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BIO:

Becca C. Smith received her Film degree from Full Sail University and has worked in the Film and Television industry for most of her adult life. In 2010 Becca published her first novel, Riser followed by the sequel, Reaper, in 2011, and the finale, Ripper in 2013. In 2012 Becca wrote the children’s novel Alexis Tappendorf and the Search for Beale’s Treasure. She is also the co-author of the teen graphic novel Ghost Whisperer: The Haunted. Becca currently lives in Los Angeles, CA with her husband, Stephan and their two cats Jack and Duke.

BLURB:

Kala Hicks never imagined she’d be fighting demons, angels and gods when she joined the Navy. But when her elite covert military team is on a mission aboard Air Force One and Kala is forced to shoot the President her life changes forever. The moment the President is killed the Titan god, Atlas, speaks to Kala, telling her that she has to do his job by committing one act of atrocity every four days… or the world will end. Kala faces off against creatures of legend; from demons determined to make her fail and plunge the Earth into chaos, to angels who don’t trust her to do the job and are willing to kill her to claim it for themselves. Pitted against the forces of good and evil, Kala must choose whether to save the world by doing the unthinkable, or sit back and let it burn. Four days later, she’ll have to do it again.

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Excerpt End of Chapter 3:

Very carefully, Jack opened the door that led to the President’s office.

What awaited them was terrifying.

President Jareth Wilton stood behind his desk. He was wearing a vest that held five grey bars of C-4 wired into a bomb. Wilton was a tall man, well over six feet with stark black hair and a long face. He was a young President, only fifty years old, but he looked like he’d aged twenty years since the last time Kala had seen him at a press conference, with dark rings under his eyes and worry lines on his forehead.

But his smile was what made the scene surreal and horrific. His thin lips were grinning as if he’d just climbed Mt. Everest.

President Wilton stared directly at Jack as the door swung open the rest of the way. “I figured it out! I figured out how to break it! No one will ever have to do what I’ve had to do again! Do you realize what this means?”

Kala knew then and there that the man was cracked. Figured what out? Break what? He was rambling like a mad man.

But the more frightening moment came when Jack responded back to Wilton. “Killing yourself is impossible. People have tried that in the past.”

Not only was President Wilton talking crazy, but apparently Jack knew his language and was responding accordingly.

Kala noticed that Wilton’s eyes lit up when Jack spoke. “You’re the one they sent to replace me.”

Jack nodded.

What? Kala was seriously confused.

Kala spoke up, “What’s going on Jack?”

Replace him for what?

Jack didn’t acknowledge Kala or the rest of the team, which was shifting uncomfortably behind him.

Wilton shook his head, serious. “You can’t do it. You have to let me detonate this bomb. We have to crash the plane! It’s the only way to stop it!”

“You can’t stop it!” Jack yelled back.

“I can and I will!” Wilton talked into an earpiece. “NOW!”

The plane nose-dived.

Everyone jolted forward and stumbled from the force of it.

Jack barked orders, “Lali get up to the Flight Deck and by any means necessary take over this plane!”

Lali paused for a second, she looked more confused than Kala felt, but after a moment to gain her bearings as the plane was falling fast, she managed to high-tail it out of the room and up to the Flight Deck.

Kala was sure they’d hit ground at any moment.

Jack aimed his gun at the President’s head.

Wilton was frantic. He ducked behind his large oak desk that was bolted to the ground.

“You can’t kill me! You’ll ruin everything!” Wilton yelled.

Jack turned to Kala and Derek. “No one shoots him but me!”

Kala kind of nodded, but she was in shock at the fact that they were about to flatten a part of the capital with Air Force One. She really didn’t care what Jack was saying. She couldn’t let President Wilton set off that bomb and kill thousands.

Jack shot at the desk, trying to hit the president, but he didn’t come close.

Only Kala could make a shot like that and not get them all killed from shooting a hole through the plane.

