Showing posts with label Books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Books. Show all posts

Friday, February 16, 2018

A Book To Read On Valentines Day (and Why)

Hi fellow book lovers! "My Bookish Blog Hop" group on facebook is celebrating Valentines Day by doing a 'My Bookish Valentine' blog hop!  Click here to join our group







Between my college classes and running around to get my kids a little something (as well as my husband), I completely forgot to make sure this post went live on Valentines. Thats ok though, because I'm sure I'm not the only one who was too busy on Valentines Day to do much reading. -> I plan on catching up this weekend! :)
I don’t really have a Valentines Day book. But… I do have a short list of requirements…
Has to be sweet
Has to pull at the heart strings
Has to have some sort of romantic element

Suggestions: Anne of Green Gables, Jane Eyre, Little Women, Pride and Prejudice… and dare I say it Stephenie Meyer's ‘Host’.



I also have Authors Jo Linsdell and Skye Hegyes here today to share their lists!


Jo Linsdell www.JoLinsdell.com

Susan Hatler writes great romance books. Her series have a nice mix of characters too so whatever your current relationship status you’ll probably find a character you can connect with in one of her books.




Skye Hegyes - www.skyehegyes.com

I don’t generally read a lot of lovey-dovey books on Valentine’s Day, but one I think I’ll be reading to my kids this year is Love Monster by Rachel Bright about a monster finding someone to love him. It just looks too adorable not to read.






So what about you? Do you have a favorite book to read on Valentines Day? Or perhaps you are still looking for that perfect Valentines book? What are YOUR requirements- Please do tell ;)

Thursday, February 8, 2018

A Book That Other People Love But You Haven't Read Yet

Hi fellow book lovers! Valentines day is coming up and "My Bookish Blog Hop" group on facebook is celebrating by doing a 'My Bookish Valentine' blog hop and you are all welcome to join!  Click here to join. 



Today for My Bookish Valentine Blog Hop I am sharing with you a guilty secret... GASP SHHHH!

Today I am sharing with you a few books that other people love but I haven't read yet:

Lets see...
  • I'd really like to read the Maze Runner books
  • Game of Thrones
  • Fifty shades of... (though the Harry Potter rendition I heard at comic con had me laughing so hard I doubt I could read them)

Hmm... I think those are the major ones. There are plenty of sci fi classics I'd love to find; Asimov, Heinlein among others. I've been reading mostly fan fiction in spurts between my electrical engineering classwork. I graduate in May though, hopefully I'll find more time to read then!

Do you have a particular book you would recommend that I read first? Leave your suggestion in the comments!

I also have Jo Linsdell and Skye Hegyes here with me today to share their lists:


Jo Linsdell www.JoLinsdell.com

There are so many books I could list here. Anything by V.E. Schwab and/or Maggie Stiefvater. I see so many book bloggers talking about books by these authors and I’ve yet to read anything by either of them. Another one I always see people getting excited over is The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer. I’ve been meaning to get round to reading those for a while now.


Skye Hegyes - www.skyehegyes.com

Dear gods, this is a long list. There’s a lot of books that many people seem to love that I haven’t gotten around to reading yet. I haven’t read anything by Brandon Sanderson yet, although I would love to. I also hear a lot of good things about Sarah J. Mass’ books, but have yet to read any myself. One of the books I’d like to pick up this year that I have heard good things about is Cinder by Marissa Meyer.


Do you have any books in your TBR pile (To Be Read) that you are embarrassed to say you haven't opened yet? Do tell!
Meanwhile, be sure to stop by tomorrow at Casia Schreyer's blog: 
 www.casiaschreyer.wordpress.com  where we will be talking about 
our favorite fictional couples!



Saturday, August 12, 2017

Best Plot Twist- Book Lovers Blog Hop


Tweet: What's our favorite plot twist?
We will share during today's entry in the Book Lover's Blog Hop! https://ctt.ec/2ARZ5+
Today's Book Lover's Blog Hop question for our group of authors is... What's the best plot twist you've ever read?

