Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Valentine Guest Post and Giveaway with Christopher Meeks


Happy Valentines Day! It’s the perfect day to write about romance and fiction.

This month I’m on a romance blog tour thanks to romance readers who have reviewed Love At Absolute Zero. I did not write the book to fit any mold. As the writer, I was fully aware of the romantic elements, but I didn’t tell myself this is a Romance with a capital R.  There was only one main thing I wanted to do: tell a great story. Romance readers let me know it works as a romantic story.


As human beings, we’re all equalized when it comes to love. We’re at our most vulnerable then. Our initial flash of attraction to someone can lead to one extreme or another: to a fulfilling relationship unlike any other with depths that we’ve never experienced before or to a loss with deep pain.


While I’ve had my share of deep pain when it comes to love, I tend to see the absurdities of life, including what led me to the pain. I’ll let you in on a secret, especially to those who have read the book. Like Gunnar, I followed a love to Denmark. However, I was a junior in college then and was able to spend my junior year in Denmark.


When I told someone a few years ago of what happened to me then, how I lived with this girl’s parents instead of the girl, my friend laughed, and I realized it was funny. The situation could be part of a novel. However, I didn’t want to write a coming of age story of a college student set in the past but, rather, a contemporary story about a scientist now.


Why a scientist? I had many reasons. One is I that love stories never seem to feature a scientist. I’ve read books and have seen movies of people in a rainbow of professions fall in love but none had featured a likeable scientist. My wife, Ann, when I was dating her, worked at Caltech in Pasadena where I met brilliant astrophysicists and others. Many of them were not particularly social. I thought wouldn’t it be interesting to root for a really smart scientist who deeply wanted and needed a soul mate.


Second, my notion of many men, myself included, is we can be clueless when it comes to love and communication. Our “logic” center blinds us. Once, back before I became the enlightened creature I am now (thanks to the women in my life), I might say to my girlfriend that I was going to take a walk. I figured if she wanted to come, she’d tell me. It was freedom hall, after all. I’d learned, though, she could wonder why I didn’t ask her? Did I want to be alone? If I wanted to be alone, was there something wrong, perhaps something she did? Was she not worth wanting to be with?


She wouldn’t tell me these things, of course. She’d say “fine,” and then I’d learn later I hurt her. So many things we do in love unintentionally hurt the other. We’re vulnerable.
Guys, of course, can be clueless to this type of thinking. We’re not analyzing on many levels. I might have been thinking I could use the exercise. Such differences are both true and funny—and the perfect stuff for a story.


The third reason I made Gunnar a physicist in particular is that Denmark is tops in physics, and an American professor might easily attain a visa to work and teach there.


I’ll grant you there are differences between Love At Absolute Zero and your average romance. The main one is that quantum physics and what happens to matter near absolute zero plays in the background, both directly and metaphorically. However, my goal was not to make science intimidating but interesting and even fun. The reviews bear this out.


I’m honored to be here, and pleased Roxanne is helping me get word of my novel out. I can use everyone’s help. I don’t have a huge publisher or marketing budget behind me. If you like the book, please write a little something on Amazon and/or your blog. Every bit counts. Help the world find Gunnar and his truths. And may you feel love today and many days of your life.



Love at Absolute Zero

By Christopher Meeks
Publisher: White Whisker Books
Date: September 17, 2011
Genre: Literary Fiction with a Romantic Twist from a male POV
Format: Paper & Kindle, 311 Pages

Love At Absolute Zero is the story of Gunnar Gunderson, a 32-year-old physicist at the University of Wisconsin. The moment he's given tenure at the university, he can only think of one thing: finding a wife. This causes his research to falter. With his two partners, Gunnar is in a race against MIT to create new forms of matter called Bose-Einstein condensates, which exist only near absolute zero. To meet his soul mate within three days--that's what he wants and all time he can carve out--he and his team are using the scientific method, to riotous results.




About the Author:


Christopher Meeks writes short fiction and novels. His book of short stories, The Middle-Aged Man and the Sea earned great reviews including the Los Angeles Times ("poignant and wise") and a blurb inEntertainment Weekly that said, "A collection so stunning that I could not help but move onto the next story." His second collection of short stories, Months and Seasons was published in 2009, and his first novel,The Brightest Moon of the Century appeared in 2009. He has published short fiction in a number of literary journals, including Rosebud, The Clackamas Literary Review, The Southern California Anthology, The Santa Barbara Review, Midday Moon, and Writers' Forum. He now focuses mainly on writing novels..

He teaches English and children's literature at Santa Monica College, children's literature at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, and fiction writing at UCLA Extension.

Web site: http://www.chrismeeks.com
Blog: http://www.redroom.com/author/christopher-meeks
Publisher site: http://WhiteWhiskerBooks.com

Tour Wide Giveaway- 2 prize packs
Christopher Meeks is giving away 2 prize packages

Open to US Shipping

There is the short fiction package, which includes two short story collections and Christopher's produced play "Who Lives?"

The prize pack also contains: a heart coffee mug, deck of cards, nail file, small photo frame, unfinished heart wooden photo frame, and journal

Package two is the "novel package" which contains 2 signed copies of Christopher's books including Love at Absolute Zero

The prize pack also contains: a heart coffee mug, deck of cards, nail file, small photo frame, unfinished heart wooden photo frame, and journal

Enter here


2 comments:

June M. said...

What cute gift packs. I have not read anything by Christopher Meeks but am always willing to try a new author.

Debby said...

Thanks so much. You book sounds great.
debby236 at gmail dot com