'He Found Me' by Whitney Barnetti Release Day Blitz!

He Found Me

By- Whitney Barbetti

Publication Date- May 29, 2014

When I was seventeen, I disappeared. I walked out the door of my apartment with a backpack and never looked back. I left the life of Cora Mitchell behind, seeking freedom from my real-life nightmare.

But my freedom came with a cost. I lived a fictitious life for the next six years, never letting anyone close enough to see underneath the façade that was Andra Walker.

I was content with my simple little life.

Until I met Julian.

And the moment I started allowing myself to open up, allowing someone to see through the superficial, was the very same moment the Monster from my past would return to find me.

    

'Moccasin Trace' by Hawk MacKinney Book Blitz

Moccasin Trace

By- Hawk MacKinney

Genre- Historical Romance

Published By- ArcheBooks Publishing

Publication Date- March 2014

… it was about the land…a tale of love and loss and hope…

Hamilton Ingram looked out across the fertile Georgia bottomlands that were Moccasin Hollows, seeing holdings it had taken generations of Ingrams to build.  No drop of slave sweat ever shed in its creation.  It was about the land…his trust, his duty to preserve it for the generation of Ingrams to come…

It is July of 1859, a month of sweltering dog days and feverish emotional bombast.  Life is good for widower Rundell Ingram and his Hazel-eyed, roan-haired son, Hamilton.  Between the two of them, they take care of Moccasin Hollows, their rustic dogtrot ancestral home, a sprawling non-slave plantation in the rolling farming country outside Queensborough Towne in east Georgia.  Adjoining Ingram lands is Wisteria Bend, the vast slave-holding plantation of Andrew and Corinthia Greer, their daughter Sarah, and son Benjamin.

Both families share generations of long-accepted traditions, and childhood playmates are no longer children.  The rangy, even-tempered Norman-Scottish young Hamilton is smitten with Sarah, who has become an enticing capricious beauty—the young lovers more in love with each passing day, and only pleasant times ahead of them.

But a blood tide of war is sweeping across the South, a tide that might be impossible to stand before.

   

'The Coach's Wife' by Barbara Casey

The Coach’s Wife

By- Barbara Casey

Genre- Mystery/Suspense

Publication Date- March 2014

Published By- Archebooks Publishing

Another deafening roar exploded from the coliseum, and when it did Marla threw down her partially smoked cigarette and ground it into the polished tile floor with the toe of her shoe.  Quickly she reached for another cigarette from the opened pack in her small red handbag.  She lit it, sucked the smoke into her mouth, held her breath, coughed, and then slowly released it.  Marla didn't smoke, but when she paced up and down the hallways of basketball coliseums, puffing on cigarettes seemed appropriate.  It gave her something to do with her hands, and it helped keep her sane. 

Marla Connors, recently married to head basketball coach Neal Connors, travels with her husband to Albuquerque, New Mexico, where the Piedmont State University Coyote team is playing in the NCAA Finals.  Marla has not been accepted by the Coyotes, that loyal bunch of fans who follows the university team, partly because she is almost twenty years younger than Coach Connors and a divorcée, but also because the fans are afraid she will distract her husband from his duties as head coach.  They see her as someone who married Coach Connors just for his money.  Only Gale, the older wife of assistant coach Stu Simmons, goes out of her way to be a friend to Marla.

The Coyote team is plagued with problems from the very beginning of the season, and when they finally manage to reach the NCAA Finals, it's even worse.  Their center is caught using drugs, Athletics Director Charlie Morgan, who is also in Albuquerque for the games, makes a pass at Marla in her hotel room, and Coach Connors comes down with the flu.  No one believes that State can win the big game.

 With so much happening, Marla can't shake the feeling that something evil is taking over her life.  She tries to convince herself that it is emotional anxiety left over from the abuse she experienced during her first marriage to Dr. Martin Andrews and that the stress from the tournament has brought it once again to the surface.  She soon learns, however, that the evil is real and it threatens not only everything she loves, but her very life.

