The Tomb Reviewed!

Check out this new review for The Tomb over at Mallory Heart Reviews!  Five stars!!

Featured!

The Young Adult Book Club is featured on today's Book Review Club Reader on-line newspaper!  It's also on sale now through Smashwords to download in a variety of formats!

On sale!

The Young Adult Book Club is now on sale!

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Chapter One

Hey guys!  I wanted to give you a taste of what you can expect from The Young Adult Book Club, so here's the first chapter!  Enjoy!!

Chapter One

            Dustin sat in his car for a moment, psyching himself up for the task ahead of him.  He felt slightly nauseous, anticipation building in his chest as he thought of the daunting year he was about to commence.  He glanced up at the clean white building across the sea of asphalt, marveling at how just yesterday he’d still been at the end of that blissful stretch of summer vacation, and now he had months upon months of tedious obligation in store.

            It looks like a tomb, he decided.  How appropriate.

            “Are you coming?” his best friend Heather asked, looking back in through the open passenger side door, eyes searching his.

            He nodded and climbed out of the car amid a loud sigh, slamming the door shut resolutely behind him.  Delaying the inevitable was only making him feel worse, he decided, pocketing his keys and hefting his backpack over one of his shoulders.

            “Here we go,” Heather said cheerfully, pulling out a compact to look over her reflection one more time, as if daring a hair to fall out of place.  She closed it with a single hand and tossed it into her bag with a flourish.  She began walking across the parking lot, checking her dress to make sure it fell perfectly as it should.  When she noticed that Dustin was still standing in the same place, she scowled.  “Jesus Christ, Dustin.  It’s only high school.”

            Dustin raised an eyebrow.  Only high school? he thought, bewildered.  That was like saying a diamond was only a stone or losing a wallet was merely an inconvenience.  High school spoke volumes.  It could make or break a person during their teenage years and psychologically affect them for the rest of their lives.  It’s what prepared impressionable young minds for the world, for the future.  He was about to ramble on about the importance of high school out loud when he noticed that Heather had started to walk toward the building again.

            Shrugging, Dustin trotted after her, watching her long blonde hair sway across her back in unison with her sashaying size four body.

            Heather glanced back to make sure he was following her and slowed to let him catch up, peeking into her bookbag that doubled for her purse during school.

            “You’re not nervous?” Dustin asked. Running a hand back through his short dark brown hair.  “Not even a little?”

            Heather shook her head.  “It’s going to be just like last year.  The only thing that’s changed is we’re graduating when we’re done this time.”

            “I guess.  But it’s new classes and stuff, you know?”

            “New classes, same faces.”

            “Yeah, I suppose.”

            Heather elbowed him playfully.  “Cheer up.  No one’s going to treat you differently or anything.”

            “So you say.”

            “So I know.”

            “Well, I hope you’re right.”

            They stepped onto the sidewalk leading up to the main doors of the school, the billowing flags sending shadows over them momentarily as they flapped in the light breeze the warm day provided.

            Dustin smiled to himself as a couple of the guys that were also making their way toward the school looked at Heather with open admiration.  Heather had blossomed from their awkward grade school days into something quite extraordinary over the last few years.  She could have been a model if she’d wanted to, but Heather was a smart girl and she wanted to put her mind to use.  She was considering work in the sciences, maybe psychology.  She would rather feel like she was being useful to society than trot down a runway somewhere in France for socialites with too much money.  She was a very intelligent person, as well as a great friend, one of those popular girls at the top of her class, tutoring people and helping people understand math problems after class ended.  She had brains and wasn’t as insecure as a lot of girls in high school were who felt the need to hide it.  She was comfortable being viewed as smart and it hadn’t hurt her popularity.  Not even hanging out with a loner like Dustin had hurt her popularity.  She was too nice, too charming and definitely far too pretty to be ignored, easily the prettiest girl in school.  Dustin would have assumed he’d be dropped halfway though middle school by the emerging beauty, but Heather had stood by him as a true friend, even though she was embraced by the popular crowds.  Dustin didn’t expect anyone to understand how they could be best friends when they were so different socially at school, but they’d grown up together and were close to each other in a way that few people were. 

            Some people had probably questioned how a guy and a girl could remain friends throughout adolescence, but they’d managed.  The changes in their bodies and behaviors hadn’t come between them in the least.  No sexual tension had really developed, as their friendship grew to rival sibling relationships.  And that was really what they felt like to one another - siblings.  They couldn’t have been any closer if they’d come from the same household.    However, when Dustin had come out of the closet, their relationship had probably made more sense to most people.  But they liked to believe that they would have had the same closeness even if Dustin were straight.

The Young Adult Book Club

My latest book, The Young Adult Book Club, will be going on sale within the week!  The books I've released up until now have all been books with supernatural elements, but I write other things too!  I actually wrote this book a few years ago, and recently revisited it and flushed out some elements to make one great story.  Here's the synopsis:

Beginning a new year of high school is always tough, but when Dustin comes out of the closet prior to his senior year, and his best friend Heather has a tough break-up, things are looking more challenging than usual. To top it off, Heather is told that her transcripts need to demonstrate more leadership abilities if she’s going to get into the colleges she’s applying to. So the two of them decide to create a new school club, one surrounding their mutual love for young adult books.

Students they never would have expected show up to the book club and they bond over the books they discuss, looking past their differences and growing closer with each meeting, where new friendships are born as well as unexpected romances. At the same time, they are exposed to books that they love and learn a little history of the medium along the way.

The Young Adult Book Club is a feel-good novel about good books and surviving high school with the help of friends. Comes complete with a recommended young adult book reading guide.

I hope you enjoy it!  Watch for it to go on sale shortly!

Five stars!!

Check out the latest five-star review for "Her Dark Destiny (Hunters of the Dark #1)" over at Literary R&R!!

Interview!

Author Nancy Straight interviewed me this week on her blog. Find out what I think are some of the best and worst things about being an author, and some of my favorite books and authors! She also has a new book that just came out called "Blood Debt" that people should check out.  You can also check out her work in the free Dark Muse sampler, if you haven't already!