Hello everyone!
June is all about my upcoming novel Solus! I can’t wait for you to continue the Walking Shadows saga and follow Bones’ story! Last week was the big reveal for the cover and I hope you love it as much as I do! My brother and I collaborated on the design and I think it turned out pretty cool. As is the theme for the series art the design is more abstract than literal. It features Bones as a skeleton (as a nod to his name) standing in a slightly arrogant/bemused pose backed by a mountain and while that might not tell you much right now, once you read the book it’ll become much clearer. So far I’m really loving the covers for this series!
To get you all a bit extra excited for the release I’ll be sharing stuff across all my media platforms so be sure to check them out for the fun! I’ll be posting teasers and quotes all month but for bonus teasers and exclusive excerpts be sure to join the group “Talismonium” (linked to my Facebook page)! For this week however I’ve decided to go ahead and give you all a peek at the first chapter. I hope you like it!
SOLUS
(Walking Shadows #2)
Talis Jones
YA Fiction | Post-Apocalyptic/Dystopia
327 Pages
Publication Date: June 25, 2019
Born in an experimental lab before two outlaws stole him away, Bones has been planted into the vengeful earth growing strong with a gun in each hand. Given freedom by a group called Sanctuary he’s trained his powers carefully until one day they let him leave. Until one day he witnesses something that will cause his loyalty to waver. Until one day it’s his own name they vow to write with blood.
As the life he thought he knew threatens to crumble beneath his feet he takes to the road determined to explore with no tether but his plans quickly go awry when old adversaries capture him to pay for the sins of his saviors. Whether there remains any place in this harsh land that might dare call itself Home, he fights each challenger with a gun aimed at their chest and a laugh in his step.
When the world wants you dead,
dare to smile.
Chapter One
They took my boots. Grave dust and human ash encrusted in the seams, a thousand miles in the soles, memories of my only family tangled in stiff laces…and the moment I joined Sanctuary they snatched them off my feet. They said they had an order here, an order of fairness. They said my boots were in too good condition for a newcomer like me so they took them. I was handed filthy boots of weeping leather while my own were handed to someone more deserving. They’d served Sanctuary longer and desperately needed them. But they were mine.
I let them take my boots, my clothes, my pack. But when they eyed the chain around my neck that held the rings of my rescuers I brought a full-grown man to his knees. After spending the first eleven years of my life locked in a lab run by Dr. Xi in the Rochester Alliance I’ve developed a hidden genetic anomaly that allows me to catch flashes of the future, to force a tongue to spill truth, and with further training I learned to slip inside a mind and…play. Only for a moment. But it only took a single thought to project a nightmare into the man eyeing the wedding bands. He’ll never forget it and neither will I.
Sanctuary has rules of course. Rules to keep the peace. But I didn’t come this far to have my identity wiped. I agreed to follow the “law” so long as I got to keep my chain and shotgun. Fury’s shotgun. Fury and Riker, the people who rescued me from the lab, who brought me to the Dakotas and safety, safety they thought I’d find in Sanctuary. And I did. Until I didn’t.
Hopefully you enjoyed that little preview and perhaps the book’s blurb catches your eye too. If so then stay tuned for more this month! The Kindle edition is already up on Amazon and available for pre-order but the paperback edition will be available for purchase on the official release date, June 25th.
Remember, there will be more to come in these next few weeks leading up to Solus’ release! So stay tuned…
Talis Jones 