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Cover Blurb
A
new home in a new state. The chance to get away from the relentless bullies and
reinvent himself. Then on the first day at his new high school, Robin Westmore
finds himself in the exact wrong place at the exact wrong time and right back
into the role of victim. All Robin can do now is wish for the harassment to
stop.
Being
the leader of the genie world is not what Desiree expected. The Guides aren’t
happy with her or any of the decisions she makes. The only thing they all agree
on is that they want their old boss back, but Kaf has vanished, leaving the
Guides in shock and Desiree with a broken heart.
While
Desiree hides from her responsibilities, Robin disappears into the video game
he’s created. There he finds excitement, adventure, and control. When the game
presents him with an escape from his tortured life, will he take it?
Excerpt
Chapter
One
Robin
Maybe I could call in sick. With something
fatal. Something so contagious the entire high school would contract it just by
looking at me. Was there such a thing? I took out my phone. “Okay, Google. What
is visual contagion?”
“Good morning, Robin.”
For half a second I thought my phone had
learned my name. And had started speaking in my mom’s voice? I entered the
kitchen and found Mom in her pink bathrobe with the tea stain down the front,
waiting for me. She must’ve heard me talking to my phone.
“Morning.” I set my messenger bag by the back
door and took a seat at the kitchen bar.
Google had only come up with only one direct
hit and was now blinking at me, waiting for something that would challenge its
storage banks. The ‘contagion’ it presented wasn’t even a disease. It was some
company in Vancouver that spread positive messages on organic hemp or bamboo
T-shirts. Great. I ask for science, I get hippies.
“Do you think Visual Contagion would be a good
name for a band?” I asked Mom as I scrolled through a few of the t-shirt
pictures.
“Hmm,” Mom said, tapping her fingernail against
her teacup. “A band that plays music?”
My turn to sit and blink. “What other kind is
there?”
“Plenty. A wrist band. Hairband. Wedding band.
Waistband.”
“Okay, okay.” She’d go on and on and then open
the thesaurus app on her tablet if I didn’t stop her. “I’m a guy. I don’t think
about hairbands or jewelry. Yes, I meant a band that plays music.”
“Then I’d say no. Visual Contagion, great a
name as it is, would not work for a musical group.” She took a sip of her tea,
Irish breakfast according to the tag hanging from the string, as she
contemplated. “Auditory Contagion could work. Audio? Audial?”
Auditory Contagion would indeed be a damn cool
name for a band. Almost made me want to form one. Except I couldn’t play a
single instrument. Not even that plastic flute-thing they made us play in
elementary school. Maybe I could compose something on my computer. I needed
music for my video game anyway.
“Okay, Google. Popular music software.”
“Would you like some breakfast?” Mom asked. “Or
are you just going to play with your phone until it’s time to leave?”
My mom wasn’t the most domestic person. She did
like to feed people though, and when she took the time to make an actual meal,
she was a great cook.
I set my phone in my lap and analyzed my hunger
level. “Juice and toast with butter and jam. Two slices.”
“Two? You’re hungry today. What kind of tea?”
She held up her Irish breakfast to me with a questioning look and wiggled the
box as if that would lure me to the Celtic side.
“English
breakfast, please. With cream and two sugar cubes.”
“Off to
the range,” my dad said as he entered the kitchen and set a black case—smaller
than a briefcase, larger than a lunchbox—on the gray marble counter.
“Before work?” Mom asked.
“I don’t have any meetings until ten today. I
want to try out my birthday present.”
Who knew a guy could get so excited over a
handgun? Then again, this one did have a built-in laser. Guns weren’t my thing,
but if presented with a laser-operated piece of technology I’d be all over it.
So, I could understand his enthusiasm to a point.
“Want to come with me, Robin?” Dad asked as he
plugged the first of two coffee pods into the machine to fill his travel mug.
“Thanks, but I do have a meeting before ten,” I
said. “I have that test first thing.”
“Finally,” Dad said. “I don’t understand the
holdup on allowing you to take a placement test. You studied?”
“Of course he studied,” Mom said as though
nothing could be more unthinkable than me not
studying.
“I did,” I told them. “Don’t worry, I’ll pass.”
“They should put him directly into Calculus and
Differential Equations,” Dad said.
“He could handle it,” Mom agreed, “but AP
Calculus will be an easy A for him.”
“Good point,” Dad said and clapped me on the
back, nearly knocking me off my stool. “Build that killer GPA. Get into the
college of your choice and academic scholarships as well.”
“Don’t pressure him,” Mom said, setting a plate
with my buttered and jammed toast on the placemat in front of me.
Bio
Her books deal with
harder topics (death of a sibling, divorce, dating violence, bullying, and teen
suicide) because she believes it is important to talk about these things. Those
kinds of topics can be hard to handle and a bit overwhelming, so she infuses a
bit of humor in her work as well because she also believes that a sense of
humor can help you get through just about anything.
Shawn lives in Colorado
with her family where she spends her time reading, cooking and baking, practicing
yoga and meditation, and hiking and camping in the spectacular Rocky Mountains.
Author
Links
Website - www.Shawn-McGuire.com
Facebook www.Facebook.com/ShawnMcGuireAuthor
Newsletter signup - http://eepurl.com/V21k1
Pinterest - http://www.pinterest.com/shawnmcguire1/
Twitter - https://twitter.com/Shawn_McGuire
Amazon Author - http://www.amazon.com/Shawn-McGuire/e/B00L0FJDFW/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1420552843&sr=1-2-ent
Author’s Other
Works
The Wish
Makers Series
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