Today, I'll be sharing a bit of my debut novel,
Wanted: One Ghost from
Crescent Moon Press with you during the party. I will have a few excerpts throughout the day. I hope you enjoy!
Excerpt from Wanted: One Ghost
“So, did you have a good time?” Victoria Snyder asked
when April walked in from the grand foyer.
“Hello, Aunt Vickie. I didn’t expect to see you awake.”
April hung her purse, coat, hat, and scarf on the coat tree and
joined her aunt in the parlor.
“Just doing a Sudoku puzzle and having a cup of tea before
Leno.” The woman placed her puzzle book on the small
Victorian side table next to her chair. “So, tell me everything!”
A warm fire blazed in the antique hearth, and small bowls
of pumpkin spiced potpourri filled the air with delicious
fragrance, lending an air of coziness to the parlor. She loved
visiting her aunt. Vickie had a way of adding just the right
touch to any atmosphere. Unfortunately, April hadn’t been
able to visit her since she’d moved to Kings Mill because of
her studies and life in Williamsburg. She had missed the long
talks with the woman.
But now she was a bit apprehensive. She could almost
sense what Aunt Vickie wanted to converse about—and it
wasn’t as simple as a ‘ghost tour.’
April shrugged. “It was a ghost tour.” She would keep the
conversation light and simple.
Vickie nodded her head toward the kitchen. “There’s still
some hot water for tea on the stove. Get yourself a cup. I want
to hear all about it.”
April made herself a cup of tea and reluctantly returned to
the front room. No use postponing the inevitable. If she
didn’t tell her aunt about the ghost tour tonight, she’d have to
do so in the morning.
Her relative leaned forward in her chair, anxious as a
school girl to hear juicy details of a friend’s date. “So, did you
see anything?”
Bingo! There it was. The family lecture of ghosts and
metaphysics. Her aunt had insisted on the tour, going so far
as to purchase the ticket when April called to ask if she could
stay with her during her research project. Aunt Vickie
thought a ghost tour would be a good place to start, for more
than practical reasons, April was sure.
“No. I didn’t see anything.” April sighed, knowing it would
be useless to stave off the unavoidable interrogation. She
leaned against the open archway, letting her aunt know she
wasn’t settling in for a long talk. “I wish you and Grams
would give up. Maybe I’m not meant to have the gift of
paranormal sight the rest of the Wilton women possess.
Wouldn’t I have already experienced it by now if I did?
Perhaps I’m more like the Branford side and received the
more ‘logical’ bones.”
Each woman on her mother’s side of the family was
blessed, or cursed, with the ability to intermingle with the
paranormal. Aunt Vickie could sense people’s auras, living or
dead, and foretold futures based on the workings of fate. Her
ability to pick up on psychic energy was pretty amazing,
though she only used her gifts when she thought it was
necessary, which to April was quite often. Her grandmother,
Dorothea, could sense ghosts in various realms, and often see
them, depending on the realm they were in.
Over the years Grandma Dottie and Aunt Vickie had
studied metaphysics. They were well known among their
circle of friends who believed in spirits and hauntings. Ghost
hunters and parapsychologists called upon their talents to
help rid families of ghosts from their homes or give lectures
at workshops.
April didn’t doubt any of their gifts. Parapsychology was a
strong art within her family, and with her natural penchant
for psychometry, she supposed anything could be possible.
She just hadn’t encountered it herself.
“You are a Wilton woman! God is waiting for the right
time. You’ll know when it happens. Or is this more about how
Jason called you a fraud in front of the crew you were
volunteering with at the Jamestown expedition?”
April groaned, pinching the bridge of her nose. “Oh please,
I don’t want to discuss this. Jason and I are history—”
“—and good riddance I say.” She shook her bony finger at
April. “I told you when you introduced him to me that your
auras and bio-rhythms were not compatible.” Victoria Snyder
puffed up her chest proudly. “You need to move away from
his negative energies and accept your gift, learn from it, and
see where it wants to take you. Our gifts and fate guide us to
where we need to be. We Wilton women value the gifts we
have, you should too.”
