BLURB
Jeni has fully accepted her spiritual ability, and yet she’s unnerved by the apparition of Marielle, the ghost of a pioneer girl asking for help. As the ghost’s tragic love story unfolds in her dreams, Jeni’s resistance melts and she resolves to save the soul of Marielle’s lost love. When she discovers her own impulses cause Marielle to act uncharacteristically, Jeni believes she can change the past. Despite warnings against meddling with time, Jeni’s convinced she can save the soul of Marielle’s lover. Deep inside a dream and intent on her quest, Jeni is lured into a trap that binds her soul to Marielle’s. With no allies, no knowledge about crossing through time and with limited 18th century resources, Jeni is terrified: failure will leave her soul trapped in the past, or worse . . . lost in nowhere.
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EXCERPT:
Ice reached for the teardrop-shaped planchette. It was about the size of his palm and had a hole in the middle. When Jeni’s fingers rested across from his, they stared at each other, waiting for something to happen.
“Since you haven’t done this before, you might want to circle around the Ouija board allowing the momentum to take on a life of its own,” the medium prompted. “Use a very light touch.”
They followed her advice, gliding the wooden piece smoothly over the board.
A few moments later, the medium said, “Go ahead and ask if she’s here.”
Jeni closed her eyes, presumably thinking about the girl in the legend, since that was their theory on how and why the spirit appeared to her. After a minute or so, remembering the instruction sheet, Ice said, “We invite only good spirits to talk with us.” Then he asked, “Is there a spirit here?”
The planchette moved immediately, nearly jerking from beneath their fingers, startling Ice when it moved to the alphabet.
Scraping sounds filled the small room as the wooden piece trundled across the heavy cardboard. “H… E… L… P.”
Jeni’s eyes had snapped open when the planchette began moving, and Ice could feel the weight of her stare.
“What is your name?” he asked.
Again, the disc glided over the alphabet. “M,” Ice said. “A… R… I… E.” It continued to move. “L… L… E.”
“Marielle?” He exchanged a glance with Jeni as the planchette slid to “Yes.” Then he asked, “Are you the girl from the Kaskaskia legend?”
The piece twitched, but remained on the Yes.
Checking on Jeni, Ice was glad to see she looked more fascinated than freaked out. He felt no animosity from the presence and his rapidly beating heart was beginning to calm. “What do you need help with?”
A long scrape brought the planchette back to the alphabet. “S… A… V… E… M… Y… L… O… V… E.”
“Who is your love?” Ice asked.
“A… M… A… K… A… P… A.”
Feeling confident that they knew who they were actually talking to, Ice asked, “Do you need help crossing to the other side?”
The planchette slid toward the moon on the right corner of the board and rested briefly on “No.” Then it went back to the alphabet: “H… E… I… S… N… O… W… H… E… R… E.”
Frowning, Ice looked first at Jeni, then at the medium. “He’s not on the other side?”
The disc returned to “No.”
“Is that why you haven’t crossed over?”
Their fingers followed the shuffle of the wooden piece to “Yes.”
Ice thought for a moment about his next question and came up with, “Why do you think we can help you?”
This time the planchette moved to the center of the board, between the Yes and No. It twisted under their fingers causing Ice and Jeni to hold their arms in a contorted position. When it stopped, the narrow end of the teardrop pointed at Jeni.
Her eyes widened. In the smallest voice, Jeni asked, “Is it pointing at me?”
Ice asked, “You think Jeni can help you?”
The indicator shifted left to “Yes,” then continued to spell out: “S… H… E… K… N… O… W… S.”
Jeni flinched, deep creases forming on her brow. She drew her lips into a pucker.
Reading her confusion, Ice asked, “What does she know that will help you?”
“F… I… N… D… H… I… M.”
Author Info
Having a love for witches and vampires before they were trendy, Barbara gravitates toward stories with supernatural elements both when she reads and when she writes. Although classified as young adult, her books are enjoyed by a wide audience--pre-teen through adult.
Barbara's novel Thunderstone was awarded 2013 Book of the Year Finalist status by Forward Reviews and before it was published, Thunderstone was a quarter-finalist in the 2012 Amazon Breakout Novel Award contest, winning a review by Publisher's Weekly.
When she's not writing, Barbara works in a library where she's tortured by all the books she has yet to read. She's a cult fan of the movies Labyrinth and Nightmare Before Christmas and a fan of all things Tim Burton. Barbara lives in Royal Oak, Michigan with her husband, daughter and a cat that often acts like a dog.
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