Virtual Book Tour: Not My Ruckus

 Good morning everyone! Please welcome author Chad Musick to Full Moon Dreaming! He is here to tell us about his new release, Not My Ruckus. Chad will be awarding a $25 Amazon/BN GC to one randomly drawn commenter via Rafflecopter during the tour. The more you comment, the better your chances of winning. To find the other stops on his tour, go here. Don't forget to look for the Rafflecopter at the end of this post!

 

Not My Ruckus

by Chad Musick

 

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GENRE: Literary

 

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BLURB:

 

Folks know 14-year-old Clare isn't normal, even for a tomboy. She runs too much, talks too little, carries a gun too often, and holds a grudge forever. Only her papa's job at the bank keeps gossip quiet. It's unwise to risk the cold anger of the man who knows everyone's secrets.

 

Clare feels prepared for everything from fire, to flood, to what her momma calls demon attacks. When her neighbor Esther kisses her, though, Clare has no ready script. Maybe she could write one, given time she doesn't have. At the moment of that first kiss, Esther's mom is bleeding out from a gunshot wound.

 

Clare can read the signs everyone else is determined to ignore. A murder was only the beginning. Esther needs protection, whether she wants it or not, and Clare won't abandon her friend just because things are hard.

 

Maybe one day she'll be forgiven for doing what's needed.

 

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EXCERPT:

 

 

I was still asleep when I hit the water, and I thrashed and sputtered before momma let me up for air. She let me recover, let me get my bearings and see that I was in the tub with her in front of me and papa watching, before she pushed me under again.

 

When she let me up the second time, she spat in my face. “I spit in your face, Satan, and baptize this vessel!”

 

Papa leaned close to her ear. “Do you think she’s had enough?” Maybe she would stop now, with even papa questioning.

 

She pushed me back under. I tried to hold my breath and still fight my way up, like I was just playing rough with Frank at the pool, but that made her keep me under longer, long enough the lifeguards would’ve thrown us out for sure. Every time she let me up, she had some new way to curse the devil and demand it leave.

 

Usually, when the devil took me, I could feel it. I could feel my blood getting stirred up, feel myself getting angry.

 

This was different. I just felt confused and upset.

 

I thought of Frank, and how he just laid there whenever momma said he had the devil in him, and she rarely had to give him Jesus’ love more than once or twice before the devil left.

 

Fine.

 

I stopped struggling, decided to just let myself be drowned in the bathtub. That would show her who was tougher.

 

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AUTHOR Bio and Links:

 

Chad Musick grew up in Utah, California, Washington, Texas, and (most of all) Alaska. He fell in love in California and then moved with his family to Japan, where he's found happiness. He earned a PhD in Mathematical Science but loves art and science equally.

 

Despite a tendency for electronic devices to burst into flame after Chad handles them, he persists in working in various technical and technology-related roles.

 

Chad makes no secret of being epileptic, autistic, and arthritic, facts that inform how he approaches both science and the arts.

 

Author web links:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheMusicks

Website: https://cinnabarmoth.com/chad-musick/

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/20831411.Chad_Musick

 

Buy Link: https://www.amazon.com/Not-My-Ruckus-Chad-Musick/dp/1953971008

 

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Chad Musick, Not My Ruckus

The Questions – please choose at least 5

1) You’re marooned on a small island with one person and one item of your choice—who is that person and what item do you have?

I hate to do it to them, but I’m going to choose Kisstopher. We’ve been married for a couple of decades now, and I’d be lonely without them. We’ll have a tent – I’ve seen too much Survivor to think a self-made shelter is going to be comfortable any time soon.

2) Which musical would you say best exemplifies your life – and which character in that musical are you?

That’s tricky, mostly because I don’t know all that many musicals. When I was young, I saw Mandy Patinkin in a production of The Secret Garden. That book is mentioned several times in Not My Ruckus and is still one of my favorites despite some elements that would now be considered “problematic”. And is it a cheat to say I’d be the window? I feel like the window that the children are looking through into the garden.

4) What is your idea of how to spend romantic time with your significant other?

It sounds boring, maybe, but we’re two middle-aged people with a pretty quiet life. We love doing jigsaw puzzles together, which is something we started a couple of years ago. It’s so collaborative, and we talk while we do them. There’s no pressure to pay attention to anything but each other.

5) When you start a new story, do you begin with a character, or a plot?

Usually I start with an image, and then I develop the characters who would create that image, and then the plot comes later. I do a basic outline of the plot before I start writing, but then I might veer from that if something interesting comes up. Sometimes that image will be the start or end of the book, and sometimes it gets cut in editing. For Not My Ruckus, the image was a teen being surprised by a kiss from their neighbor, and the book opens that way.

6) If they were to make the story of your life into a movie, who should play you?

I mostly can’t tell people’s faces apart, so I don’t know. It would depend on what part of my life was the focus. If it’s my adult life, I’d love to be played by Tilda Swinton (who was great in Cloud Atlas) or serious Adam Sandler (from Reign Over Me, not Happy Gilmore).

8) Do you have an historical crush and if so, who is it?

So many, and most of them were mathematicians. I have a thing about them. Probably Hypatia of Alexandria. She was an absolute hero, but also met a sad end. A lot of the guys have interesting stories but were jerks.

9) Is there a story that you’d like to tell but you think the world isn’t ready to receive it?

I’m still not sure the world is ready for Not My Ruckus. I thought for a long time (almost 5 years) about whether to publish it. A couple of people have reacted badly to it (seriously, read the content notes – it’s a hard book), but mostly readers seem to have understood what I was trying to accomplish.

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