Blog Tour: In The Present Tense by Carrie Pack
In The Present Tense by Carrie Pack
Paperback: 336 pages
Publisher: Interlude Press (May 19, 2016)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1941530788
ISBN-13: 978-1941530788
Amazon: In The Present Tense
Amazon Kindle: In The Present Tense
Blurb: Miles Lawson goes to sleep dreaming of a future with his boyfriend Adam, but wakes to find he is married to Ana, an acquaintance from high school. When he learns he has been time traveling, Miles is consumed with finding a cure for his rare condition-and finding his first love. But will he be able to convince Adam he is telling the truth before it’s too late?
Excerpt:
Miles sat there and tried to make out shapes and colors in the dark room as he searched his brain for a memory of anything.
Nothing looked familiar. His desk, his drum set, the sheets-all gone. Not one thing looked the way it had when he'd fallen asleep, and Ana certainly hadn't been in his bed.
He tried to replay the previous day's events, but everything seemed fuzzy, like a fogged bathroom mirror that he couldn't wipe clean.
Why was everything so fuzzy?
Last night... What happened last night?
Adam had come over and they were watching TV together, and Adam had given him a small stuffed giraffe because Miles was scared about having surgery. He reached for his left arm, expecting to find the cast that had been there for the last two months, but it wasn't there. His heart began to beat so loudly he glanced over at Ana to make sure she was still asleep.
Unable to determine what had happened to his cast, Miles resumed his tally of the previous evening's chain of events. At around ten-thirty, his mom said Adam had to leave because they had to get up early to go to the hospital. He had taken his pain meds and gone to sleep with the phantom of Adam's goodnight kiss on his cheek. He'd been happy.
He'd gotten a text from Ana earlier in the evening, but she was only wishing him luck with the surgery. She hadn't come over. In fact, as far as Miles knew, Ana had been several hours away in her dorm room.
So how had she gotten into his bedroom? And who had changed his sheets?
He threw off the covers and stood up, noticing he was only wearing a tight-fitting pair of boxer briefs instead of his usual basketball shorts.
He looked around the room for anything familiar, but it was still dark out, and all he could see were shadows and vague shapes. On the dresser opposite the bed, he found a few framed photos. Squinting to see without turning on a light, Miles studied the images carefully.
As his eyes focused, he recognized a couple of the photos. One was from last year's prom: Adam wearing that ridiculous corsage Miles had bought him, Ana being dipped by her date, David, as all four of them smiled widely in front of a cheesy faux tropical scene. One of the frames held a collage of photos of his and Ana's friends. He recognized Adam, Lucky, Antonio, Dahlia and Brienne. But the last one, the largest of all the photos, was of him and Ana-her in a flowing white dress and him in a black suit, both wearing broad smiles and flanked by Miles's parents and a woman Miles had only seen once: Julia Espinosa, Ana's mother.
A loud clatter echoed through the bedroom as the frame hit the edge of the dresser and fell to the hardwood floor. This wasn't his room, and he didn't remember that photo being taken.
"Go back to sleep," Ana mumbled, her voice muffled by the pillow.
"Ana," he whispered, risking her full anger, but unable to stop himself, "we're married."
"Thanks for the update. Now go back to sleep before I divorce your dumb ass."
He dropped to the floor on his knees, barely even noticing the sharp pain of bare skin hitting the hard surface.
Married. To Ana?
What the hell had happened?
Meet the author: Carrie Pack is the author of Designs On You and a part-time college professor who recently left her job in marketing to actively pursue her writing career. Carrie lives in Florida, which she fondly calls America’s Wang, with her husband and four cats.
"Thanks for having me. My current book is In the Present Tense. It’s a tale of mental illness, time travel and betrayal. And if that doesn’t get you hooked, there’s also a love story driving the narrative as well as a bit of mystery surrounding my main character Miles and the mysterious condition that causes him to time travel."
1) Do you have any strange writing habits?
I’m a pantser; I write by the seat of my pants with minimal outlining. I write at all hours of the day but especially after dark. I always use a computer to write, but sometimes it’s on my couch, other times in bed, but rarely at my desk. I often have one of my four cats covering one or more hands, so typos are a definite possibility.
2) Just as your books will inspire others, what books have inspired you?
I am such a voracious reader, this kind of question is always tough for me to answer. The easy answer is “all of them.” But the ones that have stuck with me are ones I read as a child, like the entire Oz series. L. Frank Baum created such a lush world full of imagination, and it’s a shame so many people have only seen the movies. But I was later inspired by Chaim Potok, early VC Andrews, Ray Bradbury, Carlos Ruiz Zafón, Lewis Carroll, Margaret Atwood, Barbara Kingsolver. The list goes on. Maybe I should have just said “all of them.”
3) What do you consider to be your best accomplishment (writing or life)?
My biggest accomplishment is always the last book I’ve finished writing. The act of turning in a manuscript always feels so incredibly rewarding.
4) Where do you see yourself in ten years?
I hope to be still writing books that inspire, entertain and make people think. It wouldn’t hurt to have a best-seller under my belt either.
5) If you had a super power, what would it be?
Time travel. It’s 100% why I wrote In the Present Tense. I wanted to take the stigma placed on mental illness and turn it into a super power.
Where to find the author:
Facebook Author Page: https://www.facebook.com/mscarriepack
Twitter: https://twitter.com/carriepack
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/mscarriepack/
Website: www.carriepack.com
Goodreads Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28490338-in-the-present-tense
Tour Dates & Stops:
19-May: Sinfully Addicted to All Male Romance, Oh My Shelves, Happily Ever Chapter
20-May: The Novel Approach, Scattered Thoughts & Rogue Words, Velvet Panic, Havan Fellows
23-May: Anna Butler Fiction, Outrageous Heroes, Alpha Book Club, Jessie G. Books
24-May: Unquietly Me, Dawn’s Reading Nook, BFD Book Blog
25-May: Inked Rainbow Reads, Divine Magazine, Boys on the Brink Reviews
26-May: Love Bytes, Louise Lyons, A.M. Leibowitz
27-May: My Fiction Nook, Elisa - My Reviews and Ramblings
30-May: Bayou Book Junkie, MM Good Book Reviews
31-May: Wicked Faerie's Tales and Reviews, TTC Books and More
1-Jun: Prism Book Alliance, Molly Lolly
Giveaway:
Rafflecopter Prize: Grand Prize: $25 Interlude Press Gift Card, 5 First Prizes: eCopy of In The Present Tense by Carrie Pack
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