Digital Winter
August 21st, 2012. Filed under: WILD Cards.It is time for a FIRST Wild Card Tour book review! If you wish to join the FIRST blog alliance, just click the button. We are a group of reviewers who tour Christian books. A Wild Card post includes a brief bio of the author and a full chapter from each book toured. The reason it is called a FIRST Wild Card Tour is that you never know if the book will be fiction, non~fiction, for young, or for old…or for somewhere in between! Enjoy your free peek into the book!
You never know when I might play a wild card on you!
He earned a ThM and PhD from Dallas Theological Seminary and is the
senior pastor of Faith Bible Church in Edmond, Oklahoma. He has worked
as an adjunct professor at DTS, and he and his wife, Cheryl, have two
sons.
A frequent speaker at writing conferences, he holds BA and MA degrees
in biblical studies. Alton and his wife reside in Southern California.
Gansky provide a suspenseful and fast-moving story of life after a
massive cyber attack. Surgeons find themselves operating without
electricity. The military can’t use its computers… This gripping story
of darkness and heroism highlights prophetic themes and the danger of a
cyber attack.
Product Details:
List Price: $14.99
Paperback: 352 pages
Publisher: Harvest House Publishers
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0736949127
ISBN-13: 978-0736949125
ISLAND BREEZES
You can’t just leave me hanging like this. I hope you guys are writing like crazy to get the next book out.
Talk about suspense! This book has it. It certainly isn’t a run of the mill book. It’s an “I cant put it down” kind of book.
This book has it all. Medical drama, suspense, love, computer geek stuff. Enough scary stuff to turn a person into a “prepper.”
The worst part of the book is also the best part. Something similiar really could happen.
AND NOW…THE FIRST CHAPTER:
–>
right,
Elton emerged from the bedroom at
precisely 7:10 a.m., his favorite mug in his hand containing his favorite
African blend of coffee. Truth was, he had seven favorite mugs, one for each
day of the week. He had seven favorite blends of coffee as well, seven favorite
dress shirts, seven chosen suits of varying shades of gray, and seven power
ties.
pushed back some of the thick clouds that covered the parts of San Diego
closest to the Pacific. His part of San Diego was called Coronado Island,
although it wasn’t a true island. Situated on a stretch of land called the Strand,
the small community rested on a jut of property that looked from the air like
an arthritic thumb sticking into the blue waters.
was home to the elite. North Island Naval Air Station took much of the prime
real estate, but there was still plenty of room for retired admirals, CEOs, and
entrepreneurs who made sudden wealth in the digital age. A stroll through the
city streets sometimes allowed tourists a glimpse of a celebrity.
he wasn’t a retired admiral or a man of old money. He was, however, the CEO of
San Diego’s largest CPA firm, a company whose client list included scores of
the top companies in the country. He was on a first-name basis with people
often mentioned in the Wall Street Journal. For
thirty years he worked for OPM Accounting. Most people assumed OPM stood for
the founders of the firm, people who died a generation ago. It didn’t. Insiders
knew OPM stood for Other People’s Money. A bit tongue in cheek, but it drew
hearty laughs for the few who knew the joke.
kitchen and kissed his wife on the top of the ear.
Royce Elton pulled away and tried to rub her ear on her shoulder, her hands
busy flipping eggs and turning bacon. A pot next to the frying pan cooked down
some oatmeal. Instant oatmeal wasn’t good enough for her son, Donny. At least
he ate something close to healthy.
shiver.” Elton slurped his coffee.
playful.
moved from the kitchen and took his usual spot at the floor-to-ceiling window
overlooking the rolling Pacific. T?he $3.5 million condo was on the top floor
of one of the fifteen ten-story structures on the Strand. Built in the 1960s,
the luxury buildings caused such a stir that a city ordinance was passed
forbidding similar towering structures in Coronado. Too late and too little.
could look to the left and see the Pacific Ocean or look right and see the calm
waters of Glorietta Bay. “Water everywhere and not a drop to drink.”
coffee.” Royce dropped two pieces of bacon (well done) and two eggs (over hard)
onto a scalloped-edged green plate. A moment later, she added two pieces of rye
toast.
room” would be inaccurate. T?he only real rooms in the open floor plan were the
bathrooms and bedrooms. Royce set the plate on the glass top. She sat next to
him, sipping a chocolate diet shake.
suck on that stuff fills me with guilt.” He stuck a piece of bacon in his
mouth.
guilty. It goes with the Y chromosome.”
geneticist.”
can poison your breakfast.”
other meals. Cuts down on your opportunity to cash in on the life insurance.”
He cut one egg in half and scooped it into his mouth. Stanley didn’t like
wasting time on trivial things like breakfast. “Busy day?”
then I have about four hours in the lab. I’ll be late. I have to grade test
papers after that. Rosa has something planned for you and Donny.”
nurse.” Down went the second half of the egg.
more.”
eyebrow. “Really? She makes good money now.”
Dealing with Donny isn’t easy.”
gnawing on the bacon. “What do you mean? He sits in his room and doesn’t cause
any trouble. He’s as passive as someone with his condition can be.”
