Love of Shadows Excerpt 2

Earlier today I shared with you the first excerpt from my new book Love of Shadows. Here is the second excerpt. Having experienced an abusive relationship the young healer, Judith, resists getting involved with men. Despite this she falls for a good man called Bruno, but Judith's personal demons mean that the course of true love is not going well. 

Midnight. He wasn’t coming back. And who could blame him? Not me. Wasn’t that what I had wanted – to drive him away? I was so good at that.

Where was he?

I went to the window and looked out. The moon was full now, but scarred by thin clouds. The ship stood dark against the water. A wind had got up, the trees were tossing their heads. Down at the beach the shingle would be creaking under the weight of the waves. Where was he? This was a bad night to walk in.

What had he done to deserve this? Nothing. All he had done was fall in love with me and, worse, admit it. That was a terrible crime to be sure.

All night I sat by the window watching for his return, wanting it and dreading it. For what was there to say? If he had struck me, it might have been easier. I deserved that. I deserved a beating. And I had had so many I didn’t deserve. But he had done nothing, only looked at me and gone.

I was so tired. I leant my head against the window frame and looked out. The sea on its furthest edge was beginning to grow silver. Soon the barges would begin their journeys north. I hoped that he would be on one, going somewhere where people loved him. I was so tired of everything, of myself most of all. My eyes closed.

Love of Shadows Excerpt

Hello Goddess Fish, thank you for allowing me to take part in today's party. Today I will be talking about my book Love of Shadows.

Love of Shadows is the second novel in The Healer's Shadow trilogy, which began with Girl in the Glass. Set in an unnamed country the story follows the life of Judith and her Shadow Sarah. Their mentor and employer has just died as the book opens and Judith is struggling with grief, when she is arrested:

“Your second accuser, as I’m sure you will have worked out, was your mistress’ nephew. He claimed that you murdered her deliberately to get her money. A simple case of murder in the eyes of law, no fudge there.

“Both your accusers are men who if they found someone dying in the street would not stop to help, or rather they would – they would help themselves to whatever was in the dying man’s pocket. No, I don’t like either of them, but that doesn’t make their accusations wrong.”

He sifted through the folder and produced Elma’s legal will and her real one – the letter to me. There were nicotine stains on his fingers as they unfolded the fine notepaper my mistress always used for special letters. Holding it in one hand and the cigarette in the other, he read in silence. I had planned to keep the letter forever to remind me of her, lest I forget some day that that fine singular old woman had loved me. I knew that was in part why she had written it, knowing how much I doubted myself and others. I treasured it more than any money Elma could have given me and here it was an object of little interest in a police file, to be stowed in some drawer perhaps or worse waved in court as evidence to condemn. That young interrogator was nothing compared to this man, the Rottweiler knew how to worm under the skin without stunts or threats.

About Me:I am Zoe Brooks, a British writer and poet. I spend half my life in a partly restored old farmhouse in the Czech Republic, where I write all my novels and poetry. I aim to write popular books, which have complex characters and themes that get under the reader's skin.

I was a successful published poet in my teens and twenties, (featuring in the Grandchildren of Albion anthology). My long poem for voices Fool's Paradise is a finalist in the forthcoming EPIC ebook awards. More recently I have begun writing novels: Girl In The Glass - the first novel in a trilogy about the woman and healer Judith was published on Amazon in March 2012, followed by Mother of Wolves and Love of Shadows.

To buy the book visit:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009PCG602

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B009PCG602

You can find out more about me on:

Blog: http://zoebrooks.blogspot.com
Twitter http://twitter.com/ZoeBrooks2
Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/ZoeBrooksAuthor

Love of Shadows will be touring with Goddess Fish to blogs every monday for the next two months.

Love of Shadows - Excerpt Four

Here is the last excerpt from my book Love of Shadows. The book's central character, Judith, is a traditional female healer in a city traditional medicine is banned and the penalty for breaking the law is death by hanging. In this excerpt Judith is working in an underground hospital.

“Peter,” I say. “I don’t think I’ve changed that dressing for a while.”

The rumble is growing to thunder and there are voices. 

I pick up a clean dressing and a pot of ointment from the shelves and walk across the room. As I bend  over the bed, I try not to think of the light of flames moving along the house walls of the square. I try not to see the look of hatred on the faces of the torchbearers. I try not to listen. I try to focus only on Peter and my hand as it peels back the dressing. I try not to listen to the clamor.

Under my breath I say a prayer: “Angels who are blessed, take this darkness from me.”

And the darkness does clear, for a while. The wound is healing, so I apply some ointment to keep it clean and pick up the new dressing.

They are overhead now. There is no escaping the words, the room almost shakes with them: “Burn the witch! Death to the witch!”

My legs fail me and I slip to my knees. I am in the darkest of my nightmares, darkness shot through with flames. “Sarah, they are coming.”

I am Zoe Brooks, a British writer and poet. I spend half my life in a partly restored old farmhouse in the Czech Republic, where I write all my novels and poetry. I aim to write popular  books, which have complex characters and themes that get under the reader's skin.

Buy Love of Shadows on:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009PCG602

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B009PCG602

You can find out more on:
Blog: http://zoebrooks.blogspot.com

Twitter http://twitter.com/ZoeBrooks2
Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/ZoeBrooksAuthor

Love of Shadows - Excerpt Three

Hello Everyone,

Earlier today I shared two excerpts from my book Love of Shadows. The book is the second in The Healer's Shadow trilogy. The book follows the life of the young healer Judith and her Shadow Sarah. Some people in Judith's world, including Judith, are born with Shadows. Shadows appear to be human but are different: logical and without emotions, they act as a conscience and balance to their all-too-emotional masters. Shadows are faced with prejudice and hatred. In this excerpt Judith is caring for Shadows who have been attacked as part of a pogrom. 

