The Bourbon Country Series - Book Tour and Giveaway

Whiskey Thief
The Bourbon Country Series Book 1
by Chris Bostic
Genre: Psychological Thriller, Romantic Suspense 

When their Kentucky bourbon tour takes a turn for the worse, two engaged couples join up with strangers to seek shelter in the ruins of an old distillery. Grace encounters more than abandoned spirits on the decaying property, bringing her semi-comfortable world crashing down.

Tensions pull at the group, splintering the couples into teams. Only it’s hard for Grace to know what side to be on when bonds are tested, and opposites no longer attract. Questions abound. Who really are the strangers they paired up with? Should she break convenient bonds for a risky one? Then again, does it even matter if they don’t make it out alive?

Please be advised – The Bourbon Country Series features fast-paced adult psychological thrillers where sexual assault, PTSD, self-blame, and functional alcoholism combine to form a potent blend. Recommended for mature audiences, ages 18+

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**On Sale for only .99 cents Sep 23rd – 28th!!**
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Kentucky Hug
The Bourbon Country Series Book 2 

It’s been six long months since Grace’s world turned upside down. She unexpectedly finds herself back in bourbon country with Vince, dredging up memories barely concealed. Anxiety builds when a mysterious stranger shadows them, but it’s her own indecisiveness that first leads to misadventure.

Just like a flight of unfamiliar bourbons, Grace can only wonder if each of her trials will unleash a rot gut burn or a warm Kentucky Hug. More likely a mixture of both.

Please be advised – The Bourbon Country Series features fast-paced adult psychological thrillers where sexual assault, PTSD, self-blame, and functional alcoholism combine to form a potent blend. Recommended for mature audiences, ages 18+


Goodreads * Amazon

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Barrel Strength
The Bourbon Country Series Book 3 

After another nine solid months, things couldn’t be going much better for Grace. Life has settled into a comfortable routine. So, of course, she’s headed back to bourbon country with Vince. Maybe not the destination wedding she’d been dreaming about more recently, but the venue couldn’t be any more perfect. Or so they thought.

Wedding day should be a joyous occasion for the couple, but nothing is ever easy for them—especially when a manhunt locks down the venue and spirits flow from sleeping barrels.

Please be advised – The Bourbon Country Series features fast-paced adult psychological thrillers where sexual assault, PTSD, self-blame, and functional alcoholism combine to form a potent blend. Recommended for mature audiences, ages 18+


Goodreads * Amazon ​

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Chris Bostic is the author of exciting adventure thrillers. From his home in suburban St. Louis, he turns family vacations and Boy Scout trips into gripping survival novels. The Northwoods Trilogy was his first series, with the setting chosen thanks to a BSA High Adventure trip to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. Then came his SciFi series The Savage Horde, as well as a trio of standalone novels. He's now rolled out a new series set in the Smoky Mountains.

Chris continues to build on his brand of epic adventure books. This year featured a three book set - The Bushwhackers Series - set in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The books are: Prepper Mountain, Shadow Warriors, and Jailbreak.

Then came another three book set, The Bourbon Country Series, to close out the year. Whiskey Thief, Kentucky Hug, and Barrel Strength mark a departure from teen fiction into a mature audience blend of psychological thriller and romantic suspense.


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Can you, for those who don't know you already, tell something about yourself and how you became an author?
My writing journey started in 2012. I used to read quite a bit. I ended up reading the Hunger Game Trilogy three times (in a row!) and couldn’t decide what I wanted to tackle next. So I decided to try my hand at writing.

Where were you born/grew up at?
I was born and raised in suburban Chicago, but you would never guess that now. Other than an abiding love for Cubs baseball and Bears football, I’m long detached from Chicago. I moved to Missouri years ago and spend most of my weekends out in the country.

What are you passionate about these days?
Bourbon. Lots of other things too, like my family, of course. It’s back to school time, which has been a nice but strange change from the last six months with everyone at home. In terms of other hobbies or passions, I have a soft spot for quiet places, hiking, fishing…. Mostly outdoorsy things and some woodworking. I’ve also been experimenting with sandblasting custom art/names/logos on metal cups and glass.