Kala and Derek made eye contact. Kala could tell Derek was thinking the same thing. He whispered so only Kala could hear, “Do it.”

Kala’s nod was barely perceptible.

Jack saw her and his eyes went wide. “Kala STOP!”

Kala shrugged. “I can’t let him do this, Jack. I’m sorry.”

Only the top of Wilton’s head was showing.

It was enough.

Kala took her shot.

REVIEW - 4 1/2 STARS

WOWZERS! Atlas is fast paced, action packed, creative and imaginative. It was near impossible to put this book down. I'm sure you've all seen the picture floating around the internet about reading to your arms fall off? Yup, that was me.

Kayla puts up a front to hate anything that has to do with that L word. You know the one....L - O - V - E even though she's been secretly sneaking around commanding officer Jack and doesn't want to admit how she really feels about him. It's not until she is faced with the biggest decision of her life - kill Jack or all of humanity, that she realizes that she does in fact love and mighty deeply.

BLURB:

The beginning of the end. The Apocalypse. A nuclear fallout wiped out every living thing on the planet, except for a few thousand of us who took shelter in underground bunkers across the globe. Now, after thirteen long years, we were finally able to return to the topside to begin to rebuild. We thought we were alone. We were never more wrong. Before the fallout, scientists had worked on creating an anti-radiation vaccine (ARV). The first two attempts failed, but despite the incomplete tests and results, the government approved and distributed the third serum to the masses in an effort to aid those who had no shelter. It worked, keeping those who remained on the topside alive, but it also altered and mutated them. This new and infectious threat had completely outnumbered us. Now, we not only had to rebuild our planet. We would have to fight for it. My name is Abigail Park. I'm seventeen, and this is my story.

BIO:

Cameo Renae was born in San Francisco, CA, raised in Maui, Hawaii, and recently moved with her husband and children to Alaska.

She loved reading from as long as she can remember, and it was C.S. Lewis' - Chroniclesof Narnia - which sparked a fire in her soul and made her want to create her own wondrous, magical worlds and awesome characters to go on adventures with.

In My Dreams & Hidden Wings were both recently published through Crushing Hearts andBlack Butterfly Publishing earlier this year. Descent (A Hidden Wings novella) was released May 15, 2013, and Broken Wings (Book 2 in the Hidden Wings Series) was released June 1, 2013.

Her most recent release is ARV-3. A YA Post-Apocalyptic, Dystopian novel with a new twist on zombies.

She is currently working on the next Hidden Wings Series book titled: Tethered Wings. No release date yet. :)

One day she hopes to find her own magic wardrobe, and ride away on her magical unicorn... Until then... she'll keep writing!

Prelude:

According to the Mayan calendar, many thought the world was going to end on December 21, 2012. Some stayed home from work and school; some gathered in prayer, while others just blew it off and went on with their daily routines.

That Friday, on the day of the predicted doomsday, the sun rose and set without change. A few days later… life continued.

People crawled from their worried slumps and assumed their normal positions back in the daily grind. Many years passed, with no signs of world destruction. In no time, talk of the end of the world had dissipated like a foul smell caught in the winds.

Unbeknownst to the public, NASA had been giving warnings to the government of impending natural disasters, but they were never officially broadcast to the general population because it was all considered… “theory”. No one really knew what was going to happen. No one expected anything.

Behind closed doors, the government began preparations for building large, underground bunkers that would survive any type of apocalypse. Only select military personnel, and a handful of the world’s leading scientists, were privy to this information.

They knew it wasn’t a matter of if it was going to happen - it was a matter of when.

*****

START OF THE APOCALYPSE

THURSDAY – 3:16 PM GST

The sun aligned with the Milky Way galaxy, causing a gravitational pull, tugging on the sun’s surface. This caused a massive solar storm to erupt.