I LOVE plot twists... though I struggle to rank who's is the best. Anne (in Anne of Green Gables) starts off hating Gilbert Blithe and then by the end of the books she's married to him. This is also done in Pride and Prejudice. Jacob likes Bella who likes Edward is solved by the insinuation that Jacob only ever liked Bella because he was destined to imprint on their daughter born later in the story (Twilight Saga). "Luke, I am your father" (OK that one is a movie).

So what’s the best plot twist you’ve read?






Usually anything by Agatha Christie but I think the one that Got me the most was the one in Cat Amongst the Pigeons. I will not spoil it, but it is one of the least known Poirot stories and the first Agatha Christie I ever read.






Skye Hegyes www.skyehegyes.com
I can’t go into detail of the plot twist without revealing the ending of the book, but Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson. I was not expecting it, especially in a children’s book. It ripped out my heart and soul, dragged them around, and delivered them back to me broken and bruised, and it was absolutely brilliant.






Laurie Lucking www.landsuncharted.com

I’m going to have to go with a certain plot twist in White Dawn by Sara Baysinger. Her whole Black Tiger series has been full of amazing plot twists, but this one in particular (which I can’t go into because—spoilers!) just blew my mind. Seriously, I was sitting there on my couch in total shock. So crazy and brilliant!





Jebraun Clifford www.jebraunclifford.com

I’d have to say the plot twist in the thriller/mystery Gone Girl. I’d heard there were some unexpected occurrences. But. Wow. Did not expect that one!







Just B. Jordan www.JustBJordan.com 
There have been a lot of fantastic ones out there! The first that comes to my mind is in the Mistborn series. I had to sort through some emotions to come to terms with it! 









One of the first to come to mind is The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini which has lots of twists. Pretty much any book by Agatha Christie deserves a mention here too. 









What about you, dear reader? What is your favorite plot twist? Leave your suggestion in the comments below!



Book Lovers Blog Hop Schedule!

(Links are likely to not go live until the date of)

1st August   www.JoLinsdell.com
What are you reading this month? TBR list for August

What’s your favourite genre to read?

Where do you get your books?

Best read of 2017 so far?

Favourite author?

Favourite book cover design?


Preferred book format? (ebook, print, audio)

How do you organise your bookshelves ?

Favourite book to movie adaption?

Most evil villain?

What’s the best plot twist you’ve read?

13th August http://www.cjbrightley.com
Favourite fictional character?

14th August www.JustBJordan.com
Best fictional friendship?

15th August  www.saderena.com/blog
Best book series?

16th August http://www.angelaguidolinauthor.co.uk/blog
Most thought provoking book you’ve read?

17th August  www.tabithacaplinger.com
Top 3 books you think everyone should read

18th August www.skyehegyes.com 
Where do you post your reviews of books you’ve read?

19th August www.landsuncharted.com
What was the last book you gave a 5 star review?

20th August  kmcarrollblog.wordpress.com
Which book do you wish had a sequel?

21st August www.upstreamwriter.blogspot.com 
Which author would you most want to interview and why?

22nd August www.JoLinsdell.com  
How often do you go to the library?

23rd August www.belindabekkers.com
Goodreads challenge/reading goal for this year? On track so far?

24th August www.FabianSpace.com 
Do your family/friends support your reading habit?

25th August  http://theliteraryapothecary.blogspot.com 
Do you enter book giveaways? Last prize you won?

26th August  www.JustBJordan.com 
Name a book that made you cry

27th August  www.jebraunclifford.com 
Do you write as well as read? Do you see yourself being an author in the future?

28th August www.brandypotterbooks.com
When did you get into reading?

29th August www.skyehegyes.com 
What do you do to get out of a reading slump?

30th August www.brandypotterbooks.com
If a genie were to grant you 3 bookish wishes, what would you ask for and why? 

31st August  www.landsuncharted.com
Do you take part in readathons? Why? If yes, which are your favourites? 




