Generations I : Book of Enlightenment Blog Tour

Hey everyone!!!! Today I am thrilled and honored to be the second stop on Mia Castile's Blog Tour for Generations I : Book of Enlightenment. Here's a bit about the book :

Ellie Solomon has always been sort of a loner. Between her brother (who is the only family she has left) and a few friends (that are more his friends than hers) she lives a boring life. The one person she confides in is her Guardian Angel who visits her dreams. He is her best friend, too bad he's not real. When strange wolves with red eyes begin chasing her one evening, a mysterious boy and his dog saves her, catapulting her into the secret of her parents fate and who she really is. Together, with her new friends she embarks on a journey that leads her to the destiny of her Generation.

Ok, are you dying to read it now or what? Well, even if you can't get it until October 25th, today we have an excerpt to share with you. Here it is :


“Please tell me this is the last box!” Gideon slapped the box on top of my only two other boxes.

“Yes, Gid, it’s the last box. You act like there were a hundred boxes that weighed a hundred pounds.” I laughed and rolled my eyes.

“You mean there’re not a hundred boxes here?” I threw Mr. Bearingston at him. He, of course, caught it.

“Mr. Bearingston is not a ball; he is a bear who has feelings. He’s watched you grow up; I don’t think he appreciates being tossed like a rag doll.” With that, he handed him back to me and nudged my shoulder. I followed him into our living room. Our apartment was dinky to say the least. It wasn’t in the best area of town, just on the edge of our school district. The building was old. Our apartment was on the fourth floor, but really a floor above that. We liked it because it had roof access. After climbing four flights of stairs, we came to our apartment door. When we opened it, we immediately climbed another flight of stairs to our attic-feeling, living room-kitchen combo. The floors throughout the entire apartment were wood. They were old, scuffed, and worn. All the exterior walls were brick. The interior walls were plaster, painted a soft butter yellow color. The exterior wall that faced the roof, however, was a large sectioned window that had a glass door leading out to the roof. There was enough room here in front of the window, we had assumed, to put a table. We’d bought a long, skinny table. We found six wooden chairs that didn’t match. We decided that if we were going to buy used things, we would buy things with character. My bedroom door was in the corner off the living room; Gideon’s was off the corner in the kitchen. We shared an adjoining bathroom. My bedroom was small. Our foster parents had given each of us a full-size bed and a bed-in-a-bag comforter set. We bought a dresser and chest of drawer set with two end tables. I took the dresser and a table for my room, and Gideon took the chest of drawers and a table for his. Closet space was scarce. I guess it was a good thing that our clothes were too. This apartment was what we could afford. We knew we’d have to be careful for safety reasons. There was a buzzer system that made us feel better, but we couldn’t be careless. This was real, and we were on our own.

“So, what’s next?” I asked, surveying my disheveled room.

“Well, we have everything here. Now we just have to unpack,” Gideon smiled.

We’d been scouring thrift stores all day looking for furniture. We’d bought a couple of lounge lawn chairs first because we were excited to watch our first sunset on the roof. Nancy was our own guardian angel; she’d put together a care package laundry basket of cleaners, detergents, laundry bags, towels, extra sheets, and wash cloths. Everything we needed for a new skuzzy apartment to be spit shined. It really meant a lot to us that she’d contributed so much on her budget.

“Let’s get started then.” I stood there looking around. Our couch was faded and would need a good cleaning. The end tables and coffee table needed painting. We’d bought all the cleaners and paint we needed. The TV stand was the only thing that looked new—until you got close enough to see it had some water damage on the lower shelf. We bought all miss-matching dishes with the same color scheme. We looked for unique pieces too. We enjoyed thinking outside the box. Our silverware and glasses were mismatched also. We didn’t buy two items the same. Our cabinets in the kitchen were metal and painted a bright white color. We had a bar counter extending from the wall, dividing the room but still managing to give the appearance of a larger area. There were two bar stools for the counter that came with the apartment. The window above the sink overlooked the river north of downtown. You could see houses and neighborhoods that began to be more urbanized and better neighborhoods farther past the river. I liked our apartment. It fit where we were in our lives. Gideon had picked it out months ago. He had decided to rent it even if I didn’t get to move in with him immediately. He said he would have just gotten it ready for us after I turned eighteen. He’d been saving since we’d begun seriously discussing doing this with Nancy a year before. We were lucky to have the support of our foster parents, too. They brought out the best in us. They had even allowed Gideon to stay with them until a decision came from the judge.

“I got the kitchen. You get this mess of a living room,” Gideon smirked. “Gid, Mom and Dad would be proud of us, right?”

“Are you kidding? They are proud of us! I miss them, but I know they’re in heaven watching over us. And they are here with us.” He patted his heart. “That makes me happy. I know they are proud of us.”

“Yeah, I just wish they were here.”

“Me, too, kid.” He came around the couch and hugged me. I always felt small in his arms even though he was 5’9” and I was 5’5”. Being only eleven months apart, we were often mistaken for twins. But now he was taller and handsome. I had one picture of our parents. Gideon was looking more and more like our father in that picture. His brown eyes were always so expressive. He could look at you, and you could feel what he felt. He said I looked like our mom. I never saw it. She had brown eyes and long, straight brown hair. Actually, I guess I did look like her because my eyes were brown and I had long, straight brown hair. I had her curves too. She was beautiful; I never felt that I could ever comfortably say that I favor her in that area.

That afternoon as the sunset approached, we took our lawn chairs out to the roof top and watched the sun set over the city. It was a nice end to our busy first day of freedom.

It took us the rest of the weekend to put the apartment together—cleaning, painting, scrubbing, and sorting. I was glad when we were done. Gideon continued working at the fancy Italian restaurant where he was a waiter. He always made excellent tips. He had a knack for reading people and knowing how to serve them. His perception always allowed him to receive the best tips. I had already quit the greeting card store. It was four blocks from our old home, but it was too far from our new one downtown. I’d have to find something close. That was my mission for this week. We had a little over two months before school was out and Gideon was graduating. He was under a lot of pressure. He didn’t need a messy apartment or my joblessness looming on him.

And that's it ... at least for the excerpt. BUT. Mia is also having a giveaway for one ecopy, and one print copy, of Generations I : Book of Enlightenment, and a giveaway of 5 postcard and bookmark sets!!! You want to win? You've been told what's up for grabs, now we just have to get to the rules.

To qualify, you must

1. comment on each blog post (each comment gets you one entry into the drawing.
2. tweet the blog post that day with the hash tag #generations (each tweet earns you another entry.)
3. post a link on facebook to the blog entry.(Allowing you yet ANOTHER entry)

The winners will be announced during the Virtual Launch Party Saturday (October 22nd) at 6pm est. on USTREAM. The Release Date of the Novel is October 25th and it will be available, on amazon, bn.com, ibooks, and kobo, as well as print!!!

Here are all of the tour stops (you have to comment on each blog post, don't forget!):
Monday, October 17th : Belle Books http://www.bellebooksx.blogspot.com/
Tuesday, October 18th : Jagged Edge http://www.klearsreviews.blogspot.com/
Wednesday, October 19th : K- Bookshttphttp://k-booksxo.blogspot.com/
Thursday, October 20th : Reading away the days! http://readingawaythedays.blogspot.com/
Friday, October 21st :WovenMyst http://wovenstrands.wordpress.com/

Good luck guys!!!! Make sure to stop at all of the amazing blogs participating on this tour!!! :)