Illegal drugs, illicit affairs, murder, and scandal that shakes the entire university system are woven inextricably into Marla’s life until eventually she comes face to face with her real tormentor.  It is only then that she realizes the full depth of her love for her husband--and his love for her.

   

'Possess My Soul' by J.A. Howell Release Blast!

Possess My Soul

Possess Saga # 5

By- J.A. Howell

Publication Date- May 15th, 2014

“Being half-fae I had the ability to sense others' impending deaths. Anomalies. Deaths that didn't have to happen. Sometimes, if I had enough time to get to them, I could stop their deaths. But I never imagined I'd see my own.”

With only a week to go before she gives birth to her daughter Emma, Harley Faye Finley chooses to make the ultimate sacrifice. Trade her life for that of her daughter’s. When the time comes, she’s ready for the inevitable.

But something goes wrong. 

Harley survives.

But someone…or something else is in there with her.

As this unknown, malevolent force fights for control, Harley finds herself a prisoner in her own body, and those she loves are now in mortal danger. Will she, Nolan, or anybody else be able to stop it before it’s too late?

Or will the Harley they know and love be lost to them forever?

 

'Love on Loch Ness' by Aubrie Dionne

Love on Loch Ness

By- Aubrie Dionne

Genre- Paranormal Romance 

Dr. Gail Phillips steps onto the shores of Loch Ness to disprove the Loch Ness monster theory for good so everyone can stop wasting their time. As a marine biologist with a background in archeology, she’s convinced all of the world’s myths such as Big Foot, the Tasmanian devil, and even Nessie are lies. Her father disappeared while following Yettie tracks in the Alps, and she doesn’t want to lose another mislead soul. 

Flynn Maloney comes from a family of fanatic cryptozoologists. As a native of Scotland, he believes in Nessie as strong as Gail believes in science. Despite his initial attraction for her, he’s joined her research team to prove her wrong. He wants to find Nessie for a special girl in his life, to show her dreams really can come true. 

As they conduct sonar studies and sweeps of the lake, their differing opinions are at odds with their budding attraction. Gail doesn’t believe in anything unscientific, such as romance, thinking the charming Flynn Maloney is full of baloney. Flynn can’t believe he’s falling for someone with no imagination or faith. To make matters worse, their videographer is covering his true identity. Together they must unravel his plan before he destroys everything they are working for. Will Gail force Flynn to question his faith, or will she discover more than she bargained for in the Scottish highlands?

 

  

 

Publisher

Cover Reveal! 'Hunted (LeKrista Scott, Vampire Hunted Series #2)' by Tyffani Clark Kemp

Hunted

LeKrista Scott, Vampire Hunted Series # 2

By- Tyffani Clark Kemp

Expected Publication Date- April 16th, 2014

Genre- Paranormal/Vampires

LeKrista Scott survived three separate vampire attacks, almost drowned, and turned down her boyfriend's proposal. What else could possibly go wrong?

Apparently, if it's not one thing, it's another. Lizette, a brand new vampire with a grudge, blames LeKrista for being turned into a monster. In retaliation, she decides to go straight for the throat, so to speak, and attack LK's ailing mother at her rest home. LeKrista enlists the help of her "Vampire liason" Roman, but it could never be that easy. Not for her.

A daywalker, a born vampire who can walk in the sun, has been hired by the head of the Vampire Counsel to collect LeKrista and the debt she owes him. As payment, her great great aunt is taken. Once again, the Mages refuse to help, so what is a girl to do, but rescue her family herself?

With her back against the wall, LeKrista will rise up stronger and teach the preternatural world to fear the Vampire Hunted.

'Summoned' by Rainy Kaye Release Day Blitz!

Summoned

By- Rainy Kaye

Publication Date- March 28th, 2014

Genre-New Adult Paranormal

Twenty-three year old Dimitri has to do what he is told—literally. Controlled by a paranormal bond, he is forced to use his wits to fulfill unlimited deadly wishes made by multimillionaire Karl Walker.

