Tell a little about the main character
in Secret: At HL Woods.
DK – I’ll let Bri tell you – here’s Bri Lancaster, main story-star of Secret:
At HL Woods
Hello everyone! I’m Bri, seventeen-years-old, and just
finished my junior year in a new high school. I should be used to a new school
because my family moves around a lot, but this move took me away from my best
friend, Luke. Plus, we moved in March, so I didn’t really have much time to
make friends before summer break…if I had wanted to.
Anyhoo, my dad got mom and me all settled into an amazing
house on a lake – great neighborhood as far as that goes (even though I’m not
really the type that really cares who our neighbors are). Then, dad left us…so,
Mom, had Gramps move in.
The ongoing arguments and Mom’s emotional roller coaster
ride died down somewhat – but I still didn’t like spending time with her.
Gramps was another matter, worth coming home and learning
about Gram and her ability to see ghosts. No one, other than an aunt and
Gramps, knew about my communications with the spirit world. I’d learned at a
young age to keep it to myself or I would be medicated like a crazy (thank
goodness Mom wasn’t an advocate of medications).
It’s tough not talking to a spirit when they know I can see
them – let’s just say moving around so much saved me from most of the
embarrassing situations that branded me as a “crazy” or “weirdo.”
I’ve managed to keep mostly to myself, until Luke, my best
friend, who also had his own branding situation going on within his family.
Hope you decide to read my story and learn how the 1960’s
murdered couple, Martin and Gloria, find their justice…and how I discover
there’s more to living…much more. Nice to meet you all; )
Do you believe in the paranormal and
if so, do you have an experience you can share?
DK – I love this question and have actually shared it previously.
When I was young, I had a few times when I woke out of a dead sleep to see an
old woman standing beside my bed. Each time she’s reaching for me. I was so
terrified, I closed my eyes and screamed my head off. If I would have been a
little more evolved, I could have spoken to her. Like I mentioned, she came back to me a
number of times…and I’m sure it was to give me some sort of message (at least
that’s what I choose to think😉.
I believe she might have been my grandmother who passed
away when I was only a toddler. She has never come back to me since my youthful
interventions with her. I do sense energy (positive or negative), and I also
feel empathy, deeply, for those around me, which tend to create issues for me
at times.
So, in answer, do I believe in the paranormal – I give a
resonating YES!!
What titles are you working on now?
DK – I have a few books I’m working on to submit this year
for release.
Jake & Sam ~ Twisted Tales of Freakish Fun – an anthology for mid-grade that I’m co-writing with S.
Willett (author of the Country and the Rock mid-grade
trilogy). Release scheduled for late spring / early summer 2018. The book is
about two friends, Jake and Sam, and the crazy, fun adventures they each have
and share. Once in a while, their adventures come together. And they wreak of paranormal, supernatural, sci-fi, and maybe
even fantasy – but always freakish fun.
Secret: of Amber Eyes – Another book in the Secret Series to release sometime in
December 2018. Morgan Redding graduates high school then gets sent to her
aunt’s wildlife refuge in northern Michigan (her mother considers Morgan a
trouble-maker and wants time without her to be alone with the new husband).
Morgan discovers a species of beings beyond comprehension
until she becomes one…
Malevolent, A Kendra Spark Novel – the second book in
the Kendra Spark series, written as S. Peters-Davis and due to release in August
of 2018. Another supernatural, paranormal suspense-thriller romance – Kendra,
Jenna, and Derek have their work cut out in finding the head of a human
trafficking ring kidnapping teenage girls, plus the kindling heat between Derek
and Kendra shifts from playful to passionate.
Excerpt from Secret: At HL Woods (First
meeting between Bri and ghosts)
Without a word, I ran toward the mound
of wild rose vines and thistles, where Kyle and Max had stood a moment ago.
A black man and white woman shimmered
into view beside it, arms around each other, both staring at me.
I stopped so abruptly I almost lost it again. Apparitions.
“Martin, look at her. She’s seein’
us.” The woman’s distinct southern accent caught me, but what set off my cursed
paranormal spidey-sensors was their clothing…straight from the 60’s, according
to some of the old romance books I’d read from Mom’s stash.
“By damn, she does see us.” He stepped
closer to me with the woman at his side. “You can see us.”
“I can, yes.” Holy crap, I just said that out loud. My whole body tensed. I
glanced over my shoulder to see if Kyle and Max still roamed face-plant alley.
A shiver shook through me. They’d left.
“We need your help, Missy.” Martin’s
brows arched, his head tilted. “Please tell us you can help us.”
The woman turned to him and patted his cheek. “It’s gonna be all right,
sweetie. We ain’t botherin’ this fine woman with our problems.” She turned to
me. “It’s okay, darlin’, you never mind
us.”
“Why are you both here?” Wherever I
saw spirits of the dead, it usually meant they were connected to something in
the area. I considered the mound, seeing something metal and rusty underneath
all the greenery. “You should have crossed over, into the vortex of
light…unless you’re meant to go to the dark plane.”
The woman gasped and clung to Martin.
Maybe I’d said too much. I yanked some
of the vines away, getting scratched and poked from the effort.
A car, green, ancient. No wonder it
was tough to see.
“We want justice, but we aren’t able
to leave this spot. Something’s holding us here, like some kind of barrier.”
Martin’s lips pinched together, his head nodding. He looked at the woman as if to confirm. She nodded also.
I scanned the area thoroughly to make
sure Kyle and Max weren’t lurking behind a tree to get a shot of me talking to
air. I’d dealt with Max enough during school to last a lifetime; his nasty
pranks didn’t need to scar my summer too.
Thankfully, they’d really left.
“You fancyin’ one of those boys?” The
woman smiled.
“Gloria, now don’t you be puttin’ on
with this little lady. She won’t want to share her life with the likes of us.”
Martin embraced Gloria, kissing her forehead.
I chuckled at the idea of considering
either Kyle or Max as anything more than what? Simply guys in my grade? No one
knew me here and I liked it that way. Moving from Marshall before the end of my
junior year was the worst thing to happen in my life, well besides Dad leaving
once we settled into the house here. Plus, Luke lived in Marshall.
I shook my head. “No. Neither of those
guys is into me, and I’m definitely not into them.”
Martin and Gloria’s eyes narrowed, a
frown creased both of their foreheads.
“Whatcha mean? Into me…into them…like
friends or somethin’ more?” Gloria asked, and I could tell Martin didn’t
understand it either. I was sure the music back then used words like those in
reference to relationships, although, maybe it’d been a while since they heard music.
“I don’t like them and they don’t like
me.” I studied the couple. “How old are you guys? What’s your story?” Didn’t
want to ask them what year they died…or how they died, in case they hadn’t
acknowledged it to each other. Once in a while that happened, like the time I’d
come across a spirit that didn’t realize he was dead. He went into hysteria, ranting, and raving, jumping from one extreme
emotion to another that lasted for days as his apparition faded then came back,
disappearing and reappearing all over the house and property.
“Eighteen, both of us, we just
graduated high school.” Martin’s lips pressed together.
“We were followed, by a
truck; didn’t notice it at first.”
“We was
drivin’ to Idlewild, a city in northern
Michigan, for work and a place to live. Gettin’ married there,” Gloria added.
She turned toward Martin and suddenly their apparitions washed-out like bad
static on a television. An electric pop snapped through the air and they
vanished.
First Prize choice of Godiva Chocolate
Ballotin or Chocolate Basket
Second Prize one print copy of any BWL
Romance novel
Third Prize three BWL Romance eBooks
