Ok friends!  So this will be a little bit of a longer post today!  Yesterday over on Twitter and my Facebook Author Page I ran a poll asking what you would like to see as a teaser today, for the my upcoming release The Girl Who Hid in the Trees.  This coming-of-age, urban legend tale is already garnering a bit of buzz from the pre-release reviews and I am over the moon with delight!

So today (after counting the votes!) I’m sharing the Prologue as a thank you.  In two weeks, on Friday January 18th, I will share the first bonus short story Abraham, Look to the Sky.  That story is a gritty, cosmic-horror, flash fiction piece and I think you’ll all like it!

So please keep reading, and enjoy the Prologue!

 

Prologue

August 5, 1884

“Abigail, don’t stray too far, ok?”

Abigail heard her mom but ignored her.  After all, she was now seven years old, and could take care of herself.

She walked through the deep grass beside McConnell’s Forest, plucking petals from the daisy she had picked.

“He loves me, he loves me not.  He loves me, he loves me not,” she sung as she casually strolled away from their camp site.

It wasn’t until she had plucked all the petals off the flower and discarded it over her shoulder that she realized she had wandered down the path into the woods.  She turned around and around, scared, finding she was lost and unable see her mom.

“Mom?” She called out feebly.

“Mom?  Please mom?”

She heard a noise close by.

“Hello?”

Abigail took a few steps towards the sound, and spotted yellowed eyes watching her from behind a bush.

“Who’s there?”

She watched with awe as a girl close to her age danced out from behind the foliage and smiled at her.  Her teeth matched the color of her eyes, yellow and dark.  Her dress was caked in filth and mud.  But the girl smiled and waved.

“Hello, who are you?  Can you help me find my mom?” Abigail asked.

The girl giggled and turned, walking down the path away from Abigail, the morning sun cascading a bright aura around her.

“Please, please help me,” she cried out, rushing towards the girl.

Then she was gone.  Disappeared.

“What?  No, where did you go?  Please help me?”  She called out.

From behind her the voice sang out.

“Help you?  But no one helped me.  Now we count, one, two, three.”

Abigail didn’t feel any pain as the girl ripped her spine from her body.

The girl left Abigail there in the path and disappeared into the trees as though she’d never even been there.

 

The Girl Who Hid in the Trees will be unleashed on Thursday, February 28th, 2019 and will be available in both ebook and paperback format.  This fast paced novella will feature a foreword by Gavin Kendall from the horror site Kendall Reviews, as well as three bonus tales; Abraham, Look to the Sky, The Tooth Collector and The Navajo Nightmare.

The cover artwork has been done by Mason McDonald once again, who has previously created the covers for Wagon Buddy, YURI, Left Hand Path: 13 More Tales of Black Magick, Dim the Sun, and the new cover of Invisible.

I’m working to get pre-orders up asap!

For more information, including a full synopsis and pre-release reviews, check out the Goodreads link below!

 

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43255766-the-girl-who-hid-in-the-trees