500 Word Stories#1-Enigmatic Alien Story??

   “Father, I’m scared!” the boy within his father’s arm trembled frightfully, while his father didn’t know whether he had the courage to face the enemy beyond or to quell his son’s fears.

      “It’s alright son really, the wardens of death are no longer here in this woods” Woods, what woods? The older man knew that what he said was a complete lie. Shaking with fear and the miserable chill of the deadly air of this leafless forest, the man knew that they were the last men on this forsaken world.
Of course, there were women, numerous women; voluptuous women, intelligent women, athletic women. There were not enough men anymore with such variety, only both the father the son languished in the perilous world.

    It wasn’t the women who wanted them dead; some deadly pathogen only men could contract had nearly accomplished this impossible feat. Yes, it wasn’t the women who had proposed this to happen to the men they had loved. This was the way that the human race was always meant to slowly go extinct. Maybe women though had the scientific means to engender new life, without men.

      What if Eve stayed in the garden, leaving Adam to wander aimlessly across the stretches of the uninhabited Earth? Where would he go? Whom would he love in earnest? Solace, What about solace? Could he concoct enough stories for both him and his son's sanity? My son. He was the only one, who still hung protectively from him, refusing to let go.           

         The man, Henry Whitaker, a name he had recalled his wife softly whispering to him at night, was fading slowly away into obscurity. Her hair, curled and red, was lovely to comb his hand through. It was the one significant gesture that he loved watching in his mind, completely separated from his immediate reality like the moon hanging nightly so high above him with its soft luminescence. He remembered her eyes, just small green ones, twinkling as he offered her a crinkled smile as they both held each other in a bed. That bed was now such a foreign object, their house was further far removed from his mind. These places were secure, but now who was he?

                “Benny, we have to stop walking soon, for the bright ones had mentioned they meet us here….” Bright ones, he had been yearning to meet them every night. Their ship was a moving star, much like what the Greeks perceived as planets, a gliding ship of existence across a sea of blackness. To think, these bright ones sailed peacefully on a sea of blue, when the sun rose every morning. Were they trying to find the last men here on this Earth? He had heard the tall tales, they wanted men only. For what reason, he did not know, but he longed for the bright ones every night and even recounted myths about them to Benny. Some day, he would find them and not know this alienation any longer.

Review of Thomas Jefferson's Creme Brulee

      Author's Note:Hey Blog readers! I've been very busy with both college and my internship this semester at Quirk Books, an apt name for an indie publishing house that specializes  in unconventional books. As part of my internship, I thought it'd be really cool to review and feature some of Quirk's books here on my blog. The other marketing intern at Quirk books for this semester, Jordan, will also be writing reviews that will be published here as well. For the next few months, you'll definitely be exposed to many books that are definitely not your conventional, quirk-less read.

                                 


Summary (Taken from Quirk Books Product Page)
      
     "In 1784, Thomas Jefferson struck a deal with one of his slaves, 19-year-old James Hemings. The Founding Father was traveling to Paris and wanted to bring James along “for a particular purpose”—to master the art of French cooking. In exchange for James’s cooperation, Jefferson would grant his freedom.
Thus began one of the strangest partnerships in U.S. history. As James apprenticed under master French chefs, Jefferson studied the cultivation of French crops (especially grapes for winemaking) so they might be replicated in American agriculture. The two men returned home with such marvels as pasta, French fries, champagne, macaroni and cheese, crème brûlée, and a host of other treats. This narrative nonfiction book tells the fascinating story behind their remarkable adventure—and includes 12 of their original recipes!"

Amazon (Kindle) /Barnes and Nobles (Nook)


Review:
    Reading history books can be a steep order for me. There is something really unsavory about history books because some of them can be drudgery to read, as the reader is literally forced to pore over far too many intricate details for the brain to effectively process.  Oftentimes ,the premise of these books though are very appealing, like history books about the history of early chemistry aka. alchemy or the  Salem Witch Trials. They often have that facade of being an intellectual feast for the eyes, until you are thrown into the chaotic mess of excessive historical details.

   When looking at the cover for Thomas Jefferson's Creme Brulee, I certainly hoped that the eye-pleasing, sumptuous feast on the cover was not just a deceptive cover-up for what could have easily been a dull book. Fortunately, Thomas J. Craughwell is not just an adept historian, but a very competent writer who knows how to write competent prose that is very accessible for those who are not professional historians. Remarkably, the book accomplishes the feat of being an engrossing fictional story that effectively detaches you from the real work.  In the course of reading this book, I happened to be on a train commuting back and forth for work; the author's aesthetically-pleasing prose allowed me to completely escape into the vivid details of Thomas Jefferson's culinary tour of France and the northern regions of Italy.

