Metamorph by Stephen M. DeBock

NEW RELEASE APRIL 15, 2014!

Metamorph by Stephen M. DeBock

#gypsyshadow #shapeshifter #romanticthriller

http://www.amazon.com/Metamorph-Stephen-M-DeBock-ebook/dp/B00JPQ5YHO

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/metamorph-debock-stephen-m/1119236152

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/429345

http://www.gypsyshadow.com/StephenDeBock.html#Metamorph

When a centuries-old vampire enacts a vendetta against a beautiful woman who has scorned him, he finds himself unprepared when the beauty becomes the beast. Metamorph by Stephen M. DeBock. Available from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Smashwords, other fine eBook vendors and Gypsy Shadow Publishing at:

http://www.gypsyshadow.com/StephenDeBock.html#Metamorph

What happens when Beauty becomes the Beast . . . ?

A vampire who has slaked his taste for terror through centuries of history’s darkest eras puts a hold on his covert attacks on America in order to pursue a secret vendetta against a beautiful bi-racial woman who has scorned him.

But the woman has a secret of her own. She is a metamorph, a hybrid shape-shifter with the healing powers of the vampire, the heightened senses and strengths of the werewolf, and the needs that accompany both. Needs that conflict with her strong moral code; needs which compel her to conceal her extra-human identity from the mortal man she has grown to love.

Metamorph combines known history with speculative fiction, a strong female protagonist, and the pitting of a creature of unmitigated evil against a pair of unsuspecting lovers in a complex cat-and-mouse pursuit.

Word Count: 96100
Pages to Print: 313    /292 in Print
File Format: PDF
Price: $5.99     /PRINT $15.99

 

EXCERPT:

Chapter One

Friday, January 23, 2009

Hyattsville, Maryland

Suri Clarke shivered in the darkness as she carried her shopping bag from the mall to her car. Bitter cold as it was, and with lots of parking spaces since the Christmas exchanges had tapered off, she still parked as far away from the entrance as she could. Her Weight Watchers leader had stressed walking is good exercise, and you should get as much walking in as you can every day. Keep moving, she’d said. Suri even wore a pedometer to keep track of her steps.

And the regimen was working. She had lost ten pounds in twelve weeks, and the increasing amount of give in her clothes was a real motivator. Larry had already commented on how good she looked; as for the kids, well . . . even if she grew another head they probably wouldn’t notice.

One Friday evening a month, Suri drove in to Hyattsville from Olney to shop. Not that there weren’t a plethora of shops mushrooming there, but as a Silver Spring native and a former nurse at Washington Adventist Hospital in Takoma Park, she enjoyed revisiting her old haunts—though, truth to tell, they were barely recognizable anymore. What were once Washington, D.C. suburbs were now cities in their own right. Larry had been smart, she reminded herself, to relocate the family while the Montgomery County landscape was as yet unsullied by condos and cookie cutter communities.

The shopping center is showing its age, she thought, as the headlights from the few remaining hard-core shoppers carved through the darkness, leaving the lot virtually deserted. She knew where her own car was, at the end of this row, empty now except for the oversized van blocking her view of it.

She stopped. Oh shit, she thought, pardon my French. Alone, dark parking lot, strange vehicle . . . no way, José, you’re going to do that.

Suri walked back to the mall. From behind the glass double doors, she could see lights being extinguished, but the entry hall remained lit. When she arrived, she saw a middle-aged man inside, approaching with a key. With her free hand, she waved, and he opened the door.

“Help you?” he asked. The man wore dark blue slacks and a lighter blue long-sleeved shirt, creases ironed in police style. A utility belt supported a pouch of some kind, probably a first aid kit, and a flashlight.

“I’m sorry to bother you,” Suri said, “but I wonder if I might ask you to walk me to my car?”

“No problem at all,” he replied and stepped out into the cold.

“Shouldn’t you get your coat? It’s freezing out here,” she said, the cloud of her breath punctuating her point.

“Real men don’t feel the cold,” he joked. “Besides, the jacket’s in my office, and that’s way inside the mall. This won’t take long. Where’s your car?”

She pointed. “On the other side of that white van. It wasn’t there when I parked.”

They began walking. “That’s one of those Sprinters,” the security cop observed. “So tall you can stand up inside it.” He took his flashlight from his belt as they approached, and when they arrived, he shone his light into the passenger’s side window, opposite Suri’s own car in the space beside it. “Looks empty,” he said. “Can’t see farther back, there’s a curtain behind the driver’s seat, and no windows on the side. Back door doesn’t have glass in it either.” He tried the doors and found them locked. Next he turned his light onto Suri’s sedan. “It looks like a commercial van, lots of them around these days. Probably parked here for the night.”

“Does that happen?” Suri asked as she pressed the remote twice. With a blink of the parking lights, her doors unlocked.

“Sometimes you’ll see an empty car parked here. Like when two folks happen to meet inside the mall and decide to go out for a drink together.”

She nodded. “Okay, then.” Turning toward the guard, she thanked him and told him to get back inside where it’s warm.

“Happy to help,” he said as he walked hurriedly back toward the building.

Nice guy, she thought as she opened the rear door and dumped her packages on the seat. Probably retired police or military, picking up some extra bucks . . .

