The Healer's Shadow Trilogy

The Healer's Shadow Books

Girl in the Glass first in the series about the young healer, Judith. 
I will have to say it: 'I am Anya and I am nothing'. I will look down at the floor as I say it, so that I don't see the smile on my aunt's face, so she won't see the defiance in my eyes. She will get her victory. She always wins these battles. I know it, she knows it. But one day, one day she will not.

In this Cinderella story for adults there is no fairy godmother and no handsome prince, just a girl of spirit and her strange companion.

Orphaned at the age of 10 in circumstances that she refuses to explain, Anya grows up trapped in the house of her abusive aunt where she and Eva, her Shadow, are treated as slaves. As her aunt tries to break her and the punishments become increasingly life-threatening, Anya struggles to find affection and self-esteem. When the inevitable showdown arrives, where will Anya find the strength to survive and escape? And if she does escape, what then? An arduous walk across an unforgiving desert to a city where an even worse danger lies. 

Available at Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007IROBEE , Kobo, Amazon, Barnes and Noble and Smashwords.

"I had always felt most alive, when I was healing. Without healing I was a tin top spinning out of kilter soon to catch the ground. It took all my energy to hold myself from skidding into chaos."

But in the city of Pharsis traditional women healers are banned from practising and the penalty for breaking the law is death by hanging. After being arrested and interrogated twice Judith is careful to avoid suspicion, but then scarlet fever breaks over the city like a poisonous wave, leaving in its wake the small corpses of children. What will the young healer do?

Love of Shadows is the second novel in The Healer's Shadow trilogy. It is a study in grief, love and defiance.

Available on 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

Look out for the giveaway on my blog.

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

Meet Me - I'm Lee Ann Sontheimer Murphy

I've told you about my books from Rebel Ink Press and shared some excerpts.  Now I thought I'd share a little about me.  I could just post my official bio but I won't because you can find it many places.

I'm from the old river city of St. Joseph, Missouri about fifty miles north of Kansas City in the northwest corner of the Show-Me State.  Some of my ancestors settled there as early as 1850 and others came from Europe much later.  I was born there at the old St. Joseph's Hospital nicknamed "Sisters" and grew up in the neighborhood just outside.  In those years a lot of my relatives - my two sets of grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins - lived within blocks of our house.   Here's a look at the local skyline there and a picture of Sisters - then and the lot where it once stood - now.

Now I live in the far southwest corner of the state, in a small town called Neosho.  I like to say I live in what passes for suburbs in a small town, in a subdivision built upon the bones of an old fruit farm.  That fruit farm just happens to figure promiently in one of my Rebel Ink Press titles (In Love's Own Time) as well.

Neosho - Spring Street downtown

Here's home sweet home and a couple of views - my kitchen with my cousin Tom Puett and me in the way, my dining area with a special heirloom table and my office...

Oh and here's my humble home:

And here's a picture of my family with some friends - can you tell who's who?

And here's a couple vintage pics - a blast from the past: