Books from the Backlog is a fun way to feature some of those
neglected books sitting on your bookshelf unread. If you are anything
like me, you might be surprised by some of the unread books hiding in
your stacks.
Cassidy Jones is your
typical teenager– that is, until a seemingly harmless accident in the
laboratory of a world-renowned geneticist turns her world upside down.
Discovering
incredible strength, speed, and enhanced physical senses that defy
logic, Cassidy embarks on an action-packed adventure that has her
fighting for answers…and for her very life.
Don’t miss the other action-packed books in Cassidy Jones Adventures! Cassidy Jones and Vulcan’s Gift, Book Two Cassidy Jones and the Seventh Attendant, Book Three Cassidy Jones and the Luminous, Book Four Cassidy Jones and the Eternal Flame, Book Five
I do enjoy young adult novels and the paranormal and superhero world the characters live in. I added Cassidy Jones and the Secret Formula to my TBR on 11.4.12. Sounds like a good clean read with a wild adventure in store for us readers.
I received an email from Nick’s Reader’s Club with all those beautiful covers lined up in a row. Do you wonder who’s watching you now? LOL
Also, Dead Meat: Day 1 is free, while Nick has heavily discounted Day 2 And Day 3, so now is the time to jump in. You can also read for free on Kindle Unlimited. Happy reading.
The Dead Meat series by Nick Clausen covers the apocalyptic/dystopian world he has created on a day by day basis. I highly recommend reading the series in order as each book picks up where the previous book left off.
It is so easy to visualize and relate to the storyline because we are going through it now, sans the zombies. I began reading this before Covid-19, but the characters careless actions read too much like real people’s disregard for others in spreading the disease. All it take is one person to break the rules, one moment of carelessness, others thinking, oh, it will be alright. It only takes one person to set off an explosion.
Day 4 is longer than the other books. It seems to grow as I meet new characters and keep up with the old ones.
I could not stop reading this action packed, heart in my throat, nonstop suspense with tension that left be a bit sore from my muscles being clenched so tight.
OMG…you better be prepared to lose some of your friends along the way, because Nick Clausen doesn’t hesitate to kill them off in gruesome, tragic, heartbreaking fashion.
AND…he ends with my emotions reeling as I mourn, yet I have hope.
I voluntarily reviewed a free copy of Dead Meat: Day 4 by Nick Clausen.
5 Stars
AMAZON SYNOPSIS
The dead have awakened. Driven by insatiable hunger. In eternal search of fresh meat. The infection spreads like the plague. Nothing stands between the undead and humanity. Is it too late to save the world from disaster?
The end of the world one day at a time
In this new apocalyptic zombie series from the author of They Come at Night and Human Flesh, we follow events day for day as the world slowly decends into mayhem and the zombies take over. Don’t miss the thrilling ride!
For fans of The Walking Dead and The Orphan Books.
Day 4 of the zombie apocalypse
The story picks up from Day 3. Dorte, a young doctor, desperately tries to find a cure for her sister, who got scratched by one of the infected. It’s a race against time, and it’s only the beginning of another day in hell.
By Day 4, the infection begins to spread across nation
borders, and it looks like none of the governments will be able to
contain it. Is it too late to save the world?
★★★★★ “Definitely the best day yet!”
★★★★★ “This series just gets more and more exciting”
★★★★★ “had me hooked from the first page”
EXCERPT
Henrik has turned away to go back inside the bedroom and pack a fresh set of clothes, when Kirsten screams.
He
spins around and sees Finn come lunging out from Jennie’s old room,
throwing himself at Kirsten, who backs away into the wall in a vain
attempt to get out of reach. But it’s too late, and Finn bites down hard
on her neck.
Kirsten’s scream turns even higher and more piercing.
Oh, Jesus Christ!
Henrik
runs down the hallway and grabs Kirsten’s flailing arm. He begins
tugging hard to get her away from Finn, but Finn acts like a predator
who just caught his breakfast and isn’t intent at all on letting it go.
He bears down harder with his teeth, growling and blowing bubbles in the
blood from Kirsten’s throat. He also reaches up and grabs her by the
grey hair, yanking her head sideways.
