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EC: Giovanni's Angel Excerpts Fun Hops

Souls Around the World Blog Hop

Giovanni knows what goes “bump” in the nightmares of his mind; an excerpt from
Eternal Curse: Giovanni’s Angel, by Toi Thomas

Cover

He looked down toward the ground and saw an attractive young woman carrying a large pail into a barn. Her skin was freckled and pale, and she had rosy cheeks. Her hair was long and straight, and it was black like the night. She seemed so familiar to him, but he didn’t know her. Giovanni watched as the young woman filled feeding troughs with water to be cleaned. As she reached for a scrubbing brush, Giovanni could see that someone or something was following her. He sensed that trouble was on the way. He tried to call out to her, but she could not hear him. His voice made no sound. Giovanni left the tree and swooped down to the ground to get a closer look.

There he saw a creeping perpetrator bouncing from beam to beam in the rafters of the barn. Drool slipped from the monster’s mouth while it hovered over the unknowing young woman. Giovanni tried to fly up to see this fiendish stalker, but he couldn’t get his feet off the ground, and his wings would not flap. Giovanni knew something bad would happen, he could feel it in his heart, but it seemed he could do nothing to stop it. He did not understand. Why was this happening? How could he appear to be so powerful, be so angelic, and not be able to help someone in need?

Giovanni refused to give up his pursuit. He pushed his body forward and went from door to door, and window to window, trying to get in to warn and protect the young woman. Looking through a window, Giovanni finally saw the villain’s full horror. He got a clear vision of the attacker as it was leaping down from the ceiling toward the woman. It was the most hideous monster he’d ever seen, much worse than his own reflection.

It was a twisted and mangled troll with charcoal for skin on its hairless body. It had empty holes carved out of its skull where eyes once were. There were two large dull spikes protruding from its hunched back, where it looked as though wings had been violently ripped from its body. Its hands were made of jagged bones held together with rotting ligaments, and its feet crackled as it moved along the floor.

In the troll’s hands were two long golden rods that whipped back and forth like lassos. Each rod was attached to the end of a large iron spike that punched through the shoulders of a young man’s dying body. They were holding up the young man’s body as though he were a puppet. To the young woman, the troll simply appeared as a shadowy figure lingering around the painfully disturbed and ailing young man.

The troll maneuvered the young man’s body around the girl, delivering blow after blow.  The monster had taken this young man’s life; he was using his body as a weapon to attack this poor girl for what seemed to be the sheer enjoyment of it. It laughed a loud cackle as it threw the girl down to the ground, tearing her raggedy dress. Giovanni could see the girl’s anguish and could hear her screams, and he could even feel her pain, but Giovanni could do nothing to stop it.

Eternal Curse: Giovanni’s Angel Copyright © 2013 Toinette Thomas, pending release.

*New editions of the above and below featured books are now available.*

companion guide

For an in-depth, informative, and entertaining looking into the background, development, and tidbits of Eternal Curse: Giovanni’s Angel, please try my companion guide, 40 Days and Nights of Eternal Curse. This is a FREE ebook with promo code GW22H at Smashwords.com until the end of December 2013. However, if you wish to purchase a paperback copy of this book, please click on the following link. *Also, if you’re not Smashwords savvy and would like to purchase a Kindle copy of this book for $2.99, click on the link provided.

40 Days and Night of Eternal Curse Copyright © 2012
Toinette Thomas

Check out the amazing Rafflecopter giveaway for a Sony Touch E-reader with a bunch of pre-loaded ebooks. The winner will be announced November 1, 2013.

**Some sites contain Adult Only content** To each his own as they say, but since I know some of my viewers are underage and I was unaware of the mature nature of many of the blogs on this hop, I will try to update this post with the numbers of blogs not containing the “Adult Only” content. See the comments for updates.

Visit all the stops on this blog hop by clicking here.

Thank you for taking the time to read this post. If you like it let me know and share it with others. See you next time, Toi Thomas. #thetoiboxofwords

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Guest Posts

The Piñata-Maker’s Daughter Excerpt by Eileen Clemens Granfors

provided by author

Title: The Piñata-Maker’s Daughter

Series: The Marisol Trilogy

Author: Eileen Clemens Granfors

Publisher:  Self-published (CreateSpace)

Reading Level: YA/New Adult

Genre: Women’s Lit

Contemporary Fiction

Hispanic trilogy

Content rating: PG-13

Formats: paperback and ebook

Pages: 270 pages

Buy link: Amazon.com

Blurb provided by author

Scholarly Carmen Principia jumps into college unprepared socially. First, there’s her weird roommate. And then the men! Radical protester, Franco, who shares her Hispanic heritage, or frat rat Joe, who makes her laugh? Follow her adventures, some hilarious, some heartbreaking.