Something clicked behind her, as if a door were being unlocked.

Suri spun around as she saw the side door slide open. A black-clad man leaped out and pushed her against her car, one hand pressed hard against her mouth. A second man followed him and yanked her pocketbook from her shoulder. Then a third man stepped casually from the van. This one carried a pistol.

“Not a word,” the gunman said, his voice deep and gravelly. “Or you die here and now.”

“Oh God, no,” she whispered, and he pressed the pistol to her forehead.

“I said no talking. Do you understand what that means?”

She nodded, hardly daring to move, and he withdrew the pistol but moved its muzzle against her chin, pointing up. He nodded toward the van. “Get in.”

Once inside, Suri whispered, “Please, no. Please don’t hurt me. I have two sons at home.”

One of the other men, silent until now, spoke. “She thinks we’re going to rape her. Relax. Not gonna happen.”

The third slid the door closed. The weak dome light showed them all dressed in dark clothing, two in insulated jackets, their leader in a black wool overcoat that reeked of cigarette smoke. All of them looked to be somewhere in their forties. Not kids, then. Professionals.

The leader emptied Suri’s purse onto the floor. The second man, the one who had pinned her to the car, produced a felt tipped pen and a notebook and handed it to her. “Listen to me, and you won’t get hurt,” the man in the overcoat said as he removed the cash and cards from her wallet. “I want you to write the PIN for your ATM card.” She began to scribble, her hand shaking. “And your social security number. And your email address and password.”

Incongruously, she thought: Not only are they stealing my money, they’re stealing my identity, too. My God, why didn’t we subscribe to LifeLock? She finished writing and handed the notebook to the man who’d given it to her.

The leader, still holding her wallet, looked at her driver’s license. “Suri,” he said, leaning forward so his hawk-billed nose nearly touched hers. “You and I are going to get out of the van, and you are going to climb into your trunk. Tell me you intend to comply.” She nodded. “Good. I will be training this pistol on you the whole time. It’s a Smith and Wesson Bodyguard 380, which probably means nothing to you, but in a nutshell, it’s a semiautomatic with a magazine of six rounds, plus the one already in the chamber. If you attempt something I don’t like, I will press the gun into your coat and fire all seven rounds into your body. The fabric of your coat will muffle the sound of the shots. Please understand I mean what I say.”

She nodded again. Her mouth was dry; she’d been breathing through it. Her throat was frigid. She wondered if her legs still even worked. What if she stumbled getting out of the van? Would he shoot her if she fell down?

“Once you are in the trunk,” the leader said, “my friend here will place a wad of cloth inside your mouth to prevent you from calling for help. Then he will run a length of duct tape across it and around your head. After that, we will take a little drive. If you do exactly as I say, no harm will come to you. Now get out of the van and open your trunk.”

Miraculously, Suri’s legs held up. She unlocked the trunk and climbed inside. The second man shoved the gag into her mouth and wrapped it in place with duct tape. Please let me live, she thought, eyes wide and watery, the tears beginning to crystallize in the cold. She blinked furiously. The man told her to turn over. When she complied, he used a cable tie to link her wrists. Then he had her turn over again, onto her back. When he was satisfied, he backed away, leaving room for their leader. The two accomplices stood just behind him, as if they were a pair of male OR nurses observing over their surgeon’s shoulder. The third man smiled and leaned forward, his face nearing her own.

What is this, she thought. Something isn’t right. She had cooperated, done exactly as commanded, and they had promised she would be unharmed. She saw the glint in the man’s eyes, reflecting the dim illumination of the trunk light. He opened his mouth, and she felt a drop of drool on her neck.

Suri’s eyes nearly bugged out of her head as the leader’s mouth opened wider, his lower jaw extending farther than a human jaw could possibly drop. A pair of needle-sharp fangs swung down from his upper palate, like those of a rattlesnake. She began shaking violently, twisting her head from side to side, struggling with the cable tie that bound her wrists. She screamed, but only a trace mewling escaped around the gag and through the tape. The two acolytes bent down and held her firmly as he lowered his mouth to the side of her neck and pierced it with his fangs.

It didn’t hurt as much as she’d thought it would. It occurred to the nurse in her, irrationally in light of her impending death, that there might be a topical anesthetic in the man’s saliva. He withdrew his mouth to allow the fangs to pivot back and his jaw to return to normal. He lowered his lips to the raw punctures in her neck.

Suri knew there was no point in struggling further, and she closed her eyes and folded her fingers together behind her back, as if in prayer. She felt the blood being sucked from her, as if by an aspirator, heard the repeated gulps of the man’s greedy swallowing, experienced the lethargy of her body’s ebbing vitality.

When the leader had drunk his fill, he applied a strip of duct tape over the wounds. The woman was undoubtedly dead, but he was nothing if not careful, and from inside his coat he drew an instrument that looked like an obscenely elongated icepick, inserted it into her nostril, and drove the point into her brain. He withdrew the pick and applied more tape over her nostrils. No coppery scent of blood would reveal the body in the trunk.

“Nice job,” said one of the man’s companions, and the other agreed. He didn’t bother acknowledging them as he stood. His thoughts were of Suri’s family, now bereft of their beloved wife and mother. He smiled. They would find themselves even worse off than she. After all, death is final; suffering lasts forever.

