Locksmith’s War by Paul Briggs (The Locksmith Trilogy) | $50 Giveaway, Character Interview with Gary, and Excerpt
A book blog tour from Goddess Fish Promotions.
Thank you to the author, publisher, and Marianne & Judy at Goddess Fish for providing me with the information for this tour.
Book Details
Locksmith's War by Paul Briggs Series: The Locksmith's Trilogy #3
Published by Secant Publishing on 07/04/2022
Genres: Fiction, Adventure, Dystopian, Teen, Time-Travel, Young Adult
Format: eBook, Paperback
Pages: 320
For Lachlan Smith, learning the secret of the apocalypse was the easy part.
Ever since Locksmith found the portal to the future, he has been wondering who or what was responsible for the empty, uninhabited world he found.Now he knows—and now he has to fight them.
He thought he had fifteen years in which to prevent the extinction of the human species.Now, he has only hours.
When the portal is stolen by a cabal of dangerous fanatics, his mother and many of his friends are trapped on the other side. Now the enemy is after him, and the only way to thwart their genocidal plan is to retake the portal and hold it—at both ends.
With very little time left, a handful of allies who don't trust each other, almost no chance of success, and the survival of humanity itself at stake… Locksmith is going to war.
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Excerpt from Locksmith’s War
Rikki’s first plan of escape was simple — wait for somebody to open the door, then pounce on them, beat them up and start running. She couldn’t act on this plan until the drug wore off.
She was still feeling jittery from the drug when the lights went out, leaving her in something very close to pitch darkness. The tags on her ears glowed in the dark. The lights stayed off for a fair stretch of time — it might have been an hour. Before long, even with the drug out of her system her pupils had dilated to the point where the light that leaked in under the doorway looked like a line of yellow-white fire, dimly illuminating the room.
Then she heard the footsteps out the in the hall. Someone was headed this way. Rikki pointed herself at the doorway and got herself into a sprinter’s crouch like she’d seen Lock do.
The footsteps stopped in front of the door to her cell. She could see the shadows of somebody’s feet. Just one person. Good. Heavier than average, from the sound of the footsteps, but still better than trying to tackle two or more people at once. Her leg muscles were ready to launch her at the enemy. She got her fists into position. A few good blows to the solar plexus and kidneys…
Excerpt provided by the author/publisher for use in this post.
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Purchase Links for Locksmith’s War
Amazon – OneLink for every country
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Guest Post from the Author of Locksmith’s War
An Interview with Lock’s friend, Gary
Q: Hey, Gary.
A: Hey.
Q: So… no offense, but you don’t really come across as the adventure type. How’d you get involved in all this?
A: It all started when this family moved in next door — Mr. Smith and her sons — and my mom noticed that the younger son was about my age, so she sent me over there to introduce myself. His name’s Lachlan, so people call him “Locksmith,” or usually just “Lock.”
Q: What’s he like?
A: When I first saw him, he was kinda intimidating — tall and a little scary-looking. But he was friendly in a quiet sort of way. Then we found a portal to the future in his bedroom closet, and that’s kinda when things got weird.
Q: Is it true you had a crush on his mom?
A: Seriously? I just told you he had a portal to the future in his bedroom closet, and that’s what you want to know about?
Q: It’s sort of human interest.
A: Did I mention when we went through the portal, we found there was nobody there? Like, in the world? I mean, if we’re talking “human interest,” it seems to me that “Where did all the humans go?” and “Can we change the future so there are humans in it?” would be kind of interesting questions.
Q: Point taken.
A: Anyway, me and Tara are getting along fine now. So don’t worry about that.
Q: Good. So… the portal?
A: The portal. So Lock and I did some experiments to sort of figure out how time travel works — what you can and can’t do. We found out you can’t change your own past, but you can change the future. So then we started exploring the future, trying to figure out what happened and what we need to change.
Q: Who came up with the ideas for these experiments?
A: Me. Lock did a lot of the work, though. I couldn’t have done it without him.
Q: Did you ever think about handing the portal over to… grownups?
A: I wanted to, but Lock… he was the one hanging on to the portal, and he kinda likes to keep things to himself.
Q: How did the portal get to be in his closet in the first place? And where did it come from?
A: That’s a really long story. I mean, the timeline’s been changed so much the technology to create the portal has been lost — and when I say lost, I mean it was never invented in the first place. I’ve heard descriptions of how it was made, but they don’t make a lot of sense. It sounds like they fused tachyons with normal matter, which I didn’t even think was possible.