Friday, August 11, 2017

Most Evil Villain- Book Lovers Blog Hop


Tweet: Who's voted the most evil villain? Book Bloggers Blog Hop shares our choices! https://ctt.ec/cXf3U+
Today and tomorrow I am participating in the Book Lovers Blog Hop. During this blog hop every host gets to ask a group of authors some reading related questions. Today I'll be asking six authors who they think is the most evil villain. There are links at the end of this post to the rest of the Blog Hop days as well!

It can be pretty hard to nail down just how evil a bad guy is. Most baddies have a reason for doing what they are doing, even in some twisted way. To me, the most evil bad guy is one who takes away the humanity of a person, stripping them of the right to choose, the right to be different. IT in A Wrinkle In Time comes close for me. IT does this by telepathically taking over the victim's mind and forcing them to conform. To top all this off, IT isn't so easy to defeat completely either! (I love Villains that never completely go away!)


The mind is a delicate and valuable thing. The mind is what makes you, well... you. I've seen first hand what damage to a mind can do. Stripping a once hopeful person of all their dreams, making them forget things they once knew, altering their personality so they are no longer who they once were. Villains that toy with their victims mind, manipulating and/or damaging them in any way will always win the Most Evil Victim award in my opinion.

 What do you ladies think?

Brandy Potter - www.brandypotterbooks.com
Defining the most evil villain is hard to do. I think for me it comes down to motivation. For example Moriarty to me isn’t evil, he is just motivated by using his wits to gain what he wants. Then you have Sauron and Voldemort who are absolutely evil, but are they the MOST evil. Perhaps. Voldemort though is a “children’s” evil which fails to portray depravity. Sauron’s evil is masked by the other villains in the story who are concentrated on more. Except for maybe in the Silmarillion, but that is like reading the begats section of the bible for me, so I couldn’t choose him. So I took the road of choosing the character that made my skin crawl and found that it was none other than Jack the Ripper. In Alex Grecian’s The Devil’s Workshop he is portrayed as “Saucy Jack” another name that Scotland Yard gave to the notorious serial killer. He has rules, yes but the way his mind works is chilling… chilling. Coming in a close second is Dr. Peter Teleborian in Stig Larsen’s The Girl that shook The Hornet's Nest. To explain his evil is difficult because I could give away the ending and some would argue Nils Bjurman, Martin Vanger or even Zalachenko were more evil. All of them were chilling, but what Teleborian did to Lisbeth is appalling.

Jo Linsdell www.JoLinsdell.com
There are so many evil villains out there who would easily merit the top spot, but I’m going to go with Ackerman from the Shepherd series by Ethan Cross. Father of Fear (the third book in the series) is when we see just how evil, and twisted this man really is. As far as serial killers go he is definitely at the top of the list with how much he enjoys torturing his victims. What makes him the most evil though is the experimenting he does on his own family. Ackerman Jr really didn’t have much of a chance with a father like that… and although he holds his own ranking in the evil villain list, he’s nothing compared to his father. 


Skye Hegyes www.skyehegyes.com
I think it’s safe to say that the most evil villain in the fictional world is someone everyone can hate with a passion that’s almost holy, and that’s Professor Dolores Umbridge. I mean, how can you not hate the evil little toad of a woman. She was specifically cruel to anyone who did not go along with her exact thoughts of how things should be done. Ugh! Monster!





Belinda Bekkers www.belindabekkers.com
I think Cruella del Vil from The Hundred and One Dalmations and Professor Moriarty from the Sherlock Holmes stories are pretty unbeatable. Pap in the Mosquito Coast is also evil.


Jebraun Clifford www.jebraunclifford.com
Villains should be complicated and three-dimensional. They can’t just be bad because they’re bad. They’ve got to have a good motivation for what they do! To me, a terrible and chilling villain is the Queen in the Hall from Elizabeth Marie Pope’s The Perilous Gard because she doesn’t believe she is evil, she’s only doing what she must to keep her and her faerie folks’ way of life secure. There’s no reasoning with an antagonist like that! 



