Catch-42: A novel about our future by Felix Holzapfel
Thanks to Leslie Barrett of PR By The Book, I am giving away one print copy of ‘Catch-42’ by Felix Holzapfel.
Description Catch-42 by Felix Holzapfel
A glimpse of a future that may be right around the corner.
Tech thriller Catch-42 offers a mind-blowing tour of potential uses for AI, biotech, quantum computing, and robotics, all within a suspense-filled story packed with unexpected twists.
Dan is an ordinary guy, scrambling to make a living, who has the most extraordinary dream. A mysterious voice from the future asks for his help. He finds himself transported to a technological wonderland where everyone’s dreams can come true. Could this be nirvana, a peaceful and clear state of mind, or is this life destroying the one thing that makes us human? Whose vision of the future should Dan believe: that of the New World Order of WeYou, or the revolution of an underground movement called Teccupy?
Before Dan can make his choice, he must learn how we got from here to there. We are with Dan at every moment as he is forced to choose sides and think the unthinkable, make the impossible possible, and turn a hopeless situation into a solvable problem in his search for the ultimate catch-42.
Brimming with current scientific findings, Catch-42 is a novel like no other that raises fundamental and philosophical questions whose answers depend on us all.
Praise Catch-42 by Felix Holzapfel
“We added some new letters to the alphabet of life. Catch-42 turns these new letters into a fascinating story about technology, our society, and future.” —Floyd E. Romesberg, Chemist, Synthetic Biologist, TED Speaker
“Creative, inventive, an enjoyable read. Stretched my thinking with an outstanding understanding of emerging technologies and what’s possible today, coupled with a futuristic mindset that challenges the reader to explore what’s real and what’s right.” —Michael Fulton, Academic Director of Digital Executive Education at The Ohio State University
“In Catch-42, Felix Holzapfel spins his deep understanding of today’s most important technology trends into a gripping narrative about choice, ethics, and the nature of humanity—and shows us that the future will truly be what we make it.” —Greg Verdino, Futurist, Author of Never Normal
About Felix Holzapfel
(c) Steven Zeh Photography // www.stevenzeh.de
Thinkers 360 recognized Felix Holzapfel as a Top 10 Global Thought Leader in Digital Transformation. During the last two decades, Holzapfel has been privileged to support many global players on their way to the digital age. While he has published several books about technology, trends, and the shift in our media landscape, Catch-42 is his first novel and a book he has wanted to write for a long time. Having sold his digital marketing agency to one of the world’s leading IT services providers, he now has time for this passion project.
This giveaway is open to the U.S. only and ends on June 4, 2021 midnight pacific time. Entries are accepted via Rafflecopter only. a Rafflecopter giveaway
Christmas Eve Promise: Time Travel Novel (Christmas Eve Series, Book 4) by Elyse Douglas
Publisher: Broadback (September, 2020) Category: Time Travel, Historical Fiction, Romance, Christmas Tour dates: September-November, 2020 ISBN: Available in Print and ebook, 405 pages
Description Christmas Eve Promise: Time Travel Novel by Elyse Douglas
Eve and baby Colleen are traveling to Ohio for the Christmas holidays to spend time with Eve’s parents.
After a few days in Ohio, they all plan to fly to Florida in Eve’s father’s private airplane. Patrick will meet them there after he completes exams for his forensic psychology degree.
Nothing goes as planned. The day Patrick is to leave for Florida, he receives a shocking telephone call from one of Eve’s cousins. Sobbing, she tells him a terrible tragedy has occurred. It stuns him and shakes him to his heart’s core.
His life shattered, Patrick knows he has but one chance: he must use the time travel lantern to return to the past in order to prevent the current tragedy.
But once again, the time travel lantern has a mind of its own, and Patrick is hurled back to a time where he must confront a strange, unfamiliar world and learn why the lantern transported him there.
When Patrick comes face-to-face with a mysterious, beautiful woman who looks and acts like Eve, and whose name is Eve, Patrick is haunted.
He recalls the promise he and Eve had made to each other on Christmas Eve the previous year—no matter what happens; no matter if they’re separated; no matter what time or place they find themselves in; no matter what obstacles they must face, they will always find each other, help each other, and love each other for all time.
The Christmas Eve Promise is a journey about the enduring promise of hope and the infinite, unbreakable bonds of love.
My Thoughts Christmas Eve Promise by Elyse Douglas
If you have been reading my reviews for a while, you probably noticed that I love Elyse Douglas novels. They are a married couple who release many novels each year. They are a power couple of literature. I have not read a book that they have written that I have not loved. Their new novel, ‘The Christmas Eve Promise’ is no exception!
