'Fusion: A collection of short stories from Breakwater Harbor Books' authors' is the WINNER of the Best Anthology category for the '2014 eFestival of Words Best of the Independent eBook Awards!'
 
This festival was put together by Bards and Sages Publishing, a Publisher of Speculative Fiction and Roleplaying Games since 2002, and nominations were voted on by the general public. The winners were announced during the actual festival which included virtual panel discussions, live author Q & As, seminars and workshops.

BHB's authors are honored to have won top honor in the Anthology category and are also honored to be considered beside the other high quality Anthologies involved! BHB author Claire C Riley is also the runner up for her Vampire novel, Limerence, in the Best Novel category! Check out Fusion below and go to Amazon to get your free copy today! Below is also the link to the eFestival website!

http://www.efestivalofwords.com/2014-efestival-of-words-winners-t568.html

Featuring gripping Independent authors from around the world, FUSION is the first collection of short works published by Breakwater Harbor Books. Contributing heart-pumping tales of Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror and Crime are seven stories that will thrill you, rivet you and some will even make you sleep with the light on. Authors from across a wide variety of genres, Dee Harrison, Ivan Amberlake, Claire C. Riley, Scott J. Toney, Mindy Haig, Cara Goldthorpe and C.M.T. Stibbe.


The Sliver of Abilon – A Mirrorsmith Tale – 'and you thought it was safe to look in the mirror?'

Diary of the Gone - Without a girlfriend, bullied by the Principal’s son, and haunted by the dead, Callum Blackwell thinks his life can’t get any worse. But he’s wrong.

Life Ever After. Nina's Story: Part one. – When the dead begin to rise, it's time to put your differences aside and run!

NovaFall – When the Meteor falls, the essences will come, forging flesh and planetary souls as one.

Cybilla. – To claim his Muse, one man must find the gate between the mortal and the immortal worlds.

Capturing Perfection – An artist's tale of love, loss and beauty in Renaissance Milan

Until The Ninth Hour – Until a man loses his daughter to a serial killer, until he loses his best friend, until he is down on his luck, Darryl Williams must put all thoughts of retaliation out of his mind.

An excerpt from Dee Harrison’s The Sliver of Abilon – A Mirrorsmith Tale

Junah Venmark, Master Mirrorsmith, exited the wayportal directly into the seaweed stench of Abilon. The foul odour tickled the back of his throat and he gagged on a rise of bile. Mirrorsmith Guild protocol demanded that he preview his destination before he arrived but it could not prepare him for an assault on his other senses. He vomited onto the trackway, just thankful that there was no-one to witness his most pitiful entrance ever. He loathed the smell of mouldy greens – it stirred up too many reminders of his wretched childhood in the back alleys of Varna, largest city on his homeworld of Vargo – but this was kabbige soup intensified tenfold.

When his heaving subsided, Junah sank down onto his rump, trying to ignore the early evening dew which was soaking into his leggings. He pulled a kerchief from his belt-purse, to wipe the spittle from his lips, and cursed this ill-favoured world. Sissik, his wail, chittered and scurried around him like a silver-furred cyclone, mewing her distress. Junah winced when she skipped onto his tender stomach, the better to peer into his face with her large, prosimian eyes. He ran a finger down her spine and she slowly relaxed beneath his touch.

Junah ill? She sent.

No, I’m fine, Little One he reassured her. He grimaced. The smell caught me out, that’s all.

Sissik wrinkled her own nose. Nasty, nasty stink, she concurred.

Junah delved into his purse a further time and extracted a couple of lozenges from a packet. A few chews later and he could smell nothing.

“Next time I’ll take ‘em before I get here,” he promised out loud. “Not that there’ll be a next time!”

Junah clambered to his feet and peeled the sodden fabric from his buttocks. Sissik took her accustomed place on his shoulders, hiding beneath his long, dark hair and curled around his neck like a fur collar. Wails were native to all the worlds of the Regium, even the undeveloped ones like Abilon. Some wails, the silver-furred ones like Sissik, were prized for their ability to generate the acoustic frequencies that Mirrorsmiths depended upon. Others, the plumper, browner ones, made good eating. Whenever Sissik irritated him, which was often, Junah threatened to dye her coat russet. Now, however, she was quiescent, understanding that it was time for work.

