Giveaway + Author Interview: C.D. Gill

Happy Monday, Reader Friends!

I’m excited about this author interview. I have C.D. Gill here today as she talks about her novel, On Wings of an Avalanche. This one is definitely going on my TBR pile.

Let’s get started!

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About the Book

The Blurb: “A struggling charity hospital, visa troubles, and an arrest at gunpoint leave Dr. Madison Cote at the mercy of the corrupt Malian police. Rescue comes at a price when a warlord demands that she traffic drugs in exchange for her freedom and his protection. When the French embassy enlists her to relay intelligence on the warlord, Dr. Cote’s trapped as a civilian double agent, facing an immediate death sentence if she’s caught.

Royal Air Force recruit Chip Chapman needs to prove to himself that he can be more than his abusive father. A week before basic training, an avalanche replaces his dreams of heroism with raw survivalism. Taken captive for his piloting skills, Chip plans to escape until he uncovers war crimes no human could ignore.

Both pressed into servitude, Dr. Cote and Chip forge a desperate alliance. But with lives in the balance, their allegiances and honor will be the least of the sacrifices required to topple a warlord.”

Links: Amazon, iTunes, Kobo

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Interview

Toni: Welcome, C.D! Since I’m so stinking excited to talk about your book, I’ll just jump right in with the questions. Does On Wings of an Avalanche take place only in Mali or do we readers get to travel to other countries?

C.D: Thanks for having me! Mali is just one country. Chip’s story starts in the Alps in France, but we also briefly visit Switzerland and see Chip’s past in England.

Toni: Hooray for travel! Where did you get the idea for this story?

C.D: My husband is a pilot and my father-in-law is a surgeon who spends time doing missionary medical work in Africa so parts of the story were born out of their real-life experiences. Then my imagination starts with “wouldn’t it be crazy if…?” and then from there I research and read news articles to keep myself from straying too far out of the realm of reality.

Toni: Sounds great. How are you alike Dr. Madison Cote? How are you different?

C.D: The ways we are different outweigh the similar traits. Madison is medical and willing to do anything to avoid failure even compromising her moral and ethical integrity. And she quickly finds out it’s a slippery slope.
I am not medically minded unless you count self-diagnosing as medical. If I’m honest, there’s not much of a chance that I’d go to Africa by myself for an extended period of time although my brave inner-self might try it just because it’s not likely.

However, Madison and I are the same in that we want to save everyone and for everyone to be happy and healthy at the expense of our own personal well being. And I think we can all relate to her loneliness and how she’s attempts to fill the void with doing good deeds when there’s really only one true void-filler.

Toni: Amen! What kind of research did you have to do for this novel?

C.D: I researched pretty much everything. Clothes, languages, foods, plants, diseases, roads, drug trade, Bamako buildings, past events, international relations, aviation galore, bathing rituals, wild animals, marijuana. I even researched Malian gift-giving (dama), herbal medications, international extradition laws, visa procedures, and license plates.

I had the privilege to go to Zambia in 2015 to see missionary medical work in action. And wow—I never knew how much I didn’t understand about Africa as a whole and Zambians in specific. Being there gives you a new set of eyes and understanding for why things happen like they do. And I hope I brought some of that into my work. I didn’t want to offer the same stereotypical and sterile versions of Africa that we get from media all the time. But at the same time, I wanted the characters to grow and understand things for themselves.

Toni: It sounds like it’s going to be a fantastic read. I can’t wait to read it. What is your favorite…
vacation spot?

C.D: Switzerland—it’s heaven on earth

Toni: I want to go! Food?

C.D: Chocolate and pizza

Toni: Makes sense to me. 🙂 Sport to watch? Sport to play?

C.D: Soccer and volleyball to watch and play.

Toni: I’m purely a spectator. 🙂 Last but not least, what’s next for you on your writing journey?

C.D: If all goes as hoped, there is a third book in the Freedom’s Cry collection but there’s no hard date on when that will be coming out. Also, I have another series in the works that I’m really excited about that starts in the US with book 1 and takes us to Brazil in books 2 and 3.

Toni: We’ll be praying you success on your writing journey. Readers, what’s your favorite vacation spot?

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About the Author

C.D. Gill caught the travel bug as a young girl. Now she integrates other cultures and faraway places into her fiction. Equally as important is her desire to lend a voice to those around world without one. Her favorite adventure buddy is her British pilot husband who doesn’t know how to sit still and whose stories have added fuel to her wild imagination.

Follow: Website, Facebook, Twitter, Newsletter

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Giveaway

C.D. Gill is giving away an eBook copy of On Wings of an Avalanche (international can enter). Leave a comment by 2/11/18 11:59pm EDT for a chance to win. I will use a random generator to pick a winner on 2/12/18 (be sure to come back and check if you won). To enter leave a blog comment.

​*Giveaway Policy here.