Just B. Jordan www.JustBJordan.com 
When I hear “most evil villain” my mind instantly goes to Sephiroth from Final Fantasy. (I know, they’re games, not books. Haha) In my childhood Sephiroth was the baddest bad guy out there. My brothers and I would have conversations about how cruelly evil he could be. I think in my mind he will always hold the Most Evil trophy. ;)







I have to go with One from Hexwood by Diana Wynne Jones. He’s this head of the galactic council who has extended his lifespan with various treatments to make sure he never has to pass his rule to anyone else. And he’s ruthlessly destroyed the descendents of the true reigning house, turning them into slaves and worse. No blood is shown, of course, but it’s very implied. I think the implications are so horrible because your mind gets to fill them in. The things he did to one of the heroes … I just shudder, even now. And he does it with a smile and completely friendly logic.


How about you, dear readers? Do you have a Villain that you love to hate? Leave a comment for all of us in the comments section below!



Book Lovers Blog Hop Schedule!

(Links are likely to not go live until the date of)

1st August   www.JoLinsdell.com
What are you reading this month? TBR list for August

What’s your favourite genre to read?

Where do you get your books?

Best read of 2017 so far?

Favourite author?

Favourite book cover design?


Preferred book format? (ebook, print, audio)

How do you organise your bookshelves ?

Favourite book to movie adaption?

Most evil villain?

What’s the best plot twist you’ve read?

13th August http://www.cjbrightley.com
Favourite fictional character?

14th August www.JustBJordan.com
Best fictional friendship?

15th August  www.saderena.com/blog
Best book series?

16th August http://www.angelaguidolinauthor.co.uk/blog
Most thought provoking book you’ve read?

17th August  www.tabithacaplinger.com
Top 3 books you think everyone should read

18th August www.skyehegyes.com 
Where do you post your reviews of books you’ve read?

19th August www.landsuncharted.com
What was the last book you gave a 5 star review?

20th August  kmcarrollblog.wordpress.com
Which book do you wish had a sequel?

21st August www.upstreamwriter.blogspot.com 
Which author would you most want to interview and why?

22nd August www.JoLinsdell.com  
How often do you go to the library?

23rd August www.belindabekkers.com
Goodreads challenge/reading goal for this year? On track so far?

24th August www.FabianSpace.com 
Do your family/friends support your reading habit?

25th August  http://theliteraryapothecary.blogspot.com 
Do you enter book giveaways? Last prize you won?

26th August  www.JustBJordan.com 
Name a book that made you cry

27th August  www.jebraunclifford.com 
Do you write as well as read? Do you see yourself being an author in the future?

28th August www.brandypotterbooks.com
When did you get into reading?

29th August www.skyehegyes.com 
What do you do to get out of a reading slump?

30th August www.brandypotterbooks.com
If a genie were to grant you 3 bookish wishes, what would you ask for and why? 

31st August  www.landsuncharted.com
Do you take part in readathons? Why? If yes, which are your favourites? 






Friday, August 7, 2015

So Apparently Its My Fault

Hearts Over Mind – It’s Virginia’s Fault!
By: Karina Fabian


I have a lot to thank Virginia for, and not just for hosting me today on the Mind Over All tour. It’s her fault that this trilogy actually ends with a fourth book, a novella called Hearts Over Mind, which is available free with the purchase of the Mind Over trilogy.

Mind over all trilogy!

The Mind Over Trilogy follows Deryl Stephens, a human psychic whose powers drive him insane. With the help of an intern, Joshua, he learns to control his abilities. Eventually, he recognizes the alien minds that are trying to manipulate him and breaks free of their influence. He travels to their world, falls in love with one, heals and befriends the other, and eventually saves both their worlds. Through it all, Joshua is there to guide him, advise him, and slap some sense into him as needed. They become great friends.

