Exclusive sneak peek at EVENT HORIZON: Book Two in The Perseid Collapse Series…

Posted on by Steven Konkoly

Available for members of my Thriller Fiction Mailing List. 

Since I’ve passed the halfway point, I want to celebrate by releasing the Prologue for EVENT HORIZON: Book Two in The Perseid Collapse Series.

4,700 words (16-20 pages) chronicling Ryan Fletcher’s experience at Zero Hour on the morning of the EVENT. In this extended chapter, you’ll experience the terror from a different perspective, at a location much closer to the point of impact. What Ryan Fletcher experiences is by far the most apocalyptic scene in the series.

Below is a teaser. To receive the full passage on January 19th, sign up for my MAILING LIST. In addition to exclusive content, you’ll receive news of future discounts/promotions, along with new release updates. SIGN UP NOW!

If you’re already signed up, check your email for the full chapter! Thank you for reading.

 

EVENT HORIZON Teaser:

Prologue

EVENT 00:00 Hours

Boston University

Boston, Massachusetts

Ryan Fletcher squinted at his alien surroundings, agonizingly aware that he had been robbed of sleep. Unnaturally brilliant light penetrated the flimsy, translucent curtains, exposing the beige cinderblock walls and sparse furniture to his blurry vision. The glaring view of his dorm room faded quickly, replaced by a soft flickering light. He raised his head a few inches off the pillow to view the digital alarm clock resting on his desk. A dark object stared back. Wonderful. Heavy hands came together on his chest to manipulate the tiny buttons on his digital watch. A blue-green light bathed his face. 4:59. Brutal.

He closed his eyes and let his head sink into the familiar, worn-out pillow brought from home, and started to drift off—when the steel bedframe under his thin mattress started to rattle against the wooden dresser behind his head. Angry thoughts of the “T” waking him every morning of his freshmen year yanked him out of the murky depths of sleep. This is bullshit! He sat up, fully awake and pissed off at his room assignment. Nobody had mentioned the fact that the train would make a stop inside his room. The vibration intensified, accompanied by a deafening roar.

“No way I’m dealing with this for an entire year,” he mumbled.

The bed heaved upward, tossing him face down onto the carpeted floor. He lay prone for a few seconds, stunned by the sudden mayhem unleashed on his room. Another massive jolt rocked the building. He needed to get out of here.

Ryan grabbed the bedframe and tried to stand, but the room pitched violently, dropping him to his hands and knees. This is good enough. He crawled in the darkness toward the door, tumbling sideways into the wooden dresser beyond his bed as the building swayed. Ryan scurried into the small vestibule next to the door, moments before both of the room’s heavy, wooden dressers crashed to the floor. He leaned his back into the vestibule’s cold cinderblock walls and pressed his bare feet against the other.

Adding and releasing pressure on his legs to stay in place, Ryan moved with the building, hoping the walls didn’t collapse. Not that it would matter at that point. The building was nearly fifty years old, and if the interior walls started to fail, rescue teams would be lucky to find any of them alive. He dug his feet into the wall in front of him and closed his eyes. He was on autopilot, too disoriented and terrified to put any effort into anything beyond his immediate survival. He knew that he should be sitting under the doorframe, but he couldn’t convince his body to give up the stable position he had established between the two walls.

Moments later, the shaking abated, and the thunderous rumble yielded to distant car alarms and screaming. Ryan stood on wobbly legs and braced himself against the walls with both hands, taking deep breaths to fight the nausea. A strong campfire smell drew his attention to the flimsy curtains flapping gently through the jagged remains of the window. A wave of dizziness struck, buckling his knees. The window could wait.

Bright yellow and orange light danced against the room’s dark interior, pushing his curiosity. He had to see what happened outside of the building. Testing his legs, he edged out of the vestibule and stopped in front of the fallen dressers. Glancing up at broken windows, a flash-flood of rational, analytical thoughts overloaded him. First things first.

He tilted the top dresser upward, letting all of the empty drawers fall to the floor as he heaved it against the opposite wall. His dresser was next, but he took care to keep the drawers pushed firmly shut. Ryan dug through the dresser and quickly replaced his athletic shorts with jeans. Thick wool socks covered his feet, followed by a pair of well-travelled, dark brown hiking boots. He saw no sense in cutting his feet on broken glass before he left his room. He stepped over to the window and brushed aside the flimsy curtains. Flames engulfed western Boston, extending as far as he could see from his sixth story window.

That was 700 words…get the rest on January 19th by signing up HERE

Chapter Three Sample now available

Posted on by Steven Konkoly

I just posted Chapter Three here on my blog. I plan to release one chapter every Friday (or Thursday if I’m out-of-town), but I won’t add a new post like this every week…no need to clog your email boxes with notifications. I do have some exciting news about The Perseid Collapse, which I will release by next Friday, along with at least two chapters. Sorry to leave you with a cliff hanger, but I still have some details to work out and a plot board to modify. Trust me when I say, that the news is good for reader and author alike.