     Additionally, the book manages to educate you about Thomas Jefferson's multifaceted personality. In many grade-school history courses, Thomas Jefferson is always woefully overshadowed by more seemingly important men like George Washington. Even stranger, his affairs with female slaves are often overemphasized, as though to portray him as some promiscuous heathen.Also, we never hear very much about Deist views,or his rather bold, controversial views of institution of the church. In this book, we learn more about his benevolence, when it came to responding to some of his slaves. Rather than judge him from a twenty-first century perspective, Thomas J. Craghwell reveals more layers that present Thomas Jefferson as a very complicated, truly fascinating individual.

     Instead of offering us meager portion or a full-blown meal consisting of poorly made food, Thomas J. Craghwell offers the reader a historical meal that is meticulously prepared and mindful of his audience's various food allergies. Most of us have an aversion to historical books that are far too bloated or slanderous.  This is a book that carries a balanced perspective of a very intelligent figure in our country's history, and it also grants us a wonderful history tour with a side of savory details about different types of french cuisines and wine. By the end of the book, you'll want to concoct some of the dishes within the recipe section at the end of the book. Overall, I highly recommend this thought-provoking, satisfying read for anyone who loves a well-written history that is not just a poorly organized information dump.

"Shadow of Night" Review (Second book in the All Soul's Trilogy)

Amazon (Kindle Copy)/ Barnes&Nobles (Nook Edition)
      Under the review, there are some tantalizing details about how you can win yourself a copy of this book!

    This series has literally become my literary cat-nip, or really the most engaging Elizabethan History survey course that I've had the pleasure to take. Spoilers are sure to crop up in this review, so if you haven't read the other, I implore you to not read this review just for your own good.  Anyways, Shadow of Night, happens to be a direct sequel to the Discovery of Witches, which many of you evidenced my complicatedly mixed feeling about when I initially begin reading the book. For some reason, I thought the details of the domestic lives of both Matthew Clairmont and Diana  Bishop  in Discovery of Witches were a bit superfluous, thus these descriptions at the beginning of the first novel ended up severely affecting the pace. Eventually, Diana Bishop begins to discover her magical powers, and she inadvertently finds an ancient, alchemical text that is called "Ashmole 782," that happens to be a very contentious text for the Congregation.As a reminder to readers of the first book, the Congregation is a legal organization of witches, vampires, and daemons that try to control knowledge of their existence among the "muggles." (the mundane humans are not called "muggles," but the word I think has officially entered the literary lexicon). Without describing even more pivotal plot points, Diana and Matthew must travel back to Elizabethan England to procure "Ashmole 782," in order to revolutionize and innovate the rigid rules of the "Congregation."

    As with the first novel, Deborah Harkness seems skilled in constructing a very durable  surface story-line, where there are many deeper complexities that under-gird the plot. Even more impressive, the historical details that she utilizes to bring Elizabethan England to life are truly mind-blowing; her credentials as a historian with her PhD are put into good use not to make these historical details abstruse, but fully animated and important to the flow of the plot. None of the exposition ceases to obstruct the flow of the plot, and the aesthetic details of the houses, flowing gowns, and other regal, Elizabethan England clothes, are tastefully described and never become far too decorous and vomit-worthy. Once the characters are transported to England, the plot seems even more lively and energetic than the first novel: this book is even more complicated and is filled with much more political intrigue.
   For those who were often dismayed by the Twilight-esque elements that ran the risk of being puerile at the beginning of the first novel, this book continues to advance the characters and their complex relationships with other rich characters to a far deeper level of complexity than Stephenie Meyers is capable of accomplishing in my personal opinion. For this reason, it would be inaccurate to just define this novel and its fantastic predecessor as Twilight imitations. While the beginning of the first novel with its excessive, saccharine details were definitely a bit too Twilight-esque for my tastes, Deborah Harkness does improve things by the end of that novel, and  stunningly conceives even more layers  in Shadow of Night to create what  has become a multi-layered series that really should not be called just another "vampire romance" series. The relationship between Diana and Matthew had many more complications in it,and their separate characters outside the context of their relationship were meticulously shaped like all the other auxiliary characters to be more than just caricatures There were so many poignant moments in the middle bursting with very intense emotions;these well-written sequences that had me wiping tears away embarrassingly at a Starbucks a few weeks ago testifies to the Deborah Harkness`s authorial maturity.

