The intellectual challenge of college and the warm embrace of a serious
boyfriend have given Maya the wings she needs to break away from her bookish
and shy reserve. Her ideal life comes crashing down when she and her boyfriend
are accosted by a stranger. A stranger with glowing hands.
Maya's boyfriend is killed. She is kidnapped. Changed.
A rescue comes, but not soon enough.
Maya’s senses sharpen, her body becomes strong and agile, and she develops the ability to visually see the emotions of those around her as colorful auras…beautiful auras…tempting auras.
And then there’s the song…
Now, Maya must struggle to control the murderous appetite that fuels her new abilities, accept her altered condition and learn to trust two vigilante half-brothers she never knew she had. As she joins the battle against a secret network of powerful and destructive beings that call themselves "Angels", Maya vows to find and destroy the one who changed her.
On the bright side, at least Maya's oldest half-brother has stopped trying to kill her.
Maya's boyfriend is killed. She is kidnapped. Changed.
A rescue comes, but not soon enough.
Maya’s senses sharpen, her body becomes strong and agile, and she develops the ability to visually see the emotions of those around her as colorful auras…beautiful auras…tempting auras.
And then there’s the song…
Now, Maya must struggle to control the murderous appetite that fuels her new abilities, accept her altered condition and learn to trust two vigilante half-brothers she never knew she had. As she joins the battle against a secret network of powerful and destructive beings that call themselves "Angels", Maya vows to find and destroy the one who changed her.
On the bright side, at least Maya's oldest half-brother has stopped trying to kill her.
Interview
Name
I think it starts with a J. Next question.
I think it starts with a J. Next question.
Are you related to Tony Bennett?
Not as far I know. What kind of lame question is that?
Not as far I know. What kind of lame question is that?
Favorite color
I don’t do favorites, but I drive a blue car, write on a blue laptop and once partially dyed my hair blue. So, blue then.
I don’t do favorites, but I drive a blue car, write on a blue laptop and once partially dyed my hair blue. So, blue then.
If you could be any animal what would it be?
Dragon
Dragon
Location:
Inside my head, which is currently living in California
Inside my head, which is currently living in California
How did you get into writing?
The real reason is totally lame, so here’s a better (though slightly untrue ) version:
The real reason is totally lame, so here’s a better (though slightly untrue ) version:
One day I was taking a leisurely stroll through a dense and desolate forest (you know, gotta burn those calories), when I heard a cry for help. Being a super brave person, I ran toward the cry and discovered an old woman being attacked by a mountain lion. With my brute strength (I CrossFit), I wrestled the mountain lion into submission. It ran away with its tail between its legs.
It was clear that the old woman’s wounds were mortal. I stayed with her and did my best to ease her pain (this involved selflessly tearing my shirt into strips and wrapping them around her many wounds. It was a very large shirt and was specifically made for easy conversion into bandages). As she lay dying, the woman revealed herself to be a mystical gypsy.
(In case you’re wondering, gypsy spells don’t work on mountain lions. Just one of those quirks of the universe.)
“I have seen into your heart and know its truest desire,” the gypsy whispered, still completely coherent despite the massive loss of blood (magic). “You want to be a famous author, whose books top the best seller list and delight the hearts of millions.”
Caught up in this magical, yet very tragic moment, I responded, “and a few movie deals wouldn’t hurt either.”
The old woman continued, “with the last of my strength, I could grant this wish…but seeing as you didn’t actually save my life, I’m only going to make you a mildly successful ebook author.”
“But what about the shirt bandages?” I whined.
The woman waved her arm, and I felt a shiver run through my body. The old gypsy died then and there in my arms, shirt bandages be damned. Suddenly a strange compulsion overtook me. I knew that I must go and write. Then I must have my sister lambast my writing. Then I must edit and beg a friend to build a website. And then, after all these great trials and tribulations, I must self publish.
Favorite character
Sir Hopsalot
Sir Hopsalot
A cool thing about yourself
I name all the major inanimate objects in my life. My computer’s name is Torgo based off a character in one of the worst movies ever made Manos: Hands of Fate. (Thank you for existing MST3K)
I name all the major inanimate objects in my life. My computer’s name is Torgo based off a character in one of the worst movies ever made Manos: Hands of Fate. (Thank you for existing MST3K)
No, a cool thing about yourself
Oh, okay. I can do back flips.
Oh, okay. I can do back flips.
Boilerplate for Falling Review
Week One of Blog Tour
J Bennett is a copywriter and copyeditor living in California. Falling is J Bennett’s debut novel and
book one in the Girl With Broken Wings series.
J Bennett has also written a follow-up novella, Coping, and will be releasing book two in the series, Landing, on Jan. 10th.
To celebrate Landing’s release,
Falling
will be available for FREE on Amazon from Jan 10 – 14th. In
addition, J Bennett will be hosting a book launch event for Landing on Facebook on Jan 10th,
which will include several fun surprises and giveaways, including a $50 Amazon
gift card. Visit J Bennett’s Facebook page to RSVP for the event. All readers are welcomed.
Also, if you like your heroes a little flawed, your humor a little dark, and a
good helping of action and Chuck Norris jokes, set yourself a reminder to
download Falling for free Jan 10 – 14th.
Join the Facebook Event here https://www.facebook.com/events/456715227713223/
You can also learn more about J Bennett at her blog, www.ShyWriter.com; her website, www.JBennettWrites.com; or on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/jbennettwrites.
FALLING
Excerpt From Book One of the Girl With Broken Wings
Series by J Bennett
Chapter 6
“Your head,” the boy with elf eyes murmurs as he puts
me into a car. Then, “this is, um, awkward.” He can only get me half in. I hear
his steps moving quickly around the back of the car. He opens the opposite door and pulls me the rest of the way across the
back seat.
“Thank you,” I say. I want to touch the blue glow
around him. This will soothe the pain inside of me. Not pain. Hunger. Great,
gaping hunger. I am shivering, still sweating. The strap of my bra has fallen
to my elbow.
“Do we, uh, have a blanket in the trunk or something,
Tarren?”
“Get in the car.”
I hear sirens. They sound closer than they could
possibly be. Just like I think I can hear the boy’s heart thudding in his
chest, but that can’t be real.
“Yeah, it’s a warm night. She’ll be fine.” The door
by my head closes. I flinch at the sound. After a moment it opens again.
“Seatbelt.” He leans over me, grappling with the
buckle under my back. His heart is a drum.
I hear the whoosh of air in and out of his lungs. I smell him, the sweat
on him, the damp of his clothes. Glowing spirals of blue cloak his body like
colored steam. I must touch the color. I am moving my arm, dizzy with even this
effort but desperate. He is so close. My hands grow hot. Something is happening
to them. The skin of my palms is puckering, splitting open.
“There we go.” The boy is gone. The door closes. I
keep reaching up hoping to catch any lingering wisps of the glow. The skin
furls back over my palm, seaming itself up into a dark X across the center. The
car is moving. Every breath smells like blood. I’m giggling like a maniac, but
only in my head. I shove my hands under my body, because this will somehow
help. I’m still burning to death, by the way.
The driver whispers to himself, “We had him. We had
him.”
The one with the backwards ball cap and elf eyes
says, “Look, we got her; that was the whole point.” He turns to look at the
driver. “We’ll kill Grand some other time.”
The driver doesn’t say anything, but the color
ratchets around him, bright along the edges. I close my eyes, but I can still
feel the skin pulling away from my palms again.
“Your eye is swelling up,” the passenger says.
“I’m fine. You?”
“Ankle. Just twisted it a little. I’ll throw some ice
on it whenever. No cops behind us. We need to switch our plates when we stop.
Ditch the guns too. We left shell casings. Damn shame, though.” The passenger
pulls a gun from his belt, hefts it in his hand. “My guy went through a lot of
trouble to get this baby. Not that you care. Anyone can get Glocks.”
“Put that away,” the driver says. “We’ll cover
cleanup later.”
The passenger turns to stare at me. I watch the
delicate shades of blue pulse around him.
“We should probably get her a shirt,” he says. The
driver doesn’t reply, but his eyes flick up to the rearview mirror when we stop
at a light.
After a while, the elf turns to the driver and asks,
“Is there any way this isn’t going to totally fucking ruin her life?”
I can’t stop shivering. My body jerks, so that I fall
back painfully onto the buckle. The fire is starting to separate. There’s the
part ripping up my bones and evaporating my blood, but there is something
entirely different lifting out of the flames. This is an exquisite hurt, all
neural and twitchy. It’s hunger, but not like a hunger I’ve ever known before.
This hunger is cutting me wide open with a song, carving out its own channels
in my brain and snuffing out the human parts of me.
I think that I am going to die, and I don’t want to,
except that I do, because Ryan is dead, at least I think he is, but maybe he
isn’t, because he can’t be. He can’t be.
The hum of the car seems so loud, and the passing
street lamps blaze like sudden flares in the night. We leave behind the highway and then the
street lamps and then the other cars. I cry, but these are silent tears, hot by
the time they tip over my chin. We sail through the night for a long while, and
the tears eventually dwindle. All that is left is the hunger growing louder and
louder in my bones.
Eventually, the car stops. The driver gets out. The
door by my head is wrenched open. He grabs my shoulders and pulls. The seatbelt
digs into my hips, and I cry out.