Joshua has his own strong storyline as he falls in love with a nurse at the asylum where he helped Deryl. He and Sachiko have a rocky relationship because of their careers and the secret she kept hidden from him for too long. In Mind Over All, Deryl is horrified to return to Earth to find them in the middle of a fight that might end their relationship. He’s had a premonition that they must be together and help him save his new homeworld or else he will fail. He recruits Joshua, hijacks Sachiko, and on Kanaan, the two are able to heal their relationship. They finally set a date for the wedding – just in time to save the world.

Virginia is not only a good friend, but also likes my books and proofs them for me. When I gave her Mind Over All, she wrote back how disappointed she was that she didn’t get to see the wedding. In truth, I had too many loose ends to wrap up that I could not fit in a wedding scene. I had long had a great idea for a disastrous bachelor party for poor Joshua, but had been content to just imagine it and giggle now and again.

Thanks to her encouragement, I decided to write a short story about the days leading up to the wedding and the wedding itself. It would start with an argument, include the failed bachelor party where Josh falls off a boat, and end with a happily-ever-after wedding and a kiss to rival Princess Bride. However, when it would not work from Joshua’s POV, another friend suggested I try it from the POV of the bride. After all, it was her big day, too. Soon that led to a deeper exploration of the issues they’d faced, her own insecurities, and a whole lot of fun as she deals with everything from a half-drowned fiancé to a wedding kimono that’s psych-ward pink. The short story became a novella, and my publisher was only too happy to produce it.

So thanks, Virginia, for making me do more than daydream about a funny scene.


My response: To let you all in on a bit of the background to this article... I signed up to help Karina with her book tour and asked her for a guest post. I had no idea that I would open this in my e-mail box when she sent her files. I was surprised! Ha-Ha! You are more than welcome Karina, I am thrilled and honored to have inspired you to continue with the story! I can't wait to read it!

Karina is right- I have read her books. I have been entertained by and loved every single one of them! I encourage every one of you to go out and get a copy of all of them! They are fun, family friendly, and an over all sci-fi roaring good time! You WON'T regret it!



Karina Fabian headshot Aug 2013Karina Fabian

By day, Karina is a mild-mannered reviewer of business software and services for TopTenReviews.com. After hours, she’s a psychic intent on saving the world; a snarky dragon who thinks he saves the world all-too regularly, a zombie exterminator who just wants her world clear of undead vermin, and nuns whose callings have taken them off our world. Needless to say, her imagination is vast, her stories legion, and her brain crowded. When she’s not converting her wild tales to stories, she’s enjoying time with her husband, Rob, their four kids, and their two dogs.    





Find Karina at:

Thursday, June 18, 2015

What Lies Behind Snippit




Excerpt from What Lies Behind

Cass let her eyes wander over the fields and farms they were flying over. The air was clearer here, away from the city. Up ahead, through the bug splattered glass of the windshield, she could see a wall of white billowing up into the sky.

“What’s that?” Cass asked.

“Don’t you know?” Brandon smiled over at her. “Doesn’t your programming show you that?”

“I’m a home unit,” Cass reminded him. “Enlighten me.”

He chuckled. “That’s a cloud whitening facility,” he told her. “Back a couple decades ago, when global warming was becoming a big issue they started this kind of ecological engineering where they could change how bright or dark clouds were to help either cool the planet or warm it.”

“Strange,” Cass said. She looked around at the green fields and the towering trees off to the left of the hover car. “So, what, things were deader?”

Brandon shrugged. “More pollution I guess. I’m not really sure. I haven’t looked too much into it. I just know that this is one of the ways they’ve corrected the issue.”

They were flying closer to the mass of white clouds drifting up from giant smoke stacks and into the sky. “We’re by the ocean,” Cass said.

“Yea, that’s where they work on the clouds,” Brandon said, pointing with one hand over the ocean so she could see the clouds drifting on the wind out to sea. He pulled back on the steering wheel and they began to slow and drop to the ground.

