Friday, February 7, 2014

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

Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Meet Kay LaLone, Author of The Middle Grade Novel, Ghostly Clues


Today, I'm pleased to bring you author Kay LaLone, and her novel Ghostly Clues (love the title!)

Don't forget the Excerpt from her book on Saturday!!

KLL: Thanks Leslie, I'm so pleased to be here today.  It's always nice to find a new audience to meet and talk writing.

LA: What’s next for you, Kay? 

KLL: I am finishing revising a YA mystery story, Family Secret. This story has ghosts, witches, and demons in it. Of course, there are other ghost stories in the works.

LA: Which aspect of writing do you love the best, and which do you hate the most?

KLL: I love coming up with new ideas for stories. I have a lot of ideas and I hope most of them will become a story. The least thing I dislike about writing is revising. Sometimes I find it hard when to stop revising, when to stop making those changes.

LA: Describe for us, if you will, your writing style, as in plotter vs. seat of the pants, and do you put more time into developing characters or plot or are they equal?

KLL: I love to free write. To just write out the story as it flows in my head. Then comes the hard part of plotting the story and making sure it flows right. The fun part is developing characters. The characters seem to show themselves when I free write.  

LA: Was there a person who inspired you to write?

KLL: I would have to say my mother inspired me to write. I remember in grade school, I'd sit at the kitchen table and write a short story for school and my mother would be there helping me spell. It was fun being creative with my mother.

LA: What themes do you like to write about?

KLL: Ghosts, paranormal, things that go bump in the night. Dreams. I have always been fascinated with dreams. To me dreams reveal a lot about our life and sometimes the future. So I use dreams a lot in stories to give clues to the characters.
 
LA: If you could meet anyone, living or dead, who would it be, and what would you talk about?

KLL: Either Nora Roberts or Heather Graham. These are my two favorite authors. We would talk about writing. I would want to know their secret to making their characters come to life.

LA: If you were a dessert, what would you be and why?

KLL: The first thing that popped into my head was banana split. Sounds good right now. I think I would be a banana split because you have all these different flavors. I feel I’m like that because I have all these different characters in my head all the time and I never know which one is going to show up.

LA: Do you have a favorite quote, quip, or saying? What is it?

KLL: Since my mother passed I away recently I have this saying. God is good. Life is good. It gets me through those days when life is hard.


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.

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









Saturday, February 1, 2014

Excerpt From Beverly Ovalle's ~ Lightning Strike




Today, as promised, I bring you an excerpt from Beverly Ovalle's Lighting Strike

 
Blurb:
For generations Levi’s family had guarded a sacred glen in the mountains.  Still far from man this isolated area was a favorite spot of his grandfather.  Levi grew up listening to his tales and fell in love without ever having stepped foot there.

Now Levi’s family, led by his grandmother, wanted to sell the land.  With only his grandfather and Levi against it, Levi has to prove to the rest of the family why they needed to continue their guardianship.  Believing in his grandfather’s tales despite himself, Levi went armed with his camera and his well-known expertise behind the lens and headed out for proof. 

Providing that proof and protecting the secrets of the glen from the world, Gaia needs to convince Levi to continue that protection.  Daphnaie, the embodiment of his every dream, is sent to show him why, stealing his heart in the process to save her world.

 
Excerpt:
Levi’s photos always had a way of showing truths the naked eye couldn’t see. That was one
of the reasons both of his grandparents had agreed to him coming here. He had started photography when he was a medic in the Army, taking photos of the aftermath of Iraqi Freedom. Unable to stomach more death and destruction, and desperately needing a peace he couldn’t find, he finished his enlistment. He published the photography that exposed so much of the war, earning almost instant fame. But it didn’t bring him peace. He turned to photographing nature around the world, his treks into the wilds of the world bringing him a measure of what he sought.

He couldn’t wait to see the photo. Wanting to capture the aftermath of the strike, he looked through the lens in preparation for another shot. He thought he saw movement. He straightened up, no longer looking through the lens. Levi saw a figure fall, he swore from the damaged bark of the tree itself. He hadn’t seen anyone in the tree, but then again he hadn’t been paying attention to anything but the deadly beauty of nature.

Moving swiftly to the base of the tree, he found a crumpled heap in the shape of a person. Reaching for the slight arm sticking out from the pile of decaying and burnt leaves, Levi knelt, feeling for a pulse. A faint heartbeat reassured him that the person was alive. Levi brushed away the fallen leaves that surrounded the figure. To his surprise it was a young woman and she was naked. Stunned, Levi stared at her for a moment. His heartbeat quickened. He had seen no evidence of anyone else around. In any case, this was private property as far as the eye could see. From the mountains to the prairie, his family called this land theirs even if none of them lived there any longer.

Shaking sense back into his head, Levi took out his cellphone to make an emergency call, wishing he had brought his satellite phone. The connection was bad this far into the mountains. Getting a recording, he tried giving his location, hoping his message got through and help was on its way. Hanging up, he looked at her, wondering what she was doing there.

Levi thought the lightning had burned her clothes away, though there was really no evidence of clothing to begin with. She couldn’t have just been out in the woods with nothing on. Climbing trees no less! Her skin looked as if it had been in contact with fire, yet she herself was not burned, just slightly pink, most of the damage to her hair, which looked as if it had burned around the edges.

The lightning strike had been different, but then so had the storm. Both had seemed almost alive, deliberate. Maybe his grandpa had been right after all.

Leaving her for a moment, Levi took his sleeping bag from his knapsack and laid it out beyond the fire damaged grass, making sure to unzip it to be able to put her in it. Checking her limbs, he didn’t feel any breaks. He tried not to notice how shapely those limbs were.

Ignoring his libido, Levi checked her over as he had been trained. It didn’t matter how long he had been away from the battlefield, Levi’s instincts kicked in, checking the vitals of the wounded woman in front of him. It was usually a man though, his thoughts drifting to the images he’d rather forget. Forcibly bringing his mind back to the present, Levi continued his assessment. She needed him now. An undressed female was bound to present him unexpected problems. An attractive female, as this little bundle was, presented a whole different problem that was knocking insistently at the buttons of his 501’s.

For generations Levi’s family had guarded a sacred glen in the mountains. Still far from man this isolated area was a favorite spot of his grandfather. Levi grew up listening to his tales and fell in love without ever having stepped foot there.

Now Levi’s family, led by his grandmother, wanted to sell the land. With only his grandfather and Levi against it, Levi has to prove to the rest of the family why they needed to continue their guardianship. Believing in his grandfather’s tales despite himself, Levi went armed with his camera and his well-known expertise behind the lens and headed out for proof.

Providing that proof and protecting the secrets of the glen from the world, Gaia needs to convince Levi to continue that protection. Daphnaie, the embodiment of his every dream, is sent to show him why, stealing his heart in the process to save her world.

Links to Books:
 
 

Bio:

Beverly Ovalle lives in Wisconsin with her husband Edmond of 24 years and two Chinese Water Dragons. Her son Nicholas is in the US Marines.  Her daughter Susannah lives nearby and is a CNA. 

Beverly has traveled around the world thanks to five years in the US Navy. Beverly and her brothers have travelled most of the continental United States as children due to the station wagon from Hell.  Still active with veterans, she is adjutant for her local AMVETS. 

Beverly Ovalle has two published books out.  One, Dragons’ Mate with Boroughs Publishing Group came out March 2, 2013 in their Lunchbox Romance Line. Beverly’s second, Lightning Strike was published with Secret Cravings Publishing on November 2, 2013 in Weekend Getaways.
 
Find Beverly: