Hello and welcome everyone to the BOOK SPOTLIGHT
for Westward To Strange by Ray Litt!
In this post you can learn all about the book, info about the second book in the series, To Each Their Own and enter to win a giveaway to win ecopies of book #1.
Enjoy!
Have you ever wondered about the dark water? Talula "Lu" Burke never had, despite being born and raised on the Florida coast. But when dead animals start showing up on the shores of Salerna Beach, and Lu spots a mysterious boy in the shark-infested waters of the cove late at night, she’s forced to search the dark water for answers.When a school assignment leads to information about a sea-monster-worshipping cult, Lu can’t help seeing connections to the animals being found on her beach. More disturbing are the links she uncovers between her own family and the violent legend. Soon enough, more about Lu’s world starts to seem unreal: she gets into a knock-down drag-out with her BFF, is plagued by insomnia and chronic exhaustion, and can’t seem to fight the urge to pounce on the new kid in town who is all of a sudden very sexy—and very interested in Lu. Taking cues from her newfound instinct—and a strange alliance with the moon—Lu knows she alone must uncover the truth, or risk becoming part of the legend herself.
Purchase at: Amazon
We come up on two creatures with big circle eyes like Morgan’s, and it’s the first time I feel a chill. What happens next would have taken my breath away, if I were actually breathing.
Morgan, drawing me in against his shoulder blades, opens his mouth to let loose a high-pitched whine that blurs my vision and makes me feel like my brain’s trying to climb out of my face. The scream wraps around me until I feel I might snap, and when it’s over the pressure of the deep swallows it whole. Trembling, I look over his shoulder at the two creatures.
Their mouths are open, also, and though Morgan has shifted us so I’m directly behind him, it’s clear they’re hissing right at me, from black holes that have no teeth and no tongue, and that are surrounded by vibrating skin folds. And then, just like that, they leave, pulling us forward in their slipstream. We watch until they reach the far end of the stadium and slither to the top pew, never making eye contact with one another.
But then I look around, wondering if everyone around me is making some sort of contact with each other, just not in any way that’s familiar to me, because they’re all staring in the same general direction. Morgan squeezes my hand before pulling me a bit further, but it’s far less reassuring than I would’ve liked. When we’re close to the other side of the arena he stops, gesturing for me to turn around and look behind me, to where everyone else is facing.
I don’t know how I missed it. A huge, breathtaking, golden, glowing tube coral is embedded in the sand in the center of the arena, its many, many arms swaying independently of one another. Tethered to them are dozens of mer-bodies in all different stages of decomposition.
Most are bloated, half-deteriorated—some mere skeletons with gaping eyeholes pointed upward into the faraway black. The water handles their bones in a succession of jerks, each vertebra catching the current a second before the next. Long, wispy hair dances in the water above them, seemingly frozen until the final vertebra snaps.
The chill inside of me is growing, and I start to wonder if maybe this experience is more real than I think it is. I look up, shivering, at the endless stretch of dark water beyond the globes.
Just when life’s back to normal for Lu and company, Sarah gets a visit from her own mysterious past. Learn where the magic began in To Each Her Own, Book #2 of The Dark Water Series, when Lu and Sarah explore their powers with new spirit sisters.
Dive into the Dark Water, where youth meets ageless mythology, and friendship is the greatest magic. Get your copy of Westward to Strange on Amazon for $2.99 now.
Join the family on www.raylitt.com, and stay tuned for Book #2 updates.
Ray Litt is a mom of three and the Conference Director for Speculative Fiction: Southeast, a literary conference for all authors and hobbyists of speculative fiction. She dreamt up Salerna Beach while living in Sunset Beach, Florida, a kickass homebase for curmudgeonly Midwesterners.Always late, incapable of returning a call or text, Ray continues to forge relationships with evil mermaids and alien cheerleaders, and maintains she really was, once, a teenage witch.
Author Ray Litt has offered to give away THREE (3) ecopies of book #1, Westward to Strange on my blog!
All you have to do to enter is fill out the form below.
Open to everyone!
Boy, that cover sure sucks you in! This sounds like a winning series. I'm crossing fingers and toes to win it. Going to add it to my wish list so I remember to grab it if I don't.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the giveaway.
ReplyDeletemia2009(at)comcast(dot)net