The wayportal, part of the network of gates that connected all the worlds of the Regium, had opened between a pair of standing stones that dominated the headland to the north of Abilon.

For your FREE copy please visit one of the links below!

Fortune favors…the DEAD!

Some secrets are too horrific to ever be forgiven, and some people should never be trusted. Tortured, starved, and
on  the run, Nina thinks she’s faced the worst that mankind has to offer, but she’s  wrong. She may have survived this long, but she hasn’t come out of it unscathed,  and there’s worse to come.

Nina’s trusty Doc Martens are showing signs  of the zombie apocalypse, and she isn’t faring much better. With her snarky  attitude guaranteed to get her in trouble, Nina needs to forgive the past, to  live once more in the present, and learn that sometimes she needs to place her  trust in other people.

Because when people are faced with the end of  times, they’ll do anything to survive.

Get your copy today!

It's better to die by the gun than die by the dead.

When the dead began to rise and kill, the government had to make a decision- whether right or wrong- they had to protect what little society was left.

They built walls which kept the dead out, and the live in. Other towns quickly followed suit, forcing the dead to live in the desolation that they had created. Only the zombies aren’t alone either. These lands are not only teeming with hungry zombies, but also with the very worst of what was once a civilized society. Nina now lives in a world where all the rules have changed. Where those who don't cooperate are tossed over the wall and into hell, and the good are rewarded with a pitiful existence.

When Nina empathizes with a young girl called Emily-Rose who’s about to be thrown over the wall, her life gets a whole lot worse. The leader of the town has rules which he will not break, even if it means blood and death for the unfortunate ones, and with this in mind Nina makes the decision to go with the Emily and protect her at all costs. However, can a woman with no fighting abilities and a penchant for
spending money on expensive clothes really keep them safe?

Nina must now fight the zombies which rule the free-lands, and find a safe zone that could be just a myth.

Scared, starved and on the run from everything, Nina has everything working against her survival... but she’s not quite ready to give up on life yet, not now she has someone to live for again. Her quick wit and snarky attitude might just keep her alive long enough to find some way to protect Emily-Rose. Maybe…

Get your hands on Odium now!

And check out the prequel short work for Odium, Life Ever After, in BHB's Anthology! This is where the hunger began!

Breakwater Harbor Books is excited to announce the release of Ivan Amberlake's Paranormal Suspense novel, Diary of the Gone!

Without a girlfriend, bullied by the Principal’s son, and haunted by the dead, Callum Blackwell thinks his life can’t get any worse. But he’s wrong.

Callum writes in a diary to stop the dead haunting him. He has seen them since he hit 9.

When The Blackwells move to the town of Olden Cross, Callum hopes to leave all the dead haunting him behind. But after the disappearance of a boy and his diary, his existence turns into hell.

Last year I asked on my Facebook page if anyone was willing to fill in a short survival questionnaire for me and in return I would put them in the book, or at least use their name in the book. The response was
amazing, and I got some great answers, for which I can't thank you enough.
At the time, I also filled one in. Here are my answers to the questionnaire. I'm having a great time writing Odium, and it's thanks to some of your great and not so great answers haha. I'll be posting up some of the answers that you gave me as the time draws near to publication. - Claire



----------------------------------
 
So… it’s the end of the world as we know it. 

Zombies… the dead… the living-dead… maggot infested bodies… stinking, brain eating
corpses… (well, I think you get who I’m talking about) are taking over the world. 

Your neighbors, your friends, your family members… they are all coming back from the dead, and they are hungry for braaaaaaaaaains… (and pretty much anything else they can sink their teeth into.)

Let’s test your survival skills, and I’ll decide in my book on whether you live, die, or rise from the
dead.


Survival Questions 

Q1. So, what’s the plan? You must have a secret retreat or hidey-hole you've always thought about going to if things turned ugly right? Up in the hills? The big city? (are you mad!) Board up your house and camp in the basement? Between me and you… where is it?