Kirsten screams again, very
high-pitched, but a little weaker than before, and for an awful moment,
she looks like a piece of toy torn between two big kids, as Henrik pulls
her one way, while Finn pulls her the other.
“Let go of her!”
Henrik shouts, and then, without thinking, he lets go of Kirsten with
one hand in order to throw a punch at Finn. His knuckles connect with
the old guy’s temple, and his jaw pops open for a moment, as he blinks
his dead eyes and staggers backwards, loosening his grip on Kirsten’s
hair and allowing Henrik to pull her free. She almost collapses into his
arms, and Henrik half drags, half lifts her backwards down the hallway,
away from Finn.
But the neighbor quickly regains his bearings and
comes waddling after them, arms stretched out, the lower part of his
face smothered in blood …
ABOUT NICK CLAUSEN
Born 1988 in North Jutland,
where I still live with my wife, who also happened to be my earliest
childhood girlfriend. From 2017 I have lived as a full-time writer. Up
until then, I had different jobs beside the writing. I have been
studying as a carpenter for three years, and have also read two years of
psychology at Aalborg University. It turned out that the writing had a
much more powerful pull on me.
I decided early on that I would be an author when I grew up. In
fact, the decision came to me already when I read my first book,
Snevampyren by Dennis Jürgensen. My first “real” stories I wrote at
14-15 years of age. They were rejected by the publisher, but still got
praise. There were some years when I was busy with being a teenager and
trying to get an education before I suddenly remembered that I should
be an author.
That day I made a promise
to write 1,000 words a day until I got a book published. I sat down and
started writing. I continued to write every single day for a year and a
half. I sent the finished manuscripts to different publishers, and the
rejections piled up. Twelve of them by the end. But each time I could
feel it was a little bit better. The criticism became more positive. The
thirteenth story was called Tidevandet, and it was adopted by the
publisher and came out a year later.
I have always enjoyed writing, although in the beginning I put a lot
of pressure on myself. My approach to the process has become much more
free over the years. For example, I no longer plan my stories. That
way, I feel that I’m experiencing the story while writing it and the
characters feel like real people. I do not know where the ideas come
from, but I’ve never had trouble finding them.
Pawned by Laura Bickle is a wonderfully done fantasy of angels and demons, dragons and the mob, and the humans that inhabit a richly developed world, where everything revolves around Raz, his cousin, Carl, and Bert, a demonic lizard, and the magical pawn shop that he lives in, where things are sold and bought, and traded for favors.
4 Stars
GOODREADS BLURB
For fans of Stranger Things and the works of Neil Gaiman, Pawned is a Young Adult novel that blends dark fantasy adventure and noir — on the New Jersey boardwalk.
You can hock almost anything at my family’s pawn shop…even your own soul.
You think running a pawn shop full of cursed objects with your dad and grandpops is cool? Try it for a week and get back to me. Now try picking up any random object and seeing its creeptastic history play out right before your eyes — yup, that’s my little “gift.” It’s my job to sort out what’s haunted and hexed from what’s not, and do my best to keep all of us — including Bert, our ice-cream-truck-driving-lizard demon — employed.
So it wasn’t all sunshine, roses, and possessed samurai swords even before grandpops’ heart attack — but now things are garden-gnome levels of bad. Dad made a deal with the wrong end of the dark side to save grandpops’ life, putting my whole family smack dab between the forces of evil and our friendly local blow-your-pawn-shop-to-smithereens mobsters. And Lily next door…I shouldn’t even be thinking about Lily.
All I ever wanted was to get out of this crap town and away from my messed-up family, and instead it looks like I’m gonna have to use every scrap of magic in this joint or there won’t be any family left to leave behind…
ABOUT LAURA BICKLE
Laura
Bickle grew up in rural Ohio, reading entirely too many comic books out
loud to her favorite Wonder Woman doll. After graduating with an MA in
Sociology – Criminology from Ohio State University and an MLIS in
Library Science from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, she
patrolled the stacks at the public library and worked with data systems
in criminal justice. She now dreams up stories about the monsters under
the stairs, also writing contemporary fantasy novels under the name
Alayna Williams.
Her work has been included in the ALA’s
Amelia Bloomer Project 2013 reading list and the State Library of Ohio’s
Choose to Read Ohio reading list for 2015-2016.
Print Length: 404 pages Publisher: 47North (March 1, 2020) Publication Date: March 1, 2020 Sold by: Amazon.com Services LLC Language: English ASIN: B07RJQPB63 Praise for THE KILLING FOG
“Wheeler (Broken Veil) opens the Grave
Kingdom series with this winding tale of valor and sacrifice, set in a
realm where using magic summons a heavy fog that kills every living
thing it touches. [T]he threat of the fog looming in the background adds
atmosphere and tension…This excellent introduction to the prolific
Wheeler’s work will appeal to fans of Asian-influenced fantasy.” —Publishers Weekly
The Wall Street Journal bestselling
author of the Kingfountain series conjures an epic, adventurous world
of ancient myth and magic as a young woman’s battle with infinite evil
begins.
Survivor of a combat school, the orphaned Bingmei
belongs to a band of mercenaries employed by a local ruler. Now the
nobleman, and collector of rare artifacts, has entrusted Bingmei and the
skilled team with a treacherous assignment: brave the wilderness’s
dangers to retrieve the treasures of a lost palace buried in a glacier
valley. But upsetting its tombs has a price.
Echion, emperor of
the Grave Kingdom, ruler of darkness, Dragon of Night, has long been
entombed. Now Bingmei has unwittingly awakened him and is answerable to a
legendary prophecy. Destroying the dark lord before he reclaims the
kingdoms of the living is her inherited mission. Killing Bingmei before
she fulfills it is Echion’s.
Thrust unprepared into the role of savior, urged on by a renegade prince, and possessing a magic that is her destiny, Bingmei knows what she must do. But what must she risk to honor her ancestors? Bingmei’s fateful choice is one that neither her friends nor her enemies can foretell, as Echion’s dark war for control unfolds.
You can purchase The Killing Fog at the following Retailers:
Bingmei turned back to watch the struggle between Kunmia and
the Qiangdao leader. If only it were the man who had murdered her grandfather.
She’d hoped to find him this season, to make him pay for what he’d done. But
this was the first band of marauders they’d come across.
Kunmia’s weapon was soon the only one shining, and the fog’s
sickly haze was drawn toward it like a flock of moths. Magic lured the fog. It
was why the artifacts were used sparingly, if at all.
And then the leader went down, his skull cracked by the staff.
“Lieren!” Kunmia shouted in warning. The valiant man continued
to fight, not seeing the creeping mist that licked at his adversaries’ ankles
as if to taste them. He was still surrounded. And then the fog suddenly surged
forward, engulfing him and the others near him.
“Please!” Marenqo gripped the young man’s arm, hoisting him to
his feet. The fisherman’s boy saw the fog then, the scene illuminated by the
glow of Kunmia’s staff. No further warnings were needed. The boy leaped into
the boat and began unfastening the ropes, working quickly. Screams of panic
started. The fog had begun its deadly work.
“Kunmia!” shouted Zhuyi. “The boat!”
Kunmia stood transfixed, gripping the weapon that had helped
summon the death of her friend, her companion in arms. Bingmei saw the anguish
in her face, which was quickly replaced by implacable determination. The leader
of the ensign rushed toward the boat, the staff’s glow slowly decreasing. Still
it lured the fog to follow her. Knee-high tendrils of mist snaked through the
grass, chasing after Kunmia.
Photo Content from Jeff Wheeler
Jeff Wheeler took
an early retirement from his career at Intel in 2014 to write
full-time. He is a husband, father of five, and a devout member of The
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Jeff lives in the Rocky
Mountains. His books have been on the Wall Street Journal Bestseller
list 5 times (for The Thief’s Daughter, The King’s Traitor, The Hollow
Crown, The Silent Shield, and Prism Cloud) and have sold more than 4
million copies. His novels have also been published or will be published
in many languages: Italian, Chinese, Hungarian, Turkish, Polish,
Spanish, Russian, and German.
He is also the founder of Deep Magic: the E-zine of Clean Fantasy and Science Fiction (www.deepmagic.co), a quarterly e-zine featuring amazing short stories, novellas, and sample chapters.
You can usually find Jeff at Emerald City Comic Con, New York Comic Con or at writers conferences.
He welcomes hearing from readers: jgwheels /at/ gmail dot com
If you are interested in purchasing signed
copies of his books for friends, family, or your own collection, please
e-mail: WOJWbooks /at/ gmail dot com
I love unicorns and dragons and have read The Unicorn Key, Book I of the Realm of LIght and Fire series, so when I saw the ARC for The Unicorn Quest, Book II, I had to have it.
I have been waiting for The Unicorn Quest, seeing that the series does not stand alone. Have to keep reading to know the ending, and there is more to come.
I love unicorns and dragons, so this is a perfect fit for me. I’m back with some familiar friends, humans, unicorns and dragon shifters, and a couple of pixies.
Freya and River have become more than friends. Their romance is a slow burn and I love that they take their time, getting to know each other.
I am curious about River’s mom. Is it good? Bad? Why does he not want Freya to meet her?
The gang is off on a new adventure when Jet, a unicorn shifter that holds a key, is kidnapped. They know the why, but who has taken him? And where?
They travel through mountains, cities, on a river in their quest to find their unicorn friend and protect the world from the evil that wants to bring it down.
Danger, betrayal and treachery come from known and unknown sources as they search for the pendants that can keep the world safe.
We do find time for love and romance and new friends.
They had one success and one failure on their mission and that leaves us with another story. Unicorns, dragons, witches, some familiar and some new supernatural beings, making me question, who is friend and who is foe?
I enjoyed the fact that I didn’t know all that would happen and the end was not known until I got there. The writing is great and the storyline is one I enjoy. I didn’t feel that, I can’t put it down feeling, an urgency to race through the pages. Is it because it wasn’t aimed at me, but teens and young adults? Is it because I have been devouring books and want that shock factor? Either way, I enjoyed the story and look forward to finding all the answers and saving the world.
I voluntarily reviewed an ARC of The Unicorn Quest by J A Culican
3 Stars
GOODREADS BLURB
Unicorns and Dragons and Shifters oh my!
With
everything back to normal and a new boyfriend, my life couldn’t be
better. That is until my unicorn shifter friend is kidnapped by forces
unknown, along with the key he was holding.
With the Dark Fae
Lord beaten, the only conclusion to come to is that there is another foe
out there, one far more deadly and this time they aren’t looking for
just one unicorn, they want them all.
The Unicorn quest is the
exhilarating second in series by the USA Today Bestselling authors who
brought you the Dragon Tamer series. Realm of Light and Fire is
guaranteed to have you hiding under your blankets with your flashlight,
turning the pages.
ABOUT J A CULICAN
J.A. Culican is a teacher by
day and a writer by night. She lives in New Jersey with her husband of
eleven years and their four young children.
J.A. Culican’s inspiration to start writing came from her children
and their love for all things magical. Bedtime stories turned to
reality after her oldest daughter begged her for the book from which
her stories of dragons came from. In turn, the series The Keeper of
Dragons was born.
Books from the Backlog is a fun way to feature some of those
neglected books sitting on your bookshelf unread. If you are anything
like me, you might be surprised by some of the unread books hiding in
your stacks.
Shayna and her two best
friends have the abilities to manipulate and control the four elements,
earth, air, water and fire. While learning to hone their growing powers,
they discover a new and malicious presence in their sleepy beach town.
Someone is performing blood magic and threatens to expose their small
magical community. So far only small animals have been slaughtered, but
then the nightmares start.
Shayna suffers nightmares of being
chased and sacrificed only to wake up bloodied and bruised. She thinks
her magical blood is the ultimate target for the final blood rite. When
an innocent girl, Tracy, is kidnapped Shayna knows it’s only a ploy to
draw her out; she can’t let someone die because of her.
I love books that are located in beach towns and magical communities. There are so many elements I like about the book, her nightmares, waking up bloody and bruised…I want to know what is going on. I picked this up on 7.31.12.
My Review For From The Sky: Twilight with aliens and I love it! Conspiracies, danger, UFOs, aliens of different kinds and a guy and a girl in love. What more could I want?
4 Stars
GOODREADS BLURB
She was an ordinary girl with an extraordinary secret, but it wasn’t that her boyfriend was an alien. An interdimensional being that’s stranded on earth learns what it means to give up everything for one human. From the Sky weaves first love into an edge-of-your-seat mystery populated by fallible humans and otherworldly beings that question the inevitability of aliens among us. Finalist in the Book Excellence Award! Mills Press science fiction second-place award.
