I’m thrilled to once again showcase Donna Galanti and her book, A Human Element.
Donna has just re-released A Human Element with new scenes and a chilling new cover!
There’s all kinds of goodies awaiting you so read on. And don’t forget to enter the giveaway!
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A Human Element: Character Interview
by Donna Galanti
Meet Ben Fieldstone, a Character from Donna Galanti’s newly re-released paranormal suspense novel, A Human Element, book 1 in the Element Trilogy.
Ben’s Fabulous Features
Tall at 6’1″
Lean and tough
Dark looks, brooding
Intense gray eyes
Broken by evil influence
A loner
Closed off from love
Ben Tidbits…
Feisty. Can go looking for a fight, for no reason at all.
Not sure about this love thing.
A survivor who chooses to live.
Fiercely loyal, especially to the one who has shown him love again.
Knows what he wants and never gives up trying to get it.
Hot in dog tags.
Where do you live?
Nowhere. I am a nomad. After being a photographer in the Navy, I started up my own business…after I hit rock bottom and cleaned up my drinking. I don’t have a home. And that’s the way I like it. Especially the one-night stands that come with it.
What is your problem in the story?
I never dealt with my parent’s death. They were crushed under a meteorite when I was nine. Years of foster homes left me cynical and a loner. I eventually wised up and figured out I needed to come to peace with my parent’s death if I ever wanted a real life. One that involves people.
Do you embrace conflict?
The first time I did was when I hit my foster father back. I was sick and tired of him beating on me. Yeah, sometimes I look for a fight. Like the time I tried to rescue a girl from a bully Marine in a bar and ended up getting my face smashed in on the street. Unfortunately, I didn’t get the girl either.
How do you see yourself?
A loner and I like it. Next to my blond Norse-God friend, Andy, I look like a scowling, rebellious teenager mad at the world with my dark looks. I’m fine with that.
How do your friends see you?
My best friend, Andy, says I’m missing the big picture. Andy says everyone has a past, but it’s your future you can change. He calls me a skinny James Dean wanna-be.
Do you have any special weaknesses?
Yeah. The first one was booze, but I overcame that. Sink or swim, you know? Second is women. Love them all. And after three years stationed at Pearl Harbor in the Navy, I sampled them all too.
What do you regret?
Running away the night my parents died. When you’re a kid everything is so dramatic. I wanted to scare them, that’s all. Then when they found me they’d tell me everything was fine. Only they never did find me. They died. I feel guilty as shit about it. I know I couldn’t have prevented their deaths. But part of me still feels if I hadn’t run away they wouldn’t have died.
What makes you angry?
Injustice. Bullies. Mean people. I have no tolerance for any of that. My foster father was a bully. I watched him go up I flames and enjoyed it. That’s how much I hate bullies. And the man that killed Laura’s loved ones and chases us now. Give me the chance to take him down and I won’t miss. He’ll suffer long and hard. It won’t be a quiet death. That’s if Laura and I survive.
What, if anything, haunts you?
Laura. I fell in love for the first time with her and then, like that, one morning she was gone. We could have made a life together. Why did she leave when she was the only woman I ever loved? I felt like I had no destination after that. She had been my destination and now that was gone. I would do anything to find her again.
Are you lucky?
Most definitely unlucky. What do you think? Parents crushed under a meteorite. Foster father that beat me. Nearly did myself in with drinking. Dudes in Hawaii that whipped me and almost killed me. Fall in love with a woman who’s being chased by a killer and then she leaves me. I hope I got all my bad luck out of the way early on. It’s got to change sometime, right?
Have you ever failed anyone?
Laura. I wanted to protect her from this killer that chased her but discovered it was out of my control. There was no way I could hope to save her and that frustrated the hell out of me.
What in your past would you like to forget?
Man, all the prostitutes I hooked up with in Honolulu. Thank God, I stayed clean. But one of them damn near got me killed by her pimps. She turned out not to be a woman either. Not fun.
If you were stranded on a desert island, who would you rather be stranded with, a man or a woman?
Umm, let’s see…being that I had a “close encounter” with a man once and didn’t know it I heartily opt for a woman. Only one though. The kind with long chestnut hair, perky breasts, and large brown eyes. Laura.
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About A Human Element:
Evil comes in many forms…
One by one, Laura Armstrong’s friends and adoptive family members are being murdered, and despite her unique healing powers, she can do nothing to stop it. The savage killer haunts her dreams, tormenting her with the promise that she is next.
Determined to find the killer, she follows her visions to the site of a crashed meteorite in her hometown. There, she meets Ben Fieldstone, who seeks answers about his parents’ death the night the meteorite struck. In a race to stop a madman, they unravel a frightening secret that binds them together.
But the killer’s desire to destroy Laura face-to-face leads to a showdown that puts Laura and Ben’s emotional relationship and Laura’s pure spirit to the test. With the killer closing in, Laura discovers her destiny is linked to his, and she has two choices—redeem him or kill him.
My 5 STAR Review of A Human Element
Ben is hiding from his parents on the shore of Coopersville Lake when it happens.
A meteorite crashes. What was once the sight of a dozen or so cabins, one of them containing his parents, is now only a huge crater of steam and fire. In one bright green flash, Ben’s life is forever changed and for another, it has just begun.
No one could know the long-reaching consequences of that fateful night. Or of the horrors to come.
9 months later.
A young girl struggles to bring her child into the world. She came to the doctor in secret. Not even the Armstrong’s, the kindly couple who took her in, know where she is. The doctor doesn’t know why the mysterious man waiting outside wants the baby, he just wants to get paid.
In a rush, the baby enters the world. Sadly, the young mother does not survive the delivery. But wait, another baby is fighting to be born, a twin, a beautiful baby girl.
An exchange is made. The mysterious man leaves with the thing, the baby boy, but the doctor doesn’t mention the girl. He will give her to the Armstrong’s to raise.
Many years later, the baby girl, Laura, is all grown up and back home to find out why the people closest to her are being slaughtered. The answer lies here. Laura has always had the headaches and nightmares and she knows things are coming together now – the monster chasing her in her nightmares, the mysterious man in black, who has always been on the periphery of her life, and whatever happened on the night of the meteorite. It is all connected.
Laura and Ben are thrown together as death races towards them. Both need answers about the night of the meteorite if they are to survive what is coming.
I want to keep telling you more. I’ve only scratched the surface of this story.
Two babies were born that night, Laura and the boy child called X-10. One looks human in every way and the other looks like a monster.
The many secondary characters made this story real for me.
Everybody should have a friend like Jim, a grumpy curmudgeon with a gentle soul and a fierce love and loyalty to Laura.
The Armstrong’s, Laura’s adoptive parents, who though they knew she was different, had special talents, loved her as their own.
The mysterious man in black, who has always been around, lurking in the shadows.
The cruel and sadistic Dr. Bjord, who thrills in tormenting X-10, his failed experiment.
And X-10, the monstrosity who’s only thought is getting out, finding Laura, and tearing her to pieces.
From the first page to the bitter-sweet end, I was totally immersed in this book. A story of wonder, love, humanity and absolute evil.
Donna Galanti’s debut novel has, at its core, an energy, an essence, that gives it life.
Superb writing and a thrilling all-out race to the end, A Human Element is an excellent read.
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**Get your evil on with this re-release by Imajin Books! Newly edited, new scenes, new cover! Book 2 in the Element Trilogy, A Hidden Element, releases 8/28!**
Praise for A Human Element:
“Be afraid. Be very afraid. And be utterly absorbed by this riveting debut that had me reading till the wee hours of the night. A thriller star is born.” –M.J. Rose, International bestselling author
“An elegant and haunting first novel. Unrelenting, devious but full of heart. Highly recommended.” –Jonathan Maberry, New York Times best-selling author
“Lyrical and creepy, A Human Element tugs on our heartstrings and plucks the gut-strings of horror. This debut thriller author is a true storyteller, highly reminiscent of Dean Koontz.” –Dakota Banks, Award winning author
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About Donna:
Donna Galanti writes murder and mystery with a dash of steam as well as middle grade adventure fiction. She is an International Thriller Writers Debut Author of the paranormal suspense novel A Human Element, A Hidden Element (August 2014), the short story collection The Dark Inside, and Joshua and The Lightning Road (Books 1 and 2, 2015). She’s lived from England as a child, to Hawaii as a U.S. Navy photographer.
Website ~ Blog ~ Twitter ~ Facebook
Purchase A Human Element HERE
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GRAND PRIZE Monsters vs. Aliens: Signed paperbacks 1 & 2 of NY Times bestseller Jonathan Maberry’s Rot & Ruin series, Supernatural Season 8 on DVD, Cloverfield & District 9 on DVD
e-Book Bundle: 4 thriller books from Imajin Books authors
$25 Amazon Gift Card
5 e-Book copies of Donna Galanti’s short story collection The Dark Inside
Click on the rafflecopter below to enter.
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