It felt good to be active again, and autonomous for the first time, after almost fifteen years of anonymity. This operation, a minor opening gambit, would conclude tomorrow, and then he would leave for home. Winter break was almost over, and he needed to be back by Sunday night at the latest.

Metamorph by Stephen M. DeBock

NEW RELEASE APRIL 15, 2014!

Metamorph by Stephen M. DeBock

#gypsyshadow #shapeshifter #romanticthriller

http://www.amazon.com/Metamorph-Stephen-M-DeBock-ebook/dp/B00JPQ5YHO

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/metamorph-debock-stephen-m/1119236152

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/429345

http://www.gypsyshadow.com/StephenDeBock.html#Metamorph

When a centuries-old vampire enacts a vendetta against a beautiful woman who has scorned him, he finds himself unprepared when the beauty becomes the beast. Metamorph by Stephen M. DeBock. Available from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Smashwords, other fine eBook vendors and Gypsy Shadow Publishing at:

http://www.gypsyshadow.com/StephenDeBock.html#Metamorph

What happens when Beauty becomes the Beast . . . ?

A vampire who has slaked his taste for terror through centuries of history’s darkest eras puts a hold on his covert attacks on America in order to pursue a secret vendetta against a beautiful bi-racial woman who has scorned him.

But the woman has a secret of her own. She is a metamorph, a hybrid shape-shifter with the healing powers of the vampire, the heightened senses and strengths of the werewolf, and the needs that accompany both. Needs that conflict with her strong moral code; needs which compel her to conceal her extra-human identity from the mortal man she has grown to love.

Metamorph combines known history with speculative fiction, a strong female protagonist, and the pitting of a creature of unmitigated evil against a pair of unsuspecting lovers in a complex cat-and-mouse pursuit.

Word Count: 96100

Pages to Print: 313    /292 in Print

Price: $5.99 / PRINT $15.99 

 

EXCERPT:

Chapter One

Friday, January 23, 2009

Hyattsville, Maryland

Suri Clarke shivered in the darkness as she carried her shopping bag from the mall to her car. Bitter cold as it was, and with lots of parking spaces since the Christmas exchanges had tapered off, she still parked as far away from the entrance as she could. Her Weight Watchers leader had stressed walking is good exercise, and you should get as much walking in as you can every day. Keep moving, she’d said. Suri even wore a pedometer to keep track of her steps.

And the regimen was working. She had lost ten pounds in twelve weeks, and the increasing amount of give in her clothes was a real motivator. Larry had already commented on how good she looked; as for the kids, well . . . even if she grew another head they probably wouldn’t notice.

One Friday evening a month, Suri drove in to Hyattsville from Olney to shop. Not that there weren’t a plethora of shops mushrooming there, but as a Silver Spring native and a former nurse at Washington Adventist Hospital in Takoma Park, she enjoyed revisiting her old haunts—though, truth to tell, they were barely recognizable anymore. What were once Washington, D.C. suburbs were now cities in their own right. Larry had been smart, she reminded herself, to relocate the family while the Montgomery County landscape was as yet unsullied by condos and cookie cutter communities.

The shopping center is showing its age, she thought, as the headlights from the few remaining hard-core shoppers carved through the darkness, leaving the lot virtually deserted. She knew where her own car was, at the end of this row, empty now except for the oversized van blocking her view of it.

She stopped. Oh shit, she thought, pardon my French. Alone, dark parking lot, strange vehicle . . . no way, José, you’re going to do that.

Suri walked back to the mall. From behind the glass double doors, she could see lights being extinguished, but the entry hall remained lit. When she arrived, she saw a middle-aged man inside, approaching with a key. With her free hand, she waved, and he opened the door.

“Help you?” he asked. The man wore dark blue slacks and a lighter blue long-sleeved shirt, creases ironed in police style. A utility belt supported a pouch of some kind, probably a first aid kit, and a flashlight.

“I’m sorry to bother you,” Suri said, “but I wonder if I might ask you to walk me to my car?”

“No problem at all,” he replied and stepped out into the cold.

“Shouldn’t you get your coat? It’s freezing out here,” she said, the cloud of her breath punctuating her point.

“Real men don’t feel the cold,” he joked. “Besides, the jacket’s in my office, and that’s way inside the mall. This won’t take long. Where’s your car?”

She pointed. “On the other side of that white van. It wasn’t there when I parked.”

They began walking. “That’s one of those Sprinters,” the security cop observed. “So tall you can stand up inside it.” He took his flashlight from his belt as they approached, and when they arrived, he shone his light into the passenger’s side window, opposite Suri’s own car in the space beside it. “Looks empty,” he said. “Can’t see farther back, there’s a curtain behind the driver’s seat, and no windows on the side. Back door doesn’t have glass in it either.” He tried the doors and found them locked. Next he turned his light onto Suri’s sedan. “It looks like a commercial van, lots of them around these days. Probably parked here for the night.”

“Does that happen?” Suri asked as she pressed the remote twice. With a blink of the parking lights, her doors unlocked.

“Sometimes you’ll see an empty car parked here. Like when two folks happen to meet inside the mall and decide to go out for a drink together.”

