BLURB:
When her neighbors accuse Belladonna of Satanism and making them
age years to days, she must find who is behind it or face a modern day witch
hunt. Her mysterious enemy knows where to strike to cause the most damage:
Belladonna's only friend is losing his life-force; the garden that feeds her is
dying; and her house ghost goes poltergeist. To save her neighbors and friends
and prove her innocence, she must travel to the Otherworld where butterflies
have razor wings and where her worst fears will come to life.
Excerpt:
The mob on the other side of the
wrought iron fence wore no tri-cornered hats or starched bonnets. They didn’t brandish pitchforks or flaming
torches. Hell, they didn’t even bring a
preacher to drive the Devil out. Still,
they had come to flush out a witch and the witch was me.
They were thirty all together,
gathered outside my gate under the two California live oaks that shade the
sidewalk in midday. I had to squint into
the still hot mid-October sun to study their unfamiliar faces. The mob included several dwarves. The youngest dwarf must have been in her
forties, a tiny woman that for some reason wore a yellow, red and blue Snow
White dress with an appliquéd picture of Snow White on the chest. She didn’t look like a typical dwarf: no
classically high forehead and her arms and legs were proportionate. She was holding a fluffy purple teddy bear by
a front paw and sucking her thumb.
In the sun my forehead sweated under
the straw hat. A mocking bird’s harsh
chirrup burst from the oak on the right, piercing as a car horn. I flinched.
I don’t much like or trust people in
large groups - doing time in Greenville State Prison for Women had taught me
that. In prison the exercise yard is the
most dangerous place to be: too many inmates in one area, too many chances to
be stabbed with a shiv made from a sharpened toothbrush handle or from melted
and hardened Styrofoam cups.
AUTHOR
Bio and Links:
Larisa
Walk, a native Russian, lives in California with her husband and two formerly
homeless cats. She writes paranormal fiction that is more often than not
populated by characters from the Russian fairy world. Her short fiction
appeared in several anthologies and magazines. She has published a historic
fantasy novel, A Handful of Earth, and a modern paranormal novel, A Witch
Without Magic. See her quirky blog posts here: http://www.larisawalk.com
4 comments:
And happy wishes to you, Andra. Have a magical day.
Thanks for the giveaway! Really excited to buy the book if I win! lol!
~Kate~
hense1kk AT cmich DOT edu
This is not a genre I normally read, but I must say, your story sounds very good. Thanks for the excerpt and giveaway.
kareninnc at gmail dot com
Nice excerpt
bn100candg at hotmail dot com
Post a Comment