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You should receive an email with your prize soon! :-)
In addition to my prizes, RRBC is awarding a $50 Amazon gift card as the Grand Prize to one lucky winner (pulled from the comments of all participating blog sites). See official rules here.
I grew up watching Disney movies on VHS tapes. I loved each and every story, and I still do today. The older Disney movies focused on a female being in distress and a "prince charming" coming to the rescue. Disney's come along way since the damsel-in-distress movies, and I enjoy the diversity I see in their movies today. Still, that "true love's kiss" always stuck with me as I grew older.
(GIPHY image) (GIPHY image)
I mean, really... It's a cute ending and a great way to quickly tie up the story, but it set a high (and disappointing) standard for every relationship thereafter because, in reality, all the hard work comes after true love's kiss. LOL!
So, one morning several years ago, I woke up with tidbits of memories from that night's dream, something that happens to me quite often. The question resounding in my mind was, what if that kiss was a curse instead of a blessing? What if it wreaked havoc instead of a happily ever after?
I immediately grabbed the journal by my bedside and wrote what I could remember from the dream. And it sat there for years as I wrote the five books in my Chronicles of the Diasodz series. I'm still working on book six (Drake's story), but when the Rave Reviews Book Club challenged its readers to write a short story in 90 days, my twisted little fairy tale perked up in my mind.
What I wrote in my journal years ago is the beginning of a full novel, a story that take places 100 years after Breathless, but I realized I could write the origins of the curse as a short story, so I did.
Book Blurb:
What if the fairy tale kiss that always awakens the damsel in distress takes a sinister turn? What if prince charming’s kiss no longer produces a happily ever after?
Silena’s infatuation with William hits a speed bump when he rejects her. After all, she is just a maid, and he is a young, rich aristocrat in the 1920s. Why would he have any desire to waste his time with the help?
On one particularly lonely day, Silena calls upon her magic to transform into a sexy flapper for the night. Her dream to enjoy one night with William is finally in her grasp, but her magic comes with consequences that neither William nor Silena could ever imagine.
This was such a fun story to write. I love stories with a twist, and this one is pretty twisted. There are no princesses in this story, and there is no happily ever after (just yet). ;-) I hope you will grab a copy and read it. It's just $0.99, so why not! If you do, I'd love for you to come back and share your thoughts with me.
Thanks for stopping by! Remember to leave a comment below to win one of my prizes. And if you'd like a chance to win even more prizes from other amazing authors, check out our line-up for the rest of our #RRBC Rockin' 2020 Away Book, Blog, & Trailer Block Party here. :-)
Hello, amazing readers! Today, I am honored to share my space with fellow #RRBC author, Robbie Eaton Cheadle. She is on tour right now to share her book, Through the Nethergate. By leaving a comment below, you have the opportunity to win one of the above-mentioned prizes. So, let's get started!
Who was Tom Hardy?
Tom Hardy is one of the evil ghosts from Through theNethergate. He was a highwayman and is believed to have used the Bungay Inn as
his headquarters when he was perpetrating crimes in Suffolk.
It is believed that he many have been an accomplice to, or
an associate of, Britain’s most notorious highwayman, Dick Turpin.
Like Dick Turpin, Tom Hardy was eventually caught,
convicted, and hanged for his crimes.
As a regular customer of the Bungay Inn, he returned to
haunt this site and has been seen by a number of visitors in his
eighteenth-century clothing and tricorn hat.
Margaret attempted to nod beneath the weight
of his hand over her mouth. He withdrew his hand slowly and reached downwards.
When his hands came back into her sight, they each held a pistol.
His figures were bruised and bleeding and the
nails were half torn off.
“I’ll shoot them with these babies if you
scream.” He stroked the pair lovingly.
They can’t hurt you, Margaret
thought. Grandfather said they can’t hurt you.
They are like pictures. She couldn’t help feeling scared. What
if this one can hurt me? What if this one is real?
“Ah, Margaret,” the roguish figure croaked.
“You have been causing turmoil in my Master’s Inn, my old headquarters, the
place where I plotted my crimes. A bad idea, Margaret, a very bad idea to cross
Tom Hardy and Dick Turpin.”
Margaret continued to stare at him, transfixed,
her hands laying limply on the top of the bedcovers.
“My Master is unhappy, Margaret,” said Tom.
“Your powers are unsettling his servants, making them go against his wishes.”
“What have I done? I haven’t seen any servants.
I don’t have any powers.”
“Ah, but you do. Your psychic abilities are
attracting his servants to the Inn. They are gathering and making plans to use
you to escape their fate of eternal servitude. I know they have made contact
with you. I have seen them speaking to you.”
Tom gave her a vicious smile that froze her
blood.
He must mean the ghosts. Who is his
Master? Hugh Bigod? How are the ghosts his servants?
“I am here to take care of you. I will make
sure that those who turned away from the White Light and chose to follow him
honour their agreements.”
Margaret lunged off the bed and tried to dive
past the hostile figure.
Tom grabbed her around her neck, sinking his
massive fingers into her tender flesh. As he squeezed he lifted her and slammed
her entire body into the floor … Thump … Thump … Thump.”
BOOK BLURB:
Margaret, a girl born with second sight, has the
unique ability to bring ghosts trapped between Heaven and Hell back to life.
When her parents die suddenly, she goes to live with her beloved grandfather,
but the cellar of her grandfather’s ancient inn is haunted by an evil spirit of
its own. In the town of Bungay, a black dog wanders the streets, enslaving the
ghosts of those who have died unnatural deaths. When Margaret arrives, these
phantoms congregate at the inn, hoping she can free them from the clutches of
Hugh Bigod, the 12th century ghost who has drawn them away from Heaven’s White
Light in his canine guise. With the help of her grandfather and the spirits she
has befriended, Margaret sets out to defeat Hugh Bigod, only to discover he
wants to use her for his own ends – to take over Hell itself.
AUTHOR BIO:
Hello, my name is Robbie, short for Roberta. I am
an author with seven published children’s picture books in the Sir Chocolate
books series for children aged 2 to 9 years old (co-authored with my son,
Michael Cheadle), one published middle grade book in the Silly Willy series and
one published preteen/young adult fictionalised biography about my mother’s
life as a young girl growing up in an English town in Suffolk during World War
II called While the Bombs Fell (co-authored with my mother, Elsie Hancy Eaton).
All of my children’s book are written under Robbie Cheadle and are published by
TSL Publications.
I have recently branched into adult and young adult horror and supernatural
writing and, in order to clearly differential my children’s books from my adult
writing, I plan to publish these books under Roberta Eaton Cheadle. My first
supernatural book published in that name, Through the Nethergate, is now
available.
I have participated in a number of anthologies:
Two short stories in #1 Amazon bestselling anthology, Dark Visions, a
collection of horror stories edited by Dan Alatorre;
Three short stories in Death Among Us, an anthology of murder mystery stories,
edited by Stephen Bentley;
Three short stories in #1 Amazon bestselling anthology, Nightmareland, a
collection of horror stories edited by Dan Alatorre;
Two short stories in Whispers of the Past, an anthology of paranormal stories,
edited by Kaye Lynne Booth; and
Two short stories in Spellbound, an anthology of horror stories edited by Dan
Alatorre.
To follow along with the rest of the tour, please visit the author's tour page on the 4WillsPublishing site. If you'd like to schedule your own blog tour and have your book promoted in similar grand fashion, please click HERE. Thanks for supporting this author and her work!
