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Friday, November 29, 2013

Guest Post + Giveaway (INT)- Out of the Cave by Cotton E. Davis

Hello, readers! Today we are spotlighting a very interesting historical cum futuristic book on our blog. It's called Out of the Cave and is written by Edward Davis under the pen name of Cotton E. Davis

I wish I could squeeze in this book in my reading schedule, but a huge pile of review books and exams has made it difficult. Nonetheless, if it's not me- it can be you. There's a giveaway for the book below in this post where you can win an e-copy of the book from the author. 

We also have a super interesting Guest Post in the form of a Character Interview with the protagonist Adam for you. We've done both individually before but never in one single post so this is a first and a one of it's kind post. 

Without much ado, let's get to know the book more! 


GOODREADS SUMMARY:

A neaderthal boy is time transported to the 21st century and eventually mainstreamed into a public high school.

The year is 2036. Fifteen-year-old-Kelly Tracer moves to Rivertown, Missouri, population 1900, where she enrolls in the local high school to begin her sophomore year. Imagine Kelly's surprise when she learns of another newcomer to Rivertown High, a sophomore like herself: a boy from 40,000 years in the past. A Neanderthal.

Further imagine Kelly's shock when she learns Neanderthals were not fellow Homo sapiens but were instead a seperate species of humans unto themselves. She remembers the boy being time transported to the twenty-first century from watching the news when she was six years old. Now, nine years later, he is being mainstreamed.

Kelly is further surprised when she sees Adam (the name humans have given him) in the flesh. Like his long-extinct people, he is heavily muscled with thick brow ridges above his eyes and possessed of a protruding muzzle of a mouth and only a slight chin. Then there is his humongous, spreading nose. More thuggish than simian-looking, Adam's primitive looks put Kelly off. Scare her even.

Kelly gets another surprise. Adam speaks English like an American. Raised by scientists since his sixth year, he sounds just like any other American kid, except for a touch of bass in his voice's timbre. Also, Adam is nothing like the dully fierce caveman stereotype Kelly expected. Aside from being shy, he is mild and thoughtful and quite considerate of the feelings of others. Adam is also very mature for his few years; an evolutionary response, according to his paleoanthropologist adoptive father, to living in the harsh conditions of a major Ice Age.

Not surprisingly, Kelly finds herself liking him.

You guessed it, Kelly and Adam will eventually become an item. But, before that, they'll go through enough tribulations to try the patience of a saint. After-all, the world is no more perfect in the year 2036 than it was in Adam's time.

BOOK LINKS: 


ABOUT THE AUTHOR: 

My author's nom de plume is Cotton E. Davis, "Cotton" being a nickname I was given in high school.  My real name is Edward Davis. I'm sixty-seven years old and have been retired for the past ten years, more or less Forrest Gumping my way through the past five or six decades of my so-called life.  I was born in Washington, Missouri in 1946.  I joined the U.S. Air Force in 1965 where I served first as a ground and later air radio operator, the last two years of which were spent in the country of Thailand.  There, I was part of an air crew that flew reconnaissance missions over Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos.  I also served as a sort of de facto squadron interpreter between my outfit's administration and its Thai employees.  Discharged in 1969, I worked for a year, then attended college at the University of Missouri, where I earned (if that's the word) a degree in journalism.  I've worked as a reporter on three newspapers, was a freelance magazine writer for some years, but mainly managed businesses on both coasts of the U.S.  I retired from working for the City of Spokane, Washington in 2003 and am now struggling to write novels in my spare time.

GUEST POST: 

It's now time for that interesting one of it's kind post I told you about. I'm excited for you to read it and I hope you enjoy it just as much I did when I first read it. Happy reading! 


                                       INTERVIEW WITH A VAM...NEANDERTHAL



Interviewer:  
"This is the first time I've ever spoken to a book character."

Adam the Neanderthal man:  
"You were expecting Anne of Green Gables, maybe?"

Interviewer: 
"No offense, but you look scary...especially now that you're fully grown."

Adam:  
"Just be glad I'm not the Frankenstein monster or Grendel."

Interviewer:  
"What are you, in you're mid-fifties?  You were a teenager in the pages of Out of the Cave."

Adam (grinning):  
"I was even more clueless than human teens at the time."

Interviewer:  
"I'm told you have a sense of humor."

Adam:  
"We Neanderthals even smiled occasionally."

Interviewer (laughs):  
"I'm a little surprised."

Adam:  
"Didn't you read Out of the Cave?"

Interviewer: 
"My shock comes not so much from your being a Neanderthal.  It's more your...."

Adam:  
"Looks.  They've been described as primitive and subhuman.  Brutish even."

Interviewer:   
"May I describe you to our readers?"

Adam: 
"Go ahead."

Interviewer: 
"Adam is heavily muscled.  Possesses thick brow ridges above his eyes and owns a huge nose that


                       dominates much of his face.  Above all that, he has a slanting forehead that makes him look almost simian and hardly any chin."