She nodded. “Okay, then.” Turning toward the guard, she thanked him and told him to get back inside where it’s warm.

“Happy to help,” he said as he walked hurriedly back toward the building.

Nice guy, she thought as she opened the rear door and dumped her packages on the seat. Probably retired police or military, picking up some extra bucks . . .

Something clicked behind her, as if a door were being unlocked.

Suri spun around as she saw the side door slide open. A black-clad man leaped out and pushed her against her car, one hand pressed hard against her mouth. A second man followed him and yanked her pocketbook from her shoulder. Then a third man stepped casually from the van. This one carried a pistol.

“Not a word,” the gunman said, his voice deep and gravelly. “Or you die here and now.”

“Oh God, no,” she whispered, and he pressed the pistol to her forehead.

“I said no talking. Do you understand what that means?”

She nodded, hardly daring to move, and he withdrew the pistol but moved its muzzle against her chin, pointing up. He nodded toward the van. “Get in.”

Once inside, Suri whispered, “Please, no. Please don’t hurt me. I have two sons at home.”

One of the other men, silent until now, spoke. “She thinks we’re going to rape her. Relax. Not gonna happen.”

The third slid the door closed. The weak dome light showed them all dressed in dark clothing, two in insulated jackets, their leader in a black wool overcoat that reeked of cigarette smoke. All of them looked to be somewhere in their forties. Not kids, then. Professionals.

The leader emptied Suri’s purse onto the floor. The second man, the one who had pinned her to the car, produced a felt tipped pen and a notebook and handed it to her. “Listen to me, and you won’t get hurt,” the man in the overcoat said as he removed the cash and cards from her wallet. “I want you to write the PIN for your ATM card.” She began to scribble, her hand shaking. “And your social security number. And your email address and password.”

Incongruously, she thought: Not only are they stealing my money, they’re stealing my identity, too. My God, why didn’t we subscribe to LifeLock? She finished writing and handed the notebook to the man who’d given it to her.

The leader, still holding her wallet, looked at her driver’s license. “Suri,” he said, leaning forward so his hawk-billed nose nearly touched hers. “You and I are going to get out of the van, and you are going to climb into your trunk. Tell me you intend to comply.” She nodded. “Good. I will be training this pistol on you the whole time. It’s a Smith and Wesson Bodyguard 380, which probably means nothing to you, but in a nutshell, it’s a semiautomatic with a magazine of six rounds, plus the one already in the chamber. If you attempt something I don’t like, I will press the gun into your coat and fire all seven rounds into your body. The fabric of your coat will muffle the sound of the shots. Please understand I mean what I say.”

She nodded again. Her mouth was dry; she’d been breathing through it. Her throat was frigid. She wondered if her legs still even worked. What if she stumbled getting out of the van? Would he shoot her if she fell down?

“Once you are in the trunk,” the leader said, “my friend here will place a wad of cloth inside your mouth to prevent you from calling for help. Then he will run a length of duct tape across it and around your head. After that, we will take a little drive. If you do exactly as I say, no harm will come to you. Now get out of the van and open your trunk.”

Miraculously, Suri’s legs held up. She unlocked the trunk and climbed inside. The second man shoved the gag into her mouth and wrapped it in place with duct tape. Please let me live, she thought, eyes wide and watery, the tears beginning to crystallize in the cold. She blinked furiously. The man told her to turn over. When she complied, he used a cable tie to link her wrists. Then he had her turn over again, onto her back. When he was satisfied, he backed away, leaving room for their leader. The two accomplices stood just behind him, as if they were a pair of male OR nurses observing over their surgeon’s shoulder. The third man smiled and leaned forward, his face nearing her own.

What is this, she thought. Something isn’t right. She had cooperated, done exactly as commanded, and they had promised she would be unharmed. She saw the glint in the man’s eyes, reflecting the dim illumination of the trunk light. He opened his mouth, and she felt a drop of drool on her neck.

Suri’s eyes nearly bugged out of her head as the leader’s mouth opened wider, his lower jaw extending farther than a human jaw could possibly drop. A pair of needle-sharp fangs swung down from his upper palate, like those of a rattlesnake. She began shaking violently, twisting her head from side to side, struggling with the cable tie that bound her wrists. She screamed, but only a trace mewling escaped around the gag and through the tape. The two acolytes bent down and held her firmly as he lowered his mouth to the side of her neck and pierced it with his fangs.

It didn’t hurt as much as she’d thought it would. It occurred to the nurse in her, irrationally in light of her impending death, that there might be a topical anesthetic in the man’s saliva. He withdrew his mouth to allow the fangs to pivot back and his jaw to return to normal. He lowered his lips to the raw punctures in her neck.

Suri knew there was no point in struggling further, and she closed her eyes and folded her fingers together behind her back, as if in prayer. She felt the blood being sucked from her, as if by an aspirator, heard the repeated gulps of the man’s greedy swallowing, experienced the lethargy of her body’s ebbing vitality.

When the leader had drunk his fill, he applied a strip of duct tape over the wounds. The woman was undoubtedly dead, but he was nothing if not careful, and from inside his coat he drew an instrument that looked like an obscenely elongated icepick, inserted it into her nostril, and drove the point into her brain. He withdrew the pick and applied more tape over her nostrils. No coppery scent of blood would reveal the body in the trunk.

