Cathryn Grant's Blog, page 2

Novel Excerpt: The Secret She Kept

Prologue: Nadia

Rich people love their private parks with huge trees and smooth paths where they can go for long morning runs. Just the fact they have time to run for miles proves how they live in a different world from everyone else. Normal people don’t have time to put on silky leggings and tops the color of ice cream, plug Sci-Fi buds into their ears that cost half a month’s rent, and breathe in the clean air of suburbs protected by comforting foothills.

Normal people have to drag themselve...

New places to find Alex and more books in 2023

The Alexandra Mallory series has been part of Amazon's Kindle Unlimited program for six years. As most of you know, this allows readers who pay a monthly subscription to choose from over one million books to read. 

What you may not know, is that Amazon requires independent authors in this program to make their books exclusive to Amazon. This limits the number of readers who can enjoy Alexandra's stories. It also prevents her stories from being available in public libraries.

In order to allow ...

Novel Excerpt: The Favorite Child

ripped across the night sky. They seemed driven to consume the surrounding atmosphere as completely as the pale green three-story home they were devouring. The sound was like ten thousand insects gnawing on wood and plaster. Teeth and jaws crunching through rooms imagined and brought to life in the Victorian era, restored to their original beauty forty years ago, and meticulously maintained every year since. Gone with the lick of a one-thousand-degree Fahrenheit tongue of fire.

...

Novel Excerpt: Best Friends Forever

Prologue

November 12, 2010

The room was utterly dark. She liked it that way, for now. Even though her brain felt as if it were sloshing around inside her skull, taking wild dips, skidding sideways, she’d never felt so loved and content in her life. Her eyes were closed, her body still warm from the half-naked boy who had lain on top of her a few minutes ago. Or was it longer? An hour? The night before? Was it a dream?

Her sense of time had dissolved. But that didn’t bother her either because th...

Novel Excerpt: Always Remember

leaned his head against the silken oak boards behind him, allowing the heat of the sauna to settle more deeply into his skin. The pleasure was indescribable, the first real pleasure he’d experienced since his double bypass.

He took a sip of whisky, grinning over the top of the shot glass. “Thanks for this. I know I shouldn’t, but …” He took another soothing swallow of the fiery liquid, the heat of the alcohol a perfect companion to the hot, dry air filling his lungs and the swe...

Novel Excerpt: The Woman In the Church

New York.

I’d known Stephanie was up to something with her new, slick look. She’d spent a lot of money to change how she presented herself, and it was clear it wasn’t about a man. It had to be about her career, and that made me wonder how it played into Trystan’s demand that I become her mentor.

So far, her personality hadn’t changed to match her appearance. I wasn’t sure it ever would. Although she looked quite nice—successful and approachable—her religious zeal was part of her DNA. I couldn’...

Novel Excerpt: Only You

PROLOGUE

She stood in the growing darkness near the edge of the canyon. It was a sheer drop to the bottom, nearly one thousand feet straight down from the spot where they stood on the South Rim. Knowing the magnificent canyon was right beside them, even when she wasn’t close to the edge, sent a thrill down her spine that was exciting and terrifying and alluring, all at the same time. Alluring because, sometimes, she wondered what it would feel like—falling into nothing.

Their trip to the Gran...

Novel Excerpt: The Other Couple

Prologue

Coming face-to-face with a corpse for the first time is an experience that’s never forgotten. The lifelessness is something that can’t be imagined or explained.

First, is the utter silence.

The sky was just growing light at the edges. Ponderosa and sugar pine trees soared to the heavens, looking down on the body lying in a small clearing. It was empty of life. Eternally still. While a slight breeze stirred the branches above, nothing animated that face, and no breath moved through t...

A Short Drive

She sped along the curving road, darkness surrounding her, redwood trees towering overhead, blocking the moon. Beside her, the phone flashed with life, text messages flying across the screen. The road was too treacherous for even a glance.

But it wasn’t necessary. She knew who they were from, the very force drawing her car so quickly down that twisting highway.

1-Minute Fiction: A Soft Voice

She walked through the park, barely noticing where she was going. The national news blared from her phone, destroying the tranquility of the autumn morning.

At home, before she entered the front door, she closed the app, watching the world slip away.

Inside the house, she glanced at her ballot, still resting unopened on the entryway table. It was her only chance to let the world know what she thought outside the gaze of his ever-watchful eye, his demanding voice silenced.

She lived for the ...