Well, I really shouldn't tell you if I'm honest. I mean I wouldn't want you all trying to sneak in to my hideout… Okay, I’ll tell you since you asked so nicely. It would be at my daughter’s school. There are 6-7 ft bars around the entire perimeter. There will be food there, books, first aid. There is outside space etc.  I'm pretty sure it has its own generator. I would lock those gates tight and stay
there.

Q2. Wow, great hide-out, but how the hell are you going to get there? I think we’re going to need a car at some point. What car are you going to be on the look-out for? (You can’t drive you
say! You’re doomed, doomed I tell you… Oh, so you know someone who can drive, okay, well what car are they after then?)

I’d like to say that I would run there, but I wouldn't want to get cornered so I would take our car.
 
Q3. Any clue as to where you’re going to find such a vehicle? Neighbor? Car garage? Or just see what you stumble upon? Randomly, do you think that you’re going to be looking for diesel or un-leaded?  

In the private car park at the back of the house. It’s a Toyota Rav 4 so it should do the trick,
but there are tons of other cars there also, so we should be good for any circumstances.

Q4. Phew… that was close! Right, so we’re on our way to your great hideout. We've got our wheels, but wait, we need to stock up on food! What are you going to be taking? Dry food? Fresh food? Canned food?

Since it’s only round the corner and there is food there, I won’t need to take much food. The
school should be pretty stocked with dried pasta’s and flour etc. I will take the canned food though. Shove them all in a back pack and make a dash for the car. They may weight me down, but they are also heavy if I need to swing the bag at a zombie.

Q5. Where are you going to get it from? Scavenge house to house or supermarket stop?

Just my house. Though, let’s be serious, there would be no way that I would be going to a supermarket. That would be madness. No, I would be going house to house once things calmed down. In each house there would be a possibility of finding survivors and if there were zombies, there won’t be to many in each house.

Q6. What about medicine and bandages etc? Have you already got a good medicine box or are we going to have to stop for that too? If we’re going to stop, are we going to a chemist (smaller so less risk, but also less meds) or a hospital? (more meds but bigger danger)

I've got a pretty good medicine box, and the school should have one also , but if I do ever need to get more first aid I will be going into small doctors surgeries. Never, I repeat, never a hospital!

Q7. Hey, you any good with a gun? Do you know where we can get one?

Nope, but my zombie survival team is excellent and so I think that I would be just fine. They
can always show me, and I’m a really quick learner.

Q8. Okay, so we have time to pack a ‘dream survival pack’ (I know, right!) What are you going to pack? Weapon, meds, food, space shuttle out of this madness? 

Okay, so I would pack some really sharp knives AND a knife sharpener for when it they get
blunt. I would pack some ration packs for food and some canned fruit. Fruit is going to be a luxury very soon. My medicine pack would contain, some energy tablets, vitamin tablets, painkillers, bandages, sutures, antiseptic spray/cream, safety fasteners. I would be wearing my big doc martin boots and some thick socks, a t-shirt and hoody and some cargo pants- you know the ones with tons of pockets! 

My two luxury items would be, baby wipes (because those things can be used for everything!) and toothpaste and brush.

Q9. Who would be in your ideal ‘zombie survival team’? Anyone you want,
famous or not…

My dream team would be, Tim JD (you  are a genius when it comes to making things)
San (since you have a massive stock of awesome weapons and he’s a chef) my auntie Milly (since she can cook anything and knows loads about foods and vitamins and zombie survival- she reads a lot of stuff ha ha) My best friend Kate (just because she would kick arse and I love her to death) oh, and The Australian guy who played Spartacus. The guy is hot and can fight!

Q10. Okay, now realistically, who would be in your team?

Kate, my auntie Milly, my hubby- even if he says he wouldn’t pick me (evil, isn’t he!) Duncan
and Britta because they are so clued up on a zombie apocalypse it’s amazing. 
 
These people are all easily accessible to me, since they live pretty close, and I’m sure that they would all be bringing their family along too.

Q11. Your house is being over-run. You have just enough time to grab three things- not including people- what are you going to take?

(Question courtesy of JR)

My dog. He is irritating as hell at times, but damn I love him.

My Doc Martin boots- comfy and practical.

A sharp knife!

Q12. How are you for foraging in the wilderness? Do you know your poison berries from your magic mushrooms? Any tips?

Nooooooo, I’m rubbish at stuff like this, but I’ve borrowed some books on the subject and am
learning. I’ll probably still suck at it though.
 

Mary Fan, the author of the sci-fi novel Artificial
Absolutes, reviews The Beholder!

"In present day New York, Jason, an ordinary man with an
office  job at an interior design firm, learns that his nightmares are more than just  bad dreams. In them, he sees a man of great evil, Pariah, pursuing a young woman  with amber eyes. Both disturbed and intrigued, he soon finds out that the dreams  are in fact supernatural visions, a glimpse into a supernatural world of light  and dark energies.

Meanwhile, Jason hears reports of people around the world dying under mysterious circumstances. Each body is left branded with an arcane symbol. After realizing the bodies are a riddle addressed to him, Jason encounters the amber-eyed woman, Emily, who tells him that he possesses dormant abilities of great power. In addition, he may be the only person who can keep darkness from enslaving the world.

The Beholder is an imaginative urban  fantasy that takes a reader into a captivating world of magic
and mystery.  Amberlake weaves his world in vibrant images, wrapping each scene in colorful  descriptions that make the story easy to visualize. The reader follows Jason as  this world is slowly revealed to him. The supernatural elements, such as Sight  and Soulfusion, are well explained, as the reader learns what Jason  learns.

There's an ebb and flow to the pace of The Beholder, which works  well for its story line. It draws you in by setting up the mystery at the very  beginning, then slows down to let you look around. The
action scenes, each a  vividly portrayed fight between good and evil, are exciting and thrilling, and  it's easy to get lost in the language. Jason is a likable protagonist who's easy  to sympathize with, especially since Amberlake lays out his internal thoughts,  allowing the reader to see what he sees, feel what he feels. Some chapters are  written from the perspectives of other characters, giving the reader a 360  degree view of the story.

While the plot of The Beholder focuses on the  supernatural battle between good and evil,
Amberlake highlights the human  element of the struggle through his characterizations and relationships. As  Jason follows Emily into the realm of the Sighted, he also finds himself falling  for her, which adds an element of romance to the story. It also ups the personal  stakes for Jason as he heads toward the book's climatic battle. In addition,  Jason's close friends, Matt and Debbie, end up getting involved, and so by the  end, Jason is fighting not only for humanity, but for those he cares about  most.

Amberlake writes with a poetic lilt, bringing his story to life  through intricate language. For instance, here's a description from early in the  book:

"[Jason] burst through the revolving doors and into the outdoors,  and ran into a nearly solid
wall of heat. Even in the shade of the skyscrapers,  he found it difficult to breathe. He paced, restless. Needing to walk off some  of his anger, he thrust his hands in his pockets, then started roaming the  streets, weaving through the rush hour crowd."

Well written and  wonderfully inventive, The Beholder is a highly entertaining book and a  relatively fast read. The supernatural concept at the center of the story is  unique, intriguing, and leaves you
wanting more." - author Mary Fan

Follow one of these links for more and for your Kindle or Paperback copy of  The Beholder!

Amazon US

Amazon UK


Follow the link below to Mary Fan's Blog.

Mary Fan




The Beholder

Worlds of Light and Darkness are about to clash. And Jason will be in the thick  of it.  

In Asunción, Minsk and Sydney, people die under  mysterious circumstances. Each branded with an arcane sign, they are pieces of a  jigsaw  puzzle. When more people are missing, with similar signs
appearing in and   around their homes, Jason, an average New Yorker, realizes the victims are a   riddle addressed to him. He is the final piece.

Emily appears, a beauty   with startling amber eyes, and tells Jason that powers dormant within him are   about to wake. In the world of Light- and Darksighted, he is the only person  who  can prevent
Darkness from enslaving the world. 

Setting out on a  journey  with Emily, Jason discovers many improbable things like Sight (the  ability
to  see Energy Threads), Soulfusion, the Hall of Refuge, but the  greatest surprise  arrives the moment he sees Emily and finds Real Love.

Diary of the Gone is a Novel to be released at a future date!

