On Solid Ground by Quinn Anderson Virtual tour | Spotlight, Excerpt & #giveaway @RiptideBooks

Thanks for joining me on my book tour! I’m Quinn Anderson, author of the Murmur Inc. series, and I’m here to share some inside information about On Solid Ground, coming out New Year’s Day, 2018. Stay tuned to hear about the inspiration for this novel, get some fun facts, and learn more about the characters. Leave comments on the tour posts for a chance to win a $10 Riptide Publishing gift card!

Chance Crawford and Kit Gibbons are on the cusp of an epic office romance. After months of saying hi in the elevator and making small talk at parties, they’re both dying to make a move. Too bad neither of them can work up the courage. Nerdy, risk-averse Chance is waiting for Kit to give him a sign, whereas Kit’s too afraid of being out in his professional life to date the cutie from IT. If only one of them could find the proper motivation, their shaky flirtation could become something real.

Then an earthquake rocks their city. They band together to help others escape, until an aftershock leaves them trapped in a collapsing office building with little hope of survival. The very earthquake that brought them together could also tear them apart.

Drunk on fear and adrenaline, passions run high, but how can they think about romance when any minute could be their last? They’ll have to face danger, themselves, and each other before they can get back on solid ground.

Buy links: Riptide | Amazon US | Amazon UK

Excerpt...

Chapter One: Chance

2:17 p.m., Monday, August 13th

After the world ended, everything was dark.

Chance pulled his shirt up over his mouth and tried to breathe normally, but there was too much dust in the air. It filled his dry throat like cotton, making him cough until he was raw. He stumbled over the rubble covering the office floor and fell against one of the few walls that was still standing. It shuddered beneath his weight, and fear lanced through him. It was all he could do to keep himself upright; his limbs were jellied, and his head swam. Panic ate at his stomach lining. Any minute now, he was going to be sick.

“Kit!” His raspy voice grated the air. It echoed eerily down the empty hall. An emergency floodlight flickered up ahead. He headed for it. “Kit, where are you?”

Silence greeted him with a cold handshake.

He took a few more ungainly steps. He was trembling, despite the cloying heat. Shock? Maybe. Or perhaps the earthquake had wormed its way into his bones. As the quiet dragged on, bile rose up in the back of his throat. If something had happened to Kit . . . If he was dead, or hurt . . .

The bile wet his throat enough for him to yell again. “Kit! Can you hear me?”

He looked around but saw no trace of him. Broken glass littered the floor, glinting in the dim light. Bits of wood stuck out from gaping holes in the walls and snagged at his clothes like fingers. A long, jagged crack ran through the tile beneath his feet, revealing peeks at the cement foundation, which chilled his blood.

Suddenly, there was a sound at the end of the hall. Shuffling, and then something like splintering wood.

Oh God, is the roof caving in?

Chance looked up and let out a sob. Ceiling tiles were hanging off dented frames. Parts of it were so caved in they gave glimpses of cracked concrete and the fucking sky, clear through the roof. Chance was no architect, but that couldn’t be a good sign.

Before panic could consume him, he heard more shuffling. He blinked sweat and dirt from his eyes and looked toward it.

“Chance!” A man appeared at the end of the hall. He caught sight of Chance and picked his way over fallen beams. “I’m here!”

“Oh, thank God. Kit.” Chance hurried toward him. His shoe caught on a stray scrap of metal, but he kicked it aside. “When you stopped answering me, I panicked. I tried to find you. I—”

“Don’t move! I’ll come to you.” Kit reached him and grabbed both of his shoulders. “It’s all right now. I’m here.”

Chance held on to Kit in turn, eyes darting over his face as he searched for signs of injury. His hair was dark with sweat and sticking up. There was no trace left of the careful grooming it’d sported mere hours ago. Grime streaked Kit’s jaw. A trail of blood trickled past one of his brown eyes.

But he was alive. He was okay. And right now, he was the most beautiful thing Chance had ever seen.

“Did you find the exit?” Hope flickered in his chest. “Was there a way out?”

Kit stared at him for a long moment before his eyes dropped like weights. “It’s no good. Everything’s blocked off. We could try to clear a path, but I can’t tell what’s debris and what’s a support beam. If we move the wrong thing . . .”

Chance bit back a sob. “The roof might collapse.”

“Yeah.” Kit touched Chance’s cheek. “In fact, it probably will.”

Chance’s heart sank to the ground along with Kit’s gaze. The quiet hanging around them seemed thick and final. Chance could hear his own pulse in his ears as it slowed. After a long, heavy silence, he finally said the thing they both knew, the thing that needed saying even though it was unbearable.

“That was our last chance. There’s no other way out.”

His words rang like bells in the air, heralding ill fortune.

“I know.” Kit let out a breath that turned into a sniffle and held Chance’s face in his hands. “Chance, I’m so sorry. We’re trapped in here.”

Quinn Anderson is an alumna of the University of Dublin in Ireland and has a master’s degree in psychology. She wrote her dissertation on sexuality in popular literature and continues to explore evolving themes in erotica in her professional life.

A nerd extraordinaire, she was raised on an unhealthy diet of video games, anime, pop culture, and comics from infancy. Her girlfriend swears her sense of humor is just one big Joss Whedon reference. She stays true to her nerd roots in writing and in life, and frequently draws inspiration from her many fandoms, which include Yuri on Ice, Harry Potter, Star Wars, Buffy, and more. Growing up, while most of her friends were fighting evil by moonlight, Anderson was kamehameha-ing her way through all the shounen anime she could get her hands on. You will often find her interacting with fellow fans online and offline via conventions and Tumblr, and she is happy to talk about anything from nerd life to writing tips. She has attended conventions on three separate continents and now considers herself a career geek. She advises anyone who attends pop culture events in the UK to watch out for Weeping Angels, as they are everywhere. If you’re at an event, and you see a 6’2” redhead wandering around with a vague look on her face, that’s probably her.

Her favorite authors include J.K. Rowling, Gail Carson Levine, Libba Bray, and Tamora Pierce. When she’s not writing, she enjoys traveling, cooking, spending too much time on the internet, playing fetch with her cat, screwing the rules, watching Markiplier play games she’s too scared to play herself, and catching ’em all.

Connect with Quinn:

• Facebook: www.facebook.com/AuthorQuinnAnderson/
• Tumblr: quinnandersonwrites

Riptide giveaway... To celebrate the release of On Solid Ground, one lucky winner will receive a $10 Riptide credit! Leave a comment with your contact info to enter the contest. Entries close at midnight, Eastern time, on January 6, 2018. Contest is NOT restricted to U.S. entries. Thanks for following the tour, and don’t forget to leave your contact info!

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