Post by cnola on Dec 14, 2022 0:59:26 GMT
Breach is my first novel. It was slow to get traction but has done fairly well since and is still being well-received. Breach is a horror/dark fantasy blend in which a young woman must survive in a world ripped from her childhood nightmares. If you have not read it yet, there is brief excerpt below. If you enjoy it, Breach is on KU and is on sale on Amazon for .99 all month long as is the sequel, Beyond The Breach.
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Chapter One: Into the Dark
Huddling against the rough bark of the tree I was clinging to, I desperately tried to calm down. Sweat poured down my face and my stomach was clenched in knots. Breathing in gulps of air, I tried to steady myself and fight back waves of nausea. My entire body was shaking with shock and fear. Tears ran down my face as my stomach lurched again and again.
Unable to win that battle, I bent over and heaved my dinner up onto the dirt and leaves at my feet, holding onto the tree trunk for support. Every time I squeezed my eyes closed, I saw red gore and flashes of black. My heartbeat pounded in my ears as I tried to steady myself. My mind was in a frenzy, trying to make sense of what I had just witnessed. White noise filled my ears as shock threatened to spill me to the ground.
When I had returned to our campsite, after a brief hike around the woods, I had stumbled directly into a scene ripped from my nightmares. Unable to scream, unable to breathe, I stood frozen just at the edge of the clearing, barely aware of the wetness spreading down my legs as my bladder let go.
Blood and gore coated what had been our campsite. The bodies of two of my companions, my close friend Kyle and my boyfriend Luka, were scattered in pieces under the monster’s legs. I could see an arm, part of a leg, a foot, still twitching, with tendons and ligaments trailing from it. My stomach heaved and bile rose in my throat, burning with acid.
My best friend, Stacey, screamed incoherently as the monsters’ jaw severed her torso from her legs, ending her scream and her life at the same time. Blood sprayed across the tent and the still smoldering fire pit as the creature chewed her upper half. Blood was streaming from its massive jaw while bits of gore and ruined flesh spattered on the ground. My brain was screaming at me, “Move! Run, Laraya, Run!" My legs finally got the message. I bolted for the trees, terror consuming my brain.
The creature tearing apart my friends in the clearing was unlike anything I'd ever seen, in life or in my nightmares. It towered at least eight feet in the air, on spindly black legs covered in coarse hair, with piercing, red eyes looming over its sickly, gray body. Rage bellowed from a mouth so impossibly filled with razor-sharp teeth that they seemed to be stretching its mouth past the breaking point.
Moving like a spider or scorpion, it skittered through the clearing, chasing my best friend as she screamed in terror. Odd lumps covered the massive blob that was its body. My terrorized brain focused on the lumps that were moving and squirming around. I gasped in shock as it registered. Faces! Those were faces!
Horrible grotesque faces were trapped under the sickly skin of the monster. Writhing just underneath the flesh, sunken eyes could be seen along with mouths opened in horrifying shrieks and screams of terror and agony. There were dozens of faces, some human, while others were not. There were faces that looked like they had been pulled straight from the depths of hell; demons that defied description, pointy-eared gargoyles, and turtle shaped heads with large fangs, animals that looked like mutated hybrids. What should have been a cacophony, a horrific mix of agony and torture, was muted by the flesh of the creature, into an eerie wailing sound. The agonized screaming of my best friend overpowered all other noise.
I fled through the dark forest for what felt like hours, sobbing from fear and grief, hurtling past trees and tripping over roots. Now I stood here, holding onto a sapling as I squatted beside it, winded and weak. Shaking violently, crying and gasping to breathe, while trying to make sense of what was happening.
*********************END EXCERPT*****************************
Breach on Amazon
Currently has 84 reviews with a 4.4 rating. If you read it, feel free to share your thoughts, spoiler free, please.
*********************************************
Chapter One: Into the Dark
Huddling against the rough bark of the tree I was clinging to, I desperately tried to calm down. Sweat poured down my face and my stomach was clenched in knots. Breathing in gulps of air, I tried to steady myself and fight back waves of nausea. My entire body was shaking with shock and fear. Tears ran down my face as my stomach lurched again and again.
Unable to win that battle, I bent over and heaved my dinner up onto the dirt and leaves at my feet, holding onto the tree trunk for support. Every time I squeezed my eyes closed, I saw red gore and flashes of black. My heartbeat pounded in my ears as I tried to steady myself. My mind was in a frenzy, trying to make sense of what I had just witnessed. White noise filled my ears as shock threatened to spill me to the ground.
When I had returned to our campsite, after a brief hike around the woods, I had stumbled directly into a scene ripped from my nightmares. Unable to scream, unable to breathe, I stood frozen just at the edge of the clearing, barely aware of the wetness spreading down my legs as my bladder let go.
Blood and gore coated what had been our campsite. The bodies of two of my companions, my close friend Kyle and my boyfriend Luka, were scattered in pieces under the monster’s legs. I could see an arm, part of a leg, a foot, still twitching, with tendons and ligaments trailing from it. My stomach heaved and bile rose in my throat, burning with acid.
My best friend, Stacey, screamed incoherently as the monsters’ jaw severed her torso from her legs, ending her scream and her life at the same time. Blood sprayed across the tent and the still smoldering fire pit as the creature chewed her upper half. Blood was streaming from its massive jaw while bits of gore and ruined flesh spattered on the ground. My brain was screaming at me, “Move! Run, Laraya, Run!" My legs finally got the message. I bolted for the trees, terror consuming my brain.
The creature tearing apart my friends in the clearing was unlike anything I'd ever seen, in life or in my nightmares. It towered at least eight feet in the air, on spindly black legs covered in coarse hair, with piercing, red eyes looming over its sickly, gray body. Rage bellowed from a mouth so impossibly filled with razor-sharp teeth that they seemed to be stretching its mouth past the breaking point.
Moving like a spider or scorpion, it skittered through the clearing, chasing my best friend as she screamed in terror. Odd lumps covered the massive blob that was its body. My terrorized brain focused on the lumps that were moving and squirming around. I gasped in shock as it registered. Faces! Those were faces!
Horrible grotesque faces were trapped under the sickly skin of the monster. Writhing just underneath the flesh, sunken eyes could be seen along with mouths opened in horrifying shrieks and screams of terror and agony. There were dozens of faces, some human, while others were not. There were faces that looked like they had been pulled straight from the depths of hell; demons that defied description, pointy-eared gargoyles, and turtle shaped heads with large fangs, animals that looked like mutated hybrids. What should have been a cacophony, a horrific mix of agony and torture, was muted by the flesh of the creature, into an eerie wailing sound. The agonized screaming of my best friend overpowered all other noise.
I fled through the dark forest for what felt like hours, sobbing from fear and grief, hurtling past trees and tripping over roots. Now I stood here, holding onto a sapling as I squatted beside it, winded and weak. Shaking violently, crying and gasping to breathe, while trying to make sense of what was happening.
*********************END EXCERPT*****************************
Breach on Amazon
Currently has 84 reviews with a 4.4 rating. If you read it, feel free to share your thoughts, spoiler free, please.