“Nice job,” said one of the man’s companions, and the other agreed. He didn’t bother acknowledging them as he stood. His thoughts were of Suri’s family, now bereft of their beloved wife and mother. He smiled. They would find themselves even worse off than she. After all, death is final; suffering lasts forever.

It felt good to be active again, and autonomous for the first time, after almost fifteen years of anonymity. This operation, a minor opening gambit, would conclude tomorrow, and then he would leave for home. Winter break was almost over, and he needed to be back by Sunday night at the latest.

First Blood/Breaking the Glass Slipper

NEW RELEASE APRIL 1, 2014!

First Blood/Breaking the Glass Slipper by Sarah Deckard

http://www.amazon.com/First-Blood-Breaking-Glass-Slipper-ebook/dp/B00JEMUW30
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/first-blood-breaking-the-glass-slipper-sarah-deckard/1119058205
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/425031
http://www.gypsyshadow.com/SarahDeckard.html#FBlood

Galina is Little Red recast as a tormented but resourceful child. This girl will not escape the wolf’s jaws, but she will destroy the true enemy. Cinderella’s daughter, Mathilde, decides to take matters into her own hands after a lifetime of watching her father, King Dorian, beat her mother. Available from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Smashwords, other fine eBook vendors and Gypsy Shadow Publishing at:
http://www.gypsyshadow.com/SarahDeckard.html#FBlood

Galina’s father disappeared years earlier while out hunting. Her mother and she are left poor and grieving. She is constantly teased by the village children. Her grandmother has been sick lately. Galina’s mother sends her into the woods to tend “Babushka.” On the path, she meets a hunter who says he is looking for wolves. Is this story beginning to sound familiar? Perhaps, but things are not always as they appear. This girl is cunning and brave. This hunter is an enemy. And though Babushka may turn out to be a wolf in disguise, this story will not turn out to be what is expected. Join Galina on her journey into a nightmare under the Blood God Moon and through the story’s twists to an unexpected ending in which her grandmother may save her far more than she will save her grandmother.

Everyone knows the story of Cinderella, at least the first half. Hear the rest of the tale as told by Mathilde, the fourteen year old daughter of Queen Arabella (a.k.a. Cinderella). She and her younger brother Seth have grown up witnessing their father abuse their mother both physically and emotionally. Over time, Seth starts to succumb to the same outbursts of cruelty he has internalized from watching his father. Princess Mathilde is desperate to stop the cycle of violence from being passed down to her brother—the future king. She sets in motion a desperate plan to save her broken family. And with a little help from a familiar fairy guardian, she just might succeed.

Word Count: 10200
Pages to Print: 34
Price: $3.99 

EXCERPT:
First Blood

The girls in the village used to call me Chucha Krásniy, or Little Red as a joke because I always wore the same burgundy woolen cloak.

“It’s red like blood,” they said. “Did you bleed on it?” Then they’d all laughed, though I didn’t know why.

“No,” I told them. “My mother made the dye for me because red is the color I like best.”

True, my cloak was old and had dark stains which wouldn’t wash out because I had worn it so often. It was my only cloak, which showed how poor Mama and I were. Ever since Papa went out to hunt last winter and never came home, we had not had enough to eat. So there was no money for a new cloak.

My face felt hot. I thought the other children found it funny that I couldn’t afford new clothes. They must have thought because I was poor I was dirty, too. So I said, “I have never bled on any of my clothes.”

“Never bled, never bled,” they chanted.

And sometimes one of the older girls would snicker. “Well, you will soon.”

Then they all scattered like a flock of geese as I charged into them, my hands in fists, saying, “I’ll make you bleed first. You see if I don’t.”

When this first happened, I went home to my mother and told her what the other girls had said. I asked her why they were so cruel to me. “Don’t the poor deserve kindness like everyone else?”

Mama’s face scrunched up like it does when I come home covered in pine needles and mud stains. I thought she was going to yell at me, but she continued to stir the soup without saying anything for many moments.

Then she told me, “The children are not laughing because your clothes are old.” Her voice was serious and a little sad. She did not go on.

So I asked, “Then why do they ask if I bleed on my clothes?”

“Because women bleed,” she said, her voice hard and sharp like the edge of a knife. She looked into the steam as if she saw something far away there.

I asked her what she meant.

“Galina,” she said, her voice soft as wool now. “When you become a woman, you will understand. But you are only ten now and can still afford to be a child. Don’t listen to what the older girls say. There is more than one way a person can bleed. Go play now. You will find out what kind of blood they mean in time.”

As I left the cottage, I knew she was thinking about Papa, because I was. Our hearts bled; he was gone forever. After I had closed the door, I could hear my mama crying inside. I went into the woods to sit alone and think about what she had said.

*****
That happened three years ago. Now I knew what kind of blood the other girls meant. But I still had not bled the woman’s blood. Mother said it was getting to be past time for me to have it. Yet I could not bring it on, any more than I could stop the bleeding in my heart for my father’s loss and for my mother’s sorrow. I still had the red cloak, which the children teased me about. My body was small for my age so the cloak fit, even though it was too short to look proper. It had become very stained by then, and worn through in places. We couldn’t afford extra fabric to make patches to cover the holes. Nor did we have old clothes we could spare to cut into patches.