 

Excerpt

“Thank you, Joe,” I say. “See you around campus.”

“Maybe. Twelve thousand people, sometimes it’s hard to find who you’re looking for. What dorm are you in?”
“Ortega.”

“Good one, closer to campus.”

“Yeah, that’s what I thought. Are you in the dorms?”

“Not this year, I pledged Kappa. The house is right across the street. Come on over and ask for me when you get settled. I’ll buy you a sundae at Al’s.”

“Al’s?” It sounds like a dive bar.

“Al’s Place at the student union. Everybody hangs there. Gotta go if you ladies are okay. We have some frat business this afternoon.” As he leaves, he sees the bumper sticker. “Hey, the La Raza people hang out on Crusader Commons. Viva La Raza?” he says as if it’s a question, pronouncingRaza with a long A. He waves, guns the Miata, and disappears into traffic.

I look at Mama, Mama looks at me, we both shrug, and then we laugh. We wrap her arm in strips of tee-shirt. I hug Mama. I’m so relieved it’s going to be okay. Twelve thousand students at WPC, and now I know one.

“Don’t be ashamed of your hometown, Carmenita,” says Mama.

“Why would you say that?”  I ask, as if I am shocked. “Wow, Laguna Beach, this Joe guy must be rich.”

“You’re going to meet a lot of rich people in college. Rich doesn’t make them better.”

“Sure.” I can picture the looks of people the first time I answer, “So what does your mom do?” and I tell them, “Oh, she makes piñatas.” As if piñata-making is perfectly normal in their world. I remind myself to say she’s an artisan. Yeah, artisan sounds totally righteous.

 

Come back Monday, August 26, to see the trailer for this book and its sequel.

provided by author

Author Bio: Eileen Granfors lives in Santa Clarita, California. Though born in New Orleans, Eileen grew up in her mother’s hometown, Imperial Beach, California, the most southwesterly city in the U.S. Her mother’s love of Mexico and beaches influenced Eileen’s strong ties with her Hispanic neighbors. When Eileen was a child, she and her brother could walk to Mexico down the beach, after crossing the Tijuana River mouth. Today, an iron fence extends out into the breakers at the border. Eileen is a proud UCLA alumna. She began writing after retiring from teaching high school literature and composition for thirty-four years. She enrolled in UCLA’s Extension Writers’ Program on the first day of her retirement.

Author links:

Blog: Word Joy New book reviews of others’ books and tabs, trailers for my books

Twitter: @EileenGranfors

Email: eggranfors@gmail.com

Thank you for taking the time to read this post. If you like it let me know and share it with others. See you next time, Toi Thomas. #thetoiboxofwords

Categories
Guest Posts

Stone’s Ghost by Melissa Bowersock

Image provided by author

-Book Title: Stone’s Ghost

-Author Name: Melissa Bowersock

-Publisher: New Moon Publishing

-Reading Level: Adult

-Genre: Fiction, paranormal, ghost

-Content Rating: Mature Adult

-Available Formats: Paperback, e-book

-Number of Pages: 224

-Purchase Links: Amazon Paperback | Kindle

Book blurb provided by author

Matthew Stone doesn’t believe in ghosts … until he meets one. He owns a successful business in Lake Havasu, Arizona, home to the famed London Bridge that was brought over stone by stone and rebuilt over the Colorado River. He has a gorgeous girlfriend, a doting mother, and more money than he needs, but no time for stories about the ghosts who were transplanted from England with the famed bridge. When a chance encounter with a female ghost leads to unexpected friendship, Matt and the ghost are forced to rely on each other as they confront the pasts that haunt them.

****

This is that rare ghost story that avoids all the pratfalls and clichés of the usual spectral and paranormal tale. Melissa Bowersock has intertwined two stories seamlessly – one a modern tale of a man taking responsibility for himself amid the shades of his own past, and the other the story of a young woman from a bygone era looking for release and redemption. You will keep turning the pages on this finely-crafted tale! —Rich Meyer, author

To see the rest of this article, an excerpt, and to learn more about Melissa Bowersock, visit the ECS blog.

Thank you for taking the time to read this post. If you like it let me know and share it with others. See you next time, Toi Thomas. #thetoiboxofwords