“Except my mother,” April whispered, looking down at her
hands. Her mother’s gift had caused her parents’ divorce
when she was a young teenager. She didn’t like to bring it up
but this was one of those times. Maybe her mom was right to
be afraid of her gift.
Aunt Vickie let out her breath wearily. “Yes well, your
mother hasn’t found how to work with her gift for
clairaudience. She can’t control the voices of the ghosts who
come to her for help and they frighten her. And what’s worse,
she refuses to even try. That’s why she has those damn
headaches.”
“Can we stop talking about this?” April asked.
“Fine.” Her aunt sat back, apparently giving up badgering
her for now. “Tell me all about the tour. I felt a strong
presence when I went, especially around the old hanging tree.
I believe there is some unresolved, live energy residing there.
But truthfully, I think the tour is mostly historical legend and
entertainment.”
“Ghost tours are just forms of entertainment for tourists
and ghost aficionados,” April agreed. Her thoughts focused
on her tour guide and their brief walk, and her lips molded
into a smile over the rim of her tea cup. “But I did happen to
meet a nice re-enactor. He seemed to know quite a bit about
Kings Mill’s history and James Addison.”
“You met a nice man? Did you ask him out to dinner?”
Aunt Vickie was her champion when it came to her love
life. Yes, she agreed she should have listened to Aunt Vickie
about Jason’s lack of a true aura. It would have saved her a
lot of heartache.
“Of course I didn’t ask him out to dinner!” She sipped her
tea and gave her aunt a cheeky grin. “I did ask him to join me
for a cup of coffee, but he refused.” She shrugged as if it
didn’t matter.
April put down her cup and saucer on the small Victorian
tea table beside her and went for her purse. “He let me take a
picture of him though. I have it here somewhere.” She
grinned, thinking about her personal tour guide and what her
aunt would think of him when she saw him. They both shared
a preference for tall, dark haired men.
“You sly girl, you!” Aunt Vickie beamed proudly. “I’ll make
a Wilton woman out of you yet.”
April’s digital camera came to life and she switched the
setting to playback, scrolling through the photos. She’d taken
a bevy of pictures, ones of the hanging tree, some of the
colonial storefronts and historical houses, the front and back
of the courthouse. She came across the last picture, the one
she’d taken right outside, and then it went back to her older
photos. Everything was there but the picture of her guide. She
gasped and thumbed frantically through the pictures again.
“What’s wrong, April dear?” Her aunt got up from the
chair and came over to her, bringing her cup of tea with her.
“It was here…I mean, the picture is here but he isn’t.” The
photo showed part of the brick cobbled street, a corner of
courthouse, and the lamp post she’d had her guide stand in
front of. There was a bright, fuzzy ball of light obscuring part
of the gaslight. Could it be a possible reflection off the light
and her flash? She’d captured him in the frame, she was
positive!
Her aunt looked over her arm at the frame revealing the
street along with the courthouse. April didn’t like the
knowing smile and twinkle to her aunt’s eye. “Oh, he’s there,”
she said, peering up from over her tea cup.
“What do you mean?” She was almost afraid to ask.
“You’ve managed to capture what we call residual
paranormal energy. See the spot of fuzzy light in the middle
of the picture? You’ve captured an image of a paranormal
orb. Welcome to the family, April. You’ve seen your first
ghost."
If you enjoyed this excerpt you can purchase a Kindle version of Wanted: One Ghost at:
http://www.amazon.com/Wanted-One-Ghost-ebook/dp/B00D4FAH42/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1370171223&sr=8-1&keywords=wanted+one+ghost+loni+lynne
Paperback and other Nook/eBook formats will be available June 3 from
Crescent Moon Press.
If you had a paranormal gift, what would it be and what would you do with it?
Thanks for visiting!! Stay tuned for more excerpts and fun!
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