ECHO Cover Reveal and Bonus Excerpt…

Here it is…

The cover of my debut novel, Echo…

 

It bugs me when authors use images of people that look nothing like the characters in their books. So, I purposely chose to hide the faces of my main characters so you, the reader, could form your own ideas about what they look like. I hope the cover is as beautiful and magical to you as it is to me.

Echo will be available as an ebook on August 2 through Amazon. Paperback orders can be placed through this website using Paypal starting August 24. Sorry, due to Amazon’z publishing rules, I am not allowed to sell my books on my own site until October 29, 2014. Contact me via email if you’d like a copy of ECHO in paperback.

Bonus!!! AN EXCERPT FROM CHAPTER 8 OF ECHO:

The second I climbed out of the car in front of the large, brick house it hit me. That hum from the Quickening rattled my chest so hard I thought I was going to puke. I doubled over behind the opened car door, my stomach muscles cramping. I was beginning to wonder if I’d made a mistake and Dori was right. Maybe I’d bonded with someone I shouldn’t have. I sat down hard on the curb and dropped my head to my hands. I fought to keep from blacking out. I didn’t know what was going on, but a weird thought hit me – there were too many emotions in me and not enough room for all of them and the essence of the Quickening. I don’t know how I knew that, I just did.

“Bro, you okay?” Jesse was kneeling beside me waiting for me to answer.

“She’s here,” I mumbled. “Tara, she’s…” I couldn’t talk and try to balance myself, so I held up a hand for Jesse to wait a minute. I tried blanking over, to block myself from the other emotions coming from the people at this party. It worked a little, but everything already inside me was suffocating.

“DJ?” Jesse put his hand on my shoulder. I shrugged him off and threw up my hand.

“Just give me a minute, okay?” I tried another technique. I slowed my breathing while I pictured each emotion leaving with my breath. It worked, for a second, then my chest vibrated again, this time like my rib cage was going to explode! These emotions, tied to the Quickening, did not want to be released.

The image of the floating Skittle pieces from my link with Tara popped in my head. I saw them in my mind, floating out of order around us again. Then, in the image, she took my hand and all the like-colored pieces started grouping together. The reds hovered near the reds before bumping into each other to connect and form a bigger red dot. The other colors did the same, bumping and joining, until they became the long streamers of color. And I don’t know how I knew that this was what I had to do now to control my emotions, but I did. I guess that was another thing I’d be talking to my sisters about.

I waited until the last colored dot connected with its streamer then opened my eyes. I slowly stood and saw Jesse’s look of worry before the emotion hit me.

“You alright, bro?” He grabbed my upper arm to steady me as I leaned back against the car. The rattling was disappearing, but my knees were still shaky.

“Tara’s here,” I mumbled. “Or somewhere near here. I can feel her presence, her energy vibrating.”

“I know,” Jesse said. “That’s why we’re here.”

“Huh?” I wasn’t following his train of thought.

“That’s why we’re here,” he repeated. “So you can see Tara again.”

“Dude, you’re kidding!” I bounced from the car hood, excitement sparking on my fingertips, but Jesse grabbed my arm. He turned me loose quick when he realized my excitement was bleeding over into him.

“Let me just say this,” He held his hands in front of him to keep me from taking off or interrupting. “I feel like shit for being so hard on you the last time. You’re my bro, and I should be helping you, not holding you back. I mean, if Tara is your élan, then there’s no keeping y’all apart anyhow, right?”

I jumped at him and threw my arms around him before remembering we were standing in the middle of a road lined with sorority houses and people in every front yard. I shoved him away and slapped him on the shoulder. Jesse glanced around to see if anyone had been watching.

“You can thank me later,” he said, coughing to clear his throat. We took a second more to calm down, and I pictured the streamers flying in the wind to center me. Then we walked across the street and down the side walk to the Kappa house.

The minute my hand touched the door knob, suspicion and anxiety crept over me, stronger than any of the other fifty emotions that I fought to block. I pushed them back and opened the door, trying to figure out where those feelings were coming from.

Jesse and I stepped into a large front room of the two story sorority house. It was filled with people holding beer bottles or plastic cups listening to music that blasted from speakers hanging in the corners. I glanced around as many pairs of eyes gave us a once over before turning back to their conversations. I nudged Jesse and nodded at a group at the base of the stairs. Mike and Beau were standing with a group of women, and Mike was shaking Tara’s hand.