Callum Blackwater thinks his life can’t get  any worse. But he’s wrong. 
      
Callum never felt like seeing the dead, but they kept haunting him. The only thing that  helped him not see them was a diary he had found in the basement of his house.
        
When his friend Nathan is reported missing and a  severed hand is found in the forest, Callum gets a hint as to who might be  behind it all.  
 






 EXCERPT FROM THE BOOK 
        
Chapter1

Entry #4

April 8

I step inside a Shadow. It’s a black-and-white movie  with no sound. I watch those who have only a few moments to live. While the rest  of the world passes by sightless, I see them dying, screaming into silence as if  they call for me to help them, and I just stand and watch death taking them.
        
The Shadow lasts for only a few moments, and then the movie is over.  Everything becomes colorful again, but I know the people I just saw will soon be dead.
        
Darkness closed in on Nathan and me as we trudged through the mush of  fallen leaves. The ground was a mosaic of vibrant red and yellow, with a few  patches of brown here and there. Sponge-like moss shriveled under my feet, and  as I took another step, icy cold water trickled into my new sneakers.
        
“Dammit!” I jerked my leg up but the sneaker was already soaked.
        
“C’mon, Callum,” Nathan urged, exasperated at my slowness. “We’re nearly there.”
        
Nathan hadn’t told me what he wanted me to see. As usual, he’d said, “You  have to see this, Callum.”
        
Did I have any other choice? As we threaded our way through  the darkening swamped forest I wondered why I’d listen to him and go wherever he  wished. 
        
“How much farther are we going?” I asked, with as much irritation as I  could muster.
        
He rolled his eyes and pointed ahead with his index finger.  “It’s there.”

I hadn’t been to the forest very often, but each time I  approached it, goosebumps popped all over my arms and back. This time was no  exception. My heart began racing like mad, as if warning me we’d encroached on  someone else’s territory. Someone we shouldn’t disturb.

Nathan turned his head left and right,  then exclaimed, “Here it is at last!”  
 
Twenty yards ahead of me, he crouched and started inspecting something,  and I still couldn’t see a thing. When I reached him, I gulped, cold fear  sliding down my limbs.
     
“Holy crap!” I muttered. “What the hell is that?!”

It looked like a pool of blood. Not just a few grass blades  flecked with it, but—as I looked farther—a whole field filled with dark, crimson  liquid. I gulped another time and the hairs on my neck stood on end. I turned  around to check no one was watching us—I’d had a feeling someone’s eyes were on  me, and I didn’t appreciate it that much.
        
“I came across it yesterday. Wicked, right?” Nathan looked up at me,  fascination sparking his eyes. “Seems to have grown even bigger.”

“Looks like blood,” I voiced my fear at last, a shiver traipsing down my spine.

Nathan stood up, his eyebrows knotted. “Oh, come off it. There’s too much  of it in here. And where’s the body? Or bodies?”

I let out a nervous laugh, trying to soothe my nerves—I hadn’t seen a  Shadow so far, which was a good sign. But why was I afraid to see one? They only  happened when someone was about to die, not any other way.

I picked up a dried stick from the ground and poked the crimson substance  with it. Nothing happened at first, but when I tried to retrieve the stick, it  wouldn’t budge. The liquid around it started gurgling.

“Uh-oh,” I said, letting go of the bloodstained piece of wood.
        
“What have you done?” Nathan hollered.  
        
“N-nothing,” I stammered. “We’d better go, man.”
        
“You think?” He gave me a sarcastic look.
        
I took a step back, watching the stick sinking slowly into the syrupy  liquid. When it was about to disappear, a bony hand shot out from where a stick  had just been and gripped my right ankle in a fierce vice.
        
I screamed like never before. Raw instinct to survive spurred me to  wriggle the leg out of the grip, but the skeleton fingers were too strong for  me, felling me to the ground. Nate tugged at the sleeve of my jacket, and  instead of helping me set free, he was sliding into the pool of blood together  with me. I raked the ground with my fingers, soil getting under my nails, yet I  sunk deeper and deeper. 
        
When I thought there was no hope for me, I saw my chance.   
        