      As we learn more about Matthew Clairmont, the erudite biochemist, we learn that he is a deeply paradoxical figure, and he wasn't always the open-minded vampire who is willing to share a deep bond with a witch.  Intriguingly,Matthew and Diana share a relationship that is very alchemical, and it is this deep, subversive passion between a witch and a vampire that could effect unprecedented, controversial change to the world in the future. Interestingly, they must move towards the past, or a much earlier stage in the process of alchemy in order to closely scrutinize themselves in a world that is not very different from their own. In some ways though, their deeper selves are much more transparent and easily comprehensible in Elizabethan England, which is a world where the border between magic and material reality is blurred. It is so hard for me to articulate the literary developments in this book really cleverly are written as slow,methodical alchemical experiment. In the final novel, we will hopefully see the momentous results of this experiment or a very intelligent series that has been blithely written off as a Twilight clone.

    I'm really excited for the next book, and I hope Deborah Harkness continues to deftly craft yet another book that is filled with so much literary gold!


Contest Details: Do you want to win a copy of Shadow of Night,by Deborah Harkness? If you leave a comment on this post with your email address  (1), and (2)become a watcher of this blog via Google (Sidebar on the right of this blog, which lists the number of people watching this blog), you are eligible for the contest! The Deadline is 9/5/12, so you better hurry and be sure to do those two things to be entered into the contest. The winner will be randomly chosen 9/6/12, and I'll be sure to email them afterwords. Good Luck!

The Modified Cover Reveal

First of all, we want to thank you so much for wanting to help us spread the word about The Modified! The cover reveal is set for Friday, August 31st. We really appreciate your support, and it means the world to us! Oh, and if you want to embed the Raffelcopter widget for the giveaway here’s the link to find it:

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/share-code/NmVhNTEyODYzMWM1YzU0ODNhYmQ1NDY4ZTdhN2ZhOjA=/

Or if you just want to Embed the code right away here it is:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

***Below the break is the text for the cover reveal post. Just copy and paste, and feel free to add anything you want to it. This is just a sample post :)***

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The Modified Cover Reveal & Giveaway!

What would you sacrifice to save the one’s you love? To save the one who holds your heart? To save the world?

Kenley Grayson is all too familiar with these questions.

After Earth is thrust into its first intergalactic war with an unknown race called the Bringers, our military forces begin to suffer heavy losses. Desperate for a solution, the Allied Federation issues a worldwide draft for every able seventeen-year-old to enlist. As Kenley turns seventeen, she finds herself thrown into the very war that took her older brother’s life.

This year’s draft is a little different than in the past though. A new program, known as the Magnus Project, has been introduced, and only the best and brightest qualify. Kenley is amongst a select few whom are chosen to join this elite group of soldiers, and as a part of this project, undergoes a modification procedure that leaves her and her peers endowed with powers beyond their wildest dreams.

As Earth continues in its struggle against the Bringers, Kenley is transported to a high-tech training facility, the Magnus Academy, to prepare for the major battle that lies ahead. It’s here that she meets the California heartthrob, and son of a legendary war hero, Landon Shaw. As unexpected feelings toward Landon begin to develop, Kenley wonders if this is the right time or place for romance to bloom, especially when those feelings start to interfere with her training.

With the weight of the world on her shoulders, Kenley is constantly reminded of how important she and the rest of the Magnus cadets are to the fate of humanity. She is one of the Modified, Earth’s last line of defense against utter destruction.

The Modified releases this Fall!

Like the cover for The Modified? Well then head over to Nathan Szerdy’s website and peruse his amazing collection of works. We guarantee that you won’t be disappointed!

The mom and son author duo, C.A. Kunz, thoroughly enjoys writing about things that go bump in the night and futuristic action-packed romances while drinking massive amounts of English breakfast tea and Starbucks coffee. To find out more about this duo and their books visit their blog, or find them on Facebook and Twitter!

