She could never be average. - Wind Catcher (The Chosen #1) by Jeff Altabef, Erynn Altabef

Juliet Wildfire Stone hears voices and sees visions, but she can’t make out what they mean. Her eccentric grandfather tells her stories about the Great Wind Spirit and Coyote, but he might as well be speaking another language. None of it makes any sense.

Description:

Published: March 23rd, 2015

Juliet Wildfire Stone hears voices and sees visions, but she can’t make out what they mean. Her eccentric grandfather tells her stories about the Great Wind Spirit and Coyote, but he might as well be speaking another language. None of it makes any sense.

When she stumbles upon a series of murders she can’t help but worry her grandfather might be involved. To discover the truth, Juliet must choose between her new life at an elite private school and her Native American heritage. Once she uncovers an ancient secret society formed over two hundred years ago to keep her safe, she starts to wonder whether there’s some truth to those old stories her grandfather has been telling her.

All she wants is to be an average sixteen-year-old girl, but she has never been average—could never be average.

Betrayed by those she loves, she must decide whether to run or risk everything by fulfilling her destiny as the Chosen.

EXCERPT

A square mirror hangs over the sink, but it’s an enemy. I don’t want to see who I’ve become, so my gaze stays fixed down toward the sink. Unfortunately, the blood-smeared faucet is shiny, stainless, and reflects back an image of myself anyway. I glare deep into my eyes, leaning close to the faucet to study them. They look familiar, but as I pierce them more deeply, a hollowness appears that has never been there before. It scares me.

People change. Sometimes they change over the course of a lifetime, and other times change happens swiftly because of a single momentous event. I’m not the same person I was just a few days ago. Too much has happened, too many lies revealed. Truths, solid and real, have crumbled away before me and left behind falsehoods, shadows, and a future as uncertain as a prisoner on death row waiting for a pardon.

The pendant Sicheii gave me flops out from underneath my shirt. It was supposed to protect me. I grip it until my knuckles turn white.

Knock! Knock! Knock!

“Juliet, we’ve got to talk, Love. We need to come up with a story for the police.”

Just a few days ago, I was an average teenaged girl who looked forward to her sixteenth birthday, hoping for a little freedom and a chance to get a driver’s license.


Being average is a joke. I will never be average. I was never average....

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About the authors:

Jeff Altabef lives in New York with his wife, two daughters, and Charlie the dog. He spends time volunteering at the writing center in the local community college. After years of being accused of “telling stories,” he thought he would make it official.

He writes in both the thriller and young adult genres. Fourteenth Colony, a political thriller from Tate Publishing, was his debut novel. Evolved Publishing released his second novel, the thriller Shatter Point, in 2014, and will release his young adult fantasy series Chosen, co-written with his daughter Erynn, starting in the spring of 2015.

Jeff has a column on The Examiner focused on writing, and a blog designed to encourage writing by those that like telling stories. You can find his blog, The Accidental Writers’ Workshop, on The Chappaqua-MountKisco Patch, via the link under the “Contact” tab above. You’ll also find under that tab ways to join with Jeff in various social media venues.

Erynn Altabef is an avid reader, dancer, and community activist. When she’s not in High School, she loves Starbucks, performing in school musicals, baking, and watching movies with her friends.

Some of her favorite authors are Veronica Roth, Joelle Charbonneau, and her dad! (That would be Jeff Altabef.)

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