The Boomship Crisis Book Launch

I am a college student who has never published a book before but has written a 180,000+ word fictional narrative over the course of the last year or so. I have already set up everything. The publishing company has already accepted my book. I just need the money to pay for publishing the book.

-There is an excerpt from the book below if you want to read some of it.-

The Boomship Crisis will be published globally in tons of major bookstores if this goes through. The story, in a nutshell, is a journey of a group surviving a crisis of a global scale and exploring a detail-rich world of a complex history.

With your help, large or little, I can, at last, get this book out to the world. And you, too, can read it. 

Here is an excerpt. The first three pages of this massive journey. Don't consider it a teaser. Consider it a promise to the rest of the book.

-Do note that this excerpt is not professionally edited. It will be improved in published version.-
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A man, skin wrinkly and tanned, stared off at a decrepit building with his squinted brown eyes, causing them to wrinkle in the corners. He could have sworn he had been there before all of this happened. Maybe not. The whole city used to look so different on every corner, but now it was all the same, muddled gray mixed with a splash of green foliage spreading across these vaguely remembered ruins. How long had it been since he had been back here? He guessed maybe around eight months. He wondered if the crops would come in well this fall. They had seemed to be increasing in health each year. He scratched his bare chin before rubbing his head of nearly silver hair sitting short, straight, stiff, and strong atop his head despite his age. He ran his hand down his long face past his similarly long nose to his narrow lips. He stretched his face downwards. He was exhausted from his long walk into the city yesterday despite a night’s rest. Surely, he would find the old agricultural store soon. He would know the way back then and make the trip home shorter than the squiggling path he had taken into it. He reached back up his face to his slightly protruding ears to rub each of them. It took a lot for him to sunburn, but he was growing concerned with those ears. He dropped his arm back down to his side, slapping into the thigh of his hardy jeans. He looked down at his feet to stretch his neck and observed the condition of his stiff brown leather boots. He wondered if he would find any boots today. A good pair was getting hard to come by. A drip of sweat ran down his nose and paused right on the end of it. He pulled up his plain white tee shirt and wiped his face with it to rid it of the droplet. He noticed the veins in his bony but strong arms were protruding. He must be getting too hot.

 

            The man ended his short break in the shade of an aggressively growing tree jutting out from the building behind him and started back down the littered street. He always liked that tree. It reminded him a lot of himself. Born in a hard place, growing things to survive, and despite the odds somehow finding a way out into the light and living to an old age. It seemed very fitting for him to be resting under it with its knotted bark and twisted trunk as the warm summer breeze blew through its branches. He carefully scanned the area and walked across the street. It was so unfittingly quiet for an intersection of this size. A few vehicles sat dead on the streets, long ago stripped for parts and supplies. There was no point in searching anything on the streets anymore. They had all been picked clean like those vehicles. He hoped the agricultural store wasn’t the same way.

 

He listened as the wind rustled through the leaves now climbing all over the remains of buildings. He wished he were up there to enjoy the breeze. A loud metallic bang interrupted his peace. He jumped, spooked by the sound, and dove in behind a nearby vehicle. Voices met his ear.

“…think you're going now?” asked a deeper male voice. “Let me go!” pleaded a much smaller and younger one. “Ohh no! We have a feisty one. Who gave us this part of the city anyway?” complained a third voice in a nasally tone. The deeper voice replied. “Doesn’t matter. We got the boy. It is time to deal with him.” “Fine.” There was a session of clothes been yanked and grunting. The deeper voice chuckled. “Boy he is a feisty one, isn’t he?” “Heh. Yea. What are you gonna…” The nasally voice cut himself off. He started back in with a new topic. “Hey, what was that?” There was a pause. The nasally voice exclaimed a gasp. “It’s that maroon guy and the dirty one! We gotta get ‘em!” The deeper one replied hastily. “Hey, we can’t go now! What are we going to do with this kid?” “I’m not a kid!” rebuked the younger voice. There was a muffled thump and the younger voice grunted. The nasally one continued on the conversation as if nothing had happened. “I dunno man! Just uh… just throw him in that store we were headed into. It’s in good shape and there are bars on the window. He won’t be going anywhere in there. We will come back for him later.” The deeper voice let a long breath out his nose. “Fine. Go after the other two. I will deal with the munchkin and join you.” A set of footsteps ran off. Another session of grunts and muffled sounds of clothes being drug across the sidewalk ensued. The deeper voice grunted. There was a louder thump followed shortly by a brash squeak and a harsh metallic slam. A stern clack rang out. A second set of heavier footsteps ran off.

