New Free Read!
I realized that I didn't have a freebies section, so I've included one with a link to my free full-length YA gothic, The Shadow Girl of Birch Grove. Special thanks to Amanda at LoveVampires who surprised me with a cover design because she thinks the book is "bloody brilliant" and wanted others to discover it.
Now, I call my story a gothic because it involves a young woman who goes off by herself to a place with dark secrets. That's the definition that I learned back in my all-girls school when we were reading Jane Eyre. Jane and my all-girls high school influenced my own story about Jane Williams, a foster teen who is invited to attend the elite Birch Grove Academy for Girls.
Yes, I had a navy blazer with the school crest on the pocket, and I did study Latin and physics, and my school was set high on a hillside, a world unto itself.
I've gone to school in some places with fantastic old buildings, and I've also lived in marvelous historic buildings. Some had difficult-to-find staircases, or hidden corridors, or baffling subterranean levels. These places have been a part of my reoccuring dreams. I'm in a secret passage, or there is a stairwell that I discover... That, too, became part of my story.
I hope you will take the time to read The Shadow Girl of Birch Grove!
When I get the chance, I'll slog through my files and look for sections of my Casa Dracula books that were edited out and include them on my freebies page as well. Midnight Brunch went through the most drastic revisions, but I've cut out passages of every novel I've ever written.
