Monthly Archives: September 2019

Crazy Idea Number One Blog Post Best!

Posted on by
Reply

Thanks to my new best friends @ Speculative Fiction Showcase for allowing me to do a guest blog post! This one is about where all those crazy ideas come from!

SUPER BLOG POST NUMBER ONE BEST! by Travis Hill

Hey, gang, some guy named Travis here. I’ve been allowed, by both the nice persons who run this site, as well as my lawyer, agent, and rabbi, to do a guest blog. Today we’re going to talk about something that a lot of authors seem to hate, which is “where do you get your ideas from?” Now, I’m not sure why authors hate this question so much, as I happen to think it is the absolute best question anyone could ever ask me. Even if they are the 3(324.36 ×10²⁴)⁴ person in the last seven minutes to ask that particular question. Because every time someone asks it, I always seem to have a different answer.

Before we talk about where weirdo ideas come from, let’s explore why authors hate this question so much.

Because some jerk inevitably asks if an author wants to hear his jerk idea and whether or not its a good idea and if it is a good idea can you write it and split the profits with me?

Okay, that run-on sentence was on purpose, because I’ve actually heard this question asked to both myself and to “real” authors (aka Authors Who Make Enough Money To Have Me Shipped To The Moon On A Space-X Cargo Rocket). And when you hear it, it’s said exactly as I wrote it—one long run-on sentence in a single breath. Depending on how introverted or shy the questioner is can also raise and lower the pitch of the question in ways that I cannot describe in less than 500 words. But I’m sure you can imagine how it sounds if you think about a 15 year old kid at a con who has a death-grip on the mic because suddenly his great idea of getting picked to ask a question in a room with 7 writers and 500 fans/readers wasn’t all that great of an idea after all. Continue reading →

Monster – Chapter 2 (non-fiction)

Posted on by
1

Monster – Chapter 2 (Non-Fiction)
CHAPTER 1 LINK

II

As unpredictable as the monster was, sometimes she was like a VCR tape that had been watched until the machine ate it. Over the years, her need to lash out, to punish, to hurt, could always be counted on. The abuses piled on, from the time she beat me with a belt so vigorously that it broke into two sections when I was six, to the most frightening moment of my entire life when she tried to force me to put my hands on the kitchen table so she could cut my fingers off after I damaged some of her kitchen knives at age eight.

I spent the majority of my young life in such a state of fear that she would eventually kill me during a blind rage that I’m still damaged by the trauma to this day. Books and baseball were my only true outlets of escape, and baseball was a summers-only affair that couldn’t be relied upon during the majority of the year. Books, on the other hand, allowed me to leave my world and enter others, from the strange, horrifying settings Stephen King created, to the somewhat cheesy but still enjoyable Nancy Drew series. As an adult, I find myself comparing my imagination to that of Calvin, from the comic strip by Bill Watterson, “Calvin and Hobbes,” except instead of having two loving parents, I had a single, terrifying, toothless, monstrous creature who was as real as some of Calvin’s imagined beasts.

Devouring books, from whatever I could constantly check out at the public library, to the numerous books lining the shelves within the duplex that was more prison and torture chamber than a home, is the one thing that kept me sane, kept me from eventually turning the tables on the monster and murdering her. The monster realized that this was likely an eventual outcome at some point, as the object of her fury continued to grow both physically and mentally, and she knew that one day I would no longer be the punching bag who would cower and cry as she rained down physical blows, enhanced by a flurry of verbal strikes designed to keep me from believing that I was anything but a worthless piece of shit—as if her goal was to be able to look back one day and think, “He turned out exactly as I predicted!” Continue reading →

“End of the Line” & “Launch Sequence” promo sale!

Posted on by
Reply

BookBub promotion for “End of the Line” and “Launch Sequence” is live!

$0.99 everywhere all week!

Amazon USA: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00WG9GLJW
Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00WG9GLJW
Amazon India: https://www.amazon.in/dp/B00WG9GLJW
Amazon Australia: https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B00WG9GLJW

Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/end-of-the-line-21

iTunes: https://books.apple.com/us/book/end-of-the-line/id1078673539

Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/end-of-the-line…/1123313018

Google Play Books

“End of the Line” by Travis Hill
cover art by: Trevor Smith

“Launch Sequence” by Travis Hill
covert art by: Jeff Brown

Moving On – Monster (chapter 1 – Non-Fiction)

Posted on by
1

 

Note: This is a non-fiction story of my early life growing up with a horrible, abusive monster. It’s not a pretty story, but it’s something I feel compelled to write, and not just because it’s an assignment for my Creative Writing – Non-Fiction class in college. I’ll add more as I get it written, and likely eventually turn it into a book. My hope is that it will give others who have lived through similar terrors some catharsis like it does me, and more importantly, serves as a way to let people know that such horrific childhoods can still lead to a quality life of happiness.

Moving On – The Monster

I shivered but remained silent as the monster’s shadow fell over me. The terror that filled me nearly caused my bladder to let go, but I knew that would only incur more of the monster’s wrath. I knew if I kept quiet, did as I was told, she would go away.

“Put your hands up here,” the monster said, indicating with one hand that I should grab the rails of the bed’s headboard.

I followed her instructions, wincing as the tough hemp string dug into my wrists. Once the knot was finished, I held my hand in place while she tied the other end of the string to the rail, then waited with my eyes closed as she tied my other hand in the same fashion.

“Your brother and sister will be home by four,” she said, then turned and walked out of the bedroom.

I strained my ears, listening for the sounds of her heavy footsteps in the kitchen, the jingle of keys, then the front door opening and closing. I held my breath, afraid she would decide I needed another reminder of the rules and rush back into the house. I heard the car start, then the fading sound of it backing out of the duplex’s driveway. I waited another minute before taking a breath, followed by tears that streamed from my four-year-old eyes. Continue reading →

“End of the Line” + “Launch Sequence” sale 9-19 through 9-26!

Posted on by
Reply

“End of the Line” and its sequel, “Launch Sequence,” will both be on sale for $0.99 from September 19th through the 26th at all worldwide retailers!

“End of the Line”
Amazon / iTunes / Kobo / Barnes & Noble / Google Play

“End of the Line” by Travis Hill
cover art by: Trevor Smith

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Launch Sequence”
Amazon / iTunes / Kobo / Barnes & Noble / Google Play

“Launch Sequence” by Travis Hill
covert art by: Jeff Brown

 

 

“Diabolus” on sale for $0.99 until 9-8-2019

Posted on by
Reply

“Diabolus” is on sale until September 8, 2019 for $0.99 (or equivalent depending on your country)!

Amazon / iTunes / Kobo / Barnes & Noble / Google Play

Salvatore Domenico Antonelli is a disgraced ex-bishop, demoted and exiled to the farthest reaches of the Nicaraguan jungles for his sins against God and the Church.

Benito Felipe Castillo is a new breed of tech-priest from the ghettos of Barcelona, freshly graduated from Seminary, ready to serve the Vatican as an artificial intelligence specialist.

Tasked by the Vatican to confront DAMON-1, a nuclear-capable AI that claims to be Satan incarnate, returned to the physical world to bring about Armageddon, the two clergy must battle to restore DAMON and purge Satan from the enslaved AI’s core.

The bishop is forced to play a deadly game with billions of lives in the balance, while the young priest must confront Satan’s digital persona within the network.

The eternal conflict between good and evil, fought in the space between time, will bring humanity and their AI creations to the dawn of a new age… or to the brink of annihilation.

“The Exorcist” meets “Skynet” meets “The Matrix” in this thought-provoking new science fiction thriller by Travis Hill.

“Diabolus” by Travis Hill
cover art by: Trevor Smith

“Three Days” is now live on Amazon!

Posted on by
Reply

Hello, readers! I’m happy to tell you that my newest novel, “Three Days,” is now live on Amazon.com! What is “Three Days” you ask? It’s a brand new Romance – Science Fiction – Time Travel story about two lovers who meet up for three days at a time once every nine years. I know I’m not known for being a romance author, but I feel like this story is worth your reading time, and don’t let the “Sci-Fi” and “Time Travel” stuff fool you. There’s elements of it in there, but the book is definitely a romantic tale of two lovers who have to navigate whatever strange phenomenon that is happening to them while dealing with their normal lives outside of the three-day period that happens every nine years.

$3.99 or FREE with Kindle Unlimited subscription

Here’s the blurb:

His future will be her past, three days at a time…

Once every nine years, Chase Matthews and Patricia Wellesley find themselves compelled to step out of their normal lives and into each other’s for three days of passion, desire, and curiosity at the strange phenomenon that binds them together. Outside of those three days, each has a normal life: a career, a family, love, loss, trials and triumphs, yet the universe seems determined to conceal them from one another.

Neither understands what is happening, only that as one of them moves forward through time, growing nine years older, the other moves backward, somehow becoming nine years younger, forcing them to question the potential pitfalls of revealing each other’s futures—futures that might not be set in stone, but could potentially cause the collapse of reality itself if the unknown rules they are bound by are broken.

“Three Days” by Travis Hill
cover art by: BetiBup33