 

The man stood from behind the vehicle. He shook his head as he watched the two scurry off down the street. He walked at his leisure to the store he had heard the door slam on. The man peaks around the edge through a set of vertically barred windows. A boy was inside fixing his mess of brown hair. The boy muttered something. “Uhg. I really wish I could get a haircut.” The man coughed lightly to get his attention. The boy gasped, snapped his blue eyes up to reveal a slightly tanned face with a few freckles on the cheeks and a narrow, robust chin. He dove behind a crumbling counter with barstools attached to the creaky wooden floor in front of it. The man chuckled. “Don’t worry boy. I am not one of those Raiders.” The boy remained hidden and silent. The man continued. “Look. I saw those two buffoons lock you in here. I know they are coming back for you. I am willing to wager that you don’t want them to find you when they come back.” There was no sign of life inside the store. The man sighed. “Alright then. I guess I will just leave you in here then.” The man made an intentionally heavy footstep without turning around.

The boy’s voice rang out. “Wait!” The boy peeked over the counter. “Why do you want to help me?”

The man smiled. “What do you mean?”

“Well you have got to want something. Nobody helps others around here without benefitting themselves.”

“That is your mistake. I am not from around here.” This perplexed the boy. “Where are you from then?”

The man smiled once more. The boy knew he would receive no answer. The man leaned against the barred window. “I am willing to just let you out, but you seem uncomfortable with this idea. You might think it is a setup or maybe you don’t want to be in debt to me. Now I have no plans for either of those things so I will give you a deal instead. Then you can hold your end and get out free.” He eyed up the boy. The boy seemed interested. He turned away to look down the street to relieve the tension. “Do you know where the old agricultural store is in this area?” The boy thought this was a strange request. What could he need from there? There was not a plot of land in this entire city that was worth farming besides maybe the football stadium, but it was right in the middle of Raider territory. The man did say he was not from here though. The boy had no choice anyway. He nodded. “Yeah.” The man nodded in return. “I will let you out of here and then you take me to that farm store. Once we get there, you point me in the right direction to leave the city in the quickest way possible and you are free to go.” The boy liked the sounds of that. He held a stern face anyway. “Alright.” The boy stood from behind the bar, dropping the shard of glass he had been holding, and crossed the room to the door. The man met him there. “It seems they have jammed the door with this metal pole through the bars of the door.” The boy nodded. “Yeah. That was laying on the ground right there. Think you can get it out?” The man pulled on it with a grunt. “Yes. Stand back. It might be under a load.” The boy took few steps back. The man yanked on the rod. It slipped out with a metallic ping as it struck the edge of the barred door. The man tossed the bar aside and started pulling on the door as it clanked across the sidewalk. He made no progress in opening it. He waved the boy over. “Hey. Come on. Help me get this open.” The boy crossed the room and pushed on the back of the barred door. The door groaned in response and shot open with a banging sound. The boy flew out of the doorway and rolled onto the concrete. He stood quickly and looked wildly around. The man was casually leaning against the freshly opening door. He squinted at the boy. “Are you going to dart?” The boy relaxed and wiped is hands on the seat of his dark blue jeans before adjusting his black shirt back down. “You were being honest.” The man tipped his head to the side and furrowed his brow. “What makes you think I would lie?” The boy was as equally confused as the man. “Everyone lies here. You really are not from around here.” The man shook his head. “I am not from here.” The boy looked down at the man’s boots. “You must live somewhere nearby though outside the city. You didn’t walk too far in boots like that.” The man looked down at his boots while chuckling at the falseness of that remark. He then looked over to the boy’s old black canvas sneakers. “You are obviously a city rat wearing sneakers like those.” The boy chuckled as he crossed over to the man. The boy was about a head shorter than him. “I suppose we are both guilty of judging by appearance.” The man grinned as he pointed to the pole on the ground. “Grab that and bring it over here.” The man started closing the door. The boy retrieved the pole. “Why?” “Because we are going to block this door up again to make it look like you are still here. Your friends will have a waste of time and a rude awakening when they get back.” The boy smiled.

 

After the two had reapplied the jam to the door, they started down the street. The man began explaining his predicament. “Well, if you haven’t caught on, I am looking for farming supplies. Mainly tools for breaking ground. A have a lot of fields that haven’t been tilled in years. They are essentially useless since they are so hard that I can’t plant on them. I don’t know how I am going to do it alone, but I am sure that I will at least need tools. The only place I know of left if the agriculture store here in the city.” He peeked down at the boy. “Maybe you would be interested in leaving the city and joining me. I have enough food for you and shelter. You seem to be having a hard time here with the Raiders.” The boy shook his head. “This is my home. I don’t know how to leave it.” “Well… I could teach you.” The boy flattened his lips out as he pondered the idea. “I will have to think about it and let you know when we get to the store.” The Young raised an eyebrow towards the man. “You sure are quick to trust someone.” The man chuckled. “I consider myself a good judge of character.” The boy nodded more out of politeness than agreement."


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I hope you have enjoyed that short snippet. Do note this is an unedited, unpublished version of this excerpt. It can only go up from here.