“The  log! Take the log!” I pointed to a dried bough lying within easy reach of us.  Nate let go of me, sprinted towards the log, picked it up, hopped back to where  I writhed, and thrust it into the place
where the thing manacled around my ankle  was supposed to be. To my disbelief, after a few thrusts the hand let go, and I  scrambled out, helped by Nate’s trembling hands.  
        
We  bolted away from the place without looking back. I couldn’t care less about my  sneakers or jeans covered with dirt. All I could think was: Get away from that fricking hand.

After a few minutes we slowed down a bit, breathless and shaking.
        
“What was that?” I asked in between gasps as we entered Craven Street, my  voice raspy.
        
“No frickin’ idea,” Nate replied. “Right before this thing grabbed you, I  think I saw a face.” 
        
I raised an eyebrow at him. Judging by his restless eyes  and ashen complexion, I knew he was holding something back.
        
“And?”
        
“Do you remember the missing boy I told you about?  Greg Thornby?”
        
I didn’t like where this was going.
        
“Yes.”
        
“I think it was him there.”
        
I vaguely remembered the story. A boy had gone missing a month before  Mom, Beverly, and I moved to Whitecross Town, but now it caused goosebumps all  over me. His body hadn’t been found after a few weeks’ search, and the inquiry  was dropped. What if Nate was right? What if it was Greg there?
        
We walked down the street in silence. I was a real mess, with the blood  stains and dirt over my jeans.
        
Now I’ll have to come up with something to tell  my mom, I thought grimly.
        
My thoughts were interrupted by the voice I hated more than the sound of nails screeching against a whiteboard.
        
“Well, well, well, little Callie’s got poop all over himself. Did you do  it to him, Rushmore?” 
        
Cheering and clapping followed the remark.
        
I turned around, my teeth clenched. A group of teens were catching up  with us. I knew they were only half a year older than me, but they were a gang  of thugs compared to me and Nate. Stan Crosby, the boy who spoke, was in the  center, flanked by four boys and girls on either side. They made my life a  living hell. During the short time I’d been in Whitecross, he’d given me a  couple of black eyes, tripped me whenever he saw me, and humiliated in every  possible way. The son of the school principal, he easily got away with it, and I  didn’t feel like blabbering about every one of his
pranks to my mom. Just had to  live with it.

 “Back off, Stan, or—” Nathan snarled, taking a step towards  the group.
        
“What? Are you going to kick me?” Stan’s group produced another round of  cheering and
whistling.
        
“I’ll make sure you will.” Nate balled his fists and took  another step. 
        
I grabbed him by the sleeve and whispered, “He isn’t worth  it. You’ll only get another detention.” To my relief, Nate didn’t argue.
        
“Right, Nate, listen to the loser.” Stan folded his arms, a lopsided grin  playing on his face. “You are lucky we are not in the mood for kicking your  sorry asses today. But we will next time, I promise.” He turned to his cronies.  “Come on, guys, let’s go.”
        
They rushed past us, Stan giving me a hard push with his  shoulder. I tried my best not to flinch, even though the push hurt as if his  shoulder was made of rock.
        
As their silhouettes and voices retreated into the  distance, Nate and I stood watching them.  
        
For  a few minutes, I even forgot about the hand that tried to drag me into the  swamp. But something told me my bad luck for the day wasn’t over yet. If all the  bad things were bound to happen to me all at once, they would, and today would  be the day.
        
“Let’s go,” Nate said. “Wayne and Audrey are waiting for  us.”
        
*
        
Whitecross Town was a small godforsaken place, fringed for the most part  by an ancient forest. The old townsfolk said it used to be a village whose first  two streets formed a cross. They added “white” to the name because of the soil  rich in chalk. As time passed and the village turned into a small town, a few  more streets appeared here, but the name stuck.
        
The two-story cottage where my mom, me and my sister, Beverly, moved to  was perched on what Whitecross people called the Crossroads. That was where  Nathan and I headed right now. As the horrors of today played back in my mind, I  decided to break the silence. 
        
“Are we going to tell the guys what happened?” I asked.
        
“Sure. What if it was Greg there? We’ve got to find out what the  hell’s happening there.” He offered me a humorless smile, a sign he was being serious.
        
