This debut novel from author Kerry Crisley is one of my first favorite reads for this summer! Enjoy an excerpt and then download your own copy to see what I mean. Also enjoy the playlist for Summer of Georgie that she has provided. Leave your questions and comments along the way as you follow the tour. Best of luck in the giveaway!
Music is often inspirational. Today, author Michael James is telling us about the musical inspiration for his Hotel series. Read all about it as well as an excerpt from the first book, The End of Time. Be sure to follow the tour for even more and check out the great giveaway!
“How is it for you?” Emma stood up and dusted herself off. “How do you do it?”
Vain tilted her head. “You know how when everyone tells you what to do, tries to get you to act in a certain way, but when their head is turned, you punch their dick into slush?”
“I do not. Not at all. I’m not even sure you’ve described a real thing.”
“Well, that’s what using the power is like to me. I channel that emotion.”
“If I ever encountered a culture where the emotion associated with genital-punching as a response to be being told what to do was so commonplace they needed a word for it, I would never, ever visit them.”
“Sweden must have a word for that. Aren’t they constantly incoherent with rage?”
Emma shook her head. “Without knowing one word of Swedish, I’m positive they do not have a specific word for that.”
“Meatball.”
“How is this helping me? You said you’d teach me how to use these powers.”
“I will,” said Vain. “Think of me as your own personal Yoda.”
“The tree frog from the Star Wars movies?
I love my music as much as I love to read. And I love it when authors are able to put the two together. What do you think of this list that David S. McCracken has put together for his book Fly Twice Backward? Let him know what you think in the comments. Follow the tour for more. And best of luck entering the giveaway!
When she gets home from school, Mom surprises me with a borrowed newspaper, El Mundo: “I thought you might want to catch up on Latin American news. You can read this OK, can’t you?”
Ah, a test. Thank goodness I’ve been brushing up scanning her upper-level texts. I take in her sly, wolfish grin, restrain one of my own, and say,” Oh, good here’s an article on the coming Venezuelan election, Mom. Have you read it?”
“Um, no, not yet.”
I proceed to summarize the article and mention that the junta had called the elections confident of solidifying their mandate. I go on to add they would lose—and turn power back over to the military. Who’d have thought that my Latin American studies focus would come in so handy, so long before I pursued it!
Mom slinks off to putter in the kitchen, but soon our doorbell rings. She seems to run to answer it.
“David, there’s a man here, Mr. Walker, I’d like you to talk with.” Looks like trouble.
“Oh, about what?” I ask.
“Well, just to get acquainted, for now,” Mom says. “Um, we’re thinking you might be able to use a special teacher.”
Walker is a serious-looking tall man of middle age, conservatively suited.
“Are you a math teacher? I’d love to learn advanced stuff, like algebra.”
“Oh, do you already know about it?”
“No, not past the name. Can you teach me algebra?”
Mom puts in, “Maybe history, David?”
“That’d be nice. I don’t know much, except some about the Second World War. I was amazed a friend of mine didn’t know who General Rommel was, though.”
“Mrs. McCracken, is there something in particular you have in mind?”
“Well, he says he came back from the future.”
“Mom, if I’d done that, I wouldn’t have been so surprised by this. You’re worrying me. You don’t want to do electroshock again, I know. You were really confused after the last time.”
“This is nonsense! I’ve never had electroshock.”
“Oh, Mom, are you back in that state? Don’t you remember? You denied it then, but . . . well, you know you wet your pants whenever you’d think about it. She was doing so well, Doctor . . ..”
I let go of him and he falters back. Dusty wraps his arms around me to pull me back and Camryn is begging me to stop. Her voice registers, sinking through the fury that just consumed me, and my head snaps up realizing where I am. Camryn’s hands are over her mouth and I can see her fighting back tears. And that’s when I see him, my little superhero, crying and shaking at Camryn’s side. My sweet little boy, my Gavin—how could I let myself get to this point?
I reach out to him and he shudders back, sinking into Camryn even more. At that moment, my heart shatters, seeing that my son, the one I vowed to protect, is afraid of the menace I just became. My gaze travels to Camryn and I see the pain in her eyes, which I am sure I put there. “Take him home, away from me.”
She reaches her hand and grasps my wrist, pulling me with her. “Come home with us.”
I pull my hand away and begin to back away from them. “Take him home without me. Right now, he’s afraid…of me.” I can’t bear to stay here and look at what I did to Gav and Camryn, to see that the old Cole has never really left. I rush off the beach, away from my family, the ones I disappointed again with my thoughtless actions. I try to grasp the realization that I’m no longer the superhero Gavin once thought I was. Today, I became the villain.
He ran to the house, struggling through the wind that sought to push him over, to deter him from entering that house.
“No, Gerri,” the chaperone hollered. “Do NOT go in there!”
But Gerri quickened his pace.
The chaperone was in front of him.
He turned to go around him.
The chaperone was in front of him.
He jerked to the left, running at max speed.
The chaperone was in front of him, pushed Gerri to the ground. Picked him up and clasped Gerri’s shoulders with an iron hand.
“It’s not allowed, Gerri.”
“What’re you talking about? I just want to go home.”
The chaperone laughed. He started pacing, circling Gerri with his hand on Gerri’s shoulder.
“What do you think, Gerri, hang yourself and you get to go back home? No, no, no, Gerri. Look around you. You’re not even close to home!”
“What? That can’t be!”
“Between worlds, Gerri! That’s where you are. What’s in that house is nothing. Nothing more than the slither of energy you left, the portal of death with the stink of fear. You’re not welcome there. Not welcome at all.” He slipped his hand off Geri’s shoulder. Stepped an arm’s length away from him.
“No, no, no, this can’t be! This can’t be.”
“Oh, yes, Gerri, it can, and it is.”
The chaperone paused.
“It’s best that you come with me Gerri.”
Gerri screamed, “Where did I go wrong?”
The chaperone stiffened.
He turned to the house and paused.
If there’s one thing that Bridgette Reynolds has learned recently, it’s that the perfect shoes, the perfect hair, and the perfect dress do not make for the perfect proposal. In fact, sometimes they make for the not-so-perfect breakup.
By day, Becky Monson is a mother to three young children, and a wife. By night, she escapes with reading books and writing. In her debut novel, Becky uses humor and true-life experiences to bring her characters to life. She loves all things chick-lit (movies, books, etc.), and wishes she had a British accent. She has recently given up Diet Coke for the fiftieth time and is hopeful this time will last... but it probably won't.
ULTIMATE DEATH METAL PLAYLIST: ~HIM "Wings of a Butterfly" ~Jay Gordon "Slept So Long" ~Mushroomhead "Sun Doesn't Rise" ~Disturbed "The Night" ~Sixx AM "This is Gonna Hurt" ~Nightwish "Bye Bye Beautiful" ~Disturbed "The Animal" ~Drowning Pool "37 Stitches" ~Black Veil Bride "Fallen Angels" ~Lukas Rossi "Headspin" ~Metallica "Until it Sleeps" ~Sick Puppies "You're Going Down" ~Tomandandy "AxeMan" ~Fireflight "Desperate" ~Entombed "Left Hand Path" ~Nightwish "Amaranth"