Dimitri has no idea how his family line became trapped in the genie bond. He just knows resisting has never ended well. When he meets Syd—assertive, sexy, intelligent Syd—he becomes determined to make her his own. Except Karl has ensured Dimitri can't tell anyone about the bond, and Syd isn't the type to tolerate secrets.

Then Karl starts sending him away on back-to-back wishes. Unable to balance love and lies, Dimitri sets out to uncover Karl's ultimate plan and put it to an end. But doing so forces him to confront the one wish he never saw coming—the wish that will destroy him.

Summoned is represented by Rossano Trentin of TZLA.

 

Available on Amazon

Review of 'The Pendulum Files' by p.m. terrell

Book Info-

Title- The Pendulum Files
Series- Black Swamp Mysteries # 5 (Can be read out of order)
By- P.M. Terrell
Genre- Romantic Suspense
Publication Date- March 17th, 2014

Blurb-

Irishman and CIA operative Dylan Maguire joins psychic spy Vicki Boyd for another harrowing adventure, this time on the high seas. Merchant ships en route from China to the United States are being bombed, plunging America into critical shortages. It's Dylan's and Vicki's jobs to find out who is bombing them and why. Their mission takes them into Black Sites, covert activities and international politics. And while the romantic side of Dylan ramps up his relationship with Vicki, they find themselves in the crosshairs of a hired assassin, which not only places their lives in danger but also that of their unborn child.

Read an excerpt:

Brenda jerked the door open as the shot rang out. She felt something sharp and hot against her shin as she kicked herself away from the car. She tumbled onto the pavement before hitting the shoulder, the gravel feeling like a million razors slicing through her flesh. She heard her own voice as if it was disembodied, screaming as she forced herself to roll across the sharp gravel before plummeting down the incline, compelling herself to continue rolling even as she realized she’d been shot in the leg.

She heard the car’s brakes slamming, the tires squealing as the man struggled to bring the car to a stop. At seventy miles an hour, it should have taken the car further from her even as she rushed to escape. But when she came to her feet and looked back at the road, she estimated he was about three hundred feet further down the road—not far enough.

She ran toward the tree line, which now appeared too far away. As a second shot rang out, she knew his sights were set on her back, and she struggled to run straight, fighting the impulse to run opposite of him. It kept her profile smaller but when he shot a third and then fourth time, she could almost feel the bullets whizzing past her.

The third and fourth shots sounded increasingly louder and she knew he was running after her. Her breath was loud and labored, her blood pounding in her temples. Even as she drew closer to the shadows of the trees, she could feel herself slowing down. The adrenaline that propelled her down the slope and to her feet was fighting against the pain in her leg.

She could feel the blood oozing down her shin and pooling in her shoe, causing her to slip and slide along grass already slick with dew. Another shot rang out, whizzing so close to her hair that she thought it had passed through it.

She threw herself into the shadows, pushing herself beyond her leg’s endurance to keep going, to get into the pine forest, weaving and bobbing forward and eastward, away from the car, away from the interstate. Hopefully, away from him.

She wanted to stop; she wanted to pull some article of clothing off herself and wrap it around her shin to keep the blood in, to keep the flesh together, but she didn’t dare hesitate. She heard the branches cracking behind her; he was there and he was closing on her. Even as she propelled herself forward, she knew all he had to do was follow the movement of the branches ahead of him to know exactly where she was.

**My thoughts**

The Pendulum Files is another action-packed thriller from the Black Swamp Mysteries by p.m. terrell. While it is the fifth book in the series, enough hints about the past four books are sprinkled throughout the book to keep you up to speed. Also, the characters are constantly learning new things about themselves and each other, so they keep evolving. You don't need to read the first four books before this one to understand it, but you will enjoy them if you like this one.

Dylan and Vicki are definitely at a new point in their relationship, with the baby on the way. I have to admit that Dylan was annoying me at times with his constant over-attention to Vicki and her needs with the baby. I kept yelling at him to back off a little bit! Yes, she has some worrisome episodes and it's good to be involved, but give her a bit of a break! At the same time, it's kind of cute how paternal and worried he has quickly become.