So I wore my old cloak to spread seeds for the geese and gather their eggs. When I slopped our hog, the muck of it sloshed onto my now brownish-red cloak, which was covered in bits of fur from tending our goats. Dirt stains came from sitting on the ground, weeding our little garden. And, as always, little threads got pulled and balled up from blackberry thorns and pine bark as I gathered the fruits and nuts among them.

For almost a month, I had been visiting my babushka, who lived in the woods a half day’s travel from the village. She had been sick with some mysterious illness. My mother charged me with her care. So I took her herbs, eggs, goat cheese, and milk. I couldn’t tell exactly what was wrong with her, and she would not say. But she felt warm to the touch and she acted different. She asked me each time I visited to bring her meat, even though she knew Mama couldn’t afford any. Babushka told me to slaughter the sow; but she was to give birth soon. It wasn’t yet autumn—the time to butcher the suckling pigs and cure their meat for the winter. Babushka had eaten her own geese already, as well as her goat. I wondered how she would have any eggs or milk besides what I brought her. She was almost too old, and certainly too sick, to go out in the woods and hunt for wild carrots, leeks, pine nuts, and other plants to eat. I worried for her.

She also talked of Papa.

“Viktor,” she said, “he hunts deer, rabbit, squirrel, sometimes even bear. But it is no good, not enough. I need more meat, sweet Galina, to keep up my strength.”

GSP's Book of the Day October 22

The Form of Eternity by Shiloh Darke

#gypsyshadow shapeshifter, darkfantasy

ADULT EROTIC ROMANCE

 

Copper is a headstrong, fiery redhead with the power to move things with her mind and a distrust of anything male. She’s been hurt before and she doesn’t trust them not to hurt her again. She works hard to keep any man who may try to worm his way into her life at a distance.

When she meets Keltan, a Native American shape-shifting Eternal, she knows instinctively she will have to stay far, far away from him because just being near him makes fire coarse through her veins.

Keltan knows when he first sees Copper, she is the woman he’s meant to spend Eternity with. But he finds her resistance to his attempts to form a connection tormenting. Then, the choice to leave her to her solitude is taken from him as an ancient enemy to his ancestors decides to target the woman he loves.

Can she find a way to trust him? Can he prove to her the love they feel isn’t fleeting? More to the point, can they battle this evil without losing each other?

Word Count: 71,000
Pages to Print: 219  (Also available in print)
Price: $ 5.99

http://www.amazon.com/Form-Eternity-Order-Eternals-ebook/dp/B004URRO7Q/
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/form-of-eternity-shiloh-darke/1101709934
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/50019
http://www.gypsyshadow.com/Shiloh.html#FOE

Copper and Keltan's tenuous new love is challenged when an ancient evil threatens to destroy humanity. The Form of Eternity, Bk 3 of the Order of Eternals by Shiloh Darke. Available from Amazon, other fine eBook vendors and Gypsy Shadow Publishing at:
http://www.gypsyshadow.com/Shiloh.html#FOE

GSP's Book of the Day October 19

The Extortions of Stiffani Voydalle by Stanley Bruce Carter

#gypsyshadow #blackmail #erotica

The Ballingers’ maid is very good at finding dirt—not just dust and grime, but the dirty little secrets the Ballinger clan desperately wants to hide. And she’s more than happy to keep those secrets—for a price. But the handsome Ballingers soon learn it takes more than money to seal the lips of Stiffani Voydalle.

Word Count:   30,000

Pages to Print: 104

Price: $4.99

 

http://www.amazon.com/The-Extortions-Stiffani-Voydalle-ebook/dp/B00BEQ9G8Q
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-extortions-of-stiffani-voydalle-stanley-bruce-carter/1114511308
http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/284723
http://www.gypsyshadow.com/StanCarter.html#Extortions

No secret is safe from Stiffani Voydalle, extortionist extraordinaire. The Extortions of Stiffani Voydalle by Stanley Bruce Carter. Available from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Smashwords, other fine eBook vendors and Gypsy Shadow Publishing at:
http://www.gypsyshadow.com/StanCarter.html#Extortions

GSP's Book of the Day October 18

The Eternal by Shiloh Darke

 **ADULT READ**

#gypsyshadow #erotica #vampire

Shameer and his brother Colin never wanted to be heroes. Cursed by a witch, Shameer suffers the bloodlust only vampires know. His brother must deal with a similar, yet different, fate. Inducted into a collective known to precious few as The Order of Eternals, they try to use their abilities to protect the innocent.

When he happens upon Jessica, Shameer experiences emotions he had long denied himself. Lost in her eyes, he yearns for a fate far different from the one he has accepted. Denying his heart and desires, he vows to walk away from her.

But evil watches from the shadows. It creeps ever nearer, waiting for its chance to devour and destroy the brothers, avenging itself on those they love. Soon, they discover themselves fighting, not only to find freedom from an old enemy, but also, to hold on to the loves they believe are their destiny.

