Short and Sweet and a Bit of Innocence

No I'm not talking about 5' me (although the title would be an accurate description lol). I'm going to keep this post simple today.

Here are three ways you can buy my fabulous mini book Innocence. And I'll make it even easier for you and tell you which option is best. Buy it thru Etsy! Why? Because whether you have an iPhone, Android or some other type of smartphone, you can download this digital PDF version for only $1.99! When I put Innocence for sale on Amazon and iBooks, I did not have as much control over the price. The minimum was $2.99 so that's where those downloads are at. But over at Etsy, you get the same great deal for a dollar less. Also, you can read the first four pages directly from the book's listing. Or better yet, I'll post an excerpt from the book at the bottom here.

So one more time, here's where you can get this awesome book:
Etsy for only $1.99
Amazon for $2.99
IBooks for $2.99

Also, if you leave a review for Innocence on Etsy, I will email you a 50% off coupon for Book 2 Awakened, coming soon.

Alright, here you go with the excerpt from Innocence:

Fyi: Sixteen-year-old Mint and her mom Trixie have just moved to a new country town called Darkwood. This is an excerpt from the beginning of Chapter 2 where Mint learns just what level of crazy inhabits this place.

Confession: the excerpt is cut off by a spot of my choosing and not necessarily at the end of the sentence that's being spoken. :)

What the heck kind of name was Darkwood?  It sounded like those evil underworlds in the PC games some of her old friends in high school played.

“These people have got to be crazy around here,” Mint mumbled to herself.

She slowed as she reached the city limits, keeping her speed under 35 as the signs indicated.  She passed a police car facing the road sitting in the parking lot of a small ice cream shop.  “These people are nuts.  Their ice cream store is open in the winter.  Loonies.”

Mint kept turning her head back and forth to take in all the run-down little buildings along the road.  Most of them looked uninhabited, but the two or three cars outside of each told her that people actually frequented these places. 

“Uhk,” she said, promising herself that she was going to convince Trixie to get them the heck out of here asap.

Mint finally found the grocery store, a pitiful little thing called Pinewood Grocery.  The only chain store she had seen on her way was a Dollar General.  Mint made a note to herself to do all her future shopping at the Dollar General if she could help it.  This place, this Pinewood Grocery, looked like it wasn’t fit to sell used shoes, let alone food that people were actually supposed to eat without getting sick.

When she got inside, she grabbed one of only three rickety shopping carts and pushed it ahead of her, ducking her head in embarrassment at the rattle-clang-bang it made as it protested being used.  She picked up some fresh veggies, pasta and meat, then stopped by the freezer section to get some hot pockets and the other junk food that her mom liked.  Mint didn’t know why she herself didn’t like junk food more.  It probably had something to do with the need to feel that at least one of them was a grown up.  Trixie used to cook back in the day.  But a couple years ago she had just stopped for the most part and given up on it, like she had given up on being an adult in most other areas of her life as well. Fortunately, Mint had learned enough skills from her mom and the Food Network to get by pretty well.

Mint checked out quickly, only too glad to get out of the dingy shop.  Everyone there had begun to stare at her.  Mint forgot that’s what people in a small town might do, curious about any new face in town.  She felt more like they were all making plans on how to jump her as she walked to her car.  As soon as she stepped outside the door of the store, a chill shot down her spine.  There in the parking lot was the same mud bespeckled truck that she had almost run into when she pulled onto the road in front of her house.  How odd.  The truck had been heading in the opposite direction, and yet here it was in the parking lot.

With her eyes on the suspicious truck, Mint was almost to her car before she noticed there was someone leaning up against her jeep and peering into the windows.  But it wasn’t just anyone, it looked like the exact figure she had seen standing at the edge of the woods watching her house.  He had black hair and a black leather jacket.  He wore a dark gray t-shirt and ripped jeans.  His skin was ghostly pale, as if he never went out in the sun.  Mint’s mind was flying.  What should she do?  Maybe she could get back inside the store and just wait there until he left.  She tried to turn without being seen, whatever that was supposed to mean since she was standing in the middle of the parking lot.  But just then he looked up.  He had seen her.

Mint stood frozen.  Barely an hour in Darkwood and she would already be a fatality.