Book 4 of the ‘Christmas Eve’ series, ‘The Christmas Eve Promise’, starts out with a promise that Patrick and his wife give each other.
“I want both of us to promise that no matter what happens to us; no matter if we’re separated; no matter what time or place we find ourselves in; no matter what obstacles we face, we will always find each other, help each other and love each other, for all time.”
This is a promise that Patrick will soon need to find a way to keep and it won’t be easy. It means that he will need to light the time travel lamp again. He has no control over what year if will bring him back to. This time it ends up being 1925. Why it brought him all the way back to 1925, he has no clue. He really was hoping to just go back a few days or even a week.
While in 1925 Patrick gets reacquainted with a character from the previous books and meets all kinds of new quirky and some dangerous characters. He also meets a woman who looks just like his wife, Eve. Is she a relation to Eve? Is she the link to what he is looking for?
I love reading about the roaring 20’s and the time of prohibition, not to mention woman only got the right to vote only 5 short years before! The characters, the times, place, and landscape of 1920’s New York all came to life in the expert writing style of Elyse Douglas. The Douglas’s have a way of writing that makes you feel like your have time traveled and are interacting with the characters and experiencing everything they experience.
I cannot recommend this series highly enough. Though each book can be read apart from the others, I do recommend you read the entire series in order to experience the full story. Elyse Douglas has left me begging for more! Please continue the series, pretty please! I give it a big five stars!
I received the eBook for my honest opinion.
About Elyse Douglas
Elyse Douglas is the pen name for the married writing team Elyse Parmentier and Douglas Pennington. Elyse grew up near the sea, roaming the beaches, reading and writing stories and poetry, receiving a master’s degree in English Literature. She has enjoyed careers as an English teacher, an actress and a speech-language pathologist.
Douglas has worked as a graphic designer, a corporate manager and an equities trader. He attended the Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music and played the piano professionally for many years.
Giveaway Christmas Eve Promise: Time Travel Novel by Elyse Douglas
This giveaway is for 1 copy for 3 winners. Print is is open to the U.S. and Canada only and ebook is open worldwide. This giveaway ends November 26, 2020,midnight pacific time.
Christmas Eve Promise: Time Travel Novel (Christmas Eve Series, Book 4) by Elyse Douglas
Publisher: Broadback (September, 2020) Category: Time Travel, Historical Fiction, Romance, Christmas Tour dates: September-November, 2020 ISBN: Available in Print and ebook, 405 pages
Description Christmas Eve Promise: Time Travel Novel by Elyse Douglas
Eve and baby Colleen are traveling to Ohio for the Christmas holidays to spend time with Eve’s parents.
After a few days in Ohio, they all plan to fly to Florida in Eve’s father’s private airplane. Patrick will meet them there after he completes exams for his forensic psychology degree.
Nothing goes as planned. The day Patrick is to leave for Florida, he receives a shocking telephone call from one of Eve’s cousins. Sobbing, she tells him a terrible tragedy has occurred. It stuns him and shakes him to his heart’s core.
His life shattered, Patrick knows he has but one chance: he must use the time travel lantern to return to the past in order to prevent the current tragedy.
But once again, the time travel lantern has a mind of its own, and Patrick is hurled back to a time where he must confront a strange, unfamiliar world and learn why the lantern transported him there.
When Patrick comes face-to-face with a mysterious, beautiful woman who looks and acts like Eve, and whose name is Eve, Patrick is haunted.
He recalls the promise he and Eve had made to each other on Christmas Eve the previous year—no matter what happens; no matter if they’re separated; no matter what time or place they find themselves in; no matter what obstacles they must face, they will always find each other, help each other, and love each other for all time.
The Christmas Eve Promise is a journey about the enduring promise of hope and the infinite, unbreakable bonds of love.