The car alighted in a green field. The wind blew the hay like ocean waves around the car. He turned the vehicle off and stepped out. Cass could hear the wind outside rushing over the tops of the tall grass in fits and starts as if a great inhalation and exhalation of breath. Cass didn’t wait for him to help her out this time. She opened her own door and followed him out into the warm afternoon.

Brandon took a deep breath and let it out in a sigh. “Makes you wonder what the air was like before they started purifying it.”

Cass looked at him. She couldn’t smell what he was smelling. She could tell the quality of the air thanks to her visual overlay but she had nothing to compare it too. Cass didn’t know what the air used to be like, so she took his word for it.

“It’s so quiet here,” she commented, leaning against the hood of the hover car. “You’d expect there to be a lot of noise from those stacks, but it’s just silent.”

“Very peaceful,” Brandon said.

It was a sight that Cass could live in forever.

“So what about this android thing?” Brandon asked, turning to her.

Cass sighed. The thought made her nervous. She looked behind her as if someone might be there to hear them, be there to hear her talking about going against her owner.

“I don’t see how it’s possible,” Cass said. “I’m someone’s property, and that someone isn’t likely to give me up.”

“Right,” he said and sighed. “I want to show you something tomorrow. Natalia is working late tomorrow so we have time to sneak you out without her knowing it.”

“What is it?” Cass asked, her curiosity piqued.

“You’ll see tomorrow.” Brandon smiled and pushed away from the car. Cass turned to the passenger side door to get in. “Now, how about you take us home?” he asked.

“Me?” Cass pointed to herself. “I don’t have a license, and I’ve never flown before.” Her hand was starting to shake again.

“Yes, you, and I will be right there with you, showing you the ropes. Don’t worry about it, you can do this I’m sure. And how do you know you’ve never flown before? You don’t remember your life before coming to Natalia’s. There could be all kinds of things you’ve done that are secret to you.”

Cass looked to the clouds billowing out of the smoke stacks. “Maybe. Someday they might start coming back.”

“If Natalia keeps knocking you around they might,” Brandon said. There wasn’t any humor in his voice. “Come on, let’s get you home. Or rather, let’s have you fly us home.”

Brandon rounded the end of the vehicle and steered Cass toward the driver side with his hands firmly on her shoulders. “Alright, I can’t make you sit in the seat, so you’ll have to do that on your own,” he told her.

Her stomach in turmoil, so to speak, Cass slipped in behind the wheel. Brandon closed the door, sealing her inside.

He adjusted himself in the passenger seat and closed the door. Cass thought she flinched at the noise, as if it were a tomb sealing her fate.

“Alright, seatbelt,” he told her, buckling his own.

“Afraid I’m going to get injured?” Cass shot a smile at him, despite the nervousness she felt.

“No, I’m afraid that a cop might see that you don’t have your seatbelt on and pull us over, and then he will find out that you aren’t a human with a license, and I’m being an irresponsible adult. And then there is the robot graveyard for you, and I will have my home taken away and I will be put in prison where I will become the girlfriend of a very beefy man named Javier.”

“All that, huh?” Cass looked at him sidelong. She buckled her belt.

“Well, I’m not sure if my prison boyfriend will be Javier or Bruce. I think if I was going to be the man bitch for a prisoner I would like the name Bruce more.”

Cass smiled. “I hope he treats you right.”

“Oh yea, Bruce is a generous lover,” Brandon said.

“Lucky you. Sounds like you might enjoy prison,” Cass said.

Brandon smiled and shrugged. “If it takes a little man love to teach you to fly, I will take my lumps. Alright, start the car,” he told her, clapping his hands together.

Cass knew she’d flown before because the moment he told her to start the car, she entered the correct button sequence on the steering wheel. The hover car rumbled to life.

“Look at that,” he said. “I bet you were a captain in your past robotic life. Let’s see what else you remember. Take us home, Cass.”

Cass pushed down on the steering wheel as she’d seen Brandon do, but the way she pushed down on it, how she eased into the launch sequence was too familiar. The car shivered a couple times, but the engines engaged. The grass rippled away from their hover ports and the car listed up into the air.