That was Nathan. Never reasonable, always dragging me into trouble.
        
“You don’t think he’s alive, do you?” I couldn’t help myself.
        
“We’ll have to make sure first.” He was serious, I had to admit to myself.
        
I started tsking and snapping my fingers, which I knew irritated him, but  at least helped me distract myself from the haunting images of the blood in the forest.
        
“By the way, here they are."
        
Wayne and Audrey. Perhaps the two people I envied most of all in the  whole world. Only a year older than me, they already held hands in public,  kissed at the back of our school, and did who-knew-what-other things that I, the  loner of Whitecross as I called myself, couldn’t afford because for starters I’d  never even had a girlfriend. For a fifteen-year-old I had way too many things  wrong about me, yet this one made me probably the most miserable.
        
Wayne and Audrey. Everyone at school compared them to Romeo and Juliet,  and now that I saw them holding hands I wished it was me with Audrey instead of Wayne.

“Hey, guys!” Nathan called.  
        
I  shot an uncomfortable look at Audrey, mumbling a hardly audible ‘Hello’ then  looked down as if in shame.
        
Well, did I mention I felt like a total loser when  girls were around? With Audrey I was a real mess. She was special, a flawless  angel with perfect auburn hair, and an aroma of peaches around her. I
turned  into a vegetable. But what chance did I have to date such a girl? Zilch.
        
We set off going down the Hill, towards our secret place—the  Underground—that was not far from my home. Located in the wood, it was a cellar  from a long demolished house that Nathan had found a year ago. We used it as our  regular meeting place during the nights.
        
“You won’t believe what we just saw in the swamps,” Nathan started his  story, but I didn’t want to hear the continuation of it. As we were about to  turn left, into Montague Street, the thing I feared
most in my existence  happened. 
        
A Shadow crept over me.         
        
Nathan, Wayne and Audrey crumbled like dust in the wind, and the world  faded to black and white in the blink of an eye.
        
At first I heard them. A low growling sound reverberated in my  head. My throat lodged, as I watched them coming for me.  
        
They  whispered something I failed to make out. My insides wobbled with fear as I saw  their mutilated faces; limbs broken and hanging limply. Rotten flesh failed to  cover their uneven, yellow teeth. Drooling, they watched me with a hunger I’d  never seen in a sane person’s eyes.
        
“Callum!” someone called out for me from a distance, and the Shadow was gone.
        
Nathan yanked me by the shoulder; I was shaking against his steady hand.
        
“Are you all right?” He looked at me, his eyebrows knotted.
        
I swiveled around to check if there were monsters behind me.
        
“Erm, yeah, sure,” I replied. “I just realized … I think I’m gonna go  home. Just remembered I promised Mom I’d return earlier today.” That was a  downright lie, but no one seemed to mind.  
        
Letting go of my shoulder, Nathan shrugged. “Sure. If you change your  mind, you know where to find us.”

I nodded, turned around and ran home as fast as I  could.

As authors, the reviews of our works on Amazon.com and other sites move us. We have no control over these. They are the true feelings of our readers, good and bad, and so when we read a review we are excited to know what people who read our books experienced inwardly as they read. They carry great value to us as authors. The Beholder, Amberlake's debut Urban Fantasy novel, is no  stranger to rave reviews and is stacking them up on Amazon.com. Here is what people are saying about The Beholder! What will you say once you've experienced this gripping, well crafted Urban Fantasy?

“I was so sure that all the supernatural worlds were already exhausted. Vampires, werewolves, aliens, ghosts… Then Mr. Amberlake’s novel arrived, took me by surprise and left me totally speechless. A world that no one has ever thought existed suddenly appeared. A world so perfectly built you wonder where it has been hiding before.” ~ Becca

“Mr. Amberlake, in my opinion, has created a literary masterpiece. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys fantasy novels.” ~  Bethanie Armstrong

“If you are a fan of storylines similar to The Matrix,  then The Beholder could be its literary counterpart in the UF genre.” ~ Sandy,  The Reading Café

“Amberlake does an excellent job of melding plot,  fantastical concepts, darkness and light with a love story between Jason and his  very real feeling counterpart, Emily.” ~ Scott J. Toney

“The author  clearly has a deep understanding of the English language with a vast vocabulary.”
~ Lourie

The Beholder

Worlds of Light and Darkness are about to clash. And Jason will be in the thick  of it.

