Please welcome my guest today, Rik Stone. This was one of those instances where a negative situation for both of us, became a positive! I was introduced to another author--and I'm pleased to introduce him to you. Take it away, Rik. 
***
When Clarissa discovered that one of her books was
being pirated on a bogus site, she noticed that my debut novel Birth of an
Assassin sat right alongside it. She had her book taken down, but was told,
wrongly, that they had permission to give/rent out my book. Not believing what
she was told, she contacted me on Messenger and gave me the heads up, but by
the time I got to the site to check it out, it had disappeared altogether.
Sounds okay, but now I was concerned that it was maybe the wrong link she’d
given me, so I contacted her one more time. The conversation went back and forward,
until our chatting revealed that she had a blog site and did author posts. This
is when I bootlegged her; by me pushing for a spot on her site. And here I am.
The fact that Clarissa deals mainly with paranormal might
have worried me; these stories can be a bit frightening. When I read a novel I
like to pretend I’m right there in the thick of it and that one or all of the characters
are me. I live the story. Oh, frightened, so your work is on the meek side? you
ask. No, I write thrillers that can be equally chilling. My characters, good
and bad, can be brutal and merciless, but I know where they’re at. I can live
with them because they’re right in front of me where I can see what they’re up
to. Supernatural is something else... those characters start playing with my
mind and I begin believing that just maybe some little devil or spectre out
there might take control … and that’s when the nightmares begin.
So, enough of the paranormal already, I want to tell
you about my recently released thriller, The Turkish Connection. It’s the
second in the Birth of an Assassin series and, as the title suggests, is set in
Turkey. The two works thus far are heading towards union, but currently
stand-alone, so can be read in any order. The Turkish Connection follows the
life of Mehmet Pasha, a young boy kidnapped into a gang of child thieves and
forced into robbing the souks and marketplaces in Istanbul. Mehmet believes his
father used him as a stake in a card game, and lost, little knowing that his murdered
body lies in a watery grave not far from the stinking jetty he now lives under.
He makes it through to adulthood and it’s then it becomes clear his life hadn’t
been mapped out by chance and that a very real adversary had been pulling the
strings. Circumstances change and he finds himself in a position where he has
to deal with this enemy or die.
I think there are about five chapters in the ‘have a
look’ section on the sales page at Amazon, but I would think reading the
prologue would be enough for you to know whether you’re gonna like it. Take a
peek:
Details of me and my work can be seen at www.rik-stone.com
Clarissa, thank you so much for having me as a guest;
I’ve enjoyed it.
