GUEST POST and GIVEAWAY
Code Blood
by Kurt Kamm
Code Blood by Kurt Kamm is currently on tour with Partner in Crime Virtual Book Tours. The tour stops here today for a guest post by the author, an excerpt, and a giveaway. Please be sure to visit the other tour stops as well.
Description
Colt Lewis, a rookie fire paramedic, is obsessed with finding the severed foot of his first victim after she dies in his arms. His search takes him into the connected lives of a graduate research student, with the rarest blood in the world and the vampire fetishist who is stalking her. Within the corridors of high-stakes medical research laboratories, the shadow world of body parts dealers, and the underground Goth clubs of Los Angeles, Lewis uncovers a tangled maze of needles, drugs and maniacal ritual, all of which lead to death. But whose death?
An unusual and fast-paced LA Noir thriller.
Excerpt
Colt heard a small chopper. It sounded like a lawnmower. He knew it couldn’t be the AirSquad and looked up. A news helicopter circled overhead. He saw another coming up the coast from Los Angeles. In minutes, news crews in vans would arrive, extend their satellite transmission poles, broadcast pictures of the accident and fan out to find people to interview. In the process, several spectators would have a moment of fame on Los Angeles network television. The accident would be a good lead-in on the 11:00 p.m. Sunday night news, but the anchors would be disappointed that a Malibu celebrity wasn’t involved.
Moose joined them with the backboard and laid it down next to the girl’s body.
Brian checked the C-spine. “Ready guys? On my count.”
The men prepared to roll the girl on her side.
“Be careful,” Colt said.
Brian gave Colt a quick look and said, “One, two, three.”
In unison, they rolled her onto her side, Moose pushed the board in toward her and the men laid her back onto it.
Colt thought he heard her utter a faint moan. While Brian secured the head brace and straps across her body and prepared her for transport across the beach, he looked at her bloodied leg again. “Where’s the foot?” he shouted. “Does someone have her foot?” She still wore one delicate leather sandal.
“We can’t find the sucker,” one of the deputies told Colt.
“Can’t find it? How’s that possible?” Colt said. The girl needed her foot. They had to ice it down before the tissue started to die. It might be reattached. “It has to be here somewhere.” He went over to the damaged pickup.
The driver of the truck sat with his head down, behind the metal screen in the back seat of a black and white. A sheriff’s deputy stood outside, questioning him through the window and writing on his notepad. Colt interrupted. “Where’s the foot?” He was met with a shrug and a blank stare from the deputy. Colt looked at the driver of the pickup, a man about his own age, and hated him.
Colt walked around the pickup. Glass shards from a headlight and pieces of plastic lay on the ground. He knelt in a pool of green coolant dripping from the smashed radiator and looked under the front of the truck. The foot wasn’t there. He stood up and looked around.
Thirty or forty people stood in the parking lot watching the activity.
[Want more? Click below to read a longer excerpt.]
Praise for the Book
"I couldn't put it down. Kurt writes in a style called "faction" which I find very interesting, and page turning. I have now read all of his books and recommend all of them." ~ Mel's Mrs.
"My guess is there will be more in this series of firemen acting in their element, and I welcome a Kamm read because the writing is excellent and the information abounds. A thriller, but also an informer. Best of all, I learn a lot in an easy, enjoyable way." ~ cyn cason
"I found it very informative in many areas. Obvious Mr. Kamm has done extensive research to make the reader feel the intensity of the drama. I found it an exciting page turning read and would recommend it to anyone who likes a good mystery." ~ Philip Ruben
"Wow, another well written entertaining mystery and page turner by Kurt Kamm and I loved it." ~ deadbear
"Interesting twists and turns and an easy read and I found I couldn't put the book down. I would recommend this book!" ~ Christyann Evans
Code Blood Literary Awards:
Writer’s Type – First Chapter Competition. January 2011- First Place
2012 International Book Awards – Fiction: Cross Genre Category – First Place
National Indie Excellence Book Awards – Faction (fiction based on fact) – Winner of the 2012 Award
The 2012 USA Best Book Awards – Fiction: Horror – Winner
LuckyCinda Publishing Contest 2013 First Place – Thriller
Reader’s Favorite 2013– Finalist – Horror Fiction
Knoxville Writer’s Guild – 2011 Novella or Novel Excerpt – 2nd Place
Guest Post by the Author
The Best Advice I Can Give You About Writing A Novel
I am often asked what advice I would give a new novelist, and here is my answer.