My Review For Equinox: She’s special and alone. Danger and loneliness at every turn. Who can she talk to? Who can she trust? Lovin’ it! Very much like Twilight but with aliens. I do love it and the characters.
4 Stars
AMAZON SYNOPSIS
Never trust an alien.
The Sequel to From The Sky. “Two possibilities exist: either we are alone in the universe, or we are not. Both are equally terrifying.” Author C. Clarke. From the Sky Saga Continues! The day after the winter solstice, Samantha Hunter is found naked and bleeding in a remote cabin in the Sandia Mountains of New Mexico. As Sam works to understand what’s happened to her, she is whisked into the Underground—a secret community of scientists, civilians, and aliens that are connected to her story and to the alien boy she’s in love with—Lucien. This is where the fight begins, and Sam must decide what price she’s willing to pay for life and love. “Equinox gives the reader a totally different way of thinking about extraterrestrials. Anyone with interest in the possibility of life outside this planet—and for those who love a great romance—this book for you. It is exceptionally written and will leave you wanting more!” —Kelly Fait Goodreads “American teenagers have to grow up fast because dark forces are out to get them—J.E. Nicassio gives us a fast-paced and exciting tale full of car chases, close calls, and the angst of star-crossed love. Teens and even older readers will love From the Sky.” —Ray Simmons for Readers’ Favorite
Kudos to J E Nicassio. I don’t read many series to the end, but this a must for me. I gotta know…….I have added Book III, Aurora’s Curtain to my wish list.
I got these for free on Amazon back in September of 2017. Thank you J E Nicassio.
Books from the Backlog is a fun way to feature some of those
neglected books sitting on your bookshelf unread. If you are anything
like me, you might be surprised by some of the unread books hiding in
your stacks.
I’m dying, I
thought. This was unexpected and not at all how I envisioned my death. I
was supposed to die gardening in a flowerbed as a hundred-year-old
woman, not as a seventeen-year-old trapped in a lake beneath inches of
ice.
Llona Reese is used to living on the run. After the
Vykens killed her parents, she knew they would eventually come for her
too. She can’t take any chances. But when she starts to make friends for
the first time in her life, she gets careless and lets her guard down.
Big mistake.
As an Aura, Llona can manipulate light and harness
its energy. But if she wants to survive, Llona will have to defy the
Auran Council and learn to use her power as a weapon against the Vyken
whose sole desire is to take her light. Now she’s caught in something
even bigger than she can understand, with a power she can’t wield, and
no one she can trust, except, just maybe, a mysterious stranger.
In this breathtaking and romantic adventure, Rachel McClellan delivers a truly mesmerizing story that will keep you guessing to the very end.
I won an ebook and I do have every intention of reading it….eventually. 🙂 I added it to my Goodreads TBR on 7.23.12.
What if every time you told the truth, evil followed?
My name is Melody Fisher. My daddy was a snake handler in Appalachia until Mama died. Though years have passed, I can still hear the rattle before the strike that took her from me.
And it’s all my fault.
Since then, I’ve been passed around from foster home to foster home. I didn’t think anything could be as bad as losing Mama.
I was wrong.
But I will not speak of things people have done to me. Every time I do, worse evil follows. Now, the only thing I trust is what saved me years ago.
Back when I would sing the snakes calm …
Book Details:
Genre: YA Mystery Published by: Vesuvian Books Publication Date: October 1st 2019 Number of Pages: 285 ISBN: 1944109366 (ISBN13: 9781944109363) Purchase Links:Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads
Read an excerpt:
Uncle Harlan slammed my bedroom door open. “You’re going to learn to show the Lord respect, girl.” He grabbed my neck and forced me to walk in front of him.
My neck hurt where he dug his fingers in.
He took me outside and shoved me toward the shed. He slipped the key in the lock and removed it from the hasp. The door creaked as it opened and then he thrust me through.
“I’m not going to allow you to follow your mother’s footsteps. You’ll learn to make peace with snakes and not show them any fear. Or else.”
He grabbed a snake case from the shelf, put it on the ground, and opened it. He stepped backward out of the shed and swung the door shut. The latch clicked. Uncle Harlan on one side of the door, and the snake and me locked inside.
