I'm happy to have E.A. West on the blog today. She's here to introduce her new Young Adult novel, Different, available from Astraea Press.
Tag line:
Anything can happen when the rules change.
Back Cover Blurb:
Jezebel Smith is different. She can’t talk, she doesn’t look
like anyone in her family, and no matter what she does it’s always the wrong
thing. God accepts her for who she is, but He’s the only one who does. Then she
finds an unconscious man in her favorite cave, and her life is turned upside
down. New people and new rules collide with the old, leaving Jezebel unsure of
which set of rules apply to her life. When the strangers in town attempt to
help her out of the nightmare she’s grown up in, it promises to change her life
forever.
Excerpt #1:
The distant drip of water echoed
off the rocky walls as Jezebel Smith wandered through her cave. Pungent fumes
from her kerosene lantern stung her nose, and she wished for a flashlight. But
her family would miss a flashlight. They never noticed when she took the old
lantern from the barn.
Turning her face away from the
lantern, she caught a whiff of the familiar scent of the rocks around her. She
loved the fresh, earthy smell of her cave. Through countless hours of careful
practice, her hiking boots barely produced a whisper on the bumpy path leading
to her special cavern. If she swung the lantern on its creaky handle, however,
she could fill the cave with a creepy echo that reminded her of Halloween.
She passed through an opening in
the wall and entered a large cavern with several ledges in one end. As she
approached the lowest ledge, the glow from her lantern touched an unfamiliar
lump on the floor below the rocky shelf and she froze. She knew every inch of
this cavern — every rock, ledge, and bump in the floor. No one ever came here.
Nothing ever changed unless she changed it. The cave was the only thing she
could count on to always stay the same.
This time, however, there was something new. The cave had
broken its own rules, adding a boulder where one didn’t belong. She crept
toward it, fighting tears of hurt that the cave would trick her like everyone
else, and the golden light of her lantern revealed it wasn’t a boulder after
all — it was the still form of a man. Her pulse pounded in her ears, so loud it
threatened to drown out her own thoughts. Where had he come from? Why wasn’t he
moving? Her heart skipped a beat. Was he dead?
Excerpt #2:
Fear shivered through her that
he was sleeping so much. One of her brothers had fallen out of a tree once and
hit his head, and the doctor said they had to keep him from falling asleep for
a while. Jezebel didn’t know if falling off a ledge and hitting his head made
the man have to stay awake or not.
After worrying for a while
longer, she finally decided she’d have to risk a beating from her parents and
go get the doctor. She didn’t know if he’d come, but she had to try. Daniel was
the only person to ever treat her kindly, and he needed help.
She put a couple more sticks on
the fire so it would keep burning while she was gone, and then she lit the
lantern and headed out of the cavern. As she neared the cave entrance, the
flame went out. She slowed her steps and followed the faint glow of daylight.
Hopefully the doctor had a flashlight. When she stepped into the woods, she set
the lantern by the cave entrance and ran toward town. She practiced saying
Daniel’s name while she ran, praying the doctor would come if she told him the
injured man’s name.
As she neared the edge of town,
she slowed down to catch her breath. She hesitantly stepped onto the main road,
terrified at the thought of trying to convince the doctor to go with her. She’d
learned a long time ago that no one believed her about anything, and since she
couldn’t talk, people didn’t understand what she tried to tell them anyway.
A lot of strange cars and people
clogged the main street through town, and Jezebel wondered who they were.
Unless Reverend Brown was holding one of his many revivals, the town rarely had many visitors. As she
continued toward the doctor’s office, a woman carrying a stack of papers walked
toward her with a smile. Jezebel stopped, her mind whirling with uncertainty,
and the woman handed her a paper.
“We’re looking for this man. He
went hiking in this area a couple of days ago and didn’t come back.”
Jezebel studied the sheet in her
hands, and her heart skipped a beat. A picture of Daniel stared back, and some
words had been printed across the bottom in black ink. She pointed to the
photo. “D-Dan... Daniel.”
“That’s right, his name is
Daniel,” the woman said, her tone changing a little. “Have you seen him?”
Jezebel nodded and looked back
the way she’d come. “C-c-cave.”
“You saw him in a cave?”
She nodded again, excitement rushing through her. For the
first time in her life, someone understood what she tried to say. She touched
the photograph on the paper, indicating where the cut on Daniel’s head was.
Before she could see if the woman understood, she heard her older brother spit
out her name. She cringed and felt herself shriveling inside.
Buy Links:
Author Bio:
E.A. West, award-winning author of sweet and inspirational
romance, is a lifelong lover of books and storytelling. In high school, she
picked up her pen in a creative writing class and hasn’t laid it down yet. When
she isn’t writing, she enjoys reading, knitting, and crocheting. She lives in
Indiana with her family and a small zoo of pets.
Where to Find Me:
2 comments:
Love the cover. It's beautiful! Great excerpts too. Definitely planning to get a copy myself. Reading YA is one of my favorites.
Thanks so much, Cindy! And thank you for hosting me today. :)
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