Friday, November 30, 2012

Best Day Ever

Best day ever for my new thriller Moon Shadow.  It got to #160 in the ranking on the free ebooks list on Amazon and made it to #20 in the Thriller Genre.  So proud.  I also got featured today in the Top 5 Free Ebooks site.
http://www.fkbooksandtips.com/2012/11/30/5-free-kindle-books-21/

I have spent the entire day on Twitter and SPAMing all of my FB friends and Goodreads friends.  I most likely will be defriended roundly.  

I have reached 40000 on my WIP called Butcher and Blade and am currently working on the query letter.

This is what I have so far for my query/synopsis.  If it resonates with anyone or sucks please let me know.

         
"Butcher and Blade" is the title of my new action/adventure thriller.  This is an approximately 80,000 word fictional account of what can happen in a world where foreign terrorists continue to wage a war against all nations who do not follow their Islamic religion and teachings in the Quoran.  Two damaged strangers with divergent backgrounds become unlikely friends and heroes, when by chance they are thrown together.  They have to fight for their own lives while trying to prevent a 9-11 type of terrorist attack in LA.


Synopsis

          Unpredictable fate occurs when a prominent physician, Dr, Butcher, depressed and suicidal over the recent death of his wife, drives home along a deserted stretch of a LA freeway.  A thief throws out a bag full of money from the roof of a moving armored vehicle during a hijacking.  Accomplices following along in a van, watch helplessly as the scene unfolds.  A homeless man, a wounded gulf war veteran nicknamed Blade, attempts to retrieve the bag, and is accidentally struck by Dr. Butcher's car.  The gang attempts to take these two eye-witnesses out to the desert, kill them, and get rid of the evidence. But they don't realize their hostages have certain survival skills.  Butcher and Blade manage to defeat their assassins, abscond with the get-away-van, and squirrel away the stolen money. But they are hunted down relentlessly by the surviving members of this ruthless gang. And due to a misconception and a series of unforeseen circumstances, find themselves unable to go to the authorities for help. 
         When the gang attempts to recapture them, a fierce gun battle ensues in the parking lot of a flea bag motel the fugitives are holed up in.  The gang needs Dr. Butcher's surgical skills to patch up their wounded leader, while at the same time interrogating Blade to force him to give up the location of their loot.  Blade, a decorated Iraqi war veteran and a double amputee, uses his sharp leg prosthesis and mixed-martial-arts skills to overcome his captors, escape, and single handedly attempt a hostage rescue.  This story takes an unexpected twist when the gang reveals themselves to be a sleeper cell of al-Qaeda terrorists.  They are bent on avenging the death of Osama bin Ladin, and creating large scale havoc in LA on this day, which is the 10th anniversary of 9-11. 
       The two fugitives discover the terrorist's plot, and attempt to thwart their deadly plans. Unable to get help from the local authorities, they enlist unlikely assistance from some PTSD hampered wounded war veteran friends and a band of highly motivated paramilitary-survivalists.  The team has an advantage over the unsuspecting terrorists who mistakingly believe they killed Butcher and Blade in an IED explosion.  The two  manage to escape the explosion without injury, but not before getting a glimpse of a tattoo on the back of the leader of the terrorists. He brags about the attacks while under sedation and is delirious from an infection while recovering from surgery after being shot.  The tattoo showed much of Los Angeles in ruins.  It pictured theme parks, busted  dams, fallen skyscrapers and radiation spilling from damaged nuclear reactors.  They attempt to alert the authorities about the plot, but their claims are met with skepticism and ignored. 
       Unknown to them, the director of the joint task force against terrorism knows full well about the potential threat, but is choosing to look the other way and allow the terrorists to succeed in order to achieve his own political gains.  The team realize they are on their own and have to rely on limited resources and their own military skills in order to prevent disaster and the loss of thousands of lives.  
      This is a high-octane tale with non-stop action, and introduces two refreshing new heroes and a divers cast of fallible yet likable characters who have disabilities.

Author Bio

Reggie Ridgway is a full time writer and is the published author of two successful thrillers which have earned great reviews.  He was a finalist in the Amazon Breakthrough Author contest.  He is a member of International Thriller Writers.  He enjoys blogging and uses social networking to promote his work and hone his writing skills.  He is married and lives in Southern California. He earned a BA from National University Vista in Computer Science. He is a Viet Nam War vet and retired after forty years in the medical field as an x-ray technologist and sonographer.

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