It’s such a pleasure to be welcoming Charles Porter to Novel Kicks and the blog tour for The Hearing Voices Series.

At a certain point, the way you experience things starts to affect everyday decisions, how you respond to people, what you trust, and how you move through situations that used to feel simple. For Aubrey Shallcross, that shift has been building for years, shaped by the voices he hears as he works, forms relationships, and tries to stay in control of his life. The Hearing Voices Series by Charles Porter follows how that begins to change what everyday life looks like.

Aubrey Shallcross has learned how to keep his life steady, even with voices that never leave. He works, maintains relationships, and moves through the world with a sense of control that, from the outside, appears solid.

But the voices don’t stay in the background.

They surface in moments that matter, when decisions have to be made quickly, when situations escalate, when the wrong move can set something in motion. Sometimes they guide. Sometimes they push.

And sometimes, they lead him straight into situations he can’t easily step out of.

As tensions build around him, in the people he’s connected to and the environments he’s drawn into, Aubrey finds himself acting before he fully understands why. What follows isn’t contained. The consequences spread outward, turning individual decisions into events that carry far beyond him.

By the time he realizes the scale of what he’s part of, he’s already committed.

Charles has kindly shared an extract from Shallcross: Flame Vine, the second novel in The Hearing Voices Series with us today. We hope you enjoy. 

*****beginning of extract*****

Chapter 2: Aubrey

JULY 1952

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