Vicki continues to put together more pieces of herself. Her psychic abilities continue to be very interesting to watch. Brenda is still naughty and needs an eye on her at all times. The sisters are an interesting combination, as they are so different.

International trade and terrorism is at the heart of this book, with a presidential election on the line and political debates that ring true. Another fun read.

Buy links

Amazon * Barnes & Noble * Smashwords

About the Author-

p.m.terrell is the internationally acclaimed, award-winning author of more than 18 books, including Vicki's Key, a 2012 International Book Awards and 2012 USA Best Book Awards finalist and River Passage, winner of the 2010 Best Drama Award. A full-time writer since 2002, p.m. previously founded and operated two computer companies with a specialty in computer crime and computer intelligence. Her clients included the CIA, United States Secret Service and the Department of Defense as well as local law enforcement agencies. Her expertise in computers and intelligence often finds its way into her books. She is also the co-founder of The Book 'Em Foundation and founder and chair of The Book 'Em North Carolina Writers Conference and Book Fair, which raises money to increase literacy rates. As a hobby, she raises freshwater angelfish - the same thing her characters do as their front for the CIA. For more information about p.m.terrell, visit www.pmterrell.com and for more information on the upcoming Writers Conference, visit www.bookemnc.org.

Links-

Facebook- https://www.facebook.com/pages/pmterrell/129318810431554

Twitter- https://twitter.com/pmterrell

Website- http://www.pmterrell.com/

Blog- www.pmterrell.blogspot.com/

www.pmterrell.com/maryneely

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Review of Lindy Zart's Incomplete Series

Book Info-Incomplete
By- Lindy Zart
Publication Date-September 6th, 2013

Blurb-

There are three absolute truths in Grayson Lee’s life:

1. His existence was a mistake.

2. No one is good enough for his best friend, Lily Jacobs, especially not him.

3. He loves her anyway.



**My thoughts**

This book, told from Grayson's point-of-view, really tugs at your heartstrings. He is completely damaged goods. His family life is a disaster: an alcoholic mother who doesn't want him, a father who can't seem to pull his head out of the sand long enough to help, and a younger brother who is dependent on him for love and proper guidance. Thank God he has his best friend, Lily. The two of them have been inseparable since they were little. It's only natural that bond turns into something more. Grayson takes it to a new level of intensity, which fits his brooding artist persona. He desperately wants to be good enough for her, fears he isn't, yet can't function without her. They complement each other well, yet at the same time are standing in each other's way.

It's a fiery relationship that doesn't require a lot of sex scenes to demonstrate its combustibility. 
Zart captures Grayson's vulnerability, intensity, and passion in such a way that you can feel what he is feeling. Their story is beautiful, yet frustrating. You will be happy to have the second book readily available now, so that you can watch it come to its conclusion.

Buy links

Amazon * Smashwords

Book Info- Complete
Series- Incomplete # 2
By- Lindy Zart
Publication Date- March 15, 2014 
Genre- New Adult Romance

Blurb-

If the truth sets one free, why does Lily Jacobs feel so trapped?

She's learned doing the right thing isn't always best and now she is living the consequences of her greatest sacrifice. Every day since Grayson Lee left is one she wishes he hadn't. Years have gone by since their friendship turned to more and then was eradicated by Lily alone; enough time for their young love to fade. Only it hasn't, not for Lily.

Now he is back and seeing him is devastating to her at the same time it is rapture. She tries to accept that they cannot be together, but everything inside her shouts that they should be; that they only fit with each other. And so she has to accept the greatest truth of all: She loves him still. She loves him enough not to let him go this time.

**My thoughts**

This time, we get to hear from Lily's point-of-view. She has been just as devastated as Grayson always was, only she doesn't quite share in his level of intensity. It makes sense, because she isn't the brooding artist-type of girl. She is the one who had the strength to try to walk away and has been trudging through her daily life, while he has gone on to achieve his other greatest dream. But now it is time for her to follow her dreams.