“I’ll come get you in time for school in the morning.”
His footsteps receded.
Light filtered through the cracks in the shed slats. In the dim light, the snake coiled in the corner, its tongue flicking out periodically. I slowly lowered to the ground and hugged Raksha Waya tight.
The inside of the shed was slightly warmer than outside. Staying warm might be a bigger problem than keeping the snake calm. It ignored me and remained coiled, but the cold seeped into my bones. I scanned the shelves. There had to be something in here I could use to help keep warm.
A tarp sat on a shelf on the opposite side of the shed from the snake. But I might not be tall enough to pull it down. Standing on tiptoes, I grabbed a corner and tugged. My fingers slipped. I set Rakkie on a lower shelf, then reached with both hands and tugged.
The weight of the tarp almost knocked me over as I caught it.
Making sure to keep my movements small so I didn’t threaten the snake, I unfolded the tarp and spread it out. Then I grabbed Rakkie and carefully crawled under a corner. Once settled with Rakkie on my lap, I pulled it over us and tucked it under my chin.
The hours passed as the light changed and moved through the shed. My tailbone ached and my back hurt from sitting still for so long. Twilight came. Surely Uncle Harlan didn’t really mean to leave me here with the snake all night.
When the darkness was complete and I could no longer see my hand in front of my face, I faced the hard truth—Uncle Harlan meant it. I’d spend the night locked in a small space with a pit viper.
While my toes still felt frozen, the rest of me was warmer with the tarp. My eyes drooped and closed. Then I heard it.
Hiss. Rattle. The whisper of something dragging across the floorboards.
The snake was on the move. The slight rattle as it slithered through the shed made my heart pound. I froze.
Liana Gardner is the multi-award-winning author of 7th Grade Revolution (most recently the recipient of a 2018 Nautilus Book Award) and The Journal of Angela Ashby. The daughter of a rocket scientist and an artist, Liana combines the traits of both into a quirky yet pragmatic writer and in everything sees the story lurking beneath the surface.
Liana volunteers with high school students through EXP (expfuture.org). EXP unites business people and educators to prepare students for a meaningful place in the world of tomorrow. Working in partnership with industry and educators, EXP helps young people EXPerience, EXPand, and EXPlore.
Engaged in a battle against leukemia and lymphoma, Liana spends much of her time at home, but her imagination takes her wherever she wants to go.
Liana is a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators.
Visit these other great hosts on this tour for more great reviews, interviews, guest posts, and giveaways!
Enter To Win!:
This is a rafflecopter giveaway hosted by Partners in Crime Virtual Book Tours for Vesuvian Books and Liana Gardner. There will be 1 winner of one (1) Amazon.com Gift Card and 2 winners of a signed print copy of Speak No Evil by Liana Gardner. The giveaway begins on October 1, 2019 and runs through December 2, 2019. Open to U.S. addresses only. Void where prohibited.
Dorothy In the Land of Monsters Garten Gevedon (Oz ReVamped, #1) Publication date: October 11th 2019 Genres: Fantasy, Paranormal, Young Adult
Shifters, Zombies, and Vampires? Oh my!
My name is Dorothy Gale, and I think I might be dead.
When my dog Toto and I got swept up in a twister, we landed in hell. A very colorful hell. Like a rainbow dripping in blood. Now it looks as though this dreadful underworld plagued with vampires, zombies, and shifters will be the site of my eternal damnation.
They say this terrifying land called Oz isn’t hell or purgatory and escape is possible, but first I must survive the journey down the blood-soaked yellow brick road to the only place in Oz where vampires dare not tread—The City of Emeralds.
With enchanted footwear and the help of my three new friends—a friendly zombie, a massive shifter lion, and a heartless axe murderer of evil night creatures (who also happens to be the hottest guy I’ve ever seen)—Toto and I have a chance to make it to the Vampire Free Zone. When we get there, I must convince the most powerful wizard in this magical land of monsters to send us out of this radiant nightmare and back to the world of the living. They say he’s just as frightening as this monstrous land, that he detests visitors, and even the most horrifying creatures cower in his presence. But I must seek him out. And when I find him, I’ll do whatever it takes to make him send me home.