If you haven’t signed up for my New Release Updates List, I highly encourage it. It’ll give you a leg up on New Release information…and some of the giveaway prizes that will be linked to The Perseid Collapse Trilogy’s release. Did I say Trilogy? Click here to sign up.

Sample Chapters of The Perseid Collapse

Posted on by Steven Konkoly

I have decided to release “unedited” chapters of The Perseid Collapse periodically until the novel’s release in December. A fair number of you have waited VERY patiently for me to return to the apocalyptic genre, so I thought I would give you something to hold you over until the launch. I anticipate posting roughly one chapter per week through November, which should bring you about a third of the way through Alex Fletcher’s latest survival journey.

Yes, the Fletchers are back, just as the United States has effectively settled into a comfortable, but tenuous post Jakarta Pandemic routine. A new era of isolationism has emerged, with the economy stabilized and the population better prepared for disaster.  On the surface, its business as usual in the United States, but dig a little deeper and you’ll find that one thing has remained the same. Trust in the government is at an all time low. The collective memory of twenty-six million deaths (nearly one in every ten citizens) during the Jakarta Pandemic runs like a shallow current, waiting to break through the thin facade of prosperity and confidence. The Perseid Collapse takes place in 2019, six years after The Jakarta Pandemic. It starts with a “Mass Event” that instantly shatters the fragile barrier…and unleashes a torrent of fear, panic and mistrust.

Of course, the Fletchers will be caught up in the middle of it…and they’ll no longer have the option of secluding themselves in the comfort and safety of their “prepper” paradise. I’m taking all of that away from them in The Perseid Collapse…from the very start. If you enjoyed The Jakarta Pandemic, or my Black Flagged novels, I guarantee this one will grab you from the beginning. Part technothriller, all apocalyptic…The Perseid Collapse is the best of both worlds.

You can find and download the chapters from my blog, either at the top right corner of my blog or on The Perseid Collapse page accessible at the very top of my blog. The chapters are available in Word or PDF form. You can save these on your computer and upload them to your Kindle. If you don’t know how to do that, let me know…it sure beats reading on a computer screen.  

Sample Chapters from Black Flagged Apex

Posted on by Steven Konkoly

I have uploaded four chapters of Black Flagged Apex, in addition to a sneak peek into the fourth installment of the Black Flagged series, Black Flagged VEKTOR. Apex will be available in early to mid December. VEKTOR’s release date is unknown, since I may write another post-apocalyptic book after Apex’s release. Enjoy!

Black Flagged Apex Chapters 1-4 PDF

Black Flagged Apex Chapters 1-4 Word Doc

Black Flagged VEKTOR PDF

Black Flagged VEKTOR Word Doc 

Standby…Standby…BLACK FLAGGED is a GO!

Posted on by Steven Konkoly

UPDATED  11/13/2011: Thank you for a great launch week! So far, the total raised for the campaign is $253.50. Simply fantastic. I am extending the matching donation campaign one more week. All proceeds from sales for this next week will go to the Disabled American Veterans organization, and once again, I will match them. Spread the word! Early holiday gift? 

Purchase from all sources here: www.blackflaggedseries.com

After some masterful stalling on my part, Black Flagged is now available and ready for public consumption. Only one year after my first novel, The Jakarta Pandemic…not bad for a part-time writer? Now that I have settled into a regular writing routine, the next one will come quicker.

What’s new about Black Flagged? This time I did it right from the start. My first novel was a learning experience across the board. A good story from the beginning…but I had to relaunch the book at the start of the summer, with professional editing and a real cover (by a real artist). My sincere thanks goes out to everyone that somehow overlooked the editing issues and enjoyed the story…or just didn’t say anything. At this point, with 101 reviews on Amazon, and countless reader emails…my skin is pretty thick, and I take feedback to heart. So please don’t hesitate to let me know what you think…good or bad.

With Veterans Day right around the corner, I am launching the book with a special campaign to raise money for Disabled American Veterans. If you plan to order a hard copy of my book, please consider taking a few extra steps to order the book from the special links listed in the BOOK STORE to the right, or at the appropriate button on the each book’s individual website. I’m doing this for both books.  Learn more here.

If you’re new to Black Flagged, here are a few links to bring you up to speed, and give you a taste of what’s in store, if you decide to take the plunge.

Character Teasers

Black Flagged Website

Prologue Sample

More Samples are available in the SAMPLES section to the right.Grab a copy and sit back for a gritty, non-stop ride through some shadowy places, where trust is a hard concept to sell, and the term “economy of violence” is the key to hour by hour survival.

OFFICIAL BOOK TEASER

Book One of the Black Flagged Series.