When Grayson comes back to town, they find that the magnetic pull hasn't lessened, but are still in a lot of pain, both together and apart. Your heartstrings will continue to be tugged as you watch the two of them try to sort out everything, to find their everlasting happiness.

Buy links

Amazon * Smashwords * Barnes & Noble

About the Author-

Lindy Zart has been writing since she was a child. Luckily for readers, her writing has improved since then. She lives in Wisconsin with her husband, two sons, and one cat. Lindy loves hearing from people who enjoy her work.

Links-

Twitter- https://twitter.com/lindyzart
Facebook- https://www.facebook.com/lindyzart
Goodreads- http://www.goodreads.com/lindyzart
Amazon Author Page- http://www.amazon.com/author/lindyzart
Blog- http://lindyzartauthor.blogspot.com
Smashwords Author Page-https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/lindyzart

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Meet Aedan Byrnes, author of 'Through the Oracle's Mist'

What was the inspiration behind this book?

This started as a filler story I was working on for a character that I portray for another author in role-play. As it grew, it just got too big and too different from the original work to fit anymore. It also began to spin off fillers of its own to the storyline and that’s when it had to become something else.

What kind of research did you have to do?

Research for me is a lazy afternoon reading. I am a history fan so I basically got to sit down and visit some of my favorite times and places and then search out others that would fill the timeline of the story.

Which character spoke to you the most?

The Oracle. There is something about the aloof but sketchy Pythian Scrolls and the inferences into the tale that appeal to me. I knew the Delphic Oracle piece from early on, but I did not actually feel out the idea of using the scrolls and the prophecies to move the tale until after it was nearly complete. It gave me a whole new perspective for the story arc.

What was one of your favorite scenes?

Tynan on the rocks by the pool just outside Loulan is a favorite. That scene was painful to write but just flowed out, and thus I knew I was conveying the emotionality of the moment correctly. When a scene knifes me through the gut, I know I have it right…so few scenes do that to me the first crack out.

This is the first book in the series. How many more do you anticipate? Do you have any kind of timeline?

Originally, when Drake asked me about the series, I knew three stories. They read the manuscript and came back counter-proposing, saying that they could see eight to eleven books based on what I have in Oracle. As the three stories I knew have morphed, I would guess that the series will morph too and end up between three and eleven. (lol) The release timelines are fluid at this point. Originally the books were to come out one a year, about twelve months apart…the timeline for the second book has already moved up, so I am going to speculate that the others will as well.

May we have a preview of what is to come?

Warrior’s Watchtower, Vengelys Book II is coming out later this year:

Tynan

The long moments when no one speaks are my undoing. Cyrenna calls to me then. She is everywhere I look, but nowhere I can see. Through the floors, from the world beyond the lone window, through the spot in the wall that should be a door, she beckons me to leave this place and come to her. I cannot.

Would that I could, I would tear down this tower to reach her, to be with her, to claim her as my own once and for all. The thought alone of her in my arms at long last is a balm to my soul and a warm blanket to hide in away from the centuries of madness and self-loathing at the thoughts of what I failed to see for so long. Her siren song calls. It elicits no judgment, no condemnation…just longing. I want to answer her. I want to bray my frustration so that all who inhabit the Aradian lands far below would know the pain and sorrow I bear for the loss. That too has been taken from me.

She is everywhere. She is nowhere. I want to see her, but I fight not to see her. I cannot say which is worse; the long hours wishing with my eyes open that she will be before me, or the endless hours of dreaming where she is fully present but only as we once were through the portal where I see her demise over and over again.

Her words to me from the ring of stones in the stand behind the church that last lifetime beyond this plane lull me to sleep only to draw me once again to places I wish we had never been. Her words are a sensual brush against the frayed parts of me until the nightmares wipe away her gentle touch and replace them with razor-wire against my still ravaged nerves. Her memory, however painful, I cannot shake and will not ignore, even knowing it is once again the precipice to the abyss of a new torment from the past.

