*Insert Jaws Theme Music Here* By Ripley Proserpina

Every so often, I come up with an idea that I know will be the start of a story, but it just sits in my brain, stagnant. For Missing Linc, my novella releasing this week, two separate ideas coalesced into this book. Years ago, I imagined a girl who fell in love with a boy kept prisoner by her family. I didn’t know how this would pan out—I knew he’d be supernatural and she’d be human—but that was as far as I got.

I also have an unhealthy obsession with lake monsters. Where I grew up in Northern Vermont, our very own Lake Memphremagog boasted a lake creature aptly named, Memphre. Having watched Jaws way too young, I had no problem imagining sharp toothed beasties winding around my submerged feet.

But it wasn’t until this fall that my two separate ideas turned into something with an actual plot. Edythe, is a smart girl who, after finding a boy in a cage in her basement, sets him free. Linc is the Aegean who falls in love with her and is subsequently captured by an evil scientist (who happens to be Edie’s dad).

Missing Linc releases on Tuesday, May 16th and is the first in The Aegeans series. It’s almost summer—think of it as an early beach read. Here’s an excerpt!

“Linc,” Edythe said under her breath, hoping he could hear her. “I’m coming. I’m coming. I’m almost there.” 

She wrestled the lock, dropping it onto the grass before bracing her foot on one side of the bulkhead and lifting with all her might. 

Her house was old, and the first time she’d lifted it, the bulkhead was heavy and rusted. The sound it made when opened was so loud it frightened the birds out of the trees. Edythe found the blue can of spray oil her mother used on the bedroom hinges and squirreled it to the bulkhead. She sprayed the sides, and the next day when she lifted it, it didn’t make a squeak. 

“Linc!” she whisper-yelled just like she always did. “I’m almost there.” 

She listened for his movement. Sometimes, he would smack the bars of his cage, or on really bad nights, he’d flop on the cold concrete floor. Edythe would hear the wet slap of his flesh against the hard surface. 

Tonight, all she heard was the steady drip, drip, drip of water in the sink. She found her flashlight. Problem solved. It was dark in the workshop. On the first night, when she’d turned on the light, Linc had screamed at the brightness. Now, Edythe flipped on her flashlight, the front taped with tissue paper so the only light was dim and blue. It was all Linc could handle, though Edythe thought maybe, when she got him out, his eyes would adjust to sunlight again. 

“Linc!” she called again, becoming more and more upset. She dumped the backpack on the floor and swept the beam across the floor. 

There. 

He lay on the floor, a dark pool of liquid around his body, his beautiful skin ravaged by her father’s merciless scalpel. The scales that covered his chest were pried off, cut in some places, ripped in others. All of them laid around his body, as if her father couldn’t be bothered to clean up his mess.

Universal Book Link (Amazon, Kobo, iBooks, Nook):

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Filed under: Missing Linc, Ripley Proserpina, romance, science fiction romance, shapeshifters, The Aegeans