Word Count: 89,518

Pages to Print: 315 (Also available in Print)

Price: $5.99

 

http://www.amazon.com/The-Eternal-Order-Eternals-ebook/dp/B00433TBUK
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/eternal-shiloh-darke/1103582916
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/4578
http://www.gypsyshadow.com/Shiloh.html#Eternal

Shameer and his brother Colin never wanted to be heroes, but they soon discover themselves fighting to find freedom from an old enemy as well as to hold on to the loves they deem to be their destiny. The Eternal, Book one of the Order of Eternals Series by Shiloh Darke. Available from Amazon, other fine eBook vendors and Gypsy Shadow Publishing at:
http://www.gypsyshadow.com/Shiloh.html#Eternal

GSP's Book of the Day August 19

Philip and the Monsters by John Paulits

#gypsyshadow #checkeditout #children

Could the Frankenstein monster, Dracula and the Wolfman actually move into someone’s respectable neighborhood? Philip and his best friend Emery are convinced it has happened when a suspicious new family moves in down the block. The boys have seen the vampire bat; they’ve heard the werewolf’s growl; they’ve witnessed the coffin delivery to the house. When Emery’s mother invites the new family to dinner, Philip and Emery have no choice but to prepare for the worst.

Word Count: 16100

Pages to Print: 67 

Price: $3.99

http://www.amazon.com/Philip-Monsters-Emery-Series-ebook/dp/B006JG0N2E
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/philip-and-the-monsters-john-paulits/1107900074
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/112163
http://www.gypsyshadow.com/JohnPaulits.html#PhilipMonsters

Philip and his best friend Emery are certain the new family on the block consists of the Frankenstein monster, the Wolfman, and Dracula. And now that family’s been invited to dinner! Help! Book Four in the Philip and Emery Series, Philip and the Monsters by John Paulits. Available from Amazon, other fine eBook vendors and Gypsy Shadow Publishing at:
http://www.gypsyshadow.com/JohnPaulits.html#PhilipMonsters

Book of the Day May 30

Eternal Moon by Shiloh Darke

--> ADULT READ! Darmetheus has been alive for a very long time. A Werewolf Eternal, he's seen it all. Or so he thinks. But when he takes what he thinks is going to be a vacation from the daily hassle of fighting EVIL, he winds up in the fight of his life.

Lilith is a sassy, beautiful brunette with a secret talent. A talent that makes her a walking target. She’s more than eye candy to these immortal villains and they’re willing to kill in order to possess her.

But this enemy is no stranger to him and he is torn. The rebel in him wants to just walk away and leave Lilith to her fate. The hero in him won’t let him. Or is that his heart?

Word Count: 72,159
Pages to Print: 270
Price: $5.99

http://www.amazon.com/Eternal-Moon-Order-Eternals-ebook/dp/B0043XXIGS
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/eternal-moon-shiloh-darke/1017484185
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/4602
http://www.gypsyshadow.com/Shiloh.html#Eternal%20Moon

Darmetheus is a Werewolf Eternal; Lilith is a sassy brunette. Together they will fight demon wolves to save the world. Eternal Moon, book two of the Order of Eternals by Shiloh Darke. Available from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Smashwords, other fine eBook vendors and Gypsy Shadow Publishing at:

http://www.gypsyshadow.com/Shiloh.html#Eternal%20Moon

Book of the Day April 18

The Extortions of Stiffani Voydalle by Stanley Bruce Carter

The Ballingers’ maid is very good at finding dirt—not just dust and grime, but the dirty little secrets the Ballinger clan desperately wants to hide. And she’s more than happy to keep those secrets—for a price. But the handsome Ballingers soon learn it takes more than money to seal the lips of Stiffani Voydalle.

Word Count:   30,000
Pages to Print: 104
Price: $4.99

Here's what we need you to do (Thanks in Advance!):

1. Login to Amazon
2. Click the link (under the picture)
3. By the title on Amazon there is a "like" button, click it.* if you wish you can stop there, but if you want to help even more . . .
4. When you click and hover over the like button it says "share this link: via Email, Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest." Click one (two or all) of them and hit share, it should only take a couple of minutes.
5. Page down to the visible tags* (Tags Customers Associate with This Product) and either click on the tags you agree with, agree with all the tags or, if you've read the book, add some tags of your own. The fastest way, of course is to click on the link that says "Agree with these tags?"
6. If you have read the book, please leave a brief review!

*Amazon, for some unknown reason, keeps dropping the like button and has seemingly permanently deleted product tags, so unless you care to leave a review, there is no longer any way to help us get the word out about this book on Amazon. We encourage you to buy it at Barnes and Noble, Smashwords, or on our Gypsy Shadow website (links provided below) and help our authors succeed, despite Amazon's bizarre treatment of authors and Indie publishers!

http://www.amazon.com/The-Extortions-Stiffani-Voydalle-ebook/dp/B00BEQ9G8Q
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-extortions-of-stiffani-voydalle-stanley-bruce-carter/1114511308
http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/284723
http://www.gypsyshadow.com/StanCarter.html#Extortions

Book of the Day January 25

The Form of Eternity by Shiloh Darke

Copper is a headstrong, fiery redhead with the power to move things with her mind and a distrust of anything male. She’s been hurt before and she doesn’t trust them not to hurt her again. She works hard to keep any man who may try to worm his way into her life at a distance.