Jesse’s grabbed me before I shoved through the crowd to throttle Mike. The suspicion was coming from him, the anxiety from Tara. I couldn’t hear what they were saying, but I could tell by the look on her face and the way she tried to step back away from him that he was making her nervous.

“Bro, you’ve got to shuck some of that hostility.” Jesse held tight to my arm. “You tagged them, remember?”

“But he’s scaring her,” I said taking another step toward them. “I can feel it coming off her in sheets.” My hands itched from the anger I was trying to control.

He shook me, forcing me to look at him. His dark gray eyes bore into mine as his grip tightened. “They won’t mess with her. Not with the tag you put on them; not with so many people here.”

The hatred I held for Mike and Beau lessened as I watched them leave with a couple of the girls from the group. My muscles relaxed and I shrugged Jesse’s hand from my shoulder. “I’m fine,” I said, rolling my neck a little, hearing the joint pop and release the tension there.

“Hey, Williams.” Wes Priester stepped in our line of sight, shaking Jesse’s hand. “Junior.” He nodded hello, and I raised my chin in reply. “There’re some major hotties here,” Wes said watching a pair of women in short skirts and halter tops walk toward the back of the house.

“Well, why don’t you go say hi,” Jesse said, squinting his eyes at me and bobbing his head toward Wes. I flicked a bit of lust at Wes, hoping he’d use it to zero in on the women who’d just walked by. Jesse aimed him in the direction of the girls and watched as he took the bait.

A wave of possessiveness struck me and I turned to see Tara and a blond exchange words. Another one of Jesse’s friends that I didn’t recognize shoved a Budweiser in my hand. I held it up to Tara, smiled, then took a swig. The blond waved and began winding her way toward me.

“Uh oh,” Jesse said shifting his weight, his eyes darting from Tara to the blond.

“What?” I looked back at Tara walking this way, wondering what I was going to say to her. Would she remember me from the club? Did she remember Mike, or Beau, or Wes?

“Lexi’s on the prowl.” Jesse stepped in front of me as the two women approached. His anxiety pushed out at me, but the emotions from the Quickening rumbled inside me the closer Tara came.

“Hey Tara,” Jesse said reaching out to shake her hand. “Lexi.” He nodded and smiled at the blond who didn’t give him a single glance. Instead, she stepped up to me grinning shamelessly. Bald-faced horniness rolled off of her; it was hard to pay attention to what Jesse was saying.

“Who’s your friend?” Tara asked and I jerked my head in her direction. Just the sound of her voice broke Lexi’s charm.

Jesse introduced me as his brother visiting for the weekend and Lexi’s hand settled on my forearm. Strange vibes were coming from her – lust, jealousy, possessiveness, fear. I was having a hard time blocking her. To make matters worse, Tara wove her arm around my free one, adding her emotions to the mix. And Jesse just stood there staring.

I knew enough about women to know a power struggle when I saw one, but I’d never been the reason for one. If I hadn’t already linked with Tara, I’d have been flattered by Lexi’s attention. As it stood now, she was making it hard for me to do what I came here to do; and she was just plain pissing Tara off. I had to do something, quick.

I blocked all emotion coming into me and focused on sending vibrations of uncertainty to both women. I had to get them both off me before I could get rid of Lexi for good.

Tara’s confusion was tearing at my gut. I didn’t want to hurt her, but Lexi’s possessiveness was choking me. A final jolt of uncertainty forced Tara and Lexi to snatch their hands from my arms. I reached out to Lexi and cast a glob of disgust and hatred into her. I felt Tara’s pain as pinpricks on my skin as she turned to walk away, but not before Lexi drew back and slapped me hard across the face.

“Take her,” I said, shoving Lexi at Jesse. He wrapped his arms around her and dragged her from the room screaming. I pushed a stream of calm at her before grabbing Tara’s elbow to stop her.

“What was that all about?” she asked staring at Lexi.

“Beats me.” With my hand on her arm, the feelings I had for her bubbled up again in my chest. I didn’t want to completely control her emotions, but standing here touching her, I didn’t know where hers began and mine ended.

*****

Book 2 in The Élan Series is already underway!

In Blur, the second book of The Élan Series, Tara and Derek struggle with choices of the past. Old friendships are lost and new ones are formed as the couple faces suspicions of an illicit relationship and a tragic accident that threatens to rip the soul mates apart.

Blur, Book 2 in The Élan Series, will be available this fall.