Gray everywhere. As I stand on the porch of my aunt and uncle’s home, all I can see is the great gray expanse of prairie on every side. No trees, houses, buildings, people, nothing at all breaks the broad sweep of flat gray country that reaches to the edge of the gray sky in every direction. The sun scorched the plowed fields into a dusty, gray mass that expands to the horizon line, the endless gloom broken only by the little black shadows of the fissures running through it like the marbling of a corpse.
Even the grass is dead and gray—the hot sun singed the blades until they were the same lifeless gray color that blankets everything. Years ago, the house was a pristine white, but the torrid summer sun burned and blistered the paint and the heavy winter rains battered it away, and now the house is as weathered and gray as everything else here. It’s fitting for what it’s like to live here in Middle of Nowhere, Kansas. It looks like what it is—bleak, leached of any color, any excitement, anything interesting at all—drained of life. Gray is gray is gray is my life. It surrounds me from all sides, all the time. And it sucks. Thanks a lot, climate change.
I came to live with my Uncle Henry and Aunt Emily on a crappy little farm when my parents died in a car accident. I was thirteen. Because Emily was the only family I had left, she got stuck with me. She could have refused me and left me as a ward of the state, but she was kind enough to take me in. Even though I don’t share the same connection with Emily and Henry that I did with my parents, they’re still family—the only family I have—so, I may complain about this being the middle of nowhere, but it’s better than being in an orphanage or foster care or some group home. Yeah, their place is tiny, and old, but at least it has four walls, a floor, and a roof.
The two-bedroom farmhouse I live in is as weathered and brittle as the farm it’s set on. One story with no attic and no basement, the only feature it has is a cyclone cellar which we’ve had yet to use since I’ve lived here. It may lack color and any of the luxuries most people in America have these days—cable, wifi, consistent hot water to shower with—but I am grateful I have somewhere to live, even if life here is so gray that the grayness proliferates, turning everything in it to a gray as dry as dust.
When Aunt Emily came here to live with Uncle Henry, she was a young, pretty, vivacious woman with golden hair and bright emerald green eyes—or I thought I remembered her that way. Even she’s gray now. Just like it changed this once green land, the sun and wind have changed her, and her once sparkling green eyes are now dim and muted, tinged with a melancholy gray. Living here in this sweltering, exanimate world has stolen her radiance and left her ashen. It’s exhausted the red from her cheeks and lips, and now they’re pallid and gray too. Once she was curvy and a little plump. Now she’s gaunt and never smiles. Can’t blame her for never smiling, living in this dull, gray crap hole.
When I first came to her, Aunt Emily would startle when I laughed. She’d scream and look at me like I was nuts, shocked I could find anything to laugh at in this gray place. Uncomfortable and bored out of my skull, I’d laugh trying to entertain myself, trying not to let the depression get the best of me, but after being here for four years, I get it now—what is there to laugh about when all that’s here is gray?
Uncle Henry never laughs either. Morning to night, all he does is work hard. If he knows what joy is, he doesn’t let on. From his gray beard to his rough boots, Henry is also gray, stern, and solemn. With a permanent stone face, he almost never speaks. It’s like he’s made of hard, gray stone. If he didn’t work so much trying to make this gray land yield something, I’d think he was stone—a gray statue of a man.
Sometimes I wonder if it’s me that’s gray, or the lens I see the world through. Before my parents died, my life was a bright white, like a pristine sheet of paper wishing for a colorful story to grace its surface. Then the black smear of tragedy struck, and it’s as though the thousands of tears I shed diffused the black that blemished my bright whiteness, spreading it over the unsullied parts like watercolor, leaving my world gray. But I don’t think I’m gray. Not yet. I don’t think it has spread to me yet.
—“Dorothy in the Land of Monsters” Oz ReVamped #1 Chapter 1 – The Cyclone, pgs. 1-2
Author Bio:
Garten Gevedon lives in New York City with her family. She’s a sci-fi, fantasy, and paranormal author who loves taking fairy tales and turning them inside out. You can visit her online at www.gartengevedon.com.
![Equinox (Beyond Moondust Trilogy Book 2) by [Nicassio, J. E.]](https://i0.wp.com/images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51vpNsxyiML.jpg?w=584&ssl=1)