This involves a discussion about bicycle racing, but stick with it.
For fifteen years I was a competitive master’s bicycle racer, competing in 5-year age groups from 45 to 60, after which I retired. Bike racing is a tough, lonely sport. To be competitive in Southern California, where everyone trains outside 12 months a year, you’ve got to be at the top of your game. There are no shortcuts. You have to spend 2–3 hours riding almost every day, and it’s not a coast through the park. It’s hard work, climbing as much as 4,000 feet, keeping a heart rate of 140–160 beats per minute, and often suffering through 90+ degree temperatures. On days when you don’t climb, you do slow-fast intervals until you think your legs will fall off. (I have easily burned 2,000 calories on a training ride.) Most days you are riding by yourself, and it takes discipline and devotion to stick with it. You come home exhausted, dehydrated, and ready to eat everything in sight.
From May to September there are races in California, Arizona, Utah, and even a couple in Mexico. Some are all-out sprints lasting an hour; others are 3 hour road races. The oldest age groups race first, so I often got up at 4am for a 6:30 sign-in and a 7:00 race start. At every starting line the referee goes over the race rules, and when he finishes he asks, “Any Questions?” After several years of racing, I recognized or knew most of the 20–30 men at the starting line, and one day, when the referee asked if there were any questions, I spoke up and said, “Yeah, why are we doing this?” Everyone laughed. I began to repeat this at the beginning of every race and soon someone responded, “Because we love it.” By the time I quit racing, the entire group would shout out the answer.
Aside from a few stray family members, no one ever watched our races; it was too early. The spectators came later, to see the young guys race around noon. On the occasions when I was fortunate enough to come across the finish line first (or second, or third), there was no one there to see me win and no one to applaud. The reward was the process, the training and the racing for nothing more than a $10 trophy and a lot of self-satisfaction. Every one of the men I raced with understood that.
OK, ENOUGH ABOUT BICYCLE RACING. If you go back and substitute “writing a novel” for “bicycle racing,” you will get my drift – YOU HAD BETTER LOVE THE PROCESS OF WRITING, THE HOURS SPENT CREATING, COMPOSING AND REWRITING, BECAUSE THAT MAY BE YOUR ONLY REWARD. There is no shortcut. You have to work long hard hours, and it is a solitary activity, so you had better enjoy the creative process. I once heard someone say, “I love promoting my books, but hate writing them.” I never could understand that, because the most time is spent writing, not promoting. If you don’t like the activity that takes 90% of your time, you shouldn’t be doing it.
There may not be a lot of applause and an adoring crowd when you finish your novel, so you may have to be satisfied with the fact that you worked hard and created something you are very proud of. God bless you if you find a publisher, or self-publish and find a wide audience which loves your work. Nothing is sweeter than hearing from readers who praise your work. Just be prepared, because writing is as competitive as bike racing, and you may never have a big, broad audience. But think about it. You have written a novel. That’s a great accomplishment. If you enjoy the creative part of you work, anything else that comes your way will be gravy. I hope this helps to motivate you.
About the Author
Malibu, California, resident Kurt Kamm has written a series of firefighter mystery novels which have won several literary awards. He is also the author of The Lizard’s Tale, which provides a unique look inside the activities of the Mexican drug cartels and the men dedicated to stopping them. Kurt has used his contacts with several California fire departments, as well as with the ATF and DEA to write fact-based (“faction”) novels. In his chilling and suspenseful multi-award winning novel, Code Blood, emergency medicine, high-tech medical research, and the unsettling world of blood fetishism and body parts make for an edgy L.A. Noir thriller.
Kurt has built an avid fan base among first responders and other readers. A graduate of Brown University and Columbia Law School, Kurt was previously a financial executive and semi-professional bicycle racer. He was also Chairman of the UCLA/Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center Foundation for several years.
Giveaway
Enter the tour-wide giveaway for a chance to win a $20 Amazon gift card.
Links
