Excerpt and Giveaway: Stay by Jennifer Silverwood

Description:

Rona believes love is nothing more than a myth, a tale for little girls. Until the immortal ruler of the seas appears from thin air and she is swept into a dark and dangerous affair, turning myth into a grave reality.

Commanded to work as the savior of true love, Rona realizes that love is just an illusion as grandiose as magic and after two thousand years, she is ready to give up. Until the night a human, deep in the underbelly of the city that never sleeps, sees her. She recognizes him instantly, a lost love. Trouble is, he has no memory of her.

Tasked with mending a relationship between the love she lost thousands of years ago and another woman, Rona will have to learn what it means to be human all over again when past and present collide.

Can love transcend time or will Rona be forced to roam the earth alone, forever?

EXCERPT

TOUR SCHEDULE

“Move your ass Mark!” Aura shouted from the mouth of the cave, where the rocks ended and the forest began–well, what was left of the forest after the constant brush-fires of a world gone awry. 

“Just one more bomb. Those bastards are going to have a real awakening.” Mark slammed his last homemade explosive against the cave wall. Searching the walls with his vigilant eyes one last time, he took note of the wrinkled skin hanging from the ceiling. 

Like bats, the human vampires hung with feet clinging to the crevices. Their decrepit arms criss-crossed their chests, rejuvenating themselves. Well, that was what the humans called it, but how did they stick to the cave ceilings? Some humans speculated that vampire blood secreted some kind of sap through the pores of their skin. Others figured it was just pure evil that held them there. 

“Let’s go!” Aura shouted. Mark had a way of pushing himself to the edge. Aura wanted to make sure he didn’t fall over it. 

“One minute!” Mark yelled, staring at the cave walls. Aura watched his dark copper-brown, wavy hair move like the tide over his face as he just stood there. 

Standing on the border between the outside world and the dark cavern, Mark wanted nothing more than to watch those blood-thirsty beasts burst all over the damp walls. Here inside this cave before midnight they looked like the monsters they were, the creatures that sucked the life from his sister Laura, the vamps that decapitated his parents. Vampires didn’t appear beautiful until they turned and grew fangs at midnight. Then the deathly hallow their human bodies had become grew into something almost celestial and hypnotic-like, with unparalleled strength surging through their veins. 

“We are running out of time! The vamps will be hunting soon!” Aura urged. 

But Mark stood frozen, green eyes fixed on the bloodsuckers, his memory spinning. Aura dug her fingers and nails into his shoulders and spun him around to face her. “We’re going now!” Aura’s face filled with a hot red color, and after she shook him once he returned to her. 

“I’m here, I’m going.” He lunged away from the cave and grabbed Aura’s palm in his. Racing across the fire beaten terrain, they had never moved faster. Wind hit their faces in a rush and their feet sunk into the soggy mud with each step forward. 

Pop, Pop, Pop…Within seconds the cave imploded and went ablaze. 

Bits of vamp flesh burned as it spattered across the barren forest. An arm limb nearly hit Mark in the head. The entire mission took nearly an hour to complete, the explosion just under a minute. The cave became rubble and debris shot everywhere. 

“Won’t be seeing those bloodsuckers again.” Mark sounded proud, beads of sweat dripping down his cheeks. 

“We still have to make it back to O-Tech-1.” O-Tech-1 was code name for the basement of the abandoned church in Manhattan. 

Aura tightened her grip on Mark’s hand. “And you know a few of those mature vamps will be out hunting. Six to midnight is still not safe.” Aura emphasized that point often. Mark may not mind missions from dusk to dark. Most vamps still needed rejuvenation then, but Aura didn’t trust the dark. Vamp or no, the dark could be dangerous. 

Besides she smelled the scent of something...someone following them for miles now. Someone familiar.

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About the author: 

Everyone has to begin somewhere. I began my journey to becoming an author long before I published anything. Storytelling was something I did every night before bed with my father. We would create such wonderful tales together, far better than anything in books. It sprung from our imaginations. My mother ingrained a love for the written world early on. Then my grandpa gave me his first typewriter when I was in elementary school. You can guess the rest.

But it was many years later, after dabbling in all the arts, that I realized writing was my greatest passion. I grew up on the far outskirts of the Metroplex of Texas, a busy world of cities within cities. It’s easy to get lost in a place like this. Some might argue that Dallas is the “New York” of the south and I might agree. Rather than worry about being a little fish in a big pond, however, I made up my mind long ago to follow my dreams. The funny thing about dreams is they have a tendency to come to life in unexpected ways.

My best friends were my twin next-door neighbors. (Inspiration for the three main ladies in Silver Hollow) We made up our own little book club, complete with readings and brainstorming sessions. I loved reading to them and they loved “the story,” as we dubbed whatever project we were working on. As we grew up and went on to different careers and schools, and I tried three different universities. Needless to say, college didn’t pan out well for me. So I did the next sensible thing and decided to write “for real.”

By day I am personal assistant and simple childcare worker at the local Learning Center for preschoolers. But by night, I moonlight as an independently published author of Young/New Adult and fantasy novels. My hope is that you enjoy my books and are encouraged to follow your dreams as well.

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In honor of this celebration, 4Word Press Publishing is hosting a GIVEAWAY. One Grand Prize Winner will receive a $25.00 Amazon Giftcard.  Three runner-ups will receive a digital copy of STAY.

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