Amateur Angel: Young Adult Novel Reader Promo

Author Karri Thompson has stopped by with an excerpt for the Amateur Angel Blog Tour:

     Something crunched beneath me, breaking my fall, and when I extended my arms, pressing my palms against the floor, I felt that same “something” against my back stabilizing me as I lifted my shoulders and scrambled upright. I inspected these additional appendages, turning first left and then right. Oh, my God! This is unreal! I was draped in a soft, flowing gown of pure white, and two of the most beautiful things I had ever seen extended majestically from my shoulder blades in a graceful arch. They were wings actually, honest to goodness, angel’s wings. And although I had trouble controlling them at first, within minutes of flexing, rotating, and rolling my shoulders in every direction, I could not only expand and contract them, folding them compactly against my back, but I could also flap them like a magical bird.  

Author's Links: Website Purchase on Amazon Purchase on Barnes and Noble Facebook
Twitter







About Karri Thompson



As a first-time author, I cannot express- not even in words- how excited I am about the release of my debut novel, Amateur Angel.  It took a lot of hard work and sleepless nights.  There were many disappointments and rejections along the way, but in the end, my persistence and determination eventually paid off.  In many ways, I think writing a novel is easier than finding an agent to represent it and then a publisher to buy it.  Two years ago, I almost gave up on my dream to become an author, but then my son, Kyle, wrote a special poem for me, and it inspired me to write a new book and try again.  The new book was Amateur Angel.

Here is his poem:
        You fail and you fail,
        You fix and you fix,
        You wait and you wait,
        Until you succeed.

I hung this poem in my closet and read it every day when I was getting ready to go to work and each night before I went to bed.  It is still there and always will be.  I know what I’m about to say will sound like a cliché, but based on my own personal experience, the best advice I can give anyone is to always believe in your abilities, hold your head high, swallow your pride, accept criticism and then learn from it, and most importantly, never give up.
I grew up in San Diego County and attended San Diego State University, earning a bachelor’s degree in English, a master’s degree in education, and my teaching credential.  I am a high-school English teacher in the East County of San Diego where I also live with my husband, our son, and two dogs.
Being a lover of Victorian literature, my favorite author is Charles Dickens although I haven’t quite finished reading all of his books.  Someday I’ll finally finish David Copperfield- I promise.  If you are one of my students, you are either laughing or shaking your head at this.
I lead a very busy life, but when I’m not teaching, grading papers, or attending my son’s soccer games, I find time to write novels, my greatest passion.  


Author's Links:

Website

Purchase on Amazon

Purchase on Barnes and Noble

Facebook

Twitter

Anne Rice Interview: Highlighting her Thoughts on Today's Vampires

   Author's Note: Since I've just begun an internship and classes this week, my blog is not a strong priority right now. This does not mean that I won't be making updates; they just might be more infrequent  over the next few months. Anyways, I really wanted to share this wonderful interview I did with Anne Rice about the issue of the growing domesticity of vampires. One of the grievances of readers of Deborah Harkness' fantastic series was the fact that her vampires were suspiciously lacking certain well-known classical features. Of course, Anne Rice deviated from the classical formula by allowing her vampires to view and admire their own reflections. This display of vanity was purportedly denied to the more monstrous incarnations of vampires because they are to remain tragically unaware of their own decayed state.
   

     Within many of these older tales, monsters supposedly have self-recognition issues. Antithetically, Frankenstein only garnered knowledge of his own monstrous state through the affrighted response that others offered him, besides the blind man who has the incapability of sharing in the collective fear that others have of Frankenstein's superficial display of monstrous features. In many ways, Frankenstein was revolutionary in the fact that Mary Shelly tried to psychoanalyze monsters before Freud later even introduced that concept into our rapidly expanding body of scientific knowledge.

     For many years, I've wondered why  modern vampires are currently envisaged currently as sensual beings that are aesthetically-pleasing. Due to Anne Rice's ingenious alteration to the mirror rule for vampires, her vampires are well-aware that they superficially appear as dashing,suave appearance. They have the talent of utilizing their preternatural senses, along with this facade of transcendent humanity, to succor gullible, inquisitive humans into responding to them in ways that are contrary to their nature. Just as vampire are inherently "abnormal," humans act in unpredictable ways when they effectively succumb to the preternatural powers of these vampires. Anne Rice effectively made the vampires the hybrid of Dracula and Frankenstein, by combining the  morally dark vampire character  of Dracula and deeply tormented figure that is Frankenstein's monster.