When she meets Keltan, a Native American shape-shifting Eternal, she knows instinctively she will have to stay far, far away from him because just being near him makes fire coarse through her veins.

Keltan knows when he first sees Copper, she is the woman he’s meant to spend Eternity with. But he finds her resistance to his attempts to form a connection tormenting. Then, the choice to leave her to her solitude is taken from him as an ancient enemy to his ancestors decides to target the woman he loves.

Can she find a way to trust him? Can he prove to her the love they feel isn’t fleeting? More to the point, can they battle this evil without losing each other?

Word Count: 71,000
Pages to Print: 219
Price: $ 5.99

Here's what we need you to do (Thanks in Advance!):

1. Login to Amazon
2. Click the link (under the picture)
3. By the title on Amazon there is a "like" button, click it. if you wish you can stop there, but if you want to help even more . . .
4. When you click and hover over the like button it says "share this link: via Email, Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest." Click one (two or all) of them and hit share, it should only take a couple of minutes.
5. Page down to the visible tags (Tags Customers Associate with This Product) and either click on the tags you agree with, agree with all the tags or, if you've read the book, add some tags of your own. The fastest way, of course is to click on the link that says "Agree with these tags?"
6. If you have read the book, please leave a brief review!
 

Book of the Day January 22

The Eternal by Shiloh Darke

Shameer and his brother Colin never wanted to be heroes. Cursed by a witch, Shameer suffers the bloodlust that only vampires know. His brother suffers a similar, yet different fate. Inducted into a collective known to precious few as The Order of Eternals, they try to use their abilities to protect the innocent.

When he happens upon Jessica, Shameer experiences emotions he had long denied himself. Lost in her eyes, he yearns for a fate far different from the one he has accepted. Denying his heart and desires, he vows to walk away from her.

But evil watches from the shadows. It creeps ever nearer, waiting for it's chance to devour and destroy the brothers. Avenging itself on those they love. Soon, they discover themselves fighting not only to find freedom from an old enemy. But also, to hold on to the loves that they have deemed, their destiny.

Word Count: 89,518
Pages to Print: 315
Price: $5.99

Here's what we need you to do (Thanks in Advance!):

1. Login to Amazon
2. Click the link (under the picture)
3. By the title on Amazon there is a "like" button, click it. if you wish you can stop there, but if you want to help even more . . .
4. When you click and hover over the like button it says "share this link: via Email, Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest." Click one (two or all) of them and hit share, it should only take a couple of minutes.
5. Page down to the visible tags (Tags Customers Associate with This Product) and either click on the tags you agree with, agree with all the tags or, if you've read the book, add some tags of your own. The fastest way, of course is to click on the link that says "Agree with these tags?"
6. If you have read the book, please leave a brief review!

Book of the Day December 11

Philip and the Monsters by John Paulits

Could the Frankenstein monster, Dracula and the Wolfman actually move into someone’s respectable neighborhood? Philip and his best friend Emery are convinced it has happened when a suspicious new family moves in down the block. The boys have seen the vampire bat; they’ve heard the werewolf’s growl; they’ve witnessed the coffin delivery to the house. When Emery’s mother invites the new family to dinner, Philip and Emery have no choice but to prepare for the worst.

Word Count: 16100
Pages to Print: 67 
Price: $3.99

Here's what we need you to do (Thanks in Advance!):

1. Login to Amazon
2. Click the link (under the picture)
3. By the title on Amazon there is a "like" button, click it. if you wish you can stop there, but if you want to help even more . . .
4. When you click and hover over the like button it says "share this link: via Email, Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest." Click one (two or all) of them and hit share, it should only take a couple of minutes.
5. Page down to the visible tags (Tags Customers Associate with This Product) and either click on the tags you agree with, agree with all the tags or, if you've read the book, add some tags of your own. The fastest way, of course is to click on the link that says "Agree with these tags?"
6. If you have read the book, please leave a brief review!

Book of the Day October 4

Eternal Moon by Shiloh Darke

Darmetheus has been alive for a very long time. A Werewolf Eternal, he's seen it all. Or so he thinks. But when he takes what he thinks is going to be a vacation from the daily hassle of fighting EVIL, he winds up in the fight of his life. Lilith is a sassy, beautiful brunette with a secret talent. A talent that makes her a walking target. She’s more than eye candy to these immortal villains and they’re willing to kill in order to possess her. But this enemy is no stranger to him and he is torn. The rebel in him wants to just walk away and leave Lilith to her fate. The hero in him won’t let him. Or is that his heart?

 

Here's what we need you to do (Thanks in Advance!):

1. Login to Amazon
2. Click the link (under the picture)
3. By the title on Amazon there is a "like" button, click it. if you wish you can stop there, but if you want to help even more . . .
4. When you click and hover over the like button it says "share this link: via Email, Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest." Click one (two or all) of them and hit share, it should only take a couple of minutes.
5. Page down to the visible tags (Tags Customers Associate with This Product) and either click on the tags you agree with, agree with all the tags or, if you've read the book, add some tags of your own. The fastest way, of course is to click on the link that says "Agree with these tags?"
6. If you have read the book, please leave a brief review!