Guest Post: Hellhole by Gina Damico+Giveaway(INT)

In HELLHOLE, Max commits a tiny little, insignificant-in-the-grand-scope-of-things sin. A sinlet, if you will. Yet even this teensy transgression is big enough to summon a devil, and if this were really the way things worked around Hell, I’ve got news for you: I’d have popped up a satanic being loooong ago.

Specifically, at the end of sophomore year.

Before I begin, I would like to point out that overall I was a very good kid. I never got in trouble. Much like Max, the protagonist in HELLHOLE, I was terrified of getting into trouble. I was the goodiest of goodie-two-shoes, which makes the following story all the more scandalous.

My high school drama club had just finished up a rousing production of Oklahoma. We’d had a successful run and we were ready to party the night away at the cast party. It was being held at one of the senior’s houses, plus the director was there, a few teachers were there, and we generally had a nice, clean, fun time.

But the night wore on. The teachers went home. And by the time midnight rolled around, there was only a handful of us left. So we took the only sane, logical next step: we decided to play truth or dare.

I won’t go into too many specifics of what a bunch of unsupervised, slightly horny theater geeks got up to in the suburbs in the middle of the night. Let’s just say that there was chocolate sauce licked off of someone’s stomach, there were pretzels mischievously placed on someone’s car (ooh, we were bad!) there was some making out, a plastic cup was seduced, and a whole bunch of other weird things happened that I can’t remember. But I do remember when the night took a Turn.

The setup at this house was like so: there was a back porch with a pool set into it, and the outdoor lights were pointed directly at the pool, so that the small edge of porch that surrounded it was lit up like a stage. (Am I describing this well? Whatever, it’s not like I’m a writer or anything.) One of the senior guys was dared to moon everyone, so he went to that well-lit area and promptly dropped trou. And then the inevitable next dare came: the girls were to flash the boys.

At this point in the night, there were only four of us girls, one of whom was the host of the party. We somehow came to a consensus that yes, we would do this (why? why?) so we lined up on the “stage”, lifted our shirts, and completed our dare.

And right on cue, a disembodied voice from within the house declared: “PARTY. OVER.”

Yep. Her parents had been watching us the entire time.

Thanks for having me!

HELLHOLE

Release date: January 6, 2015

Publisher: HMH Books for Young Readers

Pages: 368

Blurb:

There was a time when geeky, squeaky-clean Max Kilgore would never lie or steal or even think about murder. Then he accidentally unearths a devil, and Max’s choices are no longer his own. The big red guy has a penchant for couch surfing and junk food—and you should never underestimate evil on a sugar high.

With the help of Lore, a former goth girl who knows a thing or two about the dark side, Max is racing against the clock to get rid of the houseguest from hell before time, and all the Flamin’ Hot Cheetos this side of the fiery abyss, run out.

You can purchase Hellhole at the following Retailers:

    

About the Author 

Gina Damico is the author of Croak, Scorch, and Rogue, the grim-reapers-gone-wild books of the Croak trilogy. She has also dabbled as a tour guide, transcriptionist, theater house manager, scenic artist, movie extra, office troll, retail monkey, yarn hawker and breadmonger. A native of Syracuse, New York, she now lives outside Boston with her husband, two cats, and one dog, and while she has never visited hell in person, she has spent countless waking hours at the Albany Regional Bus Terminal, which is pretty darn close. Visit her website at www.ginadami.co.

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The Hellhole Book Trailer 

The Giveaway

We are giving away a Hardcover copy of HELLHOLE to TWO WINNERS

Giveaway is open to anywhere The Book Depository ships.

Giveaway ends on January 21^st at 11:59 p.m. Pacific.

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Gina’s Giveaway

Hey there book fans! I'm running a Follow Frenzy giveaway over the course of this blog tour, and the prize is pretty neato: a signed copy of HELLHOLE wherein each chapter will have a little bit of trivia and/or a doodle handwritten by yours truly. (Gina) (Damico) To enter, all you have to do is follow me on one or more of my various social media outlets (Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Instagram, Youtube), then fill out this adorable little form

 That's it! The more things you follow, the more chances you will earn to win. Good luck!