Stanley referred to Donny’s challenges as his
condition.
mean. Other people like him can be high maintenance.”
care, Stan. You know that.”
didn’t mean that. You do more than any other father would. You provide an
income that allows us to get all the help we need. My professor’s salary
wouldn’t pay for one room in this place. I’m just saying we should reward Rosa.
She’s been with us since Donny was ten. T?hat’s twelve years.”
something in mind?”
don’t think she’d leave Donny for more than a few days. She’s so devoted to
him. I know that her car is getting a little long in the tooth. She had to take
it into the shop. Cost her a pretty bundle to get the transmission fixed.”
kidding, right?” He could see she wasn’t. “You mean like a Porsche or Ferrari
or—”
Prius or some other hybrid. It would save her some gas money.”
eyes, and clinched his jaw, but he couldn’t maintain the pretense. He had never
been angry at his wife and couldn’t imagine starting now. T?he forced frown
gave way to the upward pressure of a smile.
another cup of coffee. I’ll let you make the arrangements. Take the money from
the house account.” He paused. “We are talking just one car, right?”
forehead, and took his cup to refill it. “Speaking of Rosa, she said something
yesterday that seemed…”
Unexpected.” She filled the cup and returned to the table. “She said Donny
spoke.”
link words together. I thought it was beyond his ability.”
geneticist was talking now. “His condition is a mystery. T?here are only a
handful of savants in the world. We don’t know what goes on in his brain.”
the words. He stopped when she entered the room. Something about shadows.”
one of his computers.”
you tell me this last night?”
nearly midnight and you were half asleep.”
breakfast. Good as Rosa is, food cooked by my wife always tastes better.”
years.”
of his day. He loved his son, but he would rather face off against a bunch of
IRS attorneys than turn the doorknob to his boy’s bedroom.
heard a voice from the other side of the door:
right,
every hour he wasn’t sleeping. T?he chair was an expensive, well-padded iBOT
designed by inventor Dean Kamen. It was powered and could raise Donny to the
eye level of any adult not playing in the NBA. A series of gyros and a robust
computer program enabled it to climb stairs without tipping. T?he invention had
been a boon to wheelchair-bound consumers.
wheelchair. He could walk if he wanted, jump if he desired, and even sprint if
he had a mind to, but he never did. At least that was what the doctors said.
Under heavy sedation, Donny had endured MRIs, CAT scans, X-rays, muscle
conductivity studies, and other medical tests. All came back negative.
the doctors said. “T?he problem is in his mind. He doesn’t want to walk.” T?hat
had been the end of their assessment. No one could offer any ideas of how to
make a healthy twenty-two-year-old who was monosyllabic on his best day and
mute on his worst and who possessed an IQ above 200 do what he didn’t want to
do. “You simply cannot make a man walk if he doesn’t want to.” T?hey had been
united in that assessment.
allowed himself, wondered why his son refused to walk or engage with humanity.
Yes, his savant condition was probably due to autism, but research had yet to
come to a consensus on that.
bowl of hot oatmeal in one hand and wondered if he had heard what he thought he
heard.
oatmeal for you.” He moved to the long desk that took up all of one wall in the
place they called Stanley’s bedroom. It looked more like a NASA control center
than a place to sleep. A series of four 27-inch monitors lined the table, and
two computer towers sat nearby. T?hey were never turned off. More than once,
Stanley had awakened in the night to hear Donny’s fingers tapping on the
keyboard.
unoccupied spot of the table. “Whatcha working on, pal?”
himself. He needed help dressing and using the bathroom, but at least he could
manage to put a spoon in his mouth or hold a sandwich. Small
blessings.
overlooked the Pacific side of the Strand. T?he thinning cloud cover allowed
the morning sun to paint sparkles on the gentle swells and surf. A short
distance from the shore, surfers waited for the ocean to offer more waves.
Although Stanley couldn’t see them from this window, he knew that new Navy
SEALs were training there. Such was Coronado: home to the wealthy, a mecca for
sun worshippers, a training ground for the Navy, and a magnet for tourists.
doubted his son had ever noticed the beauty outside his window, the kind of
view that made the 1700-square-foot, three-bedroom, three-bath condo worth $3.5
million. T?he only things Donny seemed to notice were on the computer monitors.
Stanley doubted the young man even knew him. T?he last thought brought pain, as
it did a dozen times every day.
monitors. For a few moments, Stanley considered having a programmer look at it,
but he dismissed the idea. What difference would it make?
late again, but I’ll look in on you. Mom will be here until Rosa arrives.”
bite of the pasty meal.
son’s hair. He loved the boy even if he had never caught a baseball or watched
a football game. “Take it easy, champ.”
in the corner of his eye—something dark, indistinct. He snapped his head around
but saw nothing.
tried to push back the gloom that draped his mind. T?hen he heard Donny’s voice
again.
right,
Shadow, shadow on my left,
Shadow, shadow everywhere,
Shadow has all the might.
Shadow, shadow on my left,
Shadow, shadow everywhere,
Shadow has all the might.
Shadow, shadow on my left,
Shadow, shadow everywhere,
Shadow has all the might.