In Asunción, Minsk and Sydney, people die under  mysterious circumstances. Each branded with an arcane sign, they are pieces of a  jigsaw puzzle. When more people are missing, with similar signs
appearing in and  around their homes, Jason, an average New Yorker, realizes the victims are a  riddle addressed to him. He is the final piece.

Emily appears, a beauty  with startling amber eyes, and tells Jason that powers dormant within him are  about to wake. In the world of Light- and Darksighted, he is the only person who  can prevent Darkness from enslaving the world. 

Setting out on a journey  with Emily, Jason discovers many improbable things like Sight (the ability to  see Energy Threads), Soulfusion, the Hall of Refuge, but the greatest surprise  arrives the moment he sees Emily and finds Real Love.

Follow the link below for more and for your Kindle or Paperback copy of The Beholder!

Amazon US

Amazon UK

Five facts about you that people won’t know about you. Can you
juggle? Ride a bike with no hands? Drink beer upside down? Something unusual… GO!
 
1. I can play the guitar, not like something romantic, but really heavy metal that gives most people a splitting headache.

2. I know I’ll have some good luck if a black cat crosses my path. In my country they are always considered bad luck, but I see them in a different way.

 3. Even though my favorite number is 7, I cannot help admitting
13 brings me luck. I once purchased a lottery ticket that had 13 as a serial number, and the lottery took place on the 13th. To my surprise, I got back the money I spent on the ticket, and I never win anything.

4. I used to collect English dictionaries – glossaries, thesauruses, grammar reference books. That was the first thing I looked for in a book store.

5. I love sitcoms like The Big Bang Theory, Friends and some others. I can watch them over and over again, just can’t help myself.
 
Five facts about your newest book that people won’t know. Some background history on one of your characters maybe? Maybe it was going to be called something completely different to start out with? Is it the same genre it started out as?...

1. The Beholder started as a completely different book, and I had only one character when I started writing it. It was a while later that the other characters appeared.

2. I added romance into the book though initially I wasn’t going to.

3. It often seems to me the book wrote itself—even in the first draft I found places I liked, but never remembered writing about. I don’t know if that happens to all writers or just me, but it’s a fascinating feeling.

4. I had a different ending to the book. It made my beta readers and editor so confused they kept asking to explain what was really going on in there. I eventually had to make a different ending, which most readers really like and find unexpected. 

5. It took me about 3 years to finish this book—I really hope it will take less time for me to write the next one.

Five facts about your next book… Name, genre, expected date of release…
 
1. It’s called Path of the Heretic. It’s Book 2 of The Beholder Series. 

2. It’s still Urban/Paranormal Fantasy, but with a darker tinge.

3. I hope it will be published in 2014.

4. There will be more characters, more action, and more mysteries.

5. I’m planning a huge surprise at the end of the book.
 
Three tips that you think might be useful for other authors… anything you want. It could be, to write a certain amount every day, only write after midnight and never get Gizmo wet (Sorry, that’s Gremlins not writers! My bad.) Maybe it’s some information that was given to you that has helped your process…
 
1. My first tip: Don’t stop writing. Once you do it’s really—nearly impossible—to get back to it. You’ll find too many reasons not to sit at your desk and go on writing a book.

2. Not to be tempted to do anything else, switch off your Internet. Just for half an hour a day—it’ll tremendously increase your chances to write something new or revise something old (at least that worked for me).

3. If you don’t have an editor, find a few friends who will care enough to read your book and offer you their sincere thoughts. I know it’s difficult, but you should try. And it would be cool if your friends were harsh in their critique, because that’s what actually helps a writer make his or her
book better. As my fellow writer said, “Wouldn’t you rather get harsh private crit than a scathing one-star review on Amazon?” I hope that’ll help.

For an Urban Fantasy Thriller you won't be able to put down until the final page follow the link below to The Beholder on Amazon.com!

Amazon  US

Amazon UK