Adam: 
"The author described my appearance as 'thuggish.'"

Interviewer:  
"Again, I don't wish to be rude but, if I were casting a gangster movie, you'd play the mob juice man."

Adam: 
"Kelly, my girlfriend, was put off by my appearance when we first met.  I may have scared her."

Interviewer:  
"To clarify things, she's a human being but you're not."

Adam (nodding): 
"I'm what paleoanthropologists call a Homo neanderthalensis.  That's another species of hominid."

Interviewer:  
"A species long extinct."

Adam: 
"We went down the evolutionary toilet approximately 30,000 years ago."

Interviewer: 
"And your people were much stronger than mine.  Isn't that right?"

Adam: 
"We had to be.  We hunted Paleolithic mega fauna with stabbing spears tipped with flint points.  It was
               killing up close and personal. Cave bears and giant elk didn't relish being hunted and tended to lash out at their tormentors."

Interviewer:  
"When modern humans meet you, how do they react?"

Adam:  
"Most are polite enough. Others are shocked. Some think I'm the missing link and are surprised to learn I'm not covered with fur."

Interviewer:   
"Tell us about your girlfriend Kelly.  Was she pretty?"

Adam:  
"To me, she was beautiful.  Your readers will have to read Out of the Cave to corroborate that statement."

Interviewer: 
"I got the impression she was good-hearted."

Adam frames his face with thick sinewy hands:  
"Anyone who could love this face would have to be."

Interviewer:  
"I remember liking her."

Adam:  
"I wish everyone at Rivertown High had."  
(He ponders a moment)  
"She had her problems."

Interviewer: 
"Was it love at first sight with you two?"

Adam:  
"For me, yes.  It took a while for Kelly.  We were, after all, in high school."

Interviewer:   
"Where you had problems of your own, as I recall."

Adam:  
"Like I said, it was high school."

Interviewer:   
"You were forced to deal with older bullies."

Adam:  
"At first.  As we established earlier, I'm quite a bit stronger than humans."

Interviewer:  
"And what do you think of humankind?"

Adam:  
"Most of you are okay, but is sure is strange that every time the human race came in contact with another species of hominid back in pre-historic times, that species went extinct."

Interviewer:   
"Like your people."

Adam patiently nods.

Interviewer:   
"How would you compare humans and Neanderthals intelligence-wise?"

Adam:  
"I was wondering when you'd get around to that one."

Interviewer:  
"How did the Neanderthal brain stack up with that of Homo sapiens?"

Adam (matter-of-factly):  
"My people's brains were larger."

Interviewer (surprised):  
"Really?"

Adam:  
"Larger, but wired differently.  Due to our smaller neocortices (plural of neocortex) Neanderthals weren't as adept at thinking outside the box as yours. Humans contemporary with my people possessed superior tools, and weapons. Therefore, they possessed better survivor skills."

Interviewer:   
"Can you elaborate?"

Adam:  
"My people had better memories, but yours were superior at thinking laterally."

Interviewer: 
"And yet, you are able to function quite well in modern society."

Adam:  
"I can perform everyday tasks as well as the average Joe, but I'll never be a rocket science or brain surgeon. You humans didn't survive my kind for no reason."

Interviewer:  
"Let's get back to Kelly.  How did you win her?"

Adam:  
"I didn't.  I was young and socially awkward...and had no game whatsoever.  We just sort of fell in love.  To this day, I don't know what she saw in me."

Interviewer:  
"I can't believe you had no skills with females whatsoever."

Adam (Laughing):  
"Don't forget, we cavemen used to court our women with clubs."

Wasn't that fun? Let's get on to the giveaway now. 

GIVEAWAY: 

One PDF copy of Out of the Cave is up for grabs. 

The giveaway rules are simple: 

*The giveaway is open internationally. 
*Fill out the Rafflecopter form to enter. 
*Winner will have 48 hours to respond once emailed or else we'll be compelled to pick another winner. 

That's all- wish you good luck! 

Add the book to your Goodreads Want To Read pile here.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I hope you all enjoyed this post because I sure enjoyed putting it up for you. 

Before we end, I'd like to thank Edward for stopping by the blog today, for a superb Guest Post and for the generous offer to give away a copy of his book. Thank you, Ed! 

Thank you, readers, for stopping by! 



6 comments:

  1. Nice post Sarika! Seems like an intriguing read...Also good luck for all the exams!

    ReplyDelete
  2. This sounds like a fun read! I like stories where the main character travels to a different time! Good Luck on your exams Sarika! I don't know how you are able to blog so consistently while you're going to college. It just shows what a hard and dedicated person you are. I loved the interview! It was very humorous!!!

    Lindy@ A Bookish Escape

    ReplyDelete
  3. hey! I liked the description of the book and the Interview is cool!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. So glad to hear that, Priyanka, and thank you so much! I really owe you big time.

      Delete


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