“Not as gentle as the fake clouds, but pretty good,” Brandon told her.

Cass saw the green dotted path on her visual overlay that pointed the direction home. She flipped the lever up beside the steering column, and the hover car pushed forward.

“Wow, I don’t have to teach you anything,” Brandon said. “Maybe I will take a nap.”

“I’d rather you tell me what this surprise is tomorrow,” she said.

“I’m going to take you to meet Bruce,” Brandon told her.

“Oh, perfect, I’d love to meet him. Is he as beefy as you enjoy your prisoners?”

“Nah, Bruce is thinner, not so muscular. Javier can’t figure out why I prefer Bruce over him. He calls Bruce a wannabe man,” Brandon shrugged.

“Poor Bruce,” Cass said. “I hope you make it up to him.”

“Yea, I make him feel like a man,” Brandon said.

“So either you’re really nice, or you aren’t very masculine,” Cass joked.

Brandon laughed. “Is it that obvious?” he asked.

“You seem like the type,” Cass told him. “Slender hips. Small hands.”

“Seems like you’ve been getting pretty familiar with my physique while I wasn’t looking.”

The whirring in her stomach kicked up another notch and her hand jerked. The car shuddered to the side and Brandon laughed at her, placing his hand on the wheel to steady the car.

“Bruce told me,” Cass said.

“Well, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but you certainly aren’t taking us to Natalia’s,” Brandon said. “Where are you taking me? Out in the forest to kill me? You going to introduce me to your secret tribe of robots that are aiming to take over the world?”

“I didn’t know you were a conservative,” Cass told him as she frowned. “And I’m taking us home. The green dot points toward home, and I’m following that.”

“Well, I wouldn’t want to argue with your green dots, but this isn’t going home,” Brandon chuckled.

Three green dotted path was starting to get lighter and steadier. They were almost there. Cass eased down on the lever, slowing the car to a halt. She pulled back on the steering column and the car drifted down easily onto an old, cracked driveway.

“Where is this?” Brandon asked sitting up straighter. His eyebrows furrowed in concentration. “I recognize the neighborhood, but I don’t know this place.”

Cass shook her head. “I’m not sure,” she told him.

It used to be a house, that much was certain, before it had burned. Whoever had lived here hadn’t bothered to rebuild. The two-car garage was mostly unscathed, but the house was blackened and crumbled all around the foundation.

Cass unbuckled her belt and pushed open the door. When she stepped out into the open air, it was almost as if she could hear the screams all over again.

“Cass! Save me!”

Cass looked around. “What was that?” she asked.

“I didn’t say anything,” Brandon said. All traces of his mirth were gone. He was looking at her funny again, almost like he did in the doctor’s office.

Her hand began to shake.

“I remember this place,” she said, taking a step forward, but her knees were weak and she had to lean against the car for support. “From before.” Her voice was dull, distant.

“Cass, are you okay?” Brandon asked. His voice was distant too, almost as if she were hearing him through a tunnel. He raced around the front of the car as the air around her darkened. Shadows were settling at the edges of her vision. Cass was lost to darkness before she fell into Brandon’s arms.

About Travis Simmons
Travis Simmons was kicked out of magic school for his refusal to study and his penchant for mundane activities like cooking. While selling his sword he stumbled upon dogs that he wrongly thought were magical and imagined he could commune with them. After a vicious zombie attack in which witches helped him push back the undead horde, Travis found himself apprenticed to a necromancer.


Afraid that winter was coming, Travis tucked into his magical studies, but always chased his dreams of writing tales science fiction tales and fantasy stories where he could explore his wild imagination about life on other planets. Adamant that Travis learn the esoteric ways of the occult his master made his life a horror of practice and studies. But no matter how he tried, he could never conquer Travis' questing mind.

Website/blog: http://travissimmons.net/
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/What-Lies-Behind-Science-Fiction-ebook/dp/B00ZO50OM0
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