To the deepest recesses of my mind she pulls me to follow her. In some ways this recurring nightmare is a fitting penance as I feel like it is her and I so long ago in a tent in the sands. This time however, we have traded places. I am the one tethered to do her bidding. I am the one brought for her inspection. I am the one proffered for her satisfaction, her pleasure, her wrath, or her dismissal.

The scene that taunts me is true to the history that cannot change, though opposite. I am the one who is afraid. I am the one who is running, and I am the one who hits the wall.

~~~~~

Cyrenna

The ceremony begins like everything here, with chimes. They are complex and lulling but ominous too. So many stand in place waiting for their turn to return from whence we came and begin anew. One by one I watch them fall as I wait for my turn.

The words of the Oracle play through my mind once again and I cannot help but question, deny, and grieve. He chose. He came. Yet, here I stand and wait for this time to end.

~~~~~

Jondre

After so many ages by her side, I know her better than anyone I think. Her façade is just that. She wears the blank mask of disinterest and calm to hide the storm that rages beneath the placid face she shows us all.

The whispered word is that the attack was brutal, more so than others and that he was alone when they came. No one knows or has said where the other brothers were, they usually fought together. He made his stand and makes this journey now, alone. Word is also, that he is dead. Proper committal is required and dictates any opportunity to return to another existence beyond this one, so we wait for the arrival.

They are bringing the body here. I do not wish to see it. Evidence of the Eupion bloodlust is not required for me for this. I am able to know without seeing. The choice however is not mine to make and so I sit with her and wait for him to be brought in.

What happens now is anyone’s guess.

Do you have any other published works?

I have written for years under different pseudonyms, and while much of that work is still out…as Aedan, this is the first.

Are you currently working on any other projects, outside of this series?

I am always building ideas and working on something…actually compiling another work to a place that it would be publishable or ready for the public? No, not at this time.

You love to travel and to spend time outside. What are some of your favorite destinations?

That’s a huge question. I have tried very hard in recent years to realign my life to a stance of ‘anywhere I am is my favorite’…which is code for ‘I’m appreciating each moment as I get to have it’. I enjoy the unsullied paths and the out of the way places that still show beauty as it became without the interference of man…whether that’s the view from the mountain top, the pristine unattended beach, the deep cave, or some days…just the back yard with the birds fighting at the feeder.

How do your adventures contribute to your writing?

I think that learning to appreciate the details has made me a better writer. I have come to appreciate simple beauty, but only because it is so complex an accomplishment. Seeing beyond what is presented to me, to us, is a learned behavior that I’m learning better every day…it gives my writing a feel of reality, but fantasy at the same time. It’s not enough to walk about with our eyes open if we are not willing to see what is there…there is so much there to see and nuance is everything. I hope that came out in Oracle as we saw the different sides of the same scene and how they could be so differently perceived.

You call yourself a ‘reader’s writer’. What does that mean? How do you achieve this?

When I read I want to experience the words not just comprehend what was written. Being a ‘reader’s writer’, I therefore try to create stories and images that are felt, experienced, and lived for those who will one day read it. At the end of a book I want to be emotionally devastated by the journey. Not the sorrow kind of devastation, the wrought out, emotionally drained devastation… I want to viscerally know I read a book, but emotionally feel like I was there. That is the goal of storytelling for me…not the conclusion of the tale, but the experience of living the story. That is what I want to give my readers. As a ‘reader’s writer’ I write for their experience and revise until the betas come back and are crying or throwing the book at me for the tale they just lived.

What is your favorite book?

You have no idea how difficult it was to narrow down to 10 favorites for a recent post on this tour…See the post on Book Bliss 3/20/14. You can check the list out there…but honest; I don’t think I could possibly choose one book above so many greats.

What is something readers may be surprised to learn about you?

I am insanely logic-driven…it is a huge stumbling block for fantasy writing to craft a tale that is fantasy, but that doesn’t drive me up the walls for missing logic.

