Hello
all! This is Mattie Dunman, saying hey from the mountains of West Virginia. I
am sitting down with Liz Hannigan, star of At
First Touch, for a quick interview.
Liz takes a seat, watching me
warily, her gloved hands in her lap. Leaning forward, she narrows her eyes and
holds her body tense, as though she is about to leap from her seat at any
moment.
MD:
Liz, thanks for being here. I know you’re a...private person, so I appreciate
you answering some of my questions.
Liz:
What do you want to know?
MD:
Well first, can you tell us a little bit about how your gift works?
Liz:
(laughs mirthlessly) Gift. Right.
Uh...sure. I touch you, skin to skin, and your entire mind downloads into my
brain. Like hooking up to an external hard drive. I see your entire life in
super-fast forward, like a movie speeding by too fast to makes sense of, and
then everything just files itself away until I feel like looking at it. (shifts uncomfortably in her seat and looks
down at her hands) Oh yeah, and then I can read your mind whenever I want.
MD:
Well, that’s got to be...difficult. I know you lost your mother and had to
leave your family and friends behind. How has that affected you?
Liz:
(long silence) I guess...I always try
to think of how she would handle things. Especially when it comes to Dad. Any
time I get mad or irritated with him, I wonder what she would say or do and I
try to make her proud. I think she would’ve wanted me to do more with my...
‘gift.’ It’s something I think about every day.
MD:
Have you thought about how you might use your abilities to impact the world?
Liz:
(sighs and looks out the window, looking
suddenly tired) I used to. I mean, earlier on, before I got caught up with
the Feds and the Coalition, I imagined being a cop or something. You know, sort
of a super-interrogator, bane to all criminals. But then I saw the way my
abilities were treated, how impossible it would be to have my own life if I
made them public, and I got scared. I just want to get through the next day
without disaster; it’s hard to think past that.
MD:
Okay, so on a lighter note, you say you love to read. What are some of your
favorite books?
Liz: Oh, well, I have a bunch of books my mom used
to read. Victoria Holt, Mary Stewart, Gwen Bristow. Sort of romantic/adventure/suspense type
stuff. I also really like the Twilight series. So sue me.
MD: You’ve said that you can play music in your
head like a playlist. What do you listen to most often?
Liz: You know, I’m a big Beatles fan. Especially
the Revolver album. So classic.
MD:
One last question. You and Carey...is it the real thing?
Liz:
(whispers, gaze fervent) God, I hope
so.
Well,
that’s it for now. This is Mattie Dunman saying thanks to Liz for sharing some
of her thoughts and wishing her luck in her fight against the Coalition and her
romance with the always-adorable Carey.
At First Touch
First Touch Series, book 1
Mattie Dunman
Mattie Dunman
Genre: YA/Paranormal
ISBN:
9780615659725
ASIN: B00873W5ZA
Number of pages: 267
Word Count: 87,543
Cover Artist:
Deirdre Robertson
Book
Description:
Liz Hannigan has been on the run since she was twelve
years old.
Her mother is dead. Her father has lost his job. And
thanks to an experimental procedure, Liz is now able to ‘download’ the contents
of every brain around her with a simple touch. Forced to hide from both the
federal government and a darkling group of morally deficient scientists known
as the Coalition determined to exploit her abilities, she moves with her father
to the bucolic coal town of Pound, West Virginia.
But the hunt for Liz and her abilities hasn’t ended,
and her hopes for peace are shattered when she inadvertently downloads the
enigmatic Carey Drake, whose unusual good looks and charm conceal a secret as
shocking as her own. Stunned by the knowledge that she has found someone else
who has extraordinary abilities, Liz finds herself drawn to Carey, discovering
a deep attraction, and dares to hope for the first time she might find love.
But when an agent of the Coalition begins stalking
her, Liz must find a way to work with the government agency she most mistrusts
as she strives to build a longed-for normal life and take down the agent who
has tracked her down. Caught up in a struggle to save herself and those she
loves, the girl who sees all is blind to true danger until it is too late.
Short Excerpt:
I was out on the main road and about twenty minutes into my
run when I heard the sound of a motor gunning and the beep of a horn. I slowed
my pace and turned around to see Preston’s truck chugging along about two
hundred yards behind me. His head was out of the window and he was screaming at
me; I couldn’t understand what he was saying, but I felt pretty confident that
it wasn’t complimentary.
I came to a stop, wondering if I should do something. I
wasn’t really concerned; it wasn’t as though he would run me over or anything,
but the blind hatred on his face made me a little nervous. Finally, I decided
to ignore him and let him get his fill of throwing abuse my way and then drive
on past. Picking up the pace again, I
resolutely faced forward, pretending that the continued screeching behind me
was a trick of the wind.
Suddenly the engine gave an almighty roar and I heard the
unwelcome sound of squealing tires. With only a second to register that I had
vastly underestimated Preston’s anger and mental instability, I swirled around
in time to see the grille of the truck just a few feet from my face. I made to
jump out of the way, but all my knowledge and stolen tricks didn’t make me fly,
or move faster, or be any less breakable than any other human being. I knew in
that moment how useless my ability really was. In the face of the giant metal
monster brimming with torque, my mind was of no matter, it just screamed out
with the desire to live, to keep going.
There was a blow like a train hitting me, but strangely
there was no pain, and I was moving faster than I could have imagined away from
the truck and into the field next to the road. I was sure that the truck had
hit me and I was just flying through the air to my death, by some fortunate
stroke lucky enough to be spared the pain of impact. In another instant the
movement had stopped and I realized I was being held in a pair of strong arms
against a rock-hard chest.
Carey looked down at me, his eyes frantic. “Are you alright?
He didn’t hit you, did he?”
“N-no,” I stuttered. Having downloaded Carey I was aware of
his incredible speed, but there’s something very different about knowing something
theoretically and experiencing it firsthand.
He put me down gently in the grass and I just sat there, too
dumbfounded to speak. Even as he
anxiously surveyed me for damage, we heard the rending scream of out of control
tires and the heavy metal sound of Preston’s truck crashing into something.
“I’ll be right back,” Carey said and then I blinked and he
was gone.
About the Author:
Mattie Dunman is a lifelong
resident of "Wild & Wonderful" West Virginia, and has dreamed of
being a writer since she first held a pen in hand.
Mattie has pursued several
useless degrees to support this dream, and presently enjoys teaching (or
tormenting, as the case may be) college students the dying art of public
speaking. She spends most of her free time writing, but also indulges in
reading and traveling.
She is the proud owner of an
adorably insane American Eskimo named Finn, and a tyrant cat named Bella, who
take up more of her attention than they probably should.
Please visit Mattie's website
at www.mattiedunman.com
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