     Deborah Harkness allows vampires to be tormented, but she also allows them to assimilate into human society. The large overarching theme of the "All Soul's Trilogy" wonderfully reflects our modern plight of how society remain stable, whilst permitting the diverse populations of a pluralistic community to freely express themselves. This is the modern conundrum, and I love how Deborah Harkness bridges this conflict to the past within her second novel "Shadow of Night," and shows the remarkable similarities of the conflicts that existed in both the past and the present. I really don't want to spoil any specific information about the novel, but it really is a book that should be read, even if you have reservations about the way Deborah Harkness domesticates vampires, but still allow them to be deep, puzzling characters that continue to elude the reader.


   Anyways, here is Anne Rice's response to some questions I posed about this interesting evolution:

Interview with Anne Rice:
  1.What is your theory behind the growing domesticity of vampires? Do you seeing yourself as playing a significant role in influencing this phenomenon in recent vampire novels?  
Anne Rice: Well, obviously vampires are culturally up for grabs.  Different writers are envisioning them in different ways. We know this.  They started out as menacing and dangerous aristocrats in the works of Polidari, LeFanu and Stoker.  I followed in that tradition with Louis and Lestat and Marius, but exploring them as tragic heroes, suffering souls of acute sensitivity and vision who acquired great wisdom as immortals.   Then American writers began to domesticate them, presenting them as high school kids, small town dwellers,  ordinary people hunting their victims in every day places.  And we saw as the result, the great Jane Eyre myth (female encounters older mysterious menacing male who proves to be her lover and protector) developed by Stephanie Meyer in an everyday high school setting. Quite a creative coup.   And Charlaine Harris' highly creative visions of vampires in a Louisiana small town became quite campy, satirical and hilarious.  ---  Myself I have not participated in the domestication of vampires much.  Even the little biker character, Baby Jenks, in my novel Queen of the Damned is part of a larger mythos and is used to view the huge mythic framework of vampires and their destiny.   ----  I love to write about exceptional beings, and what makes them exceptional.  I am not an author who offers insights into "ordinary guys" or how vampires become ordinary guys or how ordinary guys become vampires.  I'm too hooked on the heroic, the alienated, the larger than life psyche.  Of course I see my heroes as metaphors for the predator, the alienated one and the hero in all of us. 


2. Vampires have become complicated lovers for select humans, philosophers, musicians, and many other uniquely human roles; what do you think the next evolution of vampires will look like? Will they still be "vampires?" 
Anne Rice: I have no clue as to what the next evolution will be.  But I do feel the vampire is here to stay in English language literature.  He or she is like the cowboy, frontier person, or detective --- a vivid and wonderful type that readers love.   And I have every confidence in the creativity of English language writers.  We'll see some amazing things.  Is there more explore? Yes, much much more.  I learned that when writing the Wolf Gift, even though it wasn't about vampires.  I had to think like an immortal supernatural monster in 2011, and I realized that there were new enemies to confront: technology, modern crime analysis, and the greedy interest of science in anything that might promise immortality.  So on it goes. 

Again, Thanks Anne Rice!! You are always so obliging to your fans. There is a reason that your fans have great respect for you.

Anne Rice Month is winding down... but a review of "Shadow of Night" will be posted on Friday. Also, I will post things that I neglected to post throughout September; therefore, I have just contradicted myself by saying that Anne Rice Month was winding down....I hope to post my feature on Frankenstein's Monster next week, along with my interview I completed for it.

  Additionally, I have some really nifty magazine scans to post for a final post about the history of the Anne Rice Vampire Lestat Fan Club!

History of the Official Anne Rice Vampire Lestat Fan Club Part 2

Guest Post Written by: Suzie Quiroz, president of the Official Vampire Lestat Fan club
"There are always new fans who do not know the fan club story.  We have been in operation for 24 years!  It is hard to believe it has been that long, I guess time does pass quickly when you are having fun!  LOL

Maybe I will discuss the first Ball held in October, 1989 when Anne, Stan and Christopher Rice (age 11) came with some of her publishers from Random House (the paperback publisher of Knopf Publishing Group) with about 200 people attending.  For the first few Gatherings, we made specialty cakes.  Anne's editor and publicist "Loved" the three cakes we made of the paperback "Interview"; "Vampire Lestat" and "Queen".   Interview was red, VL was gold and Queen was black...the icing must have been nasty with all the food coloring!   Random House gave Anne a rubber skeleton (about 4' tall) which Anne put in the upstairs bathroom by the tv room...people were startled by it when they used the rest room!  We filmed the first Ball but I am not sure the tape survived Katrina (August, 2005), I lost a lot of signed books, comics, and manuscripts that Anne had signed for me.  I try not to think too hard about what I lost, but two really cool things did not make it out of my house intact...The gold coffin Anne used to arrive at the booksigning for "Servant of the Bones" (used in October 1996 or 97) and my two mannequins, Lestat and Louis.  I have replaced the Lestat and Louis mannequins, but the gold coffin was irreplaceable.  But when my house was checked for dead bodies, all they found were two mannequins...Lestat had lost a boot and his foot was spray painted orange and was sticking out of the big bay window.  I would have loved to have seen their faces when the found him!   LOL

