Hello bookworms! Welcome to my Blog Tour Stop for Platform Dwellers by Katarina Boudreaux hosted by Rock Star Book Tours. Today, I have an excerpt to share with you and a giveaway at the end.
Published by Owl Hollow Press May 8, 2018
Formats: Paperback, eBook
Pages: 268
Find it: Amazon, Goodreads
On the remnants of oil platforms in the Gulf of Mexico and Dauphin Island, Joe is a typical Nob Platform teenager, except that her Mom left a year ago for a more social Platform, and her Dad sometimes forgets she exists. But she knows she wants a career in Communications, so her high school senior project “See-Saw” focuses on long-distance underwater connections. Drayton, Joe’s best friend, discovers lights moving on Land at the same time Joe picks up SOS signals with her See-Saw.
Though Land has been silent since technology was destroyed during the Moralist Revolution, Joe and Drayton discover that the Platform Planning Commission (PPC) seems to be ultimately responsible for the Bone Virus that precipitated the Revolution. They enlist the help of Flox, a debunked scientist, to take them to Land to investigate the remnants of human Land society—before the PPC can stop them. What they find on Land will forever change the course of their lives and the lives of all Platform Dwellers.
“Stop. No, really. What has salvaging come to? We’re eating on Yield signs.”
“Well, how many real plates do you have left?”
My great-grandmother hadn’t thought to bring plates, just scientific equipment. So my father had grown up eating out of whatever his mother could find that was serviceable—shells, Styrofoam cones, or with his hands from the cooking vessel. But my mother had brought almost twenty plates to their marriage. She didn’t take any of them with her, so there are eighteen left. Most of them are patched, but two are in pristine condition.
Lisette nudges my arm, and I jerk in my seat. Duritz scoops an interesting seaweed salad onto my plate. The seaweed has been sun baked in a light yellow sauce. I don’t even look at Lisette’s plate. I’m not fond of eels.
“Bon appetite,” Duritz says happily and backs away from the table.
I don’t mind the taste of seaweed, so I take a big bite. The yellow sauce is tangy, but I can’t place the flavor. Whatever it is, it’s much better than the plain sea grass that I had for dinner last night.
“Not bad,” I say between mouthfuls. “Yours?”
Lisette makes a face. “Should have gone with the farmed sponge. Going to have to force this down.”
We don’t waste any resources on the platform, including food. We save bones, recycle waste water, and use every scrap of material that we have until it goes in the permanent scrap pile. Even then we keep it to stuff beds.
Lisette gags and gulps down her water.
I push my glass toward her. “Have some of mine. At least it isn’t octopus. That would be a real mess before our last classes. Indigestion on a plate.”
Katarina Boudreaux is a writer, musician, composer, tango dancer, and teacher—a shaper of word, sound, and mind. She returned to New Orleans after circuitous journeying.
Her chapbook “Anatomy Lessons” is available from Flutter Press. Her play “Awake at 4:30” is a finalist in the 2016 Tennessee Williams Festival. Her novel “Still Tides” is a semi-finalist in the 2016 Faulkner-Wisdom competition.
Giveaway Details
1 winner will receive a finished copy of PLATFORM DWELLERS, US Only.
Enter the Rafflecopter Giveaway
Tour Schedule
Week One:
4/23/2018- Laura Holt Reads and Writes– Review
4/24/2018- Sincerely Karen Jo– Excerpt
4/25/2018- TMBA Corbett Tries to Write– Interview
4/26/2018- Lauren is Reading– Review
4/27/2018- Colorimetry– Excerpt
Week Two:
4/30/2018- FUONLYKNEW– Excerpt
5/1/2018- Two Chicks on Books– Interview
5/2/2018- A Gingerly Review– Review
5/3/2018- The Reading Life– Spotlight
5/4/2018- BookHounds YA– Review
Hope you enjoyed reading! Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely day everyone!!
Sincerely Karen Jo 