Q: Has your IQ ever been tested?
A: No. Dad says he’s met too many idiots with high IQs. Um… why?
Q: No reason. Have you ever thought of getting it tested?
A: Sometimes, but… um…
Q: You’re afraid you might turn out to be not that much smarter than everybody else?
A: No, that’s not it.
Q: You’re afraid you might really turn out to be a genius?
A: Well… it’s just that sometimes I have trouble talking to people. Or not talking — talking is easy — but they don’t understand what I’m saying. Like, I’ll be talking to Lock or Tara or somebody about something really cool, really interesting, and then I look at them and realize they’re just sitting there waiting for me to say something that makes sense.
Q: We’re almost done. Is there anything…
A: Oh my God I almost forgot! We found out what happens — who causes the extinction of the — I have to warn everybody…
Q: That’s all the time we have. Thank you, Gary.
A: DON’T TRUST THE…
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I love my Amazon Kindle Unlimited Subscription. So many books, so little time!
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About Paul Briggs
In addition to writing books, Paul Briggs has worked as a newspaper editor, court reporter's assistant, and audio transcriber. In his spare time (when he has any) he sometimes performs in community theater, most recently taking on the roles of Bottom, Petruchio, Macbeth, Rosalind, and Richard III in a Shakespeare compilation. An Eastern Shore native who grew up in Chestertown, Maryland, Paul earned a BA in English from Washington College and a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Maryland – College Park.
He is the author of several short plays, including the award-winning The Worst Super Power Ever and The Picture of Health. He is also writing the sequel to his 2018 science fiction novel Altered Seasons: Monsoonrise, which vividly imagines the dislocations that follow when the Arctic Sea ice finally melts and the Chesapeake Bay is drowned by the effects of climate change.
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Purchase Locksmith’s War online from a local bookstore.
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Easy Amazon Info Link
Amazon – OneLink for every country
Locksmith's War: The Locksm...Shop on Amazon 
Locksmith's War: The Locksm...Shop on Amazon
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Giveaway!
One randomly chosen winner via rafflecopter will win a $50 Amazon/BN.com gift card.
Visit more stops on this Goddess Fish tour for extra chances to win!
Official Tour Page for The Locksmith’s War
Full Tour Schedule:
September 5: Candlelight Reading
September 5: Westveil Publishing
September 6: Literary Gold
September 7: Andi’s Young Adult Books
September 7: Lisa Haselton’s Reviews and Interviews
September 8: Momma Says: To Read or Not to Read
September 9: B-Gina Review
September 9: Jerry’s Circumlocution
September 12: Splashes of Joy
September 13: Gina Rae Mitchell
September 13: The Faerie Review
September 14: Hope. Dreams. LIfe… Love
September 15: The Avid Reader
September 15: Sandra’s Book Club
September 16: Fabulous and Brunette
September 19: Bibliomanaic Aza
September 19: fundinmental
September 20: Kit ‘N Kabookle
September 21: Eye-Rolling Demigod’s Book Blog
September 21: Books+Coffee=Happiness
September 22: The Pen and Muse Book Reviews
September 23: Sybrina’s Book Blog
September 23: Novels Alive
September 26: All the Ups and Downs
September 27: Our Town Book Reviews
September 27: Sapphyria’s Books
September 28: Read Your Writes Book Reviews
September 29: Books in the Hall
September 29: Jazzy Book Reviews
September 30: Long and Short Reviews
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What is your favorite thing to do on your day off?
Interesting cover! Looks very good
I hope you get a chance to read it, Marisela!
I enjoyed reading the interview and learning a bit about you, Paul, I also enjoyed the excerpt and The Locksmith’s War sounds like a fascinating world for my granddaughter to enjoy!
Thanks for sharing it with me and have a smashing day!
Thanks for stopping by today, Eva.
Thank you!
Thanks for the interview. Sounds like a great read !
It was a fun interview, wasn’t it?
What is your favorite thing to do during your time off?
Read and go on long walks. (I try to get in at least 40 minutes a day, and I usually manage at least an hour.)
Thank you!
I’d also like to thank the cover designers, MiblArt, who finished the job even while their country was under attack. Slava Ukraini!
Sounds like a great read.
Locksmith’s War by Paul Briggs sounds like a fun and enjoyable book.
Thanks for hosting!