A graduate of the Department of Defense’s experimental Black Flag program, Daniel Petrovich carries a secret he’d rather keep buried. A secret his government has hidden in the deepest vaults of the Pentagon. Unfortunately for Daniel, some secrets carry a debt that can never be repaid, and certain acquired skills will always hold their value. Someone is trying to raise Black Flag from the dead, and bring Daniel back with it. Someone who knows all of his darkest secrets.

In exchange for the promise of a clean slate, and a chance to keep the life he has built with the woman he loves, he agrees to carry out one final mission. Now Daniel has an even bigger problem. The assassination of Mohammed Ghani, a wealthy Muslim importer, wasn’t the uncomplicated mission he had been promised.

Seven other prominent Muslim businessmen are killed on the same night along the East Coast, suddenly extinguishing Task Force HYDRA, the most significant counter-terrorism investigation in recent FBI history.

Daniel’s life is about to disintegrate, as he becomes the focus of a relentless FBI manhunt, and the target of a vengeful CIA agent. To survive, he’ll be forced to release a dark side he fought for years to keep suppressed. A dark side with few boundaries, and even fewer loyalties.

Stalling

Posted on by Steven Konkoly

For those of you who haven’t figured it out yet…yes, I’m stalling. I’m eagerly awaiting the cover art for my new book, having arrived at the finish line a little earlier than expected.

I had contemplated writing a post about the dumbshit tailing me (5 feet back…not kidding) along Interstate 95 for twenty minutes…I used cruise control to slow my car down to 48 mph before he finally broke out of his iPhone haze, and realized he was moving along 25 mph slower than the rest of traffic on 95. I didn’t care. I figured if anyone was going to get rear ended, it would be him. Just in case your curious, I did this to him twice. I sped passed him when he finally went around me (head buried in iPhone), and again slowed him to 49mph in a gradual five minute attempt to drive him crazy. No such luck. Twitter must have been engrossing. I was about to take a picture of his car and license plate for a chat with the state police, but I realized my use of the phone would have broken Maine’s new “no texting” law (prohibits any use of electronic devices for anything but phone calls), and I would have been incriminating myself. Instead, I passed him, and hoped for some sign of an explosion in my rear view mirror. Nothing. Oh well.

Since everyone is being extremely patient, I thought I’d post a sample from the next book in the Black Flagged series, Black Flagged: Beginnings. Preliminary name, so don’t get critical just yet. I have a rough map of how the book will play out, but not enough to ink a story line.  This scene is a flashback, more background depth into Black Flagged’s main character, Daniel Petrovich (aka Marko Resja). I’ll reach back in this book and show you how he was recruited and trained…more importantly, you’ll see exactly what the Black Flag program trains it’s operatives to endure and overcome. Not for the weak heart.  Enjoy this bonus sample, as I try to figure out what else I can do to stall at 4:30 in the morning.

Black Flagged Beginnings

The Jakarta Pandemic #samplesunday giveaway

Posted on by Steven Konkoly


All of my samples so far have focused on my upcoming novel, Black Flagged, leaving my first novel, The Jakarta Pandemic,with abandonment issues. To remedy this, I added a sample to the “samples” link box, or you can find it here:

Jakarta Pandemic Sample

Thanks everyone, and have a happy #samplesunday

Chapter One of Black Flagged on #samplesunday

Posted on by Steven Konkoly

There is a Twitter tradition called #samplesunday, and this will be my first time participating.

To celebrate, I will release Chapter One  of Black Flagged. If you are paying attention to the Word Count box on the top right corner of my blog, you’ve noticed that I am making considerable progress with this novel. I should have a rough draft finished by the middle or end of September, and if all goes well, I’d love to launch it before Thanksgiving.

What is Black Flagged about? This is my biggest challenge as a writer. Quickly explaining what my book is about. I still don’t do any justice to The Jakarta Pandemic in casual conversation. I guess I need to start developing a blurb. Better to start now. Here it goes…very rough.

Black Flagged centers around Daniel Petrovich, a former covert military operative with a past he buried long ago. An explosive past he’s gone to extreme lengths to keep hidden from everyone around him. Daniel is about to find out that some secrets have a way of clawing back out of the ground, and he’ll be forced to resurrect a part of him better left for dead.  Thrust into the middle of an international conspiracy, Daniel fights to stay ahead of the FBI and CIA, in a desperate struggle to survive the day, and reunite with the woman he loves.

Very rough indeed.

The first two samples, Prologue and Chapter One, should give you a solid sense of where the novel is headed. In the Prologue, we meet Daniel Petrovich in another life, as another person. He’s not someone you’d want to meet under any circumstances. In Chapter One, we get a brief glimpse of the new Daniel Petrovich, right before his normal life unravels.

Enjoy #samplesunday!