“Damn,” he mutters. He grabs my wrists in one hand
and pins them against the back of the seat while he leans over and undoes my
buckle. The passenger side door opens.
“Jesus, where are we? You gotta piss?”
The driver pulls me roughly out of the car. I hit the
ground and curl my legs into my chest. There is only the hunger and the pain
and the shadow of Ryan lingering behind the trees that edge each side of the
road.
The driver pulls a gun from his waistband, and I am
not afraid. The amber glow is so bright around him that it looks like some sort
of unnatural fire. Everything is fire. I stare at the scar running along his
jaw and recognize him. The enforcer of Avalon levels his gun at me. The blood
stains across his shirt and jeans are already turning dark. In his eyes I see a
cold that I would never be cliché enough to call arctic except that I can’t
think of anything else. There’s a lot of blood on him.
“Tarren, no!”
Pant legs intrude into my visual field.
“She’s infected. We have to do it now while she’s
weak.”
“One shot Tarren. She only got one shot. She’s like…a
hybrid or something.”
“We can’t take the chance.”
“Yes we can, because, uh, because you could use her
in your research. She could be, like, the key. The hybrids are always the key
in, you know, stuff.”
“We’ll take the body back to Lo’s lab.”
“Cold hearted bastard! She’s blood.”
“His blood.”
“Our blood. She’s our blood Tarren.” The elf boy’s
voice has gone harsh. “She’s our family, and you can pretend that you don’t
care about anything anymore, that you’re suffering the weight of the entire
world on your shoulders, but you’re just afraid. Fuck you. I’m not moving.”
“You done?” The gun doesn’t move.
“Yeah.” The elf takes a shaky breath. “I mean no! She
could help us. Think about it. She’ll
get strong. She’ll get fast. She can fight with us. We can…”
“And the hunger?”
My protector turns and looks at me. I can hear how
fast his heart is beating, the faint rush of blood as he clenches his fists.
The light around him swells. So blue with sudden streaks of lavender lashing
across. The song. They act as if they can’t hear the music flowing in hot
torrents all around us.
“We’ll buy her rabbits,” he says finally.
“She’ll lapse and feed on humans.”
“No, she…”
“THEY ALWAYS FEED ON HUMANS.” The enforcer’s voice echoes into the trees.
He pulls in a deep breath. “You know that. She is Grand’s daughter. He’ll come
after her again and by then she’ll be strong. I’ll take care of it. Just get
out of my way.”
“I’m on fire,” I say for no reason. I lift myself up to
my elbows with difficulty. I don’t know which one I want to prevail. A bullet
would be quicker than this slow burn.
“No.” The legs in front of me step a little wider.
“No,” the elf says again. “We’ve crossed a lot of lines, but I’m not going to
let you cross this one. She may feed on humans one day, maybe not. Until she
does, she’s an innocent, and we don’t kill innocent people. Not today. Not
ever. She deserves a chance; I don’t care who the fuck her parents are. If she
crosses over, I’ll kill her myself, but not today.”
The enforcer keeps his gun steady. “Gabe,” he says.
“I’m not moving.” Gabe spreads his arms. “If you’ve
got to kill her, then do it, but I’m sick of this shit. You kill me first,
‘cause killing innocent people is what bad guys do. I’m not a bad guy, and I’d
rather be dead then see you turn into one.”
I hold my hands out in front of me and stare at the
new dark slits running through my palms.
“Am I a monster?” I whisper. “Is that what this is?”
“No,” Gabe looks at me over his shoulder. “Well,
kinda, but we’re going to help you. We’re family.”
Tarren lowers his gun. A slow descent.
***
Visit www.JBennettWrites.com to download an extended sample of Falling. For news and updates about the
series or “Like” the series on Facebook at www.facebook.com/jbennettwrites
BIO:
J Bennett is a professional copywriter, as well as a
novelist. She lives and writes in Southern California.
Girl With Broken Wings
Falling (Book One)
Coping (Novella, 1.5)
Landing (Book Two), To Be Released Jan 2013
Falling (Book One)
Coping (Novella, 1.5)
Landing (Book Two), To Be Released Jan 2013
The Vampire’s Housekeeper Chronicles
#1 Employment Interview With A Vampire (Short Story)
#2 The Vampire Hunter Comes to Call (Short Story)
#3 Duel With The Werefrog (Short Story)
#1 Employment Interview With A Vampire (Short Story)
#2 The Vampire Hunter Comes to Call (Short Story)
#3 Duel With The Werefrog (Short Story)
ONLINE LINKS:
·
Website www.jbennettwrites.com
·
Blog
www.ShyWriter.com
·
Facebook www.facebook.com/jbennettwrites
Nook Code
Smashwords http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/119290
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