As I passed the curtained doorway to the bar, I heard the sound of a life which once I had lived and from which I was now so far removed that the curtain might as well have been an iron door. My legs were heavy on the stairs, my eyes were shocked by sunlight. I presume I lay down on the bed and slept immediately, because when I woke I was still dressed. Still drugged by sleep I walked to the window and drew back the curtains. There in the square the costermongers were folding down the shutters on their stalls, pigeons were scrapping over food, the shadows in the colonnade deepening. A man was leaning against a pillar as he looked intently at the inn. Instinctively I stepped back out of sight and pulled the curtains to once more. I turned to find the landlord in the doorway.

“There’s someone watching,” I said.

“Yes,” he said, “Started yesterday. Bruno spotted him yesterday evening. In a couple of hours he’ll be replaced. All they do is watch, they haven’t tried anything yet. And we can’t do anything to them, not legally. Thing is they don’t try to hide, they want us to know.”


To buy Love of Shadows: 

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009PCG602

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B009PCG602  for British buyers. 

You can follow me on:

Blog: http://zoebrooks.blogspot.com
Twitter http://twitter.com/ZoeBrooks2
Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/ZoeBrooksAuthor

Love of Shadows - Excerpt Two

Earlier today I shared with you the first excerpt from my new book Love of Shadows. Here is the second excerpt. Judith has met with Bruno, but Judith's personal demons mean that the course of true love is not going smoothly.

Midnight. He wasn’t coming back. And who could blame him? Not me. Wasn’t that what I had wanted – to drive him away? I was so good at that.

Where was he?

I went to the window and looked out. The moon was full now, but scarred by thin clouds. The ship stood dark against the water. A wind had got up, the trees were tossing their heads. Down at the beach the shingle would be creaking under the weight of the waves. Where was he? This was a bad night to walk in.

What had he done to deserve this? Nothing. All he had done was fall in love with me and, worse, admit it. That was a terrible crime to be sure.

All night I sat by the window watching for his return, wanting it and dreading it. For what was there to say? If he had struck me, it might have been easier. I deserved that. I deserved a beating. And I had had so many I didn’t deserve. But he had done nothing, only looked at me and gone.

I was so tired. I leaned my head against the window frame and looked out. The sea on its furthest edge was beginning to grow silver. Soon the barges would begin their journeys north. I hoped that he would be on one, going somewhere where people loved him. I was so tired of everything, of myself most of all. My eyes closed.

I am Zoe Brooks, a British writer and poet. I spend half my life in a partly restored old farmhouse in the Czech Republic, where I write all my novels and poetry. I aim to write popular  books, which have complex characters and themes that get under the reader's skin.

Buy Love of Shadows

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009PCG602

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B009PCG602

You can find out more on:

Blog: http://zoebrooks.blogspot.com
Twitter http://twitter.com/ZoeBrooks2
Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/ZoeBrooksAuthor

Love of Shadows Excerpt One

Hello Goddess Fish, thank you for allowing me to take part in today's party. Today I will be sharing with you all four excerpts from my new book Love of Shadows. 

Love of Shadows is the second novel in The Healer's Shadow trilogy, which began with Girl in the Glass. Set in an unnamed country the story follows the life of Judith and her Shadow Sarah. Their mentor and employer has just died as the book opens and Judith is struggling with grief, when she is arrested.

“Your second accuser, as I’m sure you will have worked out, was your mistress’ nephew. He claimed that you murdered her deliberately to get her money. A simple case of murder in the eyes of law, no fudge there.

“Both your accusers are men who if they found someone dying in the street would not stop to help, or rather they would – they would help themselves to whatever was in the dying man’s pocket. No, I don’t like either of them, but that doesn’t make their accusations wrong.”

He sifted through the folder and produced Elma’s legal will and her real one – the letter to me. There were nicotine stains on his fingers as they unfolded the fine notepaper my mistress always used for special letters. Holding it in one hand and the cigarette in the other, he read in silence. I had planned to keep the letter forever to remind me of her, lest I forget some day that that fine singular old woman had loved me. I knew that was in part why she had written it, knowing how much I doubted myself and others. I treasured it more than any money Elma could have given me and here it was an object of little interest in a police file, to be stowed in some drawer perhaps or worse waved in court as evidence to condemn. That young interrogator was nothing compared to this man, the Rottweiler knew how to worm under the skin without stunts or threats.

I am Zoe Brooks, a British writer and poet. I spend half my life in a partly restored old farmhouse in the Czech Republic, where I write all my novels and poetry. I aim to write popular books, which have complex characters and themes that get under the reader's skin.

I was a successful published poet in my teens and twenties, (featuring in the Grandchildren of Albion anthology). My long poem for voices Fool's Paradise is a finalist in the forthcoming EPIC ebook awards. More recently I have begun writing novels: Girl In The Glass - the first novel in a trilogy about the woman and healer Judith was published on Amazon in March 2012, followed by Mother of Wolves and Love of Shadows.

To buy the book visit:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009PCG602

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B009PCG602

You can find out more about me on:

Blog: http://zoebrooks.blogspot.com
Twitter http://twitter.com/ZoeBrooks2
Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/ZoeBrooksAuthor