What do you do to unwind and relax?
I’m an avid outdoorsman. Hiking, kayaking/canoeing, fishing, hunting. Pretty much anything outdoors, even if it’s just sitting on the deck staring at the woods.

How to find time to write as a parent?
With my early writing, I was most productive while my kids were at sports practices. I’ve not coached much, so I would spend an hour or two during their practices on my laptop. Now that they’re growing out of sports, it’s more late nights and early mornings when the house is quiet.

Describe yourself in 5 words or less!
Thorough, hard-worker, dedicated, quiet/reserved, regimented. Probably not the normal recipe for a creative person, but it works okay for me.

When did you first consider yourself a writer?
Probably sometime in 2013. I started putting together a couple novels in 2012, and spend most of that year figuring out how to write effectively. It was a steep learning curve, but I worked hard at it. By the end of 2012 I had a couple books finished, and one represented by an indie publisher. That’s when it started to feel real.

Which of your novels can you imagine made into a movie?
I’ve actually just adapted Whiskey Thief into a screenplay. I’ve recently entered a few contests with the hope that maybe I can catch a break. Fingers and toes crossed on that, though I don’t really expect much to come of it. But I think it would make a great suspenseful thriller.

What inspired you to write this book?
Whiskey Thief (and the two other books in the series, as well as a completely different bourbon-filled series) were inspired by one of my vacations. It’s my usual source of inspiration. I like to take family trips and turn them into epic thrillers and/or epic disasters. Add in my love of bourbon, distillery touring, and Kentucky scenery in general, and that all made the perfect formula for The Bourbon Country Series. Side note: I would literally pay money for a sniff inside a rack house. It’s heaven on earth. I wish I could build my own.

What can we expect from you in the future?
That’s hard to say. All my earlier work has been outdoorsy, coming of age, adventure stories—many with a dystopian backdrop. My last six books are grittier real-world stories. They’re edgier and geared for the mature audience. I can see myself going back to more teen stories, though I’ve certainly enjoyed writing adult thrillers.

Can you tell us a little bit about the characters in the books?
Grace from Whiskey Thief and the sequels is one of my all-time favorite characters. To summarize from a spectacular view I received: “if I didn't know a man wrote this, I never would have guessed. Grace is a broken, loveable character who takes a licking and keeps on ticking, or kicking. She's feisty, fun, and is that girl who mommas warn their sons about.” I can’t sum her up much better than that.

Where did you come up with the names in the story?
I probably spend the least amount of time on names. Grace is probably the only character where it actually means a little something. The rest are just generic names, but let me know if you think of something I didn’t. Maybe there’s a subliminal message in there somewhere.

Tell us about your main characters- what makes them tick?
They’re complicated, complex, semi-broken people that survive. This series dabbles a bit with psychological suspense. It takes on a lot of big issues like doubts, fears, anxiety, functional alcoholism, and PTSD. I hope you enjoy seeing them grow closer together, leaning on each other.

Who designed your book covers?
Other than my first few novels where I was representing by Indie presses that provided the covers, I’ve been designing all my covers lately with the help of stock photos and the program Canva.

If your book was made into a film, who would you like to play the lead?
I’ve thought about this quite a bit, especially since I have adapted Whiskey Thief into a screenplay. I think Mila Kunis would be the perfect Grace. Other less well-known actresses would be Christina Ochoa or Katie Keene (with dark hair). Grace has to be someone tough, sassy, and loveable. I’m still pretty uncertain about the other characters. I can’t say that I have anyone in mind.

What is your favorite part of this book and why?
My favorite parts tend to be the character interactions. Sass, sarcasm, silly jokes. That’s what I enjoy, and how I get a feel for the characters.

Are your characters based off real people or did they all come entirely from your imagination?
Typically most of my characters are based off real people who I know pretty well. That makes it easier to get a good feel for them and write how they act. In this new series, every character was someone new to me, and I enjoyed crafting them just as much. Maybe more.

Do your characters seem to hijack the story or do you feel like you have the reigns of the story?
The characters tend to run off a bit with the story. So much is based on how they react and interact that the outline is mostly just a series of ideas of bad things that could happen to them while they are on their journey. I’ve never gotten too far off track, but that’s only because I never know exactly where I am going.

