Summer Teen Reading Party Continues with Natalie Wright Guest Author Blog Switch
Barbara Ehrentreu Sunday, May 27, 2012
Today I am happy to present Natalie Wright as my guest author and fellow Summer Teen Reading Party sponsor. Let's learn more about Natalie and her book, Emily's House. Since Natalie is on vacation she left us a few words.
Natalie Wright's Thoughts
I hope you’re all enjoying the fabulous Summer Teen Reading Party where fun reads abound at summer sale prices with great prizes thrown in for good measure. I’ve picked up some great reads that I’ll be enjoying on my vacation. How about you? Leave a comment about your favorite Summer Teen Reading Party find.
My one-word mantra for this summer is Adventure. As a creative person, nothing feeds my muse like Adventure. Okay, Adventure and chocolate. Preferably chocolate while on a grand adventure.
I think there’s something about new experiences that fires up the synapses and stokes the fires of the boiler. Adventure inspires.
We can find adventure in books of course. I get my daily dose of adventure through the eyes of the characters I meet in story. What’s your favorite adventure ever taken through story?
But this summer, I embark on an adventure in the real world. My grand adventure? A cruise to the Bahamas. I’ve never been on a cruise before. I’m a bit scared. Pent up in a stateroom with my daughter and husband – I have visions of Jack Nicholson in the Shining! My fair skin in the intense tropical environment – I could end up looking like a lobsterfied zombie, all red and peeling. And crowds of people. My semi-hermit, writer self, thrown into almost two weeks of being surrounded constantly by people. Oh, the horror!!
But these fears pale in comparison to the positive expectation of snorkeling amongst exotic rainbow colored fishes. Boogie boarding in the warm tropical waters. Exploring Nassau on two wheels. Food made to order and delivered to me (no cooking or cleaning for mama!). And most of all, quality time with the people I love the most.
Photo by Hisham F. Ibrahim/Getty Images
I agree Natalie, I would love to be on this beach soaking up the sun near that incredibly blue water of the Caribbean. I still remember the trip we took to Curacao. The air there is magical and fragrant. So enjoy yourself and your vacation while we tell people all about you and your book!
Bio:
I’ll meet new people. I’ll meet new fish. I’ll see things I’ve never seen before. And I’ll carry a small notebook and pen with me at all times, ready to capture an observation of a person, object, conversation or even a color that I find fascinating.
I’ll come back from my adventure, exhausted and exhilarated. I’ll come back with a fire burning in my belly to get back to work, pouring it all out onto the page.
What about you? What adventures await you this summer?
Bio:
Natalie Wright spent her formative years growing up on a farm in Ohio. It was a fertile environment for an active imagination and inquisitive mind. She is, however, a city girl at heart and now finds inspiration in her travels and in the desert environment of her home in Tucson, Arizona, where she lives with her husband, daughter and her dog Molly.
Blurb:
From Kirkus Reviews:
With her two best friends by her side and her mother’s memory in her heart, a teenager undertakes a journey to save the world from an ancient evil.
Emily Adams has always known she’s special. Throughout her whole life she’s had visions of things that haven’t happened yet and she could always read her mother’s mind. At least, she could until her mother died. Emily thinks her abilities are just about gone, but the arrival of a strange creature in her backyard one night proves otherwise. Emily discovers she is the last of the Order of Brighid, an ancient society of women sworn to protect the portal to the Netherworld. Now, with the portal under attack, it’s up to Emily and her two loyal, wisecracking friends to stop a villainous man before his actions destroy the world.
Excerpt:
Prologue
The whoosh, whoosh, whoosh of that infernal machine. Its bellows pumping up and down as black, tarry goo is sucked up the tube and into the holding tank.
She’s lying there on the bed like a robot corpse, tubes and lines going in and out of her body. Her once rosy lips now pale, tinged slightly green. Her once vibrant emerald green eyes are closed, sunken slightly into the eye sockets. Her once strong body lies still and shrunken. Only her hair looks the same, flowing like a red wave across the white shore of the pillow.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh.
I’m standing at the door, gingerly peeking in. I don’t want to be here. I don’t want to see this. I don’t want the putrid odor of people dying stuck in my nostrils.
I don’t want to go in but I’m sucked into the room anyway, my legs powerless against the invisible force drawing me in. I feel myself flailing with my arms and trying hard to command my body to obey me—to allow me to turn and run from this horrid scene.
But I’m in the room anyway, drawing ever closer to the bed.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh.
What is that tarry black stuff? Is it being sucked out of her body? Or put in?
I’m now close enough to touch her, but I don’t want to. The last time I touched her I saw a vision of her taking her last breath. The last time I touched her, I saw her die. I don’t want that to come true. And I don’t want to see her die again. The first time I saw her die I ran and ran, trying to escape the vision. I don’t want to touch anyone ever again.
But my hand reaches anyway, a mind of its own. I’m powerless to stop it. I feel my mouth opening to scream but nothing comes out, my lips locked in a soundless “O.”
My hand quivers as it reaches, in slow motion, toward the sleeping body that bears a minor resemblance to my mother. Is she still in there? Or has the cancer stolen the last of her?
My fingertips shake now as they touch her hand.
Her eyes pop open in a look of terror. Her mouth is open in a scream but instead of a human scream it’s the loud whoosh, whoosh, whoosh of that tar-sucking machine.
Suddenly, she sits up. The long, wavy red hair flying about her head is the same but the face is no longer my mother. It looks at me with large, solid black eyes, devoid of light or emotion, staring out of a bare skull. Her hand is now skeleton and grips me hard.
I pull and pull to get free of this monster, but it has me. I’m caught in its grip.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh.
I finally wake, dripping in sweat, my mouth still open in an “O,” the scream still caught in my throat.
I awake once again from the same bad dream I’ve had for the last seven years, only to find myself in a house of nightmares.
Natalie, I have to put this on my TBR list, which now needs its own space! Sounds like a really exciting read. Thank you for being my guest author and I hope you are enjoying your vacation!!
Here are places you can find out about Natalie:
Website: http://NatalieWright.net
You can Purchase Emily’s House Here:
Amazon: http://amzn.to/A7jHsG
Barnes & Noble: http://bit.ly/vlrnjp
iBooks: http://bit.ly/u4JCer
Smashwords: http://bit.ly/ttW6dl
Until the next time, Natalie's post will be up for a few days, so don't worry if you are partying and didn't have a chance to stop. Also, please stop by Natalie's blog and read her post about me. I am giving away a free book at every stop on this party tour. If you haven't gotten a copy yet of my YA book, If I Could Be Like Jennifer Taylor at the insanely low price of $1.99 at Amazon and The Muse Bookstore, please go and check it out.
Thank you to my new followers. When I hit 200 followers I will be having a celebration. I don't know what, but I will be doing something fun!! Summer is almost here and believe it or not I have still not sent out my second novel. What am I waiting for? I ask that all the time. I have had several people and kids ask me when my next novel is coming out. So I better send it soon!! When you comment here, please give me the courage to do it. It's like in Peter Pan when everyone had to clap so Tinkerbell could have her magic. Anyway, have fun this Memorial Day if you are in the US. If you aren't have fun this weekend. Summer is here!!
