 Review
Bloggin Bout Books Sept 20 Review
The News In Books Sept 23 Review
The News In Books Sept 24 Guest Post
Sweeps4Bloggers Sept 24 Review & Giveaway
Tales of a Book Addict Sept 25 Review
Joy Story Sept 26 Review
fundinmental  Sept 27 Review & Giveaway
Recent Reads Sept 30 Review & Giveaway
DWED Oct 1 Review
Book Lover’s Library Oct 2 Review
Book Lover’s Library Oct 3 Interview & Giveaway

Thanks so much for stopping by today. If given the chance, would you stay in a hotel built upon a moving iceberg?