So I’ve been sharing a lot of excerpts from Hometown, so I thought it was time to share a few scenes from my other stories. This one is from The Truth of Rock and Roll. It gives us a look at Jenny and Johnny, Our Heroine and Our…Protagonist (he isn’t Our Hero yet), the ferocity of their love, and the power of rock and roll magic. Continue reading “Excerpt from The Truth of Rock and Roll: Fighting in the Locker Room”
Tag: Romance
Announcements
Hey all!
Three pieces of news!
1) I have broken 200 pages on my new novel, City of Dreams! Look for sample first draft excerpts to be coming soon!
1a) Of course, excerpts from my older works will continue to be posted. Watch this space.
2) My author interview is up at Booksgosocial! Go and have a look!
3) And finally, the book trailer for Dreams of the Boardwalk is complete! Have a look!
Dreams of the Boardwalk Now Available for Free Download!
Lost in the Dream of the City.
Sarah Brannigan’s life has fallen to pieces at the age of forty-five. Her fairy tale marriage has ended, her job history has been a downward spiral since 2008, and she’s paying way too much rent to live in a tiny room in an apartment that she shares with five roommates.
To escape it all, she walks the streets of New York City, seeking out the hidden wonders of the City. And like many before her, she falls in love with Coney Island. Then one day, she falls asleep on a boardwalk bench after a long walk in the hot sun, and she falls into a dream. A dream that seems to reach into Coney Island’s past. A dream of everything she wished for when she was young. A dream whose effects linger even after she’s woken up.
Soon the dream begins to take over as Sarah uses it again and again to seek escape from her failed life. She’s getting everything she ever wanted: youth, love, and adventure. But as she goes deeper into the dream, she gets ever closer to nightmare.
Sound good? Head on over to Amazon and download a copy! Absolutely free, today through Tuesday October 16!
And for the love of God, would somebody please review this thing?
Book Trailer for The Truth of Rock and Roll!
New book trailer from BooksGoSocial! This time for The Truth of Rock and Roll! Enjoy!
Dreams of the Boardwalk Promotional Art
So with the promotional giveaway of Dreams of the Boardwalk coming up, I decided it was time to share a few pieces of artwork I commissioned for the story.
Continue reading “Dreams of the Boardwalk Promotional Art”
An Excerpt From Changeling
Changeling is still available for free download through Thursday! If you haven’t downloaded a copy yet, here’s a taste of what you’re missing:
“ Oh, human…” the banshee sighed. “What are you trying to do?”
“You say you sing death,” Bridget pressed. “Does it have to be anybody’s death in particular?”
The banshee raised its hands and shook its hooded head.
“Human…Bridget…no. Just stop. I’ve heard this so many times before. What you want is forbidden.”
“Ah, there now, that’s an interesting thing,” Bridget said triumphantly, pointing as she always did when she had someone good and pinned down. “You tell me it’s forbidden, but nobody bothers to forbid something that can’t be done. There’s no laws against counterfeiting by shitting gold coins, after all.”
“Bridget,” The banshee said, taking hold of the pointing hand and – not ungently – moving it away. “If I could do what you wish, not a child would die in this world as long as there was a parent left to say ‘take me instead’.”
Bridget just shook her head. “Oh, come now, what kind of fool do you take me for? Fool enough to think Old Man Death would find taking me sooner rather than later to be a deal worth making?”
“What deal are you making, then?”
Bridget grinned to herself. She had the spirit’s attention now. “This isn’t the first time you’ve been to these parts, you know. Do you remember?”
“I’ve been to all of Ireland,” The banshee answered “I remember it all, but I don’t know which part you want me to remember right now.”
“When last you were here, you sang for my husband.”
There was a long moment of silence. If the banshee had been human, Bridget would have guessed that it was stunned at being confronted by someone who’d been hurt by its work, at being forced to think of that person as someone who hurt instead of a simple singing engagement.
But it wasn’t human, now was it? Surely a creature who “sang death” couldn’t feel such things.
But sure, and didn’t that sound like a sigh that came out from under its hood before it spoke again. “Bridget, I’m sorry. I really am. But I’m afraid that doesn’t change anything.”
“I didna think it would. And there’s no need to be sorry.”
Pause.
“…what’s that again?”
“Jimmy Flanagan was a good man, God rest his soul, and I loved him.” Bridget said. “But his death was no harder than most I’ve seen – a heart attack is head and shoulders above what our Meaghan is facing right now – and my heart didn’t break when he died.”
“No?”
Bridget shook her head. “No. I loved him, but I never could love him the way other wives loved their husbands. When he took me to bed, it was doin’ me duty, not kickin’ up me heels like it is for most women at least once in a while.” She interrupted herself to shake a finger at her spectral companion. “And not because his idea of getting me ready was ‘brace yourself, Bridey’. Jimmy did the best he could, poor man.” She paused a moment then, and her eyes went very far away, and when she spoke it was much softer. “And I never knew why. Why I couldn’t love him like that, I mean…until I heard you sing, and it was like a mermaid instead of a banshee.”
The eerie blue lights within the cowl blinked, and the hooded head cocked. “What in the name of Oberon’s knickers do you mean by that?”
Bridget rolled her eyes. “Ye bewitched me, that’s what I mean. I couldn’t tear meself away. If I’d known ye would be this easy to find, I would’ve come to you on the moment.”
“Well most people don’t want to find – “ The banshee began. Then she realized what she was saying. “Are ye daft, woman?”
“Most likely,” Bridget admitted. “I certainly thought the other girls mad when they acted like I’m acting. Thought my way with my Jimmy was more sensible. Now they’re thirty years past it and I’m acting like a girl with her tits just starting to bud making calf eyes at a boy at her first dance.”
“And I’m…the boy?” The banshee asked, still struggling to understand just what this mad human was saying to her.
“You are.”
Hurry on over and pick up a free copy before it’s too late! And as always, while you’re there, check out the rest of the library.
Bridget and the Banshee
In honor of Changeling being made available for free download from Amazon this week, MJ Barros’s marvelous work “Bridget and the Banshee” has been given its own page, which can henceforth be found through a link in the picture’s description on the Promotional Art page.
Changeling Is Available For Free Now Through Thursday!
The story of love and death is now available for free download on Amazon!
The banshee are spirits of death. Some were once human; some are of the Good Folk, come up from the darkest shadows under the hill. In the end, it makes no difference. The banshee sing death, and that is the whole of it. When the banshee come singing, death follows behind, and there is no fighting it. No appeal, no bargains to be made. But tonight, Bridget Flanagan has an offer that the banshee have never heard before…
Check out Changeling‘s homepage, or just go straight to Amazon and download yourself a free copy! And as always, while you’re there, check out the rest of the library.
Coney Island, June 3, 2017 – Scenes from Dreams of the Boardwalk
A few weeks ago, I was visiting Coney Island on a lovely spring day, and I got some great pictures of locations that happen to be important in Dreams of the Boardwalk. I’ve set them up on their own page in the Media Archive. Check it out!
Promotional Art Gallery Now Open!
All promotional art for my work collected in one place, complete with links to the works themselves!