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The city is Asheville, North Carolina, and the year is 2066. As renowned mathematician Alexandra Martin travels in her self-driving car to assassinate the love of her life, she reminisces about how they met and fell in love fifty years earlier in middle school when she was a thirteen year old poor math whiz and he a wealthy teenager. Alex recounts her struggles to be admitted to the best private school in the county, her happy teenage years running track, and her close relationship with three handsome and charming boys: Xavier, the intellectual; Andrew, the golden boy; and Vitali, the suave foreigner. One by one, she visits the three boys of her youth, now successful professionals in their sixties, one of whom is her intended victim.
Read an Excerpt
13-14 Girls 200m Race, Raleigh, North Carolina
2016 State Championships
I turn for home and here I am, behind the KK twins again, like a piece of bologna in a sandwich. Katosha is two meters ahead to my right, and Kashandra is half a step behind her to my left. I don’t notice any of the other runners; I figure they are all eating our dust.
My heart sinks. I prepared so hard for this moment, eating the right foods, controlling my weight, forcing myself to train every day, giving up all sweets, even my favorite raspberry-filled chocolates, and for what? I’m going to lose.
My stride slows, caused by my despair, and the KK twins gain a little more on me. My dad’s voice booms inside my head. ‘Keep those legs pumping, Alexandra! Don’t decelerate. You’re still in the race!’ My dad only calls me Alexandra when he’s angry with me. His words give me a new surge of energy, and I pick up maybe a foot on the twins. We are about ninety meters from the end. People in the stands are waving and screaming. The sun is a ball of fire overhead, and the temperature is close to one hundred degrees in Raleigh, but I don’t care. The three of us are breathing hard. Katosha sounds like a tractor, full of energy and power.
My father’s voice screams inside my head again. ‘Stride length and turnover rate, Alex. Your stride is good. Your turnover rate is not. Move those legs faster!’
I make a superhuman effort and try to move my legs faster. Kashandra and Katosha do the same. I can hear the click-click-click of our spikes beating on the steaming orange track like machine gun fire.
Down we go: click-click-click. The finish line looms ahead. I can’t lose this race. I will not lose this race. My immediate future depends on me crossing the finish line ahead of everyone else, and that means Katosha and Kashandra, my arch-enemies. They are also competing for the same prize I am.
Seventy meters, sixty-five meters, sixty meters, the click-clickclick is even.
My thighs are numb. I can’t move my legs any faster. I’ve reached my limit. I have a stitch on my side, and my ribcage hurts…
About the Author
David Pereda is the award-winning author of nine novels, including Havana Blues and However Long the Night, as well as the Havana Series of thrillers featuring the dashing Doctor Raymond Peters and the beautiful but deadly Cuban assassin Marcela. He has traveled to more than thirty countries and speaks four languages. Before devoting his time solely to writing and teaching, David 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, David earned his MBA from Pepperdine University in California. He earned bachelor degrees in English literature and mathematics at the University of South Florida in Tampa.
He lives in artistic Asheville, North Carolina, with his youngest daughter Sophia, where he teaches mathematics and English at the Asheville-Buncombe Community College. He loves sports and is an accomplished competitor in track and show-jumping equestrian events.
Author’s Amazon Page / Buy Link
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Thanks for hosting!
My pleasure.
Thank you for hosting me on your blog today. I will be checking in and out during the next couple days to answer any questions you or your readers may have about the book, writing, or my life as a writer.
It’s my pleasure to have you here. I look forward to hearing more from you 🙂
The feeling is mutual. Good luck with your blog. I hope to see you in future promotions of my books.
And by the way, I don’t know how that happened but Barnes&Noble has more reviews of Freaking Fast than Amazon — and they are all 5-stars too:
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/freaking-fast-david-pereda/1128497767?ean=9781987500615
That’s unusual. Fabulous news!
What do you find to be the most challenging part of writing? And the most rewarding?
I believe every part of writing is challenging. For me, writing is the hardest thing I do. Before I begin writing a book, I need to know my main character well — from the obvious, parents, where he/she went to school, etc. to the type of cologne/perfume they use, the clothes they wear, what they think about social issues, politics, and so on — and I need to know what I really want to say with my writing, the theme of the book. Although all those things are quite challenging, I find that getting the first line of the book “right” is the most challenging aspect of my writing. I never begin a book until I have that first line written to my satisfaction…which takes me a long time since I do a lot of rewriting. Once I have that first line, though, I know where to go with the book. And the most rewarding? That’s when I make you, the reader, feel intensely about what is happening to the characters in the novel and you keep flipping pages to find out what is going to happen next and finally, when you finish reading and close the book, you say “wow!” I hope that answers your questions. Good questions, by the way. Thank you for asking them.
Because I liked this question, I have included here the first line of some of my books as examples:
“Today I’m going to kill the love of my life” — Freaking Fast
“My room was on fire.”
— Havana Blues
“You want a lollypop, little girl?”
— Twin Powers
“Pepe Orozco woke up at six in the morning — naked, shivering, and hungover.”
— Killing Castro
“Raymond wondered if, after thirty years, he would recognize his friend Pepe.”
— Top Secret
“Where is Sandra?”
– However Long the Night
“Piero watched Francesca riding Diavolo and wondered how he could desire a woman married to another man so much.”
— The highest Hurdle
“The idea came to me as I showered one summer morning before going to the office.”
— Getting Filthy Rich
Sounds great
Thank you, Gwendolyn.
It looks like we both like the sound of this one, Sherry. I shared it today too!
Thank you, Laura — and Sherry.
Thanks one and all for your fabulous comments. 🙂
It was a pleasure being on your blog. Let’s do it again soon.
Sounds like a plan. 🙂