It was a solar storm of maximum proportions, labeled Class-X, and it triggered the beginning of the end. As soon as the mass ejection entered the earth’s atmosphere, it completely collapsed the national power grids, shutting down all navigational and communication systems across the globe. Millions were suddenly thrust into darkness.

The solar flare not only disrupted the earth’s magnetic field, causing thousands of birds and fish to die instantly, it also set off massive earthquakes and volcanic activity. Those who were at higher altitudes were exposed to massive doses of radiation from the sun.

Terror and chaos, along with widespread rioting and looting, broke out across the globe.

But that wasn’t the worst of it.

Over four hundred nuclear power plants were operating across thirty countries. Very few nuclear power plants were “walk away safe”. Even fewer had backup generator pumps which relied on large tanks of water for cooling the containment shells. Without electricity, it was only a matter of days before the unimaginable would befall.

Every nuclear power plant was a ticking time bomb, and most were running on battery power alone.

A majority of the population had no inclination their days were numbered. Within a span of about ten days, nuclear fuel would begin to melt through containment rods, sending out vicious, unspeakable amounts of radiation into the atmosphere.

There was no way to give warnings without communication.

The government, and a select few, started emergency evacuations into their underground bunkers around the world. Even the Doomsday Preppers withdrew to their own shelters, which left the rest of humanity unprotected, with no means of survival.

After the solar flare, skies everywhere danced with the most beautifully colored auroras. The beauty… before the beast.

All those who didn’t prepare, panicked, and ran to the few shelters set up by the governments. Shelters which were completely useless against the oncoming horror.

A handful of scientists had been working on a new serum, an anti-radiation vaccine, which was supposed to aid the body in resisting the absorption of radiation. The first two versions failed, causing the lab animals to become crazed and subsequently, die.

With the end swiftly approaching, the governments made an urgent and ill-advised decision. In an effort to keep the world’s populations from revolting and storming the emergency bunkers, they gave the people some kind of hope, offering reassurance that a vaccine had been created which would save them.

So, despite a lack of proper testing or receiving positive results, the government not only approved the third anti-radiation vaccine, it was mass produced. They used helicopters, which had been strategically kept protected against the electromagnetic pulses, for distribution to the shelters.

The helicopters were given orders not to land, but to simply drop the crates of serum, and head back to the bunkers. The risks of landing were too great.

Thousands panicked, storming the shelters; hundreds were killed in the name of survival. Many brandished guns or other types of weapons, and used them to try and secure vaccines for themselves and their families.

Meanwhile, secret bunkers around the world were filled to capacity and locked down.

Amidst all of this mayhem…it began.

The end of all things.

The Apocalypse.

One by one, nuclear power plants across the globe began meltdown. Due to their size, a number of them exploded like atom bombs, spewing massive doses of radiation into the atmosphere. Slowly and quietly, the invisible death stalked, and was believed to have eventually killed every living organism on the topside.

Scientists estimated it would be a minimum of ten years before any form of life could safely set foot on the topside. Even then, many areas of the earth would be uninhabitable.

This is where I come in.

My name is Abigail Park. I’m seventeen, and this is my story.

Excerpt:

I turned and shot at every creature coming, but as soon as one dropped, another two took its place. All of our efforts were useless. This was it. This would be our final resting place. We’d come out from the safety of our hive, surviving thirteen years underground, to die.

“God. If you’re out there, we desperately need your help. Please,” I cried to myself. Tears streamed down my face, after witnessing what happened to Dr. Lisa.

Kaboom!!! A huge explosion rattled the whole mountain, sending a bunch of rocks tumbling and crashing down all around us.

“What the hell?” Sergeant Powell yelled, covering his face from the falling debris.

Then we heard it. Our redemption. There was a God, and he sent someone to save us.

Two choppers were headed our way, and in a matter of minutes a machine gun started firing and dropping the Arvies surrounding us. They even dropped a few grenades on the side of the mountain. The sound of gunfire and explosions were the most beautiful sounds I’d ever heard.

Death. It was all around us.