Hereafter
Afterlife, Book One
by Terri
Bruce
Genre: Paranormal/Contemporary
Fantasy
Publisher: Mictlan Press
Date of Publication: January 20, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-9913036-0-1
ISBN: 978-0-9913036-1-8
Number of pages: 369
Word Count: 111,000
Cover Artist: Shelby Robinson
Book Description:
Thirty-six-year-old Irene Dunphy
didn't plan on dying any time soon, but that’s exactly what happens when she
makes the mistake of getting behind the wheel after a night bar-hopping with
friends. She finds herself stranded on earth as a ghost, where the food has no
taste, the alcohol doesn’t get you drunk, and the sex...well, let’s just say
“don’t bother.” To make matters worse, the only person who can see her—courtesy
of a book he found in his school library—is a fourteen-year-old boy genius
obsessed with the afterlife.
Unfortunately, what waits in the
Great Beyond isn’t much better. Stuck between the boring life of a ghost in
this world and the terrifying prospect of three-headed hell hounds, final
judgment, and eternal torment in the next, Irene sets out to find a third
option—preferably one that involves not being dead anymore. Can she wipe the
slate clean and get a second chance before it’s too late?
Excerpt:
“Come.” Samyel
gestured, indicating that they should follow him. “We must go.”
“Go? Go where?”
“Away. Inside.
Or they will see.”
“Who will see
what?”
The dark glasses
revealed nothing as he stood impassively for a moment. “Everyone.”
Samyel was
attracting a lot of attention. The crowd moving around them was giving him a
wide berth, and he was the focus of a lot of strange looks, which just
confirmed that he wasn’t dead—people could see him. Irene knew that it looked
like a seven-foot tall man in a trench coat and dark glasses was talking to
himself in the middle of the sidewalk. It wouldn’t be long before the cops came
to investigate.
Irene gestured
for Samyel to lead the way. “Fine. Let’s go.”
Irene heard
another choke of protest and glanced at Jonah. There was a silent exchange of
mouthed words, pantomimed gestures, and angry, exaggerated looks.
“Don’t be
crazy,” Jonah hissed. “You can’t go with him!”
“You’re the one
that always wants to stop and talk to every weirdo we meet,” she countered.
“And what do you mean ‘you’? We’re both going.”
“Uh uh,” Jonah
said. “This is your idea. If you get murdered, I’m not saving you.”
With an
exasperated look, she motioned for Jonah to follow and set out after Samyel,
who was nearly out of sight. Jonah reluctantly followed. Irene gave him a wry
look as they trailed, side by side, a few feet behind Samyel. “You know, at
some point, we’re going to have to talk about your propensity for picking
fights with people bigger than yourself.”
“What’s
propensity?”
“A really bad
habit that you should stop.”
Jonah’s
expression turned unreadable for a long moment, as if he was debating with
himself, and then he looked away, stuffing his hands in his pockets and bowing
his head to stare at the sidewalk as they went.
“I’ve changed
the password, by the way, so you can’t do that again,” he said darkly.
She grabbed his
arm, pulling him to a halt. “Jonah, listen to me. It’s not that I don’t
appreciate you trying to protect me. I do. Even when it’s annoying and
misplaced, like with Ernest. You’re the bravest, sweetest guy I’ve ever met,
but I’m dead. You’re not. I’m already probably going to Hell for dragging you
along on this adventure. Don’t add being the cause of your death to my list of
crimes, okay?”
The tips of his
ears had turned pink and his head was down, shoulders hunched. Then, to her surprise,
he suddenly looked at her, his eyes inquiring as he searched her face. She
didn’t know what he was looking for, but he was gazing at her so earnestly that
she blushed.
About
the Author:
Terri Bruce has been making up
adventure stories for as long as she can remember and won her first writing
award when she was twelve. Like Anne Shirley, she prefers to make people cry
rather than laugh, but is happy if she can do either. She produces fantasy and
adventure stories from a haunted house in New England where she lives with her
husband and three cats. Her second novel, Thereafter (Afterlife #2), will be
released May 1, 2014.
Website/Blog: www.terribruce.net
Goodreads: www.goodreads.com/TerriBruce
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/authorterribruce
Twitter: @_TerriBruce
Facebook Party Invite:
Help celebrate the re-release of HEREAFTER back into the wild at the Online Release Party January 21st from 12:00 pm EST (noon) to 12:00 am EST (midnight). Join Terri and over a dozen special guest authors—including Alma Alexander (“The Secrets of Jin-Shei”) , Gail Z. Martin (“Chronicles of the Necromancer”), Barbara Ann Wright (“The Pyramid Waltz”), and Jennifer Allis Provost (“Copper Girl”)—for games, giveaways, and other shenanigans.
So please stop on by and bring your friends—the more merrier!
Tell them Booklover Sue sent you!
Thank you so much for taking part in my release tour blog tour - I'm so happy to see HEREAFTER back out in the world!
ReplyDeleteYou are so welcome!!
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