Have you written any other books that are not published?
I have two books saved up for release, maybe late this year. Those go back to my early roots in teen, action/adventure, coming of age, survival stories.

What did you edit out of this book?
Actually nothing. My editing tends to more along the lines of adding extra details or interactions to clarify the action or character motivations rather than cutting anything out as extraneous.

How long have you been writing?
Over 8 years now. I am up to 18 published books, all self-published. Five of those books were originally Indie published, but I have the rights back to all of them now.

Do the characters all come to you at the same time or do some of them come to you as you write?
I generally try to flesh out every character all the way down to names and characteristics before I am through the first chapter. Sometimes they change a little bit as the story progresses, but I like to have an idea of quirks, flaws, appearance, etc… ready to go on page one.

What kind of research do you do before you begin writing a book?
Most all of my books are based on places I have been—often as family vacations. I’m the planning type of vacationer, so I spend hours on the ‘things to do’ part of a vacation. That all comes in handy when it’s time to write.

Do you see writing as a career?
Not for me. I wish, but not yet. After 18 books it feels a whole lot less like a hobby, but it’s just not to where I can support a family. Maybe a retirement job. I can definitely see that.

Do you read yourself and if so what is your favorite genre?
I used to read a whole lot more, but after I started writing I found myself not wanting to spend the time reading when I could be working on my own books. I’ve always been a fan of military history, dystopian societies, and the occasional SciFi. But less SciFi these days. That was more of a childhood thing.

Do you prefer to write in silence or with noise? Why?
I tend to like background noise. My music choice varies with the scenes I write too, with harder rock music when I get into some conflict scenes. It’s funny, but sometimes I find song lyrics blended into my rough drafts. It’s some kind of weird subliminal thing I do.

Do you write one book at a time or do you have several going at a time?
I have never worked on more than one book at a time. I don’t know how well I could do two. I get in the writing zone and obsessed with completion, so I don’t know that I could focus on one book if I was trying to wrap up another. About the only thing I will do is write down is ideas for other books while I’m working on a different one.

Pen or type writer or computer?
Definitely computer. Sometimes I will put some notes on my phone if an idea strikes me while I am out, but I do 100% of my writing in Microsoft Word on my laptop. I don’t even pencil down notes if I can avoid it.

A day in the life of the author?
I only write about half the months out of a year, or less. I won’t start a new book unless I know I have at least a couple weeks of free time to where I can write from start to finish on a draft. When writing, weekend days look a lot like: wake up early, write until breakfast, work in a few hours of writing time in the am and pm around chores and family fun time, then several hours later in the evening. Weekdays meaning writing for an hour on lunch break, and then a few more hours that evening after supper.

Describe your writing style.
Pretty linear. I’m not big on jumping from one scene to somewhere totally different. I like to take a small group of characters and develop them through the challenges they encounter. Typically it’s a normal day that turns into a real adventure. Most of my books span the events of a single day, maybe two.

What is your writing process? For instance do you do an outline first? Do you do the chapters first?
I like to start writing with a general idea where I’d like to end up. I’ve tried to outline stories, but it hasn’t always worked out the best for me. Once I had three pages of what I thought were great notes. I was so sure it had the makings of a great story, but by the time I started writing I was through all the notes by about page 35. Needless to say, the story took off and evolved from there. Now I outline a few chapters ahead, writing down ideas and scenes for what could happen, then filling in the details.

What’s the most difficult thing about writing characters from the opposite sex?
I’ve been told that I’m actually rather good at it. I don’t know how exactly, but several of my recent books have a female lead, and I’ve not once had a negative reaction. In fact, several reviewers have commented that they would never know it was written by a man. Not sure what that says about me….

How long on average does it take you to write a book?
About two months or less of actual writing/editing time. I try not to start anything until I can devote enough time to finish the draft. So I tend to rough it the whole story in 10-20 days (generally 2 weekends and the nights in between). Then I take a little time off. Editing is another full week, or more if it needs extra work. Then another week of editing and proofreading after that.

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