Excerpt from Kay LaLone's Middle Grade Book ~ Ghostly Clues

 

As Promised, an excerpt from Kay LaLone's Ghostly Clues.
 

Blurb:
The sweet scent of lilacs permeates the air around Grandma’s gravesite. Only Sarah Kay can smell Grandma’s favorite flower, and they’re not even in bloom.

Sarah Kay and her best friend, Mary Jane, believe the lilacs are a sign from Grandma’s ghost. The girls follow one ghostly clue after another, uncovering a secret that Mom never wanted Sarah Kay to know.

Grandma makes sure Sarah Kay gets the message even from the grave. As the evidence piles up, Mom still refuses to accept the possibility Sarah Kay’s father is alive.

Sarah Kay finds Dad’s parents. A set of grandparents she didn’t realize existed. They make it clear her father is alive but days and miles separate the father and daughter reunion because Dad is a truck driver on a long haul.  
Sarah Kay waits. The news reports a fatal car accident involving a semi and Sarah Kay fears the worse. She runs away which leads to Dad and the truth, Mom wanted Dad to remain dead. 

Dad had faked his death so why not just stay dead. The ghostly clues of Grandma wouldn’t allow Dad to remain dead to Sarah Kay.

Excerpt:
I cuddled under the covers with my rag doll Allison. 

Pictures drifted in and out of my head while I slept. I woke up sneezing my head off because the room was filled with the scent of lilacs. Grandma? The flowery smell vanished. The room felt creepy, cloaked in darkness, and shadows crept across the walls. I hugged Allison tightly and closed my eyes again. Just as I did a faint squeak coming from the under the dresser grew louder and louder. My eyes flew open. I stared in the direction of the noise in the far corner of the room. My heartbeat echoed in my ears drowning out the squeaking. A strange, creepy feeling came over me. My skin prickled with goosebumps and my whole body tingled. 

Something tugged at the bedspread. Holy smokes. My heartbeat quickened. I scooted up against the wall. The thing inched up toward my pillow. I moved as far away from the ghostly hand as I could get. It was transparent and the pink of the bedspread was visible through it. I screamed, but the sound caught in my throat. It crept toward me, only a hand with no arm, closer—closer—the thing turned whitish, resembling a puff of smoke, and disappeared. I took a deep breath.

My heart was beating so fast it felt like it would pop right out of my chest. With a trembling hand, I clicked on the lamp and glanced around the room. Bathed in the safety of the glowing light, I snuggled back under the covers. I searched for my rag doll, patting around the blanket. It must have fallen to the floor. I looked over the edge, and there, lying on the carpet was Grandma’s diary.

“What the…?”

I reached down for it, but a stabbing chill shot through me and I jerked my hand back. I wanted to read it but I was too scared. If that was Grandma’s ghostly hand, why did she scare me so badly? 

I nestled my head against the pillow. This was going to be a long night. The light was on, my eyes wide open as I listened and waited. But everything was normal and quiet. How did Grandma’s diary get down there? What was inside? I had to find out. I leaned over the edge. A squeaking sound came from underneath the bed. I jerked away. It will wait until morning. 

The next morning I woke up with the sun peeking through the curtains. I kicked my covers off and climbed out of bed. In the light of day, the ghostly hand from last night couldn’t hurt me, so I lifted the bedspread to look under the bed. Grandma’s journal wasn’t there. Where did it go?

I pulled out a box stuffed with old homework, a ripped tee from soccer camp, and a stack of books. Still no diary. Crumpled against the wall was—my rag doll.

Buy Links:
MuseItUp
Barnes & Noble

Bio: 

I’m Kay LaLone. Ghostly Clues is my first middle-grade novel published by MuseItUp. I live in Michigan with my husband and teenage son (two older sons and a daughter-in-law live near by) and two dogs and a cat. I love to get up every morning and write about ghosts, the paranormal, and anything that goes bump in the night. Or anything that interest my characters. Making my characters come to life for readers is important to a good story. I’m an avid reader of just about any type of book. I do reviews on the books I read and post them on my website and blog.

Find Kay:

My website http://www.kaylalone.weebly.com/
My blog http://www.kaylalone.blogspot.com/
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/ghostlyclues
Twitter https://twitter.com/kaylalone

Excerpt From Meredith Bond's Magic in the Storm

I was lucky to meet Meredith Bond when I asked her about her classes on formatting a digital book. 

I took the class, and while it was intense, it was worth the time and effort to learn the tricks.  I already knew some HTML and knowing where to put the code and how it affects the manuscript was worth the price alone.  If you know nothing about coding, Merry tells you why this and that is done and what it will do. 

If you'd like to be on her mailing list for the next class, please email her directly at

merry@meredithbond.com or find the sign-up on her website www.meredithbond.com.

Now you get to read a bit of her latest book and wow, what a cover!

Blurb:

In the magical world of the Vallen, it has always been the high priestess who was the most powerful. Tatiana Vallentyn has long anticipated the birth of her daughter, Morgan, who was prophesied to be the most powerful priestess in generations – until the child born turned out to be a boy. Now a man, Morgan, must find his place in the world on his own. In the magic of a storm, his potential appears in a form he never would have expected.

Regency society is not kind to orphan girls. Adriana has been at the mercy of her cruel guardian since she was a young child, and now she is being married off to the highest bidder—but she will not go without a fight. She’d rather sell her precious paintings than marry Lord Vallentyn and have to deal with his scheming mother. But everything changes with the wind of a storm that blows her into a world she could never have imagined existed within ordinary society.

Excerpt:

She turned off the path and picked her way through the wood toward the sounds.  There was a clearing not too far ahead, but Adriana was stopped by the sound of a voice — a man’s voice. More carefully and quietly now, she made her way to the edge of the clearing and peeked out from the trees.

Adriana’s breath caught as she watched a dark head emerge from under the water.

It was him!  He hadn’t been a dream or her imagination. He was real! 
Morgan flipped his long black hair back out of his face, sending a spray of water flying toward Adriana. As he did so, he turned around to face her and she very nearly took a step forward to let him know that she was there. Her hand was half-way raised, her foot in mid-air about to step out from the trees when she noticed that he wasn’t wearing anything – at all.

Adriana stopped and caught her balance on a tree. How embarrassing! 

She couldn’t allow Morgan to see she was there, not when he... she could feel her face heat and was sure she was blushing furiously.

She resolutely tried to keep her eyes on his face, but they disobediently darted down his exposed body. Strong muscles defined his bare shoulders and chest. Below that Adriana couldn’t see anything because of the water, and she was extremely grateful. She had never seen a naked man before, and was certain that she never should – at least not until after she was married.

In her mind, Henrietta’s stern voice told her in no uncertain terms she was to leave immediately. Adriana knew the voice was right – she shouldn’t be here at all. She started to turn away, but Morgan gave another bright shout of laughter. She looked over at him playing in the water and knew she just couldn’t go.

The thought of leaving without drawing even one little sketch of Morgan and the river was unthinkable. Surely it was all right from an artistic point of view.  Men painted naked women, so why couldn’t she draw a naked man? 

No, neither Henrietta’s voice in the back of her head, nor the threat of being caught in so compromising a position could force her to leave. She would stay, but only for a very short time. Just long enough to do one quick sketch, she told herself sternly.

Buy Links:

Amazon
Barnes and Noble
iBookstore

 

Bio:

Meredith Bond is an award-winning author of traditionally published Regency romances and indie-published paranormal romances. She is known for her characters “who slip readily into one’s heart.”

Meredith’s second favorite pastime is teaching others to write and format books for
self-publication.

Find Merry at:

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