Elliott’s First Book — and a Giveaway to Win Your Copy!

I’m so excited to share some big news with you today: my husband’s first book was just published!

Elliott has been working on this novel since before Gil was born, beginning with weekend mornings and workday evenings in Sicily when he would quietly close the bedroom door for a few hours, turn off the internet on his computer, and write. Even though it was a long, long road to get to this point — a published novel!!! — he never lost that gleam of excitement in his eye. He had a story, a good story, and he couldn’t wait to get it on paper and out into the world.

So what is the story? Cole McBride, a Special Forces veterinarian, is in the Congo doing research when he discovers a family of gorillas suffering from an unknown illness. With his beautiful South African coworker, he cares for an orphaned gorilla suffering from the illness, and then learns that a nearby aid hospital just admitted a patient with a strangely similar human case. Cole realizes he’s in a race against time to discover the virus’s origins and to stop it from spreading around the world. His journey spans the globe from Iran to Washington, D.C., and leads up to a white-knuckle 4th of July finale.

The Chimera Sequence falls squarely into the thriller category, and it is much more interesting and a lot harder to put down than most of the books I recommended last week! The book has been extremely well-received since it was released a few weeks ago: he has 44 reviews on Amazon (4.7 stars!), 32 reviews on Audible (4.2 stars), and 24 reviews on Goodreads (4.47 stars).

Yes, it’s on Audible, too, and he got an amazing narrator to read the book — just in case audio books are more your speed!

Every step along the way, Elliott has made thousands of decisions about exactly how this book should look, from each word on the page to the font to the cover design to the author photograph. And for each and every decision, he’s turned to me and asked my opinion, or asked for my help. I can’t tell you how many hundreds of times we examined another draft of the cover together before he ultimately decided to change one more thing! It was truly amazing to be by his side for all of it, to edit the first rough draft, to take his author photo for the back cover, to hold the first proof in my hands.

Bit by bit, I watched my husband craft a beautiful thing. He was a perfectionist about it, thoughtful and meticulous, and I watched his stamina and dedication with awe. Even now, when I see copies in our house, I’m amazed that he did this and it’s finished. The book is beautiful, and we’re so proud of him and of it!

And now it’s your turn! Would you like to win a copy, signed by the author himself? Just comment on this post for a chance to win! If you’d like to earn extra entries, you can share this blog post (or a link to Elliott’s book) on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or another social media platform, and let me know that you did so in a comment.

Winner will be chosen next Wednesday, Sept 30, at midnight and announced the next morning. Good luck and happy reading!!!