The second Ball was at the Delta Steamboat boarding site by the MS River.  We had dressed some mannequins and made a banner for "Satan's Night Out" the band that awakened Lestat when he went underground.  Anne Rice, Vicky Wilson (her publisher at Knopf) and her publicist Janice Goldklang, Katherine Ramsland (her biographer) and David Campiti (Innovation Comic Books) were our guests.  Everyone there had a chance to go talk with Anne for a few minutes.  I think we all made an impression on Anne and her publisher."

If you haven't seen this video of Anne Rice's casket being dramatically led to one of the Vampire Lestat balls (Memnoch Ball in 1995 to be exact), you should definitely watch this!

More Information about the Memnoch Ball in 1995, the iconic ball:
 



"People have always thought that Anne organized all of the Balls, but in fact, she organized the Memnoch Ball, and what an operation that was!   The staff at St. Elizabeth's worked tirelessly on all facets of the Ball.  We had to get permission from the city to close the street in front of St. E's (Napoleon Ave.) and both side streets, Prytania and Perrier Sts.) to have enough space for the 1,000s of people that came to the Memnoch Ball.  St. Elizabeth's had two wings off each side of the main building facing Napoleon Avenue.  In the back yard between the two wings there was a tented area with tarot readers and other things going on such as the brass band parading in the video.  The Perrier St. side had the Abita Beer truck disbursing Victim beer.  Anne had purchased a vat of beer and my sister Melanie Scott had drawn the art work for the label.  On the Prytania St. side I believe there was a group of Cajun dancers teaching the crowd the dance steps...I was with Anne the on the small float in front of St. E's with Kirstin Duntst who had permission from Warner Bros. to wear the blue dress from the movie, Interview with the Vampire.  Her mom and aunt were in the crowd below.  Other costumed celebrities stopped by to say hi to Anne such as Linda Hamilton, James Cameron and Stan Winston who had seen Pumpkinhead in one of the rooms at St. E's with a framed poem Anne wrote about him.  So later, Anne had us send him a copy. " (Suzie Q.)

Integration Bewitching Book Tour Promo

Integration

Bonfire Book 2

By Imogen Rose

Second Haiku warning:

A boyfriend missing

A lover must pay in blood

A princess must die

Welcome back to Bonfire Academy.

Book Trailer http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVFSWpyCWJI

A Teaser Excerpt

Broken. I couldn’t think of a better word to describe it. I felt as if I’d been torn to bits, maybe even shredded. I was suffocating, surrounded by a wet tightness of skin and flesh all crusted together. My body was home to excruciating stabs of pain searing about randomly before a final thrust of sheer agony. I couldn’t tell if the source of the pain was within me or if I was being repeatedly sliced open with a knife. Did it matter? I felt as though it was only a matter of seconds before my thoughts would end.

“Cordelia!”

My name. I flinched as the same voice repeated my name again and again. Why? Who was it? It—he—sounded familiar. I heaved as the voice triggered the memory of his face. Then, not being able to stop the bile from traveling up my throat, I gagged and purged, emptying my stomach completely. The next time he muttered my name, his voice was laced with disgust. But his revulsion couldn’t compete with my utter repugnance and disbelief at what he’d done. Him. Someone I had trusted with my life, even though the rule was clear:

Trust No One.

About the Author:

 

Imogen Rose is the author of the bestselling series, Portal Chronicles, which has attained cult status within indie literature and become a favorite among teens and adults alike. An immunologist by profession, Dr. Rose published her first work of fiction in 2010. She now writes full time and is currently working on her second teen series, Bonfire Chronicles. Imogen was born in Sweden and has lived in several places, counting London among her favorites. She moved to New Jersey in 2001. A self-confessed Hermès addict, Imogen freely admits to being obsessed with Kurt Cobain. She enjoys shopping, traveling, watching movies, and hanging out with her family, friends, and Chihuahua.