Welcome to the Virtual Book Tour for Shelf Life!
About the Book:
Young bookseller Cathy Finn is having a bad day. First, there's the assassin's bullet. Then comes the realisation that she's been living in a work of fiction. Worse, she wasn't even the main character.
Cathy's quiet, bit-part life may be over, but her troubles are only beginning. Her last day on Earth is also her first as a citizen of New Tybet. For over four hundred years, its people have been rescuing those destined to die in other narratives, but now the system is faltering. A saboteur is at work and Cathy will have to stop him if she’s ever going to find a way home. Failure could maroon her forever and spark a revolution that sets all the worlds of literature ablaze.
Book Details:
Print Length: 338 pages
Publisher: Mirror World Publishing; 1 edition (http://www.mirrorworldpublishing.com)
Publication Date: July 17, 2019
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC
Language: English
ASIN: B07SNGW2Z7
Genre(s): Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Literary Mashup, Parallel Worlds, Comedy
Exclusive Excerpt:
Scowling at the downpour, Hitch angled the hand-written page to catch the strobing lights of a carrier drone that passed overhead. Cold blue washed the page for an instant and moved on.
It was the right place. He snapped shut the address book and considered the tenement opposite. A vertical chessboard of barred windows and soot-black brick, it stood with its lower third rooted in the night. There were no streetlights in the neighbourhood; no fixtures of any kind that hadn't been carried off by scavengers. Down here, it was just a deep sea of shadows and violence. Somewhere around the fifteenth floor, the streaming glass and ductwork reflected the colours of the city - a pointillist scatter of neon, sodium, and fires run wild - but he'd see none of those tonight. He wasn't going to rise that far.
Standing in his dripping doorway, he pocketed the book and peered hard into the rain. It was futile. In this light and weather, his chances of spotting a carefully-concealed watchman were about as lofty as a beetle's bum. An entire marching band might be taking a quiet breather just yards away and he'd never know it.
On the other hand, mistrust was a long-established habit, one that had served him well. Futile or not, it was an animal instinct; something that kicked in whenever he broke cover, and with one last job to do, it was time to move.
Clutching his coat tight around his throat, he probed his way across the road and felt water running into his hair and shoes. Silently, he cursed. The incessant rain was one of the many things he hated about this place. Cold, dark and sodden: why would anyone choose to make it their home? If it was just to show how tough and dangerous you were, then really you were trying too hard. People never ceased to disappoint him.
Approaching the building, he thumbed a card in his pocket. The door answered with a sullen clunk. It was heavy - checkerplate sheets bolted to wood - but it opened smoothly when he pushed. Stepping inside, he swung it shut, then squinted as the strip lights blinked and buzzed in reluctant procession up the stairwell.
His impression of the place didn't improve much with illumination. Give or take a few broken bottles, the little hall was empty: just the stairs, a single metal door and the inevitable aroma of other people's piss. Halfway up the door, a no-nonsense padlock underlined the sentiment of its single terse instruction: Keep Out.
So - eight floors and no lift. Well, that was just super.
Order Links:
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Amazon US
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Kobo
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Meet the Author:
Rob Gregson spent much of his youth reading fantasy novels, immersing himself in role playing games and generally doing everything possible to avoid the real world. In his defence, we're talking about the late 1980s - a time when ridiculous hair, hateful pop music and soaring unemployment were all very popular - so it wasn't altogether a bad decision. However, had he abandoned the realms of wizardry at an earlier age, he might have developed one or two useful life skills and he would almost certainly have found it easier to get a girlfriend. Rob lives in Lancashire and has two children, although he has absolutely no idea why anyone should find that interesting.
Connect with the Author:
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