Is there anything else you would like to add?

When I signed up for this tour, it wasn’t up yet, but there is a website now for fans that is likely missing from your jump links: www.aedanbyrnes.com

Thank you so much for your time!

Thanks so much for hosting me here!

Book Info-
Title- Through The Oracle’s Mist
Series- Vengelys Series #1
By- Aedan Byrnes
Genre- Historical Paranormal Romance
Published By- Drake Valley Press USA

Blurb-

In the blackest night, with the moon and stars to guide him, she would always be there waiting…

Cyrenna thought she died the day she watched Tynan and his brothers jump through the banishment portal in an act of solidarity with Rigor. Little did she know, it would be the first of many deaths she would experience in her quest to claim his heart. She would surrender not only her immortal soul, but a mortal one repeatedly. Through a deal with the great Oracle, she has multiple mortal lifetimes to change the direction of her future and have a chance with Tynan.

Her journey spans the ages from the GenPei War in Japan and the Silk Road west, to Cromwell, the Three Kingdoms and modern times, bringing her one step closer to forever until she makes a misstep. Then, the burden falls to Tynan. The only thing that is absolute is her fervent hope that he will come, but there’s one big problem.

Through it all, he doesn’t so much as know her name.

Read an excerpt:

That single word coupled with the tangling and untangling fragrance of her, become a vortex in my mind. Rational thought collides with irrational thought, wants, and needs. All of them together, do battle with my better self. Standing up, my feet are unsteady; my head is a carnival ride of haphazard motion, and my inner wild is desperately cleaving for release. I can hear her heaving for breath as quietly as she is able and can smell the palatable desperation to remain in control and calm. I have to back away or it will be over before I can form a thought to stop it. I am too close to losing the battle with my other self and I have less ability to restrain him of late. I am not master of myself right now. I’m too close. Mistakes made years ago will not be repeated. It is a hard reminder in the back of my mind. I have to back away or risk destroying another who might finally, so many years after Ite, be worth the challenge to learn. 

Backing up, I find myself stumbling backwards, the mad tumbling bramble in my mind cluttering all rational thoughts and abilities. Lights flash against darkness in my mind, leaving momentary blindness in their wake and confusion. Images slideshow with lightning quickness; her standing in the moonlight, then it isn’t her at all but another who looks at me with sorrow, courage and compassion. More images come of her shivering to maintain control as I stroked an ice cube down her cheek; back to the other her, shivering from a different kind of stroking. The back and forth are disorienting and I find myself ass-planted on the floor with a ‘whump’ grabbing for my temples to stop the onslaught of the ensuing madness. The back and forth comparisons will not be still. 

Kneading my eyes with the heels of my hands I shake my head to clear the fog from my addled brain. I am aware that she is not able to see me and that is a small mercy, though as I settle I can smell the cloying damp earth smell of her sobbing in confusion. The smell of her tears is nearly my complete undoing as my other self surges forward to rage at memories. I clamp down hard on the past and the storming emotions to wait. I am rewarded with the low tone of her breath hitching across her vocal chords as she rights herself and regains her composure. Sadly, for both of us, it isn’t enough. I want more.

Book links

About the Author-

There is no simple description for Aedan Byrnes. Obsessive, dreamer, reclusive, compulsive, outdoorsman and wordsmith would be among the list if one were started. The displaced Gael lives in the upper Midwest with family between jaunts wherever the road takes him. A frequent traveler, he is as likely to be found rock climbing or spelunking as sitting fireside dreaming or aimlessly floating away.

A lifelong lover of words and writing, he claims a diverse reading appetite and his writing reflects the myriad influences. A self-proclaimed 'reader's writer', he looks for the emotional and the sensory in word combinations, not just the visceral comprehension of phrases in the stories he crafts and his love of all things literary shines through.

Links-
Goodreads- https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7397349.Aedan_Byrnes
Twitter- https://twitter.com/AedanByrnes
Facebook- https://www.facebook.com/AedanByrnes

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