Praise Christmas Eve Series by Elyse Douglas
“The Christmas Eve Letter is a beautiful, poignant story. It is well written and will have you turning the pages eagerly. All of the characters are well thought out, and believably written, together with the well-constructed scenery, that has you feeling as if you yourself have just stepped into the past. The story is unique and moving. It will hold you long after you turn the last page. A perfect Christmas tale of love and hope.”-Whispering Stories
“This book is the perfect vehicle for a movie, and I can only hope that there will be more in the series. This novel is truly as close to perfection as the reader could imagine! 5 Stars!”–My Devotional Thoughts Blog and Reviews
“I enjoyed the new characters, an update on characters from the first book, and the possibility for more books. If you enjoy time travel-themed novels you will love these books!”–StoreyBook Reviews
“I am most impressed that this book did so well as a stand-alone novel. Kudos to the author! If you are looking for a good Christmas book with time travel, give this a go!”–Carole’s Bookshelves
“I love this whole story, and I especially love Patrick and Eve’s romance and all of the adventures that they go on together. Eve is exactly my kind of character. I still can’t stop thinking about the feeling that it gave me and the arc that the characters went on. Everyone really developed a lot in this story and it was so rewarding as a long-time reader to watch that happen. It feels like every new book in this series just keeps getting better and better and I love these characters more and more. Every time a new one comes out I feel like a kid on Christmas morning. The Christmas Eve Secret is my favorite in the series so far, but if you have not read the first two books I would recommend doing that as soon as possible! If you enjoy romance, time travel, mystery and great writing, I promise that you won’t regret dipping a toe into this series.”–Cuzinlogic
Guest Post Christmas Eve Promise: Time Travel Novel by Elyse Douglas
Stop Reading Fiction! by Elyse Douglas
Miss Harriet Penny was my high school history teacher sophomore year. She was a thin, tall woman with a whip-smart tongue, a perspicacious mind and the sharp nose and challenging, flinty eyes of a gunslinger. Even the tight bun on the very top of her head, which she wore relentlessly like a corporate brand, dared you to cross her.
In case you missed it, I was scared to death of her.
One morning, before class had officially commenced, Miss Penny passed my desk and saw me reading Silas Marner by George Eliot.
“Why are you reading that trash?” she asked, her eyes narrowing on me.
I managed to force out a mouse-like squeak. “Trash? But it’s George Eliot.”
“I know who wrote it,” she snapped. “I’ve read it. And it’s trash, just like most fiction is trash. It’s filled with lies, people who never lived, wishful thinking and errant philosophies” (I think she said “errant”, but she may have said, “perverted.”)
I thought maybe she was just putting me on; using the shock treatment she often used on us to make a historic point. For instance, she once said that John Adams should have shot Thomas Jefferson in 1800 for the outright slanderous attacks he made on John during the campaign for Presidency.
“I have to read this for English class,” I added, apologetically.
She barked out a cold laugh. “Oh, yes, of course you do. Well, let me give you a little life tip, young lady. Read what you must when you’re in school, but when you’re out, stop reading fiction! Instead, read biographies and history, memoirs of the true statesmen, and read Abigail Adams’ letters. You will learn more and flourish more as a woman than you ever will by reading such sentimental nonsense as Silas Marner or To Kill a Mockingbird!”
Fortunately, she didn’t know that, at that very moment, anxiously hiding in my patent leather purse, was a dog-eared paperback of Jacqueline Susann’s novel Once is Not Enough. Had Miss Penny seen that, she surely would have gone into apoplectic shock.
I pondered what Miss Penny had said for a couple of hours, and the more I thought about it, the more outraged I became. I went to the library and searched the shelves for writers who wrote fiction. I found some interesting quotes, which I scribbled down and still have in a spiral-bound notebook which I keep in a back closet.
“Fiction reveals truth that reality obscures.”—Ralph Waldo Emerson
“That’s what fiction is for. It’s for getting at the truth when the truth isn’t sufficient for the truth.” ―Tim O’Brien
“Fiction is the lie through which we tell the truth.” ―Albert Camus
“Fiction is the truth inside the lie.”—Stephen King
“Imagination and fiction make up more than three quarters of our real life.”—Simone Weil
Some days later, I arrived early to Miss Penny’s class. She was sitting at her desk, studying me. I grew self-conscious, not meeting her eyes.
She said, “What did you learn?”
I cleared my throat and said something like, “I’m not sure what you mean…”
“I saw you in the library the other day. What did you learn about reading fiction?”
I grew a bit more bold, only because I saw the hint of a smile crease Miss Penny’s lips.
I said, “Albert Camus said, ‘Fiction is the lie through which we tell the truth.’”
Miss Penny stared hard at me. “So I was right. Fiction is a lie that only the truth can tell.”
Elyse Douglas is the pen name for the married writing team Elyse Parmentier and Douglas Pennington. Elyse grew up near the sea, roaming the beaches, reading and writing stories and poetry, receiving a master’s degree in English Literature. She has enjoyed careers as an English teacher, an actress and a speech-language pathologist.
Douglas has worked as a graphic designer, a corporate manager and an equities trader. He attended the Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music and played the piano professionally for many years.
Giveaway Christmas Eve Promise: Time Travel Novel by Elyse Douglas
This giveaway is for 1 copy for 3 winners. Print is is open to the U.S. and Canada only and ebook is open worldwide. This giveaway ends November 26, 2020,midnight pacific time.
Catch-42: A novel about our future by Felix Holzapfel