“Hi, I’m Ben,” he said.  His voice was surprisingly smooth and deep...and...pleasant.  Her fear eased under his soothing tone, but when she saw his eyes, they were the funniest color of blue she had ever seen.  A cold, misty color--like the pale blue glow in the midst of a block of ice.  

“Hi,” she stammered, hoping he couldn’t sense her extreme discomfort, bordering on fear, after looking at his eyes.

“I’m Ben,” he repeated, smiling warmly, although the warmth could not take the cold out of his eyes.

Mint couldn’t understand why he was saying his name again and just standing there as if he was waiting for something.

“Are you going to tell me your name?” he said, still smiling.  “I was going to offer to carry your groceries, but it seemed rude not to at least introduce myself first.  You’re obviously new here,” he said.

Mint wasn’t sure if she was comfortable giving her name to this guy, especially after she was pretty sure she had seen him creeping around her house.  But then she looked into his eyes again and saw something she never expected to see in the eyes of another: a strange understanding.  It was as if he could see the lifetime of misery she had spent with her mother, moving from town to town, always being the “new girl”, dealing with her mom’s loser boyfriends and immature behavior...and even her fear of moving to this new place, this new backwoods town where she felt anything but safe. 

“I’m Mint,” she said, feeling slightly out of breath by her realization.  She didn’t open up to strangers--ever.  And even the thoughts running unspoken through her head in his presence had seemed too intimate.

“Mint,” smiled Ben.  “Like the ice cream,” he said, not really phrasing it like a question.  “Mint chocolate chip, one of my favorites.” 

Mint couldn’t be quite sure but she thought he winked then as he took the full paper sacks of groceries from her arms.  She followed him to the car. 

She didn’t know if it was the sudden gust of cold November air or the greater distance between them while they were walking, but Mint’s head seemed to clear and she remembered that he looked identical to the figure she had seen at the edge of the woods.  Fear gripped her again.  What if he grabbed her and jumped into the jeep with her when she unlocked the car to put in the groceries?  She could already see him forcing her to drive to a dark, secluded spot in the woods where he would murder her and probably do a whole lot of other things that she didn’t want to think about.  At the very least he might try to grab her keys and steal the car.  There was no way she was walking all the way back to the trailer in the growing cold and falling darkness.

“Thank you, Ben.  I’ll take them from here,” Mint said brightly, as if she had not been thinking murderous thoughts.  She was already trying to remove the bags from his arms, but he protested.

“It’s no problem.  I’ll hold them while you unlock the car.”

This was exactly what Mint was afraid of.

“No, really, it’s ok.  I don’t want you to think I’m a baby or something and can’t handle a few groceries," Mint said, blurting out whatever came to her mind next.  “There’s probably so many more people you need to be off helping with their groceries, so you should probably go.”  Even to her own ears she sounded rather rude.  But rather be rude than dead.

Ben looked a bit confused but he ended up handing her the bags which she held until she had watched him walk inside the store.  Quickly, she set the bags beside the back door to the jeep and fished in her pocket for her keys.  She had to load the bags and get out of there before anything else happened.  She had just gotten the second bag settled on the back seat when she heard footsteps running up behind her.  She whirled around, shutting the jeep door by stepping back against it.  But it was only the blond haired girl who had rung her up.  Mint noticed her name tag read Megan.

“You forgot this,” the girl panted.  She held out a plastic bag with apples.  In her haste, Mint had run out the door, forgetting one of her bags of groceries.

“Thanks,” said Mint.  She took the bag and turned to go.

“I can’t believe he was talking to you,” said the girl.

“What?”  Mint turned to face the girl again.  “What do you mean?”

“Ben.  He was talking to you.”

“Well, he seemed old enough to know how to speak.”  Mint didn’t know if the girl caught her sarcasm or not.

“He never talks to anybody, well, at least none of the girls.  He mainly just talks to his friends.  But I would watch out if I were you.”

Mint’s curiosity was getting the best of her.  “Why?” she said.

“At the beginning of the school year a girl was found dead in the woods outside the school.  The police said she had been hit by a vehicle.  That same day one of the kids found blood on the fender of Ben’s Wrangler."

Well, this post turned out to be not so short but hopefully still sweet in the definition of cool/sweet. Lol. Ok, whatever.

Get the full copy right now at:
Etsy for only $1.99
Amazon for $2.99
IBooks for $2.99

Thanks for reading! You are the best.