Blog Tour: THE WALL by David Pereda

 

 

The Wall

by David Pereda

 

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GENRE: Mainstream Fiction, Thriller

 

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BLURB:

 

THOMAS BERTRAM is an American living in San Salvador with his fiancée CECILIA. They own a popular neighborhood restaurant and plan to wed soon. Thomas's dream is to obtain a resident visa for Cecilia and return to the United States.

 

DOMINGO JIMENEZ and his wife BLANCA own a small repair shop across the street. Domingo's dream is to move to America as well so that his seven-year-old daughter NANCY can grow up speaking English and having a good education and a better life than he and Blanca had.

 

When armed gang members invade their neighborhood to demand "protection" money and threaten them with death if they don't pay, Thomas and Domingo's dreams for the future take on a new perspective. They decide to flee the country with their families through Guatemala and Mexico to seek asylum in the United States.

 

But their journey is more challenging than expected, and they face a myriad of difficulties and must overcome multiple obstacles that put not only their dreams but also their lives at risk.

 

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Excerpt One:

 

Thomas’s first impression was that Ciudad Juarez was a city suffering from schizophrenia.

 

Based on the Reforma newspaper article he was skimming before he fell asleep, the schizophrenia was even more severe than it appeared from the airplane window. According to the report, murderous dark forces moved underground through the city with impunity. Coexisting with a well-educated and law-abiding middle class breathed some of the world's most feared and violent drug cartels. And while the local police bragged about having achieved a drastic reduction in crime over the past decade, more than 1,000 women had been murdered—and over 3,000 reported missing during the same period.

 

The article hinted at a police-force cover-up—and even possible police involvement—and blamed the crimes on the transient population seeking to cross the border illegally into the United States. It ended with an impassioned plea to Mexican authorities.

 

It all read like blah-blah-blah to Thomas.

 

As the jetliner banked for a runway approach, he spotted some of the transient population described in the article. Small groups of people dotted the protracted chain-link fence, plastic bags either slung over their shoulders or resting on the ground at their feet. Thomas wondered how much the article's writer had been paid to blame those poor souls whose only desire was to find a better life in the United States.

 

Cecilia saw them too. “What are those people doing?”

 

“Waiting for night,” Thomas said as the plane straightened, and he lost sight of the fence. “To cross to the other side.”

 

The pilot landed with a jolt. After a couple of bounces that elicited frightened cries from alarmed passengers, the aircraft rolled to a stop on the tarmac in front of an oblong cream-colored building. Cecilia, Alex, and Thomas deplaned and were guided toward one of the doors by uniformed immigration officials. The sun was so hot that Thomas’s skin crinkled.

 

“We have to go through immigration?” Thomas asked, raising an eyebrow. “I thought we were in Mexico.”

 

“Border towns in Mexico always check your documents,” Alex said. “I don’t know why. I guess it’s in case you’re planning to cross into the United States illegally.”

 

Cecilia glanced at Thomas with concern, and he noted the dark circles under her eyes.

 

 

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My Author’s Journey

             By

     David Pereda

I started my author’s journey at the age of nine. I don’t know who or what inspired me to write. I was a voracious reader as a kid. I loved westerns, so it was only natural for my first novel to be a western titled, grandiosely, David Patterson, El Temerario. I wrote it by hand, in Spanish, and my favorite uncle typed it for me. I remember thinking in my ignorant youth that I could write better than many western authors, which motivated me to write the novel. My favorite western authors were Zane Grey and Max Brand. I still have all of Max Brand’s books.

I wrote a few short stories about different subjects as I grew up, and then my entire life changed. Because of political reasons, I migrated from my native Cuba to the United States.  I was a penniless nineteen-year-old non-English speaker when I arrived in Tampa, Florida, clutching my immigration papers.

I’m a quick learner, and two years after I arrived in Tampa, I entered the University of South Florida on a scholarship. My English teacher gave the class a dialogue writing assignment, and I wrote a short story titled, The Rose. To my surprise, he called my name one day and asked me to see him after class. The literary magazine was looking for stories, he told me, and he thought my short story was well written, and I should submit it for consideration. When I declined, he asked my permission to submit it himself. So, he did, and the story was published. It was the first time I had anything published in the United States, and I was elated. When the literary magazine asked for submissions the following year, I submitted another story titled, The Rain and The Peacock, and it was also published.

I gained confidence in my English knowledge with those two early successes, and I started writing my first novel, Ramoncito. I finished that novel after I graduated from college and submitted it to Harper & Row. While I waited for a decision, I wrote a humorous detective novel and managed to land an agent.

Three things happened that same year that impacted my writing career. First, an editor from Harper & Row liked Ramoncito and asked me to edit it and send it back to her. Two, my agent liked my detective story and suggested I turn it into an erotic novel, a pretty hot genre at the time, and gave me tips on how to do it. Three, I received a job offer from an elite consulting company offering me a coveted international consulting position together with an initial assignment in Venezuela.

I never edited Ramoncito or even answered the kind editor at Harper & Row. However, I did rewrite my detective novel as an erotic novel under a pen name. My agent quickly sold it to a publisher, and I received a substantial advance. That erotic novel has been my most successful book and is one my fans have probably never read, or, if they did, they didn’t know I wrote it. The book sold 50,000 copies, and it was well-known for a while. After that, my agent wanted me to write more erotic novels, but I declined. My first daughter had just been born, and I didn’t want her growing up and asking me one day, “What kind of books do you write, dad?” And me answering, “I write erotic books, honey.”

So, I didn’t write any more erotic books.

I accepted the international consulting position, and within a couple of months, I was in Caracas, Venezuela. I was on a roll. My English was getting better, and my writing had continued to improve. In addition, my new position paid me four times more than what I was making as a systems analyst for the telephone company.

So, I told myself I could keep writing while doing consulting work.

How wrong I was. Consulting work was extremely demanding, and by the time I got home at night, I was exhausted.

The years passed. My consulting and business career soared. But my writing suffered because I couldn’t dedicate enough time to it, and I was always traveling around the world advising governments. Then, my agent died, and I replaced him with several others in succession who couldn’t sell my work.

Finally, I had my first novel published under my name, Havana Confidential.

I was so happy that I carried a copy of the book in my briefcase with me to an assignment in Argentina. I was returning to the United States flying first class when my companion, a slender young man in a designer suit and a gold Rolex, introduced himself. I can’t remember anything about him except his superior attitude, so I’ll use a fake name.

“I’m Dr. Boludo,” he said. “I’m a brain surgeon. What do you do?”

I thought he was a bit aggressive, but I was so happy about the book that I said, “I’m an author.”

I fished inside my Hartman briefcase, brought out the book and showed it to him. He riffled through the pages unimpressed, his upper lip raised in disdain.

He handed the book back to me and said, “When I retire, I’m going to write a novel.”

I was irate. I’d been toiling with my writing for twenty years and, finally, I’ve had my first book published, and this nincompoop was going to write a novel like it was nothing when he retired.

I didn’t let my anger show, though.

I took the book from him and said. “When I retire, I’m going to become a brain surgeon.”

The nincompoop didn’t speak to me during the rest of the trip.

Eventually, after a successful international career, I decided that I had accomplished everything I wanted to achieve in life, except in writing. So, I quit my consulting and business dealings and returned to the United States with my wife and newborn daughter. I set three objectives for myself: 1) To write and publish quality award-winning novels, 2) To have my books made into films, and 3) To be able to live off my writing.

That happened eighteen years ago. My daughter is heading away to college this fall.

So how am I doing against my objectives?

Objective 1 is doing fine. THE WALL is my eleventh novel and possibly my best, and my books have won six literary awards.

Objective 2 I came close to achieving several times when Hollywood producers showed interest in one or more of my books. One even wrote a screenplay he unsuccessfully tried to sell to HBO Films. But, so far, this objective is still a work in progress.

Objective 3 I struck out. I haven’t yet made enough money out of my writing to support myself with it.

I’m halfway through writing my next novel, and I’m still optimistic about my chances of achieving Objectives 2 and 3 soon.

So, that’s a summarized version of my journey as an author. I hope you and your readers have found it valuable and entertaining.

 

 

 

 

AUTHOR Bio and Links:

 

David Pereda is the award-winning author of eleven thrillers and mainstream novels. His books have won the Lighthouse Book Awards twice, the Royal Palm Awards, the National Indie Excellence Awards, and the Readers Favorite Awards twice. He has traveled to more than thirty countries around the world and speaks four languages.

 

Before devoting his time solely to writing and teaching, Pereda had a successful international consulting career with global giant Booz Allen Hamilton, where he worked with the governments of Mexico, Venezuela, Peru, and Qatar, among others.

 

A member of MENSA, Pereda earned his MBA from Pepperdine University in California. He earned BA degrees in English literature and mathematics at the University of South Florida in Tampa. He loves sports and has won many prizes competing in track and show-jumping equestrian events.

 

Pereda lives in Asheville, North Carolina, where he teaches mathematics and English at the Asheville-Buncombe Community College.

 

Visit him online at: www.davidpereda.com

 

 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/David-Pereda-Writer/345490998614

Twitter: https://twitter.com/DavidPeredaAVL

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/davidmpereda

 

YouTube Book Video: https://youtu.be/1kyO7Hb06FU

 

Embed Code: <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/1kyO7Hb06FU" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

https://www.amazon.com/Wall-David-Pereda/dp/193597050X/

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-wall-david-pereda/1139536309

 

 

 

Followers of the GoddessFish Tour can now receive an exclusive and hefty discount on the ebook price of The Wall - from $6.99 to only $2.99. Here are the details:

 

1) Go to https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1084282

2) Choose to Buy the book

3) Select the format when prompted.

4) When checking out, enter this discount: TV96K

5) Follow directions to check out and download the book and pay only $2.99 instead of $6.99.

 

--> The code TV96K can be distributed to anyone you'd like without limit. The coupon expires on December 31, 2021.

 

This discount will also become available at Barnes & Noble, Apple Store, and other ebook retailers but it may take up to 72 hours for the price to be updated on those platforms. Meanwhile, ordering it from Smashwords will work on any ebook platform and device.

 

 

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GIVEAWAY INFORMATION and RAFFLECOPTER CODE

 

David Pereda will be awarding a $25 Amazon or B/N GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour,

a Rafflecopter giveaway