It’s that time of year again. Everyone is going back to school and so is Alex Hughes’s Adam from Clean.
A RUTHLESS KILLER—
OUT OF SIGHT, OUT OF MINDI used to work for the Telepath’s Guild before they kicked me out for a drug habit that wasn’t entirely my fault. Now I work for the cops, helping Homicide Detective Isabella Cherabino put killers behind bars.
My ability to get inside the twisted minds of suspects makes me the best interrogator in the department. But the normals keep me on a short leash. When the Tech Wars ripped the world apart, the Guild stepped up to save it. But they had to get scary to do it—real scary.
Now the cops don’t trust the telepaths, the Guild doesn’t trust me, a serial killer is stalking the city—and I’m aching for a fix. But I need to solve this case. Fast. I’ve just had a vision of the future: I’m the next to die.
Make sure you stick around to the end. We’ll be giving away a copy of Clean.
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School Days at the Guild
On the first day of Third School in the Telepath Guild’s location in Atlanta, the main character of Clean (Adam) met his best friend Dane in a history class. They were fifteen, and both more than a year ahead of their peers. Dane sat down, introduced himself as a transfer student from the Guild’s school in Arizona, and that was it. They were inseparable.
Adam had always been a bit of a rule-follower, but Dane had a zest for life and fun that just wouldn’t quit. He dragged Adam out late at night to see the clubs in Atlanta, he pushed Adam to ask out the cutest girl in school, Charlaine, and together they played tricks on the professors.
Dane, short with spiky blonde hair, was a micro-kinetic, someone who could manipulate matter on a small scale. Adam, of course, was a telepath, but his unreliable precognition meant he could see trouble coming sometimes. More than once Dane would rearrange a teacher’s nameplate to read something dirty, or weaken the molecular ties on a chair so it would break suddenly, or leave scrawled messages on the smooth marble surface of the lobby – and Adam would get a flash of the future of them getting discovered, or sense a teacher coming. They’d run, quick, and get away with it. Of course they got caught too. That was part of the fun.
It was Adam’s idea to do The Big Prank. They disabled the shields on the student quarters, one by one, sneaking around with quiet shoes and quiet minds, weakening the Mindspace-calmer-machines with Dane’s Ability over several nights. They even snuck into some of the adult quarters, at least the ones they could reach without getting caught.
Then, at two a.m. one night, Adam broadcast a cry, “Fire!” at the top of his mental lungs – and with the shields down, everyone, everyone in the building woke up – and ran, outside, in their sleepclothes. It was hilarious – and the adults, including some important Guild higher-ups, were livid.
Two things happened after that. One, the boys found all their free time had turned into unpleasant cleaning work. And two, they were enrolled into the most advanced classes the Guild could find. Clearly, they could not be allowed to get bored. Dane was introduced to the research department, to use the ingenuity he’d shown with the calmer-machines for the Guild’s benefit. And Adam – Adam was taken as a personal student of Jamie Skelton, the strongest telepath in the Guild at the time. She’d been woken up by his broadcast, even through shields, and took a personal interest.
And Dane would laugh, and they’d meet in the lunchroom for chocolate milk and hot sauce, and the pranks didn’t matter quite so much after all.
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Meet Alex Hughes!
Alex has written since early childhood, and loves great stories in any form including scifi, fantasy, and mystery. Over the years, Alex has lived in many neighborhoods of the sprawling metro Atlanta area. Decatur, the neighborhood on which Clean is centered, was Alex’s college home.
On any given week you can find Alex in the kitchen cooking gourmet Italian food, watching hours of police procedural dramas, and typing madly.
Contact Info
Website: website
Blog: Blog
Social Media: Facebook | Twitter
Want to purchase Alex’s novels?
Mindspace Investigations
- Clean at Amazon | Book Depository
- Sharp at Amazon | Book Depository (April 3, 2013)
Payoff at Amazon (March 5, 2013)
Please help spread the word: Tweet: Go back to school with 30 authors while #giveaways ensue during #SchoolsIn (Sept 1-30) http://tinyurl.com/LESchoolsIn – #paranormal #contests #UF
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Contest Time!
Thank you Alex for taking part in Literary Escapism’s School’s in!
Alex is giving away a copy of Clean. To enter, all you have to do is answer this one question: How did you meet your school best friend? Are you still close today? Remember, you must answer the question in order to be entered.
Even though I’m not giving the additional entries any more, you can still help support the author by sharing their article, and this contest, on your blog, Twitter, Facebook, or anywhere you can. After all, the more people who are aware of this fabulous author ensures we get more fabulous stories.
The winner must post a review of the novel someplace. Whether it is on their own blog, Amazon, GoodReads, LibraryThing or wherever, it doesn’t matter. Just help get the word out.
All School’s In contests will remain open until October 7th at which time I’ll determine the winner with help from the snazzy new plug-in I have. Have you checked out the other School’s In contests yet? Check out the Master List to see all the School’s In giveaways
I have not been contacting winners, so you will need to check back to see if you’ve won.
I met my best friend through my mom who had gotten friendly with her mom. Marisa and I had gone to the same school since first grade and we knew of each other, but we were never in the same class. After our moms became friends, we became inseparable. Both our parents were getting divorced and it was a tough time. Two years later, my mom and I moved out of state. We tried to keep up, but eventually lost touch (this was back in the 1970’s, so way before the internet). I’ve tried to find her on Facebook, but have had no luck. I hope she’s doing well.
Thanks for a great post and congrats to Alex on the release! I’ve got major book lust for this title :)
I met my best friend in HS, when we were partners in journalism class. 15 yrs later we are still going strong :)
I met my best friend because she was in my German class. We drifted apart after high schoool
We met in fourth grade, but became best friends in fifth grade. We lost touch after high school.
I met my school best friend in 8th grade because we had a lot of the same classes and had a lot in common. After we finished high school we lost touch with each other though. I had another good friend in high school that I continued to be friends with because we worked together, but once she left that job, we didn’t stay in touch either.
I met my first school best friend because she lived just down the street. My mom still talks to her mom because my parents moved back to the same city, but I’m not in touch with her any more
I met my best friend in the 7th grade, after transferring to a new middle school. I was in the Locker area and had a problem opening mine. Then a girl stopped and helped me. We were friends for almost 10 years but sadly are not longer friends.
Just had a reunion with my best high school friend after twenty years! we hadn’t seen each other for that long because I moved to another country. the renunion was fab, with us intoducing our kids to each other.
looking forward to a different kind of utopia, in this interesting sounding story
I met my best friend when she transferred to our secondary school about 5 weeks into our first year. I didn’t like her at first as she was loud, confident and sitting next to my then best friend! We lost touch after school as she moved about 100 miles away, but reconnected when we both had our first child within 3 months of each other – 9 years after leaving school.
We are together from the first time where we started school. She is like a sister to me.
Well, my sister’s actually my best friend and we moved right before high school so I only kept in touch with my friends from there until around college. As for my best friend from high school, we met in home room the first day of school and though we remained friends through college and beyond, unfortunately, I haven’t been in touch with her for years.
I don’t actually remember meeting my best friend but she tells me that we weren’t friends at first because she didn’t come to my birthday party. But we’ve been besties since Grade 4 (and we’re much older now) so I guess we’ve both gotten past it!
Thanks